#leverage immortality au

[moonlightperseus]

we died together, intertwined, literally bleeding into each other, we came back together, in the same drawn breath. we were connected before but now we are as one entity separated by different bodies, our pain, anger, fear and joy shared between us. you cannot separate us, not even with death, we will always come back to each other. we will never leave each other. our very souls intertwined.

[somestorythoughts]

Some Immortal Parker

Alright, lets try writing some more of this:

Parker enjoys it when technology changes, specifically when security measures changes. A security change means a little more danger, because it's new and she has to adjust and whether that's a problem depends on more than whether she expected the change, but they're also fun. A new safe or lock or laser grid is a challenge, and Parker loves a challenge.

And like many people with passions, she retains a fondness for security systems that have gone out of style. Well. It's mostly for old safes that haven't been made in decades. There's definitely times when she looks at someone's security measures and thinks "if you wanted to keep this money/diamond/gold-and-ruby-bracelet safe you should have updated five years ago."

Technology just changes, so much, and she's at the top of her game and having fun with it.

She's happy with what she's doing now. And she works alone, because she's not good with people and she took the lesson of being left for the cops the first time it came and never took that risk again. The few times she works with people after that, she plans multiple escape plans.

It takes her a while to stop planning her outs when she starts works with the team. The first time she catches herself planning how they would escape, her entire body stalls. Eliot looks over when the movement in the corner of his eyes then nudges her out of it and doesn't ask questions when she says she's fine.

She's not sure what to do with that realization.

Later she realizes that she'll outlive them, and it will hurt.

She's heartbreakingly, heart-soaringly relieved to find out they're as immortal as she is.

[artdcnaldson]

ugh "leverage" to ensure she won't go tattling to patrick. especially as he starts getting meaner and meaner, he tells her it's to make sure she doesn't back out and tell on him. because patrick would genuinely kill art if he knew what he's been doing to his baby sister.

i know it doesn't really fit in the canon of the other parts to this au, but hear me out anyway... what if he agreed to fuck her, properly this time, in her sweet little pussy. BUT he needs said leverage to make sure she keeps quiet about it (truly he just needs to immortalize taking her virginity so he can watch it back for the rest of his life). so he "agrees", he's the one to bring it up lol, on the condition that he can record it. y'know like really shitty, amateur, pov style, on her creaky dorm bed and pink, frilly sheets. shaky and grainy, but it's good enough for him. it's not like he would ever actually post it anywhere or show people, but she doesn't know that.

he gets off on how nervous she is when he points the camera at her, she's blushing and trying to hide her face. but he just slaps her cheek and manhandles her to look right down the lens of his shitty phone camera. tells her to moan louder around his big cock, tell the camera how good he feels, really just stroking his own ego. makes her tell the camera exactly how he's making her feel, can't cum unless she asks into the camera. he nearly cums right inside her when she tells him he's too big and it hurts :(((((

yummy yummy yummy

-🐞

OHHHHHHH <3 I had to let this simmer. This had to ruminate. Had to really let it sit and grow legs or whatever wine people say idk

RATING: E (18+)

Warnings: SMUT (p in v, degradation, making a sex tape, loss of virginity, world’s worst aftercare), mean!art as always, uncomfortable power dynamics, DUBCON due to coercion

He catches you leaving one of your classes, chatting happily with a few girls as you walk. Their eyes widen as he approaches, smacking his gum, looming tall over them. You murmur a quick apology and bound over like an obedient little pet, falling into stride beside him as he walks.

“What class is that?” He asks, nodding back towards the building. Most of the time he forgot you even attended the school beyond cheering at his games and floating around his dormitory like a ghost.

“Peoples and cultures,” you reply, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear. “It’s an anthropology course I’m taking. It’s actually really interesting, like, these past few lectures have been—“

“What are you doing tonight?” He interrupts, not really caring beyond the simple answer to his question. He has a one track mind, and for the moment he’s just thinking about getting in your pants.

He watches you think, then shrug. “Um… nothing, I guess? Why?”

Art stops by a tree suddenly, tugs you by your wrist to stop with him. “Do you promise if we fuck you won’t tell Patrick?” He watches as your eyes widen, as sheer need and excitement makes you practically vibrate out of your skin.

Frantically you nod. “I’d never tell Patrick, I’d take it to my grave, I swear,” you say, totally earnest, bouncing on the balls of your feet as he looks at you.

“God, I want you so bad,” he hums, brushing your hair back behind your ear. You melt beneath his touch, gaze all half-lidded and soft. “I just… I think I’d have to have some leverage, just to make sure no one ever finds out.”

You tilt your face, resting it on his hand, your eyes half-lidded and dazed with need. You hum a soft, “Mhmm,” without even knowing what he’s implying, what he’s asking of you. But he hears what you’re thinking, all dumbed down and needy— yes, Art, whatever you say Art, anything you want, Art.

He wants to do it in your room, that night. He walks you back to your dorm and tells you to get your roommate out, make sure she’s busy for however long you need. He’d text you when he’s on his way.

So you’re just… fucking vibrating with excitement, cleaning up your dorm, changing your sheets, fluffing your pillows. You light three warm vanilla sugar candles so the dorm smells nice and sweet, put on your roommate’s SEXXXMIXXX <3 CD that she had burned in High School (and kept your fingers crossed it was still relevant). You took the longest fucking shower of all time, scrubbed your skin until it stung, shaved you’re entire body, wondered if maybe he wouldn’t like bald pussy, then worried that he’d hate if you kept the hair even more. Moisturized, then put on pretty, light makeup— lipgloss, mascara. All in the span of time it took for him to text you.

Art :) <3

omw

You feel a little dizzy by the time he’s at your door, already wet just anticipating what you were about to do. He grins down at you, at your silky little pajama set, pink and lacy around the edges. Smacks his gum, trails his hand along the sides of your waist.

“Pretty.” He looks smug as he rubs the lace between his fingers. “You got all dressed up for me, huh?”

It’s amazing how timid and shy you can look as you stand in front of him, biting onto your lip as you nod. He shuts the door behind him and guides you backwards until you knock against your bed and laugh nervously. Jesus, he’d already fucked your ass, your throat, he’d done things to you that even the dirtiest fucking sluts on campus wouldn’t dream of allowing. But you’re all shy because he’s finally going to fuck you properly?

You gasp as he tugs down the neckline of your top, exposing your tits to the cool air of the dorm. So cute, soft. Your nipples already hard and sensitive, so just the lightest pinch makes you let out a pretty moan.

“Remember what I said about leverage?” Art says, and you nod slowly, dreamily. “I want to film it.”

Your eyes widen slightly, as you think back to the pictures he’d taken of you just a few weeks prior. “And you’d… what? Like post it if Pat finds out?”

“No, no, only if you tell,” he corrects. Even then… he doubted he’d actually ever post it anywhere. He had a tennis career to consider, after all. But the important thing was that you believe he will. “It’s just to make sure this stays our secret.”

You swallow, consider it. You didn’t plan on telling Patrick, so it was fine, right? He’d hate Art, and you didn’t want that. You would never want that, no matter what.

So you nod softly. “Okay,” you say finally. “I’d… yeah, I understand. Okay.”

God, you’re easy. So fucking easy it makes him a little sick to think about. What if he wasn’t Patrick’s friend, if he was some frat house asshole who would take advantage of how bad you wanted him? You’re so lucky he’s a good person.

He uses your own fucking digital camera— pink and decorated with little heart stickers. Turns it on and records you as you slip off your sweet silky pajamas, revealing soft, smooth skin beneath. You’re so shaky, so nervous. You can’t even look into the lens.

“No panties?” He asks, lips quirked into a grin. He steps forward to slip his hand between your thighs, to cup your pussy in one big hand. God, you’re so fucking wet, just like you usually are. He could just slide right in without any resistance, just bury himself right inside that tight little pussy. “Jesus, you’re a fucking mess, just dripping for it, aren’t you?”

You moan, relishing in the feeling of his hands on you. Art never touched you, not to get you off, at least. So the feeling of his thick calloused fingers against your cunt makes you whine. He breaches your entrance with just a fingertip and grins at the feeling of you clenching around the intrusion, desperate for anything he’ll give you.

But the relief is gone as soon as you’ve gotten it. He pats your thigh, nods to the bed. “Go lay down. Let me film you stretching yourself out for me.”

“Art,” you whine once you’ve laid down, embarrassed as he trains the lens on you. “Do you have to film this part?”

It just makes him double down, grinning smugly as he settles at the foot of the bed. “C’mon, just fucking do it. Show the camera how fucking wet you get for me.” You hear the whir of him zooming in as your hand slips between your thighs, as lithe fingers slide through your soaking wet folds and you tease your clit. He groans softly, grinning at the sight on the camera. “Alright, spread yourself out now. Show me how small and tight you are.”

You whimper pathetically, but obey. Your fingers form a V as you spread your lips, revealing the pretty, drippy hole of your cunt. He doesn’t even have to tell you to start fucking yourself, you just do. Pretty, manicured fingers disappearing inside the tight channel of your pussy, slow and easy as you pant and gasp sweetly.

“Can you do three?” He asks. He zooms the camera out, makes sure he gets all of you— your tits heaving with each breath, the slow grind of your hips to meet your fingers. You nod softly, press a third finger alongside the other two. He grins at the sight of the stretch of your cunt around them, how your body works to accommodate them. “God, it’s a tight stretch, huh?”

“Mhmm.” You moan as you pump your fingers slow, in and out. Wet to the point of it sounding obscene. Slick dripping out with each thrust, making your fingers glisten.

He can hardly take sitting there and watching, but god, he’d love it later on when he was alone with only the video to keep him company. But who knows? Maybe he’d fuck you once and never want anyone else. He already felt that way… kind of. You were so eager, so obsessed with him. You touched him like it was an act of worship. He couldn’t get that from easy pussy.

He sets the camera down on the foot of the bed while he undresses, tugging off his sweats and tee shirt, mussing up his hair in the process. It’s not lost on him, the way your fingers speed up at the sight of his cock, how needy and desperate you are.

“How bad do you want it?” He asks as he picks up the camera.

God, he’s mean. You whine when he grabs your wrist and makes you slip your fingers from inside of your cunt. Empty, needy, desperate. “Please, fuck me, Art.” You’re embarrassed, of course you are. He has a camera focused on your needy little expression, one hand on your thigh all warm and possessive. “Please, I’ve been so good for you. I’ve done everything you’ve asked. I just need you, I need you inside of me. Want you to be my first. Please, Art.”

He’s not sure where he wants the camera as he notches the head of his cock at your wet little hole. Part of him wants to film the second he buries his cock inside of that tight fucking cunt, but the other wants to film your face, watch how pretty you look as you take your very first cock.

And god, you’re trembling beneath him. Visibly shaking with anticipation, or nerves, or need. He runs a hand along your torso, cups one of your tits in his hands and thumbs over your sensitive nipple. “What, are you cold?” He teases.

“N-no,” you stammer, meeting his gaze. “Just— I just want it so bad.”

He films your face, which was the right call, he decides. He has to think about it technically, or he’ll risk blowing his load one pump in, like a total fucking loser. You’re so tight around him, clamping down on his cock as he sheaths himself within you, inch after inch. And god, that angelic face of yours— mouth agape, wet and pink and pretty, the tiniest furrow between your brows, lashes splayed against your cheeks as you moan, soft and sweet. “Hurts,” you practically whimper. “God, Art, fuck, it feels—“

He films where your cunt swallows him, stretched to the point of obscenity around his thick cock. It shouldn’t even be able to take him, not when you’re so small, so fucking tight. It’s a fucking miracle you’d even taken a toy before. He’d make you film that next. All desperate, fucking yourself on silicon while you drooled over a picture of him. It was sweet that you’d been trying to prepare yourself to take him and you were still a shaking, needy mess.

Tears well in your eyes as he thumbs at your swollen little clit, he feels your pussy clench around him, already so fucking keyed up. He should be good. He should make love to you, nice and slow, like a good boy. He’s starting to think he’s not a good boy, not at all. “Just lay there and take it, yeah? Just look nice and pretty for the camera.”

