#oh and how would lumen be?

[makeitlookdecent]

"stop being overly afraid of status effects."

hey look at my map

[motthe]

If there requests are still open <3 could you maybe do something with a isekai/Lumen au? I thought of how different would be The reactions towards The different technology or behaviors! Any character is fine! (But if it's possible Viktor) Any gender is fine too!

Only if you're comfortable with it! Your writing is amazing 💖💖💖

oh man this was fun to play around with. thanks for requesting!!!

“Construction will be delayed.” Viktor hated to say it, but the storm had done too much damage to the Hexgate and there was no telling what that lightning strike had done to the core far below ground. “We must pray everything is intact at the base.”

“Elevator’s running. That’s good, right?” Jayce tried to find the silver lining as they stepped in, doors closing behind them.

Viktor grabbed your lumen before gravity shifted. The first time in an elevator had sent you into the ground and you’d yet to learn despite the many times he had used the academy elevator.

It was a common thing amongst lumens. They merely floated so how could they expect the ceiling to suddenly come racing down.

You brightened at his touch as did Jayce’s when he grabbed his own companion. It was second nature for the both of them to keep you close with all the dangers going on around inventors.

“Surely the lightning wouldn’t travel all the way to the core,” Jayce murmured over the whir of gears moving. “It’s miles below surface.”

“All witnesses reported a pulse of energy,” Viktor reminded him, lithe fingers rubbing against the soft outline of you against the crook of his neck. Your warmth was blocked with the long raincoat covering him. “Perhaps a boost of sorts would be best case scenario. An excess.”

“It’s not powering anything yet,” Jayce said.

“That’s why we must investigate, yes?”

As the metal box slowed to a stop, Viktor dropped his hand. You remained pressed against him.

A loud rattling filled the space as the doors creaked open before quickly coming to a halt. The opening was slim.

“Oh, great,” sighed Jayce, pushing forward and attempting to get them open. He grunted, arms straining as his lumen fluttered above his head. “Yeah, no.” He stepped back huffing. “That’s not budging.”

Viktor eyed the opening. “I think I may fit.”

“You wanna go in there alone?” Jayce’s judgmental tone had him rolling his eyes.

“It would make the most of our time.”

“If you get in trouble, I won’t be able to help.”

Viktor gave him a gentle grin, raising a hand to pat his shoulder. “I will be quick, yes?”

His business partner shrugged, shaking his head as he moved aside to let Viktor through.

Grabbing the seam of the door with one hand, he wedged himself through, cane first. The hall was dark, the only light came from inside elevator and your small form as you eased through.

“Stay close, my star,” he whispered, knuckles nudging you as he began the walk to the core room. The hit of his cane against the floor echoed an eerie song, shadows closed in tight against your brilliance.

Reaching the door posed a problem seeing as there wasn’t any power on this hall. But Viktor was prepared.

Moving his raincoat aside and reaching into his pocket, he pulled out the small pen light and master key and got to work. It was a heavy door but perhaps with some inertia, he’d get it open enough to slip in and check the core.

“You all right?” Jayce’s voice echoed from behind.

“The power is out,” returned Viktor, “I must open the door manually.”

“I’ll see if there’s a control box in here and work on getting these doors open.”

You loomed above, doing a better job of lighting up the lock. He thanked you, finishing up the various interlocking mechanisms before turning his attention to the door.

Taking a breath, he position his bad side against the frame, pushing off with his good leg. It took time, but soon the metal obstacle inched open bringing with it a cold breeze and the glow of the hextech within.

“The cooling system is still active,” he called to Jayce.

A curse sounded as well as an electric zap.

Rolling his eyes, Viktor pushed onwards, slipping through as soon as there was enough space.

His breath clouded in front of him as you hovered near his shoulder, the quiet hum of the core paired with the chill sending goosebumps across his skin.

The fact the core was still active was a good sign and the pack debris on the floor showed nothing had exploded, at least.

Taking a turn around the piece, he squinted as a warm light seeped through the cool, blue glow.

He jumped as the lights overhead flickered to life, the door behind him opening fully as gears turned and Jayce’s “A-ha!” rang out.

Blinking through the sudden blindness, Viktor sighed and rubbed his eyes clear before searching for the light he’d seen.

Instead he saw a hand peaking out from around the core.

“Uh!” he choked, the tip of his cane thumping hard as he moved quickly.

The hand extended to an arm, then a shoulder. A body laid bare just a foot or two from the fore, stomach down and face covered by their hair.

“Jayce!” Viktor yelled, kneeling so fast his cane slid across the floor. His hands hovered over the back, before he took a breath and grabbed their shoulder, attempting to flip them over.

He nearly jumped back as a lumen floated up, a deep, tawny brown. Viktor didn’t pay it much mine, too concerned with trying to get the person on their back and praying they were breathing—

But then your lumen was circling it, the two dancing around one another.

He paused, chest aching as the two brushed and another light blinded him.

You, he thought, breath quickening as he peered down, straining to flip you over. It’s you.

Moving your hair from your face, he took the slope of your nose, the shape of your jaw. You were in a deep slumber, all but dead to the world as clouds slipped from you parted lips.

“You’re freezing,” he whispered, quickly ridding himself of his raincoat and covering your nude form. “Jayce!”

Finally, those heavy footsteps came racing around, nearly slipping from the water trailed on.

“What is it?! Did the core—“ Jayce stood, dumbstruck as he stared down at your body in Viktor’s arms. “How…?”

“Help me,” Viktor gasped. “They’re my fated. Help me!”

“What?” he hissed, eyes moving to the two lumens circling in each other. “Why are they down here?!”

“I don’t know but they’re freezing to death as we speak. They need medical attention.”

Shaking his head, Jayce left the question for later as he lowered to take you from Viktor, carefully keeping you wrapped in the raincoat.

“Go, I will follow,” Viktor ordered. Jayce nodded and took off the way he came towards the elevator. That tawny lumen flew after them as yours returned to Viktor, rubbing against his cheek.

“Please, he all right,” he murmured, cupping you against his neck as he scrambled for his cane. “For my sake.”

.

The crack of lightning and thunder resounded in your head. You bolted upright, gasping.

Something tumbled into your lap, bright against the dark room. You thought maybe you’d knocked a lamp over or a flashlight—but as you get your breath back you find there wasn’t much weight to it.

You scrambled back as it floated up, shrieking.

“What the fuck?!”

Movement across the room had you scrambling for a weapon, the best you get was the pillow behind you as you hold it between you and the weird floating light thing.

“You’re awake.”

The accent was foreign against your ears. You squinted as light flickered on above, taking in a blurry outline on a couch. Rubbing your eyes, you remained tense a man pushed up onto a cane. He stood with a hunched form, shoulders long but dragging down. Wild brown hair framed tired eyes and a narrow face.

“Who are you?” you said, voice cracking from a dry throat. You held the pillow up higher as the light drifted closer. “What is that? Some kind of bug?”

Whatever it was, another one popped up over the man’s shoulder, perching there as if it belonged nowhere else. The man cradled it, brow furrowing.

“You do not know of lumens?”

“What? No,” you huffed, glancing around the room. The white curtains and beds hinted at a hospital or maybe a mental institute. Were you going insane? “Where am I?”

“The infirmary at the academy. It was the closest,” he answered.

“Academy? Which one?”

He tilted his head. “The only one. There are no other academies in Piltover.”

“Piltover?” you whispered. “I don’t know where that is.“

“Are you from another region?” You murmured the name of your country. “Is that in Runeterra?”

“You’re not making any sense,” you huffed, squealing when you spotted the ball of light creeping over the pillow. You panicked, thwacking it away. The man flinched.

“Please don’t,” he said, “it won’t hurt you.”

You eyed the creature before looking to the man.

“You’re connected,” you said.

“Lumens are the embodiment of our souls or so the legends say,” he explained, holding the one on his shoulder out and nudging it towards you. “This one is yours.”

“Mine?” You stared as it hovered, easing back towards the man.

“Go on,” he murmured to it, pushing it back your way. The thing—lumen—refused, sweeping up under his chin as he sighed. “You’re frightened.”

“I don’t know where I am or who you are,” you said flatly. “Of course, I am.”

“Viktor,” he limped forward to the end of your bed, offering a slender hand. “My name is Viktor.”

You took a breath, wincing as the tawny lumen brushed your arm. It was soft and warm, taking a moment before nudging you again.

“Uh, hi,” you whispered to it, raising your eyes to Viktor. “Or, hi to you, I guess?”

His lips twitched as if he wanted to smile.

You pushed your fear down and reached forward to take his hand, introducing yourself.

.

When Viktor left the infirmary to grab you food, Jayce was waiting in the hall. He pushed off the wall as soon as the door closed.

“How are they?”

“Fine,” Viktor said, frowning. “They are lost. They don’t seem to know anything about, well, anything.”

Jayce’s face twisted. “Uh, what?”

“They have never seen or heard about lumens,” he explained, “nor have they heard about Piltover or even Runterra. The names they speak are foreign to me.”

“Well, you’re speaking the same language,” he noted.

“That is one blessing,” he sighed.

Jayce frowned, noticing the new weight in Viktor’s stance. “They don’t know they’re your fated?”

He shook his head.

“Did you tell them?”

“They are overwhelmed, Jayce. I think it best to explain it at a later time.”

“But—”

“I do not wish to scare them even more than they already are,” Viktor stated, words sharp.

Jayce’s eyes lowered to your lumen, shaking against the crook of his neck.

