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sserpente · 2 months ago

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Paid Pleasure (Kinktober #4)

Excerpt: Sylus huffed. His crimson eyes locked with yours for a moment before darting back to Yuze. “Make me a better offer.”

“Forty percent. You slap your name on the paperwork and I have your back if you need me. You’ll have free access to all of my facilities and…” – he pointed at you – “…all of my girls. In return, I have your financial support to keep this baby running. Perhaps…you’d like to sample what this partnership could offer you?”

There was more to this. More to him offering you to Sylus for free now. As disgusted as you were, that was beside the point. You were very well aware that the infamous leader of Onychinus owned armouries all over the world. Supporting this brothel was only scratching at the very tip of the iceberg.

Forcing yourself to a flirty smile, you leaned in to whisper in his ear. “What do you say, Mr. Sylus? Would you like to join me upstairs?”

A/N: Oh, I love these pleasure slave scenarios so much… *sigh* I’m going to hell, who’s with me?

Words: 4160 Warnings: smut, prostitute!reader, super slight dub-con

The N109 zone was one of the most dangerous places on Earth. You knew that better than anyone. To live simply meant to survive—only a few people had the luxury of enjoying their time and spending their money on useless things like designer watches or caviar, and you were most certainly not one of them.

When Yuze, the owner of the ‘humble’ establishment you now worked at found you, you’d had two options. Either go with him and submit to his greed and cruelty or die at the hands of vicious Wanderers eager to rip your throat out.

Back then, the choice was easy. Today, however,…today, you were second-guessing yourself. Yuze had provided you with a bedroom with an ensuite bathroom and yet, you had never felt dirtier than you did now. The dancing was bearable enough. Losing yourself in the waves of the music, your worries and sorrows ebbing away as you drifted off and simply moved, was easy enough.

But almost no night ended without you leading one of Yuze’s customers upstairs after they shoved a bundle of credits into his hands only to spread your legs for them in your bed.

The profession of a prostitute was a respectable one—but only if it was done voluntarily. You on the other hand wanted to scream and run and vomit and rip your own hair out every evening the brothel opened and the nightmare began anew.

Yuze had no mercy. In fact, he was crude and abusive. He did not hesitate to use physical punishment if the nightly quota wasn’t met, and did not shy away from withholding meals from you, especially not when the next lucrative deal was just around the corner.

Like tonight.

You had heard of him, of course. Sylus, leader of Onychinus and the most dangerous man known across Linkon City. He would visit tonight to discuss a potential partnership with Yuze. You didn’t know the details and you didn’t need to.

Your job was to make Sylus receptive and docile. To charm him and eventually, of course, to pull some extra credits out of his pocket for a night with you.

To say you’re nervous would have been an understatement. You’d never seen Sylus in action but if rumours were to be believed, his Evol was one of a kind. The man was invincible and invulnerable. You were scared. Even more so because if you failed, you did not want to face the consequences Yuze had in store for you.

The evening started innocently enough. You danced, ignored the lustful looks of your potential clients for the night, and prayed that your shift would be over fast.

Sylus arrived at midnight. He was accompanied by two men in masks, and he strutted in as if he owned the place. He soon would, partially, if the deal went well. You swallowed thickly, keeping an eye on Yuze as he ushered him to the VIP area and had a drink prepared for him, silently waiting for your cue as you kept on dancing around the pole.

The subtle movement of Yuze’s hand would have been unnoticeable to anyone else. You picked up on it quickly and hurried over to them both. At this time of the night, you had already lost your top. Your breasts were on full display as you offered Sylus a coy smile, ignoring the pounding of your heart as you straddled his lap and began to dance.

The leader of Onychinus did not say a word, though there appeared to be some sort of amusement washing over his chiselled face. God, he was handsome. Younger than you’d imagined him, mysterious, brooding, and…dangerous. It would be easier to try and seduce him compared to those disgusting old men who didn’t know that you were supposed to wash your ass crack under the shower.

“As I was saying, Mr. Sylus… sixty percent is…hefty. You must understand that in doing so you would legally own my establishment.”

He chuckled. You kept on dancing, attempting your best to distract him and draw his attention to you. Sylus, however, seemed almost completely unbothered by your antics. You bit your lower lip and rocked your hips, grinding against him.

“That is the plan, Yuze. You would still run it, of course. But on paper, this place will belong to me. I don’t accept deals where I don’t come out on the winning side. Something you should have known.”

“I cannot do that!”

“You were the one who approached me about a partnership. This is my offer. If you won’t accept my terms, I see no reason for us to continue this conversation.”

His voice was calm and smooth, like silk. Sylus took a sip of his whiskey and then placed the glass on the window sill behind him. Shit. This wasn’t going according to plan, was it? Sylus was supposed to accept Yuze’s deal, not dismiss him and leave early. Shit, shit, shit.

A mere glance from the corner of your eye was enough to see that your boss was fuming. His jaw was clenched and you could practically feel that he was ready to blame you for how this evening was about to end.

You had to up your game fast if you wanted to avoid bruises tonight.

Boldly, you snatched Sylus’ hand as he moved it back and brought it to your left breast, pressing his palm against your mount. You were still dancing, doing your best to mesmerise him enough for him to be interested in sharing the bed with you.

Sylus huffed. His crimson eyes locked with yours for a moment before darting back to Yuze. “Make me a better offer.”

Phew.

Forcing yourself to a flirty smile, you leaned in to whisper in his ear. “What do you say, Mr. Sylus? Would you like to join me upstairs?”

He smiled. It was a cold and calculated smile—one that indicated that he saw right through your strategy. “I’m not the type to pay for pleasure.”

“Consider it a gift, a sign of good faith into this partnership. Hmm, Mr. Sylus?” Yuze said, tilting his head.

“You seem tense…being the head of Onychinus must be so exhausting… I give very good massages,” you mumbled against his cheek. “And I make sure to pamper…every…single…body part…” With every word, your free hand travelled lower and lower and lower until…

Sylus snatched your wrist before you could cup him. “I’d rather have a Wanderer trample on my back, sweetie.”

Your lips parted. Ouch. Why…why did that hurt? He was just another guy. They all thought with their dicks one way or another. You should be relieved he didn’t want you. Instead…his rejection stung. It was a strange emotion even stronger than the fear of what would happen to you as soon as Sylus walked out that door.

“D-Don’t be like that. I could be yours. You can do to me whatever you like,” you choked out. Saying these things...every fibre of your being was resisting the words. It wasn’t the first time you resorted to this and it certainly also wasn’t the first time you acted on it. You could only hope that Sylus was not an evil sadist who would leave you in bed half-dead after he was done with you.

But Sylus…frowned. He frowned as if he was displeased with what you’d just said. With a start, he grabbed your chin, forcing you to look at him. His voice was so quiet only you could hear him. “Is he forcing you to say things like that, sweetie?”

“W-What?” Your eyes widened. Fuck. You were so dead. “N-no! Of course not. This is my job,” you lied, “I just want to make you feel good. Will you let me?”

You didn’t dare look at Yuze. Instead, you kept your eyes locked on Sylus, hoping that he would let you convince him. He stared at you for a long moment. Long enough for you to grow dizzy. It was almost like…his right eye began to…glow and draw you in and…

Your lips parted. You have to succeed, you heard your own voice whisper in your head. You have to seduce him. You need to survive. You have to! You can’t go without food again. Yuze will punish you if you don’t charm him. You have to make Sylus like you, he has to accept the deal…it will be your fault if he doesn’t. Seduce him…seduce him…seduce him!

Sylus blinked and you snapped yourself out of it, wondering what the hell had just happened. You were breathing heavily and had stopped dancing.

“Very well. Then how about you show me upstairs…kitten?”

Phew. You nodded—perhaps a bit too enthusiastically than intended—and climbed off of him to lead the way. You made a point to sway your hips as you walked in front of him. Anything to rile him up. It was, after all, in your best interest to do so.

Sylus was the one who locked the door once you’d shown him to your bedroom and scanned his surroundings as if to check for any imminent dangers. That was probably normal for him. In the meantime, you hooked your index finger under the hem of your knickers to pull them off. No time to waste. Let’s get this over with. He looks good, remember? It won’t be as bad as it was with the others.

“Don’t. Keep them on. And get dressed. It’s cold in here,” he said all of a sudden.

“Oh. Hmm, yeah… Yuze doesn’t like wasting too much money on heating. Sorry about that. I’ll make sure you get warm in no time. Don’t worry about me, I’m used to it.” Although you were curious as to why he even cared…

Sylus’ eyebrows furrowed—once again as if he was displeased by your answer. He moved over to the lush armchair next to your wardrobe, sat down and manspread as if he owned the place. Knowing him, he probably soon would.

You bit your lower lip as you approached him, heat flushing your veins while you pictured him as your new boss. You wouldn’t mind giving him freebies every now and then… God, what was wrong with you?

Sylus snatched your wrists before you could place your palms on his chest as you straddled him yet again. “Is he treating you well? You and the other girls?”

“W-what?”

“Yuze. How much does he pay you for your…services?”

“Uh…a-are…are you interrogating me? I…I don’t think I should be talking about these things, I don’t want to get in trouble.”

Sylus’ expression remained unreadable. His grip around your wrists tightened. “How much?”

Fuck. “T-this room. Warm meals,” you choked out.

“He’s not paying you?”

You shook your head. “He’s paying none of the girls. Yuze took me in when I was on the brink of death. A Wanderer was about to tear my head off…that was about three years ago.”

His nostrils flared. “He wanted you to make me docile, didn’t he? To seduce me so I will agree to his pathetic whims?”

“I…I didn’t have a say in the matter,” you admitted. “But…yes. That was his plan. I’m…I’m sorry.”

Sylus chuckled. “It almost worked. Two of my people, Luke and Kieran, are raiding the place as we speak.” As if on cue, commotion grew louder downstairs. People were screaming and shouting, gunshots were fired. You gasped for air.

“What…what is happening?”

“Don’t worry. The girls will be safe. I had little reason to agree to a deal with Yuze. Hardly anyone is to be trusted in the N109 zone but there was something slimy about him in particular. You changed my mind about this place, kitten. You are all the proof that I needed to take him down. Thank you.”

“But…but I thought you…”

“What?” He smirked. “That I am a merciless and evil criminal who couldn’t care less about what happens to Yuze’s ‘employees’ once I have my cut? You wound me, sweetie.”

“I…I didn’t know. Everyone’s afraid of you here. You’re…you’re a legend.”

His smirk grew a little wider. “Yeah. I am quite the legend, aren’t I?” he teased.

You swallowed thickly.

“Now put on some clothes and don’t come downstairs until I say so. This shouldn’t take long.”

Sylus never asked to sleep with you before he left. You could only imagine the horrors he’d inflicted on Yuze and his friends and allies. Dead bodies, blood…and some of his men had simply…disappeared.

Half an hour had felt like half an eternity before you were allowed back downstairs, clad in one of the few pullovers you owned. Either Luke or Kieran—you couldn’t keep them apart—shoved a hot mug of cocoa into your hands and led you to the other girls sitting in the corner, all of them as shaken and terrified as you.

Next thing you knew, Sylus appeared from behind the counter of the bar wiping his hands clean with a kitchen towel, staining it red. Fuck…

“Things are going to change around here. This establishment is now mine. I will have someone new installed as manager. Anyone who doesn’t wish to continue working as a prostitute is free to leave or will be offered either a different position along with a salary bonus equal to the years you have worked here.”

Your eyes widened. Excitement rippled through the small crowd, along with incredulous whispers. But…what did that mean for you? With all the money Sylus offered, you could start a new life somewhere else. You could…leave the N109 zone. But then what?

One by one, the girls got up and stepped forward. Most of them wanted to leave. Two asked to work here as waiters instead, one wanted to work in the kitchen and learn how to bake the desserts served in the brothel.

Eventually, there was no one left but you. Sylus’ crimson eyes locked with yours. “What about you, kitten?”

You took a deep breath. “I…I’m going to stay. I have nowhere else to go. Plus, I don’t have any talents to be working as anything else anyway.” You hated talking about yourself like that. But all those years living under Yuze’s roof had ruined your confidence. It was a fact you didn’t have any qualifications. Even waiters were doing incredible work and the other two girls had gained experience with that before they came here. You’d probably drop all your drinks on the first night and end up with an expensive cleaning bill for a customer’s shirt.

“Are you sure, kitten? What if I told you that I know that that’s not what you truly desire?” He paused. “How about you come and work for me instead?”

He stepped closer, leaned down, and ruffled your hair a bit. You blinked.

“F-For you? I…of course. I’d…rather have just one client instead of—”

“No. That is not what I meant,” he interrupted. “You say there is nothing else you know how to do but I think that’s not true. We’ll just have to find your talents, sweetie. I will hire you as a maid. You can help clean around the house and be of assistance when I need you. How does that sound?”

You should be relieved. Happy. Grateful. And you were, in a way. So why was the first thought coursing through your mind… Am I really that undesirable that he doesn’t want to sleep with me?

“I…y-yes.” You nodded. “Thank you.”

A new start. A new life. With…with the leader of Onychinus himself. God, that all sounded like a dream. Not like a nightmare…but a dream. If Sylus was truly as kind as he was today…then there was nothing to be worried about…right?

Sylus’ car was impressive. Buttery leather seats, enough space to do a workout inside, and…it was so damn clean. The drive back to his home did not take long. Perhaps that was also because of how vehemently he ignored the speed limits.

His house was…massive. Scratch that, it was a mansion. No wonder he wanted help with cleaning it. You were Luke’s and Kieran’s responsibility for now, and let them lead you to your new room. Sylus had insisted you were equipped with a new wardrobe and promised to send someone to buy you piles of clothes as soon as possible.

Your new room was practically a suite. Vast, neatly decorated, expensive. You liked his taste. It was dark, mysterious. And yet…too much had happened for you to fall asleep. You tossed and turned in your new king-size bed underneath silken sheets until you couldn’t take it anymore and threw back the covers to find Sylus.

Luckily, Luke and Kieran were still awake too.

“C-Can you tell me where Sylus is?”

“In his office. Third door on the right,” Luke said.

“He doesn’t like being disturbed so be extra nice,” Kieran added.

You almost chuckled. “I will.”

Following their instructions, you soon found yourself knocking on his door.

“Come in.”

Sylus looked up from his desk when you entered, a hint of surprise washing over his chiselled face. “Is everything alright, kitten?”

“Yeah, I just…I can’t sleep. I’m sorry to disturb you.”

He put down his pen and stood, walking around his massive mahogany desk before leaning against the edge.

“Earlier tonight…something strange happened,” you began.

Sylus raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“When…when you were looking at me…it…it seemed like one of your eyes just started…to glow. And…and when it did I suddenly heard a voice. My voice. It was like it was whispering to me. Whispering...what I would have never dared say out loud. You…you heard it too, didn’t you? That’s why you said you knew that staying in that brothel wasn’t what I really wanted. How…how did you do that?”

“That, kitten, is complicated. It has something to do with the Aethercore I carry inside of me.”

“You…carry an Aethercore inside of you?”

Sylus nodded. “But that is a story for another time. Was there anything else? It’s getting late. You should go back to bed.”

“Aren’t you going to sleep?” you ask, nodding at his desk. The table lamp was switched on, illuminating the pile of paperwork waiting to be sorted through.

“I don’t sleep during the night.”

You frowned. “I see…”

Sylus tilted his head. It was almost irksome how well he could read you. He knew exactly that there was something else on your mind.

“I also… I just… I wanted to say thank you. I was terrified when I learned you’d be visiting and that I was supposed to…well.” You took a step closer to him. Both determination and arousal rippled through you when his scent hit you. Metal, some expensive perfume, and…something else you could not place.

You hooked your fingers into his belt. “L-Let me thank you properly.”

“Properly?” He crossed his arms before his chest, his red eyes darting down to your busy fingers.

“Yes. I mean, if…if you even find me attractive,” you murmured. “I…I want to make you feel good. I wasn’t lying about that when…you know. And this…this is the only thing I can offer in return. P-please…”

You tugged at the hem of his trousers. Sylus sighed, the corners of his mouth twitching.

“Are you sure you can handle that, kitten?”

Your pussy clenched at his nickname for you. Shit, what was going on with you? You’d never been attracted to any of your clients! But…but then again, Sylus wasn’t just a regular client anymore, now was he? He’d somehow saved your life. Saved it from the horror it had become all because you hadn’t wanted to be torn apart alive by a group of Wanderers. For the first time since you had unwillingly become a prostitute…you wanted to pleasure someone. You wanted to pleasure him. There was no denying that you were attracted to him and that felt…strange. You could hardly believe that after all the disgust you were still capable of such attraction. But here you were now.

“Is this truly what you want?”