You cry out when he pulls back only to drive back in, hard and deep. His pace is relentless as he fucks into your cunt— warm and wet and tight and fucking perfect. He honestly shouldn’t have waited, he should’ve fucked you the first night you offered yourself up to him— sweet and needy and clinging off his shoulder like you were his girlfriend.

“A-Art, fuck—“ You cry out, fisting your pretty hands into the frilly duvet, as he bullies himself into you. “Oh, god, fuck, A-Art, it’s too much— I-I can’t—“ A strangled moan seems to rip itself from your throat as your head falls back against the pillows.

He grins. “Yeah? Don’t tell me, honey, tell the camera.”

You whine, turning your head away as embarrassment rips through you. It’s mean, keeping it trained on you while you’re so fucking vulnerable. He grabs your chin, holds it in place as he fucks into you, deeper, rougher. It punches out gasps from your pretty open mouth— Ah! Ah! Ah! Over and over and over.

He pops your cheek, not too hard, but enough to draw your attention back from him and away from your dizzying thoughts. “Tell the camera how good it feels to have my big cock in that little pussy of yours, yeah?

“It feels— ngh— I love it,” you have pretty fat tears slipping down your cheeks as he drills into you. “You’re so big, I— God, fuck— I feel you in my stomach. Here—“ You grab his hand, move it to press against the bottom of your stomach. He can’t feel anything, not except warm skin beneath his, but he groans at your words, at the implication that he’s so deep he’s in your fucking guts.

He has to bite his tongue so hard he tastes blood. He knows he’s going to cum, knows that he’s not going to last or show off epic, manly stamina and impress you. Not that you give a shit, but he wants to set a standard for whatever fucking loser you fuck next. He’d have next time, and as many other times as he wanted. You’d keep coming back for it, for him.

He struggles to manhandle you the way he needs while holding onto the camera. He tosses it into the sheets so he can press your knees up to your chest. “Hold them— yeah, that’s it, fuck— feels good.” You’re so obedient, holding your legs up for him so he can get deeper. Your eyes roll back, flutter shut. He fumbles to grab the camera, to immortalize you like this.

Your cunt squeezes around him, makes his rhythm falter as he struggles to fend off his orgasm. God, he just wants to bury himself deep and rut into you, to cum deep and hard, leave you dripping with him. It’s about him… but it’s about you too. He’d be good, he’d make you cum.

“Tell me how bad you need to cum. Fucking beg me for it,” He groans, rubbing at your clit with a calloused thumb.

You whine, squeezing around his cock as he draws you closer and closer. “Need it, Art. It feels so good— you’re so fucking perfect, feel so perfect inside of me. Wanna cum for you, around your cock, wanna show you how good you feel. Please, please, god, I want it, I want to feel it, Art. Want you to cum inside of me, need it so bad— I fucking dream about it, about you. You’re so much better, you’re everything I want, Art, fucking claim me. I want you to.”

Art wanted to pull out. He did. He was going to glaze your pussy with his cum, get it on video, swipe his fingers through it and make you taste it. But Jesus Christ, you fucking ruined that idea. He cums suddenly, practically collapses on top of you as he fucks into your cunt, spilling himself deep inside of you. And like the perfect fucking toy you are, you cum too, milking him for all he’s worth, walls clenching down around his cock as he lazily ruts into you.

He pants, stays buried inside of you as he tries to catch his breath. He’d never cum inside someone before— he was too afraid of knocking someone up. He’d always had the self control to pull out, but he lost himself in fucking you, in the tight grip of your pussy around him. Christ, that was bad.

When he pulls out, a thick gush of his cum follows, pearly white, dripping down your ass and to the bed. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. When he opens them, you’ve tugged a blanket over yourself shyly. Looking so demure, so sweet, batting your lashes up at him expectantly.

The camera lays dropped and forgotten on the bed, he goes and presses the stop button on the camera and you grab at his arm. “Do you want to stay the night?” You ask with a shy bite of your lip. “I told Izzy to fuck off, so she’s with her girlfriend. We’ve got the dorm for the night, so you can stay.”

Art makes a face akin to annoyance as he redresses, tugging on his boxers and sweats. His shirt is somewhere… he can’t focus. “I’m not your boyfriend.”

Your eyes widen, you swallow as heat floods your cheeks. “Yeah, I mean, I know,” you stammer. “I just thought…”

His jaw ticks. “Don’t do that, then. This is just about fucking.

Art watches the sad little nod, the tiniest twitch of your nose as you fight the rush of tears to your eyes. “I know that, Art,” you say sadly, and you’re trembling again. “I just wish you’d stay for a bit. I’m… I feel a lot right now. I’ve never… I’ve never felt this before I just want—“

“What do you want? A hug, a kiss?” He watches you sniffle sadly, nod and mutter a watery, yeah. He sighs, stops searching for his shirt, and pulls you against his chest. You feel so warm, so vulnerable as you shake and cry hot tears against his chest. He frowns, pulls back, and presses his lips to yours, quick and chaste. “I’m not doing this again if you keep acting like this.”

You sniffle and nod. “Okay, I know, I won’t do it again.” He kisses the crown of your head. Grabs a random shirt from the top of your laundry basket, grabs the camera, and heads for the door. You watch him leave with a pouty, wobbly little frown and get up to redress. You find his Stanford Tennis shirt partly beneath your bed and pull it on. It’s big, fits you like a hug, smells so boyish and warm. You lay back down on the bed he just fucked you on and breathe deep, let his smell flood your senses. It feels a little like being wanted.

AURRRRR this was so much longer than I thot <3

Anyways. Love pat’s sister au, feel free to send me any asks you want about these messy bitches <3

🐞 anon i love u

[sapphicjackal]

Baby Dimension au

inspired by this

Baby dimension au

One of the many things that had always bothered Shen Yuan about Proud Immortal Demon Way was the way that Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky treated Luo Binghe’s children. 

By the time that Luo Binghe was into his centuries long reign and the story completed, Luo Binghe had dozens of children. Some were named, and others were only known by the fact that their mother had to go into seclusion in the background of a harem drama. The exact number of his kids were unknown, and Luo Binghe showed little to no interest in them beyond their continued survival.

To ensure his children’s survival, Luo Binghe used Xin Mo to create a pocket dimension of sorts. Only his most trusted servants would be selected with the task of living permanently in these hidden realms to raise his children. Each child had their own separate pocket realm and caretaker, with children born of the same mother being grouped together.

Some of the more filial mothers spent time with their children, and Shen Yuan quietly suspects that a number of the ditched Harem members chose to live with their children instead of in the palace full of snakes. 

The reason the fan dubbed ‘baby dimension’ came into existence was because of Luo Binghe’s first children. 

Luo Binghe’s foray into fatherhood began with his first two children, Luo Meiying and Luo Fang. 

When Luo Binghe lived on Qing Jing Peak, he had made a promise with Ning Yingying that when he married her, they would have a beautiful child together. Once the three realms had been unified, revenge had been taken, and the harem had been settled; Airplane introduced that retconned promise. Ning Yingying asked if they could finally have a baby together and Luo Binghe agreed.

Of course, this sent Sha Hualing into a jealous fit. She acted out and terrorized the other harem members until Luo Binghe agreed to give her a child as well. To prevent Sha Hualing from escalating and trying to do anything to make Ning Yingying miscarry, Luo Binghe agreed to impregnate her as well.

Naturally this led to a threesome sex maraton between Ning Yingying, Sha Hualing, and Luo Binghe. Luo Binghe gathered a fertility lotus plant for the two of them, and they locked themselves away in Luo Binghe’s chambers for 3 days. The two girls spent the whole time fighting each other and vying for Luo Binghe’s attention as well as more turne with the Heavenly Pillar. 

It ended with both of the wives undeniably pregnant.

Fast Forward some harem antics where some wives tried to sabotage the pregnancies, and a lot of kinky pregnancy related sex, the two babies were born. Ning Yingying’s daughter, Luo Meiying, and Sha Hualing’s son, Luo Fang. Luo Binghe was there for the births of his children and he seemed genuinely pleased about it. Sha Hualing and Ning Yingying were obviously the most favored wives for a time, as Luo Binghe exclusively dual cultivated with either of them and spent a lot of time with his children.

Then the readers got bored of this domestic arc.

Luo Binghe’s children were faced by constant threats, targeted by the harem and his enemies alike. The dangers were so numerous that Sha Hualing herself wanted to go into seclusion with her child, just so that her son would survive. Of course, she was more motivated by the fact she didn’t want to lose the leverage that the child gave her after all of the effort she spent bringing it into the world, but still. It was a problem.

The solution?

Creating a series of Hidden Realms using Xin Mo. 

Since the space was only accessible through Xin Mo, nobody could threaten the safety of his children any longer. He allowed his wives to choose their most loyal servant to entrust the task of raising their children. After setting them up with all they would need, and telling the mothers they could ask any time for visits, he left the children to be raised in the Hidden Realms, with the expectation they could leave once they reach adulthood.

After that, his children were promptly forgotten and only mentioned in passing.

Ning Yingying ended up having another child later on, and that one joined his older sister in the Baby Dimension after being weaned. 

From there, pregnancies and children were only mentioned in passing. There were no updates as to what goes on in the Baby Dimensions, and Luo Binghe’s children became yet another forgotten plot line. 

Any children he had were forgotten in favor of an ever expanding harem of women who were wedded, bedded, and forgotten.

The whole thing bothered Shen Yuan immensely, being a common topic that he brought up in his vicious reviews of each chapter. Yes, Luo Binghe was a blackened stallion protagonist, but it didn’t make sense for his character to simply have a bunch of children that he forgot existed in favor of getting his dick wet. Luo Binghe seemed to genuinely love his children during the time before he sent them away, and it was the closest thing to happiness that he displayed since the beginning of the story with his adoptive mother.

None of the other fans cared about it, so Luo Binghe’s unknown number of children were thoroughly forgotten. Even the end of the story didn’t address the children whatsoever! Not even a mention of Luo Binghe having an heir, let alone multiple.

Shen Yuan had never forgotten about it, but it did get tucked away in some far off corner of his mind after he transmigrated. 

Now, he lived as Shen Qingqiu, and he was happily married to his own version of Luo Binghe.

The reason all of his prior frustrations came racing back to him is because his husband asked if they could have children. The two of them had been married for 15 years now, and a lot of the problems from earlier in their relationship had been worked on. Luo Binghe was no longer as intensely jealous because of his abandonment issues to the point that having children would be upsetting to him.

They were in a good place to start discussing things. 

Shen Qingqiu had stepped down as Peak Lord with the rest of the Qing generation in favor of their successors, and instead moved full time to the Demon Realm. He had long since revealed his true identity as a transmigrator to his Husband, so Shen Yuan adopted his old name once he left the Human Realm.

Their rule was secure, they had been married for years, and their relationship was stable. It seemed like the perfect time to add to the family.

There did exist flowers and relics that could allow men to get pregnant, however, once Luo Binghe brought up the topic, Shen Yuan’s mind instantly went to the abandoned children of Luo Bingge.

Shen Yuan knew that his Binghe would be a wonderful father, one that would never abandon his children. Shen Yuan never really got over the fact that all those children had been made and discarded, out of sight and out of mind.

So, he made a deal with Binghe.

They would have one biological child together, but after that, any additional children would be ones that they obtained from Binghe’s counterpart. Binghe initially protested, wanting nothing to do with that imposter, but Shen Yuan laid out the way all of those children had been abandoned and how it had bothered him for years.

It took some arguing and tears, but eventually an agreement was made.

Luo Binghe bore pregnancy with grace and sneakily used his blood parasites to ensure that egg split, resulting in twins. Luo Binghe was ecstatic with pregnancy, having fought to be the one that carries the child. Shen Yuan thought that as the Emperor, Luo Binghe should be the one to get him pregnant, but Luo Binghe said he’d only agree to snatching the imposter’s children if he gets to give birth to Shizun’s babies.

Shen Yuan gave in to prevent having a Qi deviation over the sheer nonsense that Luo Binghe spewed.

Shen Mingyu and Shen Yongrui were fraternal twins, a girl and boy. They both took after Shen Yuan more in looks, but shared Luo Binghe’s curly hair, something that Shen Yuan was extremely pleased with. The two were doted on and spoiled endlessly, beloved by their parents and people, who were happy to have an actual heir at last.

When the children were 4, Luo Binghe started to get restless, asking for more. 

