#the more peaceful route then killing all of them
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q8qwertyuiop8p · 16 hours ago
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Something that has really bugged me about season two is Jinx's hallucinations and PTSD. It magically disappears when Silco dies, save for two scenes. I remember when people on reddit were literally making jokes about the writers going this route because it would be so stupid.
One of the things I loved about season one was the realistic depictions of mental illness that you just don't see often in media. I don't know what it is like to experience schizophrenia, but I have experienced PTSD and paranoia, and seeing how it was represented in Arcane was actually one of the things that helped me through it.
And then season 2 comes around and they just completely neglect this side of Jinx.
PTSD isn't a switch that can magically be flipped off. Recovery is a slow and gradual process. In absolutely no world would Jinx killing yet another family member cure her of her conditions, it would make them 10 times worse. Not to mention just before killing him she has an extremely severe psychotic episode, which would only make forgetting her trauma even more difficult since it was just brought up fresh in her mind.
And what even about the end of s1 was it that healed her? I genuinely have no idea, because she finally chooses Jinx only to once again go back and forth between Jinx and Powder in season two, because apparently all that buildup for her final decision was for nothing.
She does experience two hallucinations (I'm not going to count the jail silco thing in act three because what even was that?) when she sees enforcer Vi and when Sevika talks about the attack at Vander's statue, but suddenly that is all that triggers her?
In season one, just seeing Vi, or even someone who looks like Vi triggers her. But now when Vi is literally trying to capture and possibly kill her she is fine, it's only the mask that bothers her? Wasn't that her worst fear, that Silco and Sevika were right, that Vi only wanted to stop her? And she is constantly triggered by Cait in season 1 but not 2?
And then there was the insulting ending, where jail Silco tells Jinx to 'break the cycle' (something he would absolutely never do) and Jinx finally finds redemption by literally killing herself after Isha kills herself in what is framed as an act of heroism (and if Jinx actually didnt, than what even was the point of that scene?) What happened to Ekko trying to stop Jinx from doing that? What happened to Silco having Singed revive her to save her life after she attempts to take it? Or Jayce and Viktor talking each other out of it? Or Silco choosing to keep fighting rather than give into the "peace in water"?
On purpose or not season 2 frames suicide as a glorious, edgy, perhaps even necessary thing and it's disgusting.
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writerfromshikahr · 1 day ago
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Kisses and Boat Rides - Lucanis X Rook Fanfic
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The gondola glided through Treviso’s quiet canals, far from the city's bustle. The waterways were bathed in warm light, the reflections flickering across the rippling water. Lucanis sat across from her, the gondolier tactfully silent as he steered them into the more secluded routes.
Rook ran her hand along the boat’s edge, her fingers trailing close to the water. She glanced at Lucanis, her expression a mix of curiosity and wariness.
"You don’t strike me as the sort of man to indulge in long boat rides, Lucanis. Should I be worried?"
"Worried? Only if you hate quiet evenings with good company."
Rook arched a brow, leaning back with her arms crossed. The subtle sway of the gondola made her movements relaxed, though her eyes remain sharp.
"So, what’s this about then? Plotting to take out a member of House de Riva to piss off Viago?" she smiled sweetly.
"If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn’t have arranged this, too much effort," he smirked in reply. "No, I thought you might enjoy this…being with me, alone."
Rook blinked at his tone, her teasing faltering. She glanced around the canal, the peaceful glow of lanterns and the distant hum of the city creating a rare moment of calm. For once, she had no clever retort.
They approached a small alcove, tucked under a canopy of flowering vines. The gondolier halted the boat gently, giving them the illusion of being the only two people in the world.
Lucanis reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small, carefully wrapped bundle, "I saw this in the market earlier. Thought of you."
Rook’s brows furrowed in confusion as she carefully unwrapped it. Nestled inside was a delicate pin in the shape of a curled-up cat, its silver surface catching the faint light. She took in it's beauty, her fingers brushing over the tiny, intricate details—right down to the little paws and the flick of the tail.
"You… noticed." she said with a soft smile, looking up to meet his gaze.
"I’ve seen the way you stop to pat every stray cat in Treviso. Or Minrathous. Or anywhere. Hard not to notice, seeing as though I'm the one waiting for you."
"It’s perfect. Thank you." Rook huffed a quiet laugh, her thumb still running over the pin.
Lucanis hesitated for a brief moment, as if weighing the pros and cons of what he was about to do, his expression unreadable. Then, with a fluid motion, he shifted forward, resting his arms on his knees and closing the gap between them. Rook's breath caught as he reached out, his hand brushing lightly against hers. The gondola swayed gently, and the faint sounds of water filled the silence between them. He leaned in, giving her time to pull away, but she didn’t. When his lips met hers, the kiss was soft, deliberate, and impossibly tender.
"Tell me to stop," he said softly, though his voice carried no intention of retreating, his hand at the back of her neck pulling her even closer into their new found intimacy. Rook hungrily returned his kiss, giving him all the permission he needed.
The world around them seemed to still, the quiet lapping of water fading beneath their heartbeats. When they finally parted, neither moved far, their foreheads resting against each other as their breath mingled in the warm night air.
"You’re dangerous, Rook, this could end badly" he warned, but there was no bite in his statement.
Rook tilted her head, "Didn’t you once tell me you always know what you’re doing?"
The warmth in her voice broke through his defenses, and Lucanis couldn’t help the low chuckle that escaped him, "So you were listening," he replied, voice laced with a dry humor, leaning back on his seat.
"Sometimes I do, especially when it's coming from a dashing rogue who has a penchant for coffee and many other desirable skill sets."
"Desirable skill sets? You haven't seen many of those….."
"Yet…" she cut him off with a smile.
Lucanis raised a single eyebrow at her teasing tone, "I'll keep that in mind and when another occasion arises for me to show off my "talents", I'll make sure were not on a boat, maybe somewhere more comfortable, private, to explore how capable I can be."
Rook looked down at the dark water, hoping the shadows would hide the flush on her cheeks. He had a way of saying absolutely nothing one moment to saying all the right things the next. It was perplexing, frustrating, and deliciously romantic, all wrapped up in one.
The gondolier, sensing the change in the atmosphere, resumed steering them slowly through the canal. Rook stared down at the pin in her hand, she glanced back up at Lucanis, who was watching her with a quiet intensity.
"You really are full of surprises," she said softly.
Lucanis’s lips curved into the faintest of smiles, one that seemed reserved only for her. "Not surprises. I'm just finally noticing what matters."
The gondola continued its quiet journey and two Crows from different Houses had made a contract of their own that evening—one forged not with coin and daggers, but in stolen kisses and unspoken promises.
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decaffeinatedcupcakekid · 2 days ago
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If I had to change something about Boruto, it’d be the characters. Not that they don’t have a good basis, it’s just that their potential was absolutely wasted. They feel soulless. Like they have no personality whatsoever.
And I know that factually they’re all very unique like Chocho, Sarada and Kawaki, they all have the potential to be very motivating characters in their own right.
Except they aren’t.
Kawaki is a mirror to Sasuke, we’re meant to see him as Boruto’s rival with a tragic backstory. A brother, a sun and moon narrative that’s a complete replica of Sasuke and Naruto.
And that’s where the problem lays. They’re all just replicas of someone else. The og series also had this issue of making new characters like old ones e.g. Sakura & Rin, Sasuke & Madara etc. but those were actually well done. This is just a cash grab trying to replicate the previous series.
The Boruto series should stop trying to be something it’s not and actually embrace itself as a new idea while also NOT ruining previous characters. Ame was left in ruin, something Naruto never would’ve stood for, the boy we grew to love in the previous series is unrecognisable. And I get it, people change, which would’ve been cool and all to see if it wasn’t so poorly done.
For what reason does Naruto genuinely have to act like this? Yeah, he has a village to run that’s been booming ever since the war, except he has advisors in Ino, Shikamaru, Sakura and literally every clan head is on his side. His village is best friends with every other village. There is hardly any conflict. And you’re telling me he can’t come to his children’s birthday party? Mr ‘I want to be Hokage so people won’t look down on me’? But also he wants that because he has no family so he wants the villagers to love him. And he forsakes his family, who’ve loved him since the beginning, so easily?
They ruin old characters to the point where they may as well be from another universe because if they were half the people they actually were, that’d stop the conflicts before they start. And yeah, maybe the previous main character overshadowing the new one is a bad thing, I get that.
But if they were going to character assassinate Naruto as a way to solve this, I’d rather they have him killed before the main Boruto series started. That’d cause conflict. The pillar of peace just dying. Or like, anything else. There was no need to ruin Naruto for a soulless series like Boruto that only focuses on power ups.
And I know there’s going to be people who think the power ups are cool, that the two blue vortex is actually kind of cool. But that’s because literally every other character from the Naruto series is gone so that they can’t overshadow Boruto.
Naruto and Hinata? In another dimension. Kurama? In Himawari and weaker. Sasuke? In a tree. Gaara? Also in another dimension. Everyone is gone, and yeah, it’s tragic, but the shock effect wore off after Sasuke, it’s overdone now.
Every single character with depth is gone or hardly in the series. Sakura gets to stay because she’s a medic ig but as soon as Sarada needs a more dramatic route to her story, I guarantee she’s getting sealed off too.
The authors are scared to kill off actually important characters from the og series but are more than willing to ruin them. Everything is about them. Not Boruto.
No one was going to be happy with Boruto, I get that, people hate sequels. But the genuine apathy radiating off of that work kills me. The shock factor is over, move on.
I have so much more to rant about but I’ll end it here or I’ll never stop.
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venux777 · 5 months ago
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imagine if percy gets so sick of the gods that he stops believing in them entirely. like adopts a whole other religon
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pa1nrema1ns · 30 days ago
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Master and Apprentice || Sung Jin-woo (Part 1 of 3)
Siren!Jin-woo x Deaf!Omega!reader
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A/N - Hello everyone! This fic was inspired by the lovely @forbidden-sunlight's siren!au. We both collaborated on this piece and it serves as a direct sequel to her imagine, so do be sure to check it out first! This story picks up right where her imagine left off.
╰┈➤ Prequel by @forbidden-sunlight
Content warnings: 18+ MDNI, mythical creatures au, canon divergent, a/b/o dynamics, afab!reader, suggestive themes, obsessive thoughts, slightly ooc Jin-woo (he's very reverent towards Ashborn), mentions of violence, death, and despair, forbidden romance (humans and sirens are natural enemies), eventual yandere!Jin-woo.
Word Count - 3.6k
Summary - Sung Jin-woo seeks answers about his potential mate from Ashborn in the deepest depths of the abyss.
Dividers by @anitalenia and @firefly-graphics
After what feels like an eternity, Jin-woo comes to an abrupt stop. He wasn’t tired in the slightest, but he couldn’t finish this journey unless he was in the right frame of mind. If he was going to face the sea monarch, Ashborn, then he needed to compose himself. He was his mentor’s prized disciple, after all.
Resolute in his decision, Jin-woo pinches his brow, shuts his eyes, and releases a deep, suffering sigh. He had to stop ruminating over the useless ‘what ifs’ of his current situation and focus on the matter at hand. You emitting pheromones in his presence was proof enough that you were a compatible mate, but this would be meaningless if you were unreceptive to him. It also begs the question, was humanity even capable of consorting with sirens? In search of an answer, he reminisces about the tales of old passed down by generations of his kin, as well as the many speculations made by humans.
No one knew the exact origins of his species. Most humans assumed the progenitors were Persephone’s handmaidens, punished by Demeter after Hades had taken her daughter to the underworld and forced her into becoming his queen. Some stories also claimed that seafoam  birthed them, but Jin-woo scoffed at this particularly ridiculous rumor. A scholar had recently published an article on how sirens may actually be the offspring of the river deity Achelous and a divine songstress, citing notations from various mythos on this theory. In truth, reality was far simpler than any of these far-fetched narratives.
There was just no definitive explanation for the existence of sirens. They were not interchangeable with the peaceful denizens of the ocean, known as mermaids and mermen. While all fell under the umbrella of the term ‘merfolk,’ the sirens had a far more hostile and bloodstained relationship with humans.
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Since time immemorial, his brethren were viewed as nothing but a scourge upon this world of humanity. Beautiful as a raging typhoon and every bit as devastating, the sirens served as harbingers of doom and destruction for those foolish enough to risk the perilous waters. Their heavenly voices were tantamount to the funeral dirges used to usher the dead into the afterlife. It would be understandable to believe that the sirens were the monsters in this baleful story. However, human nature at its core is fraught with wickedness, and men soon grew wise to the machinations of merfolk.
Odysseus was the first to survive an encounter with sirens. During his voyage to Ithaca, the cunning man had instructed his crew to plug their ears with beeswax, effectively blocking the intoxicating songs that had ended the lives of so many before them. Emboldened by the success of Odysseus’s scheme, other sailors began using this method to conquer the sea and establish trade routes. Within a matter of a couple hundred years, humans not only overcame their fear of sirens, but they also poached them. Huntsmen would capture, torture, and kill Jin-woo’s ancestors simply for crossing paths with them. Worse yet, these scoundrels would often murder merfolk solely to harvest their organs, bones, and scales. They would then use the defiled corpses as ingredients for commodities, medication, and even aphrodisiacs. It was truly grotesque, if not outright barbaric, and more than justified the ire his kind felt towards humanity. While they hunted for the noble sake of survival, men did it for bloodsport and money.
The horrific fates suffered by many of their beloved brothers and sisters particularly infuriated the alphas, with their robust constitutions and natural sense of leadership. With a thirst for vengeance, they began targeting and attacking ships, ports, and even beaches. The alphas considered any place or vehicle that harbored humans as eligible targets. The less temperamental betas remained neutral and avoided the bloodshed, opting to prey upon shoals of fish and other maritime animals instead. Omegas could not join in the hunt, as they were far too precious to lose. They were the most cherished and talented singers amongst the sirens and required around-the-clock protection because of their significant rarity. These were the origins of the current hierarchical structure Jin-woo adhered to.
After recalling the tumultuous history of his people in its entirety, Jin-woo clenches his fists until his knuckles turn white. This was so damn frustrating! Rather than granting him an understanding of his attraction, it just proved all the more why it was so illogical. 
Defeated, Jin-woo raises his head, opens his eyes, and continues to swim.