“Right. Okay, yeah,” he whispered. The two stood in silence for a moment before he dared to ask, “Do you think…the Hexgate?”

“Perhaps,” Viktor breathed. “We shall find out, but first things first.” He started off down the hall. “I have my fated to take care of, whether they know it or not.”

[vacantgodling]

as stated, much of these are placeholder names, ideas, and concepts—this is just doing something fun for fun

chapter 1: the march hare runs

As March tore through the woods—she really had to wonder, what was wrong with this picture here?

She was a princess of Nectaria, one of the most prosperous kingdoms in all the land! And here she was, tripping over her own two feet, covered in mud, debris and even some of her own blood, trying to escape the shouting guards that had somehow caught up to her only a few days removed from her flight.

“I thought—” She huffed aloud, nearly missing tripping over an overgrown Glowtree root. “—That I had given myself—” She tripped over a second Glowtree root that had sprung up, deglowed, so nearly invisible in the dark. Face planting in the dirt, she didn’t even bother to finish her sentence, letting out an enraged huff that blew her messy hair out of her eyes. She planted her hands firmly in the ground, mud and clay squelching between her fingers, almost making her want to gag—the sensation was awful, to push herself up into an all-fours position.

“I think she went this way!”

“Get her!”

“Shit!”

March didn’t linger for much longer. She pushed herself back up to her feet, taking off downhill into the deep woods before her, praying that her tracks would be covered by the darkness that was ever lingering here; only ever illuminated by luminescent plants like Glowtrees and lumen flowers. She wasn’t sure how close to the border she was—any border, really. And that would be a problem. All of her papers and identification she left back in the palace, not thinking about it in her haste to just leave. If she was smarter, she would’ve left sooner. But no one thought that Princess March Hare of Nectaria was smart. They thought she was pretty. They thought she was kind. They thought she was a bit ditzy, or airheaded—and apparently that she… smelled good? That’d been the first thing to absolutely weird her out regarding her recently (forcibly, she would add) betrothed future-husband; the Prince of Doffensdu. He had taken a lock of her hair between his fingers, smelled it, and then with the most sickeningly disgustingly lecherous smile that anyone in all the lands could muster, he uttered that she smelled good. Divine, really, that was the word he’d used, but it still made her skin crawl.

Her elder brothers, Jan (short for January) and Feb (short for February—yes, with all 12 of them her parents had been remarkably original) had laughed at her. But they didn’t have to worry about marriages, at least not yet. They had been pathed to their militia and scholastic academies, since the two of them (unless, heaven forbid, something happened to them) were slated to become candidates for the next ruler of Nectaria, and they needed experience before their father stepped down from the crown and retired. But for the daughters and youngest sons? Oh no, it was all about alliances now—and as the third child, and unfortunate, unlucky eldest daughter—since the time she was fourteen, March had been introduced to suitor after suitor. Candidate after candidate. And frankly, if you asked her? They all were awful! Either too old, or far too young. Too boring, too plain, or too stuffy. Or, like the one her father had finally, finally settled on, too… weird! Everyone had their kinks and preferences to be sure; March was no prude, and she had a few of her own—but that’s certainly not how she would lead a conversation with someone she just met, nor one she planned to marry!

Regardless—she knew that her father wanted the best for her. She never doubted her father’s love—and surely in his mind, securing his eldest daughter’s future with a prince of Doffensdu was, on paper, extremely advantageous. Their kingdom was rich in ore and traded goods from the sea; being coastal, while Nectaria was located extremely far inland so it had access and was a hub for all the land trades. Having the two kingdoms combined through marriage meant an opportunity for more strategic and safer roads—things that March learned in her economic scholasticship, since her tutors knew she would be the most likely daughter to secure an advantageous trade marriage. And March had been fine with literally all of those things on paper. She knew her place as a princess, and she knew that just as people paid taxes, she was a bargaining chip for resources for her subjects.

But she just didn’t want to marry someone so… off!

Of course, she thought as she ran through the dim forest, tripping every few feet due to the low visibility, It is selfish of me to kick up such a fuss about this. Because she knew that many others didn’t have, well, the freedom to be spoiled like she knew she was being. And of course, she wasn’t only running away from this betrothal to a, probably decent man, just because he smelled her hair weirdly one time. Sure, he did make her uncomfortable whenever they were in a room together beyond that—though her sister below her, and closest confidant, April, assured her that she was just building him up to be some terrible guy in her head because she had a complex about getting married. Well, maybe she did! What was wrong with that? She knew that once she was wed that she’d be expected to perform…. wifely duties, and as a young maiden of just 23, that didn’t sit right with her!

March wanted to explore the world beyond the palace walls; educate herself in the lands beyond Nectaria’s rolling fields and bustling markets. Each new trinket that she could find from some far off place in one of the tiny corner stalls at the bazaar outside the palace, was another piece of the puzzle of the grand world just outside of her doorstep. But a queen couldn’t travel freely; she would be a kept woman, bound by duty, and state, and children, and more besides… and well. That terrified her! She was not so stupid to admit it! And so, she’d stolen out, just three weeks from her proposed wedding day, and disappeared without a trace.

Or so she thought.

She didn’t know what part of her plan went wrong. Did the note she left on her door dislodge? Or were there sightings of her among those in town? She wasn’t planning on staying away forever… probably. She did have a plan… One that did fall mostly apart after she lost her map in a swamp, was robbed just outside the kingdom’s walled border, and now this—stumbling through the darkness in mud and woods as she tried to put distance between herself and her captors. She needed somewhere to stop, to think…

And then—a stroke of luck.

March’s racing thoughts about all that transpired to land her racing like a little hunted rabbit through the forest, came to a screeching halt when she cleared all the glowing foliage and skidded into a clearing. All around her the trees loomed over the surrounding landscapes; their thick canopies obscuring light of the moon overhead; but the lumen flowers underfoot still bringing a soft shine to the surrounding wilderness. Not a single thing moved in this clearing; there was no wind in the grass or through the trees, no animals overhead or underfoot. Nothing but a chilling, eerie silence.

And in the middle of it all, stood a tower.

March stared, her thoughts quieting for a moment. Then they slowly began to churn, faster and faster as she slowly approached it. It appeared to be made of all manner of materials: wood, stone, brick, clay, terracotta, glass… harder to discern the further she peered up at the structure. The tower was narrow at some points…. but then March wandered around the base of it and it seemed to go around for miles at the same time. It took her nearly 40 paces to get around the length of the tower on one side, but that seemed far too wide for a structure that seemed so thin as it appeared. She couldn’t make out it’s spire, but she almost imagined that it pierced the clouds—if somehow the night swallowed it like it had.

A yell in the distance made her jolt out of her curiosity. Fear makes haste. So she quickly approached the base of the tower again, feeling around until she could try and find some sort of door or opening to hide herself in; at least for a moment. But no such door—one you could push, nor one you could pull, could March feel. In an act of desperation she began to test some of the sides of the walls, seeing if there were any pushed out or loosened stones she could use to grapple onto the side of the building, racing around the structure as fast as the panic in her throat would let her. But to no avail.

Except—she found something better.

Right as she was certain that the guards looking for her would descend upon her (as the noises in the woods as she searched the tower grew closer, and closer), she felt something coiled and sturdy, almost rope-like. What she didn’t see was the trapdoor that the “rope” had fallen down from as she circled away from this side of the tower only a few moments before. March only took a split second to make a decision: she had always been a decent climber. And now it was time to put those skills to the test.

March hiked herself up, wrapping both hands around the rope to begin to scale the wall free tethered. She could absolutely die if she fell the higher she climbed, but in her frenzied mind, it seemed better than getting caught. Until, suddenly, a snap sounded in the silence of the night; louder than any other noise that she heard near or far since she entered the clearing, and even louder than the sounds of the far off soldiers that would surely now come this way.

But it didn’t matter. Because with the sound of the snap, the “rope” unraveled only just, where March’s hands gripped it, ensaring her in its grasp and yanking her up the tower like a sandbag cut loose from a boat, and through the trap door whence it came, slamming shut with a thunderclap behind her, drowning out her startled scream.

[deepdrownlamentt]

hello hi beloved love of my life im sorry (im not sorry) for contributing to your masterlist turning into an alcohol menu but hear me out, tequila and phantom/specter/lumen (your horny your call whichever is the most pathetic and subsequently funniest) being jealous

the catch is that the thing that they're jealous over is so TRIVIAL like a new otome game? your pet??? your mom??????? theyre a wet sopping mess and im here for it

↬ courier, specter, and tequila jealousy hcs

content warnings: none

note: the emojis are actually dealing me psychic damage but i like writing dumb things so i will oblige........ sorry for the delay i am being slaughtered out here!!!!! get me out of uni!!!!!! i just want to vibe in peace!!!!!!

i think tequila May be a liiiiiittle ooc since i haven't . looked at his voicelines in a million years . and mine is trust 0 . but anyways i hope u enjoy !!!! xoxo etc

↬ COURIER doesn't think of himself as the type of partner that needs to constantly hog your attention, nor does he think himself so busy that he would leave you wanting. there's a certain balance to it, that much he's sure of — but he can't quite help but be disappointed if he finds something else occupying your mind when he finally has the time to hang up his coat freely and spend it with you.

↬not that he's quick to show it on his face, though. he's long since felt comfortable enough with you to drop any pretense of a fake, customer-service smile in your presence, after all. even then, it's very much clear from his raised eyebrows and confused blinks that he's rather surprised. or confused.