Thus began their newfound hobby of breaking into Baby Dimensions and kidnapping children.

Well, to be more exact.

Thus began a series of excursions where they traveled to various baby dimensions to meet with the children there and get to know them. When they offered the opportunity to leave and come with them to their own world, each and every child jumped at the chance to leave, even knowing ahead of time that Luo Binghe wasn’t the father that sired them.

They didn’t do it too often. Not wanting to do the same thing as the original and forget about their children and spending time with them because they valued quantity. They made sure that each and every one of their children were loved, regardless of if they were created by them specifically.

Each new addition to their family brought joy to their lives. Shen Yuan truly couldn’t understand how Luo Bingge didn’t adore each of these wonderful beings that he helped create. Shen Yuan loved all of his children, and they were each a blessing.

Maybe Shen Yuan got a little ambitious, because he started to want the two that started it all. Luo Meiying and Luo Fang, the ones that almost could have had a loving father if only the readers hadn’t gotten bored of domesticity. Shen Yuan wanted them to have better. He had avoided taking them thus far because they were the children of the main and favored wives, but they had taken close to a dozen children without notice over the years.

Just like the rest of their siblings, Luo Meiying and Luo Fang agreed to join them. 

However, this time they caught the attention of Luo Bingge. Turns out, Luo Bingge had been noticing his children dwindling, so he set extra protections around all of his remaining children so that he could catch the culprit and save his missing children, if they were still alive.

Luo Bingge came to demand his children back, but his children all claimed that they were Shen Yuan and Luo Bingmei’s children.

Bingge doesn’t actually have THAT many kids at this point in the timeline

SY was grossly overestimating how many kids LBG had in general

atm Bingge only had like 18 kids and Bingqiu stole 10 of them

Bingge does actually check on his kids when he can get away from his harem (which isn’t often)

this is yet another thing that the fake has stolen from him

even his own flesh and blood prefer an imposter over their own father

it really fucks Bingge up

plus side is that he figures out that Nice Shizun is actually named Shen Yuan

then he finds his own SY

And he makes sure that the rest of his kids won’t get stolen by abolishing the baby dimensions and bringing the kids out

SY becomes their teacher

Bingge believes in adopted parent relationships so he doesn’t try to take his kids back, but he does fall into a weird shared custody agreement with Bingqiu

Bingge makes harming his children punishable by death, and his wives are NOT exempt from this. Little Palace Mistress finds this out the hard way when she tries to eliminate one of Bingge’s daughters and gets publicly executed.

Bingge overhauls the harem in general, because now he has got his priorities in order. Which are railing his kid’s teacher, and also taking care of his kids because he doesn’t want them to get taken from him and lose out on them.

Bingge stops expanding his harem and even downsizes it, plus he works out something other than dual cultivation to control Xin Mo because having sex is cutting into his time braiding his children’s hair. And also trying to sleep with their teacher.

Bingge finds being a dad a lot more fulfilling than being a harem master and emperor of the united realms, and also fucking his children’s teacher. That also fills him better.

[kastalani123]

Since my Percabeth Parent Swap Au has recently been infesting my brain a little, I wanted to share some other ideas for it!

Sally got the invisibility cap from Athena in Percy's cradle and gave it to him before she was taken by Hades in PJO

(ig Hades would maybe get some minor prophecy connecting Percy to the lightning bolt to the point he wants to leverage Sally against him?? Or maybe he assumed he was Poseidon's kid bc he likes the sea and he was just. Wrong)

Annabeth obv grows up in Cabin Eleven so she's a bit more of a thief and trickster, but also better understands Luke's and the Titan Army's motivation on a more personal level

She also doesn't have that thirst for a quest since she doesn't want to draw attention to herself, and is internally warring between wanting to leave Camp to see the world and wanting to stay because of how strong her scent is

Annabeth and Percy get claimed around the same time to tie them closer together and give basis for Annabeth choosing him as a questmate

Probably in the same game of Capture the Flag, I'd say? Annabeth comes in to help Percy out when he's getting his ass kicked and they get claimed

(their parents are pissed that they chose the same claiming time)

Annabeth has to live alone in Cabin Three, which. Sucks

Percy gets to have siblings tho!

Annabeth gets Riptide

(the two soon swap their godly gifts for the one they like better)

Also Annabeth doesn't have that same devotion to the gods/her godly parent so she doesn't see Percy's disrespect as so outlandish

The TLT prophecy would probably be different, though probably still include a line about Sally

Annabeth is also dealing with her biggest secret being aired out at the worst moment, as well as going from "random unclaimed kid" to "child destined to save/destroy the world" in one day

Luke tries so hard to get Annabeth to come with him and she almost does but she doesn't want to be what everyone fears

She doesn't go back to Frederick and Co. because they decide it's too dangerous for all of them, at least until the prophecy plays out. They try to keep in touch, though

Tyson is Annabeth's brother. In her Cabin. She gets to deal with that, too

Zöe sees parallels between herself and Annabeth (girl gives Riptide to a hero she's enamoured with (even though Annabeth is "more" of the hero)) so it takes her a bit longer to acknowledge Percy's trustworthiness

(no idea if Annabeth would still be the one kidnapped in TTC or if it'd be Percy)

With Mt St Helens, I'd say Percy tricks Annabeth into blowing the volcano up while he's still in it? Like, he didn't mean to still be inside but it turned out like that, I dunno. Annabeth never gets over the guilt of killing her best friend, even if he turned up alive two weeks after the fact

Unbreakable Annabeth. Can you imagine? Annabeth with the Curse of Styx? Esp a Cabin Eleven-raised Annabeth? She's tossing herself off the Big House because the Stolls dared her to

(she has the same curse as her brother! How wonderful, isn't it?)

She's the one that has to make the cursed blade choice with Luke. She has to give her dagger, gifted to her by her brother with a promise of family, to her brother to kill himself. She is. Very far from okay after that

Her bitterness against the gods wins out over her hubris to get her to refuse immortality

Annabeth is the one taken in HOO. Do with that what you will, I don't remember the books well enough to go into detail

Meanwhile Percy gets to go on the Mark of Athena quest and fight Arachne, which is all very nice for him

Annabeth gets to go feral in Tartarus. And I mean feral. As in, we're throwing out that "afraid of poison-bending" thing because Annabeth is the one losing her mind here and Percy is. Well, his fatal flaw is loyalty, and Akhlys had messed with his best friend (after Grover) and girlfriend. He's not telling Annabeth to stop until he thinks she's completely lost it

Also! Annabeth is not suddenly dumb, nor is Percy suddenly serious! Annabeth is still into architecture and STEM and books! She's still a skilled strategist, it just comes more from her experience and practice than an inborn talent! Percy still loves Montauk and skateboarding and joking around! But without the worry of being a Big Three child, he could more easily get the environment needed for him to explore learning, so he more obviously enjoys it! They don't just swap personalities and interests because they have affinities for some different things now.

[beepersteeper]

I Will Always Find You-- Astarion x Tav-- Not Made of Glass | Part 8- Smut

Warnings: Smut. Not necessary to read to continue the story the next chapter. If you need to skip this one here is Important storyline development- time skip to the graduation && Astarion feeds from Vira for the first time. 

Established relationship, blood/biting, PiV, oral (male receiving, female receiving), virgin, “good girl”.

Astarion and F!Tav live happily together for the remaining years she has, she refuses to be turned into a vampire because her faith says that her soul isn’t finished with its work yet. Tav dies of old age and leaves Astarion to put together the pieces of his broken heart. AN: Lord of Light lore taken and changed to fit the story's means. Not canonically accurate. TLDR story line stuff. This is an AU where Astarion ascends but isn't a power hungry bastard and Tav is able to help him continue healing. Wyll is immortal and the Duke. Karlach in my mind, if given a new engine would be able to live a lot longer than the usual tiefling. Another AN: idk if anyone wants tagged in this WIP but let me know. 

As the months pass Astarion and Vira spend as much time together as possible, finding any excuse to see one another. Most nights are spent together at Vira’s house, but tonight they stayed at his palace because it was closer to the venue where they spent their evening and Eyman felt more comfortable with a short walk back. Vira’s deja vu is happening more frequently. She regularly feels like she has seen or done things before while hanging out with Astarion and Wyll. The Fist graduation dinner is this evening and Karlach hasn't been able to give Wyll a determinate answer to the invitation, her engine is acting a bit funny, but she hopes to be able to make it. Astarion and Vira wake up late in the morning after attending a concert for a traveling bard into the wee hours of the morning.  

Astarion comes out of his trance when he feels a soft pressure on the side of his jaw.

“Well good morning to you too, my love." He chuckles, his voice still gravely from sleeping, and wraps his arm around her torso to pull her closer to his body. 

She hums and continues placing tender kisses from his chin to his earlobe. 

“You seem to have something on your mind." He laughs moving a hand to her face to pull her lips to his “Care to tell me what that is?" He toys with her, not naive to what she is doing.

“I don't know about telling you, but I would love to show you." She purrs into his kiss. She swings her leg over his to straddle his lap and deepens their kiss. She feels his hands move slowly from her shoulders to her thighs squeezing reassuring pressure in time with her movements. She rocks her hips every time her tongue explores his mouth. Vira gently nibbles on his lower lip when she feels a foreign pressure between her hips.

“God's above darling," he groans, licking his lips and staring into her eyes. “I didn't think you would be the first to bite in this relationship." He chuckles as she moves to his neck and shoulders littering them with kisses and nibbles as he speaks pushing her hips into his. "What has gotten into this morning?" he moans into her hair that circles his face.

“I'm hoping that would be you.” She whispers a sultry breath into his ear and kisses along its ridge. “Finally having a proper time alone, together…” She says her voice trailing off is replaced by kisses on the tip of his pointed ear earning a shiver from him.

"I couldn't agree more.” He growls and swiftly flips her onto her back on the soft bed using the leverage gained by holding the back of her thighs. She giggles as she bounces on the mattress below him smiling wide and staring into his hooded eyes. “Are you sure this is what you want?” He raises an eyebrow while holding himself up on his flat palms. 

She wraps her legs around his waist and her arms around his torso pulling him off balance and onto her body, kissing him gently. “I'm sure, Star." She blushes “just…go slow." She adds shyly “I haven't done this before."

His eyes open wide for a moment as he places his hand on her cheek rubbing the pad of his thumb over her reddening skin, a cheeky grin forming on his lips “Oh, you're a …  and you've decided that you want, oh I am a lucky man.” He mewls, pushing his hips into hers giving her neck the same attention she gave him, careful of his fangs, earning soft moans from her while she squirms below his touch. 

“I want you” she takes a breath between her moans "I want you to bite me.” 

"You don't need to say such dirty things my love, you've already got me like putty in your hand.” he purrs into her collarbone bone pressing his hands under her top and sliding it up her stomach, exposing her soft skin and trailing kisses from her collarbone to her navel.

“I mean it" she pants knotting her hand in his silver hair breathing through the tickles and shots of lighting pooling in her core. “If I'm going to give you a part of myself, I want to give you all of myself, Astarion."

"Your father will drive a stake through my ribs…” he whispers, flicking his red eyes up to her as he licks and kisses her hip bones that are peeking up over her sleeping pants.

She hisses and her hips move without her will from his touch “Then I guess it's a good thing he doesn't have to know." Her head rocks back onto the bed when he tugs on her pants pulling the fabric away from her body. “There are places that he will never see…” she adds while she slowly moves her hands from her knees to her core trailing her fingers along the vein on the inner side of her thighs.

"I would be a fool to turn down such a generous offer.” He says with his tone dripping in seduction and desire. He places featherlight kisses from one knee, up her thigh, and down the opposite thigh to the knee. “from such a beautiful woman.” He looks up to her face. Her green eyes are glassy and her pupils are blown out from lust. He lowers his face to kiss her soaking mound through her panties not breaking eye contact “You're certain-  about all of this."

“Gods yes." She groans and rolls her hips into his kiss “Please." She pleads, grabbing at her loose top and throwing it off the bed before she props herself up on her elbows to watch him tenderly attend to her still-clothed sensitivity. He moves his fingers across the damp cloth teasing her and listening and watching her need for him become almost too much to bear. 

