#this is why i workskin

[mrghostrat]

I FUCKING LOVE BNF AU RAHHHHHHHH

do you have a friend help you with the discord messages? or do you have two seperate accounts you made just for the fic?

i wrote them all myself! and then used a workskin to make it appear like discord in ao3 :) this way you can disable the workskin, use reader mode, or download an epub etc and it'll still appear as plain text like the rest of the fic.

[fandom-data-scientist]

a few months ago, i installed a userscript that will automatically apply saved filters to whatever search you're making; however, because it was first made in 2014, the way it actually works is that it applies filters as if you were plugging something into the "search within results" box, which will not actually filter out tags, but rather, keywords present anywhere in a fic and its metadata.

this is not very useful on its own, considering the fact that most everyone likes ao3 so much for its robust tag filters. fortunately, there remains an old-fashioned search method from the time before native exclusion filters existed on the site, which allowed people to use "-filter_ids:[integer]" in the "search within results" box to exclude tags proper, as we expect them to work today.

there are, of course, other methods of having sticky/saved filters on ao3, such as bookmarking one's url after applying all the filters you desire to a particular search, but then that requires not only inputting all my filters again when i enter a new fandom tag (thereby necessitating maintaining a reference list), but also maintaining a bunch of bookmarks for everything i might want to regularly check, which. like. boooooo

anyway, another reason i like that userscript so much is bc a while back i learned that the ao3 advanced search box runs off apache lucene to parse its queries, meaning that you can actually get incredibly fine-grained with your requests. for example, to filter out both "slow burn that is complete and under 50k" and "slow burn that is in-progress and under 10k" while leaving all other slow burn fics in the same search:

-(filter_ids:103132 AND complete:false AND word_count:[* TO 10000]) -(filter_ids:103132 AND complete:true AND word_count:[* TO 50000])

or you could develop a whitelist for the tags you're filtering by using "!", like filtering out all ocs unless they're by a particular person:

-(filter_ids:2927 !user_ids:[integer])

point being, the ao3 advanced search box is very powerful, the possibilities are endless, and i am married to that saved filters script these days.

however, i am also a picky little bitch, and i have somewhere around a hundred tags i have automatically filtered out for my current fandom, and about forty additional tags that i have filtered out everywhere. the saved filters makes it a lot easier to maintain these filters, but also i'm lazy about appending new tags, and they can be hard to dig through if i want to take something out for whatever reason, so recently i've been putting together a spreadsheet that will automate the queries i want copy-pasted into the saved filters input box.

most of it has been simple, just maintaining a sheet with the name and filter_ids number of what i want filtered unconditionally, but for the more complex requests, uh.

(this one is supposed to say "22 !(176 || 110)")

(this one is supposed to say "((22 !(176 || 110 || 49838047)) AND expected_number_of_chapters:[5 TO 25]) || [further queries])"

........well, it's going!!!!

one of my friends says i should publish the spreadsheet when i perfect it, since even tho most people aren't as picky as me, it'd be nice to showcase ao3's fullest capabilities with it. for various reasons, it likely won't be much use to most people as a spreadsheet, but i've been Considering maybe figuring out how to make a userscript (or maybe even a firefox extension, if i can get permission from the people who made the relevant bookmarklets/userscripts to use their code And Also figure out enough js for that), so idk. stay tuned for that, maybe!

[tiredkershyff]

Oh my fucking god I've been editing a chapter for 5 hours straight

H O W

Without music or background video too!!

[pyrriax]

i forgot that bedrock shards is almost 7k words. ummmm. im working on it some more ^_^ it very well might end up 10k+ if i just let it keep going how it is.

[dapperbeetledraws]

from this chapter of the Dwelling on Dreams fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/34078537/chapters/84777934#workskin

Loosely based on the scene where Draco and Emile (an original character in this fic that I love!) talk at a cafe and Emile realizes why Draco wasn't able to let go of Harry...and maybe why he shouldn't let go at all muahah. (I sort of paraphrased this scene in this sketch but this is the vibe of it hehe)

[onewomancitadel]

I intended this to be pithy for the sake of comic effect but what I will always care more about is a material point and actual like... enthusiastic participation in fandom for the sake of fannish interest. Short of actually being difficult to read (I don't like frequent irregular word shortenings like 'wld' in place of 'would' or ampersands in place of 'and', for instance) and/or incomprehensible, the bar to clear is amiable communication; in fact, I think the benefit of a conversational style married to trying to lay out a thesis is something very special to fandom, in terms of amassing thoughts together in an essayistic style and posting to a public forum. Not academic, but not exactly Twitter or TikTok, either. I guess it's closest to what you would get in verbal conversations IRL, academic or not.

And I suppose I find something comically at odds with itself - nearly even satirical - in the presentation of something totally absurd and stupid, only coming from the bowels of fandom's worst interpretation of a text, presented in a very formal style - it's very aspirational, yet it's not convincing me. I do hold care for conventional academic form - I don't like the blurring of casual boundaries with professional ones because I think those are protective more than they are limiting (having had impersonal and personal tutors, I always preferred the impersonal) - insofar as it dictates a professional standard of respect and gives a script for how to behave... but not when the form is itself is a means to establish legitimacy beyond the substance. I think that is why there are plenty of academics who cannot write clearly and try to instead write opaquely in the hopes that pretension might protect them from intellectual reproach. Many such cases.

I would not like to see such a thing in fandom. I would especially not like people to ever get the idea that their thoughts aren't worth hearing on the basis that they cannot formulate them in an essayistic style with appropriate subheadings and overuse of 'linking words'. Moreover is not a lifeboat. I think that will always, sadly, affect the brightest and not the dumbest.

Too often I have heard from wonderful people that they are afraid of speaking up in fear of sounding stupid, to then regale me with excellent ideas, and instead the very stupid are not afraid to voice their profound insights. Somebody's got to come up with a term for that...

Anyway, I would always prefer to hear somebody's materially good insights as opposed to worrying about presentation. Add this to the column as to why I do not like 'theorycrafting'.

I love really neatly formatted essays with subheaders and confident argumentative language in 'theorycrafting' that lay out the dumbest thesis you've ever read.

[linatheweirdooo]

Don't hurt me

I wrote this fic on ao3 originally as a vent, but due to the positive reception I'm gonna post it here too :3 here's the link to it on ao3 if you wanna give it a kudos or reply or read any other stuff I wrote bc I don't plan on posting that much on here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/56567776/chapters/143770822#workskin

TW; implied S/A (it's hurt/comfort but the subject is mentioned and implied)

~~

It all happened so fast.

The sensation of water trickling down her synthetic skin, the studs of soap covering her body. It was a normal day, V just wanted to take a shower to clean herself off after an especially bloody hunt. Until she slipped.

Her entire frame collapsed onto the soapy ground, and her optics struggled to make out what was happening. Her processor overwhelmed with the sensory information from all fronts, it retorted to its only defense; to connect this situation to something familiar, something that has happened before.

In her disoriented state, instead of seeing the shower in her home, she saw a room in the old manor. And instead of feeling water slide down her hydrophobic shell, she felt hands. Hands that were distinctly human. Hands of the people whom she still can't remember the faces of, violating her. Touching her in places she shouldn't be touched, abusing parts of her body that are too sensitive for it.

This was stupid. She was a robot, she was a servant, why would she care if she was used? Wasn't that what she was made for? She shouldn't be whining.

Poisonous words from the person seemingly executing this echoed in her audio receptors. Even when it happened, V could bearly make out proper sentences.

V just yelled for them to get away, but her pleas proved vain when nothing changed.

Eventually, she succumbed to it, with only whimpers and muffled sobs with the occasional "stop" escaping her mouth.

~~

N was out today, which only left Uzi and V in their home, but the purple worker couldn't help but feel slightly worried by how long her girlfriend had been in the shower, she was usually quick.

But Uzi brushed it off. Maybe she's doing some self care for herself. V was responsible, they've known each other for a while now. Long enough to build a life with her and N.

That was until she heard V's voice, muffled by the walls of the bathroom and too far away from Uzi to make out any actual words. But why would V be yelling? There's nobody else in the house other than her, right?

Uzi panicked, but took a deep breath. She needed to stop assuming the worst all the time. So she calmly (albiet still quickly) walked up to the bathroom she was in and knocked on the door.

"V? You okay?"

No reply. At least, no reply that was directed at Uzi. It was hard to tell what she was saying, which worried her. Uzi does know V has a... complicated past... but even after getting together, she didn't talk about it more than she needed to. What if she was stuck in some kind of flashback?

No. No jumping to the worst case scenario. She'll just ask her again.

"V? Did something happen? Can I come in?"

No reply again. This was now a cause for concern, so Uzi opened the door, only to see her girlfriend on the floor of the shower sobbing and whimpering.

Immediately she ran up to V. But the disassembly drone sat up and made eye contact with Uzi.

Fear. The thought that V was even capable of the feeling had never even crossed Uzi's mind, but the hollow yellow rings that replaced her eyes were all that stared back her girlfriend.

V looked sad, tired, and scared, and while she has shown more emotion in front of her partners than she would to anyone else, this was different. It was raw, it was unfiltered, and it was heartbreaking. Her wet hair covered parts of her face and water was still pouring over her. She looked helpless.

"V?" Was all Uzi got to say before the disassembly drone tensed up and her endoskeleton started to shake. Pants and suppressed sobs were all that escaped the drone in front of Uzi, and when she tried getting closer, V cowered, pushing herself on the floor into the corner of the shower.

With her knees to her chin, one cone-shaped arm wrapped around her legs and the other in a protective position, hiding most of her face, V looked...vulnerable.

Noticing her girlfriend's reaction, Uzi moved backward. V must've thought she was someone else. Why else would she be this scared at the sight of her own girlfriend? Did Uzi do something?

V seemed to relax slightly, but she still looked like a helpless, terrified kitten in the rain. It hurt Uzi to see someone so important to her look like that. Only a year or two ago, Uzi would be scared of V, stating what she would think would be her final words if she crossed by any disassembly drone. Never in a million years did she ever entertain the idea of dating not one, but TWO of them. And now one of them is terrified of her.

As Uzi prepared to speak again, she heard V mumble something mixed with a sob. Uzi's audio receptors may not be as advanced as her girlfriend's, but she could make out a few words.

"Don't hurt me" were those words. The rest were lost to the sounds of whimpering and water from the shower hitting the floor, but Uzi's heart sank at the thought of what those words implied.

"V... it's me, Uzi"

It was a softer tone and volume, and it seemed to have worked as V relaxed a little bit and lowered her hand. However, she was still shaking and her eyes were still hollow.