↬ perhaps he's gotten just a little spoiled by you — to the point that going for how many minutes without hearing the padding of your footsteps as you come over to greet him leaves him feeling a little odd. maybe you were busy! he rationalises to himself. maybe you got called away for a last minute meeting, and he just missed you on your way out—

↬ that is, until he hears the telltale little sound effects from a game on your phone you've told him about lately, and lo and behold, and his chest does a weird thing where it flutters and sinks all at once. on the one hand, he's glad it's just a game that's stolen your attention. on the other hand... it's just a game? he won't say anything, but if you notice anything for the next few days — going on more missions with you, or cooking you even more of your favourite foods than usual — then maybe the discreet little glances he spares your phone, making sure it's silent and face-down on the table, have something to do with it.

↬ it's rather preposterous to think that LAURENTINA would "stoop to so low a level," she says, that she would get jealous of something so minor. rather, she enjoys monopolising your attention, you see — and for your little predicament to steal your gaze away from her, well... that won't do, won't it?

↬ she teases you much more often, especially when she finds out what exactly it is that's distracting you lately: lingering touches on your shoulder or waist, sickly sweet calls of your name, or even her plucking your phone out of your hands with a sly little shark-toothed smile.

↬ if she really feels up to it, she might tease you more about your little distraction, too: oh? you want my attention, dear? i thought that little game of yours enraptured you much more. she loves watching the way you squirm, hearing how you hem and haw as you think of a response.

↬ of course, while she acts like she's above jealousy, she can still feel it simmering a little just under her skin — it's why her little teasing prods at you have become more frequent, though there's never any real ill intent behind any of them, and she's very intent on making sure you don't misinterpret her intentions. after all, she wants you to see what you're missing out on, not drive you away entirely!

↬ much like specter, TEQUILA claims that being jealous is "silly" — though it doesn't stop the exaggerrated way he pouts when your gaze is drawn elsewhere... at your phone, specifically. he doesn't seem the type to take it too personally, but as he jokes about oh, i didn't know your game was more distracting than me, there's a part of him that wonders what it would take to take your attention off of it entirely.

↬ there's a chance he might ask you on more dates than usual — even if it's something as simple as a late-night walk together, or chatting at the bar as rafaela prepares you drinks. there's also a chance he might be a little more physically affectionate than usual: his hand around your waist as you walk, resting his chin on your shoulder from behind as he watches whatever it is you're doing at the moment.

↬ in the end, though, the part of him that thought all of this was silly wins by the smallest, smallest margin; he might even ask you about it directly, if he gets the chance. and if you decide to gush about it, he listens with rapt attention — if you have a good time with it, then he's happy that you're happy, or something along those lines.

↬ but just for his sake, to appease the part of him that wanted to steal your attention back, it may be worth it to reassure (or maybe even tease) him a little in turn. just for the hint of satisfaction he might get for winning over pixels.

[onlywhenthemoonshines]

Hello, Moon

I saw that you have Bayonetta in your masterlist (I miss her) and I thought why not write you a request for her?

What do you think of Lumen Sage! reader who was banished hundreds of years ago (during the witch hunts) and in present days is a friend of Bayonetta and Jeanne?

In short, what do you think of the reader as a Cereza's romantic interest headcanons and when they're together in battle with angels, when the reader has an overly serious personality and Cereza is the opposite? They're cute together though! :D

I'll be very grateful to you if you accept this request and I will wait as long as necessary!

Hello! I'm glad to see a fellow Bayonetta fan:). This is certainly a very interesting idea. And I can't help but agree with you.

Ceraza/Bayonetta x gn!lumen sage! Reader.

Tw: Angels, violence, guns and weapons.

- it as a big surprise when cereza befriended you

- Given your differences In personality

- Not to mention that your a lumen sage

- Jeanne can already see that you two are going to be a thing.

- Ceraza teases you soooo often

- Making little flirty remarks trying to see if you react

- Poor Jeanne, she always feels like the third wheel. Give the poor woman a break

- You share your knowledge of angels and she shares her knowledge of demons. It's a win win.

The three of you, (cereza/Bayonetta, Jeanne and you) were walking around Japan. The girls were shopping while you and Enzo were stuck carrying their bags. (Mostly Enzo tho lol )

You felt a familiar feeling suddenly. The feeling that the angels were out to attack yet again. The girls looked back at you, knowing you felt it too. “It looks like we have visitors, and here I thought today was my day off,” Ceraza said. “Let's see how long they stay,” Jeanne replied. “The sooner they leave the better.” You noted in your usual tone. “Oh no, no no no! You're not leaving me here with all your shit!” Enzo cried, not happy at all with the fact that he might yet again be carrying all of their stuff alone. By the time he peeked from behind the tall stack of boxes the three of you were gone.

“Come, let me show you the door,” Cereza teases as she draws her guns. Jeanne does the same as you summon your spear. With that the angels start their attack.

Bullets fly and weapons clash as the battle begins. The two of you fight side by side in perfect harmony. Summoning demons and Angels to aid in your battle. To the point where you two were dancing. A deadly dance to be exact. Jeanne catches a look as she shoots two angels in the head, sighing as Cereza makes more teasing remarks and touches.

The battle ground was your dance floor. The two of you almost got lost in it, but the Angels made sure that didn't happen.

By the time it was over you two were about to kiss when a very unamused Jeanne cleared her throat and walked over, her heels clicking on the floor as she walked. You two look over with slightly wide eyes and faces growing red from a mix of embarrassment and love.

“If you had told me this would be a date I would have dressed better. I almost had to have a dance partner with an angel.”

She remarked as she put her hand on her hip, looking at the two of you with a raised eyebrow.” you blushed even brighter. “Well I can't complain about a surprise party~.” Cereza teases. Oh boy were you never going to live this down.

[lover-also-fighter-also]

THE PRINCE SWAP

CHAPTER 2 PART 2: A NIGHT ON THE TOWN

Banner credits: @cadybear420

Links to previous chapters:

Chapter 1: part 1

Chapter 1: part 2

Chapter 1: part 3

Chapter 2: part 1

Tags: @cadybear420 @somerandomjewelleryonthefloor @choicesmc @choicesficwriterscreations @dutifullynuttywitch @mlmichaelharrison 

Summary: a rewrite of The Princess Swap, but featuring our OG: HSS MC's, Jeremy Rin (my MC) and Alan Parke (Cady's MC).

'Bye' said Alan, as he hung up. Just then Faye enters the room.

'You're still not ready?' she asked. 'I thought we were leaving now.'

'Hello to my beautiful bestie too.' said Alan, looking at how pretty Faye was. 'Jeremy was a fool if he never hit on her' he privately thought. Faye looked at him strange.

'Uh huh.' she said 'Who were you talking to just now?'

'Oh nobody.' he said 'Just a guy from history class, about the presentation.'

'Riiight.' said Faye. She didn't look convinced, but she didn't say anything about it. They were interrupted by a knock on the door. Two girls peeks into the room, the first one holding two outfits in each hand. Alan recognized them as Astra and Safiya, from one of Jeremy's photos.

'Faye, I need a second opinion on what to wear tonight.' she said, holding up the two outfits. One was a glittery purple dress and the other was midnight blue. 'Which one?' she asks.

'Um-' said Faye, but Alan interrupted

'Go with the Purple one.' he said. 'It will look gorgeous on you.'

'I will admit, it looks rather bold on you.' said Safiya. 'But that's appropriate for a pub environment'

'Aw thank you, Jer.' she said before leaving to change. But Safiya stays behind. 'Do we have to go?' she asks. 'I was supposed to clean Poppy's terrarium, and you know he gets grumpy when his sun lamp isn't putting out enough lumens.'

'Come on Safiya.' said Alan. 'I think we all deserve some bonding time, and to let loose and have fun.' he pauses for a moment. 'Sometimes, I feel that I don't see you guys at all…' giving the puppy dog eyes look.

'Okay, you win Jeremy.' said Safiya, giving a little laugh. 'I am definitely convinced to wear another layer of eyeliner for tonight. For you.' she said before leaving.

Once Safiya left, Faye turns to him. 'Since when have you become the expert on dress selection?' she asked. 'Huh?' said Alan. 'I mean, whenever I show you any dress you always go with either is fine, and now you help Astra pick out an outfit?' she looked suspicious.

'It's nothing Faye.' said Alan, easing into a grin. 'I'm just excited for tonight. Now give me some space, while I figure out something to wear.' Faye simply nods, and does not say anything, as she leaves the room and closes the door behind her.

Alan opens Jeremy's closet, pondering over his choices. 'Hmm…' he said, 'Jeremy doesn't exactly have clothes my taste but…', he reaches under the bed, and pulls out the clothes which Aveline gave him. 'Lucky I had Ave pack me these things before the exchange.'

He takes out a skimpy, purple dress and says 'This should do it.'

He checks himself out in the mirror. 'Not bad, Alan. Not bad.' he whispers, as he takes out the makeup kit and applies a thick layer of eyeliner and some cherry lipstick.

As soon as he steps out of the room, Faye, Astra and Safiya look at him with a mix of surprise and shock.

'Jeremy, you look…' started Faye. 'Gorgeous?' asked Alan, giving her a wink. 'I was going to say different, but gorgeous also works.' she finished. She looked like she wanted to say something else, but couldn't do it in front of the others. 'Anyway, what's with the makeover? I couldn't have guessed it was your style.'

'Oh, I am…trying out a new look.' said Alan, desperately hoping that Faye would buy it, and fortunately she doesn't say anything else on the way to the pub.