With one motion, he removes the last piece of clothing from her body. He lets a moan escape his throat when he slides one finger into her tight and wet core, feeling her clenched around his digit. He kisses her thigh again as he starts to move his finger in and out of her. Astarion says sternly “You'll tell me the moment you're uncomfortable?" To which she nods enthusiastically sighing every time he pushes deeper into her.  “Good girl." He mewls when she gasps at his words and pushes a second finger in earning a gasp from her. He presses his tongue against her swollen clit, lapping against it slowly. When she lets herself fall onto the bed again he closes his eyes and tends to every inch of her core, listening to her chorus of groans from his attention. He curls his fingers up inside of her earning a loud moan when he hits the secret spot she didn't even know existed in her body. She reaches a hand down to caress his soft hair, gripping harder every time he hits that spot. He kisses his way from her core still burying his fingers into her steadily, he kisses a spot on her upper inner thigh and asks “Right here?" Asking permission to bite her there. 

“Uh-huh" she pants, letting her eyes roll back from the pleasure. Her body is not used to this amount of stimulation.

“Thank you Vira," he coos, kissing her again “You are simply perfect." He doesn't slow his hand in her core and holds her knee with his free hand and pierces her flesh, filling his mouth with her warm blood. He grunts into her thigh taking another greedy mouthful. Feeling her completely coating his mouth tasting her arousal from both places his mouth has been. He hears her moan when he pushes his thumb to her clit as he drinks a final swallow from her fresh wound. A familiar flavor comes from the back notes. He presses his tongue to the wound and reaches into his pocket to find a handkerchief, a black one. He presses that to her thigh and returns his attention to her clit, drunk from her virgin blood and the taste of her cunt. “Just fucking incredible." He grunts as he removes his fingers and sucks on her clit and dives his tongue as far into her as he can. She arches her back inching closer to her climax all but chanting his name like a prayer. "That's right darling." He purrs feeling her crash over the edge of her climax.

Vira’s knees tighten around his head, caging him to her core as she moves her body through her final waves of orgasm. When she releases his head from her grasp he kisses her thigh, licking a thin line of blood from her skin, sighing at the taste. She lays flat on the bed breathing deep breaths into her burning lungs keeping her eyes trained on him. When he rights himself and readies himself to lay on the bed next to her she sits up and pulls on the laces of his pants, struggling with the tight knots with her tingling fingers. He chuckles lightly and reaches down to help her, deftly untying the knots. They both work together to remove the tight pants and discard them off the side of the bed. 

He sits up and kisses her lips as he grabs his cock and slowly moves his hand up and down the shaft letting out a deep sigh into her mouth. She looks down, watching him move his fist up and down, she reaches her hand hesitantly replacing her hand with his.  She holds on delicately and moves her hand at the same pace he was. She feels his hand wrap around hers and closes her hand tighter. “You're not going to hurt me darling” he whispers and moves their hands over his cock as he takes a sharp breath and rolls his eyes back when she touches his dripping tip. He removes his hand and reclines back on the bed with his hands behind his head smiling watching her confidence grow while she leans down and kisses the V on his lower body, licking the soft skin just at the base of his cock while sliding her hand more quickly over his length.  

“That feels great my love.” he encourages “Thank y-” he is cut off his body forcing him to take a sharp breath when she licks up the entire length of him taking his head into her sucking mouth still moving her hand “I'll shut up.” he pants and chuckles. His moans get louder and more regular when she removes her hand completely and bobs her head taking in as much of him as she can every time she goes down. He reaches down and gently taps her cheek urging her to stop. She looks up to him with worried eyes. “No, everything is perfect love.” he says between breaths like he's reading her mind “I just don't want this to end too soon.” he sheepishly admits “I'm not exactly as practiced as I once was.” he adds laughing and pulling her hand to him, causing her to fall off balance and lay on top of him. He litters her face with kisses while he wraps her body in his arms, pouring every ounce of his affection into her. 

She moves from his lips and starts attending to his sensitive ear, kissing and licking it making him catch his breath and moan at her touch. She grinds her hips into him, his cock slipping through the wetness dripping from her core, hitting her clit with every thrust, making both of them moan in unison. Astarion growls a gods dammit before flipping her back onto the bed lining his hips up with hers, her legs wrapping around his waist. With one hand he holds himself above her, with the other pressing his dick against her slick entrance. He looks at her wordlessly asking for permission to which she nods.

He pushes himself into her slowly and only the head of his cock, letting her adjust to the sensation. She gasps at the sudden and welcome pressure. He withdraws and pushes back into her further moaning together. Vira wraps her arms around his back, digging the pads of her fingers into his skin and arching her back, willing herself to adjust to the size of him inside of her. He thrusts shallowly feeling her walls tighten around him while she melts into a moaning mess beneath his weight. Her jaw is slack trying to say his name but failing while her mind is overtaken by pleasure. He reaches for her mound and rubs his thumb over her clit earning louder moans. He smiles wide, his fangs peeking out from his lips “Gods, the sounds you make” he pushes himself in further to her core “are just” further “perfect” he buries himself fully into her dripping tight cunt. “Is that okay darling? He asks brushing her hair from her face, sharing a beautifully tender moment. 

“Star.” she smiles in his face leaning into his hand “Stop treating me like I’m made of glass.” she chuckles. “I will tell you if anything is too much. Please, just take me.” she pleads, pulling his face to hers, kissing him roughly. 

He smiles a crooked devious smile and pushes her legs to her chest opening her more for him.  “Gladly.” he purrs and rolls his hips, his skin slapping onto her flesh with every quick thrust, wet sounds filling the room, only drowned out by her gasps and moans. He looks down to the place they have joined, seeing streaks of blood on his pale skin. He groans deep in his chest and pushes her legs closer to her chest letting his cock slip even further into her feeling her walls shutter around him. He pulls her ankles onto his shoulders, kissing them both as he holds her hips flush to his. She cries out each time his thighs meet hers. “You take me so well.” he pants, not slowing his pace.

Astarion pulls himself out earning a whine from her “Ung Staaar why?" He doesn't respond, instead, he licks a hard strip from the bottom to the top of her slit listening to her moan his name again. He pushes his tongue as far inside of her as he can, needing to taste her essence again. Every vampiric urge fought to take control at once, his head spinning from the blood, evidence of him taking something from her that she could never regain.  In one fast motion, he grabs her left hip and flips her onto her stomach eliciting giggles from her as she tucks her knees under her raising her ass to fully display herself to him.

He uses both hands to spread her folds and enjoy gathering her arousal on his tongue “So wet darling… “ he hums into her sending a shake to run up her body “Such a good girl." She whimpers as he speaks. He rights himself kneeling on one knee and straddling her with the other sheathing himself back into her with ease, his muscles tensing and moaning loudly when he bottoms out looking down to see his whole dick lost inside of Vira's core. He pushes himself in and out of her hard and fast, not fully removing himself, neither of them wanting to lose this feeling of pleasure. 

He feels her start to move under him, pushing her ass to meet him with each thrust he makes. “Mmm,” he moans a whisper into her neck "if you want to take over I'm not going to stop you." He pulls her on top of him as he rolls over to lay on his back, her still facing away from him. She, with her hands grabbing his thighs between hers, begins rocking her hips forward and back hearing Astarion groan on an exhaled breath.

He drags his hands from her shoulders slowly to her hips where he grabs hard and pushes himself further into her urging her to raise her hips and fall back into his dick. She rides him in a steady but breathtaking rhythm hearing him moaning and enjoying her efforts.

“Turn around" he pants and taps her ass lightly “I want” he pauses to groan "to see your face when you ride me." His tone is desperate. She slides her body off of his, and before she returns to his form she pushes her lips over his cock, tasting herself on him. Humming at the taste of their perfect mixture of tangy, sweet, and musky. "by the fucking gods, love."  He all but yells with his hands immediately finding themselves fisting the snarls of her hair feeling her head work his cock in and out of her mouth, resistance from her tongue making her mouth even tighter around him. “If you want my cum in your mouth darling" he groans loudly “all you need to do is ask." Feeling the knot in his stomach tightening. 

She pulls her mouth from him with a satisfying pop and moves to kiss him, sharing their unique flavor. Her eyes are full of desire meet his that are equally if not more so. Her eyes round as she pouts playfully a crooked smile peaking at the corner of her mouth “When you cum for me will you cum in my mouth?" She watches his eyes begin to smolder. That smolder disappears and turns into pure desire when she reseats herself onto his aching cock and returns to moving across him working her way to both of their ends. 

"How could I say no?” he growls, letting his hands and eyes explore her body. When he feels her core tighten around him he darts his fingers directly to her clit. She stops her movements, her body frozen from the welcome overstimulation. He holds a fist full of flesh on her hip with his free hand and drives himself up into her, sending her over the edge of her orgasm. As her body trembles and releases wetness onto his waist, he growls loudly “Fuuck. That's right. Cum for me Vira." He ends in a pur rocking his hips slowly into her, riding out the last of her orgasm continuing dangerously close to his own. He raises her body off of him pulling himself from her, dick twitching against his stomach from the cool air replacing her heat.

Without a moments hesitation she wraps her warm lips around him and fucks him with her mouth, taking as much of him in her mouth as she can earning small gags from her throat. Every time she gags on him he moans, some part of his mind enjoying the fact that his dick is causing that unconscious response. Catching on to that cue Vira takes him further, gagging deeper on his cock, strings of spit, slick and precum drooling from her lips. “You're going to make me fill that dirty mouth of yours.” He pants unable to will any of his limbs to comply. He lies weakly watching her tend to his cock. She hums a response, the vibration from her sounds sends him past the brink of his pleasure. She moans as she tastes his salty spend, greedily swallowing every drop he gives her, tenderly licking him clean until he pulls her away from him.

“I didn't think you could be more incredible." He pants turning to lay his head on her chest listening to her heart thumping behind her ribs, smiling when she drags the pads of her fingers across his sweaty scalp. “but you are nothing less than extraordinary.” He coos into her damp flesh "My extraordinary love. What do you need right now?" His eyes search hers, trying to discern what aftercare she needs. Realizing quickly she doesn't have an answer he softly whispers some things she might want or need. “I can get you water, or breakfast, I can draw you a bath-" her eyes perk up a bit when he mentions a bath “We can lay here for a moment while you get your bearings, and I'll get that run for  you, darling." He repositions himself higher on the bed pulling her gently onto his broad chest “We’ll lay here as long as you need." He whispers.

The couple stays like that for a few, quiet minutes before Vira stirs and rights herself. "Water and a bath sounds amazing, Star.” She smiles.

He stands quickly and kisses her salty lips gently “And it'll be done." He whispers “I'll be right back." He enters the washroom and the sound of water running and the scent of peaches fill the air. Vira looks down to her thigh where two dark scabs have formed. She smiles and climbs out of the bed to walk into the washroom placing her hands gently on Astarion’s hips. “It's not ready yet, my love." He chuckles, turning to kiss her cheek. 

"Thank you for everything this morning.” She purrs, setting her cheek on his shoulder.

He tuts a response “No need to thank me darling. Now let's get you in here to clean up while I fetch you some water and breakfast.”

"Be sure to get yourself some too.” She reminds him, stepping into the steaming water and lowering herself into the bath with a contented sigh.

"Oh, but I've already had mine." His eyebrows raise “from my most generous partner." He winks and leaves the washroom, quickly putting on a pair of pants and hurrying to the kitchen to fetch a glass of water and toast and jam, kindly waving away his attendants, wanting to be the one to take care of her needs. He delivers her breakfast to her and leans himself on the sink across the room. “Are you feeling okay?" She nods, enjoying his doting on her and the fresh jam.

They each finish getting cleaned up and fall back into bed to cuddle. Clean once again.

@zoeloveslotr @silverfangmarks @prudent-nerd

[rriavian]

Slightly different take than the premise @aisalynn came up with so hopefully I can entice them into writing a vampire au too. And maybe @seiya-starsniper with that iwtv idea :)

So! The fic! The Corinthian is a vampire, and Dream is the weirdly immortal entity he’s obsessed with. Had a couple of options for this but settled on Dream is (still) the Greek god Morpheus who’s spending his spare time vampire hunting and looking very good while he does it. Why is he doing it? Well, vampires don’t sleep/dream once they are turned and yeah that could potentially offend a god but…a group of them once caught Morpheus unawares and drank his blood which is far more offensive actually.

