#or caius might die

[knownsome]

Listen, it's not my fault that I'm the standard If I had it my way, we'd all be perfect

Caius on his way to see his boyfriend, Simon, on his last night in town, unaware this night will contain:

meeting the bf's sisters and brother

breaking into a cathedral

participating in a ritual to free a Ravnos elder from underneath

aaand staking Simon's oldest sister to take the elder's place. Sorry, Elisabeta.

It does seem like the rest of the siblings like him, though, and probably their (great-great?) grandma.

Weirdly, it was surprisingly romantic, and he might be married(-ish?) now. If things go south in New Orleans, he'll always have a place in Budapest.

[volturissideslut]

Hello. Can youwrite lovesick Volturi Kings ? Please

Just gonna do Caius for now, if you want more just send another req <3

𝕮𝖆𝖎𝖚𝖘 𝖁𝖔𝖑𝖙𝖚𝖗𝖎

Lovesick Caius who becomes a fool for you. Yes he has a couple millenias worth of experience, and yet he still feels like a teen in love whenever he's with you. It's that never ending giddy feeling in which you consume all his thoughts. What should he wear to see you? What flowers might you want? How is your day going? Did you like that book he recommended? You plague his mind in a way nothing ever has and his stomach is in his throat when he's with you. I think your husband has a bit of a crush on you.

Lovesick Caius who loves to kiss your cheeks. Human or vampire he'll hold your chin with his fingers and just peck at them or maybe even give them a little nibble. He's obsessed with them really, nosing them, pinching them, squishing them, and holding them. They're just his favourite part of your face. And if you have dimples then you'll never escape him. He makes it his life's mission to make you smile just so he can see them. There is something just so intimate about how he holds your face.

Lovesick Caius who learns new things just so he can teach you. You mentioned an interest in pottery? He's never done it before because it just wasn't something he wanted to do, but he'll go and take secret classes or teach himself when you're not there just so he can teach you. He would do just about anything - scratch that - he would do absolutely anything to have you look up at him with that impressed admiration. He'd learn a language, skill, or anything you want just for the way you look at him when he offers to help.

Lovesick Caius who would bend over backwards for you, who would go to many lengths to keep you satisfied and smiling. No price is too much for him, money or other, even when you insist you don't need whatever it was. Tickets, jewels, the head of whoever upset you on a silver platter? This vampire really knows no bounds.

Lovesick Caius who loves his down time with you. To be sat in front of a fire in an empty room, you laid on him or vice versa, a wine glass filled with blood in each of your hands (or the best of wines if you are still human). To talk with you, to lay with you, or to have soft and gentle touches shared between you. It's his idea of a perfect time when he is all consumed with quiet and you. Could it get much better than this?

Lovesick Caius who goes on a rampage if there was any harm brought to even a single hair on your head, guard be damned your HIS mate. And especially good luck to whoever it was if they are not a member, they have their death sentence coming. HE genuinely loves you so much and it takes everything in him to not hyperventilate even as a vampire when even the most minor of things happens to you. He physically feels a piece of himself die when you cry.

[victimeyez]

The Dollhouse

Chapter 28 of Professional//Victim

Tommy is paralyzed for his client, and begins his role as a doll.

CW: Captive whumpee, intimate whumper, drugged whump, dehumanization, "willing" whumpee, medical whump, medical torture, doll whumpee, doll fetishization, desecration of remains, and strong horror elements.

~

Dae-Ho opened the door with a warm smile and eyes filled with excitement. Tommy recognized him from the brief video chat they’d had over Caius’s phone. 

“Tommy, Caius, Sam! You came! Please, please come inside!” He ushered them in like family long since seen. Stepping into the foyer, Tommy took a quick moment to take in the place. The lobby more resembled the waiting room of a spa, designed to be warm and calming. A wax heater perfumed the air with some scent, clean and slightly sweet. A fountain feature built into the far wall made for an exquisite accent, incorporating rustic slabs of warm-toned river stones with a little waterfall trickling through merrily. It was carefully fashioned to appear naturalistic, leaning away from a cool cement design that could bring to mind cemetery features. 

Neatly aligned chairs and couches were offered for anyone waiting, furbished with a soft tan hide and cushy padding tight enough to still offer support. An enormous persian rug carpeted most of the room, light and clean with dark blue accents to help balance the warmer tones. There was an office attached, and a small counter crafted to still appear open and welcoming. A soundscape of soothing nature sounds permeated quietly, accompanied by string instrumentals light enough to calm but not depress, 

I could never afford to die here, Tommy thought. There was a distinct feeling he always got when they visited the ritzy places many of his clientele inhabited. Truly, it was almost the same that he felt in his life before. As an impoverished punk in ill-fitting thrift store clothing, whenever he visited anywhere that displayed a modicum of wealth, he got a distinct feeling of being alien and misplaced. I don’t belong here. He knew it, and everyone else did, too. He did his best to act otherwise, but he simply couldn’t hold his space the way people experienced with luxury could. Especially now, deprived as he was within his meager living space. Even the rest of Caius’s house felt too fancy for his worth. 

If Dae-Ho judged him, he did not show it. His eyes twinkled excitedly behind his horn-rimmed glasses, kind and inviting. He was exquisitely dressed in a fitted black suit, with subtle paisley dyed slightly darker in a shadow-like effect. In lieu of a tie, he wore a well tied cravat of magenta with a matching pink and white pocket square. He wore shiny saddle shoes with shiny magenta laces. If he had donned a top hat and a cane, it would not have looked out of place. 

“Tea or coffee for you gentleman?” Dae-Ho swept a hand towards a stand beside the desk, laden with various coffee and tea accoutrements. 

“Coffee sounds good,” Sam suggested. 

“I wouldn’t turn down an earl grey, if you have it. Would you like anything yourself, Dae-Ho? Tommy would be happy to serve you,” Caius asked, his customer service voice in full force. Dae-Ho smiled and waved his hand easily. 

“Nonsense! You are all my guests, I am excited to have new additions to the tea party. I make everything for it myself, though dinner tonight will be catered so we can maximize our time together. If you’d accompany me to the mortuary, I have a sanitized space available where you can prepare Tommy.” Dae-Ho took Tommy’s hand in his and squeezed lightly, giving Tommy a giddy look as if they were sharing a private joke. He led them back down a couple hallways, followed closely by Caius and Sam. 

There was an electronic keypad Dae-Ho unlocked to enter the lab, and he held the door for Caius and Sam without letting go of Tommy’s hand. His grip was oddly gentle, his hands a little damp, the only indication he might be nervous. The flooring inside was a black and white tile dotted with intermittent drains, with a wall of morgue drawers along the back. There was a main slab in the middle of the room, but it resembled an adjustable hospital bed more than a classic metal autopsy table. No railings, allowing for easy access, but it was padded and covered in a shiny laminate for cleanliness. Other rolling racks and trays were stored neatly to one side. Sam whistled, looking around appreciatively, as if being shown some kind of pornography for custom labs. There was an acrid smell to the room here though, a far cry from the melted wax scents in the foyer.

“I have something special for you, Tommy. I had it tailored to you, per those measurements Caius sent,” Dae-Hold told him, dropping his hand to go collect his gift from one of the cabinets. Tommy wasn’t aware of any measurements Caius had sent him, but he knew Sam occasionally took his body measurements when he lost weight. Dae-Ho came back with a long and thin gift box, wrapped and tied thoughtfully with a silky red ribbon. The bow it culminated in looked complicated, and he hesitated to touch it when Dae-Ho set it on the slab before him. 

He had been trying to read Dae-Ho since they met eyes at the door. There were plenty of things he could surmise about him from the state of the manor, the decoration, and his personal sense of style. It was interesting how he was treating them like friends, dropping the formal pretense of a business transaction in spite of his careful state of dress. Tommy had anticipated being regarded as a doll from the very start, not that Dae-Ho would acknowledge him and act so fondly. He had asked Tommy to say hello to him over the phone, but Tommy had dismissed it as a kind of wind-up doll desire. Pull the string to hear what your dolly has to say!

What he couldn’t tell yet was Dae-Ho’s intentions. His joy and hospitality felt very genuine, regardless of the circumstances. 

You know this, you just can’t quite put your finger on it. What does a doll have to offer?

“Tommy?” Dae-Ho prompted, when the gift wasn’t readily accepted.

A doll offers…

The coin dropped. He remembered then, something he had already forgotten that he knew.

A doll offers companionship. He wants a companion. One without needs, one that never disagrees or dislikes the things he likes. Companionship without the emotional risk of genuine human connection. 

A people pleaser. Specifically, a Dae-Ho pleaser. I can do this. I can be this doll. 

Tommy shifted gears abruptly to accommodate, straightening his posture and smiling brightly. Dao-Ho flinched in surprise, but Tommy was tuning in. 

“Wow, this is beautiful Dae-Ho! You are so thoughtful. I’m afraid to open it, it already looks so nice, I don’t even know where to start,” he gushed, touching the sides of the box reverently. He tipped his head down slightly to look up at him through his eyelashes, giving a shy but flirtatious smile. Dae-Ho’s eyes immediately widened, giving him a broad grin back, even taking a step closer as if Tommy had magnetized him. 

“The pleasure is all mine, I wanted you to have it. Would you like help opening it?”

“Yes please,” Tommy said, giving him a little embarrassed smile. Dae-Ho’s eyes gleamed manically, and he tugged on one end of the ribbon, drawing it slowly to watch it unfurl. 

When he lifted the lid, Tommy got a look inside. It took a second to make sense of what he was looking at, but after his experience with all the strappy nightmares Caius put him in, this one was easy to figure out. Unfolded, it was a thickly braided wire armature with leather straps attached to buckle it on. It was shaped a little like a stick figure with no head. He could make the leap without an explanation - this would buckle like a body harness onto him, with a wire skeleton that they could use to pose him. He tested a wire braid with his hands, and it was pretty strong, but still bendable by hand with some force. 

Tommy felt nauseous looking at it. He’d known he would be paralyzed, but this felt grotesque. The threat of impending helplessness made the little color he had drain from his face. 

“You’ll be the best dolly,” Dae-Ho reassured him. Tommy kept his forced smile, but he held it with a grim resolve.

“Thank you Dae-Ho, this is very special.” 