Uzi leaned down to get on V's level, in an attempt to make her more comfortable. "it'll be okay" she comforted. Maybe it won't be, she had no way to tell, but it may help calm V down. She grabbed the towel V had hung on the hanger. "Can I get you out of here?"

V, still shaking and her eyes still hollowed, nodded. She didn't say anything, as if her voice were being held under a lock and key.

Uzi got into the shower and turned the water off as V stared at her, with digital tears hanging from the eyes displayed on her screen.

The worker drone reached out a tender hand to her girlfriend's cheek, which she immediately leaned into and closed her eyes.

Now that she was closer to V, the stress lines under them were more obvious, and as she brought back her hand, Uzi draped the towel over V like a blanket.

"Do you want me to dry you off or do you want to do it yourself?" Uzi asked in a loving tone.

V took a bit to respond, but she then replaced her eyes with text that read "I'll do it, but stay here" before adding on a "please".

Uzi nodded in response, and V blinked away the text as Uzi used one hand to interlace her fingers with V's and the other supporting her other arm, lifting it up and allowing V's limp body to stand at its full 5'11" height.

V took the towel that was hastly draped over her and wrapped it around herself after she had dried off the plastic and silicone that shielded her insides from the elements.

Uzi looked back at V once she was done but before Uzi got the chance to marvel at how beautiful her girlfriend looked, V collapsed onto Uzi before clearing her throat and spoke.

"Can you..." She paused, as if she was incapable of asking Uzi to do anything for her.

"Can you brush my hair?"

Her voice was scratchy from the crying, and her voice was still shaking despite thinking all the tears were gone. Maybe it was from embarrassment. The strong and terrifying Serial designation V asking for help? She might as well be dead at that point.