And it also gave them back the ability to dream which is doubly insulting and so Morpheus was like how dare you. 

To keep that a secret—and also punish them for the theft—Morpheus goes on a vampire killing spree. And then keeps it as a hobby. The Corinthian is already a vampire doing his own unhinged thing, but he catches sight of Morpheus somewhere somehow and is like ooh. But he doesn’t actually know who he’s messing with. So he manages to drink his blood—this would involve some sexy wall/floor pinning probably—and then is faced with a very very pissed off god. 

(He’s into it)

Anyway he's lucky enough not to be murdered (maybe Morpheus gets distracted and lets him go?) but he does fall even deeper into obsession. The Corinthian realises he can now dream and is like ok I’ve gotta figure out who this mysterious immortal is because not only is this a little odd but I didn’t even get a name. And then there’s some tension filled dream sharing, a bit of ill received flirting, and the Corinthian maybe tries to leverage the fact that he now knows Dream’s secret in order to get laid (and/or more of his delicious blood).

Morpheus is like: I will introduce you to the exact colour of your internal organs if you continue to speak to me this way

The Corinthian with hearts in his eyes: yeah sure would I need to lay down for that or can we do it standing up 

Unfortunately Morpheus doesn’t go for this. After being turned down quite spectacularly the Corinthian decides giving up is for losers and that the best course of action is actually to seduce the fuck out of this god. So he goes about figuring out how Morpheus likes to be worshipped. 

And then precedes to be far, far too good at it.

Morpheus is annoyed at how flattered he is because the world has moved on from ancient times so he’s mostly been forgotten. He’s still just as powerful but people don’t know about him the way they used to. No one’s built him a temple or left him an offering in centuries. They don’t even say his name anymore. And they certainly don’t murmur prayers the way the Corinthian does, or with such descriptive content…

The first time it happens and he actually blushes Morpheus is enraged that he’s become so easy. That his standards of worshippers have fallen so far that this small thing is making him squirm.

What happens next is a matter of pride. (Is it though?)

In typical Dream fashion Morpheus is like ok I’m going to demand more and more, because if this vampire wants to worship a god then he better worship a god. Cue even more intense dream sharing. And Morpheus very reluctantly starts to become just as obsessed in return while happily denying it. Just fighting it the whole time while also acting increasingly possessive towards his vampire. Mostly he manages to keep this a secret through the use of carefully blank facial expressions and a lot of casual threats.

Though sometimes he slips.

One day he’s daydreaming about the Corinthian’s pretty gold hair and accidentally shares it with him.

(That’s it I have to kill him now.)

[ice-cap-k]

Just Gold: CH2

Soooo, I forgot to cross-post here that I've written a chapter 2 for the team ranchers au fic I wrote up back in October. Tango's a dragon. Jimmy's a bird. Good fun.

Read it on AO3: Just Gold

Chapter 1 on Tumblr

__________________________________________________

Jimmy was a Phoenix.

That's not to say he was very good at being a phoenix, but that was what he was. Phoenixes were supposed to be all about death and rebirth and eternal life. It’s hard to be good at the ‘eternal life’ portion of the job, though, when he keeps dying all the time. 

Not like most phoenixes, though. There was almost never a cycle of burning to ash at a ripe old age and emerging as a newly hatched chick from the ashes. Even when he literally burned to death. He never got that far. It was more like he just woke back up having never aged or unaged a day. That wasn’t normal for his kind, but he supposed that after so many repeated deaths so close together over such an extended period of time, he must have somehow stunted his growth. Ungrowth? Aging, maybe? Whatever it was supposed to be, it was messed up for him. 

It had its ups and downs. Dying wasn’t necessarily pleasant, but at least he still came back. He always came back… eventually. And unlike other phoenixes, he didn’t have to deal with the crippling discomfort of old age, or the helplessness of reverting back to a chick. But he also could never grow back the brilliant plumage that people associated with his kind. The bright yellow feathers he was left with made him look no different than a larger than average canary. 

To be honest, he was a little self-conscious about it. 

It was partially his fault, as much as he hated to admit it. He was pretty accident-prone. Bird brains, ya know? It was hard living in a world with glass windows. You’d think after all these years he would have learned a thing or two about self-preservation.

But here’s the thing about immortality, when you know that nothing can actually do any permanent damage, you start to lose sight of the inherent threat. And when you don’t notice a threat, it’s easy to underestimate the world around you. And to overestimate yourself.

Case in point, Jimmy’s newest friend was a dragon. 

Dragons are meant to be big scary beasts with razor-sharp claws and fangs. They were meant to be merciless, and prideful, and very very dangerous. 

It never really occurred to Jimmy that Tango could be all of those things… Well, at least not until he watched Tango burn over a dozen people to ash. So yeah, now he supposes Tango could be all those things. 

But what he first saw when the golden dragon came crashing through his nest at the base of the mountain, after the initial annoyance began to fade, was someone suffering from the kind of bad luck he was all too familiar with. Someone who wouldn’t come back from the fraying edges of death like he would have.

Fortunately, Jimmy was still a phoenix. 

He had a long memory that reached back eons across his many previous lives. And in one such life, there had been an old ranch not too far from here. One large enough that the dragon could hide indoors. One that was out of sight of the nearby village. One that Jimmy knew had been left vacant. 

Someone with a healthy dose of self-preservation probably would have kept their distance until the dragon awoke, so as not to startle it into attacking. Or maybe they would have pointed the poor beast in the direction of shelter and been on their way. If they were feeling really reckless, they might have tested to see if the dragon would have let them help it get up, or bandage some of its many wounds. 

Not Jimmy. If Tango had burned him or clawed him off or rolled over and crushed him, he would have just come back anyway. And cleaning wounds or helping the dragon leverage itself up wasn’t in the phoenix’s wheelhouse at the moment. Tango was so big compared to the phoenix that Jimmy could fit in the palm of his hand comfortably. And what would he stem the blood flow with? His feathers? He didn’t have nearly enough to go around. 

Of course, Tango didn’t do any of those things when he woke up. He had done nothing to hurt Jimmy, except maybe the Phoenix’s pride when the dragon tried to shoo him away like a common pigeon. 

And while he didn’t have to go with Tango, Jimmy wanted to go back to the ranch with the dragon. The old building housed a lot of fond memories. That was one reason. The other was Tango himself.  

The truth was, Jimmy had been setting up his nest at the base of that mountain because he knew that people were nearby. Maybe not necessarily a giant gold and red dragon, but the humans of the village weren’t too far away. Phoenixes worked best in a flock. Especially Jimmy. He could handle being on his own, sure, but he thrived amidst others. And what a ‘flock’ looked like to Jimmy had changed over the lifetimes. Sometimes that meant coexisting with humans. Sometimes it meant flying with large groups of your more typical, non-magical birds. Sometimes a flock was only him and one other, and sometimes it was a large group of friends and family. He had been looking for his next flock. Had been planning on finding a nice family to settle down with for a while and play the part of a typical pet canary. 

And then came Tango.

Really, dragons and phoenixes were pretty similar if you think about it. Depending on how you define immortality, both species were technically immortal. Dragons could live forever as long as they weren’t killed. And sure, Jimmy died all the time, but death wasn’t permanent for him. A phoenix couldn’t breathe fire, but they still had the same fire in their belly that dragons did. They both could fly. They both could burn. They both could bleed gold…

According to that train of thought, dragons were practically big scaly phoenixes in their own right.

And as the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together.

______________________________________________________________

“Tango Tango Tango TANGO TANGO TANGO!!!”

The lump of stone is heavy in Jimmy’s claws. He’s not used to feeling so imbalanced while flying. Not for this long. He kept having to remind himself that it would be worth the effort once he saw the look on his buddy’s face. 

That doesn’t make the uneven strain on his wings better, though. It’s so bad, he nearly missed the window entirely. The backside of his wing brushed against the wooden frame. A stray splinter caught at his coverts. There’s a painful twinge as a few feathers are pulled loose and he over-corrects, sending him spiraling to the floor inside. 

The little bird lands in a messy heap on the floorboards, losing his grip on the pretty rock. It went rattling across the floor in front of his beak. 

He tested his toes, gingerly flexing each one to make sure he hadn’t broken anything in the crash. Nothing appeared out of place outside of a few wisps of broken yellow feathers. That would probably leave a bruise or two, but nothing more severe. Jimmy wasn’t about to die this time around. Even the rock looked completely intact after its little tumble.

He had landed in the old ranch house kitchen. It looked warm and inviting in the late evening haze, despite the unused furniture strewn across the floor. The smell of smoke still clung to the walls and floor. Enough time had passed that the uncomfortable burn of brimstone had begun to fade. The ruined walls had been stripped away and patched up with new oak and spruce timber. The smell of the hewn wood boards mixed with the lingering scent of ash. It almost reminded him of sitting alongside a nice warm bonfire under the stars on a cool summer night.

“Tango?”

The dragon wasn’t answering, but something was creaking nearby. Floorboards groaned. Hinges squeaked. Jimmy had a good idea of where his friend could be, but he wasn’t about to go flying around indoors while carrying that stone around. So he hopped to his feet and took flight. The kitchen floor was as good a place as any to leave it for now. 

“Can you hear me, buddy? I brought you something?”

With the slightest shift of his wingtips, he banked around an open archway into the living room. Sure enough, there was Tango. The dragon had his back to him. His claws scraped at the inside of a makeshift hopper he had managed to fashion out of an old shovel head and a little fire-breath metalworking. Looked like something had gotten stuck in the sorting system again. 

“I can’t believe this. This is ridiculous,” Tango was saying as Jimmy landed on his favorite perch; one of the ridges of the dragon’s right horn. It was just so nice and warm; glossy and easy to nestle against. It shifted as Tango tried to look up at him, his head tilting to compensate for the slight weight change. “Oh! Hey Jimmy.”

“Hey, I’m back. How’s the progress coming along?”

A wisp of smoke wafted out of Tango’s nostrils. He turned back to the funnel in his claws. “Well, it was going pretty fantastic for a while there until this thing decided to jamificate the whole operation.” Jimmy tightened his grip on the horn as the dragon beneath him let out a sigh. The delicate swirls of smoke turned into a turbulent stream as he breathed in then out. “These quick fixes just aren’t cutting it.”

“Quick fixes?” Jimmy chuckled. “Tango, you know you can take all the time in the world, right? Automatic sorting will be nice and all, but we don’t absolutely need it right now. We barely got the house patched up. The barn’s not even rebuilt yet.”

If anything, the sheer amount of work that he had managed over the last few days had been impressive. With the barn gone, the two had taken shelter in the farmhouse. In that time, Tango had thrown himself into making the place as easy to live in as possible. The ruined portions of the wall had been stripped away and replaced. A door had been renovated so that there was an entrance large enough for the dragon to pass through. Bedrooms had been ransacked and rearranged so that they had a place to sleep at night. For Tango, that meant a padded stretch of floor space for him to curl up in. For Jimmy, a simple shelf with a nest he had put together all on his own.

And then there were the projects! The redstone projects were in every room. The sorting system, a trash dispenser, a line of automatic cooking furnaces. Whatever materials he and Tango had gathered into a tiny hoard while the dragon had been grounded were gone, put to use in whatever idea his friend had thrown himself into. 

But they hadn’t touched the barn. 

Jimmy could tell that the memory of the attack was still a bit of a sore spot for Tango. Sometimes, the barn served as a reminder. Even after all the bodies had been cleared away. 

The stream of smoke coming from Tango’s nostrils petered out. He could hear the dragon's claws clicking against the shovel head as it turned in his claws. Gold wings still trussed up in their splints stretched ever so slightly, nearly knocked over a dusty grandfather clock they had shoved into the corner of the living room. The contact was enough to make Tango wince beneath him. 

“You’re right,” Tango relented. He placed the funnel down on the hardwood floor at his feet. It rolled unevenly away to bump against one of the chests. “There’s not enough room for us here.” 

The feathers along Jimmy’s shoulders puffed up. “Us? Excuse me. I find this place rather cozy. I think what you meant to say is that there’s not enough room for the two of us.” He almost tented his wings to make himself bigger. A show of fluffed feathers and bravado as if he could square up against the massive creature beneath him, but his friend wouldn’t be able to see that. Not as long as he was perched on the horn. “I’m a big man. The big man!” 