'Come on Deltas!' said Alan enthusiastically as they get off at the pub entrance. 'I am not going home till we have some drinks, and dance our hearts out.' He strides confidently towards the doors, but his way was blocked by a bouncer.

'Invites please?' he said, putting his hand out.

'Invites?' asked Faye, 'I don't understand…'

'I'm sorry miss. No invite means no entry. The pub has been booked tonight.' said the bouncer, shooing them away. 'Excuse me sir.' said Alan. 'Would you really want your boss knowing that you have turned away very important guests at the doors?' he said, striking a charming pose, letting the dress sparkle in the neon lights. 'Oh!' said the bouncer. 'I am really sorry for the misunderstanding sir. You may go in.' he said opening the doors for them.

'Looks like your smooth-talking did the trick Jer.' whispered Faye to Alan as they went in. Alan smiled and winked at her.

'Easy as pie.' thought Alan to himself.

The pub was full of people dancing, drinking, and a thumping bass-line that seem to hum in Alan's bones.

'This place is sick!' said Astra, jumping in delight.

'Then it shouldn't be hard to have some fun, as long as we stay out of Stephanie's way…', said Faye, nodding towards an impeccably dressed girl on the dance floor, sipping a drink and laughing.

'Wow, she looks…intense.' thought Alan, wondering what was wrong about the girl, but refrained from asking the question, knowing that the real Jeremy would not do that. He distracted the girls by asking 'So, how about a round of drinks?'

'Ooh get me a Virgin Mai Tai.' said Safiya. Alan nods and hurries off to the bar, sending a quick text to JeremyAlan: Jeremy quick! what is your standard drink at a pub? Jeremy: A beer. Jeremy: But if you're getting drinks for everyone, DON'T let Safiya have a Virgin Mai Tai. Jeremy: She crashes on sugar. Hard. Alan: Noted, have fun being me.

The barkeep approaches Alan. 'Yes?' he asked. 'Give me your finest beer, two wine coolers and a small Virgin Mai - ', but before he could finish the order, a girl pushes past him.

'Barkeep, one whole round of rainbow shots.' said the girl. 'Hey, I was here first.' said Alan, stepping up and scowling at her 'Who cares?' said the girl, rounding on Alan and giving him a dirty look. 'I am a Theta, and I get first priority at service here.'

'Wow, I have seen a lot of entitlement, but you are a next level.' said Alan, his eyes unwavering. 'What's that supposed to mean?' said the girl. She strode up to him and pointed a finger at his chest. 'I don't know who you are, but its best if you stay out of my way, unless you want to be dealing with my sorority - '.

'That's enough, Megan!' said a serious-looking girl, walking up to them, and Alan turned around, and whom he saw stopped his words in his throat for a moment. He had seen many princes and princesses, but they seemed insignificant than the person who was coming over to him. She had shoulder-length brown, wavy hair and sharp brown eyes. Even her stern expression could not cloud her perfect features.

'Maria!' said the girl, which seemed to snap Alan out of his trance. 'This b-'.

'I have seen enough to know what's happening.' said the girl who was Maria. 'So unless your sorority wants trouble with me, you will leave him alone.' The girl looked between the two of them, weighing her options, then she huffed and left.

Maria then turned to Alan. 'Are you alright?' she asked.

'Better now that you are here.' said Alan, not hiding his smile. He truly found her boldness attractive. 'I'm sorry what?' said Maria, raising an eyebrow. 'I mean I am okay.' said Alan, gathering himself to look good in front of the girl. 'You shouldn't have taken the trouble.'

'Well, you can't blame me for doing my job.' said Maria, puffing her chest out in a professional deamour.

'And does your job involve saving a pretty guy from being threatened?' asked Alan coyly, giving her a small wink. Despite her serious look, Maria gave a short laugh, her serious facade fading a bit. 'You're funny, you know?'

'I get that a lot.' said Alan, his eyes twinkling. Maria looked flustered for a moment, but soon distracted the topic.

'How about I get you your drinks as…compensation for what just happened?'

'I would never say no, especially when someone as beautiful as you is getting them for me.' said Alan. 'Riight…' said Maria, clearly ignoring the flirty compliment, but she couldn't help blushing.

As they sat and waited for the drinks she asked, 'Are you a foreigner?'

'How did you figure?' asked Alan. 'You're accents clearly American.' she said.

'Well, you guessed right. I'm an exchange student here, and I am with the Deltas.' he stuck his hand out and said. 'Jeremy Rin.'

'Maria Flores.' said Maria, giving a firm handshake. 'So Jeremy, -', before she could say anything, the barkeep kept the drinks on the counter.

'I'm sorry.' said Alan, 'I've got to get these drinks to my friends, and-'

'No its okay.' said Maria, 'Enjoy your night, Jeremy.' she said, leaving Alan. He then returned to the Deltas, who were watching him.

'OMG Jer, was that Maria Flores talking to you?' asked Faye as she took her drink. 'Yeahh…so? Is she special?' asked Alan. Faye looked confused. 'I thought you would know Jer. She is the University's student body president.'

[callsign-songbird]

OK ok ok, my mind is churning with an AU

So, we know Charlie's wonderful slasher Simon AU, right? Well, I just finished the second scream movie and BOY do I have thoughts for my own vaiernt of the Slasher Simon AU.

College.

Sports.

Murder.

Of course, not for any convoluted reason like Micky or Ms. Lumen, no. Just because Simon had a rough upbringing, and it's one of the only ways he knows how to releive stress. Besides, he's always found knives and firearms fascinating, especially his KBAR and his Snake Eye. The first time was an accident, the second time felt good, and after that? After that was just... Ghost.

They can go to an rotc specializing college (idk if those exist, but it's 4 am, I'll finesse the details later) ANYWAY they can be split up by Dorms!! Like, dorm TF141, and K0RT4C.

Laswell could be the headmistress, or Vice President

Price would totally be the golden boy dorm leader. He has to make sure that the boys under his jurisdiction stay safe and abide by dorm rules. He totally acts like the father of the group and always gets mistaken for a teacher (although, he does tutor students who fall behind, even if they aren't in his dorm)

Gaz could be the clumsy right-hand man who always has the scoop around campus (Golden retriever boy) always wears a baseball cap or letterman jacket, sometimes both.) He's the little brother of the group, definitely. Not to the point where he is baby, but definitely to the point where the others help him out a bit more and tend to give him advice (whether it's warranted or not) and he totally looks up to Price.

Soap is a study abroad student from Scotland who takes his studies almost as serious as his Rugby. A total Jock, but not the sleazy kind, the kind that takes a drunk girl home and writes her a note explaining what happened while leaving a bucket by her bed and some pedialite on the bedside (because not everyone can drink like him) going with the brother theme, Soap is TOTALLY the older brother, you can't tell me I'm wrong. I totally headcannon that he grew up in a stable household with three younger sisters, so he's just used to being the big brother.

Simon would (obviously) be the Ghostface. The scream movies are really good at keeping you guessing who the killers are, so it really wouldn't be obvious at all. He's buff from sports and the time he spends either at the gym or training in martial arts for his expected military career, of course he still likes dark humor and really bad jokes, and has a penchant for skull themed clothes, going as far as to wear a skull-print balaclava in winter. (Soap has declared himself as Simon's best friend. Simon won't admit it, but it's true.) Keeping up with the brothers theme, Simon is DEFINITELY a middle child. Quiet, reserved, brooding, tries to keep to himself so people tend to overlook him. Middle child all the way in this dorm dynamic. (Though, being a murder isn't exactly his LIFE, more of a hobby to let off steam, so it isn't really the focal point of the AU so much as college shenanigans)

And Roach (Because in my AU roach is alive and well) if the dorm is a family, then Roach is the pet, or the Wine uncle who occasionally shows up at 3 in the morning to steal snacks. Roach is the dorm party animal, always up to trouble, always has a drink, everyone loves him, and he always seems to know everything about everyone on campus. But he's also a feral gremlin who says and does weird things (like taking naps in the ceiling on lunch) all the time, so half the time no one takes him seriously. Odd and feral as he may be, he's still part of the dorm, and everyone treats him as such.

I still have to think about the K0RT4K dormmates and their dynamic, as well as the Ghosts squad, but oh my gosh, let me know if you want any more, and please send asks if you're interested! Though, I'll probably be drabbling more about it anyway, lol

[anemoarchonhoe]

Imagine Bayo!reader using the demon slave or just wicked weaves and the more sentient demons arguing or teasing the shit outta the characters, Xiao and Chongyun especially. I feel like Hu Tao would have a blast with them and Cloud Retainer would probably study the Umbran clock tower and wartrain Gouon. I think reader would tell Zhongli about the history of the umbra witches and lumen sages and the witch hunts and Shenhe and Ganyu about how they normally beat up angels and the like. And reader just going off one Childe switching weapons out. I feel like Yun Jin and Xinyan would get along with Baal so well.

Oh imagine a normal afternoon with Itto and the gang just chilling and then they see a huge plant monster (Alraune) and a giant butterfly woman (Madama Butterfly) arguing, or just straight up fighting, and reader’s sitting there, power’s activated, wicked weaving, with popcorn rooting for Madama Butterfly to get her lick back. I feel like Itto would be a little shocked seeing other world demons. Imagine reader trying to see if they can use demon slave on HIM

Zhongli just taking a walk through nature and then hearing reader shout some enochian and then a huge sound of a dragon. So then he runs over to see reader dancing around while a giant demon dragon is wrecking havoc on huge group of treasure horders. Then they look at him and wink

This is so long I am so sorry 😭🤚🏾

Lmao imagine Baal (demon frog) and Ei looking at each other like, "omg... same name" and Venti chimes in saying "I like this Baal frog", then losing his mind when he sees Baal Zebul and requesting a duet immediately.