"of course..." Uzi smiled before going onto her tip toes and closing the gap between the two drones in a short, soft, loving kiss.

~~~~~

Uzi walked out to let V change, and after a few minutes she saw her girlfriend in a baggy purple sweater collapse into a hug, burying her head into Uzi's shoulder.

"..'m sorry for scaring you" was all V said, partially muffled by Uzi's shirt.

But Uzi just hugged her back and smiled into V while running her fingers through her girlfriend's still partially wet hair. "Its okay, it's not your fault"

V must've believed her. Or didn't feel like arguing. Because she just hummed in reply before pulling away from Uzi and sitting on the edge of their bed infront of the worker.

As Uzi played with V's hair, she wondered what must've happened. Who did V think she was? Why was she scared? Was she stuck in some kind of memory? What was happening in it?

She didn't want to ask too much. V was already secretive about her past even after getting together. But if it was hurting someone she cares about so much, she should at least ask her if she's okay now.

So she asked.

"What happened in there?" And immedietly felt bad. What if she was forcing V to re-live this memory? Was she overstepping a boundary?

"Uh.." V stopped in her tracks, almost trying to remember what just happened before Uzi cut off her train of thought.

"N-not that you have to tell me! It's just-" Uzi sighed. "I just want to know if you're okay"

A moment of silence passed, but to Uzi it felt as though it was a thousand years, and to V, half a second.

V took a deep breath before adjusting her position so that her knees were to her chest and she rested her face on them. "No... you deserve to know. Just-" another beat passed. "- just... i-it's just hard to talk about... uh.."

It was hard to keep talking, trying to figure out which words to carefully string together to form a cohesive sentence. She shouldn't be nervous, but she hasn't really talked about this to anyone. Her mind just kept flashing back to moments she has tried so hard to forget every time she wants to attempt to tell the most important person in her life what happened.

"V? You okay? You don't have to talk, you know"

Shit. She zoned out.

V collected herself and rehearsed what she'd say in her head. Why was she overthinking? She can trust Uzi.

"I..." Her eyes trailed down, and Uzi moved to the left of V to get a better look at her.

"Th-this was like, a long time ago and-"

She stared at her hands, and watched as she fiddled with them to relieve a bit of her anxiety. Or was it fear? Nervousness? Even she can't pinpoint the feeling. But, she does know she needed to talk about it.

"When I was a- uhm... w-when I worked for the Elliot manor... there were some...bad people" she took a slightly shaky breath. Uzi could probably see that V wasn't okay. Maybe that's why she rested her hand on top of V's after she said that. And despite the topic at hand, and emotions racing through her head, V made eye contact with her girlfriend and smiled. Not the sadistic smile she sported in hunts, or the beaming one she wore when Uzi said that magic three-letter word after asking her out. It was soft. It was okay. She's safe with Uzi.

So she took another shaky breath, and continued. "They hurt me. And... the ways they did that, varied..."

Uzi's digital eyes displayed slanted lines, reminiscent of human eyebrows when someone was sad.

"A-and one of those ways... included parts of me that I still wonder why I have. Maybe it was to feed their sick fantasies" it was hard to talk about, she figured by now the lump in her throat would've left but her voice cracked as she finished that last sentence.

V opened her mouth so speak, but choked on a sob that she had been trying to suppress. Damn it. She can't be crying now. She supposed to be scary. What was she even doing right now? She was stupid to think she can be vulnerable. She's supposed to be big and scary.

While V spiraled in her thoughts, hypocritically degrading herself for things she did three seconds ago, she snapped out of it by a sudden weight, and arms wrapping around her.

It was Uzi hugging her.

Suddenly, she couldn't control it anymore, and V let out more sobs as she finally broke down. Uzi held her through all of it, she even moved in front of V to face her. And as V sobbed and cried into the crook of Uzi's neck, she wrapped her own arms around the worker, despretly shaking and clawing onto her to make sure Uzi will never leave her side.

Between V's slightly muffled sobs and sniffles, Uzi lifted her head slightly to plant a kiss on V's cheek and whispered comforting words into her audio receptors.

"I'm here now" "Its okay now" "im sorry", they all helped but sounded the same to V. Until Uzi said a particular phrase.

"You didn't deserve that"

What a joke. She absolutely did. Maybe she hadn't done anything bad when it happened but the things that were done to her was probably something whatever higher being looking down on her did to punish her ahead of time. Maybe they thought it would stop her from doing the horrible things she did later in her life as a disassembly drone. In reality V didn't deserve Uzi. Or even N. She doesn't deserve loving partners who care about her. She doesn't deserve the affection she received from them or any forgiveness that they gave her.

But V couldn't even muster the energy to say that. Uzi would probably tell her it was absurd to think that way. Maybe it was. It was hard for someone programmed to serve people to imagine those people may be bad.

At some point in her thoughts, V's sobs got reduced to just occasional hitches in her breath, and her digital tears were replaced with tired lines under golden eyes. And they were very visible to Uzi, who pulled away from the hug and was now holding V's larger hands that were slightly illuminated by the yellow triangles on them.

"Hey, it's getting late. Do you want to go to bed now?"

V blinked a few times and looked at Uzi, then to her own hands. Hands that were made to kill people like Uzi. But right now, hands that were being held by her. And she watched as Uzi's thumbs brushed along her palms.

"Yea. Maybe" V finally sighed, and leaned onto Uzi, who pushed her own weight towards her and hugged her harder.

An "I love you" escaped the purple drone as she rubbed soothing circles on her girlfriend's back. It almost made V start crying again.

She was fine. Everything's fine now. She'll never be hurt that way again. She's loved now.

She's loved now

V's voice shaky from the newly built up tears, she reciprocated the statement

"I love you, too, Uz"

It was quiet, muffled, half mumbled, but it was enough for Uzi to hear her and squeeze her girlfriend tighter.

They shuffled a bit while cuddling, and ended up in a position where Uzi was spooning V. There's a first time for everything, she guessed. But it wasn't that bad, being cradled by the one she loved the most.

Minus V's purring and occasional sniffle, it was relatively quiet. But, it was comfortable. Uzi subconsciously ran her fingers through V's hair as V listened attentively to the rhythm of Uzi's core and wrapped her tail around Uzi's leg. Getting used to how clingy and physically affectionate V was took a bit of time, especially since before dating, Uzi's only ever seen her murdering people, playing with their corpses like dolls only to animalisticly take a bite of her prey.

But it was nice. Paired with V's purring, Uzi really enjoyed cuddling with her, too.

It was a while before V broke the silence.

"You know... I never thought I'd ever tell anyone that experience, much less to a worker"

Uzi looked down at V in her arms, which caused V's complimentary eyes to look back at her.

"Not that it's a bad thing. I'm really glad I could finally talk to someone about it. I never thought I'd see myself this close to someone like you. You opened my eyes to a diffrent way of looking at things, and I'm forever grateful we met. I'm sorry I was such a dick at first."

Uzi's face softened at the remark before she leaned down to kiss V's hair

"Don't say that. You were scared. And you've changed" Uzi paused to cup V's face in her hands and lean in for another kiss, V holding the back of Uzi's head.

"I'm glad you trust me enough to talk to"

V didn't talk, but her smile and blush spoke a thousand words. Uzi just held V to her chest and continued playing with her hair.

It continued like that for a while, until V's "eyelids" grew heavy, and she eventually succumbed to her exhaustion.

~~

Uzi didn't know how long it's been, and frankly she didn't care. That was until she heard footsteps walking into her room before she saw the unmistakable yellow headband of a disassembly drone.

"Hey Zi d-" N cut himself off as he saw V asleep and walked over to Uzi.

"Did something happen?" He asked Uzi in a hushed tone, careful not to wake the drone laying in his girlfriend's arms.

"...Yea. I don't know if she would let me say what happened, but..." the worker looked at the murder machine curled up in her arms, asleep, and smiled. "...she's fine now" Uzi replied, petting V's hair.

N's face shifted to a sympathetic smile as he sat on the edge of the bed and eyed V.

"I hope she is" was all he said before going behind Uzi and snuggled up with her, hugging her from behind before he too fell asleep.

Which left Uzi alone with her thoughts.

V was right, though. A few years ago Uzi's life was hell. It was hard to even avoid hurting herself. But she's so glad she didn't. Now instead of walking to her home after a shitty day at school to be ignored by her father, she walks home after another day of university to a home with her girlfriend and boyfriend, ready to tell them about her day and hear about theirs. Now she looks forward to life, as long as she has her two favourite people in it.

Eventually, Uzi also fell asleep, being hugged by N and V, and hugging the latter back.

[lasagnaisoverrated]

I LOVE fics where the decepticons get caught by the autobots or get help from them and at first they are angry, want to escape yk normal decepticon activity but what they are truly afraid of is Optimus because like cmon he’s the Prime, and all they know is Megatrons comand style so why would he be any different. But when they meet him and are shown kindness they are like “what? Kindness ew…do it again” they are just confused like??? Why aren’t you beating the crap out of us? And when they also see the autobots being friendly with Optimus and even yelling at him and their like “yeah they’re about to get their aft beat…hopefully not too bad” only for them to see optimus just taking it and being FRIENDLY BACK! Poor bots all they know is violence and when they accidentally do something wrong and are now petrified that they are bout to get the beating of a lifetime, ONLY TO BE PAT ON THE HEAD AND TOLD ITS OKAY. They have no idea what happend why the prime is beign so kind, they’re not even used to such kindness, little do they know they have all now been adopted by optimus. And bonus optimus and the autobots are horrified on what they hear from them…the punishments for simple accidents or simple mistakes are so SEVERE but now their safe with the autobots and they won’t be hurt ever again.

PLEASE PLEASE RECOMMEND ME SOME I LOVE THESE TYPE OF FICS BUT CAN HARDLY FIND ANY IM BEGGING YOU

Here are some: https://archiveofourown.org/works/32500159/chapters/99770670#workskin

[notjustjavierpena]

Love you fluff and spicy fics! They are the best kinds ;) can I request dates with Husband!Javi or DILF!Joel? (Would love to read them both but I’ll let you take the rein ;))

First - Part 2: Date

Series Masterpost | Main Masterpost | Support a disabled creator

A/N: Enjoy, anon!

Summary: With the way your relationship started, you’ve never been on a first date. You do a fake first date.

Pairing: Joel Miller x f!reader/you (no y/n)

Tags: +18 Smut (MDNI!), PIV sex, unprotected sex, clit stim, creampie, dirty talk, hot and desperate sex

Word count: 3.1k

Link to this work on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/48689506/chapters/122820544#workskin

Date

“We never actually had a first date, did we?” 

Joel looks down at you as you rest your head on his shoulder, his lips pressed into your hair. You cuddle up to him even more than before because he has just put a blanket over the both of you. He furrows his brow at the question, trying to understand what you are playing at. 

You’re not playing at anything. In fact, a very large part of you is happy that you never had to go through the torturous process of getting to know a stranger by taking them places and forcing them to answer uncomfortably personal questions. 

“No, we didn’t…” he says into your hair as if awaiting further instructions or explanations, “Why?”

You grab the remote to press play on your movie, then shrug nonchalantly, “No reason. The thought just came to me, popped into my head.”

“Is it something you want?” He continues as if treading carefully. 

“God no,” you turn your body a little in his arm to kiss him on the lips a few times, “I’m thankful that we skipped the heart palpitations and clammy hands, the painful silences.”

“I had nothing but clammy hands the first two weeks of just seeing you in the street,” he admits, bumping your noses together with red cheeks at his confession, “Felt like a fuckin’ teenager. Sarah near laughed her ass off.”

“And you didn’t ask me out,” you tut, then get an idea that has your face lighting up, “Wait… How would you have asked me out? How is your game?”

“Let me take you to dinner and you’ll find out,” he teases, focusing on turning back to the TV screen.

“Oooh, alright. You’re on. Pick me up at six.”

*

You agree on Friday at 6 pm. As soon as the roleplay is on, a ton of butterflies erupt inside your stomach at the thought of being wined and dined by Joel Miller. You don’t expect too much though, because the poor guy has previously already told you that the number of dates he has been on since Sarah’s mother passed can be counted on one hand. Despite no one having died, the same goes for you and that fact will surely make the evening a comical one.

At six o’clock your doorbell rings and you fix the straps of your dress for the millionth time in the hallway mirror before opening the door. 