He numbly followed orders to strip, and stand there naked, his arms and legs held away from his body as the armature was attached. The wire at the top had a smaller ring that attached the metal spine through his collar. He supposed it was easier to get it on before he was paralyzed, but once it was on, he was out of time to remain autonomous. Stiffened now with the armature in place, Dae-Ho generously helped him onto the table. As he laid down, he felt as if he was resting his head in the cradle of a guillotine. When Sam lined up a tray of shots and leaned over him, Tommy imagined the rope in his gloved hands, ready to cut it and get the session started in earnest. 

“What I’m going to be administering today is a series of pain blocks at the base of each limb. These are localized anesthetics that will prevent any sensation at all throughout each appendage, until it starts to fade after about seven hours. He also will be unable to move the limbs at all. I had one of these done when I got surgery on my arm – I had to hold my arm in my other hand when I walked for the rest of the day, otherwise it would start swinging like dead meat from my shoulder.” 

Dae-Ho laughed like Sam was telling a joke. 

“The only parts he’ll be able to feel, or have any muscle control, will be from here-” Sam drew imaginary lines with his finger over where Tommy’s thigh connected to his groin over to the base of his hip, severing his legs completely.

“-to here.” He drew lines from the base of each of Tommy’s shoulders down through his armpits.

“Ah…” Dae-Ho flanked Tommy’s other side and reached out to touch him, stroking an appreciative hand down his chest to his stomach. 

“So smooth,” he complimented. 

A gentle hand like that could have been something Tommy enjoyed, but under the circumstances, it revolted him. Dae-Ho’s hand stopped just above his groin and he held Tommy’s hip instead.

“Will he still be able to feel pleasure?” 

Tommy’s stomach churned. Sam looked slightly put off, as if disgusted by the idea. Like he hadn’t unloaded down Tommy’s throat the night before. 

“Yes, he should still be able to feel…everything. Like that.”

“Good,” Dae-Ho breathed. He reached up to touch Tommy’s lips, tracing them with a finger. As part of his “dollification”, Caius had used a lip stain on him that made them look pinker and plumper. He’d even glued on false lashes, delicately curled to give him a more doll-like appearance. The final touch had been the colored contacts, wide emerald irises on top of his natural greens.

“I have a few rules for you, so I need you to listen closely, okay?” Dae-Ho reached up to tap his own ear, as if instructing a toddler. The top of the wire armature was uncomfortable against the back of his skull under where Tommy was laying. He nodded. 

“One - dolls are always happy.” Dae-Ho smiled and pointed to the corners of his mouth. Tommy answered by mirroring his smile in a mirthless mask. 

“Good! Two, dolls do not speak. If Dae-Ho wants you to speak, Dae-Ho will tell you.” Dae-Ho pointed to himself, as if it was not clear, even when slipping into third-person. Tommy nodded. It would be a nice break from trying to guess what the right things to say were, at least.

“Three, dolls do not cry. Dolls are happy to be with Dae-Ho, dolls do not speak and complain, and dolls do not cry. Okay?” 

Hadn’t he just been thinking about that? It was eerie. He definitely hadn’t said anything about it to Dae-Ho, and wracking his brain, he couldn’t recall Caius saying anything about it. They hadn’t discussed it in the short video call. 

Sometimes he did this with Caius, when he would say something and Caius would look at him like he’d just read his mind. I was just thinking that! Are you having one of your little psychic moments, Tommy? He would ask playfully. 

Psychic - as if. If he was, he would have run before Caius could take him. Maybe he wouldn’t have agreed to finally go to church with Mom, for just one Sunday. If he hadn't gone, he never would have met Caius’s mother. He never would have met Caius. And sure, cancelling would have disappointed Ma, but that wouldn’t have been any change of pace. 

“I’ll go start the tea. When I come back - we follow the rules, okay?” Tommy gave Dae-Ho a mechanical nod, and he breezed out. 

Tommy counted ceiling tiles while Sam cleaned a spot by his hip with an alcohol wipe. He hated needles. He didn’t usually go weak at the knees about them anymore, not after all the hundreds of injections they’d put him through over the years. Vaccines, antibiotics, scar treatments, anesthetics, muscle relaxants, steroids, cocktails Sam cooked up and didn’t even tell him what he was being injected with. Not to mention, more stitches than he could count. 

He remembered, suddenly, something he hadn’t thought about in a long time. His piercer, back home, a lifetime ago. She worked out of a tattoo parlor with no name, just the generic TATTOOS sign on the side of an old road in a bad part of town. His bad part of town. But she was gentle, as gentle as one could be with a needle, and he knew because he’d gotten other piercings elsewhere. 

Anika was tall, making him feel especially small when she stood before him as he sat on the edge of the tattoo table. She was so pretty, with all her piercings, her voice deep and sweet. He’d liked her short hair, but her new braids looked good too, loose strands framing her face with the rest swept into a high messy bun. He liked the way she laid her baby hairs, in tiny little curls around her hairline.

“Alright, don’t forget to breathe. Quick pinch. Breathe in…” Tommy took a slow breath in, and the needle slid through the shell of his ear. She quickly slid the piercing into place, leaving it in as she retracted the piercing needle. “-aaaaand breathe out. Good boy, you always take it like a champ.” His heart fluttered a little in his chest, the way she said it. 

Words like that were different nowadays. Maybe that’s why Caius chose him. Saw his hopeless need to please somehow, and decided to make Tommy please him. 

Sam pushed the needle into his shoulder. Breathe in, Anika said, an echo from years ago. He breathed in, slow. The numbness started to streak down his arm immediately, and Sam pulled the needle out. Breathe out…good boy, Tommy, she complimented. It didn’t matter that she never called him Tommy, when he knew her. It didn’t matter that she never even remembered his name. 

She talked him through each injection, comforting even as Sam worked with clinical austerity. Tommy focused on his hands, making them into fists, relax, fists, relax. Curling his toes, uncurl, curl, uncurl. Until they felt weaker, and weaker, and numb, until he couldn’t feel them at all. Like they’d been amputated, no signal at all that they were even there.

The best he could do was wiggle a little by tensing his stomach. His limbs, the bulk of his bodyweight, were suddenly dead weights, fleshy anchors he couldn’t unbind. This wasn’t just being tied up - he was completely imprisoned in his body. 

Tears welled in his eyes before he could stop it. It felt like the contacts might actually help a little as he blinked them back, trying to compose himself. Sam returned to his side, holding a steel water bottle. 

“Open,” he coaxed, twisting the lid off. Tommy did, but Sam pinched his nose anyway, pouring the water into his mouth. At least, he’d expected water, but there was a kind of chemical taste to it, something sweet. He swallowed it to keep from choking, but when Sam pulled the bottle back, a pink trickle dribbled down the side. 

Bastard, Tommy swore internally. He should have guessed Sam was drugging him when he waited until Tommy was unable to move to have him drink. Caius pulled a tissue from his bag and dabbed around Tommy’s lips.

Completely unable to move, no matter what happened, for the next seven or so hours. Fed aphrodisiacs, while he couldn’t fight back, while he couldn’t attempt to cover himself. The helpless feeling suddenly became overwhelming, and a few tears overflowed, even as he struggled to hold them back. 

“Oh dear. It’s alright, little one, be brave for me,” Caius cooed. He ran a hand softly over Tommy’s belly, soothing him with a gentle touch. In spite of everything, it helped. He wiped the tears away with the tissue.

“Is it scary?”

Tommy’s throat was too thick to speak. He managed a nod. Caius gave him a look of sympathy, more than Tommy would have expected after his demands. Sam’s face reflected his similar bewilderment.

“This won’t be so bad. He just wants to play with you, he doesn’t have any plans to hurt you. You can eat and drink, he really does have a tea party planned. We will be with you in case you need anything. Did you have fun at the aquarium?”

“Yes,” Tommy croaked, and then cleared his throat. “Yes, I did, thank you, it was beautiful. I had a lot of fun.” Less hoarse this time, and the leaking from his eyes was quickly subsiding.

Caius did a little more shuffling in his bag, and his touch returned to Tommy’s face with a powder brush, covering up the pink on his nose and the red around his eyes. “I had fun with you, too,” Caius admitted, and something about it brought a funny smile back to Tommy’s face. 

Deep breaths. You can do this. You don’t even have to talk. Play dolls with him. Just…babysitting.

Definitely not babysitting, another part of him reminded cruelly. He wanted to know if you can feel pleasure, they drugged you with the aphrodisiac. You’re going to spend the day as the perfect unwilling fuck doll and there’s nothing you can do about it. Tommy tried to shove those thoughts to the side in order to keep his newfound composure. 

Sam pinched and poked his arms to test the numbness. It might as well have been done to someone else, for the amount of sensation Tommy got from it. When Dae-Ho came back, his gaze on Tommy was hungry.

“Let’s get you dressed up again, shall we?”

The armature harness had replaced the fashion harness part of the outfit that he had chosen, but Dae-Ho pulled his stack of clothes from the counter where Tommy had folded them.

Trying to bend the armature to make his limbs follow was unsuccesful. After some fussing, Dae-Ho realized he could bend it much easier by manipulating Tommy’s limbs themselves, letting his weight help apply force to bend them the way he wanted. The wire was strong enough then to hold him in place. Dae-Ho posed him a few times for fun, and then used it to bend his limbs in positions that made dressing him easier. 

“I should use these for all my bodies!” Dae-Ho exclaimed, a little breathy from the effort. Tommy had been dressed by Caius and a few others before, when he was unable - or unwilling - to dress himself. Not in the things some of the clients wanted, especially at the beginning. Tommy knew better than to fight back much anymore, though he had just made his little stand in the car earlier.  

When he was dressed again, in his blousy white dress shirt and black latex pants and matching bowtie, Dae-Ho laced him into a pair of saddle shoes with spats. He was settled into a wheelchair, lowered in with practiced ease by Dae-Ho. He was deceptively strong underneath his fine suit. Tommy was wheeled to the stairs then, Caius and Sam trailing behind, and stopped at a stair lift waiting at the bottom. He’d only ever seen them in commercials before, of elderly people smiling as they buckled themselves into the seat to be pulled up the stairs on a motorized track. He could see it installed up the wall, rounded off at the corners to go up the stairs, turn onto the landing, and continue up the next flight that changed direction. 

Dae-Ho turned to Sam. 