Chongyun and Xiao getting existential crisis over this, but you solve the problem by saying your demons are True Demons while the evil spirits they fight are just some "bootlegs". True Demons only likes to eat angels and doesn't harm humans at all, and that they work with you under a binding contract where they serve you. That set the two of them at ease. You strategically left out the part where your contracted demons will devour your soul should you die in battle. They don't need to know that.

I don't think Bayonetta!Reader would purposely use their demons on anyone in Teyvat unless it's imposter au, but even then, she won't rely on them too much. It's because demons only want angels. Though maybe vision wielders/allogenes could be exceptions since they're kinda like god candidates, and thus have some sort of divinity (vision?) on them, so they qualify as snacks. Archons definitely would be good food, they're of divine origin, and Celestia would be like Teyvat's version of Paradiso.

[naraven]

Dear @opalthea,

Your matchup has been complete! After some deliberation, Doctor, we think you would best have this person as your next assistant:

LUMEN

cw // she/her doctor, slight yandere, self-depricating behavior, use of operator's real name

Jordi doesn't know what to think of the Doctor.

Not in a bad way! She was plenty nice, and talking with her always felt pleasant. It's just, it never went any further than that.

And she seemed so outgoing when with others! She would greet every staff and medic and fellow operators around Rhodes Island, yet when he followed her back to her office...

Well, all he could do was make sure the Doctor was comfortable taking her little nap.

After all, he was just Operator Lumen, a mediocre member of the Inquisition who's combat capabilities were severely lacking. And the Doctor... the Doctor had lead so many people, knows so much about the world, and is honorably trying to find a cure to Oripathy.

Next to her, Jordi feels like an ant. Sometimes he realizes who exactly he works for and it all feels like a dream. It made sense that he was assigned to do secretarial work, given his only talent of taking care of people (which he hesitates to even call a talent).

He doubts himself more and more as he works under you, until the Doctor starts... noticing him.

She tells him stories of the Aegir and the Seaborn he had never heard of in his small home town. She would always tell him with a patient smile, and he would apologize when she would groan in pain from how hard he started massaging her arms and back.

But the more the Doctor notices him, the more Rhodes Island did too.

Soon enough, he's gone from nothing to Elite 2. Engineering has asked for him to explain some Aegir technology he was tinkering with, and on top of all his Inquisition work, he sees the Doctor less and less and less.

He wonders who's taken his place as the Doctor's Assistant. Of course the Doctor would have an assistant, but would she regularly take breaks? Does she like her new assistant more than him? Would he ever get assigned under her ever again-?

Ahh, Saint Carmen is scolding him again...

Back on Rhodes Island, Lumen steps onto the landship. Amiya greets him, and he absentmindedly waves back with a small, polite smile.

He wonders where he should go first. Maybe check up on the dorms to see who needed some treatment? Maybe the people from Engineering wanted to scoop out all the information they could from him again...

Unknowingly, his feet lead him to the front door of the Doctor's office. Oh dear, he hadn't even realized, he should leave soon-

"I'll be- oh, it's you."

Lumen stammered. "L-Lady Irene! I wasn't aware you were here."

The Liberi closes the door shut behind her and tilts her head up to face him. "Yes, well, it seems you are back from Iberia. Would you like to go greet the Doctor? I was just about to go start my handcannon practice."

She squints at him. "... Actually, maybe you should join me. It would benefit you as well-"

"I-I'll join you soon! Maybe after I go and tell the Doctor I'm back..."

I don't want to be away from her for another second, please.

The two Iberians stare each other down in front of the Doctor's office. Moments feel like hours, and Lumen blinks out of the encounter when the Doctor's voice calls out from the office.

"Irene? Are you still there?"

How long has it been since he's heard that voice?

"I will be going soon, Doctor. Don't mind me."

Lumen feels her eyes leering at his back as he slides open the office doors. It feels like it's been an eternity since he had last laid eyes on the desk, the windows that show the moving scenery, and most importantly:

The Doctor.

She doesn't look at all different from the last time he's seen her. The office has a couple additions and upgrades, but the figure sitting behind the desk remains identical to the last time he heard her voice.

"Oh, Lumen! Welcome back."

He swallows a dry breathe of air. Oh my, was the temperature in the Doctor's office always so warm...?

"Lumen...? Are you okay? You don't look like you're at your best."

Jordi shakes his head, face a bit too warm but feeling more than okay.

"Never better, Doctor."

[the-consortium]

Justicar Verdan is tired. He is walking through another chaos fortress, or maybe it's the same one he was walking through for Emperor knows how long, all of them start to look the same to him. He killed far too many daemons and cultists and chaos marines to care. His armor is very damaged, although the psychic matrix inside still works, enhancing his psychic power, even though it doesn't really matter as he used too much psykery to safely use any more. As he walks through another corridor, noticing a space marine sized person through an ajar door, he stills, though it doesn't change the fact that he was already heard and the person inside is turning to the door.

(I'm letting you decide who he encoutered! I would like you know that I don't want to start with combat, so someone willing to talk will be appriciated

I'm not sure if you would need this but just fyi:

Verdan is armed with a force halberd, a mostly empty strom bolter and is wearing a scuffed and beaten up aegis terminator suit with a seriously fucked up helmet.)

The room is larger than the rather inconspicuous door might initially suggest. Columns divide it up and disappear into the darkness at the back. Some narrow windows let in grey light with strange streaks and something can be heard from outside that might be the sound of fighting. An impact further away - dust trickles from the ceiling and the lumens hanging from long cables dance for a few seconds.

The two people in the room turn towards Verdan in synchronised motion, raising their old, ornately decorated baroque bolters.

They were obviously busy looking for something. Cupboards have been rummaged through, drawers are open and jars of viscous liquid have shattered on the stone floor. Some strange tissue samples have also been scattered and are twitching on the tiles.

In a way, the two Chaos Marines certainly live up to the image you always have of them. Their armour is in various shades of pink, purple and crimson and is richly decorated with gold ornaments. One of the two, whose armour is adorned all over with text in a language unknown to Verdan, has strange flesh-like outgrowths on his helmet and a snow-white crest swings elegantly to one side as the marine fixes his gaze on the newcomer.

The other person, however - well, apparently the Heretics have gone further in their corruption of the Emperor's work than previously known, as it is obviously a woman. She wears no helmet and her painted lips twist into a slightly too friendly smile, showing too pointed teeth. She is no shorter than the Astartes next to her, on the contrary - limbs elongated into goat legs even give her a little more height.

"Oh, someone else looking for something here. And has found us. The prince means well for us!" She tilts her head a little and rolls her shoulders. Verdan can hear her vox clicking softly.

[equalseleventhirds]

Hey, do you have any recs for long form, more serious ttrpg systems for fantasy settings? I feel like I hear a lot about short/definitively-lengthed systems, but I've been yearning for a DnD-esque system without all the baggage of equip loads and complicated Challenge Ratings and other rules-y baggage I don't super care about.

do i! do i ever!

serious & long-form systems do on the whole tend to be crunchier than shorter systems (not always, but generally); nevertheless, i've picked out a........ handful......... ok there's Several, i did try to control and limit myself but u kno.......... games......... anyway, here are some that are considerably less crunchy than d&d but still lend themselves to long fantasy campaigns.

uh. under the cut for. oh god it's so long. it's so long. tried my best to explain them, u see. (which is also why it took me so long to reply lol, sry abt that)

godeater (& godeater 2.0): play in a broken, post-apocalyptic fantasy world, where dead and dying gods warp the land, and you raid their bodies for divine magic to help support humanity. 2d10-based, get weird & funky with it! i admit a small preference for version 1.0, which gave u some loose examples but left much of the worldbuilding and even character building up to u to create; 2.0 has some extra books that go with it that i haven't much looked into yet, but seem to give more solid lore to work with, if u would like that.

when the guilds pay in copper, crime pays in gold: alchemical guilds pay shit wages to use people for magical experiments. go do crimes on 'em with your own magic. d6 base, assign dice to stats to make ur own dice pool; fairly light rules and in fact very little in the way of instruction or hard lore on the gm's side, so better played with an experienced gm who's good at making their own stuff, but certainly campaign material for the right gm!

third empire - violence + beauty: the world sucks, and has sucked for a while, through two oppressive empires and into a third one. you play adventurers who are trying to carve out a little goodness, a little justice, a little vengeance, in the world. y'know. lasers & feelings based, but expanded beyond the original (which also comes with it if u get it!) into more lore, more character choices, very collaborative worldbuilding, downtime mechanics, etc etc.

ruby radiance 6e: streamlined dungeoneering built to let ppl play the way actual play podcasts sound, essentially. d20 pool system, based on trophy mechanics but v much adjusted. lots of choices to make during character creation & leveling, but much much less to keep track of during the playing part. u get it.

wizard pals: all of you are wizards, going on adventures and trying to accomplish your goals in a fantasy world. d12-based, fairly lighthearted (can lean silly but u could use it for more serious if not super grimdark adventures), much worldbuilding left up to the gm, but very simple rules, so.

grimblade rpg: (speaking of grim lol,) action & adventure in a grim fantasy world; things like character creation and rewards (and magic) fully imply a fantasy world, but worldbuilding is left up to the gm, altho there are many tables to roll on to give some help. uses d4, 6, 8, and 10; all rolls are contested rolls, with dice picked based on how serious the gm feels this roll is.

shattered aether: post-apocalyptic science fantasy, you roam around a fucked up magic world and protect ppl from various dangers. 2d6 based, based on the lumen system so fairly combat-forward in a very high-action very cool asskicking way. for some reason the font chosen for this book is murder on my eyes, but if u can get past that (or just zoom in lots and read a bit at a time) it's straightforward, simple, and fun!

familiars of terra: this one may be a little too crunchy, but i love it a lot and rly the most crunch is in character creation and tracking experience, actual gameplay is (imo) pretty easy. post-post-apocalyptic fantasy world, some science fantasy elements depending on where you choose to focus, bcos there are absolute PAGES of lore on this extremely cool and enormous world; you and your party go around with your soul-bonded animal friends to spread hope and healing and also do cool shit. y'know. card-based, again it is probably more crunchy than ur looking for but less abt tracking what you can do during things and more abt tracking experience in order to level up stats, so.