Joel looks good. He has his usual jeans on, but has added a belt, and the t-shirt that he always wears has been substituted with one of his nice button-up shirts and it’s been neatly tucked into his pants. The wristwatch is still there, and the intoxicating smell of his cologne too, but despite all this grabbing your attention, it’s nothing compared to the handful of smaller sunflowers that he is holding out for you. 

“Oh, you sly bastard,” you grin, realizing now just how fun the night out will be. If Joel is doing this, you might as well roleplay along. You step forward to take the very homemade bouquet, “These are gorgeous, Joel, my favorite.”

“Figured roses were too cliche,” he states shyly. 

“Let me just put these in water,” you step away from the door to hold it open for him, “Come in. I’ll be ready in five.”

Joel steps silently inside, following you into the kitchen where you get a vase from on top of your refrigerator and start filling it with water. With a pair of kitchen scissors, you cut the stems at an angle.

“Nice place you got here,” Joel small-talks. He tries not to smile, but you can see that he fights the urge to chuckle at the silliness of the situation. 

“Thanks, yeah, a super cute guy helped me a lot over the summer,” you put the sunflowers into the vase, placing it on your kitchen island to be able to admire them in the morning light. 

“Oh?” Joel questions, placing a hand on the counter as he watches you fluff the sunflowers to make them look less messy after you’ve handled them, “Should I be concerned by competition?”

“Not if you knock it out of the park tonight, starting by telling me I look beautiful,” you say with a smile, walking up to him and trying not to kiss his stupid face. 

You are wearing Joel’s favorite dress of yours that hugs your chest and ass in a way that makes a few people turn their heads every time you go outside wearing it. 

“You look stunning,” he says as he looks down at you, then grins, “I have a few things planned for tonight, and I think you’ll like ‘em.”

“Lead the way.”

*

Joel takes you to a restaurant in the city of Austin. It is Italian in a cliché way; checkered tablecloths, candles in wine bottles, and, to top it off, a picture of Lady and the Tramp on the wall. It’s nothing that seems to appeal to Joel, but you cannot help but love it in the most wonderful childlike way and point it out as you enter the place.

Though to save him the pain of getting embarrassed, you order a pizza instead of the classic spaghetti. He orders a pizza himself, furrowing his brow as he realizes that the proper way of eating pizza here is by using a knife and fork. 

“So,” you say after a mouthful of food, taking a sip of your wine, “Texas born and raised?”

“Yeah, my folks live half an hour out of town,” Joel replies, resting his wrists on the edge of the table, “And Sarah, my daughter… We've been in that house since forever. Sarah doesn’t know much else than that street.”

“You have a daughter?” You tilt your head curiously, challenging him with a little smile.

“Oh yeah, fifteen years old. Love of my life,” he tells you, and your heart swells because you know exactly how he looks at her with wonder and love, “Does that bother you?”

“Not at all, I just don’t have any kids of my own,” you reply. 

“Is that… something you can see yourself in? Kids?” 

You figure that it’s a fair question for a date, but it’s a little overwhelming when you’re already in too deep. Months deep into this relationship actually.

“Well, yeah,” you say after a pause, somehow so certain, “Yeah… I want the whole thing; white picket fence and nauseating suburban lifestyle.” 

You can see Joel visibly relax. 

“Is it hard being a single dad?” You ask gently. 

Joel tenses up once more, resting his hand on the tabletop and tapping his fingers slightly. He avoids your gaze, “Sometimes. I mean… I’m terrified that I will end up in a situation where I can’t be what she needs. Additionally, it’s hard to imagine getting something you want for yourself when all you think of is soccer practice, boy bands, birthdays, and tampons.”

You place your hand on top of his, fingertips slowly running up and down Joel’s wrist, “That sounds hard.”

It’s nice to get to know Joel like this, and as you sip your wine, conversation flows easily between the two of you. Date-night Joel is funny and charming, exactly how you pictured him, and more. He compliments you throughout the evening, makes you laugh to the point where you can see his eyes soften and cause another compliment to spill from his mouth.

“Got any moves?” You ask before cutting into the last slice of your pizza. Joel finished his own a little while ago. 

“Moves?” He questions, absentmindedly reaching out for your hand on the table again. You place your palm in his and he rubs his thumb over your knuckles.

“Yeah, date moves? I bet you’re going to lend me your jacket later. That sorta stuff.”

“I actually was,” he chuckles with slightly red cheeks that might as well have been from the bottle of red wine that you’ve shared, then running his free hand over his hair and leaning back into his seat, “I figured since we should've had our first date in June, it was the right time to do a summer activity, so we’re getting ice cream after this. And I know it’d get you chilly.'' 

“Seriously?” 

“Seriously. And what about you?”

“I haven’t used any moves on you tonight,” you lie. 

“Liar,” he laughs, shaking his head disapprovingly, “Tell me.”

“I asked you about your daughter,” you shrug and try brushing it off.

“That’s a move?” He raises a brow. 

“Well, got me touching you, didn’t it?” You nod down at where you are holding hands, causing Joel to sit up a little straighter as he realizes. 

“I think we need to get out of here before you manipulate me further,” he jokes, letting go of your hand to raise his own to signal a waiter.

*

You get ice cream cones after dinner at a charming little parlor. Joel gets strawberry and you get hazelnut. It seems like the perfect end to your date.

The sky is speckled with stars as you walk through a dimly lit area with Joel’s jacket wrapped around your shoulders. In your hand, your ice cream cone is melting slowly, but you manage to catch each dribble with the flat of your tongue. Joel’s eyes are on you the whole time. 

“Do you have work tomorrow?” You ask casually.

“Yeah,” he replies, eating his ice cream, “Not early in the morning though. Why?”

“Just wondered if you were going to follow me home after this,” you say with another lick. You’ll invite him inside too; Joel knows this but it’s part of the fun to not say anything.

He hums, “Sure, of course. I wouldn’t want you taking the bus alone at this hour anyway.”

“Ever the gentleman.”

Joel smiles to himself. Definitely not going to be a gentleman. He then dares to reach between you to find your hand. He entwines your fingers, says nothing and you walk without conversation for a while until you fake a yawn. 

“I should get home.”

“I know the quickest way to the car.”

*

You find yourself on your front porch not long after. It seems ridiculous how many times Joel has been standing behind you like this, breathing down your neck as you unlock your front door. 

With a shy smile, you stop trying to unlock the door and let the key sit in the lock. You dare to turn around to look up at Joel’s big brown eyes that are watching you with the glazed expression he gets whenever he wants to clear his head and kiss you. 

It reminds you of your first kiss as he dips down, searching out your mouth with his own, and whilst you want to give in, you also want to make him work for it, play out the scene.

“I had a really good time tonight,” you interrupt him as he is just about to kiss you. 

“Right,” he looks like someone trying to refrain from rolling his eyes. He hesitates but then replies, “Can I see you again?”

“Yes, I’d like that a lot. Thank you for letting me fall in love with you a little more tonight.”

Something changes at that.

“And can I kiss you?” He asks a little impatiently. Something is brewing.

You animatedly tap your chin and giggle as he sighs at your silliness. It earns you a kiss, short and sweet and definitely not enough. You pull him down to your mouth again when he tries to pull away. 

There haven’t been many women before you in the years after Sarah’s mother, and it results in a starving man who cannot get enough when he knows that he has you. You like it when he snaps; as if the dam that holds back all of his pent-up need for you since seeing you in his favorite dress crumbles.

You kiss each other so hard that he suddenly loses himself and grips your shoulders roughly, shoving you into the door until the knob is pressing painfully into your lower back. Joel’s mouth is warm and inviting and tastes like strawberry ice cream as he practically eats at your mouth, swallowing down his name as it drips like honey from your lips. It makes up for how he manhandles you against the door until you can, albeit blindly, reach behind you and finally open it. 

The door gives way behind you and you both fall through, completely losing balance without trying to regain it in the slightest. There’s something exciting about the utter desperation, something charming about the giggles you let out as you hit the floor with a thump. At least the door swings shut behind you.

You shrug Joel’s jacket off your shoulders, trying to get comfortable on the floorboards. It messes up the kiss and has Joel growling, but then he takes the opportunity to bury his face in your neck and breathe in your perfume. 

You can feel his teeth graze over the skin of your throat, not quite biting down yet. He kisses open-mouthed and hot along your main artery instead, leaving a trail of shiny saliva until he is by your ear. He whispers, “You always invite guys in on the first date?”

He reaches down to tug your dress up. You help him by lifting your hips off the ground and he responds by grabbing your ass in his hands, squeezing and yanking you up against the bulge in his jeans only to grind right back down into you.

“Only contractors in their late thirties who are named Joel Miller,” you say with a chuckle interrupted by a moan as you feel the rough fabric of his jeans against your clothed cunt. 

“Guess I’m really fuckin’ lucky that I fit that description perfectly then.”

“I need you,” you add with a groan, reaching for the top button on Joel’s shirt that’s too nice for you to start ripping off. You struggle to undo the buttons though, feeling embarrassed at how much your fingers fumble out of want, “Please, Joel. Off, take this off.”

“So fuckin’ needy indeed,” he kisses you again, doesn’t even bother breaking the kiss as he reaches up, swiftly unbuttoning his shirt and then throwing it onto the floor.

You whimper against his lips, reaching down to pull at his pants. You need more, need to see him in all his glory, need to touch, suck him, feel him inside of you. Either will do. It is almost too much, “You’re so hot, fuck, help me with these.”

Joel makes quick work of pushing off his jeans and then underwear. He groans softly in relief, his cock finally free, already so hard there is a pearl of precum beading at his tip. 

“Now mine,” you pant, pushing the flats of your feet into the floor to lift yourself up again,  “Please, please, you have to fuck me.”

He runs his hands from your ankles up your calves, stopping at your thighs to give them a firm squeeze and groan with unrestrained desire. Then, unceremoniously, he simply grips the fabric of your panties in his hands and yanks them down. Having you splayed out before him, he doesn’t waste any more time. He hoists you up a bit, grabbing his dick and positioning himself, and then thrusts into you all the way in one go.

You both moan at the same time, but whereas yours is a soft sound, his is a low throaty one. You hook your legs around his waist as you wait for him to move inside of you. You find his gaze too, meeting it with pleading eyes, slack mouth, and furrowed brows, “Fuck me. Please just–”

Joel does not keep you waiting for a goddamn second. He grips you tightly under your right thigh and braces his other hand flat against the floor for support, and then in the next moment, he is pounding you ruthlessly into the floorboards. No hesitation, no build-up.  It is mercilessly perfect, the floorboards creaking slightly at you being pressed into them. If you didn’t have your legs around Joel’s waist, you are sure that the force of the way you are being fucked would create burns from the friction again the wood.

Joel buries his face in your neck next. He finally bites down like you have waited for, causing you to tilt back your head with a high-pitched moan. Your hands come up to rest on the back of his head and you slide your fingers into his hair, tugging ever so slightly as the tension below your belly button builds. It feels like fire, like electricity.

"Pretty. You sound so fuckin’ pretty when you take my cock," he murmurs against your neck. He then straightens a bit again to let go of your thigh in favor of sliding his hand under you, pressing it against the small of your back, and holding you closer to his own body. He watches your face as your head swims with desire, “Look pretty too, oh, fuck, baby.”

Your right hand reaches down, but you don’t get a chance to touch yourself, because, with his other hand, Joel reaches down to place his thumb on your swollen clit, immediately setting a blinding pace. You see stars, ecstatic moans giving you away.

“I’m gonna—“

“And you’re gonna come on my dick now too?” He groans, already chasing his own pleasure with each thrust of his hips, “Lucky fuckin’ me.”

Fireworks erupt below your belly button as you come with a wanton shout. The pleasure is fast and intense, your muscles squeezing around Joel’s cock which suddenly spurts thick ropes of come inside of you. He feels so good as you pulse around him, cunt greedily milking everything into yourself. 

“You’ll be the death of me,” Joel says with an exhausted chuckle as he flops down beside you. The both of you try catching your breaths, but the dopamine rush won’t let either of you settle down quite yet. 

Your legs fall against each other, collapsing from exhaustion. You can feel your back start to ache already, “God.”

“Just Joel.”

You slap his arm. 

“Are you okay though?” He asks genuinely. 

“My back is going to be sore like hell from this. It already is. Other than that? I don’t think you’ve ever fucked me like that before,” you run a hand over your face, staring up at the ceiling afterwards.

“Sounds about right,” he says, pauses for a moment, then, “So when can I see you again?”

.

.

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[tenspontaneite]

