#it's all there on his face. making fledglings is always just a Bad time in his experience

[pearlescentparade]

Hi!! here for a request for Noob X killer! reader (forsaken) fluff headcanons

yung kai - blue lyrics.

OMG NOOB..... let's hope i can get them right

🔰noob x killer! reader fluff headcanons 💝💞

noob walks right up to you when the round starts, blissfully unaware of your status as a killer. they believe you're just another friendly face that they can stick with in this scary new environment

you consider making a bloodbath of them, until they offer to share their snacks with you. automatically, you assume it's a peace offering or a plead for mercy. though you can't eat, you enjoy the sacrificial offerings regardless

they like to set up picnics with you during the round. they'll put out all of their food, sit down, and just chat about whatever comes to mind. you usually only listen and rarely chime in, but noob appreciates the company anyway. it helps them regain a sense of normalcy, and feel like they're living their old life before they were taken here. and while you've never known a life outside of this world (or at least, the spectre makes sure you don't remember it), you think you would've liked it to be something like this too

adding on, noob likes to play a game with you where they describe things in the 'real world' that they think you would have liked. even if you've never seen or heard of these concepts, you trust their judgement

it's always nighttime in the realm. so on your picnic dates, noob likes to stargaze with you. they don't know any constellations, so they make up their own

"that small star is me, and that big one next to it is you!"

"..how will we be able to tell them apart from the other stars?"

"they're really close together. like us!"

they trail you through every round, clinging onto your back like a lost puppy. when you encounter another survivor, you instruct noob to hide and close their eyes so they don't see you completely mutilating their friends. they are always the sole survivor

they are very jumpy. any sudden spooky noises in the ambience will make them latch onto you and cower. they've jumped into your arms before, and the embarrassment helped them forget all about their fear

the spectre blocks you from reciprocating any actions of love. even so, that doesn't deter noob from displaying his affection. they will hug, kiss, and compliment you like it's nobody's deal! they assure you that even if you physically can't do anything back, your presence is more than enough

often, you'll sneak up on survivors while they're doing a generator. all of them run in fear, except noob, of course. they sit there, still attempting to solve the puzzle on the generator. you'll hover over them, instructing them where to put what wire and what not. the accomplished smile that explodes on their face when they finish it invokes a feeling in you that even the spectre struggles to suppress

if anyone tries to give noob a hard time for lacking knowledge on how to do things, you target them heavily. and when you catch them, you ensure their death is gory and painful

sometimes, you bring their head to noob as a trophy and symbol of your love (since it's the closest thing you can do to show it). you even make sure to clean it and cauterize the wound where you severed their head from their neck so there's no blood at all, just for them!

"look, little fledgling. i've damned your enemy. now they won't bother you."

"AGH- that's- oh my goodness- uh.. i appreciate it, really-! i.. i just... i think i'm gonna throw up-"

"...apologies. i thought you would've liked to see it. it felt more romantic in my head."

"it's- it's okay, i'm- ough...- i'm fine with what you usually do.. it's the thought that counts..!"

they like to attempt to scare you by reappearing after eating their ghostburger. it never works, but you think it's cute. you'll even pretend your roles are switched, and you'll run from them as they act like the big bad killer chasing you

since noob had opened up to you about their drinking addiction, you've put a limit on how much bloxy cola they drink per round. if they've already reached it and try to go for another, you'll snatch it away and crush it in your hands. they protest about the waste of food, but can you really call the highly sugary processed drink 'food'?

because of your increased speed as a killer, noob likes to ride on your shoulders and pretend they're in a cart ride. you'll even go up and down slopes in the map and move in zigzag patterns to simulate the winding track, like how noob describes them

the other survivors use noob as bait, sending them out to find you first before you get to anyone else so that they can minimize the casualties. it's not in a mean-spirited way, it's a practical strategy because noob is able to distract you for the entire round and prevent you from killing anyone as long as long as the others stay out of your sight. noob doesn't mind, they'll happily assist their friends in anyway they can, considering they don't have any team-support abilities

(parade postscript: i tried to incorporate some of the song lyrics into the hcs, especially with the stargazing one! though i didnt know if i did it well LOL the song's meaning and lyrics kind of made me feel sad bc it felt very angsty with the themes of yearning and unrequited love, but i tried to focus on the sweet parts of it for the hcs :'])

[hanfourz]

― consume ‧₊˚ ☾. ⋅ | l.rw

pairing: fledgling!riwoo x human!reader (fem bodied)

genre: smut, fantasy

word count: 2.2k 0_0

warnings: blood!!, lots of kissing, biting, marking, cunilingus, use of riwoos real name (sanghyuk)

note: that pic is what inspired this whole thing btw... -🪼

walk with me... so riwoo fangs right..? what about fledgling!riwoo who just recently turned and his fangs are starting to fully grow (?).. so obviously they're kinda uncomfortable and cause him to need some sort of relief right?... do we see where i'm going with this?... oral fixation riwoo yes yes 🙂‍↕️

him needing to suck or bite something sooo bad it makes him wanna cry. and you’re always so willing to help him even though you're not a vampire yourself and don't fully know how it all works but you'd do anything for him. and at first he doesn't really tell you he's struggling with his new fangs but he winces when he's eating certain things and you see him constantly tonguing at his gums and kinda figure it out on your own. so ever the diligent partner, you start to do some research and figure out a couple remedies for his discomfort. a lot of the things you found sounded like things you would give to a teething baby and thought that idea wouldn't rly interest riwoo... but you saw something about biting and the cogs start turning.

so one day as you're chilling together you bring it up. you ask him how he'd feel about biting/feeding from you and at first he looks at you confused before saying something like 'shouldn't i be the one asking you that?' then he asks why you even thought of that. you tell him it might help with the fangs and he tries to brush it off and tells you he's fine and the discomfort should go away on its own. you don’t push it again that night but you hope he's at least thinking about it now because truth be told you couldn't really stop thinking about the idea of him feeding from you.

he does think about it. a lot. something he also didn't tell you was that your scent was so much stronger to him now and it was sooo enticing. he'd tried to ignore it, pushing away the urge to shove his nose in your neck and inhale when you walked past him. but it only got more and more intense as time passed which was the opposite of what he hoped would happen. it caused his fangs to nearly hurt with the need to sink them into your neck. but he withheld himself, absolutely refusing to tell you of this. he was pretty good at hiding it too, his behavior never really changing around you.

it was a day while you were cuddling that his last thin thread of control finally snapped. you had just gotten out the shower, hair washed and scent especially strong. you two were watching some show riwoo had put on. you were in a t-shirt and shorts while his head rested on your chest and your hands gently carded through his hair. he felt so peaceful like this, softly inhaling your scent and eyes starting to feel heavier. just when he was ready to doze off, he felt that uncomfortable tension in his gums again. he kept his eyes closed and tried to will the pain away but it was no use. it was only getting progressively worse, so much so that he had started to curl into you unknowingly. you’d already noticed when he tensed up but concern flooded you when you heard what sounded like a very quiet, pained whimper.

“baby? are you okay?” you’d asked softly, trying to look at his face that was now almost fully turned into your chest. he just whimpered softly again, not answering. “is it the fangs, love?” you heard a small sigh before riwoo nodded and lifted his head slightly. you tried not to gasp as you noticed his fangs now poking out from his top lip, much longer than they usually were. he leaned off of you and you followed, eyes holding bewilderment. 

“baby, that looks painful…” you whispered, still keeping your tone gentle. riwoo had leaned off of you to get away from your scent but you didn’t know that so you leaned towards him to get a better look but were utterly shocked when he flinched away. confusion flitted across your features, a strong furrow to your brows as you looked at him. “sanghyukie… what’s wrong?” your tone was slightly hurt as you asked and he felt bad but how could he explain it to you without sounding like a freak? 

“you.. your smell.. is a lot stronger now. it makes it difficult for me to think…” he answered eyes downcast and refusing to make contact. it all started to make sense to you now, his refusal of your original idea, his avoidance of the subject. he felt like he was losing control. 

“will it hurt you?” riwoo looks up at you, brows furrowed. 

“will what hurt me?” he asks, not understanding where this was going.

“feeding from me. would it hurt you?” you say, head tilted to the side in curiosity. riwoo stared at you for a minute. 

“no but… it might hurt you, love.” he says, concern lacing his tone. he could see the cogs turning in your head, running over his words and thinking about it. then he watches as whatever you’re thinking solidifies and he already knows what you’re about to say. you have that determined look in your eye that tells him you aren’t budging on this. 

“we don’t know for sure though, right? hyukie… if it might help, i wanna try. i don’t like seeing you suffering knowing i could help.” your brows are furrowed and your gaze is gentle as you watch him take your words in. he hesitates for a while, tongue running over his fangs out of sheer habit at this point. then he sighs and you think he’s giving in. 

“we can try… but if it hurts you we stop. and… i’m not sure i’ll be able to think clearly but if it’s too much, you have to stop me.” he concedes and watches a small smile settle across your lips. 

“okay, promise.” you say with barely contained excitement. 

riwoo can’t deny that he finds your eagerness cute, even if the entire idea makes him nervous. he doesn’t really understand why you’re so eager about it though… he assumes it’s just because you want to help him. which is partially true but he’s unaware of your own selfish desires. when you start moving closer to him, his brows raise in surprise. you wanted to try, now?! he steadies himself as your scent starts to grow nearly suffocating, gums already starting that odd tingling sensation. 

you take his hands in yours, pulling him a little closer while keeping that gentle smile on your face. he knows it’s supposed to help calm him but truly his heart feels like it might jump out his chest. everything about you was overwhelming him but he knows that he does want this. he wants to taste you, wants to be able to get that sweet smell straight from the source. the more he thinks about it, the more it starts to drive him insane. 

when your lips meet his, he doesn’t even register it at first. his mind goes into overdrive and it’s like a shock goes through his entire body. he moans into your mouth as he kisses you much more feverishly than either of you were expecting. he doesn’t know what comes over him as he starts to press further and further into your space. all he can think, smell, feel is you, you, you. when you whimper quietly, he moans again in response. it’s the most desperate and needy you think you’ve ever seen riwoo. you move so you’re on his lap, legs wrapped around his hips and arms around his shoulders. he starts to trail his lips down your jaw to your neck, fangs grazing over a spot on your neck that makes you shiver. he inhales sharply as he tastes your skin on his tongue. he drinks your scent in, his cock twitching in his pants.

when you whine and tilt your head back to give him more space, he starts to suck on the spot right under your ear. he wishes he could see your face but he thinks he might die if he pulls his nose away from your neck right now. he softly tongues over the mark he just sucked into your skin. you can feel his heavy breaths fan over your skin. your hands find purchase in his hair, not pulling it but just resting them there. you feel it as his fangs press into your skin, him testing the waters for now as he starts to leave little love bites down your shoulder. riwoo always liked biting you even before he was turned into a vampire, it was his favorite way of marking you. and you always expressed how much you liked it yourself. now was no different but you were even more turned on this time. you grind down onto him, his hips stuttering up into you. when he digs his teeth in a little harder, you keen into him. you feel like he’s edging you as he continues this pattern of softly biting before he presses his fangs in harder but not enough to pierce your skin. 

“sanghyuk… please, baby.” you whimper out, knowing you saying his name like that makes him weak. he sighs into your skin as his hands fully wrap around your waist. he runs his hands up your shirt and over your skin as he brings his lips back up to your neck. he inhales your scent again before he sinks his teeth into your skin. you fully moan at the feeling, a warmth like syrup spreading through your veins. riwoo loses himself as your taste fills his senses. he doesn’t even know he’s whimpering out and his hips are grinding into you. your hands scramble in his hair, tugging on it as you whine out again and again. you don’t know what you were expecting but it wasn’t this. you feel like you’ve taken three aphrodisiacs in one sitting. you’re completely consumed by the man attached to your neck, sucking your life force like it’s his own. like he needs the very air you breathe. like he might die if he doesn’t become one with your body. riwoo is faring much worse, almost cumming in his pants. and it only worsens when he feels you pulling on his hair and you grinding yourself down onto him. 

he pulls away, pupils blown wide with his lips and fangs stained red. his entire face is flushed and his eyes are still locked on the marks his fangs left in your skin, blood oozing from the still open wound. he leans back in and licks over the marks until the bleeding stops, moaning lewdly at the taste. you’re still swimming in ecstasy as he pulls away again. he looks up to see that you’re flushed and your eyes are barely open. he brings a hand up to your face and you lean into his touch, sighing softly as you make eye contact. a small smile plays on your lips and he feels his heart jump in his chest. 

“you’re perfect.” the words tumble from his lips before he can stop them. you can’t find your words quite yet so you lean forward and catch his lips in a heated kiss, not even caring about the taste of your own blood on his lips. when he softly sinks his teeth into your bottom lip, you push him down until he’s laying underneath you. the need to feel every inch of him consumes you as you move your hips over the bulge in his pants. he whines into your mouth and it only urges you on as you both start to undress. his hands roam over every inch of your body as you press kisses to his neck. you leave marks of your own down the expanse of his neck and shoulders. he stops you before you can move down his body any further, causing you to whine in protest but he shakes his head. 

“need to taste you, please love.” he says breathlessly. you stare at him a minute before you nod and move so that you’re sitting next to him. he gets up quickly and you switch your positions with you now underneath him. he trails his hands down your sides until they rest on your thighs, watching the way goosebumps raise in their wake. when he spreads your legs apart you understand what he meant by tasting you. your breath hitches as you watch him lower himself between your legs. he starts to kiss and bite at your thighs, leaving hickeys and bite marks, before he sinks his fangs in again. you gasp and arch off the bed, moaning his name loudly. he doesn’t stay there long, suckling at the bite and licking your blood off before moving and doing the same in your other thigh. when he’s satisfied, he moves to get a taste of the juices leaking from your pussy. licking a long stripe up from your entrance and then circling his tongue around your clit. you grip the sheets hard as you moan out and his fingers dig into the flesh of your thighs. 

you let him consume you whole on that bed again and again until you're both completely spent.

tags : @onedoornet ||

[angelanimedesaray]

Wings in the Dark Chapter 31: The Same Page

AN: Okay, this is the only other chapter I had sitting in my google drive hiding from you all. Next chapter is where I just picked up writing again the other week, rusty with writing Levi and everyone all over again, I'm gonna go back over it one more time and see if it needs another polish before moving onto chapter 33. I'm hoping to always have one chapter already finished while I'm writing the one after it (i.e. I'm publishing 31, 32 is already written, and I'm working on 33) just to give myself a cushion so I don't stress myself out about it.

Also, i love you guys, thank you so much for all the messages I've been getting all week celebrating my still living status and the return of the story, it made my week, really.

...I was going to make you wait until tomorrow for this, but I'm tired and I already have it all ready so I might as well just flashbang you with another chapter again with no warning hahahahaha, this is turning into a trend/pattern

Characters:  Levi, Vampire!Fem!Reader, OC Vampire Character (Emery), Hange (Briefly), Petra (Briefly), Erwin (Mentioned)

Pairing:  Levi x Vampire!Fem!Reader

Warnings:  Language, Spice but not Smut (Making Out, some wandering hands, a flash of some vivid imagination, steamy stuff like that), Discussion of Sex (Brief)

Word Count:  11569 (Remember when these chapters used to only be around 6000 words???)

<----Previous Chapter Masterlist Next Chapter---->

*Reader’s POV*

Emery hadn’t been expecting you to return so soon after the botched hunt.  Your appearance at his cave had been more than just a little surprise for him–the poor kid actually tried to jump you, thinking you were an intruder, which just ended with him flat on the back with the wind knocked out of him and a resounding crack of his head against rock that actually had you checking him over to make sure you hadn’t accidentally cracked his head open in the process of defending yourself.  Once Emery had caught his breath again and you were certain there wasn’t any blood matting the hair at the back of his head, you sat him down in order to have a precursor to the upcoming discussion.  Or rather, officially give him the warning, and try to lay some ground rules on Emery’s side in order to try and give Levi a bit more of a safety net coming to see the fledgling vampire.

Emery had already known that there was a human working with you, that knew your secret, so you didn’t have to give that part of the explanation.  Thankfully, that meant you were able to cut right to the chase and discuss why he was coming, and try to establish methods to help Emery not attack him when he came.

“I thought you didn’t want him anywhere near me because you were worried I’d attack him?” Emery asked once you’d told him of Levi’s impending arrival, shifting uncomfortably where he was currently seated on the floor of the cave.  Thankfully, there was still no hint of offense in his tone over your continued concern for Levi’s safety around him–Emery was painfully aware of how dangerous he was to humans right now, which was why you hadn’t heard any protest from him about living in isolation for the time being.  If anything, Emery seemed more concerned about Levi’s safety than why Levi would be coming.

You didn’t tell him that you were pretty sure Levi could take him in a fight easily, even with the vampire abilities, considering Levi could beat you in a fight.  You would rather Emery worry and end up not needing to have worried so much, than he didn’t take it seriously enough and something bad happened.  This was going to be Levi’s first face to face impression of the teenager, as well as a meeting that was going to basically decide Emery’s future–he needed to be taking this seriously in every way possible.

Your soft sigh still echoed around the deep chamber of the cave, though you remained still in your spot leaning against the wall further from the tiny, flickering fire Emery had going than his spot on the ground.  “That’s still a concern.  And he’s well aware that I’m not happy about it, that I’m concerned about his safety, but…he has his own concerns about my safety when it comes to what I’m risking to help you.  With how poorly things went last night, he needs to meet you for himself, and he’s going to have questions.”

“...what kind of questions?”