You nodded. “Let me do this for you.”

He uncrossed his arms by way of letting you undo the buttons of his trousers. He sucked in a deep breath when you knelt down before him to pull them down along with his underwear.

Your jaw almost dropped. He was…bigger than the men you’d been with. Not crazy porn star big, of course…but his length was impressive even in its semi-hard state.

“What…on Earth…made you think I do not find you attractive, kitten?”

“I…I just…you seemed almost disgusted while I was dancing. So I figured…”

“You should not define your worth over whether a man thinks you’re beautiful or not. You…” He paused and hissed when you brushed your fingertips over his velvety shaft, making him twitch.

“For so long that was all I had. Making customers want me ensured that I had something to eat and a roof over my head…” you trailed off and leaned forward, closing your lips around his tip.

Sylus suppressed a moan. You took him deeper into your mouth, covering what you couldn’t with your throat with your hand. You sucked him gently, enjoying him like a popsicle. He tasted so clean and the saltiness of his precum against the roof of your mouth made you wetter than you would have expected. Shit…was that normal?

You felt Sylus grow harder and larger in your mouth. Bopping your head back and forth, you began to pleasure him as if your life depended on it. Fuck…never before had you enjoyed yourself while doing this. When he reached out and grabbed a fistful of your hair, you did not feel fear of being choked…you felt excitement.

You could tell he was holding back, trying to restrain himself. And somehow…somehow that was so fucking hot you became a little too eager. Taking him in even deeper, you gagged.

Sylus pulled you away immediately. “Easy, kitten. Breathe. Do you wanna keep going?”

A frantic nod was all you managed. A barely visible thread of saliva still connected your lips to his cock.

“Fuck…I…shouldn’t be…allowing this…” He was panting, his crimson eyes glued on you as you licked over his length, savouring the taste. You tapped the tip of his dick against your stretched-out tongue a few times before closing your mouth around him yet again, determined to finish him off and make him feel good as you’d promised.

“Kitten…” It was a warning. One to pull away now if you didn’t want to swallow. God, you weren’t even thinking about it. You wanted to taste him.

Locking your eyes with him, you pressed one of your hands against his thigh, with the other you cupped his balls to massage him to push him over the edge.

Sylus let out a carnal groan and threw his head back, his cock pulsing and twitching against the roof of your mouth. He rocked his hips forward to thrust, his warm seed shooting down your throat. You moaned, swallowing every last drop hungrily as if your life depended on it.

Once he was spent and breathing heavily, his steel grip in your hair loosening, you released him with a soft plopping noise and smiled up at him. You knew how to read men during those moments, even Sylus. His red eyes were full of desire and lust for more, and his cheeks were flushed.

“Did…you like that?” you asked—quite redundantly so.

Sylus huffed a laugh. “I am tempted to ask you to do this every night, kitten,” he purred.

“I don’t mind.”

“No. This isn’t why I had you brought here.”

“Then why? Do you really want me to be your maid?”

“I want you to figure out what you want. And…maybe I do have a soft spot for you. I don’t accept deals where I don’t come out on the winning side, remember?”

Your smile grew a little wider. “What if this is what I want?”

You got up from your knees, watching him tuck himself back in. Sylus studied you for a moment, contemplating. “Then I suggest we get you a pretty dress to wear and I take you out tomorrow night. Properly.”

Oh my god. “O-Okay.”

“Now go back to bed. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Good night…Sylus.”

“Good night…kitten.”

#sylus imagine #sylus smut #sylus x you #sylus x reader #sylus x mc #sylus #sylus lads imagine #sylus lads x you #sylus lads x reader #sylus lads x mc #sylus lads smut #love and deepspace #lads #love and deepspace imagine #lads imagine

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something-ricked-this-way-comesx · 10 months ago

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Dick Prime

Warnings: (18+ only minors DNI), NSFW, 5k word count, fem reader, self- insert OC character, daddy kink, p in v, rick prime with feelings, big dick Rick, degradation a bit, rough sex, praise kink, marking kink, choking, orgasms, cream-pie, fingering, nipple play, manhandling, calling him God, age gap I guess

Hi guys, this is an excerpt chapter from a Rick Sanchez fan fic I have been working on - thought I'd share a little taste on here and see if I could get any feedback. This chapter in particular follows my self-insert, Aurora as she is kidnapped by Rick Prime - enjoy :) If y'all would like me to post and share my other chapters pls reblog or comment 💜

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I woke up in a unfamiliar place٫ my head pounding viscously as my eyes struggled to adjust to the room around me. This place kind of looked like some sort of space motel room٫ but I couldn't remember a thing from the last 12 drunken hours of my life - I clearly needed to dial back my drinking or just not let Rick bet he can out drink me. I’ve never won that challenge. He really does have the hardest working liver in the universe, that's for damn sure. I wondered if he was feeling the same٫ but I doubted he was even remotely feeling hungover since he was used to getting black-out drunk on the regular.

I flicked my wrist out٫ wanting to portal into Rick’s shoddy bedroom where I could crawl into his sad excuse of a bed (which was really just a small sized cot) with him so that he could hold me tightly while we slept. That plan was quickly cut as I noticed my portal bracelet was no longer on my wrist and it was no where to be found anywhere near me - what the fuck was going on?

Then I realized where I was - the realization smacking me hard in the face like a fucking freight train. The elaborate sci-fi technical patterns covering every square inch of this room should have been a dead give away from the second I laid eyes on it٫ but I was obviously still too inebriated to use my cognitive functions correctly. I was in what I was 95% sure was Rick Prime’s lair - that fucking cocksucker. How had he managed to find me? Much less find a way to lure me back to where he's been hiding this whole time.

As I was taking in every inch of the room in search of any kind of weapon, maybe even some sort of weird sci-fi button on a wall that I could press and magically find a way out of here under Prime’s nose, I suddenly heard a voice behind me٫ the sound striking me so hard I jumped.

“Great you’re awake٫ care to join me for breakfast?” Prime’s voice asked as he nonchalantly yet menacingly stood in the doorway of the room٫ his shoulder leaning up against the doorframe.

“Oh fuck you!” I spit٫ words coming out of my mouth coated in venom like I was a snake ready to strike.

“Like you have a choice. It’s funny that you thought you did. Let's get something straight٫ you’re mine now٫ so it's best you learn early that you WILL do as I say or there will be consequences.”

“What do you even want from me? Wasn’t killing Diane enough for you?”

“Of course it wasn't٫ but you're not here so I can kill you unfortunately. You’re here because do you know how rare you are?” He paused٫ walking forward into the room causing me to back up back onto the bed like a frightened little mouse. Damn, his presence was so intense. He started pacing a bit٫ back and forth٫ arms crossed across his chest as he did so. He turned to me and looked me directly into my eyes before he started speaking again.

“Every conceivable Rick in the universe would happily serve their own balls on a platter for a little taste of what you have to offer - this makes you especially interesting to me. Not only are you one sexy piece of ass٫ you are a Rick’s gateway to so much unlocked potential.”

“Excuse me?”

“If ‘wife guy’ was smart he would have stolen your research from you a long time ago. Do you know how long it took for me to find you? It makes me horny just thinking about all that untapped knowledge you have floating around in that brain of yours.”

“Anything my Rick wanted from me he got because he asked for it. Sorry٫ but I don’t barter for things I created especially not to a sci-fi douchebag like you.”

“No one said anything about bartering. I’m simply going to take what I need via brain scan and then you’re going to put out like a good little girl because when in Rome.”

“My Rick is going to kill you ya know? You’ve taken enough from him and he isn’t going to let you take me too.”

“I’ve avoided him this long and clearly he hasn't learned his lesson yet. I’ve recreated the omega device and this time it can fire more than once٫ I’ll wipe out his entire family line he comes anywhere close to me. I’d kill you too if you weren't so valuable - you should be lucky that a guy like me finds any interest in anyone but himself.”

“You might think that you have me right where you want me٫ but I’m gonna enjoy watching my Rick kill you when he finds you and if you’re lucky maybe we’ll have sex next to your corpse.” I said٫ my words carrying through the air like poison coursing through my vascular system.

It probably wasn’t in my best interest to be taunting Prime the way I was٫ but I refused to let this son of a bitch have it easy especially when it was his dumb ass decision to kidnap me. He knew my Rick was looking for him and he knew he was getting close hence why he even bothered making such an elaborate take on his own already ‘overkill’ device. All that brain and this motherfucker couldn’t grasp the fact that killing peoples’ loved ones doesn’t really warrant being left alone.

“You think I couldn’t just take you right here if I wanted to? I’d bend you over that table and destroy that tight little pussy of yours and I just might considering you have no idea when to shut that bitch mouth of yours.” He grabbed me by the throat as he said that٫ squeezing the sides of my neck hard as he pulled me up and close to him. If I didn’t hate this Rick - I would have thought this interaction was so hot٫ too bad it was Prime.

“I’d like to see you try.” I said before spitting in his face٫ which in hindsight might have been a mistake٫ but it was too late to take it back.

Prime still had me by the neck٫ but he sighed heavily before shoving me onto the floor - catching myself on my hands before I hit the ground.

“Don’t even bother trying to use any of your cybernetics - I put a lock on all of your tech and good luck putting up much of a fight without it.”

---------- 2 weeks later —--------

Over the few weeks that I had been here٫ regardless of how much of an asshole Prime was٫ no matter what it was that I needed or asked (within reason) for he was quick to give it to me. He didn’t appreciate any of my back talk and if I overstepped too far he did with hold things from me as a punishment٫ but for the most part it seemed like his intentions with me weren’t entirely evil - something I not only found puzzling٫ but very difficult to believe was actually genuine.

I pushed the limits of what he would allow a little bit further everyday٫ hoping to gain his trust so that I would be able to either escape or find someway to get a message to my Rick. I still wasn't exactly sure where we even were in relation to the universe - the curve - or maybe we were outside it? It was hard to know with the very little freedom within this elaborate sci-fi base that I was allowed. The most I could do while here was think - run through multiple plans and assess the probability of success rate to each plan I thought of. Most٫ if not every٫ plan I had managed to conjure up was far from impervious to any snags or complete failure given then sheer innate ability of Rick Prime to always somehow be 10 steps ahead.

Today felt different though٫ I couldn't explain it٫ but as I sat across from him eating the breakfast that he had prepared for me - I could feel a different kind of tension in the air.

“Do you want to know why exactly you’re so special٫ Aurora?”

“I’m sure you’re gonna tell me even if I say no, so why the hell not?”

I was pushing around my eggs with my fork now٫ waiting patiently for his response. He kept telling me how ‘rare’ and ‘special’ I was to his grand design٫ but no matter how often he brought this up (which felt like constantly)٫ he refused to tell me how and why. Until now that is٫ which also struck me as weird.

“In order for you to even exist at all٫ Diane had to die you know? You’re familiar with the big bang I assume?”

“Nah٫ I just have a PhD in Quantum Physics for absolutely no reason at all - in fact٫ I just printed it off the internet completely fabricated credentials.” I said٫ the sarcasm clear in my tone as I spoke - I ran the risk of him punishing me for doing so٫ but he was usually lenient with my sarcasm since it matched his overt cynicism. It was my sharp tongue for disrespect and foul insults that really got under his skin.

“Well when I created the omega device to wipe out Diane٫ I didn't think to solve for any kinds of ripple effect that it might cause.”

“Meaning what exactly?”

“Well not completely unlike the big bang - the destruction of Diane’s life across infinity somehow resulted in the cataclysm that created X-258.”

“You’re saying you're responsible for me even existing? How is that even possible? Rapid succession in an inflationary epoch?”

“Precisely - well said. This means that without my omega device٫ you wouldn’t exist. How do you think ‘'wife guy” is going to react when he finds out that I literally made his new slam piece?”

“If you’re even telling the truth٫ which I suppose it is possible therefore also equally not possible by association. I guess given the rightly distribution of a negligible density gradient in order to deter the collapse into just a black hole and taking into consideration cosmic acceleration - I can’t disprove your theory٫ but that doesn’t mean you aren’t just bullshitting me right now.”

“As much as I love bullshitting and torturing other Rick’s for my own amusement٫ this is as real as real gets Aurora. You are only here because Diane had to die. You’re welcome and I’ll be accepting all forms of payment as a thank you٫ especially sexual favors.”

“Wow٫ so my whole life is a lie - imagine that.”

“You don’t seem too deeply affected by this revelation?”

“Did you expect me to lose my mind over a random occurring cosmological event? There was no way you knew your elimination of Diane would result in the formation of a universe that randomly produced me - so you did something by accident which is literally how 80% of all scientific findings usually occur. You aren’t special or interesting just because you managed to create a random event in spacetime - I do appreciate your massive need to milk your ego about it though.”

“Spoken like a true Rick - which you are as far as I’m concerned. The most intriguing out of any possible iteration.”

“So what exactly about that makes me so valuable to you?”

“Other than the fact that ‘'wife guy” loves you٫ according to my advanced research using your brain scans and blood and tissue samples٫ I should be able use both to develop the infinite Rick serum which would make me immortal. I’m not referencing no low grade cybernetic٫ tech bullshit either. I’m talking real٫ invincible immortality. An actual God with the power to create and destroy whatever and whoever I want - 100% unstoppable.”

“Wow٫ who could have possibly guessed that the power hungry evil٫ emo٫ sci-fi Rick with a nondescript haircut would want something so nuanced and lame? If you’re immortal that kind of takes away from the pay off does it not? Not that doing anything honorably is a concern of yours of course.”

“So what do you think about giving your input on something for me?”

“Once again - why bother even asking if you’re just going to make me do it anyways?”

“I guess to give you the illusion of free will or just maybe I kind of like you - don’t get a big head about it though I would still kill you without a second thought if I ever needed to.”

“Okay what exactly am I giving my input on?”

“I feel it may be best to just show you - meet me in the lab after you’ve finished your breakfast. Don’t keep me waiting long, it won’t end well for you.”

I rolled my eyes at his threatening tone as he got up from the table and left the room, I don’t know why I was so attracted to Prime the way I was - especially after what he did to my Rick, but I came to the ultimate conclusion that it was because him and my Rick were indeed so similar. The two Rickest Ricks in all of the infinite number of Rick’s that existed - the only two Rick’s to actually invent portal travel. In a way, my Rick only existed the way he did because of Prime’s destruction of his simple, domestic life. Prime was literally just my Rick without any sense of moral obligation and no matter how much I tried to convince myself that this fucker was bad and that I needed to distance myself - I simply couldn’t. I felt like my dna was so entangled up in having love for Rick that despite Prime’s obvious evil, I still loved him for simply just being a version of Rick. How fucked was that? Jesus fucking Christ - I needed out of here and soon before I really fucked up.

I finished my breakfast and headed out of the kitchen and into Prime’s elaborate sci-fi laboratory - this guy never did anything subtle that was for fucking sure and his attention to detail was absolutely infallible. He had something pulled up on the screen above where he was sitting and the closer I got, the more my eyes focused on the image. It was an image of me with a younger Rick, my Rick and Birdperson when we were together as freedom fighters on Glap-Flaps Third Moon. The Battle of Blood Ridge - this image was obviously a snapshot taken from my mind when Prime brain scanned me, but I didn’t really understand its significance to him. But, I’m sure he was going to tell me even if I didn’t exactly care to know.

“Blood Ridge?” I questioned, my arms crossed across my chest as I approached his sitting form and stood beside him to wait for his response.

“Seems like Nietzsche wasn’t totally blowing smoke out of his ass when he said that whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster -”

“And if you gaze long enough into the abyss, the abyss will gaze back at you. What does Nietzsche have to do with Blood Ridge?” I cut him off by finishing the Friedrich Nietzsche quote he was referring to.

“Well I’m so glad you asked Aurora…” He started as he pulled up a replay of Rick and I’s interaction with Birdperson after the Battle had been won. I watched the playback intently, hoping to see something within my own memory that maybe I hadn’t noticed before in order to try to put together a theory of where exactly Prime was going with this.

-Playback from ‘Aurora’s Memory’ initiated-

Memory Rick: “Damn that shit was cash.”

Bird Person: “It was extremely bad ass. The Battle of Blood Ridge is over. The Federation lost. I am in your debt.”

Memory Rick: “Come with us.”

Bird Person: “To somewhere…nearby?”

Memory Rick: “Anywhere. E-Everywhere.”

Bird Person: “Rick, Aurora, I don't expect you guys to keep fighting, but this war is…”

Aurora: “Far from over…we know.”

Memory Rick: “Dude, we share this with almost nobody, but we could take you right now to this same battlefield, in a universe where we lost, or another where we won, or another where the war never even happened. All equally real, all equally unreal. None of it matters.”

Bird Person: “Then why did you help?”