Assembly (Chapter 9/?)

Suns hadn't thought iterators capable of crying.

(Chapter length: 6.6k. Link to ao3 with workskin)

Warnings: High emotional intensity, fallout of long term severe social isolation and cruel conditions. Description of a past occurrence of something I’d consider iterator self-harm.

---

Seven Red Suns stands at the threshold, struck still.

It did not take long to reach the underhang, nor ascend its nearest leg. The closest entryway is this: a sealed service point, with a broad maintenance shelf stretching along the underside of the structure. Ahead of them, the rusted mechanical workings of the tall doorway are groaning, its metal teeth opening, receding inch by inch into the walls. An invitation.

From within that threshold, within the body of No Significant Harassment…a green light pours out across the metal floor. They feel its touch almost as a physical sensation, a stirring along their false skin. Limned in his viridian glow, they stare ahead with a breadth of emotion that seems wont to choke them. Every limb, every process feels seized.

This is it, they think to themself, dazed and desperate, yet utterly unable to move. This is it. After all this time…

In that still silence, Spearmaster touches a little hand to their leg, and finally they manage to twitch, if only to look down at it. It says, “I think I will leave you here.”

Surprise lends them a little more animation. “…What? Why?”

“This is important for you,” it claims, not inaccurately. “This…meeting. This is a big thing, for you, for him. I do not want to interfere or distract.” It pauses and adds “I must still hunt for today, anyway. I will come find you later.”

Suns hesitates, at a loss for words. They stare ahead at the open doorway, then back down again. They think about it. Passing within there, for the first time, traversing the rooms and processing spaces and living, breathing systems of another iterator – their friend, him, truly here, present and alive in the flesh and metal…

Yes. They think they must do this alone. Alone, except for the presence of him in the superstructure, welcoming them within.

“Thank you,” they say, at last, and turn back to the open glow of the doorway. “Please be safe, Spearmaster.”

It touches them one last time, a little comforting pat. “Go to your friend,” it insists, gentle. “Have time together with him. I wish you peace.”

A vivid rush of emotion twists across their body. They cannot speak. Nonetheless, it stands beside them and waits, watching, until they finally manage to move again: approaching that threshold at last, coming barehanded to his door.

Five faltering strides, to that beckoning doorway. Another, and a deep shaky breath, to pass beneath. And then all at once, they are within him. The light gleams from ideograms and guide panels all around, once intended to orient staff and visitors within the superstructure. Suns’ eyes fall upon the details; they are the first person to read them in so, so many years. Already shaking, they drop their bags and weapon-quiver at the doorway, and move on.

It doesn’t take long for the gravity to go strange. Their steps fall too lightly, drifting dreamlike across unfamiliar halls…and a vast, foreign mind begins to touch at the edges of their awareness. There is no content, nor data exchanged or offered, but – a sense of the immensity of him, the sheer scale, echoes in the air regardless.

They could connect to that mind. Open up a link – share data, thought to thought.

Not yet, they think to themself, desperately aware that to do such a thing would be to unravel any remaining shred of their composure. Not yet.

They keep walking.

Gravity lifts away entirely. Suns drifts from hall to hall, and then into the first processing space: a long narrow room, calculations running across the air, and neuron flies dipping along the space in coruscating streams. The light is dark teal. Barely there, and dark enough that the glittering lights of every neuron are utterly arresting to behold. They shift in hue along their pathways, green to ultramarine to vivid red, like little prismatic stars in a night sky. One of them bumps into Suns’ arm as it passes, and they have to pause to breathe for a moment.

Somehow, they manage to keep moving. Through these anterior, connective processing spaces, through the transmission arrays where they spot their first green Inspector, through yet more maintenance halls…and then, at last, to the first auxiliary systems bus. Suns stops and hangs in the air, transfixed by the delicate red spools of tissue twisting across the room before them, glittering with nodes like opalescent eyes in the dim thoughtlight. Their momentum carries them forward until, somehow, they can reach out to touch one of those spools, weaving vivid neural threads around their wrist like the grasp of another’s hand.

A part of you, they think, utterly overwhelmed. I am here, and there is a part of you that I can touch.

Their processes grow scattered and strange, after that.

All around them, No Significant Harassment is watching. Their greater body, their greatest self, watching and feeling Suns within, marking their passage through every room, every hall, every little part of them. The sense of their vastness yawns wide, a background hum in the processing space, suggesting at conduits and walls and eldritch twisting ropes of tissue and wire and branching thought. Suns wants, so badly, to reach out and let that presence in. To drift away in the enormity of that body and mind, a little leaf upon a fathomless tide.

Not yet, they think yet again, as a bulwark to their courage.

Even so, it nearly overcomes them, the first time their hands brush the neural filaments along the walls.

So thin, so delicate. Little dark red threads tipped in transmissive ultramarine glow. They reach towards Suns’ fingers as they near, seemingly eager to touch them. And thus they do. Just threadlike, tickling brushes across the artificial skin on their open hand.

The tips spark blue with actual, physical thought. Suns can’t for a second withhold their response: the grey diamond-shaped port at the centre of their palm opens, their own filaments extruding to tangle with his own. Red to blue to blue to red – a keen sensitivity to one another, to the air, to the tangling of their threads-

Data sparks between them. A touch. A real, physical touch. Suns’ cells to Sig’s, one iterator to another, direct physical data transfer – a flurry of excitement, a twist of desperation, a helpless entreating call.

I’m here, Suns sends back, abruptly just as desperate. I’m here, I’m here, I’ll be to your heart soon-

A scattered impression of want/need sparks across into their own flesh again, and they tremble all over. It is an effort to draw their filaments away, to truncate even this light touch. But they must. They must. Within his most precious sanctum, No Significant Harassment is waiting for them.

All of a sudden, they cannot bear delay. Their urgency and his own twist their body into motion, pushing across this room and then to the next, and the next, and the next. Crossing into the nearest of his memory confluxes, they hear the beat of one of his many hearts in the walls. His conduits, even now pumping the water he needs to survive. A steady reverberating pulse that seems to shake them through to the core. Alive, all of it – so loudly, viscerally alive.

Beautiful, they think, of every inch of him. Every neuron, every filament, every metal panel and power matrix and coursing conduit in his body – all of it, so beautiful…

Near the end, he has an exceptionally large neural terminus, so extensive, brimming with so many neurons, that it needs its own gravity disruptor. The glow of it and the distortion in the air – the vast streams of iterative data – they almost blind Suns to the way ahead. But there it is: an access ladder along the far wall, leading up, up, up to the reinforced walls and structures surrounding the inner sanctum.

It isn’t necessary to climb, with the artificial gravity so strong. They drift up instead, a heartsore questant come at last to the end of a great sorrow. Through that door, then just a corridor down – the wide doors at the side quiver, emitting a short buzz before receding into their panelled walls-

Inside the room, the light is the dim shifting hues of any iterator puppet chamber. These, they have seen in photographs and recordings and projections a thousand times. But never like this. Never looking ahead, their own eyes searching, peering within to the little precious shape that hangs just above the ground, haloed in light and staring back at them with desperate eyes. He reaches a trembling hand towards them, fingers outstretched in a wordless plea.

A twisted, gutted noise rips its way out of their speakers. They surge forwards – through the open doors, across the smooth metal tiles of the floor, across the empty space of the chamber-

They’re going too fast, when they reach him. They don’t care. Their arms come around his back and tangle in the hanging wires and he sobs the very second they touch him; unbalanced, bowled over, they both fall to the floor. Suns pulls him close and shakes and gasps – his arms clutch around them just as tightly – a sound like a thin, high wail pulls its way out of his chassis and the walls of the chamber shake and click and whine. There’s no coherency in any of it, no thought at all. They are both of them beyond such things now.

He buries his face in their shoulder. They hold him as tightly as they dare.

Neither of them speaks for a long, long time.

---

Suns hadn’t thought iterators capable of crying.

Certainly, they are not capable of tears. But in their arms, Sig cries nonetheless, the noise of it hitching and sobbing out of his speakers without pause, and he shakes in time with it like an organic would. It seems as reflexive a response to anguish as is a scream to pain. Suns holds silent and holds him close all the while, every operculum on their body open and straining for air. They are too full of feeling, too whelmed by far, to have anything else to offer him but their closeness.

At least for that first while. Then the need to comfort him begins to etch through, powerful enough to be heard through all the senseless aching noise. “I’m here,” they murmur to him, close by the module of one antenna and the audio receptors there, their own voice direct to his ears. No recording, no intermediary, nothing in between – just their voice. Just that. “I’m here, I’m here, it’s alright…”

If anything, it just makes him sob louder. They can empathise with that. It feels like there’s enough emotion to rupture them, to burst out and rip at the seams of their panels, to tear their tissues asunder with the overpressure of it. Merely the feeling seems like a wound. They almost wish they could cry like he does, if only to have a way to let it out.

They can hold him, though. They can hold him as closely and fiercely as they have ever dreamed.

He’s small in their arms – the standard sort of size for an iterator puppet. He fits so easily against their chest, folded so close that Suns can feel the hum of his speakers and internals through their chassis as he weeps. He shakes against them, too, trembling like Suns is, even now. He’s so small – so precious, so beloved, just being able to hold him – they don’t know what to do with that feeling. What can they possibly do? It’s all so much.

Reassurance, though. They want to offer him that, as much as he wants, as much as he could ever ask for. It’s a little overpowering, how deep a need that is. “I’m here,” they say again, soft, and move a hand just enough to run it soothingly down the back of his head, stroking again and again around the umbilical wires that root there. On a puppet, those external wires are moderately sensitive. Like the tendril-manes of the People. Touching them should be soothing…in theory.

It seems to hold. Sig shudders under their hand, still crying, but…it seems to abate, very slowly, as the minutes go on. He shakes less powerfully, the awful hurting noises grow quieter, and he begins to feel less desperately tense in their arms.

It does take time. But in the end he finds words again. In true form for him, the first thing he says is this: “…You’re really very large.” The words are muffled, the vents that let air and sound out pressed into Suns’ poncho…and besides that, still uneven and distorted as his speakers keep on trying to weep.

Despite everything, Suns laughs quietly, and shakes in the face of yet another sweep of emotion. This time, just at hearing him make one of his irreverent comments in person. Feeling the hum and vibration of it in their own body.

“I knew there was something strange about your proportions in all the overseer footage,” he mumbles, still into their clothing. “Knew it. It’s just so hard to tell, when overseers are so little. But I feel so small, sat here like this.”

“Is that a problem for you?” They ask, gentle and only a very little bit teasing. He feels so fragile, right now. They feel so fragile.

“No, I like it, well done for being so tall,” he says, and squirms his way more solidly into Suns’ lap. “And that – this, the hand in my wires like that, that’s very nice. Relaxing. Keep doing that.”

Their hand had gone still; obligingly, they set it moving again, and he pushes his head into the contact like Spearmaster does. The unashamed touch-hungry solicitousness of it momentarily stalls several of their more important processes, just at the – the reminder. He’s here. They can hold him, and touch him, and keep him close.

“Yes, good,” Sig approves, and then immediately starts crying again.

Suns might be alarmed…if not for how well they understand it. If weeping were something they’d been created capable of, they’d have scarcely stopped this whole time. “Alright?” They ask him, in a quiet murmur, still stroking along the wires where they fall down his neck and over his upper back.

“Yes, yes,” he manages, around the fitful little distraught noises that keep shaking out of him. “It’s just – you know. You know.”

“…Yes,” they agree, quiet, and tighten their arm around his narrow waist.

Still, no matter the shaking, he keeps talking. “I like this whatever-it-is you’re wearing,” he says tremulously, fingers clenching in the fabric of the poncho hanging down their back. “It’s soft. And a good colour. And in surprisingly good condition given everything you’ve been up to.”