Emery’s voice was small, and for a moment, it looked to you like the shadows of the cave would swallow him whole and drag him into the depths of the small cave system he was currently using for shelter.  You weren’t doing much to put his mind at ease about this meeting, but it wasn’t a good thing that they were having it.  Emery’s refusal to really hunt had, as Levi pointed out, put you in a far more difficult position, and he needed to learn the gravity of the situation.

“I didn’t ask–I’m not his superior, he doesn’t have to run them by me, first.  And he has every right to be worried about my involvement with you and the position I’m in now, especially after hearing about last night.  He hasn’t been happy about me getting involved with you out of concern for my safety since day one, and now the problems are getting big enough he can’t stand by anymore.”

You could have gone into the strange power structure between you, Levi, and Erwin, how you answered to them but were also somewhat independent, at least with this, how Levi monitored you and Erwin made the final decisions, but you’d only told Emery about Levi because he’d been there that night when you’d met the kid face to face, and you hadn’t even told Emery Levi’s name in order to protect them if things went sideways with Emery.

And besides, Levi was the one who wanted to give Emery a ‘reality check’, and since you didn’t know how exactly he was going to do that, you were going to play your cards close to your chest in the meantime, at the very least so you didn’t accidentally ruin something for whatever Levi had planned.  You were just here to give Emery the heads up and a little bit of preparation in meeting Levi.

Emery, however, only seemed more confused by your statement.  “Why is he risking his safety to come up here and talk to me himself, rather than you simply being the one to say whatever needs said?  If this is about last night, you’re the one helping me, shouldn’t you be the one talking with me about what comes next?”

“Because it’s more than that.  Because he wants to meet you himself and get a first hand understanding of the situation and the person I’m trying to help before his part in deciding what comes next.  Because he’s of the opinion that I’m too close to this to effectively have this conversation, and…I agree with him.”

That was fear you could see starting to creep into his eyes.  The way his foot stopped its slow bounce under his crossed legs, the way his lower lip drew in like he was resisting the urge to start worrying it between his teeth, the way he drew in a breath he didn't fully release as the realization started to settle over him; all of it indicated that the severity of what was about to happen was starting to fall over him.

“This is sounding more and more like a conflict or a fork in the road kind of thing.  Are…are you…considering leaving me to fend for myself again?”

There was a shake in his voice that made your gut clench and your throat close, momentarily thrown back to the dark corner of the damp hovel you'd called home in Stonewood you used to curl up in when the emotions and loneliness was too much to bear enough to be functional.

…Levi was right.  You saw too much of yourself in Emery to be the one to have this conversation with him if you were getting emotional just hearing the fear of abandonment starting to creep into his voice.  You didn't think you had it in you to be the kind of firm he needed right now.

“That's entirely up to what happens when we have this conversation, and what comes of it,” you said softly.  “But there's not much I can really say before we do, since I don't know what's going to be said or what's going to happen.  For now, let's just focus on trying to make sure you're as ready as I can make you for being around a human that smells that good without attacking him.  I'd like for you to actually be capable of listening and having a conversation with him, and not in a blood frenzy the whole time.”

Emery seemed to be tuning some shade of green that looked extra sickley in the fire's light.  “Is his blood really that tempting?”

“To me, it's the best kind out there.  But that may be my relationship with him and how I see him.  It might not be so intense for you–hopefully not, anyway–but he still is alluring, even when he's not bleeding, we know from experience with not friendly vampires.  Which is why I still want to go over this with you.”

Walls forbid Levi's first impression of you is you trying to rip his throat out in a blood frenzy, even if that's what I've been warning him about since day one.  But if you got a whiff of him on the wall that day Maria fell and just didn't know it, and didn't attack him then, maybe we can get by and not have an incident now.

Emery got up, apparently unable to sit still with the mounting nerves as he started to pace around the fire, pulling on his fingers to pop them.  Despite the anxiety, he took a few deep breaths to compose himself, trying to calm down and focus on what you were about to tell him.  “Okay…Okay…what do I need to do?”

When you got back from your trip to see Emery, it was late evening, the sun starting to turn darker shades of blue with swaths of oranges and reds able to be seen further in the distance towards the false horizon.  It made you want to go find a good perch on the walls to watch the sky changing colors, capture the moment in your sketchbook even if the black and white of your drawings couldn’t do the colors justice in your mind.  It wasn’t the same as that one time you had sketched the horizon beyond Wall Maria, though.  Knowing there was another wall beyond your line of sight made it feel a bit more hollow, though–it didn’t have the same effect of boundless and rich unknown as the horizon beyond Maria.

Besides, there was somewhere else you needed–and wanted–to be, something else you needed–and wanted–to be doing.

So, you turned your gaze away from the colors of the sky as you started to slow your pace to something more human, coming up on the Scout’s headquarters through the forest.  There was the sound of ODM gear whirring through the woods, which made you a touch more cautious as you weaved your way through the trees, lest you get in someone’s way, get struck by falling debris, or get seen being a bit too inhuman.

A shift in the wind, however, erased the last concern, as you caught Levi’s scent carried to you on the breeze, prompting you to breathe deep and switch directions.  His presence in the woods doing ODM practice answered your question of what time it was, and also gave you a direction to head towards in order to find who you needed in order to finish your day.  The two of you needed to talk–about many different things–and after the frustrating interruption this morning and your own inability to stay awake last night ruining the chance of some much needed–uninterrupted–time together earlier, you were hoping to correct that tonight.

You refrained from putting yourself into his path while he was training.  Everyone was getting antsy with all the time that you’d spent not going out on expeditions, just waiting for something to change, practicing and drilling but not actually doing anything, needing to burn the energy.  Not to mention, with how much of that first stretch of time after the wall fell Levi spent recovering thanks to that incident with the hunters, you were sure he was still in the stage where he appreciated being able to move around and do things again, including the more routine training.

The thought of the hunters had something nag at the back of your mind, a relevant and troublesome little detail that you’d forgotten with how your focus had been elsewhere recently.

Later.  You could add that to the list for later–you didn’t want to give Levi the impression that the prep talk with Emery had gone poorly, no need for him to worry, yet–there was enough to worry as it was, and already almost too much to talk about.

You made your way back towards the treeline, but stayed deep enough in the trees that no one by the actual headquarters building would be able to see you.  Once you found the spot, you used your ability to jump much higher than normal to make your way up to a high off the ground but sturdy tree branch, sitting gearless atop it and waiting for Levi to come back through once he finished his practice.

You didn’t have anything to do with you, so you simply waited for a while, legs dangling over the edge and kicking slowly as you listened to the sounds of Levi practicing, sometimes far away, and sometimes much closer.  The whir from the cables operating, the whoosh of gas every now and then, the sound of his heart beating a bit harder than normal, grunts, the sound of legs, boots, and arms thumping across harder surfaces when he braced or kicked off something.  There wasn’t the sound of any blades being unsheathed, or titan dummies swinging through the air, so it really was just him out here right now, practicing the movements on the ODM gear itself.  You could envision what he was doing rather clearly in your mind’s eye, the way he twisted and arched through the air, how quickly he was able to weave around the trees with effortless seeming use of the cables–

You were pulled from the images in your mind when you heard him coming closer than he had while practicing, focusing back on the world around as his gear brought him closer to you–not directly to you, he hadn’t spotted you yet, but close.

Sure enough, with your enhanced sight, you spotted him headed towards the treeline off to your left before he saw you, though once you were within visual range, it seemed to only take a few heartbeats for him to spot the movement of your kicking feet and the out-of-place sight of you in uniform but without the gear perched on a tree branch so high above the ground.  As soon as he’d processed your presence, he changed course, reaching you in a matter of seconds and coming to a nimble stop on the tree branch beside you.

“How long have you been out here?” he asked, remaining standing even though you had yet to make any move to leave your perch.  There was a fine sheen of sweat on his forehead, hair a little damp seeming near the temples and nape of his neck, heartbeat still a bit quicker and breaths a bit heavier from pushing himself during his training.

A quick glance towards the sky revealed that while the light hadn’t disappeared entirely, it had gotten significantly darker since you first heard Levi in the woods, and the temperature appeared to be cooling, as well.  “Not too long.  The sun was already setting by the time I reached the woods.”

“Since you’re taking it easy in a tree branch instead of pacing a hole in my quarters, I’m guessing the talk with the kid went well?”

“More or less,” you admitted, which prompted a raised brow from him, but you waved it off, getting to your feet.  “We can talk about that once we’re settled in.  I’m assuming you haven’t ate yet, and it’ll get cold soon, so we should probably head inside before trying to talk about anything or we’ll end up here for hours.”

Levi let out a soft exhale, turning on the branch ready to take off again now that you looked like you were ready to get moving, yourself.  “You’re always fretting over me,” he grumbled, gaze turned back towards the headquarters.

“Someone should,” you returned, coming over to give him a gentle kiss on the cheek and brush your fingers against his hand–you would have given it a squeeze, but they were both still gripping the controls for the ODM.  “And I believe I’m perfectly qualified to.”

You only lingered long enough to allow Levi to return the kiss on the cheek with one of his own.  It was a swift one, since your own kiss to the cheek had been in passing as you coiled to drop back to the ground, but it still made your cheek warm and your gut squirm, glad the cooling air was able to whip passed your cheeks and help cool them back down as the forest floor rushed towards you in the drop.  Up above, you heard Levi’s ODM cables fire and start to draw him to the edge of the forest at an angle to meet you down on the ground where the trees stopped.

If there wasn’t so much you two needed to talk about, and he didn’t need to take care of himself at the moment, and you were a bit more confident about how physical you both were ready to get, you might have been tempted to act on the wild thought to pin him up against a tree for a more heated kiss, but that–what happened in his office this morning, or on the couch the evening before–that was still…new.  And was going to take a bit more figuring out–and maybe even a bit of talking–before you’d feel comfortable springing something like that on him.

Though you were certainly starting to think about it.  Especially after this morning.

Not wanting to come out of the trees and meet Levi with burning cheeks, you shook the thoughts away, focusing on the more serious topics the two of you needed to discuss, or hell, thinking about what you were going to get from the mess hall for Levi to take instead–or whether the two of you were going to risk getting interrupted again in his quarters or if you should find somewhere else to have your long private talk and…whatever else you two felt like doing once the serious stuff was out of the way.

You hoped it was something similar to this morning…

Focus!

You were glad you were the one that was the vampire with the enhanced hearing when you reached Levi at the forest’s edge, so he couldn’t hear your still-calming heartbeat as you approached.  Your hands itched to reach out and twine his into yours now that he wasn’t holding the ODM controls, but you were out on the main grounds now, and would too easily be spotted, so you kept them to yourself.  Still, Levi walked closer to you than strictly necessary, and the back of his hand brushed against yours here and there along the way, which was enough for you.  You knew it was intentional, and it put the slightest smile on your lips as you walked in comfortable silence to the mess hall.

Levi hadn’t really needed to come down and fill his own plate recently with how on top of things you’d been when it came to bringing him his meals, which meant you two got a few looks from other Scouts when you entered the room together, mostly Levi given the now-rare sighting.  You accompanying him and the two of you standing so close was normal whenever the two of you were seen around quarters, so neither of you bothered to take even a half step away.

Though you took extra care not to focus on the chatter of the room around you.  If someone was gossiping and theorizing, you didn’t want to know.

“So, where do you want to talk?  I know normally it would be in your quarters, but it’s starting to feel like we’re going for a record on how many times we can be interrupted when we’re in there,” you remarked as the two of you accepted the meager rations on your trays.  You tried to make yours look different from Levi’s without picking anything he’d rather not eat, and you were painfully aware of the lack of a kettle in the kitchens being heated for what would usually be his black tea now that it had been cut from the budget.  You’d have to heat some up yourself once you figured out where you were going to be for the night.

Levi scowled at the mention of the numerous interruptions the two of you had racked up recently, but kept moving down the line.

Neither of you commented on the fact that there was only a quarter of a roll on your trays, now, but you certainly noticed.  Already they had cut back to a quarter, when just yesterday you’d been plating half rolls.  That had to mean that they were trying to make what they had last longer.  What had changed in a day that you didn’t yet know about?

“My quarters are fine–I already talked to Erwin, earlier, so the only people that would be interrupting are people we can ignore or I can tell to fuck off,” he replied, grabbing the utensils he needed at the end of the line and stepping away from the line, you only a few seconds behind him.

You could see the squad sitting at their usual table, especially once Petra waved at you with a slightly brighter smile than normal, despite the obvious and rapid cutbacks on the rations likely glaring at everyone.  She was probably happy to see that you and Levi seemed to be on speaking terms again–and keeping to each other’s sides as usual, to boot.  You returned the wave, giving a slightly apologetic smile as Levi led your way not to the squad table, but back towards the door.  If you were going to give him your share of rations, you couldn’t exactly sit at the table and do it in front of everyone else.

Petra started to look a little put out–you and Levi hadn’t been sitting with the squad as often since the rationing got worse–but you gestured behind Levi’s back, miming with your hand a mouth talking and giving a half shrug, the apologetic smile still in place.  Her eyes lit up with understanding and relief, and she gave you a little thumbs up before turning back to the group and talking in an excited tone with the others, who had been watching the little exchange.

Well, if the rest of the squad were under the impression that the two of you were going to have a much needed talk, that might mean that was four more people you didn’t have to worry about interrupting the two of you–and almost all of the most likely candidates to be dropping by Levi’s office, thankfully.

The two of you slipped out of the mess hall without much fuss–Hange started to head your way and try to flag you down, but a few frantic hand gestures for her to stop, don’t, cut it out, shoo, and a handful of thumb jabs towards Levi’s back had her looping around to ambush Miche instead with a shit eating grin that had you convinced you were going to get ambushed by her, later.

Once you were out in the hall, you lengthened your strides just enough to come even with Levi again, resisting the urge to just start shuffling the contents of your tray to his along the way.  You also resisted any little touches, since there were a few people that the two of you had passed on your way to the mess hall and continued to see in the hall along the way.

Once you were a few halls from the mess hall, Levi suddenly broke the silence, to your surprise.  “Your hand signals could use some work.”

Immediately, your cheeks started to burn as you realized he’d caught you trying to silently signal Hange, or Petra, or both.  “You weren’t supposed to see that.”

“Flailing behind my back like that made that pretty clear.”

The sound that came out of you was somewhere between a whine and a huff.  “Well…that’s a few more people we don’t have to worry about being interrupted by,” you grumbled.  Levi simply rolled his eyes, opening the door to let you both into his quarters without another comment on the matter.

You went right to his desk, happily noting that there wasn’t any paperwork left to do as you set your tray down a bit higher than where he was going to sit so that he could get to it when he was ready.  You heard the lock click in the door to ensure you wouldn’t be interrupted before Levi crossed the room, you moving out of the way and over to the side to shimmy his tea stash out of its hiding place and start working on getting tea started for the both of you.

“No white sage,” he warned as you heard the chair scrape across the floor behind you.  Your eyebrows rose, and you glanced over your shoulder at him.

“I’m pretty sure I’m set for the next few weeks, you know, I have no intention of biting you any time soon.”

Levi didn’t elaborate further, simply started in on his food and let the request stand, which you complied to, since he had his necklace to at least protect him from any compulsion.

With a small sigh, you pulled out a black tea that didn’t have any white sage mixed into it, silently wishing you had the money for the expensive as hell vanilla right now to add to your own cup as you put a bag each in both cups and set the kettle over the fire.  “So, I suppose first thing’s first, how did the talk with Erwin go?”

“He’s not happy.”

“...I expected as much, but are there details in there that I should know about?”

“He’s worried your head’s not in the right place to handle the situation.  And while he isn’t worried about the meeting itself, he is concerned about the Military Police and the Garrison turning over the walls looking for the kid.  He can’t get anyone on the inside for the investigation, so he’s worried about us being caught in the crossfire.  No matter what, this meeting involves ultimatums–either there’s progress made, or we’re cutting the risk.”

“Which is pretty much what you told me last night,” you murmured, turning around to lean against the counter and look at Levi directly while you were waiting for the water to heat.

“What about your talk with the kid–how’d it go?” Levi asked, watching you out of the corner of his eyes.

“I didn’t sugar coat it, so he’s…stressed about it.  He’s aware that me continuing to help him is now in question, and he’s nervous about being able to control himself when you come, even with the little coaching I gave him before I left.  Which is preferable–I’d rather he be overly cautious about his control than not cautious enough.  He wanted a heads up on what kind of questions you were going to have for him.  I refrained, since I don’t even know how you want to handle this besides doing it ‘your way’.”  Your head tilted slightly to the side as you paused, appraising Levi for a moment.  “By the way, are you going to tell me anything about how you're going to handle this, or am I going to have to play it all by ear and figure out on the spot when I should intervene and when you need me to stay back?”

“If it goes well, it'll just be talking, with me in the sunlight.  If not, I'll enter the cave.  You can cut in if he’s starting to go blood crazy, but otherwise, I need you to trust me and let me handle it.”

Well, that was better than no heads up, you supposed.  At least now you knew he was thinking of a more in your face kind of direct approach if necessary, which told you to be ready to act in a split second if things went sideways.  Well, more urgently, anyway, if he entered the cave and there wasn't going to be a natural barrier from the sun.

You let out a small sigh, still worried about the whole thing and wanting to fret, wanting to keep Levi far from the vampire that lacked control, but he was right.  The situation needed to be handled, and you did trust him–you were just worried about all the ways it could go wrong.  Fretting wasn't going to do anything to help, though.