Another hour passes before he finds himself at the ingress of Ashborn’s lair. His enigmatic teacher lived in almost complete obscurity. Devoid of any light, and enveloped by a suffocating aura, this nautical cavern intimidated all who dared to approach it. Well, almost all that is apart from Jin-woo. He effortlessly permeates the invisible barrier designed to keep intruders at bay and ventures into his master’s spiritual domain.
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Despite being an ancient and powerful king of the sea, Ashborn made the strange decision to emulate a land-like environment in his personal chambers.
As Jin-woo manifests into the realm, his appearance gives way to a form more befitting of a land dweller. His tail separates into two legs, his scales smoothen into skin, and he loses the winged fins on his ears and back. Once finished with this metamorphosis, Jin-woo takes a deep breath. Fresh pine, grass, and flowers perfume the air as he’s greeted by a lush valley. It had been a while since he had visited, and the setting had required him to transform into a human. Interestingly, transfiguration was one of the first skills Ashborn taught him. Speaking of his mentor –
“My disciple, it is good to see you again, though you appear…troubled. Tell me, what ails you so?” A rumbling voice rings across the horizon, signaling Ashborn’s approach; the tenebrous essence of the powerful deity contrasting with the greenery of the land. He appears in front of Jin-woo as a great dark knight. Much like his surroundings, Ashborn’s current visage was nothing but an illusion. Even the bravest of warriors said that his lifelike image invoked sheer terror in their hearts.
Many speculate he possesses a massive stature, at least several leagues in height and breadth alone, with piercing eyes and endless tendrils of dark hair. Others claim he is the son of Poseidon, one of the twelve Olympians, and a God of destruction who presided over the sea. However, Jin-woo never once witnessed this side of his teacher in all the years he’s been under his mentorship. Ashborn certainly exuded dignity, but he still displayed a humble attitude. And without fail, he would always appear in that strange, armored suit whenever he was in Jin-woo’s presence.
“My teacher, I must ask for your help on an urgent matter,” Jin-woo starts, anxiously running his tongue across his bottom lip. “This morning, while I was scavenging, I stumbled across the unmistakable aroma of an unmarked omega. It…it was unlike anything I had ever experienced before. As if I was being beckoned by someone or something. I wanted, no, I needed to heed its call.”
Ashborn listens in silence, his expression indiscernible. Jin-woo continued.
 “When I arrived, I was in front of a monstrosity of a ship – a yacht right by the sandbanks. At first, I assumed that someone had taken an unfortunate siren captive. But when I finally saw her–”
“You recognized she was human. Not only that, but she belongs to the lowest level of the hierarchy, an omega. Speak if I am wrong, my dear pupil.” Jin-woo lowers his head in shame, fringe obscuring his eyes. This action all but confirms it.
“I don’t know what to do or how to proceed, teacher. Everything I’ve learned about these creatures has made me detest them. But I can’t bring myself to hate her. How could this even be possible? We are not even of the same species. She’s my enemy, my prey…. At least, she’s supposed to be.” His voice lowers into a near whisper as he ends his confused rambling.
“And yet you don’t view her that way, do you child?” Ashborn poses a question he already knows the answer to but needs to hear in his pupil’s own words.
“No, I don’t,” Jin-woo replies grimly. “I yearn to know more about her. And not just that. I want to meet her, court her, and make her mine. If she’ll even have me, that is… So please, teacher, tell me if there is any meaning behind what I feel. Am I destined for something that bears no place in reality?”
Ashborn remains uncharacteristically quiet while faced with such a loaded question. All is eerily silent for a few moments, save for the cheerful chirping of the illusionary songbirds. At last, the monarch gazes at Jin-woo and gives him the answer he so desperately desires.
“It is entirely possible Sung Jin-woo, alpha of Jindo island, for I am proof of such a fantastical circumstance. My first and only love was also a human omega. A woman I devoted my entire being to over a millennium ago.”
Jin-woo’s eyes widened in shock at this revelation. His mentor had fallen in love at some point, and it was with a member of the human race? This was unheard of.
“I never knew you had a lover,” Jin-woo murmurs softly. “What was she like? Do you still remember everything about her after so many years?”
“Let me show you, my disciple. It is a tragic tale that words alone cannot properly convey.” With a wave of Ashborn’s hand, their surroundings began to morph and alter. The valley transforms into a spacious, yet quaint medieval village composed of several wooden houses with a bustling marketplace at its center.
When Jin-woo regains his bearings, he notices his mentor has also metamorphosized. A man with a sun kissed complexion, long dark hair, and a beard stands where he once stood. Though visibly unrecognizable, he was unmistakably Ashborn. A crimson cape was clasped to the pristine silver armor he wore. A paladin. Jin-woo recalls. He had some knowledge of the past lives of men through his rare excursions onto the Mainland. While disguised as a human, Jin-woo once traded in his goods for a textbook on history. He was loath to admit just how intriguing he had found it.
Ashborn speaks, his voice no longer resonating within the confines of shadowy steel.
“It was here in this village that I came across her. She was the only daughter of a peasant farmer. A strong-willed, rapscallion of a woman with a wit sharper than any blade. I can remember her beauty, her warmth, and her tenacity as clear and concise as the day we met.” He says with a wistful gaze. The scene then shifts to a woman in a pure white gown. Her eyes remained hidden, but it did nothing to impede upon her loveliness. The woman runs animatedly towards a man who looks identical to Ashborn’s borrowed likeness and leaps into his arms. The man then effortlessly spins her around before bringing her into a kiss. Jin-woo watches on, mesmerized by what was unfolding in front of him.
“I feared her rejection once she knew the truth of my identity,” Ashborn admits. “On the night we first made love, I finally revealed to her my status as ruler of the sea. However, it did not matter. She loved me wholly and unconditionally, regardless of who or what I was. Such was the strength of her resolve.” In the next instance, they return to the same valley from earlier. What differs this time is that the man and woman are there, unacknowledging of Jin-woo and Ashborn’s presence. Lost in their own special world. The woman has a flower crown on her head, and she sits on the grass, holding the man’s head in her lap. Both appear happy and at ease.
“For the first time in my existence, I experienced true contentment. I long to return to those days, but alas, our bliss did not last.”
Ashborn solemnly shuts his eyes as darkness overtakes the sky and rain falls. The man is now shown standing at a grave with an expression of anguish marring his face. The woman is nowhere to be seen, although Jin-woo knows exactly where she’s at.
“A plague was scourging the land and indiscriminately ending the lives of thousands. I tried to protect her with my magic, but it was to no avail. She fell gravely ill despite my best efforts. I discovered shortly thereafter that omegas were more susceptible to sickness than their contemporaries. If I had known beforehand, I would’ve brought her to the sea with me, away from that damned disease. But I was a fool who was willing to love and live with her as a man, not as a king. And as punishment for my hubris, an ailment snuffed out her life.”
At the end of his recollection, Ashborn’s lair returns to its original state. His mentor had also regained his shadowy exterior. The valley appears completely untouched by time, as if it were still one thousand years in the past. That’s why his lair looks like this. Jin-woo thinks as he finally recognizes its significance, It was their personal sanctuary. After a few moments of silence, Ashborn speaks.
“Although our circumstances are similar, you still have the privilege of choice. I cannot turn back time, nor can I change the past, but I am grateful. I experienced unspeakable grief, yes, but I also would have never encountered such love, tenderness, and passion had I not taken a chance on my omega. You, my disciple, still have free rein over your decision. Should you choose to pursue this woman, you have my blessing and irrefutable proof that she is a viable mate for you. If not, you will still receive my unwavering support in your future endeavors. The choice is yours to make.”
Jin-woo’s throat bobs. He feels an incredible sense of guilt at unearthing his master’s secret.
“My teacher, I apologize for prying into your past. I – I did not mean to bring up painful memories for you. I cannot imagine what you have endured. As of right now, I am not sure what it is I want, but I know for a fact I cannot give up on this human. I will need some time to contemplate and sort out my feelings. If you will excuse me.”
Jin-woo bows his head before turning to take his leave. As he approaches the exit, a sudden thought emerges at the forefront of his mind.
“Teacher, there is one more question I must ask. This human, she does not speak with words. She communicates with her hands and gestures. Is this some type of sorcery or spell that she’s casting?”
“It is most likely sign language, a manner of non-verbal communication used by humans who are unable to vocalize or hear. Perhaps she cannot speak, or has a hearing impairment, so she must express herself through other means.” Ashborn answers, curiosity lacing his voice.
Jin-woo feels his heart sinking. A siren’s serenade played a pivotal role in the mating ritual and was performed just prior to consummating an eternal bond. If what Ashborn said is true, then there is a possibility you could be immune to his song. This meant he wouldn't be able to use it on you when the time came…
He grits his teeth as he remembers your smiling face. Try as he might, Jin-woo just could not get you out of his head, nor was he willing to let you escape his grasp. You may not have realized it yet, but you had unknowingly sunk your fangs into him and the seeds of obsession were already beginning to take root. Rather than being discouraged by Ashborn’s observation, he instead finds himself reinvigorated.
“Teacher, disregard everything I said earlier. I now know what it is I must do.”
Ashborn peers into the eyes of his disciple, relieved by the determination that lights them. This was much more like the obstinate young man he knew.
“I choose to seek this omega and stake my claim, no matter what challenges may await the two of us,” Jin-woo proclaims proudly. “I will make her mine, but only if she consents to my proposal. And if not through song, then through other courtship methods. I am strong, stronger than any other alpha in my territory, and I know I can protect her from all who would wish her harm. I won’t let my mate slip through my fingers.”
“But what of maladies and the passage of time? You can fight against gods and monsters until the end of your days, but sickness or her ephemeral lifespan will not spare this young woman. In the end, your time with her shall be fleeting.” Ashborn ruthlessly counters Jin-woo’s declaration of protection.
Jin-woo bites his lip, not expecting this development. However, before he can muster a response, his mentor graces him with an answer.
“I know of one way you can overcome this. There is a recipe for an elixir known as the Holy Water of Life. It is a miraculous potion that can imbue invulnerability to communicable diseases, extend lifespan, and transform the consumer into a siren. I unfortunately did not have knowledge of such a panacea while I was with my love. Of course, I live with the regret of not discovering it sooner, as now I have no such use for it, but this does not mean I will idly stand by and let history repeat itself with my protégé.”
With a flash of light, an ancient scroll appears in front of Jin-woo. It unravels by itself to reveal its contents to him. Jin-woo’s eyes widen as he reads. Is this…?
“Behold. The ingredients for crafting the Holy Water of Life. I bequeath this boon unto you, my disciple. However, heed my warning as the acquisition of these components requires you to conquer all 100 floors of the Demon’s Castle and to defeat its king, Baran. This is a treacherous dungeon that may claim your life if you are unprepared for it, but it can also impart you with unspeakable power should you prevail.”
Jin-woo perks up at this information, his interest now fully piqued. “Tell me, master, where can I find the Demon’s Castle?”
“It hides far away, in the city of Seoul, within an incorporeal dominion. It is a flame-ridden landscape that will require you to assume the form of a human to enter the castle. Knowing all the risks it entails; do you still accept my offer?”
“I do,” Jinwoo confidently states.
“Very well,” Ashborn nods his assent, and a key materializes into Jin-woo’s palm.
“Use this key to open the gate to the Demon’s Castle. I have also implanted it with the coordinates to the dungeon’s location. You need only close your eyes and grasp onto the key to visualize it.”
Following the instructions, Jin-woo sees a map that details the exact distance from his current whereabouts to the metropolitan area of Seoul. It will be a lengthy trip, even with his impressive swimming prowess. He estimates it will take roughly half a day to arrive at his destination. Undeterred, Jin-woo presses onward.
“Teacher, I cannot thank you enough for all your help and guidance over these last few years. I give you my word; I will return alive and well, both with the elixir and Baran’s head. And then I will meet with the omega and court her in earnest.”
He departs without another word, although his promise relays an unspoken farewell between them. After some time passes, Ashborn stares at the vast skies of his domain and muses to himself.
“You have grown so much from when I rescued you from the Cartenon Temple all those years ago, Sung Jin-woo. I could not be prouder of you, my disciple. Till our next encounter.”
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12 hours later...
Jin-woo finally emerges from the dark, briny waters that frame Seoul’s coastline.
After leaving Ashborn’s lair, he briefly returned home to pack and prepare for the journey ahead. Both Jin-ah and his mother were worried about his sudden departure, so he did the best he could to assuage their fears by giving them a sanitized version of the truth.
Jin-woo claimed Ashborn had provided him with a list of rare ingredients that were only available for purchase in the human markets at Seoul. He even promised to bring back a box of chocolates as a souvenir, something his mother and little sister had enjoyed during one of his return trips to the surface. He then traveled the full 413-kilometer distance from Jindo-gun to Seoul, stopping only for a few hours to rest and recuperate.
As he approaches land, he assumes the form of a naked human man and walks inland from the sea. However, Jin-woo comes to a halt when he becomes more aware of his current state of nudity. While it didn’t bother him, it would cause a lot of unnecessary trouble if any nosy beachgoers happened upon him and asked questions. It is also…pretty embarrassing to admit that he is…wobbly on these legs. Very much so.
He quickly summons his magical inventory and grabs a simple black t-shirt, boxers, fitted jeans, and athletic sneakers (‘Adidas’, the portly sales attendant had called them). As worthless as he found human decorum to be, Jin-woo needed to remain as inconspicuous as possible while he was in disguise. Once dressed, he strolled into the city. After 45 minutes, he found himself at the designated street junction on the map. Taking a deep breath, he brings forth the key, turns it, and unlocks the gate. 
⚓︎ To be continued...
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thedreamlessnights · 1 year ago
Text
Fervency
Non-Ascended Astarion x F!Reader - NSFW
Synopsis: After falling into mysterious spores in the Underdark, you start to experience some... strange side effects. Astarion is more than happy to assist.
Warnings and tags: 18+ (and I cannot stress this enough), aphrodisiac/glorified sex pollen, established relationship, discussions of consent, fingering, oral sex (both giving and receiving), blood drinking, multiple orgasms. Takes place post-game and includes mild spoilers.
Word Count: 5.7k
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There’s not much that surprises you anymore.