Memory Rick: “Because I respect you. And I wanted you to know you could respect me.”

Bird Person: “Even though nothing matters?”

Memory Rick: “Okay. You matter... to me.”

Bird Person: “Uh, the relationship that we have…”

Memory Rick: “I NEVER used that word!”

Bird Person: “... is not worth my integrity…”

Memory Rick: “Oh, my God. It's not a complicated transaction, my man. "Would you like to join me doing awesome shit that matters?" "No, I would not. I would rather be a judgmental dork." Case closed. Really no need to drag it out.”

Bird Person: “If you need me, use the beacon.”

Memory Rick: “Yeah, I'm gonna use that beacon a lot. I hope... hope I don't wear it out. Come on Aurora, lets get the fuck out of here.”

—- Playback Finalized —--

“Okay, so what exactly does my memory of Bird Person rejecting my Rick have anything to do with you?”

“Seems allegorical in relation to how Diane died don’t you think? His rejection of me, Bird Person’s rejection of him, you either die a hero or see yourself live long enough to become the villain.”

“Are you trying to suggest to me that my Rick has essentially turned into you? I hope you’re not because that would be absolutely nonsensical.”

“You see Aurora, your Rick isn’t all he’s cracked up to be either. He’s murdered hundreds if not thousands of innocent Ricks, he’s manipulated a version of our adult daughter to get a divorce, he sells weapons to hit men and other criminals, he Cronenberged my original dimension and left my daughter, my granddaughter and my Jerry behind to rot in a world that he ruined, he exploited and threatened to destroy a microverse that he created to control his fucking car, and the worst possible one he trapped all the people in his original reality into an endless mental time loop while their bodies still grew old. Your Rick isn’t and never was the saint you believe him to be - so why hate me for something so small in the grand scheme of things?”

“You’re literally the reason why he did most of that. I don’t think my Rick is a saint, I think he’s a sad, broken man who is trying his best to continue on in his life after losing the very thing he used to live for. What makes my Rick so different from you is his capability to feel and connect to human emotion - his wild callousness is just a front so he doesn’t have to feel the pain his life radiates. He has surpassed you in so many ways, but he will NEVER be the monster you are because he is capable of changing. You know nothing about him and even sitting here under the guise that you do is ridiculous. You will never be him and he will NEVER be you.”

“You’d defend him even if he was the one who killed your husband wouldn’t you?”

“My husband died because you killed Diane - because you accidentally created X-258 where my husband was killed in a freak fucking accident. To even insinuate such an asinine thought is in bad taste even for you. If anything, you’d be indirectly responsible for the death of my husband, big fucking shocker there.”

“How would your husband feel if he knew you gave up on him to be with Rick?”

“My husband has been gone for 25 years, Prime and I loved him dearly when he was alive, but Rick, my Rick, is the love of my life. I don’t have to explain ‘love’ to you especially because you are literally incapable of ever fucking getting it. Killing your wife across infinity because some alternate versions of yourself pissed you off? The mother of your daughter - you have some fucking nerve.”

I was angry now, my words slicing into Prime’s direction like a knife and he was clearly getting upset with my tone towards him. I don’t know exactly what his end goal with me was - he had my blood and tissue samples, he had my brain scans. Why not just let me go or kill me if he got what he had said he wanted? Then it hit me. Prime was in love with me. A man that I had labeled as so incapable of feeling had some sort of feelings for me - what a fucking mind fuck that was to take in. I had made myself speechless as I waited patiently for him to say something to either confirm or deny my theory, but he said nothing so I spoke once more.

“You love me, don’t you? You have feelings for me.”

His silence after I said that was deafening and he quickly stood up from his place in his chair to grab my face in his hands roughly and smash his lips to mine. I knew it. He kissed me so roughly that I barely even had time to react, but once I was finally able to comprehend what was happening, I deepened the kiss. I was actually enjoying this despite how fucking wrong my moral compass knew that it was. He pulled away from me gently, his blue eyes looking me dead in mine before he said in a very demanding, yet hot, tone;

“Strip for me.”

And I did exactly as I was told.

—----------

His hand bent around the curvature of my neck brushing it softly as he continued to walk around me٫ his other hand finding my breasts and taking a nipple into his free hand subtly. He rubbed the nub between his thumb and forefinger as he continued to eye me up and down with an obvious hunger in his eyes٫ his other hand snaking down my body slowly till it found rest on my hip gently pulling me to him as he did so.

“You are so beautiful.” He whispered٫ his eyes glued to my chest as he spoke eloquently.

He was still fully clothed٫ but I was determined to change that - I reached forward and begun unzipping his jacket٫ him allowing it to fall to the floor as I pushed it off his shoulders. I found the hem of his long sleeve next٫ my hands creeping slowly underneath to touch his warm skin and my god his skin felt like I was touching pure electricity the more my fingers danced over his adorable blue happy trail to find a home on his belt buckle. I began undoing it roughly٫ pulling his belt through the loops in his jeans and throwing it elsewhere. I unbuttoned his jeans with my hands٫ quickly slipping my fingers under the waistband of his boxers where I longed to have his dick pressed up against any part of me.

I smirked up at him as I pulled him even closer to my naked body٫ his hands wrapping around me in all the right ways as I felt his extremely hard member pressing into one my thighs now. The length and the girth simply drove me insane as I continued to work diligently to undress him. He suddenly grabbed the back of my head with enough force to crash my lips to his٫ our lips melding together perfectly and I couldn’t help٫ but let out a small moan in favor of his wicked foreplay. The more he touched and teased me٫ the more I desperately wanted to beg him to just destroy me right there. I was so fucked. Fucking Prime. What was I doing? At this point I was too far gone to care - I wanted him and I wanted him BAD.

I pushed his black jeans down past his jutted hip-bones٫ them falling down his tall stature to pool at his feet before he stepped out of them and led me back up against the wall. His fingers left my breasts٫ trailing down until they reached the very top of my mound - him allowing a single digit to pass between my folds to feel the abundance of wetness that I had increasing with each moment between my legs.

“So wet for me already٫ such a horny girl for any Rick aren’t you?” He licked his lips as he pulled away from mine to speak٫ him looking me dead in the eyes as he said that - the lust obvious in his gorgeous icy blue eyes.

“You have no idea how much I long for you to absolutely destroy me.” I whispered back٫ my fingers grappling the side of his boxers before pushing them off of him in one swift motion that now left him vulnerable and naked in front of me like I had been this entire time and ugh was it so worth the wait.

Prime had so many scars littering his whole body٫ adding a sense of mystery and a hot toughness to his already sexy body. I felt guilty that I was about to do this٫ but he was still a Rick whether he was evil or not and holy fuck did his extreme callousness and his “I don’t give a single fuck” attitude turn me on even more. I was like putty in Prime’s hands right now and he was loving it.

“I think I have a pretty good concept٫ but you have no idea how fucking gorgeous you are. If I could٫ I would put you on display so that everyone could see me destroy a perfect little pussy like yours. Holy fuck.”

“You want to fuck me in front of spectators?”

“I want them to revel in jealousy over how I get to be buried in a perfect little thing like you.”

“They should be jealous of me too٫ getting to be a good little cock sleeve for your perfect and massive cock. I love the way you feel pressed against my thigh right now٫ I almost can’t fucking take it.” I whispered in his ear٫ rolling my hips so that I brushed myself up against his rock hard penis - it almost jumping after me over the sudden sensation.

“Mmm what a good girl٫ stroking daddy Prime’s ego. I think it's high time I reward you for such good and filthy behavior.”

He grabbed me harshly by the hips and lifted me till I was straddling his waist with my back up against the wall as he placed himself at my entrance. He parted me gently with the head of his dick before slamming into me so aggressively that I cried out as I felt him ram into my cervix hard as he stroked my g-spot on the way there.

“Oh my god.” I panted٫ holding on to him with a death grip around his neck and my fingers tangling in his powder blue hair as he continued to thrust up into me skillfully.

“That’s right darling٫ I am your god.” He said٫ his lips attacking my neck and jawline with an abundance of sloppy kisses - him using his teeth to mark me however he wanted. The sweet feeling of the slight pain driving me crazy as I held onto him tighter - slowly rocking my hips in tandem with his getting a small moan from him in return as I bounced on his cock dexterously.

“It’s like universe literally created you just for me٫ the way your pussy just grips the absolute fuck out of my dick. Fuuck Aurora٫ no fucking wonder why “wife guy” is so obsessed with you٫ you take dick like a fucking champ.”

“It's not hard when Rick’s have such dynamite dick game - I’ve never ever been disappointed by a Rick sexually.” I purred٫ gripping tufts of his hair and pulling hard enough to hear him moan against my skin.

“Is that so, mmm you were so worth the wait.”

“I want you to come in me so hard that you see fucking stars, baby.” I growled in his ear as he continued to fuck me hard up against the wall, one of arms on the side of me bracing himself and his other hand was wrapped around my neck holding me to the wall tightly. I hadn’t noticed before now, but his ‘6,5” frame had me up in the air so high, holy shit - I felt like I was practically floating off of the ground at this moment. Damn the sex was good.

He soon moved his arm against the wall in order to place his long, lanky fingers on my clit, abusing the nub gently as he continued to go in and out of me. He was watching his dick as he pumped his hips, a smirk plastered on his handsome face as he was enjoying watching his dick disappear inside of me with each thrust. I was moaning loudly now, thankful that we were basically in the middle of nowhere in space because I could have probably awoken a whole cemetery.

“That’s it baby, come for me.”

I could feel that he was close and my eyesight was starting to get blurry the faster his fingers worked to bring me closer to my own climax.

“Oh my god - Prime - I’m - ahhhhhh Rick.” I moaned out as he pushed me over the edge, my pussy pulsating around his dick as he also released into me, burying his face into my shoulder as we rode out the highs of our climaxes together. Both of us sweaty messes as we tried diligently to try and catch our breaths from that absolutely intense workout we had just finished.

Fuck. I seriously just fucked Rick Prime. Fuck.

What had I done?

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felassan · 25 days ago

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Excerpts from this IGN article, under a cut due to spoilers:

"John Epler [on the Executors & the secret ending]: These voices have been influencing events in very subtle, very light touch ways to get towards a specific outcome. As to what their ultimate goal is, we're not going to get into that quite yet. But the idea is that they've always been kind of in the background. They know how to say the right thing at the right time to nudge towards an outcome that they want. It doesn't mean that any of these characters, any of the people shown in that ending don't have free will. They all still made their choices. Loghain still chose to betray Cailin because of his fear of what the Wardens were going to do. Bartrand still locked Varric and Hawke away in the Deep Roads because of greed. But who gave Bartrand the idea that this was the expedition worth taking? Who was the soldier in the room with Loghain who maybe just casually mentioned, "oh, I'm sure glad the Wardens are on our side this time”? No one's being pushed. No one's being forced to do anything, but [the voices] are very good at knowing the right person and finding that little place where they can, with a gentle nudge, shift events in their favor. Corinne Busche: I like how you say that, John, because it's almost as if through their gentle nudgings, their whispers, they're just stoking those feelings and those desires or insecurities that these characters within the world already had. That was already within them. Loghain, Bartrand, the magisters, and the Breach are the largest figures in these illustrations. Why them? Why, for example, Bartrand versus Meredith and Orsino? Epler: Without getting into what maybe the future holds for them, their goal is to remove the elven gods from the table. Again, [the gods] are the most powerful forces on Thedas up to this point. And whatever [the voices’] plans may be, another powerful magical force on the table like that is going to pose some obstacles. And I think the other thing about the Executors, they're very risk averse. They've been playing the extremely long game because the one thing they don't want to do is leave any of their pieces in check. They're always going to go for the option that keeps them the furthest away from harm, while also advancing these goals. The gods are a big unknown for them. No one really knew just until the Veilguard what was going to happen with them. So if you look back chronologically to Dragon Age: Origins, there's definitely a chain of events that leads from then to the gods being taken off the table. Solas' dagger is the red lyrium idol from the Deep Roads. Corypheus obviously had a big part to play in weakening the veil and setting events in motion. One thing that I think is fun to think about is Thedas has been around for a very long time, but these world ending events are happening with such incredible frequency all of a sudden. Why now? Why in this age, why this specific time? You start to get a sense of why that might be – not because anyone's going in and controlling kingdoms or taking over armies. Someone is seeing the end game coming and maybe they're setting up for it. Hopefully we get to see these voices explored a bit more in a potential Dragon Age 5? Epler: Never say never."

"I know that some people were surprised to let go of the Keep this time around. Now that it's all said and done, are there more choices you wish you'd carried over or included? Busche: The big thing for us is we wanted to make this story, every single choice you make, feel relevant to it. One thing that we could have stated more clearly or maybe alluded to more clearly in the game is the idea that just because these choices from the past library of games didn't necessarily impact this particular story, that doesn't mean they're gone. This is a chance for us to really key in to what matters with these events and what's happening in Northern Thedas. I do fully expect that these choices going clear back to Dragon Age Origins will again matter. So just wanted to be on record with that. Every one of your choices that people have made throughout their Dragon Age journey, those are still your choices. And if you've seen the secret 2D ending we talked about, some of these events being quite pertinent. It's easy to see how those choices can and will be relevant into the future."

"What were ways that the Evanuris itself changed in development between Inquisition and The Veilguard? Epler: It’s funny because in reality there hasn't been a significant shift in how we perceive the Evanuris from the end of Trespasser to now. If you have the art book, if you look at some of the old visual designs from [Project] Joplin, we had this idea of this very clear distance between Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain. Ghilan'nain is the mad scientist. She's in search of creating the perfect form. She's all about experimentation. Elgar'nan is much more the tyrant. One thing that I love about Elgar'nan – he spends a not inconsiderable amount of his magic power looking handsome, looking normal, because he's also incredibly vain. I think that speaks to his character. In Veilguard, he doesn't show up until Fire and Ice because one thing he is also extremely, extremely cautious. Busche: One of the things that was really interesting in development, one of my favorite stories is we knew we were going to explore some of these themes through the regrets that the Veilguard witness together in the Lighthouse. When we actually saw those come together and we saw the potential of the Crossroads, that's when we decided, actually we want to go a little bit deeper and let people relive some of these moments through Solas' rebellion and even see Ghilan'nain before the full extent of the Blight, the corruption, the changes to her had taken shape. And I think it was just really an interesting sign that there was something there that captured our imagination as well and to be able to explain that and have players relive it was a really fun discovery."

"Can you tell us about the fate of the other elven gods like Sylaise and June? Are these gods now mortal in the Fade after the defeat of their Archdemons, or were they weakened enough to die in their prison? Epler: Yeah, I mean, so we haven't been super explicit about what happens when the gods die. In my mind, they're either dead or they're the closest thing to it. When a Warden kills an Archdemon, in Origins and DA2 and DAI, before the Gods are out in the world, there is part of that elven god's spirit that is bound to that dragon. It finds the nearest source of Blight. Now, if it's a darkspawn, a darkspawn has a direct connection to the Blight. There's enough energy there for it to rebuild a body, rebuild itself as an Archdemon. When it goes into a Warden, that connection is very different and what ends up happening is essentially the fragment of the God spirit and the fragment of the Warden annihilate each other. So nothing to go back to the god. So if they're there, they're a shadow of their former self. But obviously when Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain come out, there's not that distance. There's not that need to use the Blight as essentially an in-between medium and they can just regain that fragment of their soul. They're now mortal, but they're just as powerful as they were before. Busche: And this is part of a theme within The Veilguard. We're tackling some pretty big subject matter, some of the largest outstanding mysteries within Dragon Age lore. So we want to tie up some of those loose ends, give really satisfying answers, but we also want to leave the door open just a little bit. So questions like that, what happens to the rest of the gods? Those are themes that we want to be able to explore, but also be able to advance the franchise. We learned that the Tevinter Old Gods were just the dragon thralls of the elven gods. What are the implications for Tevinter here? Will this totally reshape how they understand their history and their culture? Epler: There's going to be a lot of people seeking power in various ways through the process of rebuilding Thedas. Because again, no matter where you are in Thedas, the war against the gods had an impact. And I think speaking of Tevinter in particular, there are going to be those who feel that sharing the truth is going to be the best course for people. There are going to be people who are motivated to lie. There's going to be people who are seeking to be proclaimed the new prophets of the old Gods and saying that that person over there is liar. In a world with so many unreliable narrators, smart and savvy political operators can use that to their own benefit. And, I mean, Tevinter is rife with people who bluntly were maybe not openly on the side of the Venatori, but certainly wouldn't have been too upset if they'd won – they're going to have their own motivations. Busche: It makes me think of the choice at the end of Bellara's arc, in fact, where you're literally taking this repository of ancient elven knowledge and choosing to share it, to make it known or not. At the time, that seems like perhaps an inconsequential decision for the moment, but when you look at the future of Thedas and what it means for the elven people, it's perhaps one of the biggest."