The kettle started to whistle, and you straightened up to fetch it from the fire.  “Okay, so Emery is nervous but prepped, Erwin is not happy but allowing what seems to have developed into an abrupt last ditch effort to put Emery on a sustainable course–when's our leave to do this, again?  And what's the cover story?” You tacked on, pouring a little water into one cup, then the other, swirling the teabags in the water and watching the color start to turn before filling the rest of his cup, then yours, and letting the tea steep with the occasional stir.

You heard Levi shift behind you–just a little, but enough to catch your attention and make you listen a little harder to whatever he was about to say.

“We have a day to prepare, so we're not leaving suddenly.   We have to make an appearance at one of the refugee shelter locations out that way to lend a hand and assess the situation.  And we have to be back before the weekend.”

There was a frown on your face with the declaration, head tilting as you figured in your head roughly how long the trip would take by horseback, tried to guesstimate how long the talk with Emery would take, and you had to add in a trip to a refugee camp that would warrant the travel in the more public eye.  Take that timeframe over by a day and Erwin hardly left the two of you enough time to catch a couple hours of sleep, daring to be well rested would mean pushing the envelope on when you needed to be back by.

“That doesn't give us much time to do much…why the rush back?” you asked, glancing over your shoulder at him.

“Erwin needs us close, not in another part of the wall.”

At that, you turned more fully to face Levi, studying him sharply after the comment as if you could pry the answers out of his usually so-well-guarded expressions.  “Something’s happening with the refugee situation, or the food shortage–or both.  Something I’m missing.  With rations like this, and Erwin wanting us back as soon as possible to be on hand…what is it?”

“You’ll know soon enough.  But for now, I can’t tell you.”

You didn't respond this time, simply took a moment to appraise him.

You couldn’t be in every circle, now, could you?  There were going to be things you didn’t know about.  So you let go of the thought of pushing for more, especially with the comment you would know what it was soon even if it couldn't come from him.

But now that the topic had been brought up and you were really looking at him, there was a shadow in Levi’s eyes, making them not as bright, not as blue.  A small crease between his brows that wasn’t normally there, his shoulders a little higher and pulled in from the tension he was carrying, and a bit more of a downturn to his lips than normal.  Not to mention the gloom that seemed to loom over his presence just out of immediate sight.  There was something, he’d confirmed it, but he couldn’t tell you.  How long had he known, whatever this was?  How long had he been lugging it around–and had you missed it because of the distance with your little spat, and your attention being elsewhere, recently?

Your instinct was to go over to him immediately, run your hands over his shoulder, kiss the corners of his lips and the crease between his brows, try to chase some of the shadows away.  Restraint was what you chose, instead–just for now.  He was still eating, and you had his tea in hand.  Not to mention there were still a few more serious topics to bring up.  But after…after the serious, that look on his face and whatever was hanging over him you couldn’t know about yet was going to get your undivided attention.

Dropping the topic entirely for now, you came over to gently offer him the teacup, waiting until he'd taken it before you ran the now-free hand over his shoulders and leaned down to kiss his cheek.  It was the best you could give him for now while he was finishing his meal before you pulled away, claiming a seat on his couch and starting in on your own cup of tea.

There was a silence after that, one that felt comfortable and content despite the topics the two of you had just been discussing, and the unknown you were aware of but couldn't get answers for.  There were a few more serious things you wanted to touch on, but it could wait until he finished his meal and the two of you were more comfortably situated.  Especially since what remained mostly had to do with the two of you, specifically, and that didn’t feel like a conversation to be had while you moved about the room or from the other side of a desk like it was Scout business.

Considering how many times you wondered it, you two should probably talk about what exactly the two of you were, but you didn’t think either one of you were prepared to answer that, yet.  Everything was too…new, still.  There were too many simple things you were figuring out and growing accustomed to, and the brief hiccup where Levi had withdrawn had temporarily put a wrinkle in things that required adjusting all over again while the two of you smoothed things back out.

A bit sooner than you had been expecting, you heard Levi get up from the desk, footsteps making quick work of the space between his desk and the couch before he appeared in your direct line of sight, effectively pulling you out of the contemplative state you’d slowly started to drift into as he dropped onto the couch with a sigh that normal ears wouldn’t have been able to hear.  To your surprise, he didn’t pause once he was on the couch, but pivoted and started to lower himself towards you while face up, prompting you to swallow the last bit of tea in your cup quickly so you could set it aside and out of the way, opening your lap up for him to rest his head.  Much to your amusement, he almost looked like he was on the brink of pouting, arms folded across his chest as he settled in, a small patch of his cheeks starting to look a little flushed, eyes closed so he didn’t have to see your amusement, and the slightest frown on his face even though he was certainly making himself comfortable.  He was still a little tense, like when you’d asked him to do this yesterday evening, but the fact that he was initiating it in the first place was sign enough that he was comfortable with it–though the tension was probably coming from not knowing whether or not you would be comfortable with it right now, or if it was a one time special occasion thing.

You chuckled as he started to settle down with his positioning enough that you could safely put your arms down, one hand instinctively finding its way into his hair to start the gentle threading through his hair you’d been doing yesterday.  As soon as you did, you could see the tension starting to drain out of him, even with the chuckle making it clear you found something about this amusing.

“Not so ridiculous anymore, I see,” you teased him gently, earning a muttered, ‘shut up’ from him in response that got another chuckle from you, your smile easy and relaxed as you watched how he reacted to the simple touch.  How the eyes squeezed shut softened so it didn’t look forced anymore, simply like he was enjoying it, like he would drift off to sleep if you kept going; how the small frown on his face was starting to go away as well, the corners of his lips smoothing out to more of a neutral expression.  The crease between his eyes slowly started to disappear as well, and more of his upper body weight rested against your lap, head tilted back so his face was looking up at you.  It also opened his neck up to you enough the marks from your usual feeding could easily be seen, but you were more focused on his facial expressions, the tension slowly bleeding out of him as your fingers gently threaded through his hair, ran from the part in the front back until your fingers were bumping into your thigh, and back.

Your other hand started resting on the back of the couch, but you felt it would be more comfortable resting at your side.  However, since Levi was currently stretched out where you would normally rest your hand…

There was a moment of hesitation, only because you still had yet to stumble across what level of intimacy was too far for Levi–or perhaps you were going so slow that the line was naturally moving further and further back before you could even reach it.  Still, you lowered your elbow into the gap between the couch and his side, and then very carefully rested your forearm little at a time across his abdomen.  You felt a small tremble beneath your arm at the initial contact, then a brief tension that went through his whole body and had you pausing before his continued silence and lack of pulling away made you feel comfortable with finishing laying it along his middle.  After a few long moments of simply running your fingers through his hair and letting your arm rest across his middle, Levi’s arms unfolded, and while one arm stayed laying haphazardly across his chest, the other reached down to twine his fingers into yours before resting the joined hands at his side.  The warmth from the moment that had been residing in your chest spread to what felt like every inch of you at that, your smile wide and heart fluttering for a moment before it calmed back down at a pace that seemed to match that brief tension flooding back out of Levi.

Not wanting to shatter the gentle moment he’d initiated, especially since he had just started initiating these little intimacies, you didn’t immediately bring up the last few things on your mind.  It was tempting to believe this little action of Levi’s answered one of your main questions you wanted to bring up, but you figured you should probably still ask, just to be sure.  So far, save Levi shutting you out briefly, you had been damn good at your communication with him–even before this budding more intimate relationship with him.  That was not a streak you wanted to break.  Communication and trust were two large cornerstones of this relationship, and you weren’t going to skimp anywhere on either value.

So, after relishing in the silent moment long enough you were worried even rarely-sleeps Levi would fall asleep if it went on any longer, you finally spoke up.

“I’m assuming with the way the past twenty-four hours have gone, we are, but I still want to ask just to make sure…we’re okay now, yes?” you asked him quietly, peering down at him and waiting for his reaction.

There was a beat of silence as he considered your question, and then a reassuring squeeze of your hand in answer before he opened his eyes to gaze up at you.  “We’re okay,” he confirmed quietly, causing a cool wave of relief to seep through you to hear it voiced out loud.

“Still a shitty situation with the kid, and…”  there was a moment of hesitation that you waited patiently during as Levi sought the right words for what he wanted to add.  “I’m still worried about the danger it’ll put you in.  And with all this shit happening we might need to revisit being reckless.  Calling it calculated or taking an opportunity doesn’t change when a move was actually risky or impulsive.”

You felt a touch of shame coloring your cheeks at the comment.  You’d defended your choice about helping Emery as calculated and opportunistic, if a bit risky, to Erwin, but Levi knew it was more emotional than that.  He knew that back in Sedalia it had been a snap decision based on emotion over logic–impulsive, and you’d doubled down on it and had been trying to just make it work ever since then.  The logic had been applied after the fact to try and dig you out of the trouble while carrying Emery out with you.

“I’ll admit that taking on Emery was more of an impulsive thing, and the planning was done on the spot as things unfolded–”

Levi interrupted you before you could get much further.  Again, he knew.  Starting to say it was possibly more of a formality than a necessity.  “Your heart may be in the right place with the kid, but you’ve got to use your head–you can’t do that impulsive shit.  That’s how people get killed in this life.”

There was a harder edge in Levi’s eyes as he said it, but beneath it, a flash of something buried deep that was clawing its way to the surface with the topic.  You didn’t brush off his attempt to give you words of wisdom–you’d already acknowledged that he had more experience than you in certain areas.  Levi wasn’t a fool, and you valued his input.  So right now, seeing that something stirring in the depths of his gaze that was riveted on you made you reflective, instead.

How many people had he seen die because of impulsive actions, unnecessarily risky decisions?  You knew he was worried about you, but what if you’d been causing more than that, what if you’d been scaring him with some of your actions recently?  Maybe all of this was about more than just the danger of the Emery situation: what if he was scared this kind of decision making would bleed into other areas–like out with the Titans–and cost you everything?  His early perception that you were nigh invincible when he’d first uncovered what you were had been shattered with recent events, he knew there were risks out there, he knew you could be hurt or killed, you’d told him yourself during that interrogation that the Titans still posed a risk to you in extreme cases or if you got careless or too brash.

The hand that had been running through his hair since he’d laid down in your lap moved so that it could instead rest against his cheek in reassurance.  “Levi, listen to me.”  You took care to keep your voice soft, but your tone held a firm resolve in it meant to reassure him that you were being serious about what you said, that you weren’t simply giving him platitudes.  “I know what I’m doing is risky, like we’ve talked about in the past.  I know that this was more of an emotional decision when I resolved to help Emery, but I’ve been doing my best to be smart about this from here on out without having to abandon him.  I know there are hunters after him.  I know the Garrison has a personal vendetta against him–for good reason.  I know the Military Police have gotten involved now.  I know going down into the Underground with him is risky to me as well, that it reopens the door to threats that we were trying to shut out.  I know that every time I go to visit him, and every time I go out on a hunt with him, I risk being there at a moment he’s caught by any of those three parties.  I understand that there is risk to me–and a great deal of it–with the situation as it is right now, and that change needs to happen to lessen that risk if we’re going to get anywhere.  And I understand that if Emery isn’t willing to be flexible enough to work with me, to learn what I’m trying to teach him, then it’s not worth the rise in risk and I’ll have to back off and leave him to fend for himself, as much as I don’t want to.  I understand that it was an emotional decision I made with heavy risks, and there is a very real possibility that if something doesn't change, the situation will reach a point where I can't help him without doing more harm than good on a larger scale. And I know you and Commander Erwin are of the opinion that I've already reached the point where I should have backed out by now.  But right now, as slight of a chance as it's starting to seem, I can still try to help him, if he listens.  And as long as there's that chance, I'm going to keep trying to help him.”

As expected, he didn’t seem to be entirely assured, since the risk still existed, but your acknowledgement of the specific risks to you, and the acknowledgement that it could get too dangerous to try to help and you would back off when it did, seemed to put something in his mind at ease, at least, and the hard edge in his gaze was softening again.

“Like I've said…just don't do anything shitbrained.  Think next time, don't just jump right to commitment,” he remarked, getting in one last chastisement–hopefully it would be the last one you needed to be on the receiving end of for this topic.

“While we're talking about potential future problems, or at least avoiding them,” you started to say, the statement stopping Levi from relaxing back into the silence again and prompting a raised brow.  You traced the outer edge of his lower lip as you considered your phrasing and tried to get him to relax without directly saying it wasn't anything bad you were about to say.  Just a little request.  The motion partially did its job, as you heard a slight catch in his breath as your hand and arm seemed to tingle at the light motion and the gentle press against the more plump lower lip.

“I'm okay with you needing space to think things through sometimes–I'm used to it by now.  And I'm fully ready to give you that space if and when you need it.  But next time–and realistically, there will likely be a next time–please don't shut me out like that again?  It's miserable for both of us, and not at all productive, it just lets things fester and…and I prefer when we're like this.  When we can talk about things.  Hell, I'll even take some heated arguments when certain topics come up over a stoic silent treatment.”

Levi's gaze was riveted to you, and you knew that even though the intimate touch was probably distracting, he still listened intently to what you had to say and took it in.  “I’ll remember that.”

“I should certainly hope so,” you mused lightly, hand still on his cheek instead of in his hair and starting to lightly stroke along his cheekbone.

“Is there any more depressing shit you want to bring up or are you going to finally kiss me?” Levi asked in response, cocking an eyebrow at you in an almost challenging manner you knew would melt away the moment you started kissing him.

“Depends, are you going to bite me again?”

The challenging air vanished almost instantly, and the light flush that had crept into his cheeks when he first laid down came back a bit stronger at the reminder as he averted his gaze, the hand still twined with yours tightening its grip.  “Shut up,” he mumbled, and you couldn’t help the amusement you felt at his embarrassment over something he did twice, and so confidently the second time.

Your fingers lightly traced his jaw, and you managed to keep any laughter in, though you were grinning down at him.  “Hey, it’s a legitimate question.  It was quite startling, I’ll admit–”

“You wouldn’t shut the fuck up even though Eld was right outside, so I did something,” Levi grumbled, cheeks continuing to flush and squirming slightly on your lap self-conciously.

“And how did that work out for you?”

He frowned, and actually met your gaze again, expression pulling into a scowl whose effect was ruined by the pink cheeks.  “You’re the one who moaned, how was I supposed to know you were going to react that damn loudly?” he accused.

“I can think of someone else that moans quite loudly when they’re–”

Pink cheeks quickly turned burning red, and he cut you off before you could finish the sentence, looking away once again and appearing so exasperated and flustered it was a miracle he wasn’t stumbling over his words in his rush to get you to hush.  “For fuck’s sake, just say you didn’t like it, you don’t have to tease so much.”

Ah, too far with the teasing, then.  Time to reassure and soothe, then, lest he get the wrong impression.

Gently, you tilted his head back in towards you and leaned down to kiss him just above a furrowed eyebrow.  “I never said I didn’t like it.”

Levi’s gaze snapped back towards you, eyes slightly wider to reflect his surprise, though the blush wasn’t lessening.  Your fingers found their way back up into his hair, your motions circular, relaxing, and hopefully reassuring enough to help keep him from tensing back up.

“I liked it.  Though maybe not the best move if you’re wanting me to be quiet–hence the teasing.  I certainly wouldn’t complain if you bit back more often.”

Levi scowled again, but there wasn’t as much irritation in it this time, and his gaze remained on you.  “Asshole.  Didn’t have to tease so much.”

“Sorry, I couldn’t resist, since you interrupted me with your teeth last time.”

His eyes narrowed on you, and you could have sworn you could see him weighing in his mind if he should bite you right now with the attitude you were giving him.  The fact it seemed to be more of a motivator than a punishment seemed to win out, and he let it go, reaching out tentatively and with more intensive focus than he probably wanted to admit with his free hand to gently run the back of his fingers under your chin, causing a soft sigh to escape your lips.

Standoffish and crass words juxtaposed with such tender gestures and what seemed like any excuse to be near?  Yeah, you were back on good terms again, and any worry that there might be some form of lingering friction because of the Emery situation evaporated from its dark corner in your mind.

“Before we get caught up in the moment, one more thing I wanted to ask–last one, I promise,” you remarked, adding the last part quickly and with a faint smile when you saw exasperation spark in his eyes.  “And besides, it’s on topic.”

Gently, your hand wandered once more away from his hair, down his jaw, lightly cupped around the back and side of his neck, moving down towards his collar.  “I just thought I’d ask ahead of time, since sometimes things get a bit more…heated, when we have more than a few moments to ourselves.  Are you okay with…”  It was your turn for your face to burn, doing your best not to let yourself choke on the actual question itself with the nerves squirming in your gut and trying to work its way up to strangle you into awkward silence.  “...with me…touching you more?”

Levi took in your flushed face, how it was your turn to stumble over the words with some self consciousness, and took a moment to study you closely before he pressed for a bit of clarification.  “...How so?”

“Nothing big, I’m not talking–I just mean…something like…like this,” you remarked tentatively, lowering your eyes to track your own movements as you let your hand dip lower than his shoulders without his prompting for the first time, fingers lightly trailing down the center of his chest until you were just above his navel.  Then, your hand flattened and pressed gently against the solid muscle you could feel beneath the fabric of his shirt, slowly running that hand back up before doing a slow sweep over his pectoral, thumb trailing behind and doing light repetitive strokes along the upper curve of the muscle.

You felt a slight quiver beneath your palm when your hand slid down to his navel and back up, could feel his eyes burning into you with their intensity and hear his heart rate pick up, hear the soft and pleased sigh that caught in his throat and he tried to hold as if worried it would break the moment while you came back up and he waited to see what else you might do.  He relaxed back into your lap at the touch, head heavier against your thighs.