It’s true - being kidnapped by illithids, having a tadpole implanted behind your eyes, facing the gods themselves - all of that does make it difficult for mundane life to come anywhere close enough to truly shock you. Your days aren’t necessarily peaceful, but they never seem quite as exciting as that blind haze of companionship in the aftermath of the nautiloid, trekking through the wilderness and shadow-cursed lands and the city, finding yourself in the company of strangers but soon-to-be family.
Still, these days, there’s something every now and then that catches you off guard. The trouble is, you’re never quite left in a space to know how to handle it. Unlike your earlier adventures, things are rarely solved with a dagger in your hand or a dash of flattery in your words. No, the burdens of day-to-day life are much more complicated than that.
Falling into a patch of mysterious spores, for one.
The Underdark is full of various mushrooms. Poisonous. Explosive. Befuddling. You could go on and on. You’ve had your number of close calls with them, but the sensation coursing over your skin feels like nothing you’ve ever experienced - and it doesn’t help that you’ve never seen spores like this.
Hells. Of course this is where your day would end up. 
Just a little stroll, you’d told yourself. It’ll be harmless. And it had been, for the most part. There’s an unearthly beauty to the Underdark that you’ve never encountered anywhere else, one you’ve come to appreciate just as much as the upper surface. But halfway through your usual route, your feet had snagged on a branch and you’d gone tumbling, and now - now you’re in a patch of glowing, red spores, feeling like…
Gods, what do you feel? 
Hot. You feel very, very hot. Sweat trickles down your back. Warmth blooms like poppies in a number of strange places - your cheeks, your lips, your neck. The feeling is spreading fast, bleeding through your ribs as you get to your feet.
Alright, you think to yourself, ignoring the sharp, bleeding panic in your throat that’s threatening to take over. Situations like this call for a sense of rationality. You’re going to get out. 
It takes much longer than it should for you to slowly stumble back to familiar ground. Your movements are jerky, as if you’re being puppeted around, and it’s getting harder to think straight when you’re feeling as if - whatever this is - is slowly consuming you. The heat is in your lungs, coursing fire near your pounding heart, raging with every inhale. 
You need to get this off of you, and as quickly as possible. After that, maybe it will fade and maybe it won’t. You’ll… you’ll figure it out. 
By the time you make it to the river, your knees are trembling so much that you nearly fall in. The water barely scratches the surface of the fire when you splash it over your skin, but the coolness of it is euphoric. You go as quickly as you can, covering area by area - your clothing, your arms, your face and neck - until most of the spores are off, but the feeling pulses and throbs in you all the same. Whatever it is, it isn’t killing you, but it certainly isn’t pleasant. 
You could tell Astarion. He’d tease you a little, but he’d also be certain to search endlessly to find something to stop your discomfort. And you ache for him. His touch, his voice, the fondness in his eyes when he looks at you. 
Had it really been just this morning when you’d last seen him? It seems like lifetimes away - lost to a very, very different type of ache in your veins that won’t seem to fade. You’ve just made up your mind to go find him, rising to your feet again, when the heat rushes to a very specific place between your legs and all thoughts of looking for Astarion are instantly cast out.
Oh, you think, somewhere between dizzy, needy, and utterly humiliated. So that’s what this is.
You’ve read about things like this - plants, pollen, potions -  but most of them had been in bad romance novels, and none of them had ever come with any mention of an antidote. And, needless to say, you won’t be making your way to the Myconid Sovereign to learn more. It’ll have to be handled on your own. 
You could risk going home and pretending to be ill, but Astarion is far too perceptive for that. He’d see through your ruse immediately. Which leaves the only option: hiding in a cave and waiting this out, praying he won’t notice you’re gone and come searching for you before you’re back.
And really, how bad can it be?
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Bad. It can be very, very bad. 
You’ve been sitting in this cave for who knows how long, and your sanity is fading more and more by the minute.
It had been manageable at first. The heat spread through you like warm cider on a cold night - a slow, steady increase, the way a candle gradually burns down to the wick. You’d thought it would stop at a certain point (it had to, didn’t it?), but no. It just… kept going. 
Now, every inch of your body feels like it’s on fire, and it’s not slow, or steady, or even remotely bearable. It’s a strange, pleasurable flame, but a flame nonetheless. You can’t even decide whether touching yourself would even help at this point. Even just grazing your hand along the length of your thigh sends the fire rising, and you’re not keen on experimenting at the moment.
Your hands have gone stiff from balling your fists. Your mouth keeps switching between being as dry as sand and overly salivating. Each breath ignites more warmth, and you’ve been trembling for so long that you don’t remember how it feels to be still.
Gods. If you trusted yourself to get to your feet, you’d go see the Sovereign - a lifetime’s worth of humiliation or not. You don’t have any clue what time it is. There’s no sun or moon down here to guide you, no mechanism to spell out the hour. Has Astarion noticed your absence? How long until he’s concerned?
You know enough to know that you should have been back by now - that it’ll be unusual for you to have been gone so long. At least this spot you’ve found for yourself is relatively private. A dark, dry little place with a stone floor; fluorescent ivy in shades of lavender and coral; remote enough that, if your willpower fails and you end up making some noise, no one will be around to hear. 
You attempt to swallow, but the action dies on your tongue. You attempt to breathe, but you can’t seem to suck in any air. You’re just thinking you really might die in this painful, mortified state when the pad of footsteps on stone hits your ears, and your whole body pulls as taut as a rope. 
Oh, gods. Please not him. Anyone else. The Sovereign. The Society of Brilliance. Anyone.
But it’s him, because of course it is. He slowly makes his way inside, pressing through the narrow entrance and around the corner, and when he sees you curled against the cave wall, his brows rise - alarm.
“Wait,” you blurt out, determined to speak before he can. “Don’t come any closer. Please.”
Astarion stays where he is, but his eyes start instinctively scanning you over, searching for ailment or injury. “What’s wrong?” he asks, tilting his head. “You aren’t hurt, are you?”
“I’m fine,” you tell him, even though you’re anything but. You want to say more, but your thoughts trail off as another wave of heat flares inside of you. You’ve started trembling again. Your fingers accidentally graze against your thigh, and you let out a small, involuntary noise.
Astarion hesitates, then takes a step closer. “Darling,” he starts, raising a brow, “you make a terrible liar.”
Of course you can’t fool him. Not even a little. You let out a laugh, but the sound hitches into a strange, choked sob. You pull your knees to your chest and let out a long, shaking breath, trying to get a grip. “I know,” you say softly. “Gods. I’m sorry.”
He takes another step closer, and concern writes itself into his expression. “Gods below,” he exclaims. “Er - my sweet, I don’t mean to be rude, but you look...”
“Horrible?” you finish for him. “I know.” 
“I… was going to say ill, actually,” Astarion replies, laughing a little. “This dark cave lighting looks beautiful on you, my dear.”
You can’t resist another laugh. It’s less burdened this time, but it fades away as you hesitate, very pointedly gazing down at your fingernails instead of meeting his eyes. “I may or may not have fallen into a patch of mysterious spores.”
“And?” Astarion says, lifting a hand into the air and giving a small, contemplative gesture. “Go on, darling. Seeing as you aren’t dead - I’m assuming they weren’t poisonous?”
You shake your head, swallowing hard. How the hells are you going to phrase this? “No,” you answer. “I just feel… hot. Not like the explosive ones, just… hot.”
“Well,” Astarion says, “That’s… interesting. Alright - let me take a look at you.”
Half of you wants to protest, but what’s the point? He’ll find out the truth sooner or later. So, instead, you nod.
He steps closer, kneeling down at your side, and you have to ball your fists to keep from doing something stupid. You’re expecting more flame at his touch - a painful flare, like when you’d grazed your thigh - but when the back of his hand meets your forehead, his touch is like a salve. Soothing, cool, sweet. It mellows out the fire, makes you feel sane again.
You shut your eyes in relief, staying as still as you can, and when you open them, you find him giving you a look you know all too well. Smug. Affectionate. A glint in his eye that can only mean trouble.
“My, my,” he purrs. “Darling, I’m no healer, but… a racing pulse, dilated pupils, feverish to the touch? That, I know.” He leans in, his voice low in your ear. “And I can smell how much you want me.”
A shudder runs down your back, betraying you. Astarion leans in to kiss you, his lips brushing against yours - soft and gentle and perfect - and it takes everything in you to pull away.
“Wait,” you protest. 
He instantly halts, pulling away from you and scanning over your expression. “What is it?” he asks. “Is everything alright?”
“Everything is fine,” you say quickly. “But you don’t… I mean - I can manage this on my own, you know.”
His brows rise. “My dear, you do realize I am very capable of helping you in this situation?”
“Gods, Astarion,” you say, biting back a delirious sort of laughter. “Believe me, I’m well aware. But I don’t want you to feel like you have to do this. I can manage this.”
A fondness enters his expression - the rare kind, reserved for the most meaningful of moments. He leans closer, placing a gentle kiss on your lips. “I know,” he says softly, the words tender and delicate. “Trust me. I want to do this.” He trails a finger along your thigh, and you shiver again. “I’ve missed you,” he murmurs. “And, unless I’m wrong, you’ve missed me, too.”
After searching his gaze and finding him entirely present, you let yourself relax into his touch. “I’ve missed you more than anything.”
“Good,” he says. “I was almost worried.”
He skims his knuckles over your jaw, leaning in to kiss you once more, and the flame in you seems to bend to his touch. It rages in you like a furnace, bellowing and cruel, but with every frigid brush of his fingers, the feeling subsides. Even the feel of his lips on yours seeps away the discomfort.
He’s slow with his actions, but he doesn’t tease, even though you can see the amusement in his eyes when he pulls away to look at you. He’s enjoying this, and if you’re honest with yourself, you are, too. If only it didn’t come at the price of your dignity - but if it’s going to fall away in front of anyone, it might as well be him. 
His hands slide down to your thighs, and your whole body pulls tight, torn between wanting him to touch you now and not wanting him to stop what he’s doing.
“Relax,” he murmurs, his lips ghosting against your ear. “I’ve got you, darling.”
You let out a shaky breath and try to coax your body into cooperating, shutting your eyes and letting the feel of him drown out the path of your thoughts. The sensation of his mouth, trailing down your neck, ranging between feather-light kisses and the barely-there sting of his teeth against the skin, making every inch of you melt into his touch like clay. His hands, sliding to the front of your top, deftly unlacing it and pulling it away from your skin.
Thank the gods no one is anywhere around this area - if anyone were to interrupt you, you’re sure you’d die right here and now. The simmering need that lies under your skin is bordering on painful, a white-hot delirium of impatience that will not be ignored any longer.
Astarion’s fingers skim across your sternum, further soothing the burning inside your chest, and his lips soon follow downward. You let out a soft noise from the back of your throat, something choked and desperate, and he hums against your skin in response.
When your eyes flutter open again, you find that he’s staring up at you as he kisses down your abdomen, eyes dark and hands curled lightly around your ribs, ardor and affection both palpable in the heat of his gaze.
Your instinct is to shut your eyes again - to shut out the intimacy and vulnerability that comes from holding his stare - but you don’t. Instead, you move the stiff muscle of your arm and coax your hand into working again, gently tangling your fingers into the silky-smooth, silvery curls in your lap.
He gives you a roguish grin, tugging on your bottoms until they finally, mercifully, pull away from your skin, leaving you in nothing but your smallclothes.
“Gods, you’re beautiful,” he mutters, the words dark and heavy on his tongue, but they feel more for him than for you. His brows crease together and his actions turn sure and firm and quickened - as if he can’t wait to have his mouth on you.
Beautiful. It’s the second time he’s called you that word tonight, but it doesn’t stop the heat from rising back into your cheeks, and that feeling of the warmth seems to spark a chain reaction. 
It’s as if his voice is stoking the fire - more heat, all rushing to the very place his lips are heading to now, only to be soothed by his touch. He gently pulls at your thighs, coaxing you to lay on your back, and you’re so desperate that you nearly knock your head against the hard floor laid out beneath you in your effort to obey.
Your mind isn’t processing things the way it usually does: in an even, progressing line of events, every moment spread out from one to the next. Rather, everything comes in bursts of feeling, flashing between being a thousand miles away and all too close, all too present. You barely feel the graze of fabric when he removes your smallclothes and leaves you entirely bare, but the gentle, wet press of his tongue against you feels amplified a thousand times over.
“Astarion,” you gasp, your hand tightening in his hair. 
He hums again, and the feeling of it has you shivering, muscles going slack in pleasure. Short, soft flicks of his tongue over your clit and you’re left a shuddering mess, not thinking to try to be quiet - not really thinking at all, anymore. He grips at one of your thighs, looping it over his shoulder as he pulls away for a moment, nipping at the tender flesh there. Soothing it with a gentle kiss, then returning to his work.
You’re a walking - or perhaps laying - contradiction. Your arousal is lava hot, but your pleasure is cold as ice. You can’t decide if you’re cold or hot or both or neither. You’re not in a place to think, not as blinding bursts of pleasure course up your spine, rendering you a lump of skin and bones and not much more. His mouth is nothing if not fervent.
You aren’t sure how long it lasts - your hand in his hair, his mouth against you, writhing in dizzying pleasure against the hard, stone floor and barely feeling the discomfort. It might not be very long at all - but it feels like hours before his fingers enter you.
You’re soaking wet. If you weren’t so focused on, well, everything else, it’d be humiliating. Still, when two fingers slip into you and meet no resistance whatsoever, Astarion groans. The pace he’s setting with both hand and tongue is torturous, slow and even, and it takes everything in you not to beg him for more. 
But when he goes a little faster, a moan pulls from your throat, and you look down to find him grinning as he pulls away, fingers still at work. “Look at you,” he says, praise lilting the words as he curls his fingers - sending your hips rolling. “You’ll come for me, won’t you, darling?”
And as if he’s flicked a switch in your mind, you’re coming around his fingers, gasping and shuddering and clenching. Electricity seems to coarse through your veins, hot and sharp, flaming and radiant, and when it’s gone, there’s only the slickness between your thighs, a slight breathless laughter that escapes from you without a thought, and the fading warmth of the spores.
For a moment, it seems as though there might be relief. Your thoughts clear and the heat wanes, but after a sparse second or two of relief, it comes back as strong as ever. 