"After everything the team learns through Solas’ memories, Harding wonders if they’ve disproven the Maker exists. Is that the case? Or is the Maker, like the elven and Tevinter gods, real just not in the way that we think he is? Epler: That's one mystery that I personally don't want to ever give a definitive answer to one way or the other. The moment you start to try to explain it or try to provide a definitive answer, I do think that takes some of the mystery out of the world. For what Harding’s saying, the question you asked: is the Maker what we think it is? Maybe, maybe not. There could be something completely different to what the Chantry is saying. I think that's one of those wells that we are always going to want to keep open because I do think it adds some interesting context. What the Maker is to Andraste followers and what the Maker could be to everyone else could be two completely different things. Busche: I also love what it does, from a world building and storytelling perspective, to the power structures and then the more personal and intimate. For instance, there's a conversation where Rook and team are sitting around the table in the Lighthouse and Rook gets to lend their perspective: “I still believe,” or “I never believed,” or “maybe we did disprove it.” Those are questions of faith that I think are so interesting to character and world building. And then consider the power and political influence that the Chantry has. If these questions are raised, does that power go away? Well, I doubt it. Epler: In a world that's rebuilding, in a world that's just had these massive revelations occur, I can see people in the Chantry are probably going to use that as an opportunity to try to seize more power. The more we shy away from ever being a hundred percent clear, the more interesting stories we can tell there. The reveal that the first elves came from spirits is huge, obviously. Can you speak to that a bit? When do we see the shift from spirit-created elves to the elves we know today? Epler: One interesting thing about that reveal actually is originally it was going to show up as part of Bellara's personal quest. That was going to be how Anaris was able to turn elves into demons so quickly and so easily, how he's able to start creating his army. We realized maybe putting a massive reveal that changes the state of an entire lineage of the world? Probably not something that needs to go directly in a personal quest. But yeah, I mean, it is a massive reveal, it does change a lot of their history. That's something that is the theme of opening these questions about where all these groups came from and what their origins are. Busche: And I do personally really love what you just touched on there, John, which is the differences but also parallels behind the origins of each of the lineages. Taash's arc explores having dragon's fire in your veins. We know dwarves are the children of the Titans. They can hear the song of the Stone. Knowing now elves have their origins from spirits. Really fascinating parallels that, again, create some interesting storytelling possibilities."

"Speaking of the Titans: we learn Solas effectively made them Tranquil. We've heard rumblings that the Rite of Tranquility can be reversed. Do you think that's something that could happen with the Titans? Epler: I mean, in the fullness of time anything can happen. I will say that's one of those mysteries that we're probably going to keep close to the chest. Have some of these reveals always been part of the history of Thedas? Or were certain things developed as part of The Veilguard? Epler: It's a tricky question because I've been on since Origins, but I used to be in QA and Cinematic, so I wasn't as privy to the deep lore discussions back then. I will say since Trespasser, since Inquisition, these are all things that we've been talking about for at least that long. So it's part of the franchise for as long as I've been around on the lore side of things. But I mean, that's the thing, as we tell stories, as we start to figure out where we want the franchise to go, what we want to happen, ideas change. Another reason why I'm so hesitant to just drop lore into the world without a storytelling reason is sometimes something we thought we wanted to do we realize maybe isn't the most interesting way to handle that. And then we go back to the drawing board. The balancing act is always, you never want to have lied to the players, and you never want to outright contradict something you said before, but the beauty of unreliable narrators is you can twist the truth about 45 degrees to the left and do something interesting without ever contradicting your past self. Busche: I will say that I think the simple answer is that both approaches are true. There are elements that were heading through to a pretty clear conclusion. There were some that were a little bit more mysterious, but some of the most fun that, at least for me we've had are those moments when you and I are looking at these follower arcs and the impact of the stories and conceiving of how does this tie together when we revisit some of these themes. So there is an intentionality about what we do going forward. And again, we don't want to share too much on that, but certainly it influenced some of our decisions and some of the reveals along the way."

"Varric – may he rest in peace – reveals that Solas’ dagger is actually the infamous red lyrium idol. How was Solas able to restore it to its original form? Epler: Would it surprise you to know it was another ritual? Solas does love his rituals. Classic Solas. Epler: Yeah, so in the time between Trespasser and The Veilguard, Solas was able to cleanse the Blight from the dagger and restore it to its former shape. One of the reasons it was hidden in the idol was to keep it hidden. It's an incredibly powerful artifact. It's not the kind of thing you want falling into the hands of a Venatori magister or an Antaam. Obviously, at the end of DA2, Meredith tries to use it, turns it into a sword. We all know what happened there. Rest in...I would say rest in pieces Meredith because she's now a giant piece of red lyrium. But it is an artifact that is tremendously powerful. Only Solas knew how to make it its most powerful, which was the cleansed version of the dagger. As long as its red lyrium, it still has the Blight in it, which means you're always going to be susceptible to the whims and whispers of Blight. We saw it happen with Bartrand. It drove him completely mad. Even when Varric picks up the piece in DA2, he can still hear some of the whispers. So for Solas, before he used this thing, he needed to make sure it was purified, it was cleansed. Obviously, the Evanuris made their own dagger out of red lyrium. They don't care, they're already blighted. It's all the same to them. But for Solas, it was a ritual that he had to do. We talk about the elves following Solas at the end of Trespasser. It's not said explicitly in the game, but one of the things they're helping do is getting this ritual ready so we could cleanse this dagger. Busche: One of the interesting properties of the idol has always been how inherently malleable it is. That's something very unique to it that we absolutely wanted to lean into. What was so fun for us is there were theories we saw out there in the fandom YouTube videos about what was this idol? And indeed did Solas convert it to the dagger and a credit to those fans that figured it out. I don't know how they pieced it together, but cheers to them."

"I've always wondered what the idol is actually to. Epler: Solas is a very nostalgic person. I'd say an idol to Mythal. It's his guilt, his regrets poured into this thing. Because, as Corinne said, it's malleable. That's the shape it took. The final act has choices with resounding consequences. Solas’ fate, for instance, can vary wildly. How did y'all land on the different endings for him? Will his fate affect future games? Epler: I can't answer the second one yet. It was the three fantasies of dealing with Solas. We have Solavellans or people who like Solas, they want to redeem him. They think he needs to come back to the good side. At the end, we wanted to make sure that those players had that opportunity, especially Solavellans who wanted their Inquisitor to have that tragic embrace in eternity with Solas. We were very vague about what happens on the other side of that, but it was important to us to make sure that Solavellans had that opportunity. I will say I was personally the one who really wanted an opportunity to punch out Solas. I was the big advocate for the fight ending way back when. I had it pictured as a big knockdown drag out fight where you and him basically fist fought. In my mind, it was very over the top. I think what we got was a better ending, but I wanted to make sure that the players who chose the option in Trespasser where they said “Solas, have I ever wanted to hear one of your big long explanations?” That's for them, that's their opportunity to say: "nope, Solas, you're the bad guy. I'm just going to beat the crap out of you. Here we go." I think outsmart is a very specific fantasy. Because here's this guy who's been kind of needling you the entire game, he's been kind of a little condescending. Even if you build a rapport, you can always tell he thinks he's just a little bit more clever, just a little bit smarter than you. So getting the opportunity to outsmart the Dread Wolf was something that we thought was important to allow players to do because what more satisfying way to deal with this smug jerk who's been in your head barking at you for the last 40 to 60 hours at the end where it matters the most, than to be the one who outsmarts him. It was important to give players that opportunity to pull one over on him. And I love the line he says at the end. Because in fight, obviously he goes off, he's screaming, he's frothing, he's angry. At the end of outsmart, he says, “And I have finally met my match.” There's just this acknowledgement of, yes, that's right, Solas. I was smarter than you, eat it. And yeah, I think there's just those three fantasies of dealing with it. Busche: Even in that moment, John, he still can't quite get over that little bit of smugness of how well he's taught you. And that one has to sting a little bit, that had to sting. I will absolutely confirm that in so many meetings, more than I can count, John would tell me about this fantasy of punching out Solas and that knockdown drag out fight. Put 'em in the ring! Busche: And, look, as the resident Solavellan, that's appalling! I could never. I will say I absolutely love that there's two variants of the redeem ending as well, whether your Inquisitor romanced Solas or not. Very important to us that you could have that satisfying ending whether you were sympathetic to Solas, even if you know he was misguided. But, also, if you cried like I did at that epilogue slide at the end of Trespasser with the Solavellan romance we knew we needed to pay that off. And my goodness, that one matters to people. It was really intimidating to approach that with the weight and reverence it deserved. I will say also, we didn't touch on the sacrifice ending."

"Let's talk about it. Busche: Everybody dies. There's a moment there that I think is one of the most powerful, where you see Solas, your friends rushing up to help you and to try and stop Solas, and seeing him unleash his powers to turn people to stone on your companions, seeing them fall in that way, that sense of helplessness, that one really rips my heart out. It does. It's such a reminder that all of these events have always been on a knife’s edge. John, like you said, these world-ending events have happened with so much frequency. It's only been because of luck, in some cases, that a person has stopped it. Epler: Well, yeah, exactly. I mean, you had the Warden who happened to fetch the treaties. You had the Inquisitor who happened to be in the right place at the right time to get the mark instead of Corypheus. And I mean, that is ultimately, I think one of the, just kind of circling all the way back to the beginning. One of the characteristics of all the heroes is they act in unexpected ways, and that's how they're able to thwart the end of the world so many times in a row is they're just the right person, at the right place, at the right time. I think, yeah, the sacrifice ending is a great example of sometimes that luck can run out. You need luck and preparedness. One of the things we really wanted to emphasize with that ending is it's still a victory, but it's more of a pyrrhic victory than the other ones. You won, you stop the end of the world, but the example that you set kind of dies with you to some degree. There's a monument set up, but Thedas is going to be in a dark place at this point. I think it's an interesting way to look at that ending in particular."

"In the final act, there are two major companion choices. First, whether or not Neve and Bellara are blighted and captured by Elgar’nan. Second, perhaps the toughest choice: whether or not Harding or Davrin will lead a distraction team and, ultimately, die. Why these choices and why these companions? Epler: So for Neve and Bellara. The two groups that have been the most directly affected by the gods up to this point are obviously the elves – it's their gods that are back – and Tevinter, Minrathous. You know, the Venatori have either fully seized power or have made some pretty big inroads in Minrathous, depending on which city you save. And the gods have come back and brought their dragons and proclaimed them as the gods of the Tevinter people. So both Bellara and Neve have a direct investment. Not that everyone else doesn't, but they have the most direct investment in stopping the gods at this point. We wanted to give you that choice between these two characters who, again, have a very personal score to settle with the gods and are both mages whereas Emmrich obviously wants to stop the end of the world, but doesn't have quite that same connection to the events that are going on. So those two made the most sense as to who would disable them. The other thing is something that shows up in the visuals. Minrathous, Tevinter in general has always been kind of...there's echoes of ancient elven magic in everything to Tevinter and Minrathous does because it's meant as almost a cargo cult imitation of what the ancient elves were capable of. The ancient elves worked lyrium into their buildings, Tevinter uses gold and jewels because they don't have the capacity to work lyrium. So it made the most sense for them. I'll say for the other choice, we knew Harding had to be one of them, and then we had to ask ourselves: we've got a fan favorite returning character from Inquisition. Who could possibly equal that in terms of making this difficult choice? It's like, well, Assan. Assan and Davrin. Davrin obviously has a direct link to this at this point because of Weisshaupt. He's got a very personal stake in it, and it made sense for the two of them to be the ones to be the choice to lead the distraction team, because again, we want to find those personal connections between the characters and the events that are going on. And, you know, the case of Harding, she has so much investment in this story because she's been living it since Inquisition. And then Davrin. Davrin's entire order just fell at the end of the previous act. He's going to have a real strong investment in stopping the guys too here. Busche: One thing that's so interesting about that choice too, the Harding and Davrin choice is it actually presented some interesting complexity and some emotional investment we could tie into, which always makes for a more satisfying, I will say harder choice to make. I'll say in one of my playthroughs, Taash and Harding were in a relationship together and I happened to be romancing Davrin. Impossible. Impossible decision in that moment."

"I do have one last question. We hear during Taash's personal quest about this “coming storm.” Does that have anything to do with the voices across the sea? Is it something we're going to explore? Epler: How do I put this? There are a lot of clues scattered throughout the game of how all these things may connect. I would say Taash's arc is obviously a good one, the end of Bellara's arc and some of the codex entries in Arlathan may be another place to start digging for clues. I'm a big fan of scattering a lot of little hints and seeing what people pick up. Alyssa Mora is an Associate Syndication Editor at IGN. Gaming & Entertainment are her lifeblood, particularly when they involve romance and/or moody vampires."

[source]

#dragon age: the veilguard #dragon age the veilguard spoilers #dragon age 5 #dragon age: dreadwolf #dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #dragon age #bioware #video games #long post #longpost #solas

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red-bat-arse · 1 month ago

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Working on a BillFord fic I'm internally calling my delusional au lol but I think I'd actually title it the Have A Heart AU

Wherein Fiddleford leaves the project but Ford doesn't confront Bill, and since Bill is very happy things are going well he decides to start actually flirting. His way of doing this is to give Ford gifts of possessed rats, hurt his body in controlled ways, and talk about dangerous things they could do together...

Oh, and be so distracted by infighting in the Nightmare Realm that when Ford starts spiraling into scared paranoia over the -to him -literal torture, he doesn't notice until Ford throws him out of the mindscape.

So now he's got to figure out how to fix what he broke, or he'll never get the portal running, sure, but worse than that is he'll lose Ford for good. With Stan on the way to the cabin, looks like he'll have to make a deal with Specs of all people so he can have a body to pilot -if Ford doesn't want him in his mind, they can talk on more even ground. And maybe Bill can start making up for his mistakes along the way.

Excerpt and rambling underneath;

Bill looked down at the nail wound and tensed up -what if he made it worse? What if he got it wrong again and Ford woke up and thought he did it on purpose, thought he just wanted to- what, torture him?

Did Ford think Bill hated him? Or did he assume this was all some sort of prank like his childhood bullies would pull, a betrayal like his oaf of a twin committed, or plain scorn like nearly everyone else showed him for his big ideas? For the mind that Bill thought was exceptional and shone like a star- and-

-and why was this so hard? Why was Bill even second guessing himself? He was a god! He could take care of Sixer any way he wanted and he should be glad he showed him that much care. Any other being with Bill's amount of power would've taken Ford and made him into a mere pet, would've wasted his potential instead of cultivating it, and this was stupid! Bill should already know how to put Ford back together! Ford was his! Ford was supposed to-

Bill caught his reflection in the mirror and snapped out of his spiral. The battered, unkempt body of his author stared back at him, blood slowly leaking from his eye as Ford unconsciously fought against Bill's possession.

He hadn't ever done that before. Bill wiped at the blood but just ended up smearing it around, so he grabbed a new looking washcloth and wet it, taking Ford's glasses off to get at the stain better. He cleaned the blood away carefully and closed the eye once it looked like it had stopped leaking, and when he rinsed the cloth out the water ran down the drain pink.

Ford was supposed to be fine.

"I think I screwed up," he said out loud, and it was then he realized if he didn't fix this, properly, he'd lose everything.

He'd lose any hope of the portal being completed, sure, which meant sooner or later the Nightmare Realm would finally collapse in on itself and kill everyone inside. Granted, with how bad he was feeling at the moment after thousands of years of nothing, dying like that didn't exactly sound like the worst option. Sure, Ax would be sad for a bit, the old sap, but there wouldn't be anyone actually mourning him if he went out that way.

Not even his author, not even Ford, because he'd probably be relieved. The being Bill thought he would spend the next eternity with was terrified of him and if he didn't fix it he would be relieved when Bill died. He would be glad for it and die at 92 of a petty thing like a heart attack and then they'd both be written out of existence, and that would be the end.

If there was one thing Bill hated at this moment, it was thinking about Ford ending. He'd caused so many others over the years after that first unintentional one, after bringing Euclydia to an end, and he hadn't cared at all, had reveled in it even, but with Ford the notion was wrong, was awful. And the idea of Ford dying hating him and being glad to be rid of him, it made his entire shape seize up in distress.

Ford had rejuvenated him, brought him back from an apathetic husk of a being through nothing more than his mind and his charms, and look how Bill had repaid him.