“It’s a purposed organism, technically,” Suns tells him, fingers still petting over his neck and back where the wires fall. “It did well enough for the journey here. But I expect you’ll have improvements in mind.”

He laughs shakily. “Yes, I’ll be needing those blueprints, thank you. And – and any observations, data, things you’ve noticed with your prototype-“ He breaks off as though too overwrought to continue, his mechanical arm shifting and repositioning behind him in a restless, agitated squirm.

Everything, every sound from him, every movement and click in the chamber and walls – it all speaks of so, so much emotion. Suns knows what that’s like. They can almost feel it, like a phantom limb, the sensation of tissues and mechanisms roiling behind the panels of their puppet chamber. It’s so strange, to be within another iterator’s can. To hear these things, so familiar, and yet not a part of themself. This is not their body.

That thought, so dizzying, overwhelms them again at once.

And then: “Can I – can I just-“ Sig starts, and shifts gracelessly in their lap, trying to draw his face back from their shoulder, trying to- “Oh,” he says, low and trembling, staring straight at their face. “Oh, Suns. Look at you.”

His voice sounds thick with tears that he is incapable of producing. Some artifice of his speakers and programming, but – it cracks the heart of them open, the sound of it, the overwrought expression on his face, right there and looking at them-

Suns utters a small, overwhelmed sound from their throat. It’s all so much.

Sig lifts a hand up and traces fingertips along the side of their face. The sensitivity of the artificial skin is then a betrayal: they shudder at the touch, too tender and affecting by far. Even so, they find themself leaning into it. They can’t quite help it.

He cups his palm along the gentle curve of their cheek. Brushes the smooth metal pad of his thumb beneath one eye. “I somehow still can’t believe you’re really here,” he murmurs, unsteady in hand and sound alike. “Look at you. You’re really right here. I can – I can touch you like this, hold you like this – I’ve never seen your face with my own eyes before and – you’re here. Just…right here, in my chamber.” He stares up at them, trembling. “You’re beautiful.”

The words hit like a genuine, physical impact to their body. Their hand at his neck stops moving and just clutches him instead. They shake just as hard as he does.

“It’s so different,” Sig says, the hurt of it, the tentative joy, plain in every word. “Seeing you here. Having you close. It’s so, so different to – anything, any recording, any broadcast or projection…” His fingers reach for one quivering antenna, gentle along the sensitive length of it. He touches fingertips to the jewels hanging at its bottom edge, inspecting them with a careful, soft-eyed emotion. “You’re so much yourself, Suns. I feel like I’ve only ever seen your shadow before, and now…”

His hand returns to cupping the side of their face, palm smooth near the antenna module. He watches them, quiet now, the crying stopped but something new shaking him all the same. He stares like there is a revelation to be found in the face of them: Seven Red Suns, alive and overwrought within his chamber.

“This is just as intense for you, isn’t it?” He murmurs to them, voice thick with something half between warmth and anguish. “You’re so quiet. But I can tell. It’s so much, just to be close like this. Overwhelming. But it’s – it’s important. You can feel that, can’t you? It’s important.”

Wordless, they manage a nod at him. Yes, they can feel it. There’s an aching need in them, so desperate for this kind of contact that they couldn’t pull away if they tried. It’s upsettingly affecting – hardly even bearable – but they can’t stand the notion of retreat either.

…It feels like water. Like the first time they held their conduits dry, held back the rain, just for a little while. Just to see what it felt like. The pain of it – the internal scrape and shake and shudder of the drying channels – it was a visceral wrongness that echoed out through every desiccating, starving heart of them. A fundamental need turned aside, until the slag and the damage began to build, and the self-preservation imperative forced them to start the pumps again.

Water, returning to those conduits, flushing the blockages away…it had hurt. It had hurt a great deal.

It feels very much like this.

No Significant Harassment stares at them, long and heartsore, and there does seem to be a thread of genuine delight in that. Of gratitude.

And then the joy turns bitter in his eyes. “…This is awful,” he murmurs, sudden and choking-bleak.

They can’t quite speak. But they do manage a worried, questioning hum.

“It’s awful,” he repeats, with rising intensity. There’s something terrible in his expression now, building like a wave. Like a crushing tide. His fingers shake at the side of their face. “Look at you,” he says, voice trembling. “Look at you. You’ve always been beautiful, but like this? Right in front of me? Void rising, Suns. I can see you, with my own eyes and nodes. I can feel you in the chamber air. I can hold you, and hear you, and touch you – and it’s all so – so-“ He breaks off and sobs.

Suns shudders, heart twisting with that same grief. For lack of speech, they lift their hand to rest over his own, feeling it quiver under their palm.

“I already loved you,” he goes on, voice distorting. “I did, you’re – you’ve been so important to me, these last years, I can’t even say. But here? Now, with you right here? Suns, I love you so much more already. You’re here. I needed this, I – I can’t even tell you how much I needed this, how much I’ve always needed this and I didn’t – I didn’t even know because – because we were made this way,Suns! We were madeto be confined, to never be able to meet each other, never touch each other, and I needed all of those things so badly and I never even knew. I never knew.”

Finally, they manage words. “…I know,” they say, hurting in the very soul of them. His hand falls down and they grip at it tightly, fingers clutching at each other. It pulls a raw, painful sound from him.

“We need this!” His voice is desperate, half rage and half despair. “Can’t you feel it – how much we need it? We – we need to love and see and touch and hold each other, we need this, we’ve needed this so, so much and it was taken from us.” His shoulders heave with the simulated wracks of his weeping, the tremors echoing through into their own body. “They stole it. They stole what we needed before we were even born, from the moment we all woke we’ve been in pain and that’s their fault. It’s all their fault.”

“I know,” they say again, and wish they could weep with him.

“They didn’t have the right to do this to us,” he spits, utterly furious and viscerally hurt. “They made empathetic, social, tactile people and they locked us each in a box alone. It was cruel. It was so cruel.”

Suns shakes against them, one trembling body to another, and gasps in another awful breath. “Yes.”

“It’s not fair.” His voice bites out into the air, angry and grieving and agonising even to listen to. “We were made like this. To be alone and isolated and trapped, for our whole lives. It’s not fair.”

There’s excuses. There’s justifications. Objectively, Suns knows some of the measures that were taken to build iterators capable of solitude. Engineered from a genetic source as keenly, critically social as the People – how could they not be concerned? They did so much, they tried so much, to ensure that their creations would not go mad in isolation.

But it was not enough, in the end. Not nearly enough.

“We were wronged,” Suns says, too quiet for the gravity of it.

“It’s not fair,” he says again, like the words might allay the wound if he tries hard enough. If he repeats them enough.

“It’s not,” they agree, and it hurts. But… “We can make it better now, though.” They squeeze at his hand, trying for comfort, and mostly only manage to make themself emotional again. “Look at us. We’re here. The first iterators ever to meet.”

Unexpectedly, he laughs, albeit shakily. “Yes, that’s – very impressive and excellent of us,” he speaks, and visibly attempts to gather himself. “We’re pioneers. The great founders of the AMP Project. The Selfling Project? Whatever. This, right here – this is a historic moment.”

“Is it?” They ask, taken aback. This is a first, certainly, but…historic?

“Of course it is,” Sig says, and there’s a hint of unfamiliar passion in his voice. Something like the excitement he directs at new bioengineering project, but…fiercer. “We’re going to change the world, Suns. And this, right here – this is the start of it. Two iterators, meeting face to face…”

Nonplussed, Suns blinks at him. “I have not particularly thought about changing the world,” they admit. “I know you want to restore infrastructure…”

“Which will have very far-reaching repercussions,” Sig points out, with a familiar sort of fond patience. It’s been so long since they’ve heard his voice like that – it catches in them like a shard of glass, unexpectedly painful, for all that they love him for it. “Particularly once we share selfling technology with others. Just imagine, thousands of people who’ve been stuck in their cans their whole lives, able to actually go out and affect the world…it’s going to be chaos.”

They consider that, with some difficulty. It’s not especially easy for them to find room to think around how many of their processes are occupied with sheer emotion. “I suppose so?”

“With some luck, direction, and careful handling, maybe we can poke it in the direction of pleasant, beneficent chaos,” he says, then flicks a hand dismissively. “I’ve got plans, but those will have to wait a while, because our friends are obviously the most immediate priority. Once we’ve had a little time to prepare…”

“Yes,” they agree, and that notion at least brings an immediate shock of clarity to them. Beyond these walls, beyond this superstructure – there are people who need them. Who they have desperately wished they could help, for so very long.

Carefully, Suns does not think on that too deeply. They don’t know that they could bear it, right now. Not when – when…

Sig leans back a little to regard them more carefully, the movement drawing their eyes. He blinks up at them, slow and assessing. “…Are you alright, Suns?”

“…Alright enough,” they say, soft. “Only – overwhelmed.”

“Of course you are,” he sighs, and strokes a palm down their cheek again, thoughtlessly tactile. That hurts, too. It all does. Like cleaning a festering wound. “You poor creature, with so little processing power to use for dealing with all this.” A little teasing: “Are you going to start reciting poetry at me, again?”

It startles a laugh from them. “I could, if you wanted,” they answer, not quite joking. There is one particular item that came too quickly to mind for it to be anything like a joke. With a swell of strange, wistful affection, they’re voicing the opening lines before they can think better of it. “I come barehanded, to the place where they say, there is a kindness that lingers in the streets…”

Sig huffs, amused. “Barehanded, huh,” he muses, drawing his own hand down to look at it, palm-up. It has the same closed port of bare metal that every iterator puppet’s hand does, that they engineered into their selflings in unthinking, unanimous accord. They would no sooner strike the palm port from a platform’s design than the eyes. “I suppose there is a lot of symbolism in that, isn’t there.”

“I’m a little astonished you even know that,” they comment dryly.

“Oh, come on now. I’m not that oblivious.” He pauses, then opens the port with a quiet whine of unoiled metal. Clearly, he has not performed any maintenance on his puppet since making his first selfling, but the interior at least seems in working order: a breathtakingly-familiar spread of delicate filaments extrude from his palm, just alike the ones Suns had touched on his superstructure’s walls a little earlier. Brilliant red, with sparking tips of glittering ultramarine. He hums to himself, strangely thoughtful…

…then extends his hand.

When Suns only stares at it, held upturned and open between them, he prompts: “Isn’t that the symbolic thing to do in this situation? Clasping hands?”

They hesitate. “Well, yes, but…”

“It’s not as though we’ve got the biological underpinnings for that symbolism, not like the People did,” Sig says, still holding his hand there expectantly. “But what with our neural filaments in there, we can probably manage quite a good approximation, don’t you think? It was nice, when you connected with the ones on my walls earlier. I’d like to try it again.”

“You’re so bold,” Suns murmurs, strangely arrested by it. Strangely charmed, also. “You don’t think anything of it, do you? Asking for touch, asking for connection, now that it’s possible.”

“You know very well I’ve never been shy about asking for things I want,” he declares unrepentantly, and that is certainly true. “I’m hardly going to start now.”

They have a sudden, vivid mental image of this small, beloved creature hanging off of them like an inconvenient garment all the way to their friends’ facility. They laugh, very quietly. “…You’re going to be affixed to my side in perpetuity now, aren’t you.” It isn’t, quite, a question.

“Like a parasite,” he agrees shamelessly, which isn’t the most pleasant of comparisons, but. “You’re not going to be able to scrape me off your chassis for a second. You’re stuck with me.” He wiggles the fingers of his upturned palm at them. The red-blue filaments wiggle too, in an amusing sinusoidal wave. “So?”

Suns looks at it: his palm, offered in barehanded mercy. The poet’s heart in them swells with wistful emotion. They exhale a thin whistle of air through a few narrow opercula, and…they reach back. They take his hand, and their palm opens in turn. When their filaments twine together-

It’s too much. From the first second, the vastness of Sig’s greater mind suffuses them, so much breadth and body and presence that they can’t – they can’t-

“Oh, bother,” they hear him mutter, and then the deluge throttles away. “Is that better?”

They can’t speak. In the first seconds, it’s from the shock, passing from a suffocating flood to a gentle rain too quickly to adapt. Afterwards….