You’d be disappointed at its reappearance, but then Astarion is crawling over you, using his knee to coax your legs apart for him, so how could you ever be disappointed? Everything else slips away except for him. His eyes, dark with want, his lips, molding against yours, his tongue, gently pressing into your mouth as he buries a hand in your hair.
He’s hard for you. You can feel it, and that realization has you grinding against him. He groans, cursing under his breath, then reaches down to undo his trousers. “Are you ready for me, love?” he asks, his voice half-broken with want.
You laugh, still trembling from your climax. “You know I am.”
“Mm,” he hums, his eyes glimmering in the dark. “But maybe I wanted to hear you say it for me, darling.”
Gods. He’s beautiful - always so beautiful - even here, in this dark, cold cave you’ve found. A work of art down to the dark circles under his eyes, the crow’s feet around his eyes, his smile lines. 
You could spend a thousand years studying the art of him and never, ever get bored; not of his voice, and the way his confidence sometimes, ever so rarely, breaks into something real and raw. Not of his hands: nimble fingers and the calluses from his blade and soft skin - and not of his eyes, which seem both dark and light depending on his mood, and which can seem so sharp and severe at times, but sometimes soften into something soft and round. Sometimes. When they’re looking at you.
You could spend a thousand years admiring him and never, ever get tired of him, and never, ever deserve him. And he’d never believe it.
He’s noticed you staring, because of course he has, and he tilts his head. “What’s going on in that pretty little mind of yours?”
You can only smile, deliriously happy and wanting and both hot and cold - hot where the warmth burns uncontained, and cold everywhere his skin meets yours. “I love you.”
Your words must catch him by surprise, because it’s shock that meets his expression first. It fades away into affection, placing itself on his lips in a soft smile. “I - I love you too,” he answers, brushing a stray strand of your hair out of your face. “More than anything.” 
He clears his throat and shifts, and as you feel his erection brush against you, only then do you remember the conversation you two had been having. Him between your legs. You, still needing him inside of you.
“I’m ready for you,” you breathe. “Please. I want you.”
“How could I say no?” he asks, leaning in and biting at the lobe of your ear.
He presses into you slowly, even though you don’t need it - not after the effects of the spores and your first climax still evident on your thighs. Only when he once again begins a slow, torturous pace do you realize that he’s doing it to tease you, and when you look up and find a certain amount of devious intent in his eyes, a shudder runs down your back.
He’s always seemed to enjoy watching you fall apart. How many times have you looked up in the middle of one of your late-night trysts to find his eyes on you, the darkened ruby gaze that seems as starved for you as his hunger for blood? 
How many times has he eased your arm away from your face when you felt the need to hide yourself, and how many times has he gently pulled your hand away from your mouth so he could hear the noises you made for him? 
There’s never really been a question about it; Astarion gets off on your pleasure, and the feeling is very, very mutual. Vulnerability aside, it does something beyond words to you to know how much he enjoys giving you pleasure. And, sure as the hells, you like to give it right back to him. So, keeping your gaze locked on his, you grind your hips down to meet him and let out a moan.
His jaw clenches and he swallows hard, his thrusts deepening as he props himself over you. You watch the lovely path of the action over the bob of his Adam’s apple, then flit your eyes back to his, letting out another noise.
“Gods,” he says, and his pace quickens. His hands wrap around your shoulders and he groans, panting as he rocks into you, his grip turning into something almost bruising. 
Part of you desperately wants him to keep going - but the other part of you wants to give him something, and now seems the proper time for it. So you tilt your head to give him access to your neck and murmur a few, soft words, and he slowly comes to a halt: breathing heavily, nails digging into your skin as he tries to regain some semblance of composure.
He kisses down your jaw, slowly drags his teeth along the skin, then sinks his fangs into your neck. You’re used to the sharp pain of his bite, but it’s different today. Intensified. It’s as if his mouth on your skin, the barely-there pain, is salving through that fire and every single limb of yours goes slack with…
What is it? Pleasure? Affection? Relief? It’s something in between, something warm but not scorching, something sweet but not overly-saccharine. He starts moving his hips again and you’re instantly on the edge, planting your hands on his lower back underneath his scars and resisting the urge to dig your nails into the skin.
He’s drunk from you enough times since you met to know where the limit lies, even on the cusp of his climax. He drains you until you’re sufficiently lightheaded, but not enough to harm you, then pulls away, planting a messy kiss on your mouth. 
Messy. It’s how you know he’s close. His actions are usually so graceful, his movements lithe and calculated. Only on the edge of orgasm do the pretenses fall away - his shaking thighs, soft moans into your lips, panting, blood smeared across his lips and almost certainly yours. 
There’s a blinding moment of pleasure as he thrusts harder, deeper, neither of you caring about the level of noise you’re making, and your nails dig into his back. He lets out a groan of approval, then - gods, you’re climaxing again, your whole body trembling with the waves of pleasure that crash over you. Overwhelming at first, then receding into the brief moment of clarity that lasts a minute or two this time. 
Then the spores start their work again.
The heat isn’t nearly as intense this time, but it’s still there. Part of you wonders if it’ll ever really fade. You lay still, gasping, as Astarion slowly pulls out of you. Then he brushes the damp hair out of your face and kisses you again. 
“Darling,” he starts breathlessly, flashing a mischievous grin at you, “if this is where we’ll end up, you should fall into mysterious spores more often.”
You laugh, sending a playful, light hit toward his shoulder. He catches your hand mid-action, pressing a kiss to your palm, holding your gaze the entire time. “You’re not the one who feels like they’re on fire, Astarion.”
He hums, kissing back down your neck, cleaning up the remnants of blood from his bite. “I wouldn’t say that,” he says, his voice gravelly with want. 
That gives you pause. “What do you mean?”
“Well,” he says with some effort, propping himself above you, “whatever those spores were - they seem to have entered your bloodstream, my dear. It’s - an interesting sensation, I’ll admit.”
You’re searching his face for a tell that he’s not being serious, but instead you find wide, blown out pupils, flushed cheeks, and nothing beside his usual mischievousness. Any blood left in your face quickly exits. “Gods, I didn’t even think. I’m so sorry-”
“Don’t be. I’m not.” He presses another soft kiss to your lips, and you see a small smear of your blood on his lips. When you lick your lips, you can taste the iron of it on your tongue.
Astarion is watching you. His gaze darkens, and he lets out another thin, broken groan. “Darling. At this rate, we’ll be going the whole night.”
And, honestly? With the rate the heat is returning - you don’t doubt it. 
Still, you gently ease him off of you to sit up, then make your way into his lap and wrap your arms around his neck. 
There’s something addictive about Astarion - there always has been. From the moment he’d had you against the dirt, a dagger to your neck, he’s been your fix.  
In those first days when you’d had to hide your want for him - not even lust or sheer desire, but want; the ache to run your finger through silver curls, the warmth in your cheeks when he held your gaze just a moment too long, and the rare moments of vulnerability that came more and more as you’d gotten to know him - it had been torture. 
And then he’d propositioned you. And all at once, you’d found yourself in a clearing under silver moonlight, alone with him, long before you ever knew the extent of what had been done to him - and after all this time, the craving for him, the need to lay beside him in the long nights and find him there come morning, has only ever gotten so much stronger.
The heat is somewhat bearable now. Enough to take a moment to admire him, head tilted as he gazes up at you, pure need simmering in his eyes. Dark, glinting rubies. His fangs, barely visible under parted lips. Flushed cheeks. That will fade before long; the rosiness of drinking never lasts more than a few minutes, but you admire it all the same. 
“You’re beautiful.” The words are hushed. You hadn’t even meant to speak them, but your mind isn’t really yours at the moment, not wholly, not as firm as it should be. You feel half-drunk, half-needy. 
The corners of his lips flick into a smile, and he raises a brow. “Oh?” he asks, clearly stealing for more flattery. “Do you think so?”
You lean in, pressing a kiss to his cheek. “You know I do.” 
You gather a single, loose curl in your fingertips and gently roll it between your thumb and index finger, admiring the softness of it. You could use the same soaps, wash your hair with the same things he uses a thousand times over, and it’d never matter. It’d never be as soft as his.
“Anything in particular?” he asks. His voice is particularly airy; he’s battling between begging you for what he needs, and the compliments he likes so much.
You think back to when you’d first described him - that night beneath the stars, when he’d tossed the mirror aside and asked how you viewed him. Words hadn’t been enough then, and they still aren’t, but you’ll try.
“Your eyes,” you start, running your finger over his crow’s feet. “They change color in the light. Right now, they’re dark. Hungry. I can tell you want me, and I like that.”
His hands, which have strayed to the back of your thighs, tighten against your skin. “And? What else?”
The heat’s strength is back, clawing its way up your abdomen. “The way your hair curls around your ears,” you murmur.
He frowns, and you know you’ve gone too poetic. To distract him, you lean in and nip at the lobe of one, and any of his upset disintegrates. 
“Gods,” he murmurs, bringing his hands up to your waist. “Darling, I can’t wait much longer-”
You’ve trailed down to his jaw, alternating between kisses and sharp little nips just like the ones he likes to give you, and the words die in his mouth in favor of a sharp inhale. 
You won’t keep him waiting much longer. In fact, you have a plan. A plan that’d hatched from the moment you’d realized that the spores were in his system, too. Since you’d seen the hungry look in his eyes - every inch a predator circling around its prey.
Only, you’re not content to be the prey. You want to disarm him, and if any of the time you’ve spent together means anything, you’ve gotten very, very good at that.
His shirt is still on, so your hands are quick to remove it, tugging it away from cooling porcelain skin, silky under your fingers as you drag them down his sternum. He shudders, and you remember how it’d felt when he’d first touched you. If it’s anything like that, he’s probably dying to beg you for more.
Your lips soon follow the path your hands are sitting, taking your time with the softness of his abdomen before you pull his trousers away. He’s panting now, and a frenzied sort of desperation lies in his gaze when you look up at him.
And he’s hard again. Leaking.
You lightly trace your nails down his thighs, silently relishing in the way his breath hitches - the way his hips unconsciously buck toward you. 
“Gods,” he says again, and though it isn’t a direct request, with the broken way it falls off his tongue, this time it is every bit a plea. 
And you’re in a mood to please.
You take his cock in hand, swiping your thumb over the head, where precum is slowly leaking, and he lets out a long, breathy noise. You hum in response, taking his length between your lips, and the sound becomes strained, more needy. His hand gently makes its way into your hair, very lightly guiding you where he wants, but not forcefully.
You alternate between things: long, even movements of your mouth as you drag your tongue down the shaft, swirling your tongue around the head, then sucking him hard and slow. Eventually, simply following the guidance of his hand. His grip tightens in your hair - not painful, just encouraging - and his noises become more drawn out, less coherent.
When you pull away for a moment, using your hand to continue what your mouth had just been doing, you find him dangerously close. You press a kiss to the head and take him in again, increasing pace, accommodating him as you take him in as far as you possibly can, and he starts whimpering. 
“Please,” he says, and if that isn’t a rare word to hear from him. 
On another day, you might tease him, but you don’t want to. Not now, while he’s begging to have you. Instead, you take him as deep as you can again and suck harder. Astarion tugs at your hair and his thighs shudder and you know he’s close.
“Please,” he says again. “Gods, don’t stop.”
And you wouldn’t dream of it. What you can’t take into your mouth, you use your hand to stroke, and that’s it. He’s coming.
There’s something artful about it - the tremor that runs through him, the salty taste of him in your mouth, and those seeking, breathless sounds that come out of him as he spills onto your tongue. A long, shaky inhale as he pumps his hips, still chasing out his pleasure, then the trembling exhale as his mind starts to come back to him.
He doesn’t soften, and you don’t take your mouth off him. Not yet.
Usually, Astarion can be counted on for two orgasms, but if those spores are doing anything remotely like what they were doing to you, there’s certain to be much, much more than that.
“By the hells,” he murmurs airily, running a hand down your back. “You’re going to kill me, darling.”
You pull away for a moment, kissing at his abdomen, keeping his eyes locked on his as you do. “Does that mean you want me to stop?” you ask sweetly, trailing your nails along the skin of his thigh.
He swallows hard. “Gods, don’t,” he pleads.
And you don’t.
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smallestapplin · 4 months ago
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I too have been enamored with your Autobot Harem and I would like to see more please ...but I'm also picturing how fucking funny it would be if the Decepticons somehow heard about this new human friend and decide to kidnap them for Schemes(TM) So they send one of the minicons to scout things out, to see what this human is about, only to be bombarded with footage of Prowl, of all bots, holding the Autobot Darling in a mating press and fucking them stupid while they cry out his name
The 'Cons are baffled, frightened, and kinda grossed out and promptly nope the fuck outta there and spend the next few days trying to delete it from their memories
And they grow even more distressed when they realize just how *often* the Autobots have their way with you, including Optimus goddamn Prime, who seems to be the most addicted out of all of them, and everytime they try to sneak around there is at least one bot doing something lewd
The Autobots, meanwhile, haven't enjoyed this much peace and quiet for this long in a looooooong while, and they know exactly how to best enjoy it
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Cackling at the same brain, but I adore the takes here >:) if you or anyone have anymore ideas don't be afraid to tell me
But I'd love to expand on this
🔞Warning : Autobot harem, Spitroasting, GN!Reader, decepticon pov so everything is referred to in Cybertronian words, non-consensual recording, non-consensual voyeurism🔞
Links to one here and chatting here
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When the autobots don't make any moves it's not unusual, after all it's only when the decepticons attack will they be seen, so why not a stealth mission to try and get some intel and break their silly camaraderie?
Oh it was a genuis plan! Get dirt on them, spread it to their friends, and watch them kill each other instead, getting them out of the way once and for all.
Laserbeak was sent first to map up routes, and see who guards at certain times.
It was normal, it was routine even.
Until laserbeak catches sight (and recording) of you, a little human, slotted between Sunstreaker and Sideswipe.
Sunstreaker rutting into your tight valve, transfluid leaking from where you two connect. His hips wetly slapping into yours. Your stomach bulging from the large spike rearranging your insides.
And you struggling to take Sideswipe's spike in your intake while your digits toy with his valve. Drool and fluid leaking down your chin, tears sliding down your face as you struggle to breathe.
"Takin' our spikes like a champ, sweetspark."