“Doctor, will you please help me move it onto the lift?” Sam had a pinch in his forehead, but after a hesitant look to Caius, he agreed. Not being able to feel or move his limbs was uncomfortable to Tommy - any part of him that wasn’t supported hung limply down, and he couldn’t help at all. As he was settled into the chair and buckled in, his arms bent awkwardly in front of him. Sam moved his hands into his lap, and one immediately fell off, dangling strangely. The best he could do was attempt to sit up and back to move his arms back in, but they were nothing more than warm dead anchors hanging from his shoulder. He also couldn’t adjust his hips to sit up, so he hung uselessly in his harness. 

With the press of a button, the chair let out a grinding sound and started to advance up the wall. At the corner, he heard his ankle bash the wall, but he couldn’t feel it at all. The helpless feeling was significantly worse than when he was bound and he could strain against his bindings - this was more intimate, more violating, the way it robbed him of the little autonomy he had left. 

The machine went slower than walking speed, so the others met him again at the top after passing him. Dae-Ho already had another wheelchair ready, and he flopped haphazardly in with a push. The acrid smell had grown sharper, turning sour and musty, though the upstairs appeared clean and brightly lit. Caius wrinkled his nose slightly, struggling to be polite, but Sam gave a look of open disgust. 

Tommy was wheeled into a lavish dining room, made up as the pinnacle of a lavish art-deco design. It felt like it belonged in a scene from The Great Gatsby. The center of the room was dominated by a round table - and the rest of the company had already found their places. Dolls were seated around the table, some propped up in chairs, others in wheelchairs like Tommy. They were of varying sizes, some child-size while others appeared as tall as Caius. There were a variety of designs among them - some very simple, others far more realistic. One had clearly been a scarecrow, a few were just mannequins, and a couple of halloween prop dummies with plastic heads and hands. One seat held a long body pillow with a pillowcase featuring an anime girl posed in a vulnerable way, blushing. 

There was a gigantic Barbie and Ken, their placid smiles unsettling at such a size. Next to them sat what looked like a crash test dummy that had been badly painted, the mouth too low on the face, the eyes too far apart. A large green power ranger plushie had a spot, as well as a plastic Optimus Prime that stood up stiffly in his chair. One seemed to be an evil clown animatronic, another one a human-sized plushie blue tiger.

 Tommy preferred that to the ones that were obviously sex dolls, made with an attempt at realism that was undermined by their soulless faces and cartoonish proportions. Most of the dolls were dressed in roaring 20’s outfits, but the sex dolls wore skimpy club wear that highlighted their enormous plastic breasts and tiny waists. Other more detailed mannequins had closer to human proportions, all slightly different shapes and sizes, but their plastic faces were identical - one face for all the “women”, and another for the “men”. Their eyes were sunken, but more lifelike in color and size, the glossy glass orbs taking on a wet look. Wigs, flapper dresses, patterned suits, and fake eyelashes abound. 

Dae-Ho’s seat was obvious, as an empty throne of garish gold. He had a sex doll immediately to the left, and wheeled Tommy into an empty spot to the right. Caius and Sam took to a couch on the side, away from the table. 

“You all get to know each other a bit, and I’ll be back with everything for the tea party,” Dae-Ho addressed his inanimate guests, and left the room.

The smell was strong, though if Dae-Ho noticed, he didn’t mind. As soon as he left, Sam started searching the room. 

“We’re not casing the joint, you know,” Caius mused, as Sam made his way around the edge of the room. 

“It smells like - something, I can’t put my finger on it, but it reeks in here,” Sam explained, opening the drawers of a wardrobe. He sniffed over one, made a face, and started to rummage through. 

“We are directly above his embalming room, you’re probably smelling something from that,” Caius pointed out, but they all knew the smell had been fainter in the lab below. Sam ignored him, moving on to another drawer.

“Hey,” Caius said sharply, and both Tommy and Sam jumped. Well, as much as Tommy could jump. 

“We are guests here. Stop touching his things, put everything back exactly the way it was, and sit. Down.” Caius hissed, and it sent Sam quickly packing everything back in. It felt a little like a mother reigning in her boys, though Tommy sat dutifully in his place at the table - not that he could do anything else. 

“Just let me look at the dolls,” Sam mustered, passing the couch to inspect them. Caius sighed.

“If he comes back and sees you, he very well might invite you to the table. And if he does - you will sit down at that table and shut your mouth, so help me god.”

Sam sniffed around the circle, but he mostly just seemed curious about the dolls. He poked the animatronic in the eyes, and posed the Optimus Prime with his little hands on the table. When he got to a sex doll, he squeezed her breasts, giving a mischievous smile to Caius. 

“Jealous?” He waggled his eyebrows up and down goofily. Caius rolled his eyes, a smile tugging at the corner of his thin lips. 

“Hardly. If you want some big silicon tits, I know a doctor who might be able to help.” 

Sam twiddled with the swollen boobs. “They even have nipples.”

“Of course, how else would she breast feed?” Caius said dryly, but he was enjoying his boyfriend’s antics a bit. 

Sam reached the mannequin beside Tommy, and pulled it back to sit upright so he could take a closer look. 

“These ones have like - I think these are real human replacement eyes, like if you lose an eye? Do they use those on bodies?”

“No, much worse, they put these little hooked pieces inside to keep the eyelids closed,” Caius supplied helpfully. Sam and Tommy made the same face at the same time in response to the information. 

“I knew a doll fucker, this guy Pete. Had a whole ‘harem’ of the things, even had a wedding ceremony with at least one of them. I almost went, just to see, but there wasn’t an open bar and the ceremony was supposed to be like two hours long. But he was collecting these mannequins that they used in a couple high end places in France or something, they were super articulated and rare. These might be those types, or something like it.” Sam squeezed one of the arms. 

“What do you bet all of these have a fleshlight installed? I bet even Optimus over there is rocking something.” Sam pulled the wig hair back to get a better look, and made a face. 

“Oh, shit, this thing stinks. I hope we don’t have a-” Sam stopped suddenly, freezing in place.

“Don’t,” Tommy whispered.

Sam pressed something behind the ear, palpating it with his fingers before switching to picking at it with his fingernails. 

“Sam don’t-”

Sam tugged shortly, and then slower, drawing out an enormous metal pin that had been hidden inside the head. The awful smell grew much more intense, and a foul brown liquid dripped down the side of the doll’s face from where the pin had been pulled. 

Why Sam couldn’t leave it be, Tommy would never know. But when Sam pushed the wig away from the hole to see, the doll’s head shifted and opened like a clam, the face swinging open and away, clicking lightly when it hit the hinge behind the other ear. Plastic blond ringlets fell in the way as Sam let go, but they couldn’t cover enough of what was inside. 

The face underneath was leathery and shiny, with glass-like cracking in areas. All the shellac in the world couldn’t keep a body from rotting. The false eyes were glued over blackened sockets, obtrusive and bulging. Her lips were painted on poorly, closer resembling a beak, and the thin shell of preservative was the only thing shaping the nose, which seemed to have liquified underneath. 

The smell was putrid and overwhelming, and both Tommy and Sam turned away to retch. Sam crossed the room away from it, leaving Tommy dry heaving beside the body. 

With a horrified realization, Tommy looked up and counted the other dolls with the sunken, human eyes. Six total, hunched over in wheelchairs around the table. Sam was swearing, but Caius stepped up beside Tommy to look, holding a hand over his lower face. 

Doing a once over of the "doll", Caius sighed.

"Damn."

~

Taglist:

@suspicious-whumping-egg  @just-a-whumping-racoon-with-wifi @whumpyourdamnpears @generic-whumperz @lonesome--hunter

@whumplr-reader @theelvishcowgirl @sunshiline-writes @dont-be-gentle-please @galesgallery

@2in1whump @sparrowsage @apokolyps @whumpinggrounds

@morning-star-whump @leviiio @alexmundaythrufriday @defire @jumpywhumpywriter

@light-me-on-pyre @slightlydisturbedbeans @dislexiher @knivestothroats @paperprinxe

@watermelons-dont-grow-on-trees

Thank you all so much for reading!!!

[caius-hhhhhh]

@onesidedradiostatic I’d say I’m sorry, but I’m not

@taxi-boi made lyrics for the respectless anons first, this is more about the general Sweater Discourse.

(i’m an amateur, temper your expectations. also he/him, if you please <3)

That dumbass sweater is red! I will not be gaslit! It’s fucking ribbed because it’s been knit! That’s just the lighting! That’s not fucking striping, And I am going to die on this hill!

You’ve got it twisted! I’m not the only one who sees it’s striped! Maybe you missed it But I’ve got all the picks of colour hues And the yellow goes with blue — And the cufflinks show it’s true! Look at this dumb fucking discourse! It might be smart if you changed course

Let me at the masses: But Vivzie is obsessed with straight-up stripes! I think op needs glasses… You’re killing me! I know I’m fucking right! Haven’t we had enough today? Is his jacket blue or a silver grey? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO The state of this dumb fucking discourse, That’s enough beating of this corpse

All these anons are just going to multiply, If you think it’s striped, you’re going on my DNI!

Oops! Did I strike a nerve? Cos when I brought out the Kankri ref Couldnae help but observe that his turtleneck was fucking red! Are you sure you’re not colourblind? Will season 2 even change your mind? Thanks to this dumb fucking discourse, We might get a high-res of this source If we get the fans out in full-force, Will Vivzie bring you closure? This bullshit’s over!

[knivestothroats]

The Professionals - Overdraft Fee

(Because it comes after Withdrawals) The Pros Masterlist || ITWS Masterlist || Pro/Vic Masterlist CW: drug addiction/withdrawls, vomiting, hallucinations

Fletcher eased the door open and peered in at Tommy. He was pale and sweaty, squirming in discomfort on top of the bedsheets.

“Hey,” Fletcher shut the door behind them. “How are you doing?”

Tommy’s eyes snapped open to glare at Fletcher, but he held his tongue.

“Drink more water,” Fletcher said, nodding to the still mostly full bottle on his bedside table. “You don't need to ration it. It’ll help with the aches.”

“It’ll help with the aches?” Tommy repeated scornfully. “I can think of something that would help more.”

Fletcher put their hands on their hips. “Okay, I understand that you’re going through it right now, so-”

“You don't understand what I’m going through!” Tommy snapped. Some of the anger dissipated from his features under Fletcher’s cold stare, replaced by fear and misery. He pressed his hands over his eyes. “I’m sorry, just… I can be useful to you if I’m not sick. Please, just… give me something.”