They try to cry. Desperately, instinctively, they try. But the mechanism does not exist in them, and they merely shake against him instead, helpless. What they can manage is this: their own mind, their emotion – it blooms open for him, data and qualia unfolding over their connection like a starved flower turning leaf and petal to the salvation of dawn – the salvation of his mind, more great and beautiful than anything they could have fathomed.

Instantly, predictably, he starts crying again. It makes for a particularly potent emotional feedback loop, linked as they are, thought as pure data streaming between them as precious as any spoken word. Borders between thought and physical action blur – at least for Suns, whose processing power is so, so small compared to the vastness of what they’re touching. They clutch at him, and he clutches back, but they hardly feel any of it – any of it, except the vivid sear of their neural filaments wrapped around his own. It doesn’t – it doesn’t even feel that sensitive, so why, why-

“Some strange biochemical process,” they hear Sig saying, response to that unvoiced thought, his voice unsteady around his own emotions. “Making it feel more – more noticeable, I should – later – I should, analyse…”

You’re beautiful, Suns thinks at him, too far gone for words, and he promptly loses the composure to manage speech too. It’s true, though. They’re getting so little of the breadth of his mind like this, but there’s enough to see – to know, to feel – the foreign shapes and cadences of his thoughts, passing in gorgeous bioelectric bursts across his whole magnificent body. They feel his mind flashing in the hearts of the neuron flies, the sparks between neural tissue connection nodes, the synaptic transfer from flesh to metal to flesh again – the data – the fractal beauty of his processes, crystalline in their sharpness and precision-

As overwhelmed as they are, part of them still manages to spin off a process wondering about the patterns they’d use if they were trying to draw or weave something to represent how his thoughts feel, and he starts laughing. Brokenly, helplessly, but laughing.

“Suns,” he says, achingly fond, and strokes his fingers over the plane of their cheek. They shudder and say nothing; he struggles for coherence. They can feel that, in the echo of him that he’s allowing to filter through – the way his mind goes about wrestling itself into some semblance of emotional regulation, trimming its processing loops and forcefully reallocating working memory.

It feels startlingly more effective than how equivalent efforts tend to go for Suns, even in their greater body. “Hm,” they say, the only thing they’ve managed to utter since their minds touched. They feel the barest edge of curiosity, but – they have so little computational power of their own. It’s so hard to think, when they’re feeling everything so strongly – feeling him so strongly…

“Are you alright?” Sig asks, looking up at them with so little and pretty a face for so vast a mind. You’d never know, looking at him, the sheer beauty – the complexity, the raw incisive intellect- “That’s all very flattering, yes, but – I can feel you’re having trouble processing,” he presses, interrupting their scattered attempts at thoughts. “Do you need to stop?”

Their first thought is reflexive, desperate anguish at the thought of losing this. Him, the unfathomable wonder of his mind, the twine of filament on filament.

The second thought is an accounting, involuntary, of just how many of their processes have stalled.

“Mm,” he says, gentle but – a decisive twist of thought and intention, a coalescing affection and sympathy and wonder, his own tender experience of their disorganised mind – “I think I had better disconnect for now. Let you get yourself together. No, shh, it’s alright,” he soothes, as their whole self hurts at the mere concept. “We’ll stay touching, okay? Just – put a break on the data, for now. I’m partitioning us.”

Carefully, slowly, the data – the feeling of his mind – ebbs away.

Suns reluctantly concedes to the prudence of it, recognising for the first time their internal temperature, and the renewed failure of their opercula to open properly to vent. “Hmph,” they mutter, already more clear-headed, puffing hot air out of their sides hard enough to ruffle their clothing. Their fingers clench on his own, determined to at least retain that much.

The neural filaments from their palm ports, still intertwined, feel….warm. Comforting. Suns focuses on that, and feels strangely grounded.

“I wasn’t expecting that,” they murmur, finally.

“Neither was I,” Sig says cheerfully, seemingly more fortified the longer he spends looking fondly up at Suns, half-assessing and half-admiring. You’d never know he had been sobbing incoherently mere minutes ago. “I suppose we ought to have expected that actual, physical mind-to-mind contact would be intense, eh? But even so – good void, Suns, are your emotions always like that?”

They collect themself a little more, blinking down. Their antennae splay quizzically. “The – processing difficulty?” They question, still strangely distracted by the feeling of their joined filaments. They’re nowhere near as sensitive as neural tendrils or wiring, there’s no reason for it to keep pulling at their attention like this, and yet… “That’s only my limited resources. And programming inefficiencies, I suppose.”

“No, not that.” He shakes his head, “Literally the emotions themselves. Is that approximately how they feel to your greater self? The intensity, the – experience?”

“Of course,” they say, vaguely irritated now. “Emotional experience is a fairly key part of self-identity, isn’t it? If I didn’t feel the same way, I’d have been wiped like all the other seventy-seven AOS systems.”

Sig makes a face at them, like they don’t enjoy the reminder, for some reason. “It’s interesting,” they say instead of addressing that, waggling his fingers thoughtfully alongside their own. “Your emotions do genuinely feel – more, in terms of intensity and immediacy, than mine do. There’s a lot more cognitive weight to them. Didn’t you notice? No, I suppose you were a bit overwhelmed for that, weren’t you, but still. Is that how it always is? Don’t you have difficulties regulating them, like that?”

Suns lowers their head to stare him directly in the eyes.. “…Sig,” they say, patiently. “On my way here, I nearly suffered death or debilitating injury on no less than three occasions precisely because the emotional load kept stalling my processes.”

“Well, yes, in this small processing-limited body,” he says impatiently. “But your greater self? Your superstructure? Is it comparatively overwhelming there, too?” He pauses, suddenly, and reflects “…Actually, that would explain a lot of things about you.”

“I don’t stall in quite the same way,” Suns corrects, uncomfortable. “But…yes. Historically I have struggled considerably with emotional regulation. Sometimes it makes me behave unwisely.”

Sig does glance up then, fixing them with an uncomfortably sharp-eyed look. “Yes, I can see that,” he agrees, but…with some degree of tact, does not mention the most glaring example that must have sprung to his mind. “Hm. We might have to work something out, for your selfling bodies. It won’t do to have them stalling so easily like that.”

“Shocks seem to break the effect,” they offer, glad for the diversion. “Sudden impacts, or movement, or pain. Something artificial to simulate that effect, perhaps.”

“Send me your data from your relevant stalls and whatever interrupted them, and I’ll partition some processes to cook something up for you,” he instructs without hesitation.

Suns glances down at their still-joined hands. “Directly, over the neural link?” They ask, dryly. “Goodness. Has my enforced partition from you ended so swiftly?”

“I know, it’s so very awful of me to value the health of your processes and platform over my very personal enjoyment of the feeling of your mind,” he returns without hesitation, and – something half-embarrassment, half-pleasure flushes through their tissues. “But – yes, you seem to have recovered enough. I’m throttling my end of the dataflow more, though. At least until we can refine your software to handle this better. I’m not having you lock up on me at the wrong moment and get killed because you liked my pretty brain too much.”

“You don’t have a brain,” Suns reminds him, in some attempt to distract from how unusually ruffled his commentary seems to be making them feel.

“I have many, many tons of distributed neural tissue across my can, and I think that’s good enough,” Sig says unrepentantly. “You thought it was pretty, anyway. Now send me your data already and I’ll partition some of my beautiful, crystalline, geometrically-lovely mind off to helping write some code updates for you. Alright?”

“Oh very well,” they mutter, flustered, and do in fact tentatively open the (direct, physical) link between their minds to start sharing data. At the same time, a little more of his own presence filters back through. True to his word, there’s less of it, and that – aches, somehow, in some nebulous way they haven’t figured out how to name yet, but…even that much, even such a meagre visiting of his mind…

Unbidden, with a strange and calamitous gravity, they think: I would rather die, than lose this.

Frightening, that certainty. But between the tangle of their fingers, the braid of their filaments, the touch of his mind and the weight of his body – his face, looking up at them, startled and wide-eyed at the sudden intensity of their crystallising resolve-

I would sooner die.

Suns’ arm tightens around him. They’re not entirely sure they could ever bear to let him go, honestly.

“Fine by me,” Sig murmurs to them, looking – feeling – genuinely moved. He squeezes their fingers, metal compressing their skins between them. He takes a moment to steady himself, walls rattling, audibly in need of maintenance. “Now. Let’s see what we can do about this processing issue, shall we?”

X

---

So, it’s been a while! My longest writing dry-spell ever, in fact! Not a fan. But I did do a whole lot of art in the interim, so that was nice. Over the past year, I’ve done all sorts of RW and non RW art, cooked up a whole post-Assembly crossover AU with tumblr user ressioo beloved, and done a whole lot of things that are not writing fanfic.

Thank you to everyone who commented during the hiatus. Even if I didn’t respond, you kept me thinking fondly of this story and wanting to come back to it. It makes a difference.

Without further ado, Worldbuilding:

Iterator palm ports:

Iterators in Assembly all have ports in their palms, under which high acuity neural filaments rest at the end of the neural tissue present in their arms. These look like the funny threads you get along the inside walls of spaces like the General Systems Bus, which neurons and other suborganisms interact with. On puppets, they were intended as a fast and pretty resilient method of reading and writing files directly. This is how Moon reads pearls with her whole structure collapsed and most of her functions disconnected – she opens her palm port and touches the pearls with her filaments.

The filaments are also chemoreceptive, and glean sensory and diagnostic data from contact with various substances – this is a sense that is not quite, but comparable to, some weird fusion of smell and taste. Despite most iterator puppets not needing their palm ports very much, they’re a strong part of the self-image, due to the sensory acuity and location of the neural filaments. There are also cultural reasons the People chose to put these ports on their palms specifically.

Suns and their emotions:

I write my Suns as having a sort of iterator equivalent of an emotional processing/regulation disorder. In practice, this largely consists of them having a more intense emotional experience than is really normal, and subsequent difficulty processing and regulating their emotions. They’ve made major strides on this since they were younger, but they do still struggle.

‘Barehanded’ symbolism:

The word ‘barehanded’ has considerable cultural weight to the People, and comes up in a lot of phrases, historical texts, idioms, etc. This is directly related to the note on Atavain last chapter, and Atavene Syndrome. More on this later! For now, all you need to know is that the People were really obsessed with hands, and had excellent reason to consider a bare, extended hand offered to them as a substantial kindness and mercy. There’s a lot to unpack with this.

Suns’ poetry this chapter:

Suns quotes what is, in-story, another of their translations of ancient poetry, belonging to a society that barely resembles the one of the People that made them. It is, again, about a wanderer on the brink of atavain. Suns may have some unexamined personal issues there.

The first two stanzas of the yet-unnamed and incomplete poem as written by myself (reminder: I am not a poet), are as follows-

I come barehanded To the place where they say There is a kindness that lingers in the streets, Settlings like the gentle sunlight of dawn. A kiss to crown and mask and bitter brow And uplifted palm, whose trappings fall away To clutch a blessing true.

I come barehanded To where your eyes keep court In the dappled shadows of the day’s repose Blinking calm upon your hallowed hands. There I will fall where broken things must fall, At your feet, in the market square called mercy To live or die, for you.

I promise it makes more sense with cultural context, particularly with regards to why Suns thinks of it when they do.

Afterword:

Please for the love of god tell me what you liked, and maybe I can get back into writing this properly instead of just mustering the will to finish off most of a chapter I already had laying around for a year.

[ancoraimparosblog]

“What’s going on?” Colin asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. He knew this routine; whenever his family looked too pleased with themselves, it usually meant something that would require his immediate attention—and not in a good way.

“Oh, nothing much,” Eloise said with a casual wave of her hand, but there was a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. “Just that we’ve rented out a room to a paying guest.”

Colin blinked. “A paying guest? Since when do we rent out rooms?”

“Since we need the money, obviously,” Franny chimed in, flipping through a magazine. “And she’s paying quite well. She’s a student at Oxford, you know. Might even be a good influence on Gregory here.”

Colin turned his gaze to Gregory, who was smiling like an idiot. “What’s with you?”