"Such a greedy valve! Keeps suckin' me in like you want me to overload early-"
Soundwave is fast in disconnecting the line, shutting the video off and telling Laserbeak to get back to base prompto.
But that leaves the decepticons in silence.
What had they just seen? Cybertronians can interface with fleshies? What nonsense! That can't be right.
It starts off as disgust, but then they start talking and realizing this has been going on for ages.
"Those twins hate humans out of every autobot, so how did a fleshy manage?" Starscream speaks, venom dripping in his voice.
"Wait...wait remember when we attacked their base to get that energy switch, and we came across them, and Prowl nearly offlined Thundercracker?"
The room falls silent again.
Every instance comes flooding back to them, ones they would have never thought twice about are all starting to make sense. The autobots always became a bit more aggressive and protective when it came to defending you.
Even Optimus Prime himself nearly offlined Rumble for getting close to you, before picking you up and placing you with Bumblebee to get to safety.
"So...are all of them with one human or just those two?" Skywarp didn't even want to know, but of course if there is some weird romance thing going on, they could probably use that to their advantage.
Megatron sighs, looking to Soundwave "Tell Laserbeak to go back and pick up more evidence, as much as I hate to say that."
The larger bot sneers, loathing the idea of seeing more.
But Soundwave and Laserbeak do as told.
The minicon avoids the area he first saw you, Sideswipe, and Sunstreaker, making an effort to thoroughly explore the other areas, making note that Prowl and Jazz seemingly take guard duty at night.
By the next day you and those twins seem to have went back inside the base, where Laserbeak couldn't reach.
"Sir, we might need to send someone to sneak inside their base."
Megatron glances at Soundwave, who doesn't look away from the screen. They both know getting inside that base will be dangerous, especially with how protective those bots are when you're involved.
"Let's hold off on that, since they seem to enjoy fragging outdoors, I'm certain we will get something else."
Soundwave nods, and continues watching as nothing interesting shows up on camera.
Starscream groans, rolling his optics not believing this is what they are up to anymore, just waiting to see some human all bare taking a spike much too big for them.
How patheic!
He could easily break your valve in, much better than those autobots!.....wait...NO! He shakes his helm, getting rid of any thoughts of you he's having.
Grumbling himself about your stupid attractiveness, you're just some stupid fleshy that's probably so soft compared to him, and no doubt your valve would struggle to take him.
But he keeps up a disgusted act, not wanting anyone to know what he's thinking.
However Thundercracker is silent, optics not leaving the screen, watching whatever Laserbeak catches on camera.
His expression looks bored, but he's freaking out inside.
He can't believe a human could actually handle interfacing with a Cybertronian, and you took two like a champ! You look so cute, pretty valve stretched so wide just to take Sunstreaker.
Greedy little thing.
He wants you, he wants to know what it's like, wants to leave here and live somewhere peacefully with you in some far off woods.
He's only here out of fear.
But he can't believe he's letting himself fall for a human he's barely met, but he can't stop his thoughts from trailing off to you, picturing you crying out begging him for more.
He wonders how your valve tastes, and if you'd like he bury his glossa in your heat.
Thundercracker is broken from his thoughts by Starscream screeching.
"Have they no shame!?"
Several optics look back at the screen, only to see you with Hot Rod.
The flashy bot clearly rushing off with you, giggling as you two go through the trees to get a peaceful spot away from base.
Faintly through Laserbeak's mic they can hear you.
"Oh, you don't know how much I missed you, little light!"
You giggle, finding all his kisses to be tickling you.
"I missed you too, Roddy. I hope your missions haven't been to exhausting." You kiss him in turn, smiling when he lets out a dopey chuckle.
"Nothing I can't manage, I just wanted to get back to you safe and sound."
"Something tells me that's not the only reason." You tease him, your poor lover gives you a pleading expression.
"I got all my work done? Missions were a success since the decepticons have been quiet, oh! And I got my reports done!"
He's shaking, nearly vibrating in place waiting for something.
But you let out a dramatic sigh, playfully shaking your head.
"I suppose since you've been such a good boy then."
You kick your pants off, tossing them to the side, before plopping yourself down on his servo, spreading your legs wide for him.
"A good boy deserves a reward, right?"
Hot Rod drools, muttering 'thank you's over and over again as he buries his glossa into your greedy hole.
Moaning with you, unable to help himself when you taste so good!
The decepticons all look at each other, then to Megatron, awaiting his orders but even he is baffled.
Just how many bots do you have after you? How many do you already have under your thumb? In the fights where he has gotten close to you, you reek of Optimus far too strongly.
So you're with him too.
Do you have the entire autobot base at your beck and call?
"Megatron, what are your orders."
Soundwave's voice shakes him if his thoughts.
"If we can get ahold of that human, we might have our answers, however I'm not even sure we can with how frag addicted those filthy autobots are."
"Seems the human is never alone either, which would make that even harder."
Just what have they gotten themselves into?
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opal-owl-flight · 3 months ago
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Decimation.
Youve been stealing back millions of eggs from Grizzco for years. And in a single night, they took it all back.
How does it feel to face a possible extinction?
Uhh lore abt Grizzco and the salmonids below!
So in my interp, Grizzco started somewhat small, bc back then Grizz and...an associate... were doing everything by themselves. When his associate went nuts, and almost ended the world by driving the nearby salmonid nations nuts as well, Inkadia launched Project Piranesi. (More on that another time.) Grizz had to think of another way to get those eggs..
…how perfect was it then, that Inkopolis, a fairly new city, was having a bit of a salmonid problem?
Grizz inserted his corporation as part of the damage control along the run routes. it only grew from there.
he expanded to the Splatlands later, though admittedly the folks there were more adapted to the salmonids compared to Inkadia. Its not as strong a hold but Splatsville and its surrounding establishments appreciated the extra precautions Grizzco provided.
Neos born fighting for her life and for her clans. Its why shes so aggressive and finds it difficult to be anything but. If shes not angry, fighting for her clans to have a life of peace…for a present and future where she can live -- what is she?
she and 3 arent so different, in that regard.
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Grizzco says that the last 7 big run locales had "unusual magnetic readings" and in my world that just means THEY DAMN PUT IT THERE!!!!
They intentionally put something there to confuse the migrators and to steal the next generation -- and the Inkfish? Ofc theyd fight for their homes.
The Splatlandians TRIED to avoid the routes when they built the city after thousands of years of observation. Sorta like the dykes and canals some cities build next to swelling rivers.
Another comparison is that the big runs are just like other natural calamities in the eyes of the nations. Its like a flood, an earthquake, a typhoon. Hell its somewhat announced that way too. The infrastructure is built with the runs in mind. The powers that be have built countermeasures.
*I say try bc some sleazy/unaware corporations still built along those routes bc of the cheaper land/other "economical reasons."
And then Inkadia just wasnt aware at all, being a newer city compared to the ancient splatlands.
Grizzco intentionally causes property damage for bigger gains. Theyve been suffering a "shortage" thanks to Neo3 and the platoon's banditry. In a bid to take everything back and more, they decided to make the biggest event in the Splatlands the salmonid's next target.
They know that EVERYONE will show up to it.
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I think seeing that counter keep ticking up gives Neo3 a sense of creeping dread. Thats the number of eggs she put back in the sea. And more. All done in a single night. All her work, down the drain.
The platoon does manage to get a LOT of it back but god. What about the fallen runners, who were supposed to get to the actual spawning grounds?
Those lives disrespected and their bodies unable to feed the spawn. (Theres only so much the survivors can drag back.)
I wonder too, how many of those runners arent there for the runs at this point. They are there to kill.
Ticked off by the persistent attacks and the misdirection. As Polyphemus says in Epic, "Take from you what you take from me."
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After multi-magnetic field disruptors in the biggest run, these salmonid have had enough and want to hit back. I wouldnt blame them...god, I wouldnt blame them
The salmonids have never resorted to kidnapping any inkfish. Theyve killed. Yeah. Part of the whole running ceremony. But it was always just a part of that.
To actually go out of their way to fight instead of spawn? Thats different. In the grand run, inkfish may notice that some bosses arent dropping golden eggs. Bc they were never here to spawn. Theyre here to drag every inkfish they find into hell.
Subsequent big runs may end up with more and more of those eggless bosses.
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Happy 700 mil!! I HAD MANY NEO3 AND SALMONID THOUGHTS. THINGS ARE GETTING SO FUCKED UP IN SPLOONWORLD. The platoon as a whole is trying to restore peace between the Splatlands, Inkadia, Octaria AND the Salmonid nations, but unless Inkadia and the Splatlands change (COUGHS mostly Inkadia), nothing can really be done.
This is the shit 3 fights for. That harmony is what they dream of. The whole world rests on their shoulders and they press on, ever forward.
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karlachismylife · 2 months ago
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Spot on the Mark || The Queen of the Clan pt.5
CW: fem!chubby!reader, mentions of animal marking/pasting, some piss mentioned again, dead animal mentioned (no descriptions).
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A lot more work goes into a wildlife documentary than you thought. It was obvious that it’s not as simple as just grabbing good quality cameras and riding off into savannah blindly, but the amount of tricks and different ways to get enough shots for a compelling and educational storyline you’re learning about seems infinite: from studying animals’ trails and routes of migration to hauling senior operators up into the trees to film fluffy and feathered stars of the future documentary as up close as possible without disturbing their natural peace.
These people have done it time and time again, telling you about the months-long stakeouts on bigger productions, the ones that can afford to simply wait every day for an animal to come and do what the script requires; the masking of carefully placed hides that can still be not enough to trick a smart bird into thinking it was all alone and perform a beautiful mating dance; the difficult hikes that test everyone’s endurance and result in barely ten seconds of footage in the end cut. You can’t help but feel excited yet intimidated when your turn comes to participate in one such trick, intended to shorten the waiting time your smaller production just can’t afford.  It’s not that difficult, but it’s smart and elegant – at least in your opinion.
This is how you find yourself stuck in your Rover with Kir, wrapped in a small blanket for additional warmth, while he meddles with the sound equipment: speakers mounted on the hood of the car and a knot of wires connecting them to a laptop, screen covered up with a scarf to muffle its light. You’re holding your night vision camera pointed at a spot just several meters ahead, a fresh carcass placed under a tree to attract a carnivore, two more cameras planted at different angles on the ground and one more strapped to a branch right above the “dining table”.
A switch clicks, and the night fills with triumphant hyena whooping, a whole cacophony of different voices celebrating a kill. This is a dinner bell for lions – no matter what the public’s perception is, it’s often the big cats coming to steal hyenas’ fresh kills, not the other way around. You hold your breath, misty clouds of steam coming out of your mouth dissipating in the loud, poorly lit night. You wait.
Time doesn’t stretch as much as you would think. This isn’t a boring, monotonous wait of a text back in a stuffy big city apartment, the only “wildlife” sounds seeping through the closed windows – revving engines of nighttime dumbass street racers or neighbours yelling at each other over hysterically loud TV.
Compared to what you’re used to, savannah seems peaceful. Somewhere in the vast darkness big predators avoid each other’s paths, unwilling to start unnecessary fights. Grass rustles in a rhythmic pattern as little springhares jump through the night, stopping to glance at the huge, imposing shadow of a human car just once and continuing on their way. The wind breathes quietly and calmly with the cooling ground, welcoming a lively picture of a complex system, each part of which is perfectly in tune with others.
You feel like you could be a part of it – like it’s a place you can actually belong to, care for and be taken care of in return, unlike the constant hectic hostility of a city. They call it concrete jungles, but none of the brutal ways of nature you’ve witnessed in the wild so far can compare to the ruthless, pointless cruelty human kind inflicts on itself and everyone else.
There is a hopefulness inside you that was completely snuffed out previously, and it sounds like a smooth, lulling chirping of insects hidden in the wet grass.
Loud baboon yelling alerts you before you manage to clock any movement or hear an animal approaching your little spectacle. Insane luck. Before gluing yourself to the camera, you glance at the time and it’s barely an hour after you put the recording on – it’s hard to contain your excitement, but you manage to keep your hands steady as you scope the area in search of your guest. Kir shifts in his seat next to you, picking up his simple night vision binoculars and following the same trajectory as your camera lens.
When you see a distinctive hunched silhouette sniffing at the bait, you almost feel the tiniest bit of disappointment – no lions today, huh? – that quickly gets replaced with surprise.
The hyena doesn’t even touch the food you placed to lure animals in and turns its back on it, instead staring straight at you and Kir. Its ears twitch, clearly determining the direction where other hyenas’ noises are coming from, and slowly, almost leisurely, it moves towards you.
“It’s coming here, Kir,” you whisper, still keeping the camera rolling, too fascinated with the elegance of each silent step the huge, dark form with devilishly glowing eyes in your night vision tape takes. “Didn’t even try the meat… what do we do?”
“Ah, shit, that’s a first one.” He sounds more surprised than concerned, and after a moment of hesitation, reaches out to turn the luring sounds off. “Maybe it’s already killed and got territorial? Worst case scenario, we just scare it away. You getting the footage?”
“I… am, yeah… it’s pretty.” Somehow you aren’t even surprised anymore, when the hyena ignores the fact that the calls of its peers or more likely rivals stop abruptly – there’s something deeply wrong with them here, you decide, too much human contact or something. Maybe these ones were released from the sanctuary? But no one in their right mind would let such domesticated animals back into the wild, right?
While the myriad of possibilities swarms your mind, the camera keeps recording, and you, quite well-trained already, don’t even seem to realize that you’re following the hyena’s steps, turning the camera more and more to the side as the animal approaches your Rover. Wait-
“Tsk, hold up!” Kir’s hand hooks into your back belt loop and pulls you slightly back into the car. When did you even stand up to lean over the car door? “Let’s not diversify its diet today with soft city cookies, alright?”
“Sorry, sorry,” you whisper, sitting back down. For a moment – just a moment – you lose the animal out of sight while you pull your pants back up, and the next thing you know it’s already right in front of you.
Standing on its short hind legs and resting front paws on the car side to lean inside.
A big snout shoved almost into your face, coming into your darkness-shortened sight out of nowhere, is bound to freak you out – you drop your camera, luckily catching it in your lap, and pull back, pressing your back into Kir, who can only grunt quietly under the sudden weight and grip your shoulders protectively.