Notes;

explores the idea of Bill not really understanding why humans work the way they do -such as hallucinating after days without sleep and reacting badly when the being possessing their body starts hurting it without explanation -but having to reckon with it if he wants to keep Ford

he's from an extinct dimension and's been around for millennia, and Ford is the first being in general he's ever actually liked -this is not a recipe for well-meshing love languages. i was like "what if Bill actually thinks giving someone a wound they can easily heal is like, the highest form of showing love"? what if he saw the aftermath and went "oh shit i fd up" and wanted to fix it? could something like that even be fixed? not with canon Bill, certainly, but i saw someone point out that if Ford were a touch worse of a person or Bill were a touch better, they probably could have been happy together, so in this AU -spoilers -i think it could be fixed

will be posted on my ao3 later today

#gravity falls #gravity falls au #billford #stanford pines #bill cipher #fanfic #crossposted to tiktok sorry yall #but we gotta spread the seeds somewhere

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lu-is-not-ok · 6 months ago

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Hello Limbus Gamers

Why did I title this post that.

Anyway, yeah, it's that time again. I'm gonna analyze the RR4 trailer. Some of you may be asking why, but. You'll see.

Oh boy you'll see.

Starting off, we get a very brief animation of the nodes of the new Railway. And by brief, I do mean, this shit speeds past you like instantly.

They even make sure to not show the whole thing all at once to make it harder to count. I did count though. There are thirteen of these nodes in this animation. This might be subject to change, but we shall see.

Then we get the title card. We're back to single word Railway names from before RR3, and in the background we get to see some silhouettes. We're gonna learn what they are during the trailer itself, but you can already tell they're the abnos from the Battle Pass E.G.O - Dreaming Electric Sheep, The King in Binds, and Portrait of a Certain Day.

We also see silhouettes of some Sinners, and while it's hard to make out with the text in the way, I'm pretty sure there's N Corp Don, N Corp Faust, and BL Yi Sang in there.

Now THIS is interesting - a new Railway gimmick! Not just one gimmick though, but after throwing the screenshot into Google Translate, it turns out we might be dealing with two!

First, the one that doesn't need translating to figure out - the Backup gimmick. I believe it's shown a bit clearer in the next scene, so I won't be speculating on it too much yet, but from my guess it's a replacement for a similar mechanic in RR3, where you could throw another team of Sinners at an Abnormality after your initial team of 6 died to finish the Abno off from where you left it at.

That's not the most interesting part though, this is.

Our Sinners are also going to be recieving individual buffs in this Railway, potentially based on selection order, considering PM has been pushing more and more for the selection order to matter with the recent addition to the E.G.O Gifts.

If I'm correct and the buffs are based on selection order instead of being completely random, we can see the buffs are as follows:

Selection 1 - Identity Level +2

Selection 2 - SP Gain Efficiency +3

Selection 3 - too blurry for google to translate

Selection 4 - Defense Level +2

Selection 5 - Max Speed +2 (the 5 came from the semi-transparent level 45 number lmao)

Selection 6 - too blurry for google to translate

Selection 7 - Final Power +1

Selection 8 - Damage taken -10%

Selection 9 - this one i'm not too sure on but it might be Aggro +5 (the 45 came from the semi-transparent level 45 number lmao)

Selection 10 - scene cuts away too quickly to read it

In addition to that, some IDs (primarily the Backup selections but also for some reason Faust) get a head start of +10 SP when they join the fight, which is a very nice way to help off-set the issue of having to gain sanity in harder fights to even attempt winning clashes.

Next scene shows us what seems to be the Backup mechanic. It's an admittedly very brief shot that barely shows us anything of how it works, but considering everyone's low sanity and Ishmael's stagger, I'm guessing what happened is two units died and the backup units were put in there in their stead.

An interesting gimmick that honestly feels more lore-accurate than the current system LMAO.

Next up, we get our excerpts from the new Abno Logs. This one, based on the background, is for Portrait of a Certain Day. It's a bit hard to tell who wrote this Log based on the English translation, but it does give an interesting insight onto the Abnormality and by extention its E.G.O, Bygone Days.

Something about taking advantage of deaths through parading mementos of the dead in connection to Yi Sang and Gregor, huh... Gregor is the one who gave Aya's mask to Yuri as a memento, and then proceeded to keep that mask as a memento of Yuri. On the other hand, while Yi Sang personally didn't keep mementos of the League around, both Dongbaek and Dongrang had a strong emotional attachment to the last remaining picture of the League all together. There's something there I think.

Then we get to see the excerpt from Dreaming Electric Sheep's Abno Log. Again, not very clear who's writing this from the English translation. And this is a very interesting excerpt too! This is the clearest connection we get between the Abno and the 'Dreaming' part of its name! I feel like I'd need to see the whole Log to get a better idea of what is being conveyed here, but it is good to see we're getting to see some new angles on the Abno.

BIG SHEEP! It's notable that it's attacking Faust.

And there's Portrait, in all its low bitrate glory! Note that it's attacking Yi Sang.

What follows is two more shots, one of each of the Abnos, and then...

It might hard to see in that glorious 240p low bitrate, but yes. That is, in fact, N Corp Don and N Corp Faust, covered in a purple glow, attacking the Sinners.

And then, the bombshell.

Guys.

These are Envy Peccatula.

Envy Peccatula are doppelgangers.

DO YOU REALIZE HOW HUGE THIS IS FOR SIN ANALYSIS??? Envy is one of those sins we got barely anything on due to its lack of Peccatula, and yet here we are, RR4 gave us a fucking blessing.

Anyway, back to talking about the actual fights themselves, I believe we're going to be dealing with faction-themed Envy Peccatula stages. The one we see in the trailer is N Corp, complete with a relevant background, and in the in the title card we can see Blade Lineage Yi Sang, implying we could get a BL-themed node as well. Notably, these are both factions that have enough IDs to form a full team.

The only other full team ID factions we have are W Corp and Liu Association, so these are also contenders for Envy Peccatula nodes. Seven Association is also possible, as they are only missing one ID from being a full six ID team. We could also potentially get a fraud Pequod Trio that's made up of the Pequod IDs, which would be really funny, but I'm not sure how likely that is.

Back to the trailer itself.

We finally get the Abno Log excerpt for The King in Binds, and it's very evocative in my opinion. The poetic language makes me think that Yi Sang is the one writing this Log.

This seems like an excerpt that's being used to describe a game mechanic - The King in Binds might have a mechanic where he tears himself free from his throne if certain conditions are met. Very interesting considering what we know about the abno.

What follows is some extremely quick and hard to see snippits of The King in Binds attacking Yi Sang. Yes, this is the best frame I could get from it.

Aaaand that's about it!

All in all, extremely excited about the potential Envy lore and fighting against out own units, and I guess the abnos are there too.

#lu speaketh #limbus company #limbus company spoilers #limbus company rr4 #limbus company railway #limbus company analysis #limbus company teaser analysis #refracted railway 4

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littledesertfox · 2 months ago

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Historical Fiction Recommendation

A bit of an unusual post, but I recently learned about the existence of the Desert Peach comic series created by Donna Barr and I need more people to know about it because it's a true gem. A big shoutout goes to @darksideoftwenty who introduced me to this comic, otherwise I may have never even knew that it existed!

To put it simple, the story is about Rommel's fictional gay younger brother called Pfirsich (sidenote, this is literally just the German word for peach and not actually used as a name, but it's still cute😅). He is the leader of a small support unit of the Afrika Korps, which consists mostly of people that are considered "misfits" in other parts of the army. The individual stories consist of all sorts of adventures and shenanigans but also have overarching plot points.

I think it's important to not let yourself fool by the potential first impression with this comic. At first glance, Pfirsich may seem like the absolute stereotype of the effeminate gay man, but there's actually so much more to him. This applies to the other characters too, as the story goes on and we get to know more about them, their personalities just become more and more well-rounded. At least since issue 3 I've been absolutely hooked.

For a comic that was written in the 80s and 90s, I was also extremely impressed how delicately it touches on and handles topics that are still relevant today, and manages to balance chaos and silliness with more serious and darker moments. Of course, not everything may be politically correct by today's standards and you should keep that in mind, but honestly I think there are pieces of media that are far more recent and still did things like this much worse.

The comic is available entirely for free on Webtoon, so if WW2 fiction is something you're into you should definitely give it a try. Apparently there was also a musical made back in the 90s that was based on the comics, but I could barely find anything related to it, I wish there existed recordings😭 Please note that although there aren't really depictions of sensitive content - injuries and (partial) nudity may occur but are usually quite simplified thanks to the art style - but due to the subject matter, it is targeted at adult audiences.

I'm currently at issue 18 and can't wait to continue reading! Here's just one small excerpt showing Pfirsich and Erwin (dancing together and I love how small it makes Erwin look xD), their brother relationship is hilarious and just absolutely adorable <3

#the desert peach #desert peach #donna barr #manfred pfirsich marie rommel #pfirsich rommel #erwin rommel #ww2 #ww2 germany #ww2 history #ww2 fiction #historical fiction #lgbtq #lgbtq comic #reichblr

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averizz · 8 months ago

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⧗⍟ 𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐬 analysis

"but it would've been fun, if you could've been the one" - the 1, taylor swift

one thing that will always keep me up at night is these two. the potential they had, their chemistry, and what could have unfolded if the writers had chosen to pair them up. they've been almost inseparable since they met and were always there for one another when they needed it. grounding each other, how they're always glancing in the other's direction for support or approval, allowing themselves to be vulnerable around each other, heck just the way they look at each other speaks volume. speaking of which, here are a few excerpts from scott lang's book:

"Cap couldn't stop talking about her jaw-dropping exploits on missions"

"And for every war story Cap had about fighting alongside Nat, he had another of her just being, well... alongside at critical and painful moments ... being a comfort during the emotional funeral of Peggy Carter"

they are opposites in ways but perfectly balance each other out. she learned from him the significance of trust and camaraderie and he from her the art of espionage, evading enemies without causing a scene, amongst other things. their dynamic is one of the most popular in the mcu canon and though they weren't meant to be in this universe, i'm glad they became an item in some alternate timelines, like in the next avengers movie starring their son james rogers, and in the ultimate avengers animated movie. don't get me wrong, i loved seeing their friendship develop on screen, but that's not to say that something more couldn't have transpired if their situation had allowed it to.

#marvel #marvel cinematic universe #character study #i will go down with this ship #steve rogers #natasha romanoff #steve x natasha #romanogers #stevenat #captain america #black widow #captasha #capwidow

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lazaefair · 7 months ago

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Stitch lays it out thoroughly, as usual, so there's no commentary I could add that would be better than just quoting what she says. I definitely recommend reading the whole thing, but here are a couple excerpts to give you an idea of the gist.

Excerpt 1:

Let’s return to the myth of preference. In fandom, as with online dating, folks think “preference” is a neutral word that shields them from the mere potential of having to interrogate why they seem to “prefer” white people as their faves. The thing is that this “preference” for white dudes isn’t all that neutral. A “preference” for white men is tied into centuries of racist propaganda that portrays whiteness as an ideal to the point where even people of color have trouble finding themselves or other people of color attractive.

[...]

Of course, that translates to fandom because fandom isn’t born in a vacuum. We don’t leave our ingrained prejudices in “the real world” when we log on to Tumblr or go for a scroll on the AO3. In fact, because many people in fandom curate their timelines to only show them their like-minded faves, they’re more likely to surround themselves with fans who think like they do and fanworks that reinforce the validity of their interests.

Excerpt 2:

Fantasies are just that – fantasies. On their own and in our heads, they can’t directly hurt people, and they provide the pleasure of partaking in the forbidden or the denied. For many people – especially marginalized people in unsafe or unhealthy positions in their daily lives – fantasies are all they have, and that’s important. However, in fandom spaces, fantasies don’t stay in people’s head, and they’re never on their own no matter what nonsense we fed about fandom and fiction not influencing/being influenced by reality. These fantasies come loaded with expectations, prior knowledge, stereotypes, trauma, politics, and a whole bunch of other stuff from the person fantasizing as well as other people who are aware of the fantasy. They get turned into fanworks that get thousands of views and hundreds of readers. After all, nothing we do or like or create is formed in a vacuum. In fandom spaces, fantasies that either exclude people of color entirely or reformat them as stereotypes for easy consumption (erotic and otherwise), are harmful because they are put forward without any awareness to a potential audience of thousands.

#fandom racism

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kimberleyjean · 3 months ago

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What did Adam change? (Part 1)

To follow up on my recent reblog about the baby swap, I'm going to take a closer look at Adam where we leave him at the end of S1. Because, by the end of S1, Adam had changed quite a few things... and I'm going to use both the TV show and the book to provide evidence.

To become the Young's real son, I don't think Adam really needed to change all that much. He just says the words to Satan, Satan disappears, and that should be it, right? But no, because Adam goes much further, and I think he does it because he can.

Because Adam has opinions, you see. Opinions on how the world should be and what he wants to happen. Except, unlike Agnes, who needs to write a prophecy and then wait 300 years for her descendant to enact it, Adam can just make it so.

The Other Two Babies

I originally thought about putting all the things Adam changes into a single post, but instead I'm going to make this a short series of posts, because he changes a fair bit. Let's start with where we left off with the baby swap, crack open a copy of the book and discuss the changes for Warlock and Greasy first.

Warlock

Here's some excerpts of Warlock flying home from Megiddo to America (my bolds for emphasis):

It was Sunday afternoon. High over England a 747 droned westwards. In the first-class cabin a boy called Warlock put down his comic and stared out of the window.

...

And now he was going back to the States. There had been some sort of problem with tickets or flights or airport destination-boards or something. It was weird; he was pretty sure his father had meant to go back to England. Warlock liked England. It was a nice country to be an American in.

...

And Warlock flew on to America. He deserved something (after all, you never forget the first friends you ever had, even if you were all a few hours old at the time) and the power that was controlling the fate of all mankind at that precise time was thinking: Well, he's going to America, isn't he? Don't see how you could have anythin' better than going to America. They've got thirty-nine flavors of ice cream there. Maybe even more.

So it's Adam who has sent Warlock back to America, despite Warlock wanting (even, expecting) to be on his way to England. And he's controlling the fate of all mankind.

Greasy

Likewise, he has changes for Greasy Johnson too (the discarded baby who grows up to win prizes for his tropical fish).

The plane was at that point passing right above the Lower Tadfield bedroom of Greasy Johnson, who was aimlessly leafing through a photography magazine that he'd bought merely because it had a rather good picture of a tropical fish on the cover. A few pages below Greasy's listless finger was a spread on American football, and how it was really catching on in Europe. Which was odd… because when the magazine had been printed, those pages had been about photography in desert conditions. It was about to change his life.

Adam is deciding here how to alter Warlock and Greasy's paths. Warlock wants to be back in the UK, but Adam thinks America is better, while Greasy's magazine is changed to American football, which I guess is implying he's going to become an American footballer.

Now, not everyone may be aware, but these parts weren't in the first release of the novel. It only came about later, in the American edition. Apparently the changes were in response to prompting from the American editor, but they got "carried away" making those changes (source).

Season 3 (warning: speculation)

So, do you think this could be relevant for S3? For me personally, the fact that these bits were added later makes me wonder if this was helping to set up for a potential sequel. It's certainly poetic - just like the baby swap that originally involved all three, we are now implying a potential adolescent swap of Greasy, who is interested in American football, and Warlock, who is interested to return to the U.K.

If you've read at all about the hypothetical plot of the proposed written sequel, you'll know that it involved a trip to America, ostensibly to look for a lost Jesus. So, if the next book was originally meant to be about going and finding someone (Jesus?) in America, then Greasy or Warlock could make sense. It would be a switcheroo all over again if Warlock had left for the UK and Greasy for America.

Another alternative is that all three could end up converging in America, since Warlock already lives there and both Adam and Greasy have interests in going there. But if that's the intention, why mention that Warlock wants to be back "home" in the U.K.?

So, those are my possible takes on how this passage can be interpreted. I know there are some theories that either Greasy or Warlock may be the Second Coming. I've also seen a theory now that Adam himself could be a contender (both spawn of Satan and spawn of God - it'd certainly be interesting!). I'm not placing bets on any of these outcomes just yet.

In addition to this passage in the book, we also see some interesting changes made by Adam which are featured more prominently in the show - one's that have implications for the ineffable husbands.

Part 2 coming soon!

Thanks as always to everyone at the @ineffable-detective-agency (including @noneorother, @embracing-the-ineffable, @lookingatacupoftea, @251-dmr, @somehow-a-human, @maufungi, @havemyheartaziraphale, @theastrophysicistnextdoor, @dunkthebiscuit, @komorezuki, & @ghstptats).

#good omens #good omens meta #go meta #adam young #good omens s1 #warlock #greasy johnson #the baby swap #the adolescent swap?#good omens speculation

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sugoi-and-spice · 11 months ago

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Ask of me debauchery....

...and you shall fucking receive.