“Look, I can get you methadone tomorrow - probably. You just have to make it ‘til then.”

“I don’t believe that you don’t have anything.”

“Why would I withhold that?”

“No, drugs!” Tommy snapped again. “You have to have something!”

“I never said that I don’t have any painkillers,” Fletcher responded evenly. “I don’t keep recreational drugs in the house, though. So no coke. And no antidepressants, either, although we can… figure that out later if we need to.”

Tommy scoffed. “Maybe you should.”

Fletcher stepped closer. “What?”

Tommy scowled and looked away. “Nothing,” he muttered.

“No, what did you mean?”

Tommy looked at them now, hate burning in his eyes.

“Maybe you should be medicated. Or at least take something that makes you fun to be around, instead of being some sad asshole who lives in the woods out of-”

Fletcher slapped him hard enough to make his head spin. Before Tommy could curl up in a defensive position, Fletcher grabbed his face and brought it close to theirs.

“Out of what?” they hissed.

Tommy averted his eyes and gritted out, “Sorry,” despite still looking pissed.

“No,” Fletcher gave his head a little shake. “Out of what? Tell me what you were gonna say.”

Tommy wasn’t out of his head enough to finish his sentence. He knew it was better to keep his mouth shut. But they were digging their fingers into his cheeks and demanding a response and they weren’t even letting him beg or bargain for pain relief and….

Tommy began to cry, still caught in Fletcher’s grip. He didn’t mean to, but his head was pounding and his body ached and he was hot and cold at the same time and he never stopped feeling like he was on the verge of throwing up and Fletcher wouldn’t even let him do anything to get drugs. They wouldn’t give him anything at all. 

Fletcher made a noise of disgust and released him.

“Give me a shout if you think you’re gonna die,” they said over their shoulder as they stormed out of the room, leaving Tommy alone again.

I just have to get through the break, Tommy kept telling himself. This fever - the withdrawals - they had to break at some point, right? 

God, he missed the internet. WebMD, save me now. He wasn’t sure what would happen, or how long it would take. Would he really die? 

The idea of Fletcher letting him die, purely out of spite, just because they wouldn’t give him drugs, was a funny thought. Funny enough that he laughed about it. It felt like a real possibility, real and close to happening, and he was just snorting and giggling about it on his sweat-soaked sheets. 

Maybe they’ll do it. It might as well happen. He’d had his fun, got to play for a few hours thinking maybe this new life could be okay, could be better. Only to have it snatched away, the dwindling drugs leaving him dying here would be a poignant last kiss goodbye from Caius. He stopped laughing. He laid there in silence and wished things were different. That maybe he could have been someone else.

He hated Caius. He hated Fletcher. To his surprise, Caius visited first. 

Tommy didn’t hear him come in. There was a hand on his face, cradling his chin, another pushing the hair back from his sweaty forehead. He smelled like clean cotton and sandalwood. He was put together as always, beautiful as he was the first day they met. He was wearing that soft linen shirt Tommy liked, that he would rub his cheek on when he pulled it out of the laundry just because it felt nice. So few things in Caius’s home made him feel nice. 

There were no eyes past his clear rimmed glasses, replaced with glowing circles, just like spots in his vision when he’d stared at the sun for too long. The hands on his face were hot, too close, his skin felt unbearably sensitive to his touch - but Caius had come back for him, he wouldn’t let Fletcher leave him to die.

“Caius,” he breathed, and a sob of relief bubbled in his chest. “You - you came back for me.”

“You look awful. Is this any way to behave for one of my friends?” His tone was deceptively gentle, the way it always was, chastising him softly.

“Nooo,” Tommy wheezed, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry-”

“They’re sending you home with me. They don’t want you, either.”

Tommy whimpered, sneaking a peek back at the window, at the sunlight streaming in. He felt a pang of remorse for snapping at Fletcher, after all they’d done for him. Caius’s hands pulled his face back, forcing him to stare back into those hollow eyes.

“It’s okay now Tommy, I can make it stop.”

Tommy clutched at his wrists, needed to feel he was real.

“You can?” The whole room was swimming, and all he could do was drown. 

“Please, please, make it stop, please, I’m so sorry,” he begged. He could go home with him happily if he would just stop the pain.

“What are you sorry for?”

Caius’s voice turned cold. So did his hands, suddenly freezing against his skin. He feared they might stick, like a tongue to a frozen pole. He couldn’t speak. He was frozen, too.

“For ruining everything we had? How about that, Tommy, is that it?”

“Yes,” Tommy gasped, as Caius’s nails grew into talons sharp against his face. “Yes, Caius, I’m so sorry, I-”

“Look at me,” Caius snarled, and he gripped the sides of Tommy’s face, looming in closer. Those fingernails burrowed into his scalp. Tommy couldn’t look away, staring into the blinding suns of Caius’s eyes. It burned a searing pain, his eyes were on fire, but he was paralyzed with fear. Caius pressed his thumbs under Tommy’s eyes, pulling the lower lids down as if to peel them from his face. His fingers were long and needle-like now, the sharp tips hovering only a hair’s breadth away from Tommy’s eyes. 

“I’m going to make sure you never see the sun again,” Caius hissed, and he plunged his armored thumbs into his eyes, turning the whole world black in an explosion of pain. 

Tommy screamed and thrashed. A shadow moved in Caius’s eyes and suddenly he wasn’t there. Forming in his place was Fletcher leaning over him, blocking the harsh glow of his ceiling light.

“Hey, hey.”

The hands on his face were human again. He reached up and grabbed onto Fletcher’s wrists. They felt more real.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he wailed. “I’m sorry for what I said. I don’t want to go back, I don’t want to go back in the dark…”

“Alright, alright, calm down,” Fletcher assured him. “You’re not going anywhere, okay?”

Caius peered down at him from over Fletcher’s shoulder.

“I can make the pain stop if you come home with me,” he promised.

Tommy wanted the pain to stop. He wanted it more than anything. But he knew going back with Caius meant being locked back in the dark, cold basement. He knew he would be trading this pain now for more pain in the future. He had made Caius so angry… but still…

“How could you get rid of me?” Tommy sobbed. “How could you… how could you not even say goodbye… after everything… after everything you did to me…”

Fletcher’s brows knit together as they watched Tommy babble to no one, eyes unfocused and drifting. His body jerked suddenly and he rolled over to throw up into the garbage. 

At least he had the wherewithal not to asphyxiate. Fletcher pushed his hair off his face as he heaved again. He was hot to the touch.

The door opened and Williams poked his head in.

“What’s going on in here?”

“Do you need something?” Fletcher asked impatiently. 

“I heard screaming; are you torturing him or something?”

“Willy, you thought I was torturing him in here and you just walked in?”

Williams bristled. “It’s Billy.”

“What do you want?” Fletcher repeated.

Williams nodded towards Tommy. “What’s the matter with him?”

“He’s going through withdrawals.”

Williams blanched slightly. “Oh, yeah? What, uh, kind of stuff was he on?”

Fletcher sighed and shook their head, watching Tommy spit into the can. “I don’t know. Opioids mostly.”

“Methadone helps with that.”

Fletcher sighed louder. “If I had methadone, I would be using it. I have a hook up, but I can’t get it until tomorrow.”

Williams studied Tommy for a moment. “You buy this guy on the black market or something?”

“…Something like that,” Fletcher conceded. “Last time I’m going to ask you if you need something, otherwise leave.”

Williams put up his hands in surrender and left, closing the door once more. 

Fletcher turned their attention to Tommy again. He seemed to be done retching, and at least wasn’t begging to empty air anymore. 

“Okay, try to stand up.”

Fletcher took Tommy’s arms and gently pulled him up. They put an arm around his waist to guide him onto his feet. Tommy grabbed onto their shirt to steady himself, leaning against them as he wobbled through the first few steps across the room.

“Easy, Model-T,” Fletcher cooed. They kept him steady as they led him to the bathroom and shut the door behind them. 

“Alright, get out of your clothes.”

Numbly, Tommy disrobed, refusing to look at Fletcher. He was sweating and shivering at the same time, too empty to retch again. He was distinctly aware that he was not impressing Fletcher. 

Fletcher looked him over with a clinical eye. They’d noticed the new scar on his face, and some uneven marbling of his skin, but they had assumed them to be more scars, or a skin condition. Whatever it was, it was brought to stark relief with him nude in the bathroom light. He was dappled all over in patchy white marks, so bleached they looked almost translucent. His ribs jutted out, clearly underfed and malnourished from years of neglect. Whatever the hell they had done to him, his body had taken a severe toll. But now was not the time to interrogate him.

“Okay, get in the tub. You can sit if you need to.”

Fletcher turned the water on as they gave the instructions, putting their hand in the stream to check the temperature. 

Tommy teetered as he lifted each leg to step into the tub, and kept a hand on the tiled wall as he lowered himself down. 

“Okay, it’s gonna be cold,” Fletcher warned before pulling the diverter and switching the stream of water to the shower head. 

Tommy flinched as the water hit him. It wasn’t hard, and it wasn’t freezing, but it was a shock against his feverish skin. After a moment, it became a relief, grounding him. 

Tommy leaned against the wall, resting his temple on the tiles. He pulled his legs up and wrapped his arms under his knees.

“‘M sorry,” he murmured.

“You don’t have to keep saying that,” Fletcher responded, sitting on the closed toilet. “I don’t even think you know what you’re apologizing for.”

“No… I’m sorry you have to do all this for me. I’m sure this isn’t what you wanted… when you bought me.”

Fletcher said nothing.

“I, um,” Tommy swallowed. “I’ll make it up to you. When I’m better.”

Fletcher sighed. “Alright. I’m sure you’ll be cussing me out for not giving you drugs in like ten minutes.”

They both sat in silence for a moment, the only sound the rush of the falling water.

“Are you going to send me back?” Tommy asked in a small voice.

“No.” Fletcher didn’t hesitate.

All things considered - at least until the next wave of pain and nausea hit and the cravings took over his system - Tommy hoped they were telling the truth.

Fletcher stopped the shower before Tommy got too cold. They let him towel off and returned with clean clothes before leading him back to his room. 

“Try to get some sleep. I’ll be back around.”

Sleep wasn’t on the table for Tommy. Not in this state. He tossed and turned, unable to get comfortable.

When the door opened again, it wasn’t Fletcher - it was Williams.