1400 quest: ok that last one was crunchy, this one's very uncrunchy. pick a handful of things and get going! clearly inspired by d&d, but very very streamlined, so things that were pages of mechanics are like, one or two sentences. gm's side of it is like, a handful of rollable tables and then do whatever, so prolly for the more experienced gm. d6 based, but you may have occasion to use other dice. also if you like this one there's others by the same author focusing on other things (1400 mage, sneak, etc), or you can check out others in the 24XX type of games, which started out sci fi but has since been expanded to a bunch of other stuff. u kno.

beast dream: pokemon-inspired game where you make friends with magical beasts and go on magical adventures! d6-based, forged in the dark, so there is a little crunch wrt deciding on position etc and stuff like stress, but the author rly wanted to focus in on letting u adventure and have fun without getting bogged down in numbers and i think that shows, stuff like load and reputation aren't so much a thing.

cognatons: play as sentient, magic-filled automatons doing whatever fantasy adventures your robot heart desires. d4-based, caltrop core, so you get a fairly simple & defined set of actions; less to keep track of, easy to follow.

dethrone the divine: you're gonna overthrow the gods, and also take their places. you're already either divine, semi-divine, or magically powerful in other ways, and you adventure with the goal of gathering power and followers so you can take the place of the shitty gods in power. d6-based, pretty straightforward system, makes characters v cool and powerful, which is always fun.

perilous: do you love dungeon crawls bcos i love dungeon crawls... streamlined and easy to understand fantasy dungeoneer adventures in this one! d20-based, leans towards tags instead of complicated numerical skill stuff to keep track of. go to dungeons, fight monsters, get treasure. simple n good. (adds in some metaplot, like who sent you, how will this affect the people living here, whatever, but rly strong with the very old core of d&d-style 'go do a dungeon' kinda thing, if that's what u like.)

high magic lowlives: ok my latest obsession bcos i'm currently planning a big ol campaign for friends in this one. there are classic adventurers in this world, out there cleaning out monster nests or whatever, but they're usually in the employ of the immortal aristocracy. you? you make your money by stealing from and humiliating the immortal aristocracy, because you're a lowlife. it's a dangerous gig, but isn't it better than going into student debt at wizard school? melds high fantasy aesthetics with like, magical twitch streaming aesthetics. fun as hell. uses all the dice and also sometimes tarot cards (mostly just for character creation, u kno). easy to understand rules, i'm having a great time.

ellipses rpg: setting-agnostic system (make ur own setting!) with simple, streamlined rules and an emphasis on improvisation. d20 based, rly just some very basic foundation and then a lot of encouragement to make things up and do what's fun. so like, loosey goosey & not super structured if you want structure, but could be fun!

unbound: setting-agnostic system but with much more formal structure, got structure around how to collaboratively worldbuild your setting and everything. obvs this means some crunch, but it's still not super crunchy, nice and straightforward rly. lotta character options but not so complex and math-heavy, u kno. card-based system. designed actually for a series of short campaigns in a linked world, tho, so if ur not up for exploring new characters a lot, may not be for you.

[motthe]

I know probably everyone has asked tis but- how about a smoll blurb on S2 Viktor and reader in the lumen au? Maybe reader also tries to bury themselves by helping Jayce or Mel (I’m more inclined to Mel in particular)

thank you so much for requesting! (the inbox is currently empty so you’re the first to request!!! how exciting~)

SPOILERS FROM ARCANE S2 ARC 1

Days went by, each longer than the last. Neither you nor Jayce had anything to show for it besides the lab left in ruins and dark circles weighing your eyes down.

You two had never been particularly close, always busy running in different circles, but you shared the same important people in your lives. What Mel was to him, Viktor was to you and vice versa. Mel was your confidant and Viktor was his—truly it would make more sense for you and Jayce to be closer. Then again, Viktor hadn’t been all that interested in befriending Mel either.

Not all circles merged, it seemed.

“How is he?” Jayce asked every morning, hovering by the cot you’d taken in the corner of the room. You stopped responding on the third, holding Viktor’s lumen out from where you kept it cradled to your chest.

In the wake of Jayce’s last ditch effort to save him, all that was left of Viktor’s soul was a wispy bronze overtaken by that violaceous magic that had swirled within the hexcore. Where it had been the size of your palm, now it barely filled the center, a few millimeters bigger than the hex tech gemstones.

It was brighter than it had ever been, but that tawny gold that had dulled to a muddied brown in the rise of his illness—that lumen you would know blind—had been stripped away.

He was still alive. That pulsing block encasing him had left his face bare, his breath stable. But whatever it was doing to his body was blurred. You could see the outline of his arms and legs, thin but prominent.

Whatever was going on in there reflected on his lumen, as it barely remained conscious. He couldn’t fly. Where he loved to sit between your neck and shoulder had become cold as he didn’t have the strength to hold on. The warmth of him remained, and some days he managed to move, always wiggling deeper into your palm.

Your heart kept breaking. If someone took a stethoscope to your chest they might only hear the crunch of glass with each breath. It might soon be dust if nothing changed.

Your name brought you out of an empty sleep, a warm hand brushing back hair in desperate need of a wash. The cold metal of a ring had tears filling your eyes.

“Mel,” you whispered, opening your eyes to her gentle features.

“Oh, dearest,” she murmured, throwing her arm around you as you curled tighter, shoulders shaking. It took so much energy to cry, you wish you wouldn’t.

“Where’s their lumen?” You were drifting as you watched Mel turn from Viktor’s prison. “Was it—?”

“No. It’s there.” He gestured to a metal birdcage he’d taken from one of the academy classrooms. Your lumen was inside, pressed against the side facing Viktor. “I put it as close to him as I could.”

“Jayce,” she said, words hardened. “Take it out of that. Now.”

“I can’t!” he breathed, running his hand through his hair. “It keeps trying to go to him and whatever the hexcore did could end up absorbing their lumen, too. This was the best I could do!”

“Put them in a cage?!”

“Mel,” you murmured from your corner. She turned, eyes brought with fury. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not!” Her nostrils flared, her hands waving towards you. “Look at you! You’re sick.”

“I’m heartbroken,” you said, holding Viktor’s lumen impossibly closer.

“They’re injured,” Jayce explained, guiding Mel to the other side of the birdcage. The council woman choked on a gasp as she lowered, taking in the vein-like strips of purple worming out from your lumen. “It tried to take it in. I managed to pull it out of the vortex before the hexcore did that to Viktor.”

Mel rushed back to you, looking you over. You smiled weakly, lifting your shirt where that same injury pulsed under your ribcage.

“It doesn’t hurt as bad anymore,” you promised.

“But it’s not healing,” Jayce pointed out, “and Viktor hasn’t shown any signs of waking up.”

“Heimerdinger?” Mel asked, running her fingers through your hair again. Your eyes closed, tension ebbing away just a bit.

“Missing,” whispered Jayce. “I can’t find him anywhere.”

Their voices strung together, tones bleeding into one persistent hum. You were exhausted. Everything took so much out of you, even breathing. It was as if you could sense each trickle of energy as if left. All the while, that stain on your side grew hotter.

So tired, you thought and fell back into an empty slumber filled with the distant sound of something gurgling.

.

Viktor woke abruptly, his name echoing somewhere just out of reach. Every movement was hindered, the sensation too uncomfortable to stay in as he struggled to freedom. His hands emerged first, his first step bringing him to his knees. He was used to that.

But not this. Not these limbs, deadened and stripped to muscles trickling with the color that stained the black behind his eyes. The metal of his back brace had combined with the flesh, just as the one on his leg had done with the hexcore experiment. His palms and knees scraped the ground like prongs on porcelain.

He stared at his hands, finding his breath and processing the sensations. Retracing his steps had him in the council room—votes entering the air, Jayce’s hope-filled smile as he turned to Miss Medara and that refraction of light as glass shattered.

Viktor stared at his hands, not anything like they were, when they shielded your lumen from the onslaught of something. An explosion?

Where are you? he thought and passed that ethereal purring in his head, something rattled.

His head turned and blearily, he made out a cage just shy of his foot. Your lumen, flushed against the bars, flashed in worried little increments.

He groaned, pushing back into his calves as he reached, dragging the cage to him. The simple lock flicked open and the small hinges nearly broke as you burst out, burying into his cheek. The cage lied abandoned as he held you, a new strength in him as he spied his cane and Jayce out-cold on the desk nearby.

Your lumen slid from his cheek. He just managed to catch it before it dropped from the air and it’s then he saw the new color bleeding out, purple veins trailing from a spot at your center.