The hyena just snorts and tilts is head adorably, a soft, almost reproachful look in its bit wet eyes reflecting every little light on the car’s dashboard and your equipment. There’s something familiar to this slender, elegant snout, nodding in the air as the big nose takes in your scent, toned down by the contrasting savannah night cold.
“Chocolate?.. Is that you?” It’s a wild guess, honestly – you can’t see shit without your camera, only able to notice the hyena’s movements by the wet glistening of its eyes, nose and lips, and even through the night vision equipment you weren’t able to determine your guest’s colour – something that would definitely help distinguish Chocolate from any other hyenas; you doubt there are any others, who are already this big and grown up, yet still carry their childish dark brown hide. Maybe Chocolate is a melanistic variant? You’ve never heard of such mutations in spotted hyenas, but it’s not like you specialize in them, right?
A soft grunt tears through your thoughts again, a non-threatening pitch that almost sounds like purring – along with the repeated scratching of its claws on the steel side of your Rover, Chocolate seems like a cat more than anything. A huge, maned cat asking to be let inside.
“No-no-no, buddy, you’re not coming into the car. It’s humans only.” You try to sound stern – it seems to work on these animals, but it’s so damn hard, when your visitor whines quietly and flutters its rounded ears, staring at you hypnotically. “Come on, there’s food. Look!”
A nod in the direction of the carcass, attracting no one but some flies it seems, has no effect on the hyena. When you pretend to throw something there, Chocolate giggles quietly and lowers itself back on the ground – but when it realizes you won’t be throwing any of your real possessions for it to chase after, it stands up against, reaching its long, thick-furred neck to breathe a hot, steamy snort into your face.
And just like that, after you blink at the pretty muzzle in disbelief, trying to find an appropriate way to react to a wild, dangerous animal almost sneezing in your face, it leaves to inspect your car.
For a moment, you worry it’ll try and jump inside from the back, but it seems to have lost any interest to join a party it wasn’t invited to. Slowly, you scramble back into your seat, relieving Kir of your weight and earning a supportive pat on the back from him, and pick up your camera to watch Chocolate.
“What’s it doing?” Kir’s whisper suddenly elicits more of a reaction from the hyena than any of your stern talking – it lifts its head from the tire it was sniffing at and scowls, a striking killer smile flashing in your direction. Seeing its sharp canines nestled in the massive jaws makes a cold shiver run down your spine. This just was right in front of your face with nothing to protect you against a sudden attack.
“Shh, quiet… don’t agitate it,” you whisper back as soon as you manage to swallow the snowball-like lump in your throat. Kir shuts up, clearly a full-on believer in your hyena whisperer abilities now, and you watch on as Chocolate lowers its cute head back, sniffing and pawing at your tire.
After several minutes of looking between you and the wheel, sniffs and huffs growing more and more impatient and exasperated, it gives up on whatever it was trying to tell you – you could swear it rolls its eyes too! – and circles your car, flicking the fluffy brush on the end of its tail in what you can only assume to be a goodbye.
You’re wrong. A real goodbye is left a few meters away from the Rover on Kir’s side. Your curious night visitor stops abruptly, sniffs the air, tilting its head so far back that it almost rests on its shoulder blades, and then, without a warning – what warning could you expect though? – it crouches down to paste over a particular spot in the tall grass.
“Is that?..” – “Yes.” You tear yourself away from the camera to glance at Kir, just in time to see him sigh heavily and put his binoculars down, rubbing his hand down his face painted with disbelief, eyebrows raised high and lips pressed together. You’re still not sure – even though little snickers already start escaping your throat and roll down your nose in sweet snorts – so you pry again: “The spot where you went to-“ – “Yes.”
Even the need to hold your camera still to capture Chocolate marking its territory with a thick smelly paste smeared all over the grass Kir went to pee in several hours ago can’t prevent you from giggling. Anxious about scaring the animal and provoking it, you cover your own mouth and keep filming – eyes on the little black and white picture just in time to see Chocolate shake its plush butt, tail high up to assert dominance, and turn to look at you.
Or, perhaps, to look at Kir.
“Okay, okay, got it, no pissing on your territory. Jeez, buddy, no need to be so petty about it, I probably live here as long as you do.” Hearing Kir mutter under his nose as he gets stared down by a proud carnivore is hilarious.
“You disrespected it. What’s it like, to have a sworn enemy because of your bladder?” Your little giggles elicit two smiles at the same time – an embarrassed one from Kir, who threatens to snore into your ear directly once you wrap up this nightly stakeout, and another wide, toothy one from Chocolate.
You can’t be sure with the blurry image your camera shows you, but you once again feel like it winks at you. How likely is it for this hyena to have some eye problems that cause it to constantly dish out the flirtiest winks an animal is capable of?
“Oh, look, it’s leaving,” Kir finally turns away from the direction Chocolate left in, and just scoffs when you hear distant whooping slowly pick up in frequency before it disappears into the night. “Wanna try with the record again? I’m not sure we will attract anyone if there are actual hyenas around, though.”
“No, no, let’s try again,” you’re fully energized despite your arms feeling cold because the blanket slipped off your shoulders when you got spooked by Chocolate. Kir pulls it back up, wrapping you in a warm cocoon, and rubs your shoulder absentmindedly while he rewinds the recording and tries slightly different settings. “Maybe we’ll attract Stinky at least, these two seem to be buddies.”
“Yeah, right,” he responds, wrapping his own jacket tighter around himself. “Because that little shit will cause less chaos that the one we just saw.”
You can’t argue with that. If that was Stinky that came to the false call, it would have definitely jumped into the back of your Rover.
“At least that’s some good footage to post online. They’re cute. Will be good promo for the documentary.”
Kir grumbles something into the warm thermos, steam clouding the air between you, and hands it to you – to warm both your hands and your whole body from the inside.
Even if you don’t catch a lion tonight, you still caught something precious – right in your heart. You just have to find a way to define it properly.
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Part 4 | Part 6
Series masterlist | Main masterlist
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Tagging: @elaineiswithyou-blog @creepingeva @my-halo-is-a-little-broken @sillymanjaro @ihatethinkingofnames10 @ravensfeatheruniverse @yaminax @ljh861 @darkangel4121 @ginger-n-coco @grey-shadow6475 @cryingpages @mothsdrabbles @mc-glare-is-king @vixxie22 @aldis-nuts @terraantarctica @henhouse-horrors @blizzivy @perfectus-in-morte
Here's an illustration to Chocolate's visit:
youtube
Comrades, I think I'm too deep in this now, I started watching documentaries about filming documentaries, the docuseption is coming for me...
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fairuzfan · 2 months ago
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What kills me about this person is that they admit the Palestinians are occupied and israel is an occupying force but they still manage to blame the occupied for the circumstances the occupier inflicts on them. And this is what drives me up a wall about liberal zionists. They admit that israel is occupying Palestine and and that the occupation must end but it's all just... buzzwords to them. They think the occupied and occupier need to work together to end the occupation and that occupation is some set of rules that a government imposes on people when it's a systematic violence that's perpetuated even by civilians who are determined a "higher class" than the occupied. Like they're willing to admit the occupation is bad and should not happen but that's as far as they're willing to admit. They are completely unwilling to even say that Palestinians are oppressed by Israelis (yes, all Palestinians are oppressed by all israelis, it's not a statement of morality its a statement of relationships between two groups of people) and are insisting that Palestinians are to blame for the occupation, on some level.
And this is not an exaggeration. Because they do say "israelis see the apartheid was as a security wall to stop the suicide bombings so you can understand how israelis feel about palestinians" but the occupied are constantly expected to make room for their occupiers' feelings. Like in every single instance. Even when talking about "peace" (which is never really peace, just a quieter occupation) Palestinians are expected to "hold up their side of the deal" in order to gain basic rights. Like they're constantly told "Well israelis are afraid that you'll kill them so you gotta promise to be nice and then we will stop shoving a gun in your face" as if the Palestinians hold any sort of meaningful structural power over israelis.
Like, I'm sorry but there's not a reality in which Palestinians oppress israelis in this entire world. None. We have no structural power compared to israelis. We will always be bottom rung compared to them, we will always be guilty before proved innocent, we will always have the gun in our faces, we will always be bombed and bombed and bombed and starved and bombed and no structural power will help us. Sorry if this is a hard truth to swallow but Palestinians are oppressed by israelis. Even HAMAS (the favorite israeli boogieman) is oppressed by israelis. Because that's the nature of the world. The occupied are, by definition, oppressed. The people who are blockaded and their food and water are controlled by an occupying entity are the oppressed people. So it's like, even if you want to argue the "shared humanity" route, you have to acknowledge that oppression is structural and enduring and that every Palestinian IN THE WORLD experiences oppression from israelis and those that ally themselves with israelis. Otherwise, your hollow statements of "wanting to end the occupation" just sound to me like you really don't understand that the occupation is present in every aspect of Palestinian life and that, unfortunately, israelis have to do more than tear down the apartheid wall and the settlements and the checkpoints and have to fundamentally reshape society if they want *real* peace.
But the sad part is, they don't really care about actually helping Palestinians, they care about seeming "moral" and "doing the right thing" but they've made up their minds about what doing the right thing is without even speaking to Palestinians about it. Or I should say, caring about speaking to Palestinians about it.
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curseofaphrodite · 5 months ago
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Amateur Assassin
AEGON TARGARYEN X FEM!READER
Summary: After you find out that your friend had been hung simply for being a ratcatcher, you take matters into your own hands and try to kill the king.
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As Aegon walked back to his chambers, he saw the women lined up alongside him, heading to the west wing. He immediately knew they were brothel workers, and that someone inside the palace had paid for their services for the night. The need for almost seven of them was impressive, and he noted that he'd find the person and applaud him tomorrow.
One of the ladies glared intently at him as she walked past, which made him do a double take. He blinked in confusion and just a bit of fear. She had a burgundy shawl over her face, so he couldn't make out if it was someone he knew. But a chill went down his back as her murderous eyes followed his.
He wondered if the Stranger his mother often spoke about was a woman.
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TWO WEEKS AGO, BEAR'S CLAW (club by day, brothel by night)
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"You're overdressed," someone said from behind, and you turned to spot the most beautiful woman you've ever seen. She was also extremely naked, so you were just a teensy bit uncomfortable.
"Laeda said you're the one Aegon frequently... visits." You tried to sound confident, but she looked as if she saw right through you.
"And what business would you have with His Highness?"
"I want to kill him."
She raised an eyebrow. "Are you drunk?"
It wasn't clever of you to tell her you wanted to murder her highest-paying client, but it was a bargain that paid off. Simply said, everyone was scared. Aegon and Rhaenyra's conflict seemed to grow more reckless by day, and both sides had dragons. Everyone knew it was the people who paid the price for their petty family quarrels. Getting rid of Aegon would possibly be the only way to peace, apart from your own personal reasons for vengeance.
You didn't reply. She sighed.
"You're asking for a death sentence; you're no match for his guards," she explained.
"Laeda said there's a lot of you who frequent the castle. Give me safe passage, that's all I ask."
"And why would I do that?"
She was asking for a favor in return, but you had already thought it through. Laeda was one of your childhood friends, and the reason she knew many people in town was because she had a hand in almost all of their secrets. In many ways, she was one of the most powerful people you knew.
"You owe it to Laeda," you replied, which unnerved the woman in front of you just a bit. You smiled, knowing you had won.
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PRESENT DAY, THE CASTLE.
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You weaseled out of the group after they went a bit farther, pressing back into the shadows of the walls till the guards were completely gone. Breathing heavily in, your hand touched the knife hidden inside your coat, then took off.
You had miscalculated just how large the castle would be. Even though you had sighted the king while he was on his way to his chambers, it still took you a good while to find the route again. You regretted coming everytime a guard almost saw you.
I'm playing at Death's door. But you couldn't think too much about it. You had to keep moving.
With your heart hammering inside, you finally saw the door of your target footsteps away. Due to extremely fortunate circumstances, no one was guarding the door. Without pushing your luck too much, you pushed the door open, and went right in.
"Varley, perfect. Bring more hot water," Aegon drawled lazily, his eyes probably closed. He was lounging in the tub, his hands resting on its sides.
Stupid, privileged, idiot.
You stepped back into the darkness of the huge curtains, peeking just enough to see him. You couldn't make your presence known yet, not until you got up close.
"Varley?" he called, sitting up. He frowned at the open door and empty room. He reached for his robes and draped them as he stood up. He looked outside the room, and you took that moment to grab his sword from the table in front of you, pulling it back into the shadows.
You already had a knife in hand, but the sword's blade seemed infinitely sharper.
Aegon closed the door, then examined the room once more. He looked at the table, and gulped.
"Who's here?" he called out, putting on a brave face. He walked to the open windows and poked his head out — as if someone had climbed in. You took that time to get out of the shadows and blocked the doorway. When he turned from the window and faced you, he quite literally let out a high-pitched scream.
"You!"
"Pray," you hissed. "Pray that gods forgive what can be forgiven, so you wouldn't be withering in the afterlife after I gut you tonight."
His breathing came more evenly, as if you were nothing more than the initial jumpscare.
"I don't know if I believe in gods." He informed.
You didn't like how he looked less scared by the second.
"Never held a sword before, have you?" he asked, nodding. You held on to its hilt tighter, not giving anything away. "I'd give you some training if you'd like..."
"I'm afraid I'd have to take that up with the next puppet of a king because you aren't making it through the night alive."
"Puppet?!" he scoffed, going to the nearest wooden table and pouring himself a drink. The nerve. "There are worse things to be called, I suppose."
Enough introductions, you thought and ran towards him, sword over your head. He yelped and jumped out of the way as you brought the sharp edge down to the wood. It almost split right into two.
"I was going to pour you a drink too, fuck!" he yelled, as if the jug that spilled pomegranate-colored content was more of a concern than how you were currently trying to murder him.
"You killed him," you said through gritted teeth. He blinked.
"You're going to have to be a little more specific than that."
"You killed Stranir!"
"Oh," he looked thoughtful for a while. "Actually no, no clue to who that is."
You shrieked and raised your sword again, and he sloppily rolled away from being the target.
"You killed him! Just for being a ratcatcher!"
"Now we are getting somewhere." Aegon nodded, gasping from the chase. "That was not a miscarriage of justice. One of them killed my son!"
"You killed all of them because you were too dumb to figure out which one of them did it! He was a son too!"