He slipped carefully into Tommy’s room, shutting the door quietly behind him.

“What were you on before?” he asked. “Percs, oxy?”

“I don’t know,” Tommy groaned, turning his head away. “Probably.”

Williams leaned down close. He took hold of Tommy’s chin with two fingers, turning it towards himself and guiding it down. Tommy dutifully opened without much thought. Williams placed something on his tongue.

Tommy’s eyes widened.

It was a pill.

“Don’t say I never did nothin’ for ya.”

Tommy grabbed his water and drank down the pill as Williams slipped out again.

Maybe it was foolish not to spit it out and check what it was. He wasn’t sure if he’d even be able to tell. But at this point, he didn’t really care. He just wanted to feel good enough to return to his chores. 

Whatever happened, he couldn’t lose the light again.

@suspicious-whumping-egg @whumpyourdamnpears @generic-whumperz @lonesome--hunter

@whumplr-reader @theelvishcowgirl @sunshiline-writes @dont-be-gentle-please @galesgallery

@2in1whump @sparrowsage @apokolyps @whumpinggrounds

@morning-star-whump @leviiio @alexmundaythrufriday

@defire @jumpywhumpywriter @watermelons-dont-grow-on-trees

@light-me-on-pyre @slightlydisturbedbeans @dislexiher @paperprinxe @desert-dyke

@just-a-whumping-racoon-with-wifi @burtlederp @whatwasmyprevioususername @cursedandtired

@whump-only @misspelledwitch @redstainedsocks @thehopelessopus @im-just-here-for-the-whump

@thatsthewhump @utopian819 @pretty-face-breaker @thesuffererrrr @victimeyez

[theromaboo]

The Third Day of Julius Caesar

What was Julius Caesar's *real name*?

People often think that Caesar's name is just Julius Caesar, nothing more nothing less. His first name is Julius and his last name is Caesar. And that makes sense in a culture in which Julius is a valid first name.

But was Julius a valid first name in the time of Julius Caesar?

Usually not!

Generally, Roman men at the time of Julius Caesar had to have at least two names, a praenomen and a nomen. A praenomen is like your first name, your given name. A nomen is like your family name, it showed which gens (your extended family) you belonged to, and it usually ended with an -ius (like Claudius, Valerius, Vipsanius, Vergilius, Flavius and... Julius!)

There was a third type of name, called a cognomen. It was like a legal nickname, or it could also be a name that showed which branch of your gens you belonged to. Not all Roman men had one (such as Marc Antony!), but many did, including Caesar.

Generally, the order was like so: praenomen, nomen, and cognomen (fun fact: Maximus Decimus Meridius probably should've been Decimus Meridius Maximus. But who can trust Gladiator to be accurate?).

So we know Caesar's nomen, Julius. And we know his cognomen, Caesar. Wait, what about his praenomen? He needs one!

Julius Caesar actually had three names; we just don't usually call him by his first name. His full name is Gaius Julius Caesar. His father's name was also Gaius Julius Caesar, and his father's, and his father's! (but Julius Caesar's great great grandfather's name was actually Sextus Julius Caesar)

So yeah, Julius was not Caesar's first name.

I've met a few people who say "Actually, no. Julius Caesar's *real name* was Caius Julius Caesar with a C instead of a G!"

Nope!

The reason we sometimes see Caius for Gaius (and why Gaius was abbreviated as C.) wasn't because Gaius was actually Caius or the ancient Romans pronounced Gaius like Caius. It's because in earlier Roman history, those poor guys didn't have the letter G! They had C, K, and Q (which all made the exact same sound) but they didn't have G. They had to spell Gaius with a C and they had to abbreviate Gaius with a C because they had no G.

This was because the Latin alphabet came from the Etruscan alphabet, and Estruscan didn't have a distinction between the C and G sounds and therefore they didn't need two separate letters. Latin, meanwhile, did have a distinction and did desperately need two letters.

Anyway, Romans later got the letter G and then they could write all your favorite G words, like Gay and Gaius. They still commonly abbreviated Gaius as C. because old habits die hard.

If you say that we should write Gaius as Caius because that's the original way to spell it, you might as well say we should write Gaius as CAIVS. Don't cherry pick your archaisms!

[carlisles-girl]

So I was wondering if you can make Caius headcannons with a mate who is swiftie and who is a fan of Lana Del Rey, a female mate pls

a/n: of course !! i love taylor n lana <3 he’s so ultraviolence

-

Caius With A Mate Who’s A Fan of Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey

-

Caius would probably prefer listening to Lana Del Rey more than Taylor Swift whenever you play music.

It’s not that he doesn’t like Taylor’s music, he just prefers the production of Lana’s work more.

He’s definitely an Ultraviolence and Honeymoon girlie.

Caius supports your love for your favourite artists, on the condition you don’t love them more than him.

One time you joked that you loved Taylor and Lana more than him and he didn’t join you for dinner for 3 days.

Tells you that he should be your favourite musician because he can play almost any instrument, but he prefers playing piano.

When ‘Snow On The Beach’ was released, he learned how to play it on piano for you.

“I hope you like this, mia amore.”

He would prefer the albums ‘folklore’ and ‘evermore’ from Taylor, but ‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)’ is definitely his guilty pleasure.

He likes listening to the instrumentals from Ultraviolence and Born To Die.

Definitely appreciates the poetry that’s Lana’s lyrics.

“How could a mortal write this?”

Loves Taylor’s lyrics on a story-telling level.

“Timeless is so us.”

“What does that mean?”

Gets tired when you play the same songs over and over again.

“Mia amore, please play something else.”

“I thought you liked this song?”

“You’re making me hate it.”

You best believe he got you tickets to The Eras Tour.

“Oh my god, did you like, give a limb for these?”

“… Something like that.”

He wouldn’t hear the end of you talking about what you’re gonna wear for weeks and weeks.

“Darling, please. It’s a few hours in one seat, not a ball.”

“Might as well be.”

Caius matches his outfit with yours to be supportive.

Is very confused when you yell the lyrics to All Too Well.

“Don’t I treat you better than how Jake Gyllanhaal did Taylor?”

“How’d you know that?”

“Something about a scarf.”

Has bought you every edition of every Taylor and Lana album ever on vinyl.

He actually managed to get a copy of the Lust for Life heart-shaped vinyl for you.

Listens to Lover and thinks of you when you’re away.

Aro found him sitting in his office with that song playing and asked if Caius was alright.

“Are you alright, dear brother?”

He’d put a hand on Caius’ shoulder knowing Caius wouldn’t tell him verbally and immediately understands.

“They’ll be back soon.”

“I know.”

Isn’t a big fan of pop, but endures it for you.

He would never ask to put on anything that you like, but would secretly hope that you will.

When the love songs come on, he’ll dance with you if you’re up for it.

Lover, invisible string, willow, and Timeless, are his favourite Taylor Swift songs to dance to with you.

Religion is his favourite Lana Del Rey song to dance to with you.

The gifts he gives you are very catered towards your love for Taylor and Lana.

As well as his declarations of love; he often quotes their songs.

“You’re my religion, mia amore.”

[panlight]

So I'm having trouble understanding the vultri (I think that's how you spell it) and all their personalities, could you explain them to me?

Because we don't see a whole lot of the Volturi, you'll find that people have a lot of different headcanons, but here are the basic, canon personalities.

The actual Volturi coven consists of Aro, Marcus, Caius, Sulpicia (Aro's wife) and Athenodora (Caius' wife). Marcus had a wife, Didyme, who was also Aro's sister. Marcus and Didyme wanted to leave the Volturi but Aro wanted to keep Marcus' power, so he secretly killed Didyme. Marcus stayed with the Volturi but became a shell of his former self, severely apathetic and depressed. Sulpicia and Athenodora were put in the tower under heavy guard to protect them.

Aro is the defacto leader, although he, Marcus and Caius seemingly rule as a triumvirate. Aro is outwardly cheerful and enthusiastic, seemingly benevolent, but is shrewd and calculating underneath the friendly exterior. He is extremely curious about anything new and loves to 'collect' vampires with gifts. He has a gift to read every single thought a person has ever had just by touching them.

Marcus is depressed and apathetic after the loss of his wife. He barely cares about any of their trials and generally just wants to get it over with. He has a gift to see relationships and the strength of them. It's useful to Aro in battle, to see how armies are tied to their leaders, for example, who would die for someone else, whose ties aren't as strong and could maybe be lured away, etc.

Caius is usually angry and aggressive. Whereas Aro can be merciful when it suits him, Caius is the one who wants to punish everyone to the full extent of the law. He doesn't have a supernatural gift, which might be part of his whole deal; maybe he feels inferior or worries that he could be replaced.

In canon we don't really know much about Sulpicia and Athenodora other than that they live in the tower and rarely leave. Personally I think it's less about their safety and more about Aro realizing he wields more power as 1 of 3 rulers than he would as 1 of 5. Athenodora and Caius were a couple before joining up with Marcus and Aro. Sulpicia was a human Aro sought out to change and be his wife. There is a vampire named Corin who has the gift of addictive contentment, and she keeps them happy with their situation.

Didyme was Aro's biological sister. He went back to turn her into a vampire because he thought maybe gifts ran in families. She did have a gift, an aura of happiness, which was not as useful as he had hoped. She and Marcus fell in love and we so happy they stopped caring about the Volturi's mission and were going to leave until Aro secretly killed her.

The rest of the Volturi are technically the Volturi Guard and not really part of the coven, but people lump them together.

Jane and Alec are the most feared because of their gifts (Janes makes you feel incredible pain, Alec can rob you of all your senses). They are twins and devoted to one another, and Jane has something of a teacher's pet attitude with Aro and is jealous of anyone else he praises.

Chelsea is perhaps the most important because her gifts allows her to create bonds between people, and she's made everyone loyal to the Volturi. She has a mate named Afton who can make himself invisible to a degree but it's not that great of a power and Aro just keeps him around to keep Chelsea happy.

There's Demetri, a debonair, charming tracker, and Felix, who doesn't have a power but is super strong. He's kind of the Volturi's Emmett. The seem to be sent on missions together.

Heidi is beautiful and alluring and her gifts makes people follow her; she brings human victims for the Volturi to feed on using elaborate schemes to get them to Volterra.

Renata is Aro's bodyguard, she has a shield like Bella but hers repels physical attacks rather than mental ones.

There's also Santiago but we don't know much about him but he seems to be like Felix, with no special power.