Viktor…

He swiveled, eyes widening at the body curled on a cot against the wall. Even under a blanket he knew your outline, your hair falling off the edge of the cheap bed. Your face was tucked into your chest, one hand outstretched towards his prison, fingers brushing the floor.

Grabbing his cane, he didn’t bother to watch as it elongated under his touch. Now a staff, it brought him to you, dead to the world as he tilted your head back, brushing the hair from your sickly colored skin.

A light drew his attention to the cover over you. Peeking out from beneath was his lumen, changed and pressed against your skin where your shirt had ridden up. The same scar on your lumen pierced your side, the color of the veins flashing as he brought his hand closer to observe.

The memory of Sky cut into him. Those colors pulling at her face as she disintegrated into dust.

The hexcore had attempted to take you.

“Vik…tor?” Your eyes fluttered, breathing mere puffs as you tried to focus on him.

“Be still,” he murmured, the voice strange in his ears. “I must fix this.”

His palm smoothed over the stain, his other hand holding your lumen as white wisps curled around them. He took a breath, fingers quivering. A blinding light flashed through his eyes. Your back arched as if pained, your weak cry echoing.

Jayce’s voice called for you as you dropped onto the cot, panting.

“Viktor?”

He ignored him, taking in the silver scared lines left behind on your side and lumen. It floated from his palm, twirling as if shaking off the excess energy.

You sat up with a gasp, crumbling off the cot into him. He wrapped his arms around you, a memorized response. The warmth he knew from you was the same and yet it did not seep into him as it once did. The sensations were all distant.

“Viktor,” you whispered into his neck, clutching him. He stared down your back at his arms. Holding a hand up.

“What…am I?” he questioned.

“You’re alive!” shouted Jayce, kneeling next to him with a hand on his shoulder.

Viktor wasn’t sure if that was the answer he needed, but as you pulled back and looked up at him, there was a…charge. Familiar, yet new.

Whatever he was, if he could still be with you, perhaps it wasn’t all that bad.

[brownhairedbookworm]

Smirking, Bayonetta, instead of dodging, jumped toward the blade strike. She would then catch the blade with the three on Cernabog. Using her strength as both an Umbral Witch and a Lumen Sage, she twisted the caught blade a full 180 degrees and flung it back at the magical blast, hopefully to either fling the scythe away from Monika into the blast or fling Monika along with it. It all depended on how the technique was done

(I was just confused and had no idea on how that attack was phrased 😅)

"Oh god damn i-!" With the scythe caught and yanked to the side, Monika is flung back into the ocean. Splash! She sits up in the water, sputtering as she tries to think of another thing she can even try... Neither of her scythe options seemed effective, at all, but her whips are only melee range... And Bayonetta already proved she can use any attack to grapple her.

...Is she being pushed to use her summoning powers? Is that the lesson, here?

"TELOCH MOMAR!"

A green portal opens at Monika's side. A large pale woman in black clothing, distorted through the lens of being a construct of Monika's hair, rises up from it, wielding the same scythe that Monika has been handling. The two of them start running toward Bayonetta.

[inkquillery]

For the Fanfic Ask game:

23 and 40

hey, thanks for the ask, friend!! 🤗

23. What’s a trope, AU, or concept you’ve never written, but would like to?

whoooo boy, you broke a dam asking this! im so excited to answer :D

a deaf!lin beifong au for avatar: the last airbender/legend of korra is at the very top of my list, it’s been rotting my brain for the past month. i am so in love with the beifong family, but lin and toph in particular are my favourites. it would just be so interesting to see how they navigate communication since they can’t exactly use sign language or writing. and i mean, the amount of flangst! (also i personally have such a fascination and interest in sign language for like, no reason at all lol, i even started self-learning recently for funsies (it’s ridiculously hard to find free online resources for auslan compared to asl)) <- this might also apply to question 17 but oh well :3

and and and an au for agents of shield where an alternate variant of skye (known as daisy) escapes into the canon universe sometime after the events of afterlife due to kang the conqueror destroying her own. she trains skye in her powers, we have some lovely maydaisy angst for both universes, and some character death :3

also ghost!lucy for fairy tail where lucy sacrificed herself in the final battle and became lumen histoire, but sticks around as a sort of spirit to help her friends move on bc i’m all about that angst <33

another one is for demon slayer, where a young tanjirō keeps inexplicably skipping through time, non-linearly and uncontrollably, but he always ends up near giyū (and through a series of confusing events and time-wimey misunderstandings, all the hashira believe tanjirō is giyū’s secret little brother ;))

and i could go on all day but no one has time for that so i’mma stop there lol—

(but feel free to ask more about these aus if you want!!)

40. Do you tend to reread fics or are you a one-and-done kind of person?

oof, it really depends on the fic. i do tend to re-read oneshots, and occasionally longfics if i have the time/when the premise suddenly returns to me and i have this primal urge to reread the whole thing lol. or sometimes i just remember a moment that really stuck out to me and i ctrl + f for it lol.

tldr: yes i do tend to reread fics

thanks for playing! i had a lot of fun ╰(*´︶`*)╯♡

[exoticalmonde]

Chapter XII All Eepy Under The Rainy Day

12-2 Adverse [For the level I used the AFK stratery with: Siege E1MAX, Bagpipe E2, Elysium E2lvl20, Ptilopsis E2lvl50, Vigil MAX, Puzzle E2lvl20, Heidi E2S2 and Lumen MAX]

! Everything ahead is SPOILERS !

[Text: 'We've confirmed that a high-speed warship belonging to the Duke of Windermere was attacked by an unknown Sarkaz weapon. There were no survivors.] GREAT! WONDERFUL! What the hell would you expect me to do about that? How in the hell do you 'gather intel' all we can do is probably look at it from below as it disappears into a cloud of steam and originium specks and hope that the next thing it fires at will not be ummediately us.

I keep forgetting that the title Duke is absolutely available for men and women, so when she comes up every time I'm like... I kind of want to be her when I get older but Ma'amn I do not appreciate the way you're talking about Allerdale. At least she has a good and honest (?) opinion on what she's fighting for, because she's at least being real about how this is progressing and what Victorians think about the 'homeland'.

And are you telling me the Duke of Windermere is dead or... Am I supposed to give up on this model now? They talk about her like she's still alive, so I suppose she was not on that ship.

Sir... Your model is so good. GOSH I LOVE Victoria's clothes so much. Look at the back of his tailcoat, look at the gorgeous cane he'd holding. What a distinguished man whose real agenda and opinions I do not remember thus I can't say if swooning over the model is tipping my good girl scales.

[Text: How about a Sankta patron firearm? I just happen to have one stached away back home...]

I know the Sarkaz are famous for their battle with the Sankta, having past history and whatnot, but are you sure you can just brink a dead Sankta's weapon into the conversation and think that's going to be enough of a temptation?

[Text: Sarkaz Soldier: Interesting... You got your hands on an angel's guardian gun huh? Timid Citizen: Oh, um, it's not mine though. It's just for safekeeping... Heavens, those angels from the Notarial Hall are going to flay me alive if they find out, but if you're interested-]

Dude, you are NOT asking if he is interested because they collect them....

[Text: I just happened to hear, you- Err, the Sarkaz enjoy collecting them, so...]

Oh, he asked, alright...

[Text: Listen up. I prefer my angelic toys freshly looted from a pile of corpses. Now, piss off.]

O-kay. Alright, you know what? You can... Do that. I- And that angry guy is dead now, alright. Oh, those two are down the drain as well...

To be fair, he's not wrong. Sarkaz have been living in dar for so long just because other countries are 110% sure that they will be back asking for vengeance and they are such a great of a number that it's going to be catastrophic. This is what I'm talking about when we talk about Arknights' whole 'Who is the good guy?' meter because it is BROKEN. Those who live well do it at the cost of someone else but they didn't really... do anything to get that going, it's all politics. In the meantime those who are mad are mad for a reason you can kinda nod to because it's relatable.

Terrible, really.

---

CADOR? HELLO? HE'S BABY???

YO THE GLASGOW GANG?

I can't even begin to imagine the damage Kal'tsit would have taken. They say she was already frail, but I wince every time she raises her hand to call on Mon3tr. Don't worry Amiya we can do this. She's gonna be fine, you are gonna be fine, it was all a bad dream. The weight of the Crown of the Sarkaz is heavy but I will hold it up for you babo, I promise.

12-2 Adverse

Poor Golding being told she's probably the reason why all 3 houses got ambushed is really heartrending. She is literally me, for real, actually, and just like how I refuse to give up so did she...

[Text: You little twat, you think being a knight gives you the right to teach me to look at the big picture? I don't give a shite about wiping out some old Sarkaz monsters. My friends are in danger. My home is in danger!]

Okay, indra coming in Indra-ing all over the place until Siege just says 'Indra, enough.' and we instantly stop Indra-ing.

So who the hell are you, Mr. 'I'm the reason Allerdale died but also all your comrades are safely evacuated as much as we could do' and what the heck is your deal??

Trillby Asher? What do you want?

[Text: My sincerest pleasure to meet all of you, ladies and gentlemen. I hope there yet remains room for our objectives to coexist.]

You, Sir, are a clown-

[Text: 'Doctor', the commander of Rhodes Island... There exists very little information on you. We were under the impression that this was due to a lack of importance. We will reevaluate our internal appraisal.]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

"We thought you are useless, but it seems that was wrong."

[Text: Your subordinates are very strong, even after they heard the word Vampire.]

Which is weird because... what even are you? Your race is undisclosed, W refuses to call you a Sarkaz and bites your backside for having horns, but you also have Baphomet in your E2 art.