You assumed, based on the reaction, that was a green signal for you to continue, that he was nothing but welcoming for more touches like this.  More intimate, more lingering–nothing too much, yet, but this was okay.  Running your hands along his chest to explore and feel above the fabric of his shirt, possibly his back, too, when you had access (unlike right now).  Maybe you could get away with resting a hand on his knee under tables from now on, as well.

And maybe, this little bit more would translate to kissing as well.

Your touch lightened, fingers trailing slowly back down the center of his chest.  This time you were more confident in the gesture, feeling every dip and crest of the toned muscles beneath from years of fighting and ODM gear.

As your fingers explored new territory much more carefully, you let your gaze drift back up to Levi’s face, catching a glimpse of his eyes half-lidded and appearing a silvery blue in the shadows of the room, gaze currently still locked on your fingers as they trailed along his chest, a slight part in his lips as if that gasp you’d heard him catch and hold was threatening to break through any moment, and you saw the smooth bob of his adam’s apple as he lifted his gaze and caught you watching him.  Before either of you could speak and potentially break the moment, you leaned down to finally kiss him again, eager to discover how much deeper it would go now.

There was still the lingering taste of the black tea on his lips, a taste that had become so familiar and so entwined with him that it brought comfort and reassurance once you tasted it.  Levi was apparently eagerly awaiting the kiss, because there was no delay in its return.  His lips met yours with eagerness, the sigh he'd been holding evaporating into your parted lips as you went deep at first contact.  The hand that had been resting under your chin and starting to trail a light line down your throat moved to naturally tangle in your hair, holding you closer to him while his lips hungrily met yours.

Still explorative, you let your tongue swipe briefly along his lower lip when you trapped it in your kiss, causing a shudder to race through his body and a soft moan that disappeared within the next kiss.  Each gentle brush of your hand along his chest and abdomen caused the slightest of trembles in him, greater when you traced your fingers along his abdomen, or lightly along the very center of his chest–it took more control than you wanted to admit to resist brushing your fingers along the arch of his pectorals where his nipples would be, feeling like that might be a little much if he ended up being sensitive there for where the two of you were in terms of intimacy right now.

His fingers untwined from yours, and as much as you hated the sudden lack of his hand entwined in yours, it found its place in the small of your back, encouraging you to start shifting position to be closer to him on the couch with how he seemed to be attempting to hold you closer to him.  Tentatively, his hand started to travel up your back as you shifted to try and stretch out beside him without taking up his space on the couch, his fingers splayed and carefully exploring the curves as he held you partially pressed against his side and partially atop his chest, his head no longer propped up and now lying against the couch cushion.  At least it still gave you a good position to kiss him deeply from, even if the attempt to both squeeze onto the couch without invading each other’s space too much but without breaking the make-out was an awkward angled mess from the waist down you were both attempting to ignore.

Still, you could feel his heart beating in his chest as you allowed him to hold you so close to him, a soft hum building in your chest as you pressed deeper in your kiss, testing to see if he’d let your tongue delve a bit deeper, your teeth trapping one of his lips with a bit more fervor.  He was hesitant at first, you could feel the hitch in the flow as he seemed to mentally puzzle out how he felt about it.  He allowed it–for now, with hesitance–so you didn’t push it much further for the moment.  You were content to enjoy the taste of him, the depth of it, the hunger burning in you that had nothing to do with vampirism with every touch and press, the security and warmth with the way he held you oh-so-close to him, his hand doing a slow map of the curves of your back and sides.

Levi’s confidence in what he was doing was returning again, the hesitance from the depth you brought to the kiss and the new things you’d been slowly trying melting away as he figured out how to meet you in stride with it through a bit of trial and error while letting you lead–not that you had a clearer picture of how this worked.  Still, you were pretty sure it was pride you felt sparking inside you alongside the thrill of excitement when you felt Levi’s teeth graze your lips like they had earlier, followed by a quick swipe of his tongue that was almost fast enough to be brushed off as accidental.  The fact that he did it a second time was what made it obvious it wasn’t an accident, and a moan escaped your control as his tongue dared to venture as deep as yours had wandered earlier.  His hands tightened their grip on you, while yours sought out more of him, one hand tangling in his hair while the other dipped closer to his waist at his side before planting in the couch edge beside him to give you the leverage you needed to try and shift positions slightly.

There was a slight break, a gasp for air from both of you as you hovered more over him, stomach brushing against his, getting ready to swing a leg over to try and shift to straddling him.  A shudder went through Levi, and his grip tightened, but this time it was to hold you back and away, just enough that you couldn’t silence him with a kiss and he could look at you, halting the movement before your legs could lock around his waist.  His heart was beating faster, and he looked…not panicked, but definitely flustered, and he seemed to struggle to reach for the right words to explain what had just caused the interruption that was the source of the question in your gaze.

“Wait–wait, not yet, none of that–sex–it's–shit, just…”  Miraculously, there was only the slightest blush on his cheeks and his ears, but he may have been too pressed to try and explain to be the embarrassed kind of flustered.  He struggled with the words, one of your hands resting just above his heart and feeling it continue its racing pace as he fumbled with what he was trying to explain.  “Not right now, It’s too–right now, it’s too…much.”

Even though he finally settled on the words, he didn’t at all seem satisfied with how he’d put it, like it wasn’t exactly what he wanted to say, but it was all he could manage in the moment.  But you were pretty sure you understood what he was getting at with just this bit, anyway.

You were admittedly a little thrown off by the voicing of the possibility of sex being on the table, even if it was a voicing just to set it aside.  You hadn't even thought of it as on the table in the first place, hadn't thought of it as an option yet, and it hadn't been on your mind as you'd been shifting your position to be a bit closer.

Not yet, anyway.  And now that he said it, you couldn't help but to think of it.  You couldn't help but wonder what he'd look like, mind presenting you with an image pieced together with moments from your kisses and the times you'd fed off him, your imagination filling in the gaps to give you mental imagery of Levi panting, head thrown back against the couch, hair cascading backwards and down to the couch cushion, heartbeat racing in your ears, eyes squeezed closed as they rolled from pleasure, eyebrows arched in a curve akin to his back coming off the couch as an unrestrained moan made it passed his lips–

Fuck.

You hadn't thought of it until he said it, and now your cheeks were burning as you desperately tried to shove the thought out of your head, shutting down the imagined sounds in your ears and trying to snuff out the stray thought of how unrestrained would he be if the two of you weren't pacing yourselves walking a blurry line in regards to intimacy right now that made both of you hold back in different ways.

No, no.  You hadn't even been considering it yourself before he mentioned it, he just said he wasn't comfortable with sex yet, so you didn't even want to think about it–especially not right now.  It was the first line–temporary or not–Levi had put down between the two of you, and you sure as hell were going to respect it, even if it took a couple seconds to wrestle down the images the mention of the potential future sex with Levi immediately coaxed to mind.

You'd even said yourself before trying this that you weren't thinking of doing anything too much yet.  You two…weren't there yet.  As much as the thought of Levi in the throes of sex made your heart pound in your ears and a flush of excitement try to flood through your system, sex was not the intention tonight, anyways.  You just wanted to test the intimacy behind closed doors between you two a little more, wanted to give both of you time to readjust to each other again considering how fresh and new your resolving the issues with one another was.

Not yet.  He was right.  Despite the reaction you had to the thought of it, sex was far too much right now.  Not yet.

Levi had stilled entirely beside and underneath you, holding his breath and watching every shift of your facial expression as he tried to read how you were reacting to his request, if he needed to keep trying to find the better words for what he wanted, trying to see before you spoke if he'd upset you with his request.

 “Okay,” you said simply in response, answering him hopefully before he felt the need to start explaining himself.

Levi’s gaze was trained on yours, searching every flicker of emotion he could see there.  He didn't look entirely convinced for some reason.  “…It is?”

“Yes, it is, Levi, I promise.  I don’t feel like we’re quite there yet, myself,” you responded, and when his expression seemed to turn even more dubious, you expanded a bit more on what you meant.   “It certainly feels like we might be, sometimes, but…I’d rather we continue figuring this part out, first, before we try tackling that beast.”

Levi’s gaze was still fixed on you, though the fact he had started to relax once again helped reassure you that he was accepting your explanation.  His hand shifted from its position tangled in your hair to instead carefully cup your cheek, thumb stroking along the arch of your cheekbone in slow, repetitive motions. You could have sworn there was a light of…perhaps a touch of amusement in his eyes, and this knowing look to boot that you couldn’t for the life of you understand why it was there.

“...What?” you finally asked after a few moments spent just like that, with him looking at you that way, cupping your cheek, stroking the arch of your cheekbone…

“Your eyes are red,”  He responded simply.  “Fading, now, but…they were turning red.”

You felt your cheeks heat at the heavy dose of implication in that seemingly innocent comment.  That little biological trait you couldn’t shake, at that time as the two of you were discussing sex?  Damned vampirism, giving you away like that.  He could probably guess pretty easily just where your mind went, and just how deeply those thoughts had been rooted in emotion.  It didn’t take much at all to figure out why your eyes had started turning red, and you really hoped he didn’t press on it.

He probably wasn’t going to, given that he was the one to state that it was too early for sex.

The hand removed itself entirely from your cheek, and you started to sit back as Levi shifted to get up.

“You should head back to your room.  Since you made it pretty clear we were going to talk, they’re going to ambush you in the morning.  You should be in your room, not missing from it.”

He had a point. You hated to go already, but Hange and Petra were almost certainly going to ask how the talk went and if you and Levi were on good speaking terms again as soon as possible. Saying they’d wait until morning may even be the optimistic idea of when they’d come looking for you.  If they knew you’d been with Levi ‘making up’ and you were mysteriously not in your room the next morning…

Yes.  You needed to head back to your room.

You were pulled out of your thoughts by a gentle kiss on the corner of your lips, coaxing you back to the present gently but quickly as Levi spoke again.  “You’re pouting like a child–aren’t you sixty something?” he jabbed.

You rolled your eyes at the comment, returning the kiss with one of your own on his cheek.  “Technically speaking, though I doubt you want to go over what I think about my age all over again.  It’s fine, I’ll head back.  We’re going to be spending practically the rest of the week together, anyway.”

“On business,” Levi reminded you.  “There won’t be time for much else.”

“I know, but still,” you murmured, resisting the urge to reach out and touch his knee, to try something else that could be taken as some kind of initiation or trying to explore a bit more instead of leaving.  Maybe he didn’t mean for you to leave immediately, but you were going to take it as a dismissal. If you didn’t, then you were likely to end up continuing to look for excuses to stay.

Still reluctant, but now resolved enough to move, you got up from your seat on the couch, looking back at Levi briefly.  “I’ll see you first thing in the morning tomorrow, yes?”

Levi’s brows rose slightly.  “Have I said otherwise?”

Rolling your eyes, you did allow yourself a gentle brush against his shoulder, giving it a small squeeze before you started making your way to leave.  “Goodnight, Levi.”

“Goodnight,” you heard him answer quietly a few moments before the door shut behind you.

You wished you could linger longer in the moment, but he was right about needing to be in your own room, you didn’t want to risk being caught out of it when everyone knew where you had been the night before.

However, you had the feeling the next few days were going to be…trying.  You doubted you’d have much time to even think about anything else once you reached Emery, and who knew what waited for you upon your return that had Erwin giving you such a small window to get this done and return inside.

That little moment on the couch was just going to have to tide you over until the two of you had more than just a few moments to spare, however long that was going to be.

Next Chapter---->

(Strikethrough's couldn't be tagged)

Everything Tags:   @antistellxr 

Levi Tags:  @clary-quinn @ayatosmlktea @whalerus @sunny-flo @thirstyforsometea @hauntedhousecat @peaches-and-clouds @imaginationmess @wubbawubwub04 @lollobos @pasteldays @itsmeaudriee @macaronnv @tokyo-banana @apuci-kis-szornye @momowantscats @yellowminb @ashikothedog @notgoodforlife @spnwinchestersd @xxdarkdarlingxx @joy-the-reader

Wings in the Dark Tags: @regalillegal @animeluver23 @theshylittleelfgirl @queenthorin1 @dilucs-thighs @lady-ragnvindr @subtlepjiminie @queenondeezmatatas​​ @linxiajei17 @levisbebe @toni-jones @pinkberrymilktea @ascybous @emmaandemmel @wolfie3616 @aot-fanatic @jencyib @zombiukas @notgoodforlife​ @syviis @captainyanag1

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV S2 Ep6 Musings - Loumand's Power Imbalance: RANT (Spoilers)

I'm seeing so many trash takes in the tags and it's driving me nuts.

Armand 👏 Made 👏 His 👏 CHOICE! 👏

The show said it TWICE, and yet I still see a plethora of braindead takes about Armand/Arun being "forced" by "Maitre/pimp!Louis" to do things. 🤦

Like, ISTG we're clearly not watching the same show, y'all.

Since when did Louis being a pimp or asserting "dominance" or other delusions of grandeur get him anywhere or give him anything that wasn't immediately taken away again by people with ACTUAL power? Louis NEVER had any real power to begin with!

Lou couldn't even convince some schmuck art dealer to buy his effing photos! He couldn't even convince his own boyfriend/companion to make a dang baby with him! Come on, y'all--what POWER (control, influence, effectiveness, coercion, sway) has Louis ever actually had!?!?

Sure, Lou owned all those businesses--and every single one got shut down by the government's Ordinances (via the city council the Alderman & Tom Anderson were board members on). Sure, Lou had money & paid all the bills at DPDL Estate, but his mother had the power to badmouth him so bad that his own nieces never wanted to be around him, and Levi took his place as Florence's son--"you're not welcome in this home!" Sure, Lou's a big bad vamp w/ super strength "remember what I did to that door, Grace?," but Grace was the one who told him to "get out!;" "mah sistah buried me aliiiiive~!" Sure, he was "Daddy" Lou, but when Claudia ran away he couldn't do eff all to stop her or make her come back till SHE decided to come back. Sure, Lou said he was "equals in the quiet dark," but Lestat always had the final say--he's even testifying to an entire judge & jury in the court case that's gonna get Claudia killed & Louis LITERALLY buried alive--cuz ARMAND MADE A DEAL WITH SANTIAGO & THE COVEN & LESTAT! Everyone's making moves w/out Lou having a EFFING clue.

Y'all really think Armand just stood there & let Santiago kidnap Lou's family cuz LOUIS turned Armand into his slave!; or cuz LOUIS had some unfair advantage over Armand?!

Episode 7 was given its title for a frikkin REASON, y'all.

Armand claimed he "couldn't prevent it." Armand. The 500 year old vampire so powerful that HE was the only one in the coven who could set vampires on frikkin fire, and was the ONLY one who could freeze entire rooms full of people AND VAMPIRES.

Somehow, Armand's suddenly SO powerless, SO helpless, SO DOMINATED, that couldn't stop those SAME vampires from abducting his beloved companion ("I want you more than anything in the world") and his daughters? PLEASE.

Coven Master Armand CHOPPED OFF NICKI'S HANDS when he got TIRED of dealing with a mentally ill guy whom LESTAT left him with! Sound familiar!? Only this time it's not Louis' HANDS--it's his DAUGHTERS!

ARMAND WANTS THOSE TWO WENCHES GONE GIRL! He sold them down the frikkin river; and in return was able to guarantee that Louis wouldn't be killed right alongside them, merely buried alive so Armand could dig him up later; "eternity in a box."

Armand passively shut the door and stood by as the coven burned Claudia (after Armand had chopped her HEAD off & sewed it on an adult's body)--and only made his move once all the sentences had been meted out; cuz in classic Armand fashion: HE LET IT HAPPEN.

ARMAND WANTED THAT WHOLE COVEN GONE, GIRL! He's done this crap before! WITH LESTAT!

And Armand was busy wheeling & dealing with Lestat, too!

Lest only complied--COMPLICIT--cuz he'd been starved, delirious & hurt; and Armand tricked him into thinking he could/would help. Les threw Claudia under the bus to protect Lou, but was still horrified that she'd been killed, cuz ARMAND could've prevented it--his fledglings shouldn't've been held to the Great Laws in the first place!

This is a MASSIVE game Armand's playing--the whole point of his gaslighting's that he throws the same thing he does back in ppl's faces to throw them off his scent, "to protect me, from YOU, Mr. Molloy...from my shame...my cowardice." He hides behind illusions--not just with the Mind/Spell Gift, but also through the veneer of innocence: a black-winged devil with the innocent face of a cherub.

People are SO blinded by the mean Black man (whom they don't even like ANYWAY) Dom'ing Armand (FOR SHOW, btw!); and equally distracted by their failure to even parse Armand's birthname Arun (I don't see any of y'all saying Amadeo was book!Armand's "slave name," and I DEFINITELY don't see any of y'all saying ANDREI was his slave name, either!); that they've totally missed how Loumand plotted TOGETHER to concede power to Santiago and "give" him the Theatre--thoroughly ignorant of the fact that Santiago was already being called Maitre by the whole effing coven--he'd already won his coup!

You can't give someone something you never had, Louis!

And their plot was for ARMAND'S BENEFIT; so they could get rid of Santiago, destabilize/dismantle the coven so they'd scatter (just like Lestat caused them to do); and so Armand could decide if he wanted to stay Maitre or not--LETTING ARMAND CHOOSE what HE wanted to do with HIS coven and THEIR lives. Lest we forget: vamps don't just LEAVE covens--in the books, after Les ruined the Paris coven, Armand didn't just LET them leave--he set them on FIRE and KILLED THEM; just like Louis would do--as Armand sat back and LET IT HAPPEN.