[angelst4re]

Hii its me (again) with a Caius request (pls tell me if im getting annoying with then i just love this Vampire sm) but i was gonna ask if you can do a angst then fluff? Again the reader is bellas sis, and it takes place in breaking dawn part 2 when they go to convince the volturi that renesmee isnt a vampire. The reader has been with Caius since new moon but she went to visit bella after she heard she was ‘sick’ and Caius gets m a d when he sees shes on bellas side. When a fight starts (but none of the volturi die like in alices vision) a wolf thinks the reqder is a vampire and attacks her. She has like no chance shes gonna survive so Caius turns her into a vampire and takes her back to Volterra and its all fluffy najsjsjsn omgs please tell me if thats too much i apologizee i have too much ideas😭 againnn i adore your work sm and youre one of the best Jamie writers i have readd❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

hi my love!!! ahh noo it's never annoying, i love getting requests :) (although right now i have 120+ which is mad! but it's always open for more!) but i loved this one so much and i'm thinking of possibly writing a part 2!! <3

Gods & Monsters- Caius Volturi x Reader

summary: in the request :)

warnings: none?

notes: i wrote this over three days so if there are any little plot holes or if something doesn't make sense then i'm sorry! it hasn't been proof read </3

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

You had been with the vampire for an entire year now, and he still would deny changing you. You had tried reasoning with him, telling him it meant that you could live together forever, but he still insisted on you staying alive, keeping your soul. You already made certain commitments, such as living with him and even moving to Italy, but it seemed like it wasn’t enough. 

When you heard the news that your little sister was sick, you insisted that he took you to her, but he would not. It ended in an argument between the two of you, and you left that night, taking all your belongings with you. You told him you might return one day, you just needed some time alone and to take care of your sister, and if he were to follow you then you would never come back. 

When you got to the Cullen’s home, you were too afraid to look at Bella. You had never seen her so unwell, and even Jacob told you that he didn’t think she would make it. You would lie down beside her on the sofa, holding her cold body in your arms, and you wondered whether there was anything Caius could do to help- but you already knew what he thought about your sister and her husband. 

That night, Bella told you that she was pregnant, and that’s what was causing her to feel so sick. You reassured her that she’ll be okay, but everyone was worrying that she wouldn’t make it through the birth, even Edward had his doubts. Carlisle said she would go into labour in the next few days, and you worried that it meant she only had a few more days to live. 

In a panic, you left that night to return to Volterra, to return to Caius. You knew he wouldn’t show you any sympathy, afterall, he despised your sister, but he welcomed you back with open arms, letting you cry into his chest. 

For days, you had tried not to think about it. You had distracted yourself with books from Caius’s library, and had gotten through three in one day. However, your mind would eventually go elsewhere as you read, and you would worry about Bella again. Caius insisted you spoke to him about it, he could tell something was really upsetting you, but you didn’t dare to say a word about it. You knew his response would be something along the lines of ‘she’s done it to herself, she could have prevented it’ and although it did seem to be the truth, you weren’t ready to face it just yet. 

To your surprise, you woke up one night and Caius wasn’t in the room with you. He would never leave you alone, especially at night, so there was either two reasons for this:

One, being that he had something important and urgent to attend to.

Two, something bad has happened to him.

You hoped for the first one, and so you slipped out of the covers and wrapped your fluffy red robe around you, before leaving your room. You could hear talking, but you couldn’t quite tell where it was coming from. 

“The Cullen’s, they have done something terrible.”

You creeped closer to the heavy metal doors, where you assumed the voices were coming from, but it was almost impossible to hear what they were saying. However, you worried they would hear you, or sense that you were there, so you fled back to your room and waited for Caius to return. 

When he finally returned, you instantly started to question him. You knew he had set rules, and one of them was to not listen in to any conversations that would happen in that room, but you didn’t care about that right now, you only cared about your sister. 

“What’s happened? Is Bella okay? Has she given birth yet? Caius, please, answer me!” 

He sighed, as if you were bothering him.

“She’s fine. It’s not your sister that’s the problem right now, it’s the child that she was seen with.” He shook his head lightly, as if he couldn’t believe what was happening, “we’ve been informed it’s an immortal child. Do you know what that means?” 

You shook your head, adjusting your posture slightly as you sat up on your bed. 

“Then don’t worry about it, darling, we’re already working on sorting out this… situation.” 

“What does that mean?” You asked, “if you lay so much as a finger on my sister-”

“I told you,” Caius spoke, beginning to lose his patience, “it isn’t your sister that we’re concerned about.” He said before leaving the room. 

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

You knew Caius said he wasn’t going to hurt Bella, but you couldn’t help but fear something terrible was going to happen- and you were glad you trusted your instincts. You were currently by Bella’s side, squeezing her hand reassuringly as you walked. You warned her that the Volturi knew about her daughter, and Alice had already had a vision that the Volturi were planning to punish the Cullens for what they had assumed had happened. 

As the Volturi arrived, you couldn’t help but worry about what Caius would do when he saw you with your sister, you even felt a little nervous when he looked at you, giving you a look that called you foolish. You knew how ruthless and sadistic he could be, but you would never in a thousand years believe he would hurt you. 

You gave Bella one last smile before you let go of her hand, letting her take Renesmee's as your eyes found their way back to Caius. You don’t think you have ever seen him look so angry before. 

Aro and Carlisle spoke, whilst Bella began to whisper to you, 

“Do you think everything will be okay?” 

“Of course,” you said, trying to believe it yourself, “I promise.”

“Aro,” Carlisle began, “let us discuss things as we used to, in a civilised manner.” 

“Fair words, Carlisle,” Aro spoke, “but a little out of place given the battalion you have assembled against us.” 

“I can promise you, that was never my intent. No laws have been broken.” 

“We see the child,” said Caius, his eyes focused on you as he spoke, “do not treat us as fools!” He snarled, his eyebrows furrowed in anger. 

“She is not an immortal!” Carlisle declared, but Aro wouldn’t give in so soon, he wanted proof, evidence- and he wanted it from Edward. 

So far, everything was going great for your side, and you even grinned smugly at Caius, who seemed to be getting more outraged by the second. Especially after Alice turned up, Jasper by her side. And in mere moments, the fight you were all anticipating had begun. 

Aro raised his arms, staying put with Marcus and Caius by his side whilst everyone else began to charge at each other. Kicks and punches were being thrown, wolves were leaping from vampire to vampire, in hopes of beheading their enemies. You weren’t too sure what to do, or where to go, as you were neither wolf nor vampire, and you felt like this wasn’t really your battle to fight. 

You watched in horror as people from both sides would fight, until you heard a low growl from behind you, before your body was flooded by fear and a sharp, agonising pain. 

The last thing you saw before it all went black was the pure shock and fear on Caius’ face before he dashed over to you. 

The wolf that bit you was chased off by another vampire, as Caius picked your limp body off of the snowy ground, holding you in his arms as he fell to his knees. In this moment, he could only care about one thing- and it was you. He couldn’t lose you, he had told you about his wife that had died whilst he was still human, and how he blamed himself for it everyday, and he knew he couldn’t let it happen again. There was only one way to save you, and as his teeth sunk into your skin he whispered a soft apology to you. 

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

“Where am I? Caius? What happened?” You asked, blinking what felt like sleep away from your eyes. 

“Oh my- You’re okay!” Caius cried, a wide smile plastered on his face as he wrapped his arms around you, stopping you from sitting up, “I was so, so worried I’d lose you, sweetheart. I’m so sorry.” 

“What are you sorry for?” You asked, with a soft chuckle. 

“Don’t you remember what happened?” He asked, stroking your cheek with his thumb, feeling devastated at how your once warm skin was now ice cold, like his. 

You shook your head, looking at him cluelessly. 

“That’s okay, you’ve only just woken up,” he said with a gentle smile as your now red eyes met his, “we have forever together now anyway, you got your way, darling.” 

“What happened to Bella? And Renesmee?” 

“They’re perfectly fine, my love.” He told you, “she isn’t what we suspected, Bella and the Cullens are fine.”

You let out a sigh of relief, and smiled up at Caius. 

“Can I hold you?” He asked, and you felt your tummy swarm with butterflies. 

“Yes please.” You grinned. 

He sat down beside you on the bed and pulled you towards him, wrapping his arms around you and placing his hands on your waist, pressing careful kisses to your forehead. 

“I love you.” He said, taking you by surprise. You turned your face to look at him, clearly he was joking! But as you looked at him you saw nothing but adoration in his eyes, “I’m never letting you leave my side ever again, okay? In all the years I’ve lived, I don’t think I’ve felt such fear as I did when I thought I was going to lose you.” 

“I’m not going anywhere, Caius,” you assured him, “I love you.” 

His hand that previously stroked your cheek came down to your chin, slipping his finger underneath and capturing your lips with his. As he kissed you, you moved slightly, so you were sat on his lap, straddling his hips as he held you against him, not breaking the kiss for the slightest moment now that you didn’t need to pause and catch your breath. “So when do you think we should start planning the wedding?” Caius asked, jokingly. However, you both knew that neither of you would be opposed to getting married, from the moment you first met him you knew he was special, there was something about him that you couldn’t help but fall in love with. However, you couldn’t believe that Caius, who was infamous for being the most cruel and sadistic member of the volturi, loved you, and he would do anything for you.