What are you????

But also...

INES INES INES INES SHE COMES IN TO SAVE THE DAY BEING A BADASS ONCE AGAIN. And apparently she's been in cahoots with Ascalon because how was she meant to know that Ines is going to come around after annihilating all the communications- no, all the people waiting on the other side of the radios to hear whether or not they get to attack

Better question

HOW DID YOU SURVIVE THAT FALL???

---

Skin intermission, because I caved. Czerny skin is what I'm saving for next, but it's okay because the new CC and the ExeAlter comes first and I can work on that.

12-4 Adverse

And after all of that horror I just get to listen about how Logos is just great at darts and apparently unbeatable at... *checks scribble on hand* chair sliding.

[Text: Cador presses against the door with his body and grabs the axe peeking through the hole back with his two hands. The Man outside makes several attempts to pull the axe back in vain.

Cador: I don't care who the hell you are, but get out of my sight, or I'll have this axe in your brain!]

GET EM CADOR! What a mess, the hecking audacity to be breaking in like that.

This level... Took me like 5 tries and in the end I had to learn the hard way that maybe bringing more robots is a good idea only if I have Chiave and only if I am braced to wait like... what... 200 seconds??? It was insane. I managed though. 12-5 Adverse

[Text: War is cruel. Suffering and death follow in its wake. It exposes out barest, truest forms to one another. It tears off all disguises.]

Oh yeah, I can absolutely see people going insane with all that is happening already, you don't need to remind us... We didn't learn our lesson with the gold tooth that Per left behind after his body got mauled...

Grannynapping happens, Clovisia used her arts and I'm so sad I didn't get to see what they were. Here and then she's not. I don't really get why the workers would try to save Catherine. I mean, yeah, the attempt is fine, since they do care about her, they want to be safe and giving up at this point is a little useless as she said... The Sarkaz will not be showing mercy anymore and I don't think there is any place safe they can go.

In any case, I appreciate the worry. even if Catherine is gonna be like 'You absolute twats.'

Ayo Originium Dust spoiler, dead Infected explode.

---

[Text: Of course, Victoria has never been truly at peace. The things we make are sent to the border region to fight the Sargonians ot the Leithanians and blast holes in their bodies - Not that it has anything to do with us. All we had to do was stay in the factory and turn screws on the iron blocks.] Me: "Why is Victoria fighting Laterano again?" Pinkie: "Because they have all the GUNZ." Me: "I meant Leithania actually." Pinkie: "Because they are right next to each other." Me: "THE SIMPLER EXPLANATION HAHA!" Pinkie: "Well, yeah! You're Balkan, I'd think you'd know that the best." Me: "Oh my god, I would." --- Pinkie: "I'm saying globalization isn't a thing the way I can voice chat with you all. A Leithanian can't voice chat with a Victorian. For me to contact you, Lundi, I have to send a letter to Kazimierz, wait a week, wait another week for a responce and then read your letter." Me: "If he survives." Pinkie: "And that is if the Messenger survives multiple cancer-inducing snowstorms, yes."

---

Pinkie: "Cador is definitely one of the based ones in the Glasgow gang. When Siege shows up he's like 'Oh would you like us to fight for you M'lady' and Siege is just 'Can you... not?' because she doesn't want to deal with the weight of her title like that."

Me: "That is absolutely hilarious. I like him."

...

Hope he doesn't die a terrible, horrible death.

[drinkthemlock]

NIGHT AT THE TAVERN

VI - LAST KISS OF LOVE

The end. Translating this took me over a year. I was in a very different place in my life when I began this project and I’m so glad it stayed with me along the way. Three cheers for weird goth boys from the 1800s!

Text by Álvares de Azevedo, translation my own.

TW: this chapter contains murder and suicide.

[revised August 2024]

VI

LAST KISS OF LOVE

“Well Juliet! I shall lie with you tonight!”

SHAKESPEARE - “Romeo and Juliet”

It was late into the night; the party was over. The fellows slept in the shadows, satisfied.

A light flashed through some cracks on the door. The door opened. A woman in black entered. She was pale; and the light of a lantern, which she held in her hand, poured onto her features and awarded a singular twinkle to her eyes. Maybe once she had been a typical beauty, one of those images that make one blush with desire in boyish dreams. But now, with her livid skin, her alert eyes, her purple lips, her marble hands, and her dark clothes, dripping wet from the rain, one might say instead: “the lost angel of madness”.

The woman bent down: with the lantern in her hand she looked, one by one, for a familiar face amongst the sleeping ones.

When the light hit Arnold, she knelt. She went to kiss him, puckered her lips… but an idea detained her. She rose. When she reached a sleeping Johann, a smile paled her lips, her gaze became sinister.

She knelt down next to him, then placed the lantern on the ground. The faint lumen of the lantern hitting her clothes cast a shadow over Johann. The woman leaned in and her hand fell on his throat. A husky and muffled sob followed. The stranger rose. She trembled; and upon holding the lantern a piece of metal clinked in her hand… It was a dagger… She threw it to the ground. She saw that her hands were red; dried them in Johann’s long hair…

She came back to Arnold; shook him.

“Wake up!”

“What do you want from me?”

“Look at me… can’t you recognize me?”

“You? Is this not a dream? It is you! Oh! Let me hold you, now! Five years without seeing you! Five years! And how much you’ve changed!”

“Yes, I am no longer as beautiful as I was five years ago! It’s true, my blond lover! It’s that the flower of beauty is like all flowers. Nourish them with the dew of virginity, under the wind of purity, and they’ll be beautiful… Cover them in filth… and, like the falling fruit that plunge into the waters of the sea, they’ll be enclosed by an impure and brackish encasement! Once I was Geórgia — the virgin —, but today it is Geórgia— the prostitute!”

“My God! My God!”

The man put his face in his hands.

“Do not curse me, no!”

“Oh! Let me remember: these past five years were a dream. The man from billiards, the point blank duel, waking up at a hospital, this depraved life which desperation pushed me into, are all a dream! Oh! Let us remember the past! When winter darkens the sky, let us close our eyes; poor dead swallows! Let us remember the spring!”

“Your words hurt me… It’s a farewell, a farewell kiss and separation that I come to ask of you; on earth our bed would be impure, the world has tarnished our bodies. The love between the libertine and the whore! Satan would laugh at us. It is in heaven, when the grave has washed us clean, that our loving dawn will rise…”

“Oh! To see you only to leave you again! And didn’t you realize, Giórgia, that it would've been better for me to have died, devoured by the dogs in that empty street where I was carried from, covered in blood? That it would’ve been better if you’d murdered me in drunken sleep, rather than point the wandering star of good fortune to me and then wipe it from the sky? Didn’t you realize that, after five years, five years of fever and insomnia, of waiting and despairing, of living for you, of longing and agony, it would be like hell to see you only to leave you?”

“Have mercy, Arnold! I need this farewell to be as long as life. See, my fate is grim: there’s a vile stain on my memories… today! The venal bed… Tomorrow! I only long for the berth of the grave! Arnold! Arnold!”

“Do not call me Arnold! Call me Artur, like before. Artur! Won’t you listen! Call me that! It’s been so long since I’ve heard anyone call me by that name! I was a madman! I wanted to drown my thoughts and wandered the towns and the mountains, leaving tears everywhere I went… in the lonely caves, on the silent meadows and on the wine-stained tables! Come, Giórgia! Sit here, sit on my knees, nestled well on my heart… your head on my shoulder! Come! A kiss! I want to feel again that perfume which I used to breathe in your lips… let me breathe it and die! Five years! Oh! Such a long time waiting for you, dreaming of just one hour on your breast… Then… Listen… I’ve so much to say to you! So many tears to spill onto your lap! Come! And I will tell you my whole story! My lover’s illusions and the damned nights spent in lasciviousness and the boredom that the cold mouths of the whores that kissed me inspired in me! Come! I’ll tell you all of it, I’ll tell you how I desecrated my soul and my past… and let us cry together… our tears will wash us like the rain washes mud off the leaves!”

“Thank you, Artur! Thank you!”

The woman drowned in tears and the young man murmured in between kisses and words of love.

“Listen, Artur, I came just to tell you goodbye! From the door to my grave; and then I’d close it, content… Artur, I’ll die!”

Both were crying.

“Do you see,” she continued. “Come along: do you see that man?”

Arnold took the lantern.

“Johann! Dead! God protect me! Who killed him?”

“Giórgia did! He was a scoundrel. It was he who left a young man he slapped at a gambling den for dead. Giórgia, the whore! Has avenged Giórgia, the virgin! He was the man who ruined her! Ruined her… she, his sister!”

“Horror! Horror!”

And the man turned his face and covered it with his hands.

The woman kneeled at his feet.

“And now goodbye! Goodbye, for I’ll die! Can’t you see I’m turning pale, that my eyes turn glazed and I tremble… and faint?”

“No! I will not go. If I were alive tomorrow, there would be a horrible memory in my past…”

“And are you not afraid? Watch out! It is death that’s coming! It’s life at its twilight on my forehead. Can’t you see this sliver in between my eyebrows?”

“Why would I care about the sleep of death? My future tomorrow would be terrible: and inside the corpse’s rotting head no memories echo, death seals its lips; the grave is silent. I’ll die!”

The woman retreated… retreated… The young man took her in his arms, nailed his lips to hers… She cried out and fell from his hands. It was horrible to look at. The man took the dagger, closed his eyes, punched it against his chest and fell onto her. Two moans were muffled by the sound of a body hitting the ground…

The lamp went out.