 There was a jolt below as Tango shook his head. The sudden movement knocked Jimmy’s feet out from under him. With a shrill cry, he went tumbling down the glittering gold slope of Tango’s head until he skittered to a halt hanging halfway from his nose. Yellow wings stretched and pressed against scales as his feet dangled uselessly over open air. “TANGO! HELP!”

“You know you can fly, right?” the dragon huffed, a smile evident in his voice. Still, he reached up and scooped Jimmy up in his claws. 

“Y-yeah. Of course I do,” he sputtered, adjusting his jostled feathers back into place. It took a bit of time, considering how ruffled they were from the tumble. The wave of embarrassment washing over him did not help. 

“Sure thing, buddy.” The corners of Tango’s mouth pulled up for a moment, before his head swung back and forth to take in his surroundings. “You’ve got a point, though. This place isn’t big enough for us. I should just settle down until my wings finish healing. It’s not like I have to wait much longer.” As if to illustrate his point, he shuffled his wings against his back. He didn’t recoil from the movement. His eyes didn’t crinkle at the corners from strain. He seemed fine. 

The only apparent problem was that there wasn’t enough room to risk spreading them out. Just that little motion knocked a faded family portrait off the wall with a thumb claw. 

It had been more than Tango had been able to manage without wincing in pain a couple of weeks ago. The membrane between the wing fingers had healed over a while ago. Dull scars pitted the skin, stubborn reminders of how badly the dragon had been hurt. The bones were less obvious, but beneath the scales and muscle, they were well on their way through the healing process. Tango had been good about keeping them still and letting them mend. And when he had been tempted to put pressure on them early and take a risk, Jimmy had made sure he was there and ready to give him a solid peck upside the head to chase those thoughts away.

“You… you want to leave?” The question hung in the empty air. There was a moment of silence. Not even the grandfather clock ticked with the passing seconds. They had never bothered to wind it.

Eventually, Tango shrugged. “It’s an option. Beats accidentally busting this joint up. Feels like I’m trying to put a square peg through a round hole, and I’m the peg.” He held his claw up to his head for Jimmy to hop back up onto his horn. The small bird gratefully settled down against his perch while Tango reached down to scoop the picture off the hardwood floor. He watched the two smiling faces centered in the frame as Tango hung it back up on the wall. One a woman. One a man. Both familiar to the phoenix.

When the dragon’s claws pulled away, the frame was crooked. “This place is made for humans.” There was a sad note in his voice. Something distant. Something angry. A shiver ran down Jimmy’s spine as he thought of men on fire. People rendered down screaming smudges of light on a dark night.

He didn’t like where that train of Tango’s thought seemed to be going.  “Or human-sized people,” Jimmy blurted in a rush, trying to bring the conversation around to something more his speed. Something that didn’t involve Tango leaving. Or humans. “Or me-sized birds.”

“Or that,” the dragon agreed with a snort. 

“You know, we could get back to finishing up the barn. It was a lot of fun. You know, before it burnt down… And there was a lot more room for the both of us.” 

Tango’s head swayed thoughtfully. Jimmy rocked along with him, shifting with the movement instinctually. “Yeah, we could do that,” Tango hummed. They turned towards the door. “That’s another option.” 

“I say we just focus on getting the roof back up and then worry about the walls after.”

“That’s not going to protect us from much.”

“I’m not concerned.”

“Well of course you’re not, mister ‘I can’t die.’”

“Hey, I don’t appreciate that coming from you, mister ‘immortal.’ You very well know I can die.”

“That doesn’t count.”

“EXCUSE ME?!”

By now, Tango had lumbered back into the kitchen. It was the only way he could go to get to the only door big enough for him to fit through. There was the stone in the middle of the floor, right where Jimmy had left it. “Here I am, all excited, bringing you a gift, even,” he twittered, alighting from his perch. This time, the little bird landed on the floor with much more grace and intention next to the glittering red gift. “And you’re bad-mouthing me. I will not stand for such slander.”

Jimmy watched with satisfaction as Tango’s eyes glittered. He had just noticed the large chunk of redstone. “Wait-a-minute…”  The dragon had to hunker down, practically resting his head on the floor so that they were eye level. “Where did that come from?”

“I found it.” Pride warmed Jimmy over from head to tail tip. Chest feathers puffed out as he pushed the rock forward with one foot. “Had to go pretty far out for it to. We’ve picked the nearby valley and mountain clean, but I know how much you’ve been wishing for more. You practically used up everything we were using for your temporary hoard, so I brought you back the biggest piece I could find.”

There had been more past the villages, but Jimmy hadn’t been physically equipped to tackle an entire ore vein, even if it was on the surface. Mining was out of the question, and what was readily available was usually no bigger than fine grains of dust. What was he supposed to do with dust? Sweep it up with his wings? But this! This he could bring back on his own.

“And it’s for me?!?”

He gave the rock another tap with his clawed toes. It rocked, then rattled and rolled to its side. “Well, I sure ain’t gonna use it.” 

“Oh my gosh. I don’t even know what to say.” With careful claws, Tango plucked the stone off the floor. He held it gingerly, like he was afraid he was going to break it. Knowing Tango’s strength, it was entirely possible he could have crushed it to dust if he wanted to. “Thank you, Jimmy.”

It felt good. It felt good to see Tango smile like that. “Don’t worry about it. Just use it towards something cool, ya hear?”

He nodded. “I don’t even know what I’d do with it. Or if I’d even do anything with. I think I’m just gonna hold onto it for now.” Then, to Jimmy’s horror, he tucked it into one of the folds of his bandages.

“No!”

Tango whipped his head around, eyes wide, pupils shrunk down to hairline slits, thrown utterly off guard by Jimmy’s outburst.“What- What? What??  WHAT?!?”

“No. No. NO,” he repeats unhelpfully. “You’re not putting it there,” he chirped. “That’s just asking to aggravate your injury. I’m not letting you go and do that.”

The phoenix hopped towards the dragon, who scrambled away with wide eyes. Considering their size difference, it would have been a comical sight to see the little bird scaring the dragon. But Jimmy wasn’t laughing. He was too concerned for that.

“But I-”

“No buts!”

“Fine!” Tango still looked a bit baffled as he pried the rock back out from a layer of gauze. 

It had only gone beneath the first layer of clean linen. There were plenty of layers that would have separated the rock from skin and scale. There were also plenty of spare bandages to replace it if necessary. As far as the phoenix was concerned, it still wasn’t worth the risk.

“I’ll just stash it in my nest or something instead,” the dragon huffed. “Just gotta find a spot where I won’t roll over and crush it first.”

“You don’t have to do that. Why don’t we find you something to help you carry it? A safe place to put it until you decide.”

The sharp scales making up the ridge of his eye raised in a way that Jimmy thought looked uncomfortable, what with all those sharp edges. Tango made no sign that it was uncomfortable in any way, though. “You’ve got something in mind?”

“I’ve got an idea.” Jimmy bounced forward, craning his neck so he could see past his friend through the kitchen door. There was a trapdoor in the hallway ceiling. Cobwebs dusted the corners and the wood looked warped and faded from years of disuse, but it was still there. “If memory serves me correctly, I bet ya there’s something in the attic we can use.”

“The attic?” Tango turned, following Jimmy’s gaze to the hatch in the ceiling. “Oh no way. I’m never going to fit through that.”

“That’s why you’ve got a big strong man like me to help.” With a sweep of his wings, Jimmy took off. “Mind lifting the door for me a smidge, though?”

He was too busy circling the hall to get a good look at Tango’s expression, but he could still hear his friend’s voice. “Will you even be able to see up there?” 

“Sure I will.” 

A golden tail snaked its way to the ceiling, pushing the trapdoor open a few centimeters. That was all Jimmy needed. With a twitch of his tail and a twitter, he pulled his wings in tight and swooped through the opening. Almost immediately, he crashed headfirst into the long thin wires of an old bird cage.

Bam!

“What was that?! Is everything alright?”

“Fine! It’s fine Tango!” It was fine. There were a few more bruises added to the number he already had from crashing into the kitchen, but his wings weren’t broken and he hadn’t hit his head. Another potential death avoided. Another win in his book. 

The birdcage was ruined, though. It had toppled to its side after the impact and rolled into a forgotten rat trap. He looked it over as he settled feathers back into their places. There were massive dents in the wires now. One gap was big enough for someone his size to easily pass through.

The sight sent a twinge through his chest. What a shame. 

“Could you hold the door for me, Tango? I need a minute to look around.”

“Yeah. I got it.”

“Thank you!”

Well, there was no reason to dwell on an old cage. It hadn’t been used in years anyway. Instead, Jimmy turned his attention to the rest of the attic. Trunks and boxes and chests, oh my. The space was piled high with more junk than he recalled. The abandoned items were dusty from years of neglect. It made what should have been a brightly colored, overstuffed room feel dull and hollow. 

Again, there was no reason to dwell on that now. The old inhabitants were long gone. It was him and Tango now. So Jimmy flew, passing over a dress form with a long wedding gown and a crate painted with a hot air balloon. He instead began his search with the piles of boxes on the other side of the room.

_____________________________________________________________

Night had fallen.

Jimmy felt nice and snug in his nest. It was perched in the Y-bend of the support beams holding up the newly built barn roof. If you could call it that. Slats of timber had been screwed together and raised onto the supports at an angle. There weren’t any shingles or insulation to keep the water out if it were to start raining. There definitely weren’t any walls. Tango was right, it wouldn’t protect them from much. It wasn’t much, but it was still a lot for a day’s work.

At least it was a nice night outside. Almost like they were sleeping under the stars. The twinkling lights were just visible through the spaces where walls would eventually go up. And it was spacious. Jimmy didn’t have to try very hard to coax his friend into sleeping there for the night. He had a feeling that the dragon hadn’t been excited about spending another night cooped up in one of those too-small bedrooms. In a show of solidarity, he had even helped the dragon carry his nest out. That is, if ‘helped’ meant ‘asked Tango to do it.’ What could he say? Tango could carry the whole thing in his claws. If Jimmy had tried doing it himself, he would have had to carry it twig by twig.

Still, the dragon hadn’t seemed to mind. He was in good spirits, curled up beneath Jimmy in the bedding they had pulled from the linen closet. The leather coin pouch Jimmy had found in the attic was tied around one of his wrists, the redstone rock nestled inside.

“Okay, my turn,” he was saying. With one claw, he traced a line from one star to another, to another, and another as if connecting the dots. 

Jimmy followed the motion, trying to find a pattern in the movements. “Looks like a triangle with a line down the middle. Is that supposed to be one of your hoppers?”

Tango shook his head. “I was going more for a cross shape. I’m also ninety-nine percent certain that it’s a real constellation I’m pointing at. Come on. Try again.” He traced the line of stars once more. Jimmy’s head twitched, following its path intently. Left, right, center, a small swipe up, and then a long trail down. A real constellation, huh? He’d never been very good with those. He wasn’t some lowly pigeon that had to worry about keeping track of directions.

Wait a minute…

“Is it a bird?”

“Ding ding ding! We have a winner!” With a grin, Tango knocked his tail into the base of the Y-beam. The shockwave made Jimmy’s nest shiver around him. “Pretty sure it’s supposed to be a hawk or something, but I don’t remember the name of it.”

“Well, don’t look at me,” he said, pushing the twigs back into place. “I wouldn’t know the first thing about that sort of thing.”

“Really?”

Jimmy peered over the edge of his nest. There was Tango, staring up at him with red eyes brimming with curiosity. His friend tilted his pointy head as if seeing him from a new perspective would help him understand. “Well, yeah,” he mumbled. “I’ve never really needed it.”

“Then how’d you navigate?”

He didn’t. Jimmy shrugged his wings, a motion that probably wasn’t visible to the dragon below. Not over the ledge of his nest. “Usually my other flock mates handled that.”

“Flock?” 

“I’m a bird, Tango. That shouldn’t be so weird.”