He knew Lou'd go ballistic; AMC!Armand even TAUGHT Louis the Fire Gift; literally handing Louis the tools with which to destroy his coven for good!

This show constantly emphasizes the POWER Armand held over Louis & Claudia (& Madeleine)'s lives; and his autonomy, agency & authority over them; despite the roleplay Loumand was up to as they SWITCHED positions; cuz Armand FAILED at running the coven.

All Armand wanted was to be with Louis, but Lou kept dragging Claudia (& Lestat) with him. So Armand was tryna get rid of them--he's Sleeping in Claudia's coffin, cuz he wants to take HER spot; "it's BLISS!"--and he overplayed his hand.

Louis couldn't even kill himself in peace without Armand interfering--cuz at the end of the day, it's not up to Louis what he wants or does. Armand PRETENDS to be Louis servant, "Rashid," his subby bottom boy, cuz Armand WANTS to go along with it all--too shameful for his COMPLICIT culpability; and too scared to live alone.

I saw people saying "the victim became the victimizer; cycles of abuse; etc etc," like omfg--how is THIS man Louis' victim!?

I've said it before though: Armand genuinely loves Louis, and has good intentions. But let's not pretend Armand's some innocent bystander to Louis' schemes, ffs!

[crownedinmarigolds]

A Golden Opportunity! - A Gary Golden writeup for @laughatlocksmiths!

A fly flits its way into the den of the spiders. A little red drop of blood cut straight from the vein, slipping down a white arm into his warrens. It’s probably not even aware of how futile its efforts are. Gravity dragging it forward by the toes, a shambling joke in its death throes. Hah. Well, the uninvited guest had managed to shake off the Sabbat abominations that kept he and his trapped. An impressive enough feat, he’ll give the little morsel that. It’s just too bad that the circumstances for meeting are so… tedious. Oh, he knew exactly why this freshly dead fledgling was here. The hotshot young Prince that decided to take a chair, put it up in the tallest tower and declare himself king, was throwing himself a little tantrum. A decorated old box with a dead body inside went missing on the car ride over, a common mistake! Can’t trust any delivery men these days, especially ones that aren’t paid well. Just because he’d been the one to set up the delivery, suddenly it was his fault the product got lost? He'd been tucked in at home, watching old films and having a good cry at the time of the crime! It was frankly insulting to be once again fingered for a burglary they have no proof he was involved in… though we can all be honest as we sit and chat in our heads, can’t we? Now, old Gary didn’t know what use LaCroix had for a corpse (a non-locomotive one at least) but he didn’t expect them to be playing tea party together. So when opportunity knocks, Mr. Golden likes to answer and give it a seat at his table. So he may’ve let slip (through a few channels and voices that weren't his) to a few mafiaso types where the box may be headed, and they made a pick up. These kinds of Kindred were always into the old things, thinking they can scrape off some spirit mumbo jumbo from it, of which he couldn’t care less about. The Prince throws a fit over a lost artifact for a while, but the city will swallow his complaints up and he’d move onto the next dusty object to obsess over. There's some extra funding for his kin to keep the lights on, as well as the added pleasure of annoying some pompous little young Ventrue. Unfortunately the box has been more trouble than its initial face-value worth. The Prince really into whatever it had inside like it was a lost Christmas present - and not to even mention the Kuei Jin and their underlings also starting to feel around with their nasty little tendrils. It makes his clammy skin get clammier to imagine what could even stir their attention, so he had a trustworthy and capable man try and take a look into what is really going on in Chinatown. His man was snatched up, something he should’ve expected to happen given the circumstances. He felt something awful about it, considering this merry band of freaks were his responsibility. There's no safety out there for his kin, and with how hard Los Angeles and its surrounding cities were becoming to navigate in modern nights, old Gary was needing someone to get into Chinatown for him. The Kuei Jin weren’t going to take snoops lightly, and he was already greatly unpopular over there. No no boss, this is a golden opportunity walking down their little tunnel hallways right to his room. The fledgling gets his glory by rescuing the old box from the evil thieving necromancers… with information so generously given by Gary as soon as his man is rescued from the clutches of the Kuei Jin and their kine help. It’s not the most multi-dimensional chess way to go about it, but a classic is always worth a rewatch in his book. Dirt makes way to cobbled stone, then to tile. Ruined shoes tracking mud into his party space. He is cloaked from the mind in the corner, a sharp smile in the dark as the little morsel has no idea what he’s looking for. Theatrics were his specialty, and it was time to make it worth the wait. “By the clack-smack cracking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.”

Thank you so much to @porcelainseashore for putting together the VTM Writer's Secret Santa event! It was challenging to get into a non-OC character's mindset but it was also very fun once the flow came! I love to write and don't get to do it often so this made me sit down and get to it. I hope I did Gary some justice!

[mxssful]

control

Day 1 of Viago Week: control

Viago/Rook (but can be read as Viago&Rook I guess?) | 919 words | Rated T | Mostly vibes

@viagoweek

“Again,” Viago says, for the twelfth time in over an hour. Rosa begins the sequence once more— a set of attacks against an invisible opponent, feet light but certain, rapier glinting in the sunlight with each of her movements. The metal sings, slashing open the air, and Rosa moves, quick as ever; graceful, as only wild things know how to be. 

In another life, she might have been a dancer, something to go with those bards she is always so fond of.

(In another life, she might have been meant for something else. Sometimes, when the light hits her eyes just right, Viago could swear Rosa’s pupils are like a cat’s, could swear her shadow grows taller, could swear she has sharp teeth. Sometimes, when she looks at him with all the strength of sentiment, with grateful affection, he thinks she might have been more at home kneeling at an altar than sitting at his feet. Sometimes, when she says yes, Fifth Talon, and does what he asks of her, when she brings dead things home and smiles through the blood on her muzzle, when she sleeps against his door like a faithful hound—

Sometimes, Viago thinks he got away with something, stealing away this rare creature for himself. If she might have been meant for something else— too bad. Viago de Riva is a selfish man.)

“Again,” he says, watching her carefully. 

Rosa begins the sequence once more—

Perfection is not what they strive for; perfection implies an end, a moment where things cannot be improved any further. If Rosa has any kind of limits, they haven’t found them yet— or perhaps it is that time and time again she pushes through them, though not without sweat nor blood. 

Obedience would be foolish to pretend— Rosa will never be truly quite domesticated, despite his most insistent early attempts. There used to be a delay, between his order and her action, as if she needed to verify it was a good order before following— and ultimately, she always follows them. 

If there is no delay now…

Perhaps she learned how to think faster.

“Again,” he says, hands behind his back, posture straight. Stern as ever.

Rosa begins the sequence once more—

Viago isn’t sure what he means to show off, exactly, making her practice like this in the courtyard. Is it her skill, in order to instill some sense of competition among the fledglings, something to aspire to? Is it his skill instead, in the face of those who called her too unmanageable, too aggressive, that feral thing he brought home?

(‘Viago’s rabid pet.’)

Not for the first time, he thinks anyone who was not able to see her potential was an idiot.

(At the same time, he thinks, as well, that no one else could have forged and sharpened her into the fine blade she is today.)

“Again.”

Rosa begins the sequence—

She prefers to fight with a dagger— only one, in order to leave her other hand free for casting fire and lightning. She prefers to fight as close as possible, darting in and out of reach, closing the space to slip beneath armor, sweet as a caress and as lethal as anything else he could create. 

She prefers to kill from up close.

Her chest rises and falls rapidly with the weight of the exercise; this endless repetition that she does not complain about— not out here, not in public, because she always walks half a step behind him, because they pretend that behind closed doors he does not cave in to her demands to play with her hair, because that soothes her, and ‘it does not matter why I need to be soothed, you know very well I am always three minor inconveniences away from biting, Vi.’

(Even with her private complaints, she will do it, over and over and over again, every single time he asks. It is not about perfection, and it is not about obedience.)

“Again.”

Rosa begins the sequence—

What Rosa doesn’t find within herself, she borrows from him; his patience, his words, his clothes.

She spills magic, spills soot and sparks, spills heat, spills thoughts in rambling patterns, spills affection like blood from a wound. She overflows, like a thing that cannot be contained, like she is full of cracks, and Viago has learned now how to hold his hands to the worst of it, how to hold with just enough force to keep Rosa from losing her shape, from bursting into a million tiny fragments of blazing stars.

“Stop.”

Someone else might have resented him. Rosa, instead, gets furious if he ever goes easy on her, if he does not push her as far as she believes she can be pushed.

(Then again, she relies on him to know just how far she can be pushed.)

Viago walks towards her, moves her— hands on her shoulders, with her heat seeping through the leather of his gloves he shifts her posture just so, the smallest of changes. 

She lets him, and lets him, and lets him, and does not resent this, but instead smiles, out of breath but always so willing to give him just a little more.

“Something funny?” He asks, quiet, as he feels her shoulders shake with a silent laughter.

“Always,” she replies in that same tone.

“This is not a game.”

“Spoken like someone who does not know how to play it.”

Satisfied with his corrections, Viago steps away once more.

“Again,” he demands.

Rosa begins.

[dragon-queen21]

Hi hello, umm… yeah don’t mind me as I disappear for days and return with a post about oc’s I have never introduced here before.

Summary: Something something soldiers in war referring to the nurses that took care of them as mom despite often times all being children themselves.