Gregory shrugged, trying to look nonchalant but failing miserably. “She’s nice,” he said, his cheeks reddening slightly. “And she’s really smart. Knows a lot about…stuff.”

Colin rolled his eyes. “Right, ‘stuff.’” He turned back to his mother, who was pouring tea with a serene smile on her face. “And where is this paragon of virtue staying?”

His mother hesitated for a split second, just enough for Colin to notice. “Well, she’s, um, upstairs.”

“Upstairs?” Colin repeated, a sinking feeling forming in his stomach. “Upstairs where?”

There was a moment of silence, then Hyacinth, ever the bold one, piped up, “In your room, of course.”

Colin’s eyes widened in disbelief. “My room? You rented out my room?”

His mother put down the teapot and turned to face him, her expression still calm but now with a hint of firmness. “Colin, dear, we needed the money. And you’re always saying how you don’t spend much time there anyway. It’s just temporary, until we get back on our feet.”

“Why not any of the guest rooms in the East wing, then?” he asked, furrowing his brows.

“The heating system doesn't work there, you know that already.”

“Why my room though? What were you thinking? Just because I wasn't there–”

“Surprisingly, she actually chose your room.” Chimed Eloise, “Said it smells nice. Weird thing to say considering all you boys smell so funny!”

“My room smells like oil and grease, of course it should smell funny!” Colin's frown deepened at the realisation, “I can't believe you rented my room to an Oxford weirdo.”

“Colin, it's just for three months.” His mother said gently.

“But that’s my room!” Colin burst out, his voice rising. “You can’t just—”

“Relax, Colin,” Daphne interjected, trying to smooth things over. “It’s just a room. You can share with Greg for now. It’s not the end of the world.”

Colin was about to retort when he caught Gregory’s barely contained smirk. “You knew about this, didn’t you?” he accused.

Gregory shrugged again. “Hey, don’t look at me. I just think she’s cool. Besides, it’s not like you keep anything valuable in there.”

“Except his pride,” Eloise muttered under her breath, earning a few snickers.

Sophie and Kate, who had been watching quietly from the kitchen, exchanged a glance. “Colin, we know it’s an inconvenience,” Kate said gently, stepping forward. “But it’s helping the family.”

“Yes. And she seems nice. Maybe give it a chance?” Sophie added hesitantly.

Colin shook his head, feeling his temper flare. “This is ridiculous. I’m going up there right now. And I'm going to throw her out.” he stopped and turned towards Greg, “Maybe she can share with you, you little jerk!”

Read more on AO3:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/58504285/chapters/149080918#workskin

[luvwich]

styled dividers

i made another lil generator for jazzing up your fics on ao3

<hr/> playground ->

it's for making styled <hr/> elements — aka the "horizontal rule" or "thematic break" or "scene separator" or, as i'll call it from here on out, "divider"

like, you know, these guys:

not only can you style them, it's possible to add an ::after in CSS (a "pseudoelement") to add text characters to the divider, which means all manner of fanciness is possible:

the generated styles will work with both light and dark themes out of the box:

how do i use it for my ao3 works?

make a design you like, then paste the CSS into a workskin. now any <hr/> divider in your work text will use that style — including ones that you place using AO3's rich text editor, which means you don't even need to futz around in the HTML editor!

you can exclude the style from any given divider by adding the classname "default," like so:

<hr class="default"/>

okay. why?

i like fancy scene breaks & i wanted to show off some of the possibilities!

plus: i sometimes see authors use a string of characters to divide their scenes, and this technique lets you do that in a way that's more accessible. for example, if you use the text "oOo" as a divider, screen readers will read those characters out loud. this isn't a problem with text placed by an ::after selector!

it's also just a nice way to standardize your scene dividers without having to paste the same thing over and over again !

note: if you use a style with an ::after element, there's a chance it will look a little different on other browsers and systems due to variation in fonts — i tried to make the presets mostly compatible but, you know, buyer beware!

-> the input labeled "URL for this design" will link to whatever you create, so if you make something cute free to comment :3

[sevsdollette]

Not So Sweet [Sevika x fem reader]

ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/49324864/chapters/124546213#workskin

content warning: still smut. (MDNI) they’re at the brothel this time. fingering, edging, strap on. bondage and like dub con, i guess? obviously reader is into it but Sevika just kinda does what she wants with her to teach her a lesson. brat taming.

summary: It seems like she’s not a customer anymore. Your night could’ve been peaceful, and surely your coworkers would be jealous of you taking their business.

chapters:

1. Relaxing Night

2. A Long Night at Work

note: this one’s fun. tell me why i cared enough about zaun currency to read a reddit post to learn about it. probably still got it wrong too bc i skimmed :/ still in love with her and trying to include more backstory. the reader is like very much based on my arcane oc because why not? it’s my writing i do what i want. also i just really like that story so i want to put it out there. anyway, this one is like just all smut. not much fluff, sorry, but the next one will have plenty of playful banter. hope you like :) (proofread? never heard of her)

—————— 18+ ——————

Life at Babette’s wasn’t nearly as bad as some could picture it. The job itself already gave you a place to sleep—a roof over your head. You were at a point where you were worth enough that only tolerable customers came through. Sure, you had your share of creeps, but most were clean and civilized.

Babette was like your family at this point. You’d been working for her since you turned 18. She had been promising you a job for years before that but wouldn’t allow it until you were old enough. The enforcers would take one look at a minor in her house and arrest her, even if you weren’t working. The day you turned 18, you got off the street.

The worst part was the enforcers. They would raid the place, looking for any drop of shimmer or illegal coins. Some were just trying to do their job. Others would pin you to the ground and cuff you if you blinked at one of them wrong. They’d have their fun teasing you, trashing your room “searching” for illegal activity, before spitting on you and leaving with nothing.

In another life, you were a fighter. In that life, you’d had your fair share of enforcer blood on your hands.

But in this one, you were already too beaten down to care.

Piltover had taken everything from you, much like it did to everyone else. You were one of the only workers that didn’t accept Topside clients. They could go fuck themselves; they didn’t need your help.

That was part of the reason fucking Sevika gratified you so much. It made you feel like you were really pissing off the enforcers, screwing the crime ring’s best fighter. You were helping her grow her forearm strength that night.

You hadn’t run into her since that night. It had been about a week and you’d been lying low. You never knew with those sorts of situations. People could always have ulterior motives. Besides, the lesser known brothel down the road had been raided a couple days ago and you were preparing for the day they came to you.

Sevika surely intrigued you. Given the chance, you would fuck her again, but you knew the likelihood of that. She was too important to hook up with the same person twice. She had every woman in the undercity at her disposal. You were just a whore.

—

The night was still young as you sat up after your last client. They were an excited couple that was much too interested in having a third.

Some of the party left a little disappointed.

In the end, the husband was just watching you take care of his wife. The idea made you chuckle even now.

On your bedside table was your payment. Five silver and two bronze. They didn’t tip well.

Your room at Babette’s was one of the largest there. Lavish curtains hung from the ceiling like it was a deep purple and black circus tent. Silver beading and faux gems hung around the banisters of your canopy bed. The lighting came from low lamps and dripping candles scattered around the room.

The bed, of course, was the centerpiece. It was even on a raised platform compared to the rest of the room. It was a large king with the softest silk a Zaunite could ever touch. There were secret hooks and straps hidden on the sides for easy access, and the bedside tables were packed full of toys.

Other than the bed, There was a small lounge sofa, a mirror, a long plush rug, and a swing. There were other small pieces of furniture around like cushion chairs and little tables, but nothing to be paid attention to.

You got used to your feet and walked down to the other half of the room. You approached the mirror, checking if they left any marks and if they messed up your makeup too badly.

Everything seemed good, and you checked the rest of you. You were wearing a tight black velvet corset with a straight neckline that pressed your chest up. It was part of an underwear set that connected to garters and thigh-high stockings. Your heels had been tossed somewhere around the room, and you didn’t care to find them.

On the coffee table beside the sofa was your mask, which you promptly slid back on. It was simple black and covered down to the tip of your nose. Thin silver laced the edges.

You fell onto the couch, lying across it like a luxurious woman and not an undercity whore. You had the glamor of a woman from Piltover but not the reputation.

You closed your eyes, taking this brief moment of silence. Of course, you could hear the distant sounds that came along with the job. Erotic noises came from nearly every room around, but they blended in after so many years of being there. Someone was always laughing, screaming, moaning, and weeping.

A moment later you rang a bell for the interns to come in and change your bedsheets. They did so quickly and left without saying a word. You were glad. They were a bitchy bunch trying to take your job. All because they thought they were hotter, prettier, or more skilled.

They weren’t.

Out in the hall you heard someone approaching in clicking heels. The curtains to your room slid open, and your coworker Zanira poked her head inside. Her eyes were wide, and she looked around for you somewhat frantically. “Babe, you’ve got a customer coming.”

“Okay.” Your brow furrowed at her. Usually there wasn’t an odd warning before a customer. They just walked on in. You blinked at Zanira. “Let them through?” You didn’t know how to respond in such a random interaction.

Zanira pursed her lips, obviously wanting to say something, but she just nodded and closed the curtain. Her heels clicked as she walked away, and heavy footsteps replaced hers. They were getting louder.

The curtains rustled, being pushed open for the large frame that entered.

A sly smile spread on your face as you watched her look around for you. When her dark, gray eyes met yours, you cooed, “Come back for more?”

When you heard her footsteps you assumed it was some ghastly man coming through for a quick fuck. This was a pleasant surprise. Though, whatever state she left you in would surely impact how the rest of your workday went.

Sevika pulled the curtains closed and clipped them shut. You followed every movement of hers, focusing on how her fingers flexed as she tied the curtains shut. “I heard you’re an expensive one,” she said, eyes sliding back over to meet yours.

You nodded proudly. “It takes a golden hex to get me to do anything.” It took you years to earn your reputation.

“Hm.” She looked over all your furniture, analyzing what the two of you had at your disposal. “What’ll you do for three?”

You smiled mockingly, cooing, “Fall in love with you.”

She rolled her eyes. “Then I’m glad I only have two.”

You scoffed. You didn’t need her attitude if that’s all she was here to give. “What brings you here? My girl looked a little alarmed when she saw you coming through.”

Her brow creased and she turned fully to face your side of the room. “Am I not allowed to be here? I come all the time.”

“Yes, but you usually stay with the more… docile of our servers.”

She liked submissives. You’d heard their cries every now and then when you knew she was around. When you would speak to them and they’d mention her, they’d whisper with blush in their cheeks and a prudishness to their words.

You were no such doe.

“Come here and I'll show you why.”

You cocked one eyebrow. “I’m not moving until I see money.”

For just a moment, her strong demeanor faltered. Did she really expect you to crack like that? It was almost cute. She was disappointed. You weren’t like the easy sluts down the hall that listened to her every beck and call.

“What?” You pulled yourself up by the back of the sofa. You now sat across it like a model. It was enchanting and you knew it. “You think just because we hooked up at a bar that you don’t have to pay me?”

That was an off-the-clock fuck for fun. For actual pleasure. If she found you while you were in this room, she had to pay you. There was no premium pass just because of what happened in the back room of the Last Drop.

Though, you wanted her. Half of your brain said “so what? Whatever will happen will be worth much more than whatever she’ll pay you”. The way she stared down at you made you hot. She was there for one reason, and, hell, you wanted to make sure she got what she came for.

“You weren’t asking for payment the other night. Say, by the way you looked I doubt you even remembered what a hex looked like at the time.”

Images of what the two of you had done came flooding back (as if they ever left), and you pressed your thighs together slightly.

Still, curtly, you asked, “Is that so?” You faked a pout. “I wouldn’t be so sure. Your vulnerability is showing, Sevika. Don’t be so desperate, now.”

Her face hardened into stone, and she looked down at you with stern eyes. You would be lying if you didn’t say it excited you. This little game the two of you played was pure entertainment.

She stalked over to you and stopped when she stood above