“I don’t know! You’re the first Phoenix I've met. For all I know, you’re all meant to be hermits.” With that, Tango pushed himself up to a seat in his makeshift bed. Bandaged wings trailed at his sides as he craned his neck back to get a better look at Jimmy. “Besides, you’ve never talked about a flock before. Where are they now?” Scales scraped the bare dirt as the dragon worried at it with his claws. “I’m not keeping you from them, am I?”

“Of course not,” Jimmy exclaimed. He almost laughed at the thought. “Far from it.” 

Those big red eyes narrowed at him. “I don’t understand.”

 Jimmy wanted nothing more than to sink further into his nest out of sight. Of course Tango wouldn’t get it. It's not like Jimmy had ever talked about it. It was his own fault of course, but had his reasons. The main one being that it had simply never come up in conversations. Another one was that he had gotten his hopes up about Tango sticking around, and with it came the fear that if he voiced his feelings about flocks, it would only make things awkward and ensure Tango would leave.  Now he wasn’t sure what to do with the sudden rush of self-consciousness. “Sorry. I guess this is kind of confusing. What I mean is, I don’t really have a flock right now. Not anymore.”

“Oh…”

A shadow passed over Tango’s eyes and Jimmy realized that his wording probably hadn’t been the best. “It’s not like anything bad happened to them,” he quickly added, trying to set the record right before his friend got the wrong idea. “It’s just, every so often, time passes and you’ve gotta move on. Kinda comes with the territory of being tangentially immortal when everyone else around you isn’t, you know?”

Tango blinked. “So it’s not a flock of phoenixes, like you?”

“Nah.” Jimmy waved his question off with a flick of his wingtip. “I haven’t flown with my kind for a very long time. I guess flock might be the wrong word for what I’m trying to say. I’ve lived with flocks made up of birds, sure, but I’ve also stayed with people. Humans. All sorts. Could probably call it family, or friends, but ‘flock’ feels right. Like it works the best for what I mean.”

He expected Tango to start shooting off more questions, or to laugh at him. Maybe even squint at him with those brightly colored eyes as if that could help the dragon figure him out. To his surprise, his friend instead looked back at the farmhouse through one of the many gaps in the barn’s foundation. His wings slumped to the ground as he let himself fall back into his bedding. “Humans, huh?” While it was technically a question, there was no hint of curiosity in his voice. If anything, it sounded strained.  

The two sat in silence. Tango stared out at the other building, tail-tip twitching, and Jimmy picked himself over to the edge of his nest, not sure what to do or say.  Now he’d gone and done it. This was exactly the type of reaction he had been trying to avoid. At least since the barn burned down. The little bird wasn’t sure what else to do, so he decided to fill the silence himself.

“They’re not all like that, buddy. I swear. And the ones I hung out with…” Jimmy found his own gaze drifting towards the barn house as well. It had changed so much but was still so similar. “They’re long gone. I promise you. And even if they weren’t, I can also promise you that they weren’t the type to go around harassing folks like us.” He blinked and saw green eyes and a cheeky smile in the empty space behind his eyelids. “Well, not like those fools who showed up here,” he corrected himself. “Harmless. Good people living a good life and I was there helping them out. Rooting ‘em on-”

“Hey, Jimmy.”

Jimmy blinked. He shrank down against his nest a little lower. “Yeah?”

Tango didn’t look at him. Just kept his eyes locked on the farmhouse, his head propped up on a lump of fabric. “Is that how you knew about this place? When you first found me? Is this your human friends’ home?” 

The little bird sighed. “Yeah.”

“What were they like?”

Oh. “Um, really nice actually,” Jimmy twittered. “There were two of them. You know that portrait in the living room, right?”

“Mmhmm.”

“That was them. The man, the- uh- the one with the green streak in his hair, he liked to annoy me. Kept reminding me I was small and rubbed it in my face, but he also threatened to punch a guy in the face for almost breaking my wing. He had a big head, but he was a really good friend…

“And the woman with the pink hair, that was his wife. She was the one who found me. I had just gotten tossed around in a nasty storm. Wasn’t pretty. I was probably just as hurt back then as you were when I found you. She picked me up and took me back here. Took care of my bandages and gave me plenty of seeds to eat while I was on the mend. We got along really well. It was just how I’d imagine having a sibling is like.”

“And they knew what you were?”

Jimmy couldn’t help the little chuckle that escaped his beak. “Yeah. Yeah. They thought I was a normal bird at first, just like you. Didn’t take them long to realize that wasn’t the case after I started talking.” Another thing they had in common with Tango. “They were good flockmates once they figured it out, though.”

“I see…”

Was that an invitation to talk more? Or a dismissal? Jimmy couldn’t tell. He wasn’t sure what to say. He could talk about old memories of this house. Of the ranch. Of the people inside. Would it help? Would it only make things worse? Tango didn’t say anything else, either. He just kept looking at that farmhouse, away from Jimmy.

More silence. More of that infuriating quiet that made it feel like time had stopped around them. There wasn’t even a breeze. No whisper of grass or whistle of wind. Empty. Jimmy hated it. And after what felt like hours but couldn’t have been more than a minute, he decided he had enough of it.  

The little bird jumped off of the beam to glide down to Tango. At the last second, he pulled in his wings and dropped, clawed toes catching on Tango’s horn.

“Tango I-”

Jimmy cut himself off. The dragon’s eyes were glistening. Tears pooled at the corners of his eyes. Wet streams left streaks from his eyes down to his chin. As soon as he noticed Jimmy looking, he tucked his face beneath his claws. 

“Tango, are you alright?”

“I’m sorry.”

“What?”

“I’m so sorry Jimmy.” Bright little droplets began to fall from between his claws. 

“For what?” The phoenix leaned down closer, patting one wing against his friend’s head. He wasn’t sure if Tango could feel the brush of feathers through the scales, but he hoped that the pressure and motion could comfort him. “What on Earth do you have to be sorry for?”

“I messed up. I lost my temper. I ruined everything.”

“What are you on about? Of course you didn’t.”

“But I did. It’s because of me the ranch burnt down. Here you are telling me that this was your home, that you lived here and had family here and they were humans, and I- And I went messed it all.”

Jimmy couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Tango, you’re being silly. They were trying to kill you,” he said, exasperated. “And they were the ones who started the fires.”

“Exactly! They wouldn’t have been here if it wasn’t for me. They wouldn’t have shot you or ruined your home if it wasn’t for me. I led those people here, and then I killed them. Humans, just like your friends.”

This was ridiculous. Jimmy hopped off the horn. Tango moved his claws away automatically, making room for the little bird to avoid accidentally bumping or crushing him. With the space cleared, Jimmy perched instead on the end of the dragon’s nose so that he could look his friend in those big, teary eyes. “It’s fine, really. And it’s not your fault by a long shot. The ranch, the house, it’s been vacant for years. I haven’t been there for years. Neither have my old flockmates. They’re gone. This hasn’t been home to me for years. Not until I came back here with you. And it’s not because I lived here before. It’s because I’m here with you and these past few weeks have been a blast. And yeah, I’m sad it burned, but I’d rather those guys burn the place down than get you.”

Tango sniffed. The rush of air and smoke nearly knocked Jimmy from his perch. It certainly left his feathers in a mess. But he stood strong as his friend wiped at an eye. “Really?” he asked.

“Really.”

“But- but what about the humans?”

“What about them? Far as I’m concerned, they got what was coming to ‘em.”

Tango’s eyes widened. “But… but I thought… The way you’ve been avoiding talking about the fire, and we don’t ever mention the humans… I thought I really scared you.”

Well…

“I mean, I won’t lie, you’re temper took me by surprise. But you thought I was dead. And like I said, they were out to get you. I don’t hold it against you if that’s what you're thinking. I’m not scared of you.”

Tango seemed to melt beneath him. Massive wings that were once wound against his sides untensed and pooled across the ground. A massive sigh escaped his nose. It was less violent this time, though, sending the oddly comforting smell of bonfire smoke wafting over Jimmy. The guilty glisten in his eyes turned into a reassured glitter. “Oh thank goodness. I thought we were avoiding talking about all this time because I scared you. You would keep mentioning it and then dropping it right away. I felt so guilty all this time, you don’t understand.”

“What? No,” Jimmy huffed, settling his feathers back into place. “Is that really why you’ve been shutting down every time I bring up the fire or humans?”

“Uh… yeah…” he said sheepishly, trying to look away. It was a difficult task, considering Jimmy was right on his nose. 

“I thought it was because you didn’t want to think about it. Every time I mentioned it you got that look in your eye and I thought you were still angry at them or something. And then you were talking about leaving today-”

Tango cut him off. “I thought you’d want me out for ruining your place and losing my temper!”

“Of course NOT!” That was the farthest thing from what he wanted. “If anything, I’d hope you might stick around for a while after your wings were healed. It was finally starting to feel like-” Jimmy snapped his beak shut, realizing what he was just about to say. Was it too soon?

“What? What what what?!” Tango asked. He pushed his head forward, trying to lean in, but Jimmy was perched on his nose. The little bird just moved with him. He blinked, realizing his mistake before reaching out with his claws to scoop Jimmy up. “What were you going to say?”

He debated. He warred within himself, thinking so hard there was probably smoke coming out the sides of his head in a similar fashion to the smoke coming from Tango’s nose. If there was ever a time to say it, now was that time.

“It was starting to feel like we were flockmates.” 

[machut]

Check out this awesome thing my friend wrote!!!

When you put together a team of the very best, at least one of them can wind up being an immortal just due to the extra experience. Having four of them turn out to be immortal? It almost makes the fact that one of them isn’t even stranger.

An AU of Leverage in which the whole team is immortal, drawing from both The Old Guard and a bit from Highlander. No quickenings though.

(Season 1 is complete and is in the process of being posted, in case anyone is on the fence for incomplete fics)

[trivalentlinks]

i am very sleep deprived again, so here is sleepy trivalent's Leverage Prompts Part n for some large value of n:

So, pre-canon demon AU where human-demon interaction is rare. Where it exists, it's usually in the form of the human binding the demon to themselves for the rest of the human's mortal life (so the demon has to do whatever the human says for the rest of the human's mortal life, which, for magical reasons, they cannot extend indefinitely) in exchange for the human's immortal soul after the human dies.

Demons cannot actually move around the human realm without a contract allowing them to do so, and even with a contract, they can only use their magic as dictated by the contract (usually, this means they can only use their magic to carry out their human's orders)

Anyway, Quinn is a demon, going about his normal demonly life in some other dimension, when he gets summoned to San Lorenzo by Eliot at Moreau's request.

Moreau proposes the usual kind of deal to Quinn, Eliot's soul in exchange for Quinn being bound to Eliot for the rest of Eliot's life.

Quinn takes a look at Eliot's whole Situation with Moreau and says to Eliot,

"Hm, I don't know, your soul's not in the best state, maybe you can sweeten the pot for me."

And Eliot's thinking, look, he's at rock bottom here and still digging, what else could he possibly have to offer?

And Quinn's like, "How about this, make me some human food--I haven't had that in decades, and last time was... not your species's best work. If you can make me something better than the tuna salad jello the last guy fed me, then we can talk about a deal."

And Eliot... Well, Eliot hasn't cooked in a while. Thinking about cooking reminds him of a kitchen in Belgium and a man who taught him how to use his hands to create instead of destroy...

In other words, Quinn's found the one thing that hurts possibly more than offering up his eternal soul. Eliot wonders if it's a demon thing that Quinn was able to do that. [It's not. Not entirely, at least. Quinn does actually like human food (except what he was fed last time).]

Still, Eliot's pretty sure he can do better than tuna salad jello from the 1950s, so he heads to the kitchen.

However, after deciding that Eliot's food passes the better-than-tuna-salad-jello test, Quinn secretly tweaks the contract in demon legalese in such a way that it's not immediately apparent that instead of

(Eliot's eternal soul + Eliot routinely cooking Quinn meals) in exchange for (Quinn's service for the rest of Eliot's mortal life)

it's actually

(Metaphorical pieces of Eliot's soul, expressed in the form of a meals cooked for Quinn) in exchange for (Quinn doing tasks at Eliot's request for the rest of Eliot's mortal life, as long as the offering of Eliot's (metaphorical) soul continues in a meaningful way)

Eliot, who is Not Doing Great, does not actually notice this changed meaning.