Step by Step: A Gecko’s Guide to Becoming a Really Bad Person

Part One

Rating: Explicit - Minors DNI!!!

Summary: In which, Bully!Reader manipulates Step-Bro!Spinner sexually in increasingly demeaning ways. And eventually, he asks his good ol’ pal Tomura Shigaraki for help.

CW: Step-brother, Dub-Con, Blackmail, Bullying, Mean Reader, Male Masturbation, Oral Sex, Spinner has two dicks, Step-cest, Monster-fucking, AU - No League of Villains

A/N: I predict people are gonna be maaaaaad about this one and I'm all for it lol

Like my work? Please consider commissioning me or contributing to my Ko-Fi!

Read Full Chapter on AO3

[excerpt]

Her step-brother, Shuichi Iguchi, was a fucking loser. She knew it from the moment she saw him. And not in a prejudiced way or anything, it wasn’t because he was a heteromorph. After all, she has plenty of heteromorph friends (none quite as extreme as him, but still!)

No, it was all the other things she noticed about him when he walked into the family restaurant with his Dad the first day they met. The way he carried himself, slouching and fidgeting endlessly, unable to decide if he should cross his arms, put them in his pockets, or keep them at his side. The way he dressed, a ridiculously faded crewneck, baggy cargo pants, and a freebie League of Legends snapback that only served to further curtain his greasy long hair in his face. When she actually managed to grab a glimpse of his eyes through the locks, it was only for a second, and they were constantly shifting, dropping, unspeakably nervous.

Even in a casual setting, he looked completely out of place. He practically jumped anytime anyone asked him the most basic of questions like “how’s school”, “what do you want to drink”, “can you pass the soy sauce”. It was like he’d just been dragged out of his bedroom for the first time in five years — and she wouldn’t have been surprised if that was the case.

She also wouldn’t have been surprised if this was the first time he’d ever been this close to a girl before, as he always looked especially panicked anytime he realized she was glancing at him, so she didn’t even really bother trying to talk to him that night, focussing instead on getting to know he future step-father — who seemed like an overall decent guy.

At the very least, Iguchi seemed to understand his status well. When she entered high school — the same one as him — he didn’t try to walk with her to or from school, didn’t try and talk to her, basically pretended like they didn’t even know each other, which she appreciated. She would’ve hated to have to be a bitch and tell him to get lost in front of all her new high school friends and potentially be reprimanded by her Mom to prove a point (of course, she would’ve if she had to).

Yes, her new step-brother was a fucking loser, someone she wouldn’t be caught dead talking to, let alone spending any meaningful time with in public.

And yet somehow, she was completely infatuated with him.

She loved the way his skin looked, the different viridescent shades it took on depending on what angle or lighting she saw it in. She loved even more the way it felt, the times when his hands brushed against hers when he handed her a bowl or she bumped shoulders with him, cool and impossibly smooth with a texture so different from her own. She’d wanted to run her hand across every inch of it, to feel every difference. Just imagining it pressing and rubbing all across her own body had her gasping into her pillow for hours.

She didn’t know how the fuck it happened. It would’ve been great if she did, because maybe she could make it unhappen then. But nope, the harder she tried to understand it, the further away the answer seemed to get.

Maybe it was because he was so different from her or anyone else she would ever actually consider dating. Had their parents not gotten married, she never would’ve let herself give Iguchi the time of day. But within the walls of this family home, she was able to enjoy and explore him to her heart’s content. She was inquisitive by nature. Her friends called it sadistic, but she saw it as just wanting to see how far she could take things. And the desire to do so to Shuichi Iguchi was no different. He was so sweet and so shy, so eager to please or be invisible to everyone around him.

She wanted to see where that ended, what exact buttons she could press to get him to actually snap at her.

It started with little things at first, innocent things. Asking him to do her chores, her homework, even her shopping, yet he could never say no to her. Not even when she asked him to go buy her a set of lacy lingerie she was wanting. He actually fucking did it — handing the little pink boutique bag out to her without looking her in the eye, his skin flushed all the way down to his neck. Oh, she knew then that he was going to be fun .

That with him, she could really get… creative.

Flirting with him shamelessly, hanging out on his bed in nothing but a pair of panties and a tank top she’d stolen from him while he played video games, throwing her legs over his lap during family movie nights, pretending she didn’t notice how warm and fidgety it made him while she continued to move her calves back and forth across his crotch.

There came a point when she thought that maybe the guy was just unbreakable, that he really didn’t have a single impure thought about her in his head and that this wasn’t a game, but just an infuriating (not to mention insulting ) exercise in futility.

But then, late one night, through the thin wall they shared, she heard it. The sound of flesh against flesh, muffled grunts.

Her name, breathy but distinctive, on his tongue.

Shuichi Iguchi, her dear, perfectly behaved, and endlessly timid older step-brother, was in his bed, jacking off.

Imagining her .

And it wasn’t a one time incident either. She listened closely in the following days, and discovered that it was a nightly occurrence, that she was a nightly occurrence to him. And it wasn’t long before she joined him in his fantasizing, spending night after night pressed as close into the wall as she could get, imagining that that stupid piece of plaster dividing their beds was gone, as she fingered herself to sleep.

It should’ve gotten easier after that, she should’ve been able to extend her patience knowing that it was an actual possibility now. But if anything, it made the burn within her even worse, knowing that it was so close yet so far out of reach. She didn’t just want this, she fucking needed this. But it’s not like she could let him know that. She couldn’t let him think that she wanted it, that she wanted him . She needed it to seem like mercy.

She needed to have the upperhand.

So, she started setting traps. Things she could use against him, to get him into the palm of her hand, a place where he didn’t say no just because he didn’t want to say no, but so that he couldn’t say no. She asked him to get things from her room and left sex toys out, wore skimpier and skimpier outfits that she could catch him staring at her in, left her phone out so that he could read her lewd messages to other boys at school.

Yet still, nothing.

Iguchi didn’t step a single clawed toe out of line outside of the four walls of his bedroom. He was the perfectly polite older brother that she knew and hated to love.

It wasn’t until she wasn’t even trying to trap him that he finally took the bait.

Continue on AO3

#shuichi iguchi #shuichi iguchi x reader #iguchi shuichi x reader #iguchi shuichi #smut #mha #my hero academia #bnha #boku no hero academia #cw dubcon #cw stepcest #cw bullying #darkfic #mha x reader #bnha x reader #my hero academia x reader #cw monsterfucking

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eddiediazismyhusband · 4 months ago

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Make Me Write:

Once again bringing back this game, but this time i’m including newer wips/fics i haven’t worked on in a while instead of some of the more prominent ones— send me an ask w one of the emojis from the list below and i’ll reply with an excerpt from the related fic!

☢️ - Overpressure

While Buck and Eddie argue over whether or not they should tell the others about their relationship, an earthquake causes a nearby nuclear power station to experience a partial meltdown, causing an explosion and ensuing fire that could potentially lead to another explosion releasing radioactive material into the atmosphere over LA. When Buck is injured and possibly contaminated by radiation, Eddie is forced to reexamine his feelings on their relationship. Meanwhile, Maddie faces mounting pressure at dispatch after being promoted to a supervisor position, while Athena struggles to find a missing teen before time runs out.

🖼️ - 2002

When Evan Buckley returns to El Paso for the funeral of Isabel Diaz, he is reunited with his childhood best friend Eddie Diaz— the man who he had been in love with since they were in middle school before their falling out in their senior year. Now a single father and high school Spanish teacher, Eddie is initially cold towards Buck, but as Buck reminisces over his years living in El Paso, he and Eddie slowly begin to repair their friendship; soon discovering that some things never change no matter how long it’s been— and some feelings remained dormant, just waiting to be reawoken.

📱 - Conflict of Interest

When Christopher is sent to a new counselor after Eddie faced yet another near death experience, Eddie is faced with an immediate attraction to the young “Dr. Buck.” While he comes to terms with these newfound feelings, as well as his recent near death experience, and mounting pressure from his family to find a new girlfriend after he had broken up with his amidst his post-traumatic breakdown, he joins an anonymous online support group for individuals who have been involved in near-death experiences where he encounters user EBSeal92 who he quickly forms a deep connection with through the screen.

😰 - My eyes! MY EYES!!

While showing Bobby (Hen and Karen tagging along since Athena was on shift) a unit that Ravi owns across the street from Buck’s loft, Ravi and Karen encounter a secret about the nature of Buck and Eddie’s relationship in possibly the most uncomfortable way possible— when Hen swears them both to secrecy, informing them that only she and Chimney know, Ravi suggests that they get back in some way. While Chimney and Hen do their best to stay out of it, Karen and Ravi try to hatch a scheme to get the boys to break, all while Bobby is just trying to get an apartment. (Inspired by “The One Where Everybody Finds Out” from Friends)

#911 abc #911 #911 on abc #eddie diaz #evan buckley #buddie #buddie 911 #buck and eddie #911 buddie #buddie ao3 #ao3 buddie #ao3 wip

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burningvelvet · 1 year ago

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My analysis on Heathcliff and his relationships, and some interesting excerpts from Juliet McMaster's "The Courtship and Honeymoon of Mr. and Mrs. Linton Heathcliff: Emily Brontë's Sexual Imagery" via JSTOR (TW: abuse, sa/sexual violence, generally graphic and potentially triggering content)

*note: I've had half of this in my drafts for a while. My last reblog, which discusses Heathcliff's lack of attraction to Cathy II, inspired me to finally expand on & post it. That reblog is here: https://www.tumblr.com/burningvelvet/738896230943522816

Cathy II is one of my favorite characters and I think her dynamic with Heathcliff is fascinating. I would say that while he may not be attracted to her (indeed, he sometimes seems repulsed by her) his behavior toward her IS explicitly predatory as it includes lying to her, manipulating her, physically abusing her, kidnapping her, and forcing her into a marriage in which he helped to seduce her with love letters under his son's name.

Combine this with his behavior toward his wife Isabella, in which sexual violence may be easily inferred as he says Isabella hated him a day into their marriage (and sure, some people conceive on the first try, but what are the odds? and the concept of marital rape didn't legally exist back then) — not to mention Heathcliff calling her a slut (sexually violent epithet* *editing this post to say that "slut" was a mainly gendered term, but in Brontë's time it didn't have today's more sexualized meaning; for most of history it primarily meant "slovenly" aka messy/careless), and both of them vaguely referring to heinous abuses she undergoes in private (and what could be worse than what we already know about his treatment of his subordinates). With how determined he was to get a male heir, and that being the whole reason why he married her, it is not much of a stretch to assume that he bedded her multiple times until she showed signs of pregnancy. It is a very easy thing to infer actually.

He was probably as insulting and as violent (or at the very least, cold) with her in bed as he always was in every other aspect from the very start of their relationship. As they both confirm that she receives his abuse openly (until her escape), and as she wishes to be a "good wife," she likely did not struggle to avoid her "marital duties," but again, she clearly hates him for most of her marriage, and we learn that she despises him immediately after their marriage when the veil finally fully drops. And with how upfront with her he initially was about his intentions, and how his own verbal admissions + outright verbal abuse failed to quell her desire for him initially, what more than physical and especially sexual violence could have led Isabella to despise him so soon after their consummation? Their sexual experiences couldn't have gone splendidly for her, and for him it was likely a mechanical chore he likely resented and was therefore probably not delicate with (he hates delicacy anyway).

Yet, while Heathcliff is violent and predatory (in the colloquial as well as the primal, animalistic sense, as he is always related to nature even in his very name), he also contains hints of a long-buried goodness, as we all know, and this is what makes him a fascinating protagonist. He has a capacity for strong feeling, a deliberate if not faulty moral code, and he sometimes shows kindness accidentally.

This is why Heathcliff catching baby Hareton is such a pivotal moment in the story, because it is only after he saves his life that he actually realizes what he's done and then muses that he should've let the child die. This scene shows that his natural subconscious instinct is actually good, and that his external situations are what have shaped his darker impulses on the conscious level. In other words, he causes us to examine the nature vs nurture debate.

Despite later abusing him, Heathcliff sees Hareton as a son-like figure in his own twisted way, and in the end as he loses his life forces, he gives Hareton and Cathy II his blessings like a father would — he essentially is Hareton's father, and he is legally Cathy II's father-in-law, first through his son Linton and then we could say through his unofficial adoption of Hareton, who he says he would have preferred as a son. So Cathy II has Heathcliff as a sort of double father figure, though of course she would never accept this.

At one point, Heathcliff notes that he takes good care not to do anything that could be proven to be criminal or illegal. In his usual exactness, he was pretty much right. He is always tip-toeing the line of immorality: in the gothic literary tradition, his relationship with Cathy I has incestuous undertones, but they are not legally or biologically related, and so he skates by.

He declares that he has no regrets and that he's done nothing wrong by technical standards. Manipulating, lying, mental and physical abuse of one's financial dependents, and marital rape (hypothetical or not) were all within legal bounds for the most part, and even the forced marriage of Linton H./Cathy II was done through the process of emotional blackmail (and physical evidence in the form of her love letters) so that in his mind, he wasn't actually responsible.

However, Heathcliff may have reasoned that sexually abusing one's daughter-in-law in revenge may be in violation of the law; that he would gain severe detraction from his "slaves" Nelly, Hareton, even Joseph; and that if such a huge scandal broke out, he would have a harder time finding tenants, etc. — also, I don't think Heathcliff would have felt like he "needed" to sexually abuse Cathy II to get revenge against her/her family, because as he says, at that point he already has his revenge and his victory; he already has her lands, and degrades her every day by forcing her to be a servant and a slave, and by abusing her in every other way. Sexually abusing her would be an extra effort on his part.

And I don't think he would gain anything out of it aside from revenge. I don't really think Heathcliff has much sexual interest in anyone at all, probably not due to inborn asexuality but due to his depression, trauma, emotional repression, and general issues. Although he and Cathy I have an extremely passionate spiritual relationship, I can't say that I believe he ever experienced fully actualized/conscious sexual feelings even for her. Considering their youth and rocky position when he leaves her for his hiatus, and the very brief period of their reunion, their relationship was likely never "consummated" — or at least I see no hard textual evidence to suggest that it was, although I'm sure many people could probably argue against this. And regardless of whether or not he and Cathy I ever had a physically sexual relationship, I don't think he could ever really be seriously attracted to anyone but her.

But in order to get his revenge, he did bed Isabella likely multiple times until her pregnancy. And as McMaster demonstrates below, by encouraging Cathy II to marry his son — and quite literally seducing her himself by writing love letters to her under his son's name — Heathcliff essentially beds her by proxy, if not in actuality. He wants her property, and he wants her, and because his son is the same age as her and dying, he decides to use him as the perfect pawn to access her by

If Linton H. died before he could be married to Cathy II, would Heathcliff have attempted to marry Cathy II on his own? I think this is a fascinating topic to theorize about, and I can only assume the answer would be yes, because Hareton wouldn't have worked as a pawn, though perhaps Heathcliff would have simply manipulated Hareton to sign over Cathy II's inheritance to him instead (as the laws of marital coverture meant husbands were entitled to 100% of their wives money/property/inheritance). But at that point Heathcliff was still looking for revenge (and therefore may not have been adverse to getting it like he did in his first marriage with Isabella), and he may not have wanted to be financially responsible for the newly weds and their potential offspring, or to suffer legal repercussions if Cathy II or someone else convinced Hareton to hire a lawyer lol. But I digress.

And as the last quote in the following list demonstrates, I think it was not only a touch of the gothic incest theme that Emily was going for by having Lockwood assume Cathy II is Heathcliff's wife, but that it was intentionally symbolic of how weird and difficult-to-define their relationship is: they don't act like father and daughter in-laws, but he is legally her provider and in-house patriarch, and she is the lady of the house, and she is the closest thing to her mother he has. I could write whole essays about that last point & the similarities of both Catherines, such as their fearlessness, particularly toward Heathcliff (and I believe this makes him uncomfortable and even scares him at times).

---

Excerpts from Juliet McMaster's "The Courtship and Honeymoon of Mr. and Mrs. Linton Heathcliff: Emily Brontë's Sexual Imagery" via JSTOR:

"Linton is called at one point 'only a feeble tool to his father' (205). In the sexual context he becomes a sort of human dildo, which his father uses to rape and degrade the second Catherine, the child bride whose birth caused the death of the Catherine whom Heathcliff loved."

"'Making love in play, eh?' says Heathcliff of the young couple, with grim jocularity (188). And that is the way in which Bronte develops this courtship of juveniles."

"Heathcliff even writes half of Linton's love letters for him, so that they turn out 'singularly odd compounds of ardour and flatness,' 'copious love letters, foolish as the age of the writer rendered natural, yet with touches, here and there, which I thought were borrowed from a more experienced source' (182), records Nelly. Catherine is being wooed by son and father together. And when the time comes, the marriage is consummated by the same team."