Tw/ injury, disassociation, implied character death

~~~

“M…” Victor’s voice cracks, wavers, “ma...” His hand finds purchase on the sleeve of Hannah’s sweater.

Everything hurts. He hasn’t had to fight like that in a long, long time. Victor’s claymore rests heavily by his side, weighing him down. He should unsummon it. Can’t exactly remember how too. Can’t give up the insticutal need to keep fighting.

Why is he fighting? Why is it always fighting- and pain- and he’s so, so tired and so scared all of a sudden.

“Mama, mama I’m scared-“

Hannah freezes, as though she hadn’t already by the uncharacteristic behavior of the elder.

“Dear I’m not your-“

Hannah loses all previously thought up endings to that sentence as Victor’s hand tightens on her sweater.

Desperate to have her stay, to make her understand. He’s been so lonely, and his vision is blurred but Victor’s sure that if she would only stay a moment longer…

“Okay, you’re alright sweetheart… your alright.”

She’s no mother, barely older than Victor in age and maturity. He has a son for heavens sake! But something about his state tells the avian that she should go along with this for the moment.

“Easy now,” she guides him to sit on the floor before his shaking knees can send him crashing downward. Wings coming to cover them both. “Easy fledgling…”

Victor flinches. Hannah can do nothing but repeat the soft assurances to him.

They need to leave. She needs to do something. Anything to assure their safety back to the Tallow, but to move Victor now seems like a detrimental decision. She does not know what has brought this on, does not know what the ichor of slain monsters and the corruption that festers in this land has done to the man who sits in front of her.

She wants her husband here, though how she will explain the situation she doesn’t know. Because if any of them would have thought that Victor would regress, they would have had a running bet made on it months ago. Because somehow the image never quite matched. If anyone should have been little…

It doesn’t matter.

“Victor, honey?”

Hazy eyes look up at her. Is he even seeing her right now?

Hannah ignores the urge to tighten her wings around herself less she give away any hint that she is out of her comfort zone here.

“You’ve done so well, do you think you can walk for mama? Let her lead you back to the ship hmm?”

He whines. Actually whines, pushing his face into her stomach, the action so childish that the younger woman’s mind goes static for a moment.

This must be a dream. She’s dreaming. She’ll wake up to Gale’s loving gaze, and chaos in the kitchen, and a day set out of nothing but peaceful sailing. And this will all have been a terrible nightmare that she can laugh about with Cassandra. Because Victor being little… finding out now of all places… The very idea is cruel. A child sent back to the place of their torment.

“Tired… very tired… wan’ s’eep.” he mumbles in a voice so soft, softer than anything she’s heard the man say before.

“I know.” And she does. Not truly, but enough to get the picture. But Hannah witnessed the fight Victor had. The power that only a few on the crew even thought was capable coming from one of their ‘laziest’ members. He’s always tired, this must be exhaustion if it’s bad enough for him to be complaining.

Carrying him is a no, especially if they are trying to keep this under wraps from the rest of the crew… The avian isn’t even sure if she could. Victor was broad framed and taller than her by a head. Muscles still lean from years of training, despite the near constant fatigue he seemed to always be in. Just where the heck was Gale anyways?

Her own musings came to an end when Victor pulls a silver chain from under his shirt. Two gold bands looped onto it that he now held, twisting the rings slowly between his fingers.

“Missed you…”

Hannah takes it all back, all semblance of control she thought she had. She couldn’t do this. Couldn’t keep lying to him even if Hannah knows it’s probably the kindest thing. Because she knows without a doubt who Victor thinks she is. A role she can not replace even for a moment.

She can only sit, run a hand through his hair and keep back the worst of the disassociation until-

“Hannah!” Hurried footsteps pound on the earth. Theresa earth that is cracked and dry and sickeningly wrong, wrong, wrong, wro-

She tucks Victor closer to her when he flinches, getting him to sit up despite the protesting whines.

“Gale!” Hannah gasped, she could cry if relief right now. Of course she can’t, can’t even get up and run to embrace her love what with the little still clinging to her. “Gale he’s,”

“Regressed…” her husband finishes for her, a look of bewilderment crossing his face for a moment. “Well that’s certainly a new development isn’t it...” The avian would laugh had the situation been anything less than dire minutes before.

“Right okay…” there’s the warmth of magic that courses over the both of them and Hannah finds it well within her means to lift Victor up.

“Got him?” Gale asks, as though his own abilites weren’t doing the majority of the work right now. Palm outstretched and flickering with psychic energy.

Her husband is an angel, she thinks.

The walk back to the ship isn’t over nearly as soon as it should be. The monsters that lurk at the very edge of their distance making it so they can’t make a run for it. As long as they keep their distance and stay in the light they’ll be fine.

It’s far too optimistic.

Claws scrap at the floor, the sound of something dripping coming closer to them.

“Shit-“ her husband curses, eyes flicking to meet hers, to the regressed warrior held in her arms.

Hannah will be no help in this fight and they both know it, her husband struggles on a good day to use his powers directed in more than one place at a time.

They will not wjn this fight as they are currently.

Right. Damage control it is then.

[lunareclipse-writes]

Title: "Still Standing"

Word Count: ~2,300

Pairing: Dean Winchester x GN!Reader

Warnings: Canon-typical violence, major character death, graphic injury, blood, grief, sobbing, survivor’s guilt, emotional devastation, death of a loved one, final words, references to past hunts, hopelessness, soft angst and memories.

---

You never forget the sound of rebar piercing flesh.

It’s not loud—not like a gunshot or a monster’s snarl. It’s more like the dull, wet crunch of inevitability. And once you’ve heard it, you know.

You’d heard it once before, years ago, on a case gone bad. That hunter didn’t make it. And now—

Now it’s Dean.

---

The vampire nest was supposed to be routine. Just three of them, holed up in an old feed mill near the edge of Lebanon, Kansas. One of them barely a fledgling, the other two old and stupid. Easy work for you and Dean.

You should’ve noticed the beams. The warped wood. The rebar sticking out like cracked bones in the ribs of the building. You should’ve noticed.

Dean swung the machete clean through the last vamp’s neck—his smirk blood-slick, chest heaving. “That’s the last of them,” he muttered, cocky, wiping sweat from his brow.

Then the beam above you groaned.

“Dean!” you shouted.

He turned, and then the world crashed.

---

The ceiling didn’t collapse, not completely. Just enough.

A pillar cracked under the weight, forcing Dean backward as something snapped and swung low. You didn’t see what caught him—not until it was too late. Not until he was impaled through the back and out the ribs on a rusted rebar rod jutting out of a support beam. A spike that had no business being there. A forgotten piece of architecture in a forgotten place.

He jerked once. Gasped. His eyes went wide.

And then he slumped, pinned like a butterfly on a board.

---

“No—no, no, no—Dean!”

You dropped your machete and ran.

He was breathing. Fast. Shallow.

You skidded through the blood pooling beneath him, heart a war drum in your chest, hands scrabbling uselessly at the rebar. It was wedged deep into the wood and deeper into him. Pulling it out would kill him faster. Leaving it in would still kill him.

“Hey,” he rasped, blood slipping from his lips. “You’re okay. You’re alright.”

“You’re the one—Dean, fuck, I can’t—” Your fingers curled into fists, then flattened to cradle his face. “Hold on, just—hold on.”

Dean looked at you, really looked. His eyes were glassy, unfocused.

“I knew,” he said.

“Knew what?” Your voice cracked.

“That if I went… it’d be like this. Not in bed. Not in retirement. On a hunt. Like it always was.”

You shook your head violently, tears blurring everything.

“Shut up, Dean—don’t do this—”

His hand found yours, sticky with his own blood. His grip was weak.

“You’re crying,” he whispered, almost surprised.

You choked on a sob. “No, you’re gonna make it. You have to. I’ll get Sam. I’ll—”

“There’s no time,” Dean said. “It’s okay. I’ve… I’ve had a good run. Had you. That was more than I deserved.”

“Don’t say that.” You pressed your forehead to his. “Don’t fucking say that, Dean.”

His breath hitched. Rattled. Slowed.

“I love you,” he said, the words barely making it out.

“Dean—”

“Always.”

And then…

Nothing.

His hand slipped from yours.

His eyes stared past you.

And the world—your world—ended.

---

You don’t remember screaming, but your throat was raw for hours afterward.

You don’t remember how long you sat there, knees soaked in blood, begging his body to take one more breath. Just one more. Please, just one.

---

When Sam found you, you were still holding him.

The younger Winchester didn’t say anything.

He didn’t need to.

He just knelt beside you, put a hand on your shoulder, and cried silently as the sun began to rise over Lebanon.

---

Dean Winchester died like he lived—fighting. Protecting. Bleeding for a world that would never know the weight of what it lost.

And you?

You lived.

Which was somehow the cruelest part of all.

---

Masterlist

[robthegoodfellow]

No Romeo, But He’s My Loving One-Man Show

Mirror Sex, Roleplaying for Days 9/10 of @harringrovekinktober additional incidental praise kink, edging, fledgling D/s dynamic, cum play, slight feminization

(roommates, kink experimentation, billy is a femme fatale but really just a very good boy, nsfw)

Handy Links to Previous Chapters: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Steve had expected Robin to have some pointed feedback after coming over for dinner and a horror movie—a longstanding tradition Billy had inducted himself into a couple days post move-in by rescuing the pizza from a crispy demise because someone forgot to set a timer—but when Steve met her for coffee later that week, all she talked about was the mirrors.

Why are there so many? Why are there more every time I visit? Do you know how many years of bad luck you’re risking? That old one with the fancy frame is definitely cursed—I saw something moving in it. No, it wasn’t us—something else. Like, out of the corner of my eye. It’s haunted, Steve—you should get rid of it. Don’t break it, though, whatever you do.

Finally, after much redirection and pointed questioning, she’d given her assessment on the Billy situation, specifically how Billy seemed to feel about Steve, from an outside perspective. 

Mostly you both seemed normal, aside from sneaking looks at each other constantly. But even that’s normal, in a way. Her eyes narrowed. Is that why so many mirrors? More opportunity for sneaky looks?

Which—what? No. That wasn’t why—though he’d be lying if he said he’d never… But what did she even mean, that even that’s normal?

Well, like when we watch movies and something funny happens, you always look at Billy to see his reaction. And when the special effects are corny, he always looks at you and rolls his eyes. And when we’re all three hanging out, half the time it’s you and me trading knowing looks from inside jokes, and half the time it’s you and him. So, like—the looking isn’t new, I just caught you guys doing it without the other realizing it. Like a bunch of times.

Rather than deny it, Steve found himself asking, pathetically, how Billy looked. When Billy looked at him.

Like this, Robin said, and made the biggest, dopiest cow eyes, complete with dreamy sigh, reverent tilt of the chin. 

Steve told her to fuck off, but couldn’t repress the grin splitting his idiot face, and Robin cackled.

Ask the haunted mirror, if you don’t believe me! It’ll totally back me up.

.

It’s not like they’d planned to make the apartment a fun-house mirror maze, but after the divorce, Steve’s mom went a little nuts selling off stuff from the Hawkins place, all of which was apparently unsuitable for her townhouse in Chicago, and when his dad made a stink about her disposing of hideous heirlooms intended for Steve, she’d promised to forward their son the remainder.

Which was how he ended up with the couch, complete with decorative throw pillows, and… about six ornate mirrors of varying unreasonable size. And sure, he could’ve sold them himself, because his dad didn’t actually give a shit, but then he’d sorta grown used to them, and Billy had never complained, so… yeah. Made the place feel bigger, or whatever.

Over time, the arrangement had shifted here and there—except for the one in Steve’s room over the dresser, the one in the bathroom over the sink—anyway, however it happened, Steve had noticed, one day, that he’d subconsciously mastered where to position himself throughout the sitting room to see a reflection of the kitchen, the bathroom corridor, and… Billy’s room, if the door was open—and, these days, it usually was.

Did he feel like a creep? Well, yes and no. Yes in that he was aware he should feel like a creep, and therefore did, and no in that he was almost certain Billy knew he was watching and didn’t care. Not only didn’t care, but… liked it. 

After his conversation with Robin, though, he threw all subtly to the wind, staring fixedly at Billy’s reflection as he puttered around in the kitchen, as he left the bathroom, as he lounged in bed reading a book… silently daring Billy to call him out on it, until Billy did.

“Feel like a bug under glass,” he called, turning a page. “You gonna pin me down?”

Humming, Steve resettled against the arm of the couch, didn’t bother turning—just kept admiring him in the mirror leaning against the wall, almost floor to ceiling. The bedside lamp cast warm shadows, limning his hair in gold. Steve wondered if Billy got tired, holding the book above his face like that. 

“I was thinking more like a spy tailing a mark.”

Billy laughed—a short bark of sound. One of Steve’s favorites. “Be dead so fast—made in seconds.”

“You saying I’m more Get Smart than Napoleon Solo?”

“Dunno,” Billy mused, thoughtful. Rolling, he made a pillow of his arms, crossed over the closed book. Leveled Steve a filthy smirk. “If you were 007, I could be your Bond Girl.”

That got Steve to turn around, meet his gaze direct, then cooed, all sympathy: “You wanna be tied up, babe, just ask.”

Billy bit the inside of his cheek, unwillingly amused, so Steve dialed up the cheesy charm.

“C’mon, that was good—Bond Girl? Like bond—”

“I got it,” Billy drawled, levering himself up only to flop against his piled pillows in supposed disgust, book cast aside. “Just call me Pussy Galore.”

“Dick Galore.”

Billy frowned. “Randy Galore?”

“A Bond Boy would have to be Randy Something,” Steve acknowledged. “Or… Something Hancock.”

They paused, then, in unison: “Randy Hancock.”

“And I, James Bondage, am tailing you,” Steve went on, as Billy snickered. “And haven’t been made, because I’m an experienced, accomplished spy—”

“Yeah, yeah, fine.” With a final snort, Billy folded his arms behind his head, semi-reclined, and pondered the ceiling, unfocused. “What next?”

Steve mimicked him, only on the couch, back to watching Billy’s reflection. “I use my handy spy-glass to peer around corners, and I catch you unawares—getting ready for bed.” Billy hummed, polite interest, and waited for more. So Steve gave him more, mind whirring, pulse already on the rise. “I watch you take off your shirt.”

Absently, only shifting enough to complete the action, Billy peeled his shirt off. Dropped it on the floor.

“Then your jeans.”

Those required a more aggressive shimmy, but soon they joined the discarded shirt.

“And then I can’t stop—can’t look away. Like I’m glued to the sight.” Steve’s throat clicked as he swallowed, trailing his palm down his stomach—indulged in a firm rub. “So pretty, spread out on the bed.”

On cue, Billy spread, thighs parting to reveal white briefs, the cotton worn thin, pink showing through where his bulge stretched the fabric. Sighing, a lazy hand skated south, fingers brushing the waistband. Slipped under, but no further. The fingers seemed to press—stalling the hips, an aborted twitch.

“Shit.” Steve wagged his head, corralling what remained of his wits. “I—uh, I figure…” He chuckled, let one heel drop off the couch to rest on the floor, his hand working a steady rhythm. “Figure I’ll learn what you like, use it to seduce you later. Learn how you like to touch yourself—”

Billy grunted, lashes stuttering as he shoved past the elastic, made a fist around the handful. Spoke soft, musing: “Haven’t, you know.”

“What?”

“Haven’t been—touching myself.” Eyes still on the ceiling, Billy’s lips quirked, just as soft. “Not without permission.”

That landed like a punch, loosing a long, meandering moan: “Baby.”

And the baby blues drifted down, met a reverent stare in the mirror. “Yeah?” So innocent, solicitous.

Steve rolled his hips into his palm, arching clear off the cushion. “I like that.” 

Billy’s head lolled sideways, downcast—bashful as he squirmed, bulky knuckles straining the front of his briefs. 

“My good boy,” Steve murmured. And he meant it with every fiber of his being: “Show me what feels good.”

His eyes fluttered closed. The hand slowed. “You.”

Simultaneous hits—to the heart and the heat low in his gut. A vicious press brought himself back under control.

“God—killing me.” Could barely huff it, all of him locked on the hand that had tugged free of clinging briefs to caress the red weeping cock, featherlight, through damp cotton. Steve’s pulse pounded so loud in his ears he more saw it than heard it—pink lips shaping You. You. You.

As though hypnotized, clumsy because he was so hard it fucking hurt, even sweatpants chafing awful against skin throbbing tender, Steve stumbled to the bedroom door—caught himself on the frame, panting, light-headed from the sudden vertical, essential bloodflow coursing elsewhere.

Billy choked off a whine, fisted the coverlet to either side, legs splayed as his spine bowed, sank back. “Please.”

In a blink, Steve was at the foot of the bed, crawling to him, over him, hips forcing Billy’s legs wide. “I got you.” Long, dragging grind, the rub exquisite. “I got you.”

The moan vibrated through Billy’s flushed chest. He hadn’t let go of the bedding—wouldn’t, Steve realized, winded anew. He wouldn’t let go unless Steve told him to.

“How long?” Steve panted, reaching down to rub Billy with the flat of his palm through the briefs, this jerking, gentle pressure that worked him piecemeal to the peak, a maddening build. “How long you been waiting for permission, baby?”

“Luh—” Billy coughed, swallowing spit. “Long.”

“So good,” Steve crooned. “I think you’ve earned a reward, don’t you?”

The flush had spread up his neck to his cheeks, temples pulsing red. He was nodding, mindless.  “‘Kay.”

“All right.” Steve brushed the bulbous crown with a teasing thumb. “Tummy or panties?”

Muffled throaty sound—like he’d been stabbed. Delivered on a whimper: “Panties.”

Steve resumed his kneading rub, coaxing, fine tremors wracking the body at his mercy. “One day I’m gonna get you a nice pair. Maybe something with lace?”

Billy gulped, trembling nod.

“Lace for your pretty cock, a thong for that pretty ass?”

Half-lidded, head craned back, lip bitten raw between his teeth, Billy shivered.

“Make a mess in your panties,” Steve whispered, bending low. “And I’ll make a mess in them, too.”

A burst of guttural gasps, almost hiccups, borderline sob, and he convulsed beneath Steve’s hand, sticky wet seeping through the fabric.

Steve dropped a good boy with every kiss—on cheek, neck, sternum. Lifting up on his knees, he brought out his own cock, stripping it with a loose fist.

Half-boneless, Billy hooked lazy fingers in the back of his briefs, tugging them past the curve of his butt, the front pulled snug against his spent dick, and rolled onto his stomach. Arched, presenting himself, bare ass exposed, and Steve found his groove between plush cheeks, rutting with enough force that he could feel his cockhead rub against that tight hole.

It didn’t take long—short pumps, short of breath—brutish grunt as he finished, coating the pert cheeks in ropes of slick, deploying one hand to catch runaway drips, pet the clenching hole with wet fingertips, tease the entrance.

Billy cut off a whine, squirming, grinding into his own mess, pushing into the pressure behind.

“Soon,” Steve promised. “I’ll give it to you soon.”

An unspooling sigh, and Billy went limp, face turned away.

Planting a kiss at the base of a shoulder blade, Steve drew up the back of Billy’s briefs, smoothing a hand over the sodden fabric—with a wave of heat, imagined the trail of his come oozing toward the taint.

Shifting, Steve curled up along Billy’s side, nose to nose, arm looped around his sloping back.

Billy blinked, placid, as Steve drew a lock of hair away from his eyes.

“Ruined it,” he mumbled, mouth quirked. “The spy scene.” 

“Nah,” Steve said. “A good spy knows when to change plans on the fly—switch it up.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah.” Warming to the idea: “What happened was—I realized I could offer you what you needed. In exchange for what I needed.”

Billy’s gaze was lulling as a lake in moonlight. “What did I need?”

Steve let a smile twitch, nerves singing. “Me.”

An echoing twitch. Lids lowered, a hitch in his tone: “And… what did you need?”

Steve dipped near, heart in his throat. “You.”

Billy hummed, a short burst trapped behind teeth. He nudged close, and Steve’s eyes slid shut.

Press of lips, lingering soft, on the edge of his chin.

.

“Steve?”

They’d been drifting awhile, lying flush, occasional brush of roving hands, warm gusts of breath. Belatedly, Steve hummed, enquiring.

“Itchy.”

He snorted, stretching like a lazy dog. Shower didn’t sound half bad, but there was something else he’d been wanting to try.

“How about a bath?”

Brows raised, pensive duck lips. Steve called his bluff—bowled him over, rough nuzzle, and hauled him upright.

.

Now with added next chapter: What He Does, He Does So Well

[heliopauseentertainments]

Succession

Continuity: IDW1

Rating: Teen

Relationships: Megatron/Ratchet

Characters: Ratchet

Warnings: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Major Character Death, Mourning/Grieving, Established Relationships, Serious Injuries

Summary: In which, years after a peace treaty, Megatron’s death puts Ratchet in an unexpected situation. Part of TFMegaRatch's "Endings" prompt