Moreau knows that something is off, but he can't see a way in which Quinn's end doesn't work out for him, since he has total faith in Eliot's loyalty to him, so as far as he's concerned he will get everything he wants out of Quinn for as long as Eliot's alive. And anyway, it was fucking hard to summon a demon in the first place and Quinn is flat out refusing any other kind of deal, so Moreau's like, alright, we'll take it.

As far as Eliot and Moreau are concerned, the contract works; Quinn is doing what they ask for, things that require a lot of powerful magic, which would only be possible if the contract is working.

It's only years after leaving Moreau that Eliot realizes he hasn't actually sold his soul.

[spockandawe]

Awkward gap until next meeting. So. Things i COULD make on short notice

Software manual book(s): Easy. Mindless. Boring, but useful. I have at least two more targets in my sights, but i also have three half-finished books just waiting for cricut titles.

Long transformers essay: the formatting from pdf...... all the images........... but WHAT IF

Ylpeys ja ennakkoluulo: Needs learning time in Affinity, unsure how long formatting will take. Possible, also something likely to tank my sleep schedule.

Thousand Autumns: current doc has long stretches of half-edited mtl. That's. That would be a big compromise. I don't like it, I think I'd rather wait

Coming Up With A Villain Reformation Strategy: No proofread? It'd be fast. Unsure what commitment proofreading would be.

Peerless Immortal Surrounded By Demonic Disciples: Same issue.

Single-volume mxtx: Maybe. If I'm repeating myself i want something novel tho

Yuwu: Maybe? Same proofreading question, but this was a really good translation

Raksura fic: mmmmmmmmmmaybeeeeee. It's still actively updating though, it feels a little silly to commit a second time knowing it'll immediately be dated 🤣

PoF: maybe! Wouldn't be bad to at least format some pages for illumination practice even if I can't do much there yet.

New box????? Mysterious and vague, brut boxes make me happy

Writing

Raksura fic: I could :X Okay but this depends on me chipping at some short vignettes and either getting a full set done or being confident i have momentum to continue as i post chapters. Momentum is a gamble, especially since this is a destination wedding with vacation activities.

Bwx/xl: old wip, unsure how satisfied i am. But there was PROGRESS. I might be able to slam it out

Return to tlj shipping? No wips in progress, but he usually comes easily to me.

Brand new raksura fic: i have kink brainstorming i could try to leverage, but I really, really can't tell how well writing will go right now

Cronch fic: Oh.... That might work, ill have to look at that.

Ye olde svsss aus: restore diet bingge to second person, see if more scenes shake out. This is close to being something I'm willing to just post, but it's not QUITE got enough connective tissue. Finishing is probably outside the scope of "short notice" tho

Transcription. Also not short notice, but pleasing bite-sized chunks.

Art

Raksura

Cloun?????

Bones

Fiber

Other baby blanket: I'm.... Unmotivated. Crochet make hand hurty

Tardigrade: hand hurty is acceptable if the result is stuffed tardigrade. I need to find my safety eyes, though

Starscream cross-stitch: DEFINITELY not short notice, but very satisfying

Embroidery embroidery: Probably want to wait for better health, so I don't get frustrated.

Steering wheel cover: yes, probably, but that's a kit and won't scratch the sammmmme creative urges

Spinning: god, probably wait for better health and new house

Long furby: maybe do this BEFORE the move, tbh. But mystery time investment.

New applique quilt: also not short notice. Need a subject too. I feel like I'd had something in mind, but I'm drawing a blank.

[iobsessoverfictionalmen]

Master List - Part 3

Started: 8 September 2024

Last Updated: 8 September 2024

Total works: 20

I don’t own nor do I claim to own any of the characters or fandoms below. The only things I own are my stories and some more of my work can be found here on AO3.

Crossovers

Captain Marvel/Secret Invasion

Multichapter Fics

Talos

General of the stars, family man on Earth: 1 2 3 4

Law and Order: SVU

Multichapter fics

Rafael Barba

The Sounds of Justice

The Taste of Revenge

Twilight x Percy Jackson Crossover

Marcus Volturi

Midnight Roses

Harry Potter x Percy Jackson Crossover

Sirius Black

Pirate AU

Harry Potter x Greek Mythology Crossover

Remus Lupin

Remus Lupin Drabble

Werewolves, Beetles, Kneazles, Demigods, and Gods, oh my!

Harry Potter x Wonder Woman Crossover

Ares/Sir Patrick Morgan

Enchanted Hearts: 1

SVU x Trouble in the Heights

Nevada Ramirez

1, 2, 3

SVU x NCIS x Leverage

Jim Sterling

The Taste of Revenge - What if

Percy Jackson x The Good Fight

Bryan Kneef

The Temptation of the Immortals

Harry Potter x Lord of The Rings

Elrond Peredhel

Innocence Unveiled: 1

Taken x SVU

Bryan Mills

I don't play fair darling: 1

The Lodger x after.life

Chandler Manning x Reader x Eliot Deacon

Slow Horses x Harry Potter x Marvel

Jackson Lamb x Reader x Sir Patrick: 1

Marvel x SVU

Defender Strange

When Universes Collide: 1

[somestorythoughts]

Leverage Immortals - do I need to start Numbering these?

Seriously. Should I be numbering these? At the very least I should probably start picking better titles. Anyway. Have some immortal Nate Ford! :

Nate is. Not in the best head place. Frankly. He is fully aware of that. He just doesn't give a shit.

It's not the first time he's lost someone. He likes being around people, he likes have friends and being a regular at the local bar and staying in a place long enough to have favorite places to eat or walk. And he does that a lot. He's the kind of immortal that tends to stay in one place for two or three decades, and if you do that, and you do it around people instead of in the middle of nowhere, it's easy to form enough of a connection to grieve a death. And Nate's more than a bit of a bastard, but he does make friends. It just takes more than a bit of effort. So it's not the first time he's lost someone he cared about.

But he's never had a son.

Maggie had been perceptive. Not immortal, he would have outlived her just as he'd outlived his family, as he'd outlived his first wife, the woman who hadn't turned away from him when she found out he'd already lived longer than she ever would. He thinks she and Maggie would have liked each other. But he's getting off topic. Maggie was no seer, and she didn't See everything, but she saw more of what people where than was normal. So she'd figured out he was immortal, and accepted it.

And then they had a kid. Nate loves Sam more than anything. And Nate doesn't fully know how immortality works but he knows now it isn't a dominate gene. Sam's death breaks him.

He stops caring, for a long time. A bit of vengeance brings him back, pulls enough of him out of the gutter because how dare a con man use his son to convince Nate to steal. And then Sophie, Hardison, Eliot, Parker, they give him a cause. Take down bad guys via theft.

It's not like Nate hasn't been a figure for justice over all his centuries. He'd just. Lost the drive for it with his son. And this is a new way to do it. But it's something to keep him out of the shit show his head is in.

And then it becomes something more.

[alphacrone]

a list of AUs i want to write but probably never will:

immortal!lucy

lucy in a ghost cult

george following lucy after the end of THB

katnorrie post-series

rashomon fic, probably leverage style at a fittes gala

lucy gets possessed on a job and goes feral

[arlenianchronicles]

Hello! I read your Dark!Maedhros AU a couple days back—thanks for replying to my tags about it and sharing it, it’s super cool! I hope you don’t mind me gushing about it? If it were a fic, I would leave a comment to show my appreciation, but in lieu of that I figured I’d send you an ask. I hope that’s alright (humble apologies if you’d rather just delete this).

The plot beats are so riveting and well thought out, also so in line with the heavy vibes and themes of canon! I love how it centers on Maedhros’s deterioration after so much trauma and loss—it’s heartbreaking, and imagining Maedhros on Morgoth’s side is terrifying! At the same time, the way you get him there is so painful and angsty!!!

I was really invested in the story, all the way from the initial loss of the twins and Maglor’s death. I could see it just getting worse and worse! Especially once the war was won for Morgoth. I think it’s such a clever twist/manipulation on the Oath that he would convince Maedhros that he’d basically fulfilled it by allying with his greatest enemies. That’s just so!!! Ah—scrumptious angst! Also I don’t know how you did it but the way you’ve crafted/told this story, it’s really got me thinking about how it must feel to be immortal, to be cursed to keep going and going. I feel like this AU really leverages the relentlessness of Elvish immortality, especially as it relates to lasting grief.

I love the idea of the twins being captives in Maedhros’s twisted, dark fae vibes court (which, that concept? Inspired!). The way his love has been twisted into something covetous feels so on-theme and so tragic! It’s like he’s been consumed by the thing that he lost/can’t have.

It was super exciting to see that you shared the entire plot breakdown/some of the best most gripping scenes. I read it all last week and knew I needed to send you an ask about it because it’s just such a good AU idea! Apologies if you’ve already answered this somewhere, but do you ever plan to write it out in full/post it anywhere? No pressure if not—thanks for sharing this AU, it’s amazing!

Hi there! Thank you so so much for your ask!! No need to apologize at all, I love receiving asks and comments (especially when it comes to my work hahaa It's just so much fun to see other people's reactions!) I had a big smile on my face while reading your thoughts loll So please feel free to gush as much as you’d like about the AU! :DDD

I’m really happy to hear that you were invested in the story, even when it was just an outline XD Maedros’ deterioration was lots of fun to figure out; the poor guy just can’t catch a break! And being immortal in this situation would definitely be painful, like, just being forced to watch the world deteriorate into a hellscape under Morgoth’s rule … It’s not a theme I thought of when I first started drafting this AU, but it’s definitely a welcome surprise! :''''D

I’m happy you like the dark fae concept for Maedros’ court! It’s one of those other things that I didn’t initially plan on, but once I started writing it out in my previous replies, it all just clicked (and I actually have a painting of his court coming soon, so keep an eye out! XDD)

Thank you so much again for sending me your ask, and for taking the time to read through my outline!! I love all comments, both in asks and tags <333 And please don’t apologize, it’s okay!! I currently don’t have any plans to write this AU out in a fanfic – the section with the twins isn’t fully outlined, and I usually get stuck while writing if I don’t have an outline to work off of loll ^^;; I’m also working on another fanfic at the moment, but once that one’s done, I could definitely look into working more on my dark!Mae AU! Thanks again!! <333

[aiyexayen]

ELIOT/ZISHU KAYAK OMG YOU'RE SO RIGHT

... Parker and Wen Kexing would get along WAY too well though

YES. oh the sheer number of au's i want to see now that i'm thinking about it.

- immortals-lived-to-the-modern-day au where they play a not-insignificant role in eliot's backstory because he meets wenzhou while trying to get out of Some Shit and zishu in particular sees a lot of himself in eliot and is in a position to give him advice.

- that same au 'verse but later on when eliot is with the leverage team and some job calls for very particular skillsets and he has to grudgingly be like "...i know some guys. they don't do this kind of stuff, but if i'm the one asking..." and wenzhou get to meet the whole team. chaos ensues.

- somewhere i just want to see hardison totally unable to track any origin of these two guys, in any system. but eventually he stumbles upon their likenesses in random old art and other weird clues and he's sitting there like the fuck are these vampires or what?

- alternate version of the same 'verse where wenzhou is Getting Up To Shenanigans and happens to run into the leverage team on the same job and hey eliot knows those guys (because who *doesn't* he know??). they end up working together. cue some manner of slowburn that eliot thought he ditched partway through years ago with a guy who gets him a little too well. somewhere in the background, kexing and parker are diving off buildings and being generally unhinged together.

- similar crack au where the leverage team run into wenzhou and slowly realise *each* of them actually know these guys under various guises and faces. zishu 100% gets roped into teaching sophie the technique of changing faces so flawlessly. kexing and eliot have a cook-off. according to parker and hardison (completely unbiased parties, of course), technically eliot wins, but things get so steamy in the kitchen that really nobody's losing.

- fully modern au where zishu and eliot know each other from their respective dark pasts, often on opposite sides but never managed to fully catch one another. now zishu gets brought onto the team for a job and one turns into two turns into a dozen. and there's a lot of mutual respect for an old enemy-turned-ally who's as fucked up as you are from it all.

- similar 'verse au where eliot gets out a lot sooner. when zishu claws his own way out he barely makes it out alive, but finding people/keeping track of people is his specialty at least. so he shows up at eliot's doorstep on the edge of death, classic "i didn't know where else to go"