"[Linton] takes his pleasure, when Catherine pushes him off, in summoning his father and in witnessing the physical domination of his bride [..]"

"After Heathcliff abducts and incarcerates young Catherine and her attendant, he keeps our narrator, Nelly, imprisoned for 'five nights and four days' (220). Meanwhile the marriage ceremony is performed, but we have no one to describe it for us."

"'She's not to go; we won't let her' [..] Now more than ever Linton's life and opinions are ruled by his father: he can do little more than parrot what 'he says.' If Linton's satisfied mein suggests the happy bridegroom, his role as husband, lord and master is shared with his father."

"Heathcliff testifies, 'I heard him draw a pleasant picture to Zillah of what he would do [to Catherine], if he were as strong as I. The inclination is there' (228). Linton evidently has a conception of himself and his father as complementary in this sexual context, part of a team."

"Heathcliff's appropriation of the property and physical abuse of the bride leaves her in effect deflowered. His brutal blow that makes the blood flow recalls his symbolic defloration of Isabella, Linton's mother, when he hurls the knife."

"[Heathcliff] won't listen to Nelly's pleas that since he hates the young couple he may as well let them stay at the Grange. 'I want my children about me, to be sure,' he answers with chilling irony; '—besides, that lass owes me her services for her bread' (227). One wonders what sort of 'services' he has in mind. He apparently intends to prolong the honeymoon at which he has assisted. And as he takes her away, there is some doubt, as in Lockwood's mind at the beginning of the novel, whether Catherine is Heathcliff's daughter-in-law or his bride [..]"

Source: McMaster, Juliet. “The Courtship and Honeymoon of Mr. and Mrs. Linton Heathcliff: Emily Brontë's Sexual Imagery.” Victorian Review, vol. 18, no. 1, 1992, pp. 1–12. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27794707.

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splendsay · 3 months ago

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COD FIC // Callsign: Sunshine // Ch. 32: There's Always a Cost

ayeee a lil friday triple POV les goooo

(um this took me forever and I'm sorry for it BUT I HOPE IT WAS WORTH THE WAIT)

..................................................................

Callsign: Sunshine // Chapter 32: There's Always a Cost

!!MDNI!!

Chapters: 32/? WC: 77,226 Pairing(s): TF141 x Reader (You) Chapter Warnings: Explicit language, canon-typical violence, guns Chapter Excerpt:

You'd gone, and with you, some of the tension between his shoulder blades. He'd heard the telltale distant roar of an engine turning over, so he knew. You'd made it to the Jeep. You were gone. You were safe. You'd stay safe. You could take care of yourself, he knew that. You'd get yourself to safety. Wait for him.

He couldn't bear the thought of you potentially putting yourself in harm's way. Not for him. To stay with him. No. No, as much as he hated to part from you -- to have you out of his sight -- he wouldn't stand for your endangerment.

He hadn't known exactly what to think when he'd heard the crack in the woods. Just that it was worth being exceedingly cautious. He wasn't taking any chances. Not with you. It had been too loud a noise -- echoed too much. Whatever had cracked had been too big for a deer or a wildcat to break on their own.

No it was something bigger. A group of bigger somethings moving closely together.

A horde.

He'd just had this idea -- this sense -- that something like this would happen. Of course. As soon as you were off the estate and in the field, shit would go awry. Because that's how it always goes.

He hadn't wanted you to come. Hadn't said as much to you, of course. He knew it was important for you to regain some of your independence as you healed. Knew that he had to let you out of the house every now and again. But God, it burned him. It burned him to knowingly risk your life, even if it was what you wanted. Even if the risk seemed minor.

It's not that he doesn't think you capable of taking care of yourself -- in most circumstances, you are. But...the fact is, these aren't normal circumstances. Between the hordes and Makarov and God knows what else, the circumstances are decidedly fucked. And you're small. You're still recovering from your captivity. You're a risk.

He can't lose you again. He just can't.

He holds his rifle against his shoulder as he clears the campsite, slowly walking across the hilltop toward the tree line, scanning the area around him. He sees them now. At least a dozen or so about twenty kilometers away. They don't see him -- not yet. They're just...migrating, it looks like.

But then he hears an engine rev. He stops -- and turns -- to see you cresting the hill in the Jeep, braids whipping around your face, wearing a manic grin as you beeline straight for him.

The blood in his veins freezes solid.

He'd just gotten you back. Just begun to put all your pieces back together.

The zombies hear you too. As you maneuver your way back to the campsite -- to him, they begin to barrel across the moors, moving at a clip they shouldn't be capable of. As thought their limbs are piloted by an outside force. Grotesque marionettes on a stage of flattened grass.

Panic slams through him. His blood thaws enough for his limbs to function and he starts sprinting toward you, rifle raised and ready if any of the zombies make it within a few feet of you. But he needn't bother. You've got your pistol in one hand, wheel of the Jeep in the other as you whip the whole fucking thing 180 degrees and start charging in their direction. As though you might singlehandedly protect him from them. His brain seizes with alarm.

He catches the brief flare of bright light as you take a shot, the sound taking a second to hit him. Then another. And another. A couple zombies go down, but the horde is bigger than he'd first thought. Now there are least three dozen emerging from the woods, even more further down the hill.

Fuck.

You seem to realize the same thing he does and you turn back, racing toward him again -- to pick him up. He readies himself to jump in the car. You duck down for a second -- to unlatch the door and shove it open with something long and wooden -- a ball bat. One of the many random objects the two of you managed to pilfer from the village.

The door swings wide as you pop back up, pistol back in your hand, eyes wild and glimmering. You slow a little as you approach, allowing him to grab hold of the frame and hoist himself up and in, slamming the door behind him.

"Fucking hell, Ace," he growls.

"No time for scolding -- zombies to kill," you say with a grimace. You stick your tongue through your teeth as you throw the car into a higher gear and power across the field toward the woods. The zombies are everywhere now, rumbling and moaning and spitting.

"Ace!"

Simon tries to ignore the roaring in his ears and just starts firing shots. He takes down about a dozen as you drive through a mass of them. He can't tell how many you've hit with your own shots, but you've fired as many as he has. They're swarming now, bouncing off the jeep with dull, hollow thuds that clang through him. The smell is horrific this close -- foul and otherworldly -- death warmed up. Lips hang off teeth, ribs protrude from sallow, gray skin. Bloodshot, glassy eyes glare from beneath heavy, atrophied brows.

It's a form of death no living thing should ever have to endure.

"We need to get the fuck out of here!" he yells.

"We can take them!"

"ACE!"

You grumble something incoherent and jerk the wheel, downshifting so you can turn. He clings to the frame with one hand and leans into the turn, groaning at the force of it. You swipe the Jeep through a group of them and let out a frightened yelp, shaking your left arm -- pain from your healing hand, maybe.

"Ace!"

You don't answer right away, but you straighten the wheel and shift back into gear, your knees bouncing with the movement of your feet.

"We have to bury them!" you screech. You sound frenzied. Unhinged.

"We don't have time!"

"We can take them!"

"It's not worth it, Ace, let's get out of here!"

"It is, it is, it is worth it!"

His vision blurs suddenly with frantic, panicked anger. Frustration. Why won't you fucking listen?

The words are out before he even has a chance to think about them. "Forget the fucking bodies! Get us out of here now, Sunshine, that is an order!"

..................................................................... Links to: Spotify Playlist Full Fic

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003soy · 9 months ago

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Kat’s Character Overanalysis of Murasaki

⚠️ WARNING ⚠️

The content below may exhibit multiple instances of confirmation bias due to over a year of brain rotting.

Do not proceed if you dislike excessive analysis of characters that only appear in official tweets and random merchandise.

I treat this guy like an oc so don’t be mean to me ok 💔 just my headcanons and personal observations!!!

Viewer discretion is advised…

Ok so I'm going to start with the basic stuff (i.e. inkipedia)

From 2015-2018(?) Murasaki was the drummer for the band Squid Squad. He was the youngest member of the group.

While this excerpt from Inkipedia may seem small, there are a lot of traits described here that can be further analyzed (if you have nothing better to do)

The Squid Research Lab describes him as rough around the edges.

The term "rough around the edges" is used to describe something that has small imperfections, but is generally good. When describing a person it can mean someone who is unsophisticated or impolite. In this instance, "rough around the edges" could be describing Murasaki's drumming skills as he's said to have potential, but he also needs some practice.

this characterization was probably made to resemble his appearance as well! (sea urchins don't have very smooth edges...)

2. Murasaki is referred to as a wild child.

A "wild child" is usually someone (likely a young person) who is headstrong, rebellious, and/or uncontrollable. To me, this info matches nicely with the impolite interpretation of the phrase "rough around the edges."

3. From here, it sort of goes on about his playing which I sort of addressed in the first point. Basically, he has a natural gift in drumming because he has a good sense of rhythm, and despite lacking in technique, he always tries his best.

4. He is prone to crying

The Squid Research Lab states that he could be caught crying during a drum solo which goes to show how much effort he puts into his playing :). I feel like this part tends to override his other traits in fan stuff (if he gets included at all). I personally view this as a subversive aspect of his personality. Normally he has an abrasive personality because of the rebelliousness and lack of manners, but he is also a sentimental person and his emotions are expressed through tears even if he isn’t sad (samee). Think of how urchins have a spiky hard external shell that hides soft uni inside of it ok...

5. Energetic

I know the energy think is probably referring to his playing style, but I picture him to be a fidgety person who doesn't like to stand still. I guess it matches with the wild child thing.

6. He's the youngest

Expains the previous behavior. rude + rebellious + more talent than practice. teenager.

Moving onto other sources! Bye Inkipedia...

Here is the original japanese text of the Squid Research Lab info on twitter. Yes, I know google translate isn't that accurate, but I think it's interesting and deepl says something similar as well.

7. Ignoring the strange grammar, Murasaki is additionally described as mischievous (やんちゃ?). Definition: playful in a naughty or teasing way or troublesome/irritating.

I guess this was translated into the wild child in the english version because I'm assuming the term in japanese refers to more childish behavior. I think the word mischievous is easier to understand though since I've never heard the term wild child before. Anyway, he's silly.

8. I sort of glossed over this in the english version but apparently he can take the lead when it matters most. In english, the phrasing kinda made this confusing. I thought they were just saying words lol. Anyway, this ties in with him trying his best while in the band + being compassionate/sentimental.

topic-adjacent kinda. I've seen people interpret this in a sort of sad way, but I interpret this as him being mischievous! I think he's walking towards them to scare them. The little star next to his head reminds me of the animal crossing mischief emote.

another bonus thing because it shows that hes silly. a silly goose. I think he likes to doodle.

God I haven't even gotten to the splatune articles yet...

yeah this kinda repeats what I already said but here it says his playing fits well with Ichiya. I think that both of them are kinda similar. Both are sort of lacking in technique but make up for it in other areas. Both have ADHD (lying). To me, Murasaki is if an asshole turned out to be kind, and Ichiya is if a kind person turned out to be an asshole. #crazy

Splatune 1! No more numbered list I forgot what number I was on :)

Cool and edgy urchin

I have no idea what that means. Ok.

Cool means cool.

I don’t know if they mean edgy in the internet way because ???... Anyway, edgy can mean: 1. tense, nervous, or irritable, 2. trend setting, daring, or provocative. I think the word choice was for the sake of an urchin pun.

I think they meant to convey the second definition by saying hes cool and unconventional (I don't think it makes sense to say someone is cool and nervous in the same sentence). Kind of matches with being rough around the edges. I like to apply the first definition sometimes though. I like to stress him out.

he boldly pushes up to the front like a blaster

information about his drum playing is information about his personality! this relates to his previously described energetic playing. I like how this sort of frames him as unusual compared to other drummers. It shows how his playing style relates to his character... energetic, headstrong, he can lead the way if necessary. all things previously stated.

mean to him :(

I think this is trying to say how the others keep him around even though he doesn't match the theme. They keep him around because he looks cool? (this information is probably useless because machine translator. grain of salt)

very brief splatune 3 cameo

can drink in bars now? (old...)

likes to talk in circles (old...)

looks depressed now. aware of the horrors... evil leg bouncer...

thats it for official stuff i think. I like to add on bonus traits to him during the front roe era, but yeag ✌️

#what a cute character design does to a mf #idk #sorry for typos #my old headcanons

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somepsychopomp · 6 months ago

Text

Come Home To Me pt. 1

i still feel so fucking insane right now. Today I drafted the first chapter of my Edling royal marriage fic where Ling is down insanely badly and wants to have Ed all to himself. i'd make up a better summary if my brain wasn't a withered husk rn but i did my best. This and future updates will probs be posted to my ao3.

Excerpt:

“Edward Elric,” Shen repeated, stroking his beard, “For what purpose must we seek him out?”

The Emperor’s smile widened. “I’m going to make him my Empress, of course.”

(word count: 4,442)

+++

Edward was glad to be returning to Resembool.

The day was beautiful, the sky clear and brilliant blue. The rolling fields passed by his train window as he ached for a hot meal at Granny’s table.

He was tired after a long stint of nonstop field world, and in heavy need of some deep cleaning on his automail, but couldn’t be happier. He had a suitcase stuffed full of research notes and plenty of good anecdotes to share. He didn’t yet know if he’d publish his findings, but he had someone looking forward to seeing them.

Ed had spent the last four months in the northeasternmost fringes of Amestris, basically living out in the desert with minimal contact with civilization. He wasn’t opposed to the hard work, though. Not when the potential knowledge was so tantalizing.

He functioned as the alchemical expert for a group of archaeologists from Central. They found fragments of Xerxesian architecture buried in the desert and with them, signs of alchemy. When Ed arrived at the site, it was little more than a bunch of holes dug into the heavy sand and some scraps of stone the archaeologists and their students found.

Ed turned an archaeological graveyard into an oasis. He found the proof that approximately nine centuries ago, Xerxes had a small outpost near what was now the border of Amestris. The older researchers on the team proposed it was a trading hub or colony. Ed had reason to believe it was some kind of remote lab, so experimental alchemy could be conducted safely away from the main populace of Xerxes.

He wasn’t going to stick around long enough to fight for his point, though. He’d seen what he’d wanted to see and learned what he set out to learn. He was going to be proven right, eventually. So it didn’t matter if he stuck around or not. Even though Ed had done his part and even though the majority team begged him to stay on, promising him additional pay, he knew it was time to come home.

Alphonse would already be waiting for him, after all. And it’d been almost ten months since they'd last seen each other.

Ed felt the little warm flurry in his chest grow with excitement. Yeah, they were both adults now, it felt natural for them to want to do their own things. And they did, planning their own trips in pursuit of their individual interests. But they were still brothers and he couldn’t wait to see Alphonse again.

Not that he’d ever admit it to Al’s face, but Ed still kept a beaten up copy of Alphonse’s first published research paper in the lining of his suitcase, ready to shove it into the face of anyone who dared to not call Alphonse Elric the greatest alchemist currently alive.

And admittedly, doing so made Ed feel painfully like the late Maes Hughes. Maybe he finally understood why a man would be possessed to carry documentation of his family everywhere he went.

But that was all behind him now. As all things came to an end, so did his voyage. The train pulled into the station and Ed jumped off the very second he was able to, hauling his heft suitcase in one arm as he ran for the waiting figure on the platform.

“Brother!”

Ed smiled. The two of them embraced and it really did feel like coming home.

“I didn’t keep you waiting long, did I?”

Alphonse laughed. He looked about the same as before their split. Still so tall, still so strongly built. A happy far cry from the emaciated body Ed pulled out of the gate. It was insane, how Alphonse looked so much like their dad now. And he imagined that when Al looked at him, he saw Hohenheim in Ed’s face, too. As much as Ed was loath to imagine it.

Al kept his hair short as well, while Ed’s had only gotten longer and longer. Alphonse noticed, of course he did, and waved around the end of Ed’s braid.

“Are you ever going to cut this thing?”

“Never.”

Trisha Elric had long hair, so Edward Elric had long hair. Though maybe at this point, his was longer than even hers had been. It was getting hard to remember now. In his faint and watercolored childhood memories, it didn’t matter how long his hair was because hers always seemed longer. He was sure if he looked at one of Granny’s old photos of her, he’d see differently.

Funny, how the mind played tricks like that.

Alphonse tried and failed to take Ed’s suitcase as they walked to the Rockbell household. Ed swatted his hand away.

“Just let me carry it, Al. It’s heavy.”

“That’s more reason why I should take it. You’ve lugged it across the countryside, why don’t you let yourself rest for once?”

Ed blew the stray hairs from his eyes. Maybe his bangs could do with a trim, at least. He’d have to see if Granny or Al would be willing to take up the scissors for him, Ed didn’t trust himself enough to make it look halfway decent.