"Also your lover, by the looks of it."
"He was my friend, you utter buffoon!" You wondered why you were even explaining it. You caught your reflection off the blade you were holding and were immediately embarrassed. Somehow you looked more scared than him.
You heard faint footsteps in the distance. His guard was back on his duty, which meant he'd be inside the instant Aegon yells out.
Time was closing in. If you wanted him dead, you had to move now.
Aegon noticed your hesitation. His voice turned to a whisper. "You don't have to do this."
"I do," you whispered back, scared the guard would hear it. At one point, of course he would come in, and of course you'd be fucked. Why did you even have to go through this elaborate plan if you got killed for nothing?
"This castle is too big for a child," he said, his voice softer than ever. Why was he bargaining? Why wouldn't he yell out? "I know because I've been one. I hated every second of being treated like scum by my own family. I wanted it to be different for Jaehaerys. I wanted him to be loved. Nowhere good that got him, don't you think?"
You were extremely confused. "Do you often talk so much?"
"Only in the face of imminent death," he shrugged, looking more tired than ever. "You can't kill me. You won't. I'm your King."
You scoffed.
"Go on then." He sat down on his bed, almost amused. "If justice is what brought you here, it's the same justice that's holding you back now. Funny, isn't it?"
"Why aren't you calling for the guard?" you asked, unable to hold it in any longer. You wanted him to say something nefarious, anything other than the realization that grew in your mind — that this kingdom was ruled by an absolute idiot, not an evil one. You came to kill a devil, but was faced with a jester who looked just as clueless as you did.
"I don't have a lot of friends."
You blinked. Targaryens are weird, you decided.
"Even if you kill me now," he continued. "There'd be another king. Someone competent enough to call on his guard the second a pretty lady shows up with his sword. Then there'd be another. This system fucks with you till you're six feet under."
Pretty. Is this idiot flirting with me?
"You killed Stranir!"
"Hey, you didn't come here for me to justify it, did you?" he asked. "I indeed acted out of pain, but I'd do it again. I'd kill anyone over and over again if there were even rumors they killed my baby. If that makes me a bad person, I don't think I care."
"YOU KILLED HIM!" you accidentally yelled, and he groaned. The guard had presumably heard, because there was sudden shuffling outside and the door burst open.
"It's okay, we were just having a chat," Aegon told the huge guard in white cloak, who looked as if he was fury reincarnated. He looked at the sword in your hand and stepped forward, obviously not listening to what Aegon said. He probably thought the King was drunk.
The guard charged, and fear took you by surprise. You put your feet back, slipped on the liquor, and fell to the ground with a thud.
The last thing you remember seeing was Aegon kneeling before you, trying to bring you back to consciousness.
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You woke up warm.
There was sunlight through the window and the bed you were laid in was not only comfortable, it was also familiar. You jerked up straight, realizing you were back in your own house. Your father was seated beside you, and he gasped in relief when he saw you awake.
"What, where—"
"You're okay, you're fine," your father said happily. "The guards brought you here. They're less talkative than I imagined so they didn't speak on why my daughter was inside the royal castle in the first place. Many don't make it alive so I did not object."
"I—" you noted how his words had gotten sterner at the end, but he interrupted you again.
"I'm sure there's much to be talked about, but you need your rest first. I'll come back with soup to hear all about it," he stood up, holding out a scroll. "They left a message for you, said it's of utmost importance. I've been resisting the urge to sneak a peak. Here."
You held the scroll in your hands, noting how it didn't seem very long. When you looked up to your father, he had already gone, possibly for the soup. Or only to give you the privacy to read it.
You thought about Stranir, and how he was very dear to you. You thought of Aegon, a King who never should have been. You were conflicted, to say the least. You didn't know if you should blame him or those who were foolish enough to put him on the Iron Throne.
Your questions about whether the king held any warm feelings toward you were answered in the paper. It was just one word in his sloppy handwriting, but it held its weight in gold. It meant the rumors were true, and that the war was unavoidable. It meant so many things, all of them good.
It was a warning, a plea, and goodbye all at once.
Run.
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aashi-heartfilia · 5 months ago
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Why do we need a Ochako and Hawks conversation before the manga ends
I've been waiting for their conversation for centuries! Like these two definitely need to talk.
Ochako managed to do something that Hawks couldn't do. Toga and Twice both were really nice people and it's just their quirks led them to despair and they both realised this.
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Hawks didn't wanna kill Jin Bubaigawara but he did because in his way, he was trying to be a hero, so he brutally killed his own friend but then what kind of hero does that? In MHA, there's a very thin line between heroes and villains and that has been pointed out several times.
Even with Ochako and Toga. Remember when Toga told Ochako how she used Ochako's quirk to kill a bunch of people during their 2nd battle? Ochako was horrified. The same quirk that Ochako uses to make everyone's problems weightless quite literally was used to kill people.
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Ochako and Toga are very similar. They're both very cute and shy, they love to tie their hair up in buns, and even love the same boy which is why when Ochako wasn't able to empathize with Toga, she was hurt because she thought at least chako would understand...
Horikoshi loves to draw parallels between certain characters and their storylines and one such beautiful parallel is this...when later on Ochako notices Toga's tears in the final battle.
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"She loved seeing people happy. So of course she zeroed in on her tears"
Beautiful narration, amazing storytelling
It is a way for us as readers to tell that Ochako has now grown, as she is now seeing Toga as a person, not as a villain, just as a person who was sad and crying.
Like it's outright stated for us in the manga, so I don't understand people who think Ochako never got any character development because this is exactly where she differs from Hawks ideology.
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Hawks was able to sacrifice Twice for the greater good, even if he himself regretted it later. The Public Safety Hero commission must have made him do other terrible things as well and he might have killed some more villains in secret just like Nagant.
We can cut him some slack though cause he was just following the orders, but then so did Ochako. Tsu even points it out, that killing Toga would have been much easier just like Hawks suggested, but her friend Ochako took a harder route and is trying to confront her.
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Plus, Hawks had a chance to correct his mistake and yet when Twice (actually Toga) appeared in the battlefield again, his first instinct was to kill him.
MHA is not a story about killing people for greater good. We've seen in the latest chapter how both Dabi and Endeavour survived the war and while Dabi would live for only some time, he would have some moments of peace with his father. They can at least try to heal what was broken.
Killing twice was definitely not a good idea cause his will continued within Toga. She took her revenge and killed so many heroes on the same battlefield. As long as their despair and sadness is not confronted, the problem is not yet solved. We've seen it with Toga and Shigaraki.
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Which is why I said that Ochako passed where Hawks failed.
Both Toga and Twice died, but at least Toga died smiling, happily to save someone she loved. Twice died to save his comrades while Toga sacrificed herself to save Ochako, an act of true love by the so-called villains.
And this needs to be addressed.
Plus there has been too much of a teaser about it...
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Hawks witnessed the impact of Ochako's speech in ch 325. And she was the last thing that came to his mind before passing out...
Plus even their covers are a big parallel!
So with all that being said, if Ochako and Hawks didn't have a conversation before this manga ends, it would really be such a missed opportunity and quite a shame.
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~Sunshine
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magussanctorium-if · 6 months ago
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The Magus Sanctorium. Pentagiim's elite and esteemed school for mages across the continent. Hard to get into with an advanced curriculum and hands-on experience, many would kill to be accepted into the fray. But behind shiny spells and gilded bookcases belies a lit powder keg of pent up tensions and small slights that threaten the whole continent with all out war. A single slip up will light the fuse, so be careful. And don't forget your 7 page essay is due next week!
The Magus Sanctorium is a highly ambitious WIP and new interactive CYOA pair of games. The focus is heavily on romance, relationships, and fantasy adventure with high-replayability value. It is inspired by JRPGs, romance visual novels, any media with a magical boarding school, and Dungeons and Dragons, among others. It will lean more towards a story-based focus, but will have stat-based mechanics.
You play as a new transfer student, having transferred to The Magus Sanctorium after moving continents. Being homeschooled to suddenly thrust into an elite boarding school is a culture shock. As you go about going to classes and making friends, your schooling is abruptly upheaved as war breaks out across the continent. Which house you decided to join determines how the war will affect you and how you can help or hinder your former classmates or lovers.
Note: Because this is still a WIP, some names of characters or places may change during development.
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Adventure
Rating: 18+
Tracked Tag: #the magus sanctorium
Status: In Development (Outlining)
Demo || Character Introductions || House Introductions || FAQ || Ask Guidelines || Tag Navigation || World Lore || Current Anonymous Survey Form || Dev's Main Blog ||
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Create and customize your character. Select their gender, pronouns, appearance, their proficiencies and deficits, and personality among others.
Choose between 5 different houses each with their own cast of characters. Each student is divided into houses by which nation they come from, not by arbitrary traits.
Decide how to build your stats by choosing which classes to attend and which skills to train in. Influence your house members to train or attend certain classes to boost group skills.
Romance any of the 15 romance options (5 male, 5 female, 5 nonbinary), or select any of the 10 poly routes instead. Choose for a softer romance by picking one of your house members or go for an angsty romance by romancing someone outside of your house.
Build your relationships with your classmates before you're turned against each other and get to know what makes them tick. It pays to have friends across house lines.
Explore and learn about a high fantasy world steeped in magic and years and years of conflict. Perhaps it takes an outsider's perspective to bring about peace...
Participate in a war and potentially reveal long kept secrets that could change the fate of Pentagiim.
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Thalen Oakdane (they/them) - The proud and rigid Leader of the Fern Bears, the house from the Rasuaides Empire. They are strict with their rules.
Sumiel Tidewood (she/her) - The graceful and shy Leader of the Cobalt Snakes, the house from the Espersland Republic. She just wants the best for everyone.
Casithar Seedcloud (he/him) - The young but earnest Leader of the Maroon Rams, the house from the Iseadesh Alliance. He's trying his best.
Ariela Wyvernhair (she/her) - The prickly but well-meaning Leader of the Violet Foxes, the house from the Lupuv Caelait Territory. A rose wrapped in thorns.
Zanis Ironforce (he/him) - The charismatic and cunning Leader of the Sun Eagles, the house from the Quailax Kingdom. He is always 5 steps ahead.
Drelyth Hollymoon (she/her) - The vice-leader of the Fern Bears. She is kind and confident, always pushing herself to aim higher and higher.
Afthel Scalesun (they/them) - A member of the Cobalt Snakes. Quiet and introverted, they prefer the comfort of their books than that of their house members.
Anwyn Greenspear (he/him) - A member of the Maroon Rams. He is a known flirt and playboy, often earning him the ire of his house members.
Lamatri Glowillow (they/them) - The enigmatic and mysterious vice-leader of the Violet Foxes. You barely see them, but they seem to know everything about you.
Traki Goldreaver (they/them) - A member of the Sun Eagles. It's also their first year enrolling. Enthusiastic and energetic, but a work-in-progress.
Azaha Elmbasher (he/him) - A member of the Fern Bears. An idealistic and daydreamer artist who enjoys making life hard for his house leader.
Rumik Gullcaller (he/him) - A member of the Cobalt Snakes. Sumiel's childhood friend, he is protective and intimidating often scaring away most classmates.
Daeri Silkdream (she/her) - A member of the Maroon Rams. A bit ditzy and arrogant, her exaggerated personality belies her true strength.
Saevain Sageblossom (she/her) - A member of the Violet Foxes. Stuck-up and arrogant, she has a family legacy to fulfill as a Prime Magus. But is that what she wants?
Cyian Stonepelt (they/them) - The vice-leader of the Sun Eagles. Gloomy and apathetic, they'd much rather be doing anything else but this.
Poly Romance Options: Thalen & Azaha, Sumiel & Rumik, Casithar & Daeri, Ariela & Saevain, Zanis & Cyian, Drelyth & Saevain, Afthel & Traki, Daeri & Afthel, Ariela & Casithar, Traki & Drelyth
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odinsblog · 1 year ago
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Dear President Biden,
We come together as artists and advocates, but most importantly as human beings witnessing the devastating loss of lives and unfolding horrors in Israel and Palestine.
We ask that, as President of the United States, you call for an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Gaza and Israel before another life is lost. More than 5,000 people have been killed in the last week and a half – a number any person of conscience knows is catastrophic. We believe all life is sacred, no matter faith or ethnicity and we condemn the killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians.
We urge your administration, and all world leaders, to honor all of the lives in the Holy Land and call for and facilitate a ceasefire without delay – an end to the bombing of Gaza, and the safe release of hostages. Half of Gaza’s two million residents are children, and more than two thirds are refugees and their descendants being forced to flee their homes. Humanitarian aid must be allowed to reach them.
We believe that the United States can play a vital diplomatic role in ending the suffering and we are adding our voices to those from the US Congress, UNICEF, Doctors without Borders, The International Committee of The Red Cross, and so many others. Saving lives is a moral imperative. To echo UNICEF, “Compassion — and international law — must prevail.”
As of this writing more than 6,000 bombs have been dropped on Gaza in the last 12 days — resulting in one child being killed every 15 minutes.
“Children and families in Gaza have practically run out of food, water, electricity, medicine and safe access to hospitals, following days of air strikes and cuts to all supply routes. Gaza’s sole power plant ran out of fuel Wednesday afternoon, shutting down electricity, water and wastewater treatment. Most residents can no longer get drinking water from service providers or household water through pipelines…. The humanitarian situation has reached lethal lows, and yet all reports point to further attacks. Compassion — and international law — must prevail.” – UNICEF spokesperson, James Elder
Beyond our pain and mourning for all of the people there and their loved ones around the world we are motivated by an unbending will to stand for our common humanity. We stand for freedom, justice, dignity and peace for all people – and a deep desire to stop more bloodshed.
We refuse to tell future generations the story of our silence, that we stood by and did nothing. As Emergency Relief Chief Martin Griffiths told UN News, “History is watching.”