[trickstarbrave]

i havent drawn her yet but fine. i made a new nerevarine

artemisia septim, bastard princess of uriel conceived around the time just before jagar tharn ended up imprisoning uriel in a pocked dimension of oblivion (events of arena). uriel didn't really want her, but given she wasn't born to a random maid, he agreed to raise her but she's pretty much locked up in her wing of the imperial palace with only a nanny and tutors. she never knew her mother, just that she was a noblewoman who agreed to stay silent if he took responsibility.

after jagar tharn was defeated uriel vii focused more efforts on legitimate heirs and clearing out any potential spies. her nanny is killed on suspicion of being a spy who aided jagar tharn along with several of her maids. artemisia is only 11-12. she begins to hate him.

because she's an elf she's still young by the events of morrowind, at least as far as elves age. it makes her feel even more alienated in the imperial palace. she only ever speaks to her siblings and father in formal settings, otherwise they rarely acknowledge her. she studies magic but she knows uriel vii is a very. paranoid person for a good chunk of her life following his imprisonment. time breaking after the warp in the west probably did not help anyone. elves as i write them age normally until around the 20's after which it DRAMATICALLY slows down, but everyone expects her to be a fully mature woman who's nearly 40 (maybe she's younger idk i might set her story a few years before the official game. or maybe later. we'll see) bc theyre all imperials. she's like. baby to most elves though.

she's sent on a diplomatic mission to morrowind for politics. she's just excited to fucking leave the imperial city and GO SOMEWHERE. she finds the palace stiffing and filled with horrible memories. she wants to see something new, and she always read about morrowind. to her its a dream come true to finally get to see it in person and she's so excited she can hardly sleep.

of course. uriel sent her to morrowind because he knew the political tensions there were too high to send one of his legitimate heirs. he's hoping she doesn't die but also he needs an ambassador and wants to make a good impression. if she is attacked and killed though he intends to use it to put morrowind more heavily under his thumb. he also, given he has some prophetic abilities, has a good feeling about sending her there.

she's super excited at first even though things are. tense. they were told uriel had a dunmer daughter but she doesn't look like a dunmer at all. even being half. they've seen half-imperial half-dunmer children and she doesn't look like a dunmer even remotely. she has pointed ears but her skin has a golden hue and her hair is stark white and her eyes are red. she explains she was born with a condition that lead to only patches of grey skin that faded as she got older but that her mother was definitely a dunmer. they question if she actually had an affair with an altmer and not the emperor behind her back but in a way she can still hear, but dismiss it as the empire playing tricks on them to make them look stupid. she isn't half dunmer. the emperor must think theyre stupid and is passing off his altmer born bastard as a dark elf like they can't tell she doesn't have grey skin. (nerevar was rly coming through on this one. azura had to much fun in the create a sim i think)

however some sixth house members strike. orvas dren tipped them off that a septim would be coming for a diplomacy meeting and their plan was to kidnap her, hold her hostage, make her a dreamer, and then send her back to the imperial palace with plenty of ash statues.

caius ends up rescuing her and taking her back to hide in his house. she's freaking out bc what the fuck there's a freaky ass cult in morrowind?????????? were they gonna kill her?????? did the emperor know????????? and now she's stranded in the country until caius can figure out a way to smuggle her out without someone knowing but he suspects there might be sixth house infiltrators in nobility who would catch them. they can't risk him just plopping her in a boat while they also hide in wait there and caius in good conscious can't let her die when uriel tasked him with protecting her by any means. so instead he gives her a slight haircut, some commoner clothing, and tells her they're gonna give her a fake identity

she's like. "great im stuck in a fucking skooma den on this fucked up island and theres ash storms here and weird cultists and im miserable and i almost died and--"

"here's 200 gold, buy some other gear, say you're a half altmer mage coming here to study, join the mages guild and try not to get yourself killed. i have a few contacts in the guild i told to keep an eye out for you and keep you safe. do NOT do anything reckless. do you understand."

artemisia realizing that she gets to join the mages guild and do whatever she wants now:

[maegorsbignaturals]

OK so i am bored so i Will do a funny thing

Here are some actors and Actresses i would like to see casted as Targaryens:

Sarah Gadon Is soooo pretty to me! Since i saw her in world without end as Lady Philippa i tought 'Yep, that is a Targaryen Lady right there!' She gaves me the vibes of a TargrGirl post extintion of the Dragons.

Alexia Giordano. Maybe i want more Targ Girls with Curly CURLY hair or i have a type of woman, but i don't know, i think a white silver hair and a dragon as Pet would suit her well. Now i could see her well playing a Viserra Targaryen, Maybe even a Daena the Defiant. She has that playful looks and something in her that makes her look like she wants something and she wants it now.

Bailey bass. Actually i cheated on this one, she is my fancast for Daenaera Velaryon. My Girl Bailey knows how to act and deliver characters with such heavy internal conflicts in such a GOOD way, and since we are alredy going with the Black!Velaryons, i cannot think of someone else.

Arneurine Barnard. Look at this mans' wet cat EYES, look at his aquiline nose! At his eyebags and looks like he might die of pneumonia! He is really giving me the vibes of a TargMan who might die of the Second Son Syndrome (perhaps bcs he played Richard III in the White Queen Idonow), but i really think he would suit well the whole aesthetic of the Targaryen Dynasty.

James Campber Bower Not gonna lie, when i saw him as Caius Volturi in Twilight and then as Vecna/01 in stranger things i got an uncanny feeling. For me, he is a perfect Aerion Brightflame, handsome but with the capacity of being a man that can cause the deepest terror in people.

Do you guys have any actor that you would like to see in a Targaryen Adaptation?

[therealvinelle]

I just finished Nebuchadnezzar's Dream and I have to say: Holy shit! The werewolf fight, Carlisle getting investigated by the FBI, Aro's funny hat idea as a diplomatic tool, the Ziggy Stardisciples feat. bad face paint, Renata ❤️, the bickering twins, Jane (yes, she gets her own point, she deserves it), Carlisle's gift induced despair and then the fall of Volterra, the horror and grief of the group and the very loud broadcasted-live-to-the-usurpers revenge sex (I hope Edward combusted into a pile of ashes right then and there, lol). It was an amazing rollercoaster to read. And just so you know, I'm very interested in that potential sequel 👀

(Also, if Aro had decided to follow Caius' advice and attack the Cullens first, how would he have done it? Kill them all but spare Carlisle? Kill only Bella and leave it at that knowing that they don't pose a threat anymore even if they do decide to take revenge? Or something entirely different?)

I'm so glad you enjoyed it, thank you!

To answer your question:

If Aro was to take out the Cullens, there are about a million ways he could have gone about killing the Cullens but the simplest one in my mind would have been if he used Nahuel and his sisters to hide from Alice, and then went and killed them outright. No fuzz, no convoluted schemes, even with Bella's gift the Cullens would be easily overwhelmed.

A more thought out plan, at least if Aro wants to be sure Alice doesn't catch on to him, would be sending Chelsea and Marcus around to weaken the bonds of friendship the Cullens have with their various allies, and strengthen their faith in the Volturi. And if some remain adamant, they die. Leave the Denali alive, however, and then make his move.

The factor that allowed the Cullens to gather as many allies as they did in Breaking Dawn was time. The Volturi deliberated two weeks, when a direct flight from Italy to Washington would take less than a day. Should Aro in my scenario then decide "Alright, we're doing this," the Cullens will have very little time and be at a complete disadvantage.

Their only option would be to run for it and not split up, so Bella can shield them all, but even so they'll be leaving scent trails, which means they would have to go by human transportation means. This in turn puts a constraint on their movements.

The Cullens would likely end up on a boat or an island, where nobody can track them, where they would be unable to step outside of Bella's immediate vicinity, meaning Jacob and Renesmee are both obscuring Alice.

This is where the Denali come in, because without them the Volturi would have no way of guessing where the Cullens might go. With five friendly vampires a short distance away, however, the Cullens have an obvious destination.

Where, of course, Jacob and Renesmee's constant presence means that Alice won't know the Volturi are waiting for them there.

Even if the Cullens figure out that the Denali are compromised, they have no allies and Bella needs only let down her guard for a moment for Demetri to know where they are, and given the pressure she's under she inevitably will. They won't have an easy time hunting, either, the stress of the situation will be constantly grating on them, they won't hold out for long.

As for what the Volturi do when they have them at their mercy, Aro would be sad about it but they all have to go. Regardless of the strategy he used, he wants to reinforce that the Volturi are a force you don't stand up to, you don't resist, and you don't embarrass them.

By all accounts, Aro's distinguishing feature is that there is nobody he isn't willing to kill.

People would be crying injustice for a while, but I imagine those voices would be silenced in death or through intimidation, and with vampires having such a high turnover rate it would only be a few centuries before they were forgotten by all but those who keep their mouths shut about it.

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

hey so in the ask abt bella and edward dying u said renesmee would still grow up in a weird environment. how would that go?

Anon's referring to this post.

Anon, *lowers sunglasses*, I suggest you...

Write the fic.

(gif credit @franzias-cave)

Seriously, the answer is it depends on how Bella and Edward died. Vampires don't die of natural causes and how they go will make this answer different. We have...

Bella died in childbirth then Edward killed himself

Edward says a mean thing about Jacob after Jacob died in a freak accident caused by stupidity then Edward too dies a very tragic death but Bella unable to live in a world without Jacob or Edward then kills herself

The imprint reveal goes poorly and a fight breaks out because of it, somehow Bella and Edward both die

Bella and Edward decide to vacation in the tropics alone with Jacob and or Renesmee and Caius decides to take a risk and points Demetri and a hit squad at Edward and Bella and the pair tragically die. Jacob, per the scenario, probably dies too.

Edward has a mental breakdown and decides that vampirism is bad, his wife is now a ghoul, and murders Bella, attempts to murder Renesmee, then kills himself/is killed by a family member and or Jacob

Look, I could keep going, the point is that every single bullet point here is going to have a different result in the aftermath. Renesmee may or may not grow up blaming herself, she may be kept in the dark and knows there's some tragic secret of why her parents went out for cigarettes and never came back but no one will tell her exactly what it is, Jacob may or may not still be around and still fucking imprinting, depending on Jacob's involvement in all of this murder nonsense there may be issues over that in that Renesmee will have to live in the aftermath of what this man wanted from her and what has happened to her parents because of it, Renesmee might live in terror that the Volturi came and killed her parents at the first opportunity, not to mention how the Cullens themselves are coping either by grieving the pair's tragic death or else trying to cope with the fact that one of them murdered the other and or that nice kid down the road Jacob Black did it.

My point was that no matter which direction you go, per vampires, it involves at least one murder and perhaps a suicide and no matter what happens that will be bad for Renesmee and the Cullens alike.

[kits-shrine]

The blood steadily drained from Ylva's face with each word the vixen spoke. "He was...then he can–"

'Yes, I can,' Caius crooned, looming over the wolf. Gently grasping her chin, tilting her head back ever so slightly so their gazes met and smiled charmingly as he chided her, 'Did you truly think you could escape me? Come now, dear Ylva, you should have known better.' His free hand rested on the small of her back, drawing nonsensical patterns. Had any been able to see him, it would have been quite easy to mistake the pair for lovers, that is, of course, if they overlooked the blatant terror on the young woman's face.