Crossposting: AO3 | DreamWidth | TFMegaRatch Entry

Fic under cut. See AO3 for complete notes.

“How bad is it this time?”

Ratchet didn’t answer.

He knew what Starscream wanted to know, but he didn’t want to say it. Instead he stared forward, his energon-coated hand still on the closed door to the surgical suite behind him. Flatline remained inside with… the patient.

Soundwave stood silently nearby, watching with his endless patience.

Starscream had probably expected the usual answer, that Megatron was severely injured but that he would pull through. He always did.

Always had.

The silence seemed to be clue enough for Starscream to figure it out. His optics went wide, his face visibly struggling with whatever cascade of emotions were rampaging through his spark at the moment.

Ratchet, however, was just numb. His spark seemed as though it had been put on pause. The detached focus of medical training tried to come to the fore to keep him operating, but it only worked so well.

This had not been any ordinary patient.

The inanimate husk of his conjunx was laid supine on the table while Flatline finished with his notes. The shattered spark chamber inside had gone dark shortly after they had begun operating…

…Shortly after Megatron had whispered his wishes against the side of Ratchet’s head.

Megatron had known that he would not be leaving the operating table, not with his spark chamber being held together solely by gumption and Ratchet’s hands.

The hand not on the door clutched a shard of the green crystal that had once housed his lover’s being to his windshield. The high-pitched screech of glass scratching was easy enough to ignore.

Starscream grabbed him by the shoulders.

“Tell me,” he hissed, “is it true?”

Ratchet opened his mouth.

Nothing came out, much to his own surprise.

Starscream shook him.

Finally, sluggishly, his vocalizer cooperated.

“… Yes.”

Returning to himself, Ratchet slapped Starscream’s hands away, leaving smears of Megatron’s fuel in his wake.

--

Ratchet sat down in Megatron’s throne, his limbs not quite fitting correctly.

Starscream, prone with a broken wing, was splayed out on the ground in front of him. Energon, glowing bright, coated Ratchet’s hands.

His conjunx had been offline for two decacycles. The infighting had begun almost immediately.

The Black Block Consortia had decided to strike their fledgling settlement. As a warning. They had only put down stakes on this uninhabited world a few decades ago… after searching for a place of their own for far longer.

And now Megatron was dead.

Anger had begun to simmer in his chest, bubbling up through the icy numbness and banishing it when he saw Starscream in the throne room fending off the Decepticons who had tried to challenge his seemingly obvious place as next in line.

The anger hadn’t been at Starscream, no, but… a much bigger target.

And he wouldn’t let anyone else take up the chase.

He may have been a medic, a trained healer, but that didn’t erase his combat training as a soldier. When in the field, one had to defend one’s patients, after all. And being a medic, he knew exactly how to make a blow hurt.

“Now, are there any questions?”

There was no answer from the shocked faces that crowded the throne room. Many stared at him. Many stared at Starscream or the others that Starscream already dueled into submission.

Starscream pushed himself up on his elbows, but only scowled at the throne that he had expected would be his.

“No? Good.”

Ratchet paused, letting the reality of the new order sink in. He could hardly believe it himself.

“Today, we’ll clean up and lick our wounds. Tomorrow, we hunt the Black Block Consortia.”

--

“Blaster, please put the call through,” Optimus said, straightening his posture on reflex.

It had been a long time since they had received a communication from the Decepticons.

Several centuries at least, since they had been banished from Cybertron. The communication lines had remained officially open, in case they wanted to trade or anything really. Reconciliation had been too much to hope for, but a small part of Optimus had always nurtured a hope for even the possibility.

Optimus hadn’t wanted to truly cut ties from his wayward brothers, but it had been for the best.

The frequency bore Megatron’s personal signature. Could this be the call he had been hoping all of these years for? Would they want to open lines of exchange? Or… did he dare even pray…. Would they finally want to come home?

The large screen on Optimus’s wall crackled to life.

A familiar face filled the screen, but not… the one that he had expected.

“Ratchet?”

Ratchet had been sent with Megatron—a political marriage—as part of the peace treaty, just like Barricade had been left with the Autobots—with Prowl—in Iacon’s ruins.

His old friend’s face was dour with new and deeper scratches. His shoulders tensely raised as he sat in… Megatron’s throne. His plating looked more heavily armored—and battered—than Optimus had remembered and the badge on his chest was…. Well, perhaps that was not surprising, given that he had spent hundreds of years among Decepticons. Perhaps he was simply acclimatized to his new home. Even the glass of his windshield had been swapped out with solid plating, which appeared to be long weathered.

“Prime.”

“It’s good to hear from you,” he said, hoping to start this rare conversation off on a positive note. “It’s been a very long time and—”

Ratchet leaned forward in the throne, looking a little like he didn’t quite fit. Megatron was quite a bit larger than Ratchet, after all.

Something green and glassy swung on a chain around Ratchet’s neck, but Optimus couldn’t quite see it in any detail.

“Megatron is dead.”

“What are you talking about?” That just couldn’t true… but why would Ratchet lie? Optimus’s spark sunk in his chest.

“What happened?”

“The Black Block Consortia is also dead.”

“Ratchet, please….”

“I am the Supreme Commander of the Decepticons.”

The call cut abruptly, leaving Optimus with more questions than answers.

[candyswirls]

Bat Fledgling: Pt 9 - Party

Previous - Next - MasterPost

Summary: Kiri receives a welcome party and tries cake!

Bit of a fluffy chapter. A few more chapters and this story will finish. There will be other stories with Kiri.

He held Kiri up above him. The boy giggled and kicked his legs in anticipation.

He tossed him up into the air. Kiri squealing with delight before he caught him and pulled him down into a hug.

He had been up all night, watching over his son’s sleep. A few times he grew impatient and considered waking him but decided against it. At one point he had laid him down on the bed. Kiri started whimper and whine with the dream he was having but a simple caress of his face caused him to subside.

He guessed that the bed wetting was fear induced along with the night terrors and bad dreams.

He would not sleep alone again. Someone would always be standing guard, watching over him, holding his hand.

His feet were dirty. They needed to make him some shoes.

Many questions swarmed the Primarch’s head concerning Kiri’s future. Worry ate at his stomach. But one thing was for certain. This felt right.

Adile’s gasp and shouting ‘yay’ was enough to confirm that for him.

He let Hoffay know to have everyone gather for somewhat of a welcome party for Kiri during breakfast time.

“What are we going to do today?” Kiri asked while grinning at him.

“Oh you’ll see,” Corvus smiled.

He got dressed and helped Kiri into another set of clothes.

He brought him out and headed to the dining hall.

As soon as they entered Adile yelled, “Surprise!”

Others clapped and welcomed them.

Kiri looked around, seeing every warband member there.

“What’s going on?” He asked bewildered.

Adile clapped his hands, “We’re having a party! Becuase you’re officially part of the warband! Griggs made this for it!”

He motioned to the cake the world eater had made, now on display.

Kiri’s eyes widened as he saw the multi-tiered cake, glittering colored frosting and intricate designs.

“Is that a statue?” He asked.

“This is cake,” Griggs answered.

“What’s cake?” Kiri asked as he stared at it.

“A sweet Terran delicacy made with sugars, binders, and powder made from some type of grain,” Griggs answered. “It’s a traditional desert and often coveted. It’s a treat and sweet.”

“How did we get it?” Kiri asked, eyes reflefting glittering sugar crystals.

“We’ve had ten thousand years to gather and build up our supplies,” replied Onen, the lone Luna Wolf of the band. “We’ve cultivated a lot and somethings we just have on hand.”

Nentis piped up, “Also, the angrier Griggs is when he makes something the better it tastes because the secret ingredient is hate. If it tastes terrible that means he was in a good mood.”

“You don’t get any,” Griggs stated.

“Aw, come on Griggsy!” Nentis whined.

The world eater added while picking up a knife, “if you even manage to get a single morsel I will chop your hand off.”

Nentis turn to Corvus.

“I’m not taking away your consequences,” he said to his son before he could ask.

Nentis went back to scheming.

Corvus shook his head and set Kiri on the counter. He’d learned long ago to leave the two to handle themselves.

Kiri looked around at everyone, seeing he was the center of attention.

“We welcome our newest warband member and brother,” Honsin announced. “Kiri Corax, in the name of the Emperor, beloved by all.”

Everyone did the Aquila and shouted, “Victorus aut Mortis!”

Each member officially greeted Kiri, patting him on the back and ruffling his hair. Commenting on how he’d become a fine Astartes and he would be an important part of the team.

His eyes seemed to become brighter, so full of life as he held his hands to his chest. His smile growing with each official welcome.

Adile started chanting a cree for the emperor in a singsong tune. The others joined in. A bit of their own tradition in welcoming a new member.

Corvus could feel that warm fuzzy sensation inside his chest as he watched Kiri take it all in. His son had never felt appreciated like this before. With so many people caring for him. Corvus wanted him to feel like this all the time. To have no doubt he was loved.

The Primarch moved up and placed a hand on his back. Kiri beamed up at him, tears brimming in his eyes.

Griggs cut a small slice and served it to Kiri.

The boy stared and used the fork provided to take a small bite. He lit up.

“Mmmm!!” He gushed. “So sweet! I love it! Thank you!”

He began shoving more into his mouth. Griggs went stone faced and turned back to the cake but not before a single tear escaped an eye.

“Slow down,” Balsarius grinned. “You’ll get a tummy ache.”

Slices were handed out to everyone. Except Nentis.

His son sat there contemplating, watching Kiri obviously enjoying his treat and Adile doing his happy dance at his slice.

He groaned, “Fine, I’m sorry Griggs. Your food is really good and I’d kill for it.”

Griggs stared at him.

“And you’re the most handsome Astartes here. Please! Can I have a slice? I will clean your room, be your serf for a week, I will even rub your feet!”

“That’s acceptable,” the world eater muttered as he sliced a smaller piece than the others for him.

Nentis jumped for joy, happily taking the piece.

Kiri came up to Corvus and whispered, “Why do they hate each other?”

“They don’t,” Corvus assured. “That’s just how they are.”

“Do they like each other all?” He asked.

Nentis grinned up at Griggs. Griggs grumbled and cut a bit more so his matched everyone’s.

“Yes,” the Primarch answered.

Adile set down his slice and jumped up, making grabby motions at Kiri.

“Come here baby!” He cooed.

Kiri grinning and into his arms. Adile held him, cuddling him close. He wiped the frosting off of Kiri’s face.

He rocked from side to side, holding the boy protectively.

“I’m so happy baby Kiri gets to stay!” He cheered.

Honsin stretched as he stood.

“Alright, Adile,” he said as he held out his hands. “My turn.”

“But I’m holding the baby,” Adile stated as he turned slightly away from him.

“You’ve had him for long enough.” Honsin chuckled.

Adile replied, “But I’m not done!”

“Come on Adile,” he insisted as he moved to grab Kiri.

Adile swung around and Kiri giggled.

“No, I’m not done.”

Honsin kept trying to be gentle and take Kiri from him but the emperors child kept moving away from him or dodging.

“Give me the baby.” Honsin said firmly.

“Mmm, not right now.” Adile mused as he tucked away some of Kiri’s hair.

“No, just give me him-“

“I don’t think so.”

“Adile.”

“I’m busy.”

“Just let me hold him.”

“Talk to me later.”

“Adile, now-“

“I don’t think so.”

“Stop being-“

“Leave me alone, please!”

“You’ve held him more than any of us.”

“Denied.”

“Work with me.”

“No thank you.”

“Will you-“

“Occupied!”

“No, I-“

“I’m not talking to you.”

“Stop it, Adile!”

“I don’t think I will.”

“Give-“

“Not today.”

“Give me the baby!”

“Feth off!”

Honsin burst, “GIVE ME THE DAMN BABY!”

“NO!” Adile snapped as he bolted.

Honsin chased after him.

“Give me the baby!!”

“No!!”

“Adile give me the damn baby!!”

“Never! He’s mine!!”

The two ran around the room as Kiri giggled and watched amused from Adile’s arms, warning him when Honsin was close or trying to cut them off.

“Uh, my lord?” Edant inquired. “Shouldn’t we-“

“I’m ignoring that,” Corvus replied while taking another bite.

Nentis raised his slice of cake, “To about ten thousand years of fighting the good fight and dealing with all you arses. I love you guys all so much.”

He grinned.

“I’d sell you to the black legion for a burnt purity seal,” Griggs muttered.

Adile dashed through the circle, Honsin losing ground behind him.

Bronson muttered, “This is unbecoming of an Astartes.”

Onen had a devious look cross his face. “Unbecoming like this?”

He jumped up into a stance where he shook his rear and moved backwards.

Bronson moved to smack him but Onen dashed away.

“Stop doing that!” He snapped at the Luna Wolf as he hid behind Irvun.

Both wolves snickered.

Rio moved from the shadows, a rare sight.

“C-can I hold him?” He asked in a soft voice.

Adile and Honsin slid to a halt.

“Sure!” Adile said happily.

Honsin just nodded, trying not to appear disappointed.

Kiri stared at the large Night Lord as he wrapped his one arm around the boy.

He grinned up at the older man, “I like your ears.”

He giggled as they perked forward. He reached up and touched them gently, filled with curiosity.

Rio cocked his head as he studied the boy.

“You do not fear us,” he commented. “No mutation phases you.”

Kiri cocked his own head, “Its all I know though. Everyone has mutations here.”

Rio smiled sweetly at him.

Tevro came up and ruffled the boy’s hair, “well baby brother, what role will you play here?”

“He can be our official neophyte,” Irvun offered.

“I thought Vosos and I were the neophytes?” Andrur said.

The aforementioned night lord frowned, “But we’re not neophytes anymore. We finished the Astartes process. Also that was ten millennia ago.”

Bora muttered, “I’m not working on you anymore. You were stressful.”

Andrur’s tail flicked from side to side.

“You’re just jealous you haven’t been the baby in a while,” Nentis teased.

“Well none of you have ever been this cute,” Balsarius stated.

Adile gasped.

“Except you Adile,” he added.

Adile scrunched his eyes happily.

“Eat your cake,” Griggs orders the emperor’s child.

Adile snatched his plate and scampered to the corner with Xach.

“Any reflective surfaces?” He questioned.

Xach shook his head. Adile gingerly removed his mask.

Kiri glanced at his jaw for a second but didn’t linger. Corvus was relieved. Appearance was a sour subject for Adile. He was glad Kiri didn’t stare.

Tevro stayed near Kiri, “We can show you how to clean a bolter, how to properly aim, battle sign, different battle plans. So many things. Oh! We can teach you how to crawl through vents.”

“But I already know how to do that?” Kiri questioned.

Avikona piped up, “It was common knowledge of how to move through vents for night lord neophytes. For lots of Nostramon children as well.”

Rio looked down at Kiri and spoke in their native tongue. Kiri grinned and replied back happily. Even his high pitched voice made the rough language sound cute.

Corvus rested his head on his fist, smiling at seeing all his sons interact with one another.

Tevro grinned, “I used to be an older brother before I joined the Astartes. I can show you all the games we’d play.”

Kiri reached out to catch one of Tevro’s braids.

“A lot of people have long hair,” he said. “I want long hair too!”

Irvun laughed, “Yes! Then we can style it back for you. Many ways to keep it out of the way for battle. I already know what ones to do first for you.”

The space wolf came up and ran fingers through Kiri’s hair.

“Braid in this section, cross here, yes, a good plan,” he mumbled as Kiri leaned back into the feeling. “Add volume right here… flush to the head in this section… once it’s longer we can try this type… Might be able to find some bones to braid in on our next scavenging mission.”

“He also needs shoes,” Corvus mentioned.

“Got it,” Avikona nodded, taking out his pen and scribbling on his arm.

Vosos offered, “There’s that one wreck in the fifth quadrant of the coral dunes near the realm of the Blood Daemon. It had been housing guard families. There’s blind to be supplies there. We haven’t checked it in a bit.”

“Good recall,” Corvus complimented. “We can set that for our next expedition.”

“You’re going out into the warp?” Kiri asked.

The Primarch nodded, “Yes, to search imperium ship-wreckage for goods and supplies. You’ll stay here. It’s too dangerous for you.”

Kiri nodded.

“He could fit in places we can’t though,” Xach pointed out.

Kiri shrunk in Rio’s arms. The Night Lord nuzzled his head instinctively.

“No,” Corvus shook his head. “I don’t want to risk it. Also, those that had him previously used him for that. Not a good experience for him.”

Kiri shook his head.

Honsin came up and took Kiri from Rio.

“You won’t be used like that anymore,” he assured.

Kiri rested his head against the chaplain’s chest as Honsin stroked his back.

Griggs sliced another piece of cake for Kiri.

“Do you want more?” He asked, trying to cheer him up. “I see you eyeing it.”

Kiri nodded. Honsin held the plate for him as he took more bites.

“I want more,” Nentis said.

Griggs slowly turned his head to meet Nentis’ gaze. The Raven guard was grinning.

“Absolutely not.”

“Oh come on,” Nentis slumped.

Griggs warned, “If there is even a single granule of sugar moved I will light your bed on fire whether you did it or not.”

Nentis immediately turned around to Balsarius who smiled cheekily.

“You just got volunteered for patrol,” he spoke.

Nentis dropped, “Oh come on.”

“You’ll be payed with another slice,” Griggs muttered. “Double serving.”

Nentis jumped to his feet, “Sir, yes, sir! That cake is safe!”

They fell back into conversing. Honsin set Kiri down to allow him to run back to Corvus.

He sat him on his lap.

The boy looked around and grinned, “Um, thank you, everyone. This is nice. I like it! I’m happy to be here.”

“You’re welcome,” Balsarius mused. “You are such a ray of sunshine. You could make the whole greenhouse grow.”

[scalecallerpeak]

Chyrus Headcannons

Now for another set of headcannons this time for Chyrus.

Chyrus is the tallest Paragon at 16'4ft however, he's entirely into height and has almost no width or weight to him. He's the lowest weight of any of the Paragons so much that even Devos who is 15'2ft or Adrestes 13'2ft can both pick him up.

He just has a fast metabolisum he can eat pretty much anything whenever and never put weight on. His ribs are lightly seen on his sides. In fact he's often seen snacking.

He is also the youngest Paragon and is younger than Adrestes. The other paragons often forget how young he is compared to them till he drops his age.

He always looks a bit messy with his hair and wings, its a fight he's not winning.

Chyrus has a buring hatred for Angelis to the point he shoved her in a box. No one knows why he did this, how long ago it was, for what purpose or why. He won't say and this creates rumours.

He sometimes just makes his sermons into movie nights, makes all the Aspirants watch Disney's Herculies and then tells them to think about the moral message of it.

As Paragon of Humililty his name is often uttered in prayer for unconventional desperate times. Sometimes he's been nicknamed Paragon of Bathroom by Aspirants because its a mutual agreement of 'getting shit faced and dealing with the consiquences' and 'eating cheese when lactose intolerant' falls under his domain.

He defenatly smokes (*opium) on his days off *(hookah's in Bastion I feel are more likely to be opium than Tobacco). Both recriationally and it helps with his chronic pain.

He has done artistic nudity posing. He really has no issues with nudity.

He's a little bit careless with Compassion, which was Mercia's sacred sword. He sometimes uses it for things hes not supposed to as because Mercia was left handed, the sword prefers to be used left handed. However, Chyrus is missing this hand, so the sword just follows where his hand should be. This is a bonus for him because it means he can have his hand free as long as Compassion has anima.

Lysonia did nearly convert him to being the Paragon of Pride and he had to face that part of himself via a manifestation to find balence between pride and humility again. He did not fight the manifestation as conventional but reasoned with it.

Chyrus lost his arm when the devourers attacked Bastion. It is also how he gained a large amount of scaring on his left side. Seeing him like this is what solidified Mercia's resolve.

He wears a compress on his arm because it helps with bad chronic pain days. He does suffer from phantom pain flareups every now and then.

Chyrus doesn't use a prostetic, he tried initnally but found it really threw off his flying especially when adjustments had to be made to it, so he just forgo one.

His steward helps him with most tasks he can't do or struggles with, however, sometimes Adrestes' helps as a treat. Sometimes he also predends he perposfully cannot do it, really lays it on sarcastically, just because its fun to watch Adrestes give in and do it for him.

He deals with 'Give me a hand' jokes by saying he'll let Voitha know.

He's gotten a lot better with remembering his arm is missing and using his left arm still to carry things like boxes or pin something to his side.

After the events of SL he's fully dating Adrestres and he stays over at Chryus' quarters in the Temple of Humility as the Temple of Devotion gets renovated.

He is Bisexual.

He has been FWB with Mercia and Voitha in the past. Voitha is still his ride or die bestie who he calls in emergancies.

He's into a lot of stuff and is generally open to pretty much anything.

After Mercia died he took over the Temple of Humilties duties of giving the Aspriants the uncomfortable Fledgling Talks.