Alia Shawkat
Alyssa Milano
Amanda Seales
Amber Tamblyn
America Ferrera
Andrew Garfield
Anoushka Shankar
Aria Mia Loberti
Ayo Edebiri
Bassam Tariq
Bassem Youssef
Cate Blanchett
Channing Tatum
Cherien Dabis
Darius Marder
David Cross
Dominique Fishback
Dominique Thorne
Elvira Lind
Farah Bsaiso
Fatima Farheen Mirza
Hasan Minhaj
Hend Sabry
Ilana Glazer
Indya Moore
James Schamus
Jeremy Strong
Jessica Chastain
Joaquin Phoenix
Jon Stewart
Kristen Stewart
Macklemore
Mahershala Ali
Margaret Cho
Mark Ruffalo
May Calamawy
Michael Malarkey
Michael Stipe
Michelle Wolf
Mo Amer
Oscar Isaac
Quinta Brunson
Ramy Youssef
Riz Ahmed
Rooney Mara
Rosario Dawson
Ryan Coogler
Sandra Oh
Sebastian Silva
Shailene Woodley
Shaka King
Susan Sarandon
Vic Mensa
Wallace Shawn
Wanda Sykes
👉🏿 https://variety.com/2023/biz/news/hollywood-demands-gaza-israel-ceasefire-joaquin-phoenix-cate-blanchett-1235763646/
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aelenavelaryon · 7 months ago
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THE GREENS NIGHTMARE
IN WHICH AERA TARGARYEN IN THE KARMA OF TEAM GREEN
Daemon Targaryen x Aera Targaryen
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Aera Targaryen was a woman to fear. She was Visenya and Maegor come again. When the war between Rhaenyra and Aegon began, the realm divided into two. The Blacks for Rhaenyra and the Greens for Aegon. Aera Targaryen was a distant relative yet she had been close to Rhaenyra growing up. Once, long ago Aera had been Daemon'a love and once the love of his life. Some would even argue that she was still the love of his life, even when the two were still married.
Aera Targaryen gave Daemon Targaryen four children in their first few years of marriage. Maegor, Baelon, Aemon, and Rhaegar Targaryen. Otto Hightower deemed them bastards because Aera was daughter of Saera Targaryen and Maegor Targaryen, son of Maegor and Rhaena Targaryen. Aera didn't want to return to King's Landing where she was not welcomed. Viserys always allowed Otto to fill his head with lies about her and what she was capable of. Daemon, whilst being married to Rhaenyra, which was a favor that Area had granted her.  Daemon did not see her as more than another family member. Daemon and Aera still had their own late night adventures when she would come visit, seeing as she spent most of her time in Pentos with her mother's family. 
But, from time to time she visited Rhaenyra and Daemon in Dragonstone. Daemon's sons were men grown. Some in their twenties. Not married but with bastard children of their own. Daemon and Aera shared three other children together who were born over the years. He had taken not only Aera as his wife but Rhaenyra too. Area who he had been married to since she was ten and five and he twenty and five. Daemon Targaryen loved his wife, despite what many believed. Aera much to anyone's dismay was a free spirit, bringing not only men into her bed but women too. Alexander Rivers was a bastard son she had with Harwin Strong alongside him, his twin, Alys Rivers who many believed was the daughter of Lyonel but everyone at court knew who were the parents. Alys Rivers would be a important peace for Rhaenyra during the dance.
The Hightowers thought them gone, thinking they would never step a foot in Westeros. But, as soon as Rhaenyra sent a raven to inform her cousin of the news, Aera flew on dragon back to support her girl. The news of Lucerys' death reached her before she made it to Dragonstone, and soon after, the news of Aegon's celebration for his death reached her as well and that was truly what started the fire. 
Instead of keeping route to Dragonstone like she promised, Aera flew to Old Town and set the Hightower's home ablaze for Lucerys's death and celebration of his death. She then, rode to King's Landing where the usurper thought he was coming to bend the knee. Otto nor his spies knew she knew, until from the skies she dropped the heads of every Hightower she killed, Gwayne Hightower being one of the dead. It was said that Alicent Hightower cried, screams were heard all over the Keep as the doweger queen wept over her dead family. They knew then that Aera Targaryen was the blood of the dragon. She was coming for Rhaenyra*s stolen throne. 
'she loves Rhaenyra. Did you truly think she was coming to bend the knew?' Alicent asked Aegon. Otto sat in silence saying nothing. Daeron Targaryen had return to King's Landing the same day he received the letter of his father's death. Daeron was smarter than anyone gave him credit for. He knew, Aera was the real threat, not Rhaenyra, not Daemon but Aera Targaryen was a wild dragon. He knew she was not scared to be known as a kinslayer, specially when it came to him and his siblings. But, he didn't know how far she was willing to go. 
Her arrival at Dragonstone was expected, her children had arrived the day before expecting to see their mother back with their father.  Aera Targaryen arrived and everyone gathered out to greet her. She was covered in blood, they thought she had been attack or something of that mattered. "Mother!" her eldest son ran to her. "I am fine" she told. "I did something bad" she began. Rhaenyra cared very little for what she had to say at that moment.  They retuned back inside the castle, everyone who sided with Rhaenyra was there, well, most of them. 
"I burned those Hightower's to the ground" she said loud enough for everyone to hear. The room went quiet right after that. The war had just begun. Which side will prevail?
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babsisbakery · 7 months ago
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Should have listened
Leila Ouahabi x fem!reader
For @sleekswosobession, my mate, happy birthday soldier
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A day off for your professional athlete girlfriend. You'd expected her to lay in bed with you and get some extra cuddles from you. Usually she's up far too early for your liking, which results in less physical contact in the morning. She's a morning person, you not exactly. You could wake up and start your day at an ungodly hour but do you want to? Mmmm not really. There’s just something about laying in your fresh sheets at sunrise looking through your massive window. Enjoying the calmness, listening to birds chatter and soft music playing in the background, yeah Leila loves her Spanish music while she's in the shower. Honestly you would join her but that requires getting out of bed. It's too peaceful to destroy the silent moment to yourself. Besides, she showers twice a day, such a maniac. At least she moisturises her skin after every shower. Meaning: her skin is suuuper soft and you can't get enough of it. You don't have to join her in every shower, only every second. But let's not get into these hot and steamy sessions. 
Your extraordinary girlfriend had a plan for the day. Her mind was made up days ago. At first you tried to persuade her to be lazy with you but she's an athlete. There's almost nothing more thrilling than exercising for her. She loves it and it shows. Her abs: WOW.  AND her biceps, chefs kiss. 
Her idea warmed up to you as the days proceeded, you were looking forward to it. She was mindful and chose an intermediate path. Not too exhausting but it's not a walk in the park either. You were both going hiking, yay. To be fair the route looked manageable and you were certain you'd smash this. Leila repeatedly told you, you'd love it. She wouldn't budge from this hike, whatever you said. But you were stubborn thus you kept your joy about the hike a bit more to yourself. She couldn't be right every single time, someone had to tame her ego. Still a smirk was evident on her face as you prepared snacks for your trip. The defender knew you like the back of her hand, of course she sensed your facade. Repeated pokes to your side made you lose your firm demeanour, resulting in a fit of giggles. Afterwards your smile couldn't be wiped off your face. “ You're cute like this mi amor” and without further ado she booped your nose. Your cheeks flushed, not only from her untrue words but the small affectionate gesture. “Am not.” you whispered. It was loud enough for your girlfriend to hear “Si amor you are, the red on your cheeks suits you perfectly. Makes you look, how do you say it again, red as a tomato hehe.” To say the least, you got redder.
The route was The Trinnacle loop from Yeoman Hey Reservoir, a good two hour hike but you'd stop somewhere to “picnic”. You would have killed her if she chose the six hour route, your knee wasn't fully recovered yet. She knew your hesitance all too well, she opted for the shorter one instead. As an athlete she understood your concern, you were also invested in sports but you didn't want to go pro. Not that your body allowed you anygays, the monthly cramps and many injuries made you rethink your future. 
As your shared apartment was closer to the training grounds than the route. IT'S ON THE OTHER SIDE OF MANCHESTER. For fucks sake, the ride to the parking would be loooong, traffic was hell. At least you're always prepared. An extra playlist was about to be played in the car. What is a good car ride without music?? The defender didn't bat an eye at the unfamiliar songs. Just vibed with you to them. At red lights she made use of spare seconds to plant a kiss on your face. Sometimes it was arduous as you were pulling out your best dance moves but she somehow managed.
Both of you arrived after a fun ride. Grabbing the two backpacks, filled with food and drinks, you began your short journey. Coming across beautiful flowers. Subsequently stopping to take pictures of your girlfriend, she looked awe-inspiring in the sunlight. The flowers in the background just accentuated her natural beauty magnificently. You were wonderstruck. Falling head over heads for her all over again. You didn't know it was possible but she never ceases to amaze you. Since you were preoccupied zooming into the photos, you weren't aware of the pictures Leila was making of you. She found your stance adorable. Too focused on your phone, with a look on your face she consistently wanted to spot. It was the most endearing thing she has ever seen. She could have melted right there and then. You still got shy around her, something she took pride in. But this meant not seeing this face regularly as you were hiding behind your blanket, cushions, etc you name it. Therefore, this will be her new lock screen or background when you both get home.
In the meantime she chose to give you a little scare. As you were still lost in your own world, scrolling through every picture, Leila sneakily positioned herself behind you. She locked her arms around your waist. This sudden move startled the hell out of you, which Leila found hilarious. The mini heart attack you had subsided as fast as it appeared. Her action earned her a smack, not a delightful one.
“Leila! You'll be the death of me, I swear.'' This spurred her laughing fit further on. Her laugh is as contagious as Corona when no vaccine was found. Hence both of you were a laughing mess. As you both calmed down your girlfriend said “You should have seen your face, priceless.” The faces you make were truly gold, meme material so you knew it was accurate. You shook your head, smiling knowingly. 
The defender grabbed your hand, interlocking them. Never being able to be far apart from you for an extended period of time. You were each other's drugs. A life elixir. Your job was flexible, you could do home office whenever you wished. Thus being able to travel to Leila’s camps. Both the national as well as her club teammates viewed you as one of their own. Leila and you came as a package deal and they knew it.
During the hike you both rambled about anything and everything. Finally reaching several colossal rocks you decided to eat your brunch here. You were starving. (I didn't know that I was starving till i tasted you) During the setup both of you were putting effort in, Leila chimed in “Bebe, what do you think, should i climb these rocks?” This raised one of your eyebrows. “Love you could hurt yourself, besides why do you want to climb one of these?” “Well for fun. I won't hurt myself, I’m Leila Ouahabi this is easy peasy.” she answered. “I won't stop you, be warned if you hurt yourself, remember I told you so. Our future kids need to have a second mother.” With a large grin she closed the distance to one rock “Aw how cute, you worry about me. And our kids do need a second mother, a fun one.” Those words made you roll your eyes.
Your girlfriend, the adventurer as usual, decided, against your advice, to climb up one of those gigantic rocks. While positioning her arms and legs in the right spots, she said “Carino what could possibly happen, me falling off this thing? Pfff. I'm way too talented for that.” You didn't react to her words. When she was up there, she naturally wanted to show off. Such a big ego. “Look I can stand on one leg and noooothing happens.” she says in her attractive Spanish accent, which melts your brain every time words leave her mouth.  You simply continued to munch on your delicious sandwich. Acting unphased by this spectacle but you had to admit it was pretty impressive and hot.“Great, love. I see you can do anything.”, you say sarcastically. To prove her point even further she takes her phone out of the pocket. “Smiiile into the camera mi amor. Mirar al pajarito. Decid patata!” and boom a memory was created. You’ve taken too many selfies with your girl not to know the potato phrase.
After her demonstration, as if she was a little kid, you were sure she was set. She was yet again right. While she made her way back down she miscalculated. She slipped as it had rained the day before. Typical weather. She crashed in slow motion. Her head hitting the ground, not a pretty sound. You saw her fall to the ground. It was as if time stood still. Complete shock coursed through you. Panic mode was activated. Your heart pumped blood at high speed, adrenalin sparkling from left to right. You ran to her, she was a few metres away but seeing her fall made you extremely concerned. This is not something you wanted to be right about. As you reached her, you fell to your knees. “Leila, Leila are you okay? Leila can you hear me?” a groan was her response. One of her hands went to touch the back of her head. As she retrieved it, you saw red. Literally, you saw blood. Then she opened her eyes. A mix of confusion and fear was set in them.
The first words out of her mouth were “Who are you?” You wouldn't believe your ears, rather appalled you withdrew your hands from her. One had been on her cheek, desperately trying to check for any injuries while holding her head still. The other one was on her leg for stability. Her words cut so incredibly deep, you didn't know what to utter. The emotions you felt in this moment were indescribable. You’ve never been so lost. Leila’s next words didn't even register with you. Staring at the horizon was all you could muster without bursting into tears. She had to take your hand back into hers for you to touch some gras again (it's a Brett Cooper reference).
You were met with a smile when you turned to face her. “Sorry I had to. This is like one of those movie scen-” she couldn't continue. Your kiss silenced her. Relieve washed over you. Simply the thought of what could have been made you cry. Your tears transferred to Leila’s face. She had to disconnect from the passionate kiss, even if she really didn't want to end it. “Oh amor, I'm sorry. I didn't mea-” again you silenced her but not with a kiss. A smack to the chest. “You scared me. Don't do this ever again.” “No more climbing rocks, got it amor.” You hugged her tightly, as if the moment was too good to be true. “Ow bebe you are crushing me.” and with these words it hit you. You scrambled to your feet. Rushing off to your backpack. The defender was confused, why were you running off. You returned with a bandage and carefully wrapped it around her head. She was bleeding and it needed to stop. “My love don't move your head, I’m attending to your wound.” She stood still like a statue. “You're lucky you don't need stitches.” a hum from Leila confirmed that she wasn't actually paying attention. She was busy admiring, as she would say, your face. The concentrated look on your face mixed with your bossy attitude made her feel things, certain things. Now was definitely NOT the moment for spicy activities. Luckily her injury wasn't too concerning, her concussion test turned out great. Nothing to worry about. 
Both of you sat on the picnic blanket, snacking on your food. Eventually you put away all of your belongings and continued. It was uneventful and Leila even behaved for the rest of the hike, not wanting to stress you out more. This didn't stop her from making stupid jokes, which made you laugh nonetheless. It was a memorable evening to say the least.
After arriving at your apartment and checking Leila’s wound, you flopped onto the bed. “Hey, what do you wanna eat amor, take away or should i cook something?” No answer. Looking your way she saw you already fast asleep. The day was exhausting as it was. Time for some well deserved rest.
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