The two of them chatted about nothing in particular, saving their best stories for when they could put their feet up and enjoy a drink together. Or at least that’s what Ed thought was happening, but he couldn’t help but notice Al was relaying details about minute town gossip with more enthusiasm than expected.

“Everything alright, Al?”

“Of course, why do you ask?”

Ed shot him a sideways grin. “You’re a shit liar. What’s up?”

Al huffed and puffed but eventually, Ed needled the truth out of him.

“Well, we’ve got company, actually. They’ve been in town for a few days already. And once they found out I was picking you up from the train station, they insisted on seeing you today.”

“Huh?” Ed scoured his cramped head for any plan he might’ve missed. Did someone he know say they were coming to visit? He asked, “Who is it?”

Al smiled, mischievous in his own right. “You’ll see.”

That made Ed wonder if it was someone from the military. Probably not the newly-promoted Brigadier General Bastard, so maybe someone else?

When they arrived, he didn’t see an extra car outside. On the porch, Ed did his best to shake the sand out of his coat pockets and boots before stepping inside. Immediately, he was hit with the fusion scent of coffee and motor oil. Tension he didn’t even know he was carrying drained out of his body as Ed called out, “I’m back!”

No click-clack of mismatched paws came running in response. It was still hard to remember that Den wasn’t around to greet them at the door anymore.

Ed left his suitcase by the door as Al led him into the kitchen, where Granny was sitting at the table with a grouchy looking old man and a young woman with dark hair. They all turned to look at him and it felt like an electric current was sent through his entire body. No way…

“Lan Fan!”

She still had the same sharp, dark eyes that Ed remembered from when they were younger. She stood, her expression lighting up at the sight of Ed.

“Edward Elric!”

She bowed for him, which felt downright silly. They went so far back, after all. And if Lan Fan was here…

“What are you doing on this side of the desert? Where's Ling? Is he with you?”

The old man cleared his throat and stood. He looked like the kind of guy Ed could easily imagine in the upper echelons of the military or a Xingese court: gray hair and beard, humorless expression, one hand wrapped tight around the curved handle of an ornate, darkwood cane. He was wrapped in loose, emerald green robes while Lan Fan was dressed how Ed remembered her. All black.

“It is my obligation to accept questions and negotiations on the Emperor’s behalf,” the old man said. He spoke in an extremely thick Xingese accent, but enunciated his words with care. He shot Lan Fan a look, “Is it not?”

Ed’s mood soured slightly. Whoever the old fart was, he wasn’t interested.

And yet, the old man said, “I am His Majesty’s most senior adviser, Yao Shen. I was sent at His Majesty’s request to locate one Edward Elric and deliver a message.”

To me? Ed wondered.

The last time he spoke to Ling was when they were teenagers. The idea of trying to contact him again crossed Ed’s mind over the years, admittedly much more than once. After all, Alphonse kept in contact with Mei. He’d even made several trips across the desert to see her and study alkahestry in Xing.

But Ling just felt so different. He got crowned as Emperor when he was seventeen! And Ed remembered so well how news swept across Amestris of the child king in Xing, who apparently went on a sojourn through their country only a year prior to his coronation. Ed just had no idea how he could ever reach across the world to someone like that.

So he never did, as cowardly as it was. And seven whole years had gone by since they were a pair of teenagers fighting to save the world. Ed was twenty-two now and thought his chance to see Ling again, no matter how slim, was gone.

But now Ling’s closest and most loyal vassal was in his kitchen. With a weird old man to boot.

“Yes, yes. We’re all here for one reason or another,” a new voice said. Ed looked over to see Granny stirring a big pot on the stove. She said, “But all of that can wait. It’s supper time and my boys must be hungry.”

Lan Fan didn’t seem to be in any rush. And if she wasn’t treating this like it was urgent, it probably wasn’t. The five of them sat down at the table, where Ed got to eat a heaping bowl of Granny’s famous beef stew with fresh bread. For a few glorious minutes, he forgot he was being a poor host by not participating in the conversation while he stuffed his mouth.

Subsisting off of dry rations for four months left one starved for flavor.

Once he had some proper food in his belly, he finally took note of Lan Fan’s arm. It had the super polished look of someone who’d just seen a mechanic, not like Ed’s brushed metal limbs.

“You’ve been taking good care of your automail,” he said.

Lan Fan smiled. She held out her hand to let it catch in the light. “Your grandmother has been generous enough to do some maintenance on my arm these past few days.”

“Is that right?” Ed asked. He didn’t even bother to correct her, that Granny wasn’t related by blood. It still surprised him. Ed knew Granny was partially retired these days; she didn’t take on new clients anymore, just did repairs and cleanings.

He was glad she agreed to take a look at Lan Fan. Xing, as he was told, sorely lacked automail mechanics. Too bad Winry was up to her ears in work in Rush Valley, he knew she would’ve loved to ogle at a good arm.

Granny said, “As someone who’s seen my fair share of automail in all sorts of shapes and states, it’s my professional recommendation that you have yours examined by a mechanic at least once a year.”

“That is simply not possible, given her immense obligations,” Shen said.

Ed and Al shot each other a knowing look. Why on earth was Lan Fan traveling with this old fart?

“The Emperor sends for an Amestrian mechanic whenever my arm becomes too damaged to operate,” Lan Fan said, as simple as if she was commenting on the weather.

Ed stared at her, mouth agape. As someone who’d gotten into far too many fights to count over the course of his life, some of which ended up in his automail getting completely shattered, he wondered what kind of things Lan Fan had endured in recent years.

And by extension, what all that meant for Ling. Ling, who was not here but felt the need to send Lan Fan in his stead.

Lan Fan turned to Ed and Al. “Now, tales of your exploits have been reaching Xing for years, but it’s often impossible to tell what’s fiction and what’s fact. I would love to know what the Elric brothers have actually been doing since we last crossed paths.”

It was a little hard to tell if she was actually interested or just changing the subject. Ed didn’t press either way. Alphonse, either by using some secret telepathic power or just knowing how Ed operated, stopped him from running to get his copy of Al’s research. He instead gave a summarized version of his studies on combining alchemy and alkahestry.

As their bowls ran empty, Ed figured it was time to broach the subject of why they had guests at all.

“So what’s the message meant just for me?” he asked, bracing an elbow on the table.

Shen seemed unphased. “Unfortunately, it directly involves the security of our Emperor and must be delivered in private.”

“Oh?”

Ed turned to Lan Fan. Up until now, she seemed warm and inviting, a huge difference from her stoic self he first met. But even she shook her head.

“I must agree. It can only be given in complete secrecy.”

Ed resisted the urge to grin. Whatever it was, he could easily imagine Ling landed himself in some sort of trouble and needed help from the former Fullmetal Alchemist. Ed might’ve quit the military and lost his ability to do alchemy, but he was still a force to be reckoned with.

“Fine, then. I know where we can talk.”

Bidding Al and Granny a temporary goodbye, Ed led his two guests out of the house and up a dirt path. The sun was starting to set now, just touching the horizon and bathing everything in blinding gold. The air here was warm but not dry like the desert. It was damp and full of life.

Ed guided them up a hill as the ruins of his childhood home loomed ever larger. He didn’t stop when they reached the derelict structure, stepping over scorched wood beams and the old stone foundation, leading them into the heart of his family’s house.

“What is this place?” Lan Fan asked.

Ed stopped just short of the stone stairs that led to the basement. No one in Resembool came up here. Maybe they were too afraid to, maybe it was a sign of respect. He noticed that no signs of vandalism or graffiti cropped up over the years.

He put his hands in his coat pockets and said, “This was my home when I was a child. Now why don’t you answer me this, what did you come all this way to tell me?”

+++

The order from her Emperor to travel to Amestris without him was quite a shock to Lan Fan when she first received it. Not to mention His Imperial Majesty wanted her to guide Advisor Shen. He was so old, she honestly thought this could’ve been a ploy to have him perish in the desert to finally be rid of him.

The old man wasn’t happy about it either, even though he did his best to conceal it.

Alone in a private audience with the Emperor, he bowed profusely and repeatedly while asking, “A thousand pardons, my Emperor. But what exactly do you wish an old man like myself to achieve in Amestris?”

Shen was a spoiled member of the Yao clan’s lesser nobility who used to be a close personal friend of Ling’s father. He climbed considerable heights by constantly praising the last Emperor, only to now find himself serving a much younger man with no interest in keeping his father’s past friends wealthy.

It was rare that Lan Fan was ever out in the open too, but as her Emperor specifically wanted an audience with her as well, she stood side by side with the old adviser.

His Majesty smiled serenely at Shen. “Your task in Amestris is to seek out Fullmetal Alchemist Edward Elric. Lan Fan is to escort you, seeing as she’s one of the… maybe two or three Xingese citizens who actually knows what he looks like.”

If she could speak freely, Lan Fan might have protested as well. She could never leave her Lord vulnerable, even if he did have other guards and the entire Imperial army at his disposal now.

He cast his gaze upon her, expectant. She knew precisely why he wanted to find Edward Elric. She was perhaps the only person in the world who knew, who he trusted to know.

And she took that trust very seriously. It was not her place to approve or disapprove of his desires, only to see them fulfilled.

“Edward Elric,” Shen repeated, stroking his beard, “For what purpose must we seek him out?”

The Emperor’s smile widened. “I’m going to make him my Empress, of course.”

Lan Fan was staring straight ahead when he said so, arms on her knees as she knelt and awaited further instructions. But she would have loved to see Shen’s face if his startled, haggard coughing fit was anything to go by.

His Majesty’s smile grew terse. “Something the matter, Shen?”

“Oh, well… I- I cannot… my Lord…”

“You cannot what? Condone my decision? You object, is that it?”

“No, no! I would never, your Imperial Majesty!”

He grew silent as the Emperor stood, his silken robes falling around his powerful frame. He descended the steps of his throne and Shen once more pressed his forehead to the floor in subservience.

“Stand up.”

They both did so.

The Emperor produced his right hand from the length of his robes and pulled a golden ring from his finger. It was newly made, polished to a mirror shine.

“Shen, you will take this ring and guard it well. When you find Edward Elric, you will hold my ring up to his image. And when you do, remember which is more impressive.”

+++

Yao Shen only ever wanted to live comfortably. And for many decades, he did exactly that. He wore nice clothing of moderate detail, had multiple sons, kept his head low in court, and was rewarded with a lifetime of servility by being named a chief advisor in the imperial court. Now, however, he thought he might just reach his end. In a foreign land surrounded by alien peasants, no less.

Because his Emperor was correct. Edward Elric was more splendid than gold.

At first, he hadn’t been happy at all to make the trip across the desert. He bitterly cursed his ill fortune under his breath, knowing full well His Majesty’s dog was his sole traveling companion. Then it was a matter of locating the insignificant village that the famed Fullmetal Alchemist came from. And even then, they could not rest until they found Edward himself.

And when they did finally see him in person, Shen had not been very impressed. Edward Elric was clothed like a simple traveler, in plain garments and a rugged red coat. No silk, no gold, no silver. His boots were caked in dirt and his gloves were stained a reddish brown from the desert. His complexion was less than fair, his face tanned by the sun to a degree that most matchmakers would deem unacceptable.

Not to mention the fact that the boy referred to His Imperial Majesty, the Son of Heaven, by his given name! Had that mistake slipped anyone’s lips within Xing, they’d be executed.

But everything changed when he saw Edward Elric in the sunlight.

In the glow of the setting sun, Edward Elric looked like a lion. His long blond hair framed his face and reached his lower back. Shen was aware that it was common in Amestris for men to keep their hair short, as preposterous as it was. One’s body was a gift from their parents and to cut any part of it was to disrespect them. Edward Elric had very respectable long hair.

And his eyes. The palace menagerie kept a host of exotic animals, including actual lions. The Fullmetal Alchemist had the eyes of a fierce and unflinching warrior, so bright and piercing. It was clear he’d seen and won many battles, but he wasn’t a brute, either. No, his were a set of dangerously intelligent eyes.

It wasn’t necessary, Shen knew when he’d been defeated, but he could never deny an order from his Emperor. So he reached into his pocket and produced a small bundle of cloth. With trembling fingers, he unwrapped the golden ring entrusted to him and held it up to Edward Elric.

Both shined with a sort of blinding brilliance, as if the sun itself wished to pour all its warmth over the boy’s shoulders. He perfectly matched the descriptions of the Great Sage of the West, the founder of alkahestry. Any dignitary worth their salt would know what an auspicious sign this was… and that the young Emperor tragically chose his future concubine well. Very well.

+++

Ed blinked, going cross-eyed as something small was held in front of his face. He leaned back, seeing that it was a golden ring. Thick and heavy-looking, too.

“Uh…”

He moved to reach for the ring, unsure if that was what they wanted, but the old man simply tucked it back into his pocket. He cleared his throat. “Thank you for humoring an old man. Lan Fan, tell him.”

Was it just his imagination, or was she smiling ever so faintly?

She stepped forward and said, “His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Xing will be arriving in Amestris in three days for a diplomatic mission. He will be arriving in Central City to speak with your Fuhrer and parliament and is scheduled to remain in your country for fifteen days. While he is here, he wishes to see you again.”

Lan Fan produced a small package from a pouch in her belt and presented it with both hands. “He asked me to give you this gift as a token of his earnestness.”

Ling wanted to see him?

Lightheaded, Ed accepted the gift. It wasn’t heavy at all.

Lan Fan raised her brows. Open it.

So he undid the twine wrapping. It wasn’t what he expected, not that he had any idea what it could be. Ed held up the length of silk to the light. It was a long, thin strip of crimson cloth embroidered with gold. It was beautiful. He didn’t know what it could possibly be for, but he appreciated it. After all,

Ling remembers me…

“Tell me something,” Ed said, running his fingers over the cloth, amazing as how smooth it was, “How has he been, all these years?”

“He has been well, thank you for your concern,” Lan Fan said. “He is looking forward to having your company once more.”

+++

Once Shen was excused from the throne room and it was just the two of them, Ling didn’t feel like sending Lan Fan back to her post as his invisible hand. He needed a friend right now.

Sighing, he said, “It’s been a long time, Lan Fan.”

She nodded. “It has.”

Almost a decade had gone by since they last saw Edward Elric.

He thumbed at the hem of his robe, thinking. “What if I’m too late?”

“You must not lose hope, your Majesty. He is still not married. Even if there was someone standing in your way, what real threat could they pose to you?”

He nodded, thankful as ever for her steadfastness. Unlike his endless officials, servants, and his stupid siblings all vying for his favor, Lan Fan had earned it long ago. He respected her opinion far more than many of theirs, as well. And if she had faith in him, perhaps that was a good sign.

He wandered over to the windows behind his throne, whose light reflected off his gilded ceiling and his crimson pillars. The imperial palace sprawled before him, more wealthy than any other country he knew of.

What would Edward think of it all if he could see it now?

He was going to see it, Ling reminded himself. He’d waited long enough, now was the time to finally act.

The last time they saw each other was as children at the tender age of fifteen. Ling’s father held onto his throne for little over a year by no small miracle, but of all his brothers and sisters, it was him who was crowned successor before he was even an adult.

He spent the first few years of his reign cementing his rule and keeping his country stable as power changed hands. He protected the Chang clan from extinction, elevated his own, improved trade and relations to the east, and chose peace treaties over war declarations. Now he was turning his efforts into improving relations with the west.

The common folk such as his farmers and merchants loved him too, he made sure of it. Edward was born of common blood, after all. And he was famous across the world for his efforts to help those that could not help themselves.

If he could, he would send Lan Fan to seek out Edward alone. She’d do it in half the time if she didn’t have a bag of bones tethered to her. Even though Yao Shen was a member of their own clan, Ling never really liked him. He was slow to adapt and too haughty for his age. But he was also a valuable pawn. Given his seniority among palace staff, if Ling could convince him that Edward was worth more than his weight in gold, the rest of his courts would follow suit without any effort on Ling’s part at all.

Yes, convincing his people was the easy part. The least predictable element in all his plans was Edward himself. Unsurprising, but Ling wouldn’t have it any other way.

At the age of twenty-two, he felt so old yet still so impossibly young. He knew he had a whole life ahead of him yet, but could not find it in himself to wait a moment longer.

He closed his eyes and made a promise to himself. No going back from this point, no more waiting. He was going to have an Empress, this he knew since he was fifteen.

So no matter the cost, Yao Ling was going to have Edward Elric.

#fma #fmab #edward elric #ling yao #edling #homo alert uh oh #down bad ling #the outline for this fic is like 40 pages long now #someone help me #not edited #will do that later #Ed keeps his automail arm #but he doesn’t have his alchemy anymore

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