His own Fledgling periods (he's had 3 with Acended, Hand and Paragon) are actually on record as a medical issue because his body over produces prostaglandins in this time which gives him about three days of muscle pain, vomiting, dizzyness. So he gets medical leave for that.

[faerywhimsy]

Day 2 - Ritual

“Come on, Daniel. Indulge me.”

“No. I’m not doing it,” Daniel said. “Not this year. Not again.”

“But… it’s Halloween.” Armand gave a pretty little pout, his lips twisting in a way that managed to be both bratty and alluring somehow, all at once.

Daniel knew he was gonna give in. That he always gave in. This particular television show had come out during their years of separation yet, for some reason, Armand remained obsessed with it. Even in the year 2017. It had just become another part of Armand’s fascination with things of the present day. Microwaves. Blenders. And Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

His gaze flickered to the prop Armand seemed to have on hand for the last three years of this pantomime; a porcelain doll that might have been from the collection of those Lestat had once liked to gift to Claudia. Louis had told him the resemblance was quite striking in that pained, held back manner Louis had only ever managed to manage when the topic of Claudia came up.

Once a theatre kid, Daniel supposed, always a theatre kid.

He sighed anyway, the sound long and deliberately pronounced. Who said he stopped being long suffering as soon as Armand actually gave him the Dark Gift?

In answer to that, Armand leaned into him, winding his arms around Daniel’s neck, and pressing their lips together just for a moment before moving again away with a restless, eager energy.

Armand hugged the doll into his chest, at the same time as making doe eyes up at Daniel.

“Miss Edith needs her tea.”

“Come here, poodle.” Poodle. Poodle? But that was the expected line, and Armand wouldn’t accept an alternative. He offered a dreamy little smile as he swanned towards Daniel.

The writing of the ’90s had a shit tonne to answer for. Seriously.

Armand pressed two fingers lightly against the two eyes of the doll, as gentle as though he was fondling the thing, rather than threatening the inanimate object a light bit of dismemberment. Then his eyes flashed up to Daniel.

“Do you love my insides?” Armand asked, his voice low as he delivered his most favoured line. The line that always had him forgetting about the doll on this recent Halloween ritual. “The parts you can’t see?”

Daniel had to admit; this part, he didn’t mind so much. He allowed himself to press completely into Armand’s personal space, earning himself a sigh of approval from his maker. He plucked the doll out of Armand’s grasp early and set it aside. Last year, when he’d grabbed Armand around the waist around this point, Armand had seemed to forget about the doll entirely and it had shattered on the tile floor when he dropped it.

It broke the scene utterly in other words. And Daniel, who had been dragged into it against his will that time as well, had nothing positive to show for it as Armand had groused about having to call his mortal servants to see to this mess.

This year, because of just this change, the scene was already turning out quite different.

Armand’s lips parted, his auburn curls that he’d left uncut for tonight a flurry around his face. As Daniel stared down into those brown eyes, he felt himself leaning into the role of powerful fledgling offering to his maker the attention he rightly deserved. He felt the bloodlust rising up in him.

Maybe this Halloween ritual wasn’t so bad after all.

“Eyeballs to entrails, my sweet,” he murmured, before pulling Armand against him, relishing at every point that their bodies touched one another. It didn’t matter that Armand’s plump form surrendered into the stark juxtaposition of the far leaner body Daniel had been left with when Armand finally broke his vow. Armand draped himself across him, making a pretense that he was too weak to fight against his pull.

The entire rest of the scene from the ’90s dramedy about a teenage vampire slayer faded away into the background when Armand leaned his head to the side, an open invitation to the neck as Armand’s curls fell away.

[cugzarui]

thinking about bens arc so far

starting out with a boy who wants to be a hero, but cant

he gets a powerful device that lets him be a hero, gets a few wins

realizes he can also be a hero without the device. wins some more

gets full of himself. he did it after all. hes a hero. he made it. hes awsome and legendary and doesnt need to worry about anything

gets his ass handed to him and begins to realize he still has a lot more to learn

blows off some steam and has it blow up in his face

on this losing streak he sees there is another way. he doesn't have to listen to other people. he can be a hero the way he wants to be

the guy who showed him the other way turns out to be eeeevvilllll

yet another screw up under his belt. and lets add just one more just for the hell of it. and make this one really hurt.

you feeling sorry for this kid yet? well you're about to feel even sorrier when he decides his family is better off without him. and why wouldn't they be? he keeps screwing up after all.

they come back for him. because the biggest screw up of all, is thinking your family is better off without you (queue audience tears up. but no really the episode sells it really well actually).

with the power of friendship, familial love, and even anime on his side, our fledgling hero saves the day. and just in time too, because plot is on the horizon, and its serious this time.

we are preparing, for the bbeg.

so for real tho

i did say in a previous post that ben 10 is more a compilation of other works, and the tennysons themselves arnt actually all that interesting. and i still stand by that statement, but boy did i pick a bad time to make it.

bens going through what is not only a sort of coming of age story where he learns what it truly means to be a hero, but also a disillusionment story where, he learns, what it truly means, to be, a hero. im still waiting for the point where he forgets his old lessons and has to relearn them; and maybe because this is still the first series (and early first series at that) we still haven't reached that point. this plot is fresh. its new and interesting. im at episode what? 8? 9? and the storys been pretty good so far is all im saying.

this kid thought heros were all about physically perilous situations and beating up bad guys. so when he got the power to handle that he got all excited, and then after he finally got some wins under his belt he got cocky thinking he made it as a hero. but if theres one certainty in life is itll knock you flat on your ass and no matter what kinda super powers youve got youre only really as untouchable as your support network. something which a lot of people - including ben - don't realize before its too late. and when they do realize it, when ben realizes it, it scares him. it pushes him to radical action, and to a change in mindset and not always a good change either. he starts to think being a hero isn't really fun at all. then he realizes that even if it isnt fun, its still something that needs to be done regardless, even at great cost to himself, because hes the one who has to do it. thats a lot of growing up for a ten year old to do in a summer.

good thing hes wrong

yes heroing isn't really about fun and games. it's something you do not because you want to do it but because it needs doing. but that doesn't mean it cant be fun anyway, or that you have to go it alone. just because you sometimes have to sacrifice yourself, doesn't mean you dont also get to be selfish. and ben learns this sooner rather than later.

he would've probably learned it even sooner if max was better at explaining it though

i mean its kinda hard to blame max ben did just get them kicked out of a prepaid four star hotel before gwen even got to take a shower. a real shower. for the first time this entire summer. and i know i cant easily just dish out life lessons to youngsters whenever they need to hear them (youd think being an adult meant youre full of wisdom and experience you can whip out at a moments notice but guess that was just me being fooled by the excellent marketing and extra height)

i do gotta say i knew i would sympathize with max a lot more and understand him a lot more on this rewatch since im an adult too now and i was not wrong. imagine prepaying for a fancy and expensive hotel, and the first thing that happens when you get there is your grandkid gets you banned for life and the guard literally throws your suitcase out at you when you leave (what was with that guy anyway?) and not only that you also have to go back to talk to the staff and try to get a refund. i think i might just prefer to crawl under a bed and never come out.

actually, imagine all the show from maxs perspective, because i keep thinking if i was in his shoes what would be the most respectful and realistic way to handle the situation. i feel this man.

but yea he couldve explained it better to ben why using the omnitrix to play a forbidden arcade machine was wrong. he really did say why. its not the fact that ben used the omnitrix selfishly but really how he used it. the manner of selfishness. ben uses the omnitrix to mess with gwen all the time and while thats not the nicest of him its fine if he doesn't go overboard. but when you do something thats likely to have negative consequences on the people around you, thats a problem. and if max had explained that the whole thing with kevin could've probably been avoided honestly.

speaking of kevin

i feel like they really butchered this character.

kevin has a lot of potential. honestly, i think a lot of you would love him (at least if his evilness was a but better directed). hes a homeless kid who, at least the way he sees it, isnt with his parents cuz they didnt want a freak. he does whatever he wants using his awsome powers to get what he needs and wants and fight the people who make his life harder. a real disenfranchised underdog and hes punk to boot. shame hes a heartless murderer.

theres like no reason for it either. its just like. revealed. halfway through the episode. like apparently this kid is just cool with murder. and i dont mean murdering cops or bullies i mean just anybody really. so long as he gets something out of it. they shouldve made him more morally grey. or morally orange. or at least made it so he only started getting crazy after he absorbed energy from aliens or something.

do you ever get the feeling ben 10 is a conservative show? sorry that was a strange thing to ask. they do get a bit better at female characters though. gwen gets to be less of an archetype but mostly just because she gets roped into being a hero in her own right and because shes busy caring about ben. it is an improvement.

we also get more significant female side characters and a female villain who is actually really good. but that episode leaves a sour taste in my mouth because...shes only powerful after fusing with vilgaxes robot, which we already know has all the resilience of wet tissue paper. and yet shes somehow super powerful and unstoppable. just a bit of a nitpick i have. thats driving me mad

it does do a good job of setting up vilgax as a threat though. up to this point vilgax didn't really do anything. he was just there for setup, both plot wise and for jokes. like saying the wielder of the omnitrix must be so strong and cunning and ruthless, cutting to ben who is so...not. (or at least doesn't appear to be). but this episode finally manages to communicate vilgax is an actual threat. punctuating that by having max be scared of him at the very end. that was a nice touch.

[annoyed-galaxy]

Fictober 2024 ~ 23

"we can fix this, I know we can"

Fanfiction: DAI As I'm playing Inquisition over again, I'm having many thoughts about Willow's struggle with being a hero despite not wanting to and having to hide her secret/live with it. Eventually her friends figure out about her spirit and the relationship she has with it is very much a mother daughter type situation. Can also be found on Ao3

The pain was unrelenting. The Anchor had been sparking for the past three hours, though it felt like eternity. Her eyes tried to close and her mind tried to ease into sleep, but the pain shooting through her arm from the mark kept her up. She could feel the bags forming under her eyes. She just stared up at the ceiling, gritting her teeth through the pain. 

The sleeping body next to her stirred and turned around, a large arm wrapping around her body. Willow turned her head and smiled a bit at the sleeping man next to her. His hair was completely ruffled and face at peace. 

The Anchor sparked again and she hissed, turning her head back to the ceiling. She had been looking at all the imperfections of the ceiling, trying to distract herself from the pain that gripped her arm. There was a point where the pain got so bad, she had almost started crying. But she had grit her teeth and just pushed through. 

Maker, she was so tired. 

She tried closing her eyes again, trying to force sleep to overcome, but the pain was too much. She was getting frustrated and let out a sob. Cullen stirred next to her, slowly blinking his eyes open. 

“Willow?” his deep, sleepy voice called. She wiped the fledgling tears from her eyes and turned to look at him. 

“I’m sorry, vhenan. I didn’t mean to wake you,” she whispered. 

Cullen’s eyes blinked the rest of the sleep out and sat himself up on his elbow. “Why aren’t you sleeping?”

Almost as if to answer for her, the mark flared up again, sending another bolt of flaming pain up her arm. Her hand burned as if she was holding it in fire. Her elbow felt like a nail was being hammered into it and her shoulder ached. She cried out with the pain. Three hours of this, late into the night and she was getting fed up. 

Cullen scrambled to grab her hand and place another her forehead, rubbing his thumb across her vallaslin. “Oh Maker, it’s getting worse isn’t it?” 

Willow just nodded. “It won’t stop.” Tears were beginning to flow down her cheek. “I can’t fall asleep because the pain is too much.” Anger suddenly overtook her. “I thought with closing the Breach a second time and defeating Corypheus, this fucking thing would stop affecting me.” In retaliation, the mark flared again, increasing its intensity. Willow cried out again. 

Cullen pulled her in close in a tight hug, wrapping her small frame with his. She just let him hold her as she let all of her emotions pour out, crying into him. “Make it stop, Cullen. I can’t bear this,” she whimpered, holding her hand close to her. 

He rubbed her back, whispering comforting words. “It’s okay. We can fix this, I know we can. Maybe we can get Dorian to look into it.” 

“Dorian’s gone. In Tevinter, remember?”

“We can send a message.” 

Willow shook her head but said nothing. The Anchor flare again and she shuddered in pain. 

“How is Lailani?” Cullen asked after a moment. 

“Irritated,” Willow responded. “She wants it gone. It’s agitating her. She can’t rest soundly in the back of my mind because of it. It’s like she’s backed into a corner and a fire is surrounding her. She swats at it and while it doesn’t harm her, it’s affecting her.” Willow looked at her hand again. “Fortunately, her problems are hers.”

“Do you think…” Cullen didn’t want to voice his fears. Learning about Lailani had been a shock, but he had seen a mage with a spirit inside of them before. While that mage did technically start the whole mage-templar war, he was also a great healer, providing help and comfort to many Fereldan refugees during his time in Kirkwall. Still, the risk of becoming an abomination would always be there. 

Willow shrugged. “Lailani seems to have a control of things, at least, no accidental take over will happen.” She smiled weakly. “You know Lailani only takes over my body when I’m in danger.” 

Cullen sighed. “I know. It’s just…she’s still a spirit who can sometimes be enraged into a demon. With the Anchor…I didn’t know if it would change her being.” 

Willow shook her head. “The risks are still the same. Just Lailani and I both now aren’t getting much rest.” Another bold of pain causing Willow to grunt. 

“Maybe we could get you a potion or some herbs or something to help with sleep?” Cullen suggested. 

Willow considered for a moment. “If only I could cast a sleep spell on myself,” she chuckled dryly, but then tapped her chin in thought. “Maybe a mix of elfroot and Andraste’s Grace. I don’t know, I’m not an alchemist. Plus, it’s the middle of the night, no one’s awake.” Willow fell back on her back and looked up at the ceiling. “I don’t suppose you have some templar secret that could just make me fall asleep,” she half joked. 

Cullen shook his head with a small smile. “Unfortunately not. Besides, I’m not taking lyrium anymore so I have no templar power.” 

“Right.” 

Cullen settled in next to her, pulling her close and resting his chin on top of her head. “We’ll get someone to make you some sleep potions tomorrow. For now…” Cullen sighed, holding her tighter. “Just try your best.” 

[rottenbrainstuff]

IWTV s2 ep 3 - Armand is a fucking little gremlin

Interesting ep! I mean man they all are. This show is amazing. I love the actors, I (mostly) love the updates to the story, just, such care and attention to every facet from everyone involved. Beautiful.

I always get a bit eye-rolly when you have (or see a stupid instragram video of) a white character eating expensive fresh sushi where the fish is presented whole and still having nerve twitches after death, and they freak out about it and can't eat it. I get that it's a bit weird and if it was me sure I would have to wait until it stopped wiggling to start eating, but like, where did you think the fish came from, did we pick it off a bush? Anyways, here I can almost, almost forgive the very tired trope, because you could say perhaps it is a contrast between Daniel, and the vampires and their predatory feeding habits, maybe.

I knew we were getting some flashbacks of Armand's old coven and Nicholas and Lestat, but I was surprised by how short it all actually was. I do hope that when we get to season three we're going to have some proper time spent on all of this. Armand's dirty old satanist coven was so interesting to me.

I actually had to pause the show to get mad for a little bit when I saw Louis say that Lestat abandoned Nicki and abandoned the Paris coven, because everything Lestat does is just for himself. Abandoned! Oh my god Louis, what did Armand tell you? Abandoned! Lies! Armand, you gremlin! Right, sure, the guy who was screaming with his face all red when Armand took Nicholas away is going to just teehee oops leave him behind there for absolutely no reason, no reason whatsoever, yes for sure, nothing more to say there. I also don't trust that the theater scene played out exactly as Armand said, with Lestat quite callously fucking him while Nicholas watched, no, I don't buy that. Everything Armand says is suspect to me.

It's so sad that Claudia reinforces this idea later as well, complaining that Lestat never told them there was this cool fun amazing coven troupe in Paris, he only ever warned them away and told them other vampires were vicious.

(Bruce is sure shit, isn't he. I kinda wanna see him show up again at some point. Maybe he can be one of the vampires at Lestat's big concert? I feel like he must be friends with my V:tM character's shit sire, haha, since they seem to both be reading from the same scuzzy man playbook. On another V:tM tangent (sorry) I know Lestat is the quintessential toreador, but Armand with his creepy tricks, his ability to not be recorded, his religious cosplay, and (in the book) his coven's old tradition of burying new fledglings and making them dig themselves up through their own graves as a test, he gives me lasombra vibes)

This show is so confusing to me and I love it. Every character is so bad and good, good and bad, sad and mean, mean and sad. Everyone is behaving horribly, but I also feel bad for everyone. Lestat is a dickhead but it's so tragic to me how everyone always assumes the worst of him all the time when he really was honestly just trying to protect the people he loved. Armand is a nasty manipulative gremlin, but I feel terrible for him as well, how his face falls every time the situation turns sexual. God, him and Louis were so awkward in the park, like two teenagers who don't really know what to do, or, like two very sad adult men both half-heartedly playing out a role that neither one really fully wants to play. Man, now I desperately wanna see him and Eric get it on not for the old man yaoi, but just to fucking see Armand actually genuinely want something for once.

Jacob is doing such a great fucking job. Poor old Louis.

For some reason I can't stop thinking about Sam (? that was Sam right?) showing Claudia how the rat box works, as if it's her first day at Vampire McDonalds and he's showing her the deep fryer. Santiago is also an amazing character, they're all amazing characters, I love this show so much. Poor Claudia. She is so happy to be included in this group, so happy that she completely and totally ignores the red flags that are waving in her face. Claudia gets her rage and her cruelty from Lestat, but I guess she gets her desperate desire to see good in people even when they mean her harm from Louis.

But, the end sequence is just a bit strange to me. The tension of oh, is Armand going to hurt Louis??? is very strange and doesn't work for me. We know he's not going to, Louis is here in the present day. For me it takes the tension out of the scene. I mean, beautiful acting on Jacob's part, the fact that what he thinks will be his last words are all just his wishes and concerns for Claudia to be happy was just. Ugh! Ugh! But, it just didn't work for me. And anyways, who is narrating this whole bit? This scene shows the coven threatening Armand to do something about Louis, and I don't buy for a single second that that's the actual dynamic here, that Armand is just this poor helpless guy who is forced to do what his coven wants him to, no, not a chance. So I want to know who is narrating this. But... in this scene, Armand and Louis are not in the room. They've both left to speak to the buyer's lawyer, Daniel is by himself checking out the talamasca files on his laptop, yet the narrative continues somehow. That's the first time I've noticed that happen, and I found it very strange. I don't know if this was done on purpose and you're supposed to notice how strange that is, or if it was a mistake. Was it supposed to be info from the talamasca files? I didn't get that impression.

But anyways, generally amazing, as always. I do hope the show includes Gabrielle in the future, and I hope we see more detailed flashbacks of all of them in Paris, and what exactly happened to poor Nicholas. Every actor here is doing amazing.