She'd been so stupid. How? How?! Could she have fooled herself into thinking she or her family were safe from his reach? And now she was going to die from that stupidity- 'Oh no, I don't plan on killing you, dear.'

The tracing finger on her back stilled for a moment before burrowing into her flesh, wrapping around her spine. A scream made to rip its way from her throat, halting as her lungs seized in her chest. 'Now, now, we can't have you waking the children, can we?' With a sharp motion, her spine snapped– as Kit's had. However, Ylva's legs didn't lose any feeling; rather, it was like every nerve ending had been set alight. All she could feel was pain, a relentless, unending agony she couldn't even voice, slowly suffocating.

'No, dear, I wouldn't kill you, but this frozen in torment without the blessing of death would be a much more satisfying end for you. If you ever harm my son or a member of his family ever again. But I trust that won't happen,' Caius hummed, dark eyes drifting from the she-wolf contorted feature to that of the sleeping youth, 'such a sweet lad, and he, unlike you, needs no correction or true incentive. A mere suggestion is enough.'

Agni shifted slightly in his sleep but made no other movements.

Just as suddenly as he had appeared, the dark lord left, and Ylva fell to the floor like a puppet whose string had been cut. Sucking in a ragged gasping breath that turned into a sob, she scrambled on all fours towards the still-open door to empty the contents of her stomach outside of the den. None of that had been real she knew that, knew it was all in her mind, but it didn't have to be. Caius' hold was firm, and if he could do all that without physically setting foot here, well, she continued heaving at the mere idea of seeing him in person again.

Kit had been watching the wolf's reaction apprehensively. Apprehension to turned to worry and more when Ylva's face contorted as it did. A panic attack? Something more?

Her heart was pounding in her chest so loud she worried it might wake the children she clutched. She pressed back against Ingall as Ylva dropped to the floor and hurried outside retching, unsure if it would be best to go after her or give her space.

[qiuthewhumps]

Summer is a curse: [06/07/2024]

Heat Stroke / Panting / “Why don't we… find some shade, quick?”

[ALEKSY & CAIUS AU] — 876 words

Retired General & Retired Child Soldier found family, and the kid gets heat stroked. Aleksy is the same one from yesterday's post so highly recommending reading that one first! This is about 1-2 decades after yesterday's post. This is a bit late since I got a bit too busy than expected.

CW: Heat stroke, flashbacks of slightly graphic scenes (yesterday post)

@whumperless-whump-event

☆…━━━━━·:*☆…━━━━━·:*☆…━━━━━·:*☆

Admittedly, this wasn’t the first heatwave the two experienced. There were always hot days in the military where the sun posed just as much of a threat to them as their enemy across the battlefield did.

Yet, it never felt this hot. Then again, global warming and all had been plastered on the news for a while now.

Aleksy sighed as he sat in front of a fan as he flicked through the TV shows for any type of distraction. The AC was already on full blast while he and Caius had individual fans pointed at them to lessen the heat in their apartment and toward themselves as much as possible.

“Need to get some more of those cold drinks…” Aleksy mumbled out loud as he laid on the couch, thinking about the contents of the fridge. Well, certainly not now, the heat would strike him, or whichever poor delivery man, dead on the pavement. He turned to where he knew the kid was, drawing on some paper.  “Hey, Caius, what do you want from the convenience…”

The kid wasn’t there. “Caius…?” Aleksy called out quietly again before he heard the front door close with a click.

… The gods must be joking with him.

The time between noticing Caius left and Aleksy switching to something suitable for outside and getting into the elevator was a blur as he found himself running out of the apartment complex. The sun was far from kind as he started to run down the streets, heading straight for the convenience store that was a short ten minute walk usually.

But in this heat? It might as well be a death sentence for the kid.

Aleksy was taking ragged breaths as he finally spotted the kid, staring at the convenience store and not entering. “Caius, fuck… Kid, don’t just… Leave like that for fuck’s sake.” Aleksy sighed as he stared at the kid who seemed confused.

“General… Store’s closed… Sorry…” Caius mumbled out in reply. His voice almost sounded slurred. Still staring at the closed store. He looked like he had failed a mission that would have cost thousands of lives. Aleksy simply sighed as he walked over to the child.

“Hey, it’s okay. I didn’t even mean for you to just… Rush out like that.” Aleksy lightly placed his hands on Caius’ shoulders, only to realize how heated the other’s skin felt despite the shirt the kid was wearing. That couldn’t be normal. “Why don’t we… find some shade before going back, yeah?”

Caius didn’t object as Aleksy led the kid to a nearby shaded building. He placed the back of his hand on Caius’ forehead. Concern painted his face at the temperature and how dry Caius’ skin was when it should have been soaked with sweat from the heat.

“How do you feel, Caius?” Aleksy questioned as he carefully observed the other. The way the kid’s breath was shallow. Did the boy run here? Or was it due to the heat?

“Fever…I think? No… Not a fever…” Caius swayed a bit as he tried walking around. Disoriented. Aleksy quickly went to help the boy stand straight and held the boy close. “I… Feel weird…”

Aleksy could feel the boy’s heart rate rushing as if attempting to burst through his chest. He quickly picked Caius up. Panic ate him whole as thoughts ran through his head. Caius leaned against him—the boy’s broken breathing became even more obvious as his eyes were fluttering. His legs moved before he could think.

He couldn’t be oblivious this time. He couldn’t let someone else die when he could do something.

The soles of his feet burnt as he ran through the empty streets; the heat discouraging everyone to go outside except the one person he promised to protect.

“—stay still, be quiet and shut your eyes—”

He didn’t want to. He was running till he ran into his apartment complex. Immediately telling the reception to call for the hospital, any hospital. His eyes wide as he took the stairs, the steps made his calves sore. It didn’t matter.

His feet were sore. The material of his shoes rubbed bruises into parts of his ankles as some person yelled at him for running by the pool when it wasn’t even open due to cleaning. It didn’t matter. He turned the shower on, feeling the temperature before laying the kid under the cold water. His breath tried to keep up with all the exertion as he frantically opened his phone to call 112 just in case the receptionist didn’t bother. His eyes weren't concentrating as he fumbled through his keypad.

“Hey, you can’t be here—” The security guard grabbed his wrist—

“My kid is fucking dying! Spierdalaj!” Aleksy cursed as he tugged his wrist away as the line connected to an operator. The conversation was a blur as he checked on Caius. The boy was completely passed out even under the cold water.

—the body of once friends laid motionless. Bullets that dug themselves into every patch of skin they were aimed at. A disgusting mix of blood and fat—

He shook his head. He wasn’t late this time. He wasn’t defenseless. He wasn’t weak. 

Right?

He was too scared to feel for his child’s pulse.

[thana-topsy]

First Lines!

Tagged by @mareenavee - thank you, my dear!

I tag @kookaburra1701 @dirty-bosmer and @greyborn2

Tag the first lines/first paragraph of three of your current works in progress!

I feel like I've shared most of my current wips to death over the past few weeks, so I'm going to pick three wips that probably won't see the light of day for a very long time, if ever.

"An Account of Artaeum"

(A journal-style fic detailing Nilandur's time as a Psijic)

Fifth of First Seed, 4E 169 – My Arrival  

The Isle of Artaeum was described to me many times in my youth, treated as something half myth, half history. A full account of the history of the Psijic Order was one of the Five Pillars of Altmeri education (before the events of the Void Nights), but it had been widely phased out by the time I entered university due to the Thalmor’s rigorous re-education guidelines. Despite this, the legends and lore of the Psijics lived on as part of our rich and varied history, even as the likelihood of their return to Nirn grew dimmer and dimmer with each passing decade. Never in my life could I have predicted their attentions might have been turned to me.

"Arvel the Hero"

(A thought experiment fic in which Arvel the Swift doesn't get hit by that swinging trap gate, but the LDB does. Uhhhh.... I'm gonna include more than just the first paragraph because it's my blog and I do what I want).

As soon as Arvel pulled free from the last of the frost spider’s webbing, he bolted. 

The man who’d cut him down let out a shout of surprise. “Hey! Get back here you slippy shit!”

Fool, Arvel thought with a grin. Why should I share the treasure with anyone? And by the look of his rescuer (and his sour-faced Dunmer companion), they didn’t seem like the type too keen on sharing either. Harknir, Bjorn, and Soling were as good as dead.  

His feet pounded against the stone floor as he ran as fast as his legs would carry him. He skidded around a corner and through another hall of burial chambers. The slope of the floor carried him faster, almost too fast. He skidded around a large pillar, hooking his fingers into the rock to swing himself around the bend, gaining more momentum. His pursuers were hot on his tail, the clank of their armor close. He sprinted ahead, moving too fast to notice the raised stone plate in the floor until he was on top of it. A trap! 

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as his foot landed on the very edge of the pressure plate, and for a split second Arvel thought he’d managed to step around it. Then it sank beneath his weight, immediately followed by a clunk and a groan as the trapped gate unlocked. His step faltered, his joints locking up with fear, and he teetered precariously between moving forward and falling down. The spiked gate was swinging towards him with a shriek like a wounded beast. It would kill him. He would die in this gods-forsaken crypt. 

Fueled solely by an animalistic will to survive, he leaned into his off-balance momentum and sprung sideways, diving headfirst into an open crypt. A skeleton clattered and crunched beneath his hip as the massive gate missed his outstretched foot by only a few inches. There was a scream, cut short by a wet thunk, and Arvel watched from the crypt as the spiked gate slowly swung back into place, its spikes stained red and glistening in the low torchlight. 

“Shit!” He let out a hysterical laugh that trailed off into a wheeze. “Oh shit…” The trap had taken his pursuer out. What luck!

"Send Your Child Unto Me"

(Working title, lol. My Dark Brotherhood fic that I'll probably be picking away at for years to come at this point lol).

Caius returned to consciousness slowly. 

His head felt like it had been split down the middle, pounding in time with his pulse and sending bursts of electricity deep into his eye sockets. He groaned, if only to prove to himself that he wasn’t dead–that he could still make noise. As he opened his eyes, the room materialized in a blur of nauseating angles. Dried drool plastered the side of his cheek and his right arm had gone numb beneath his own body weight. He made a gurgling, frustrated sound as he attempted to move, flattening his hand against the ground in an attempt to push himself upright.

Wooden floor. 

The air around him was stagnant and foul-smelling, like piss and sweat. There were noises, but everything sounded as if Caius’ head were under water. 

“Well, well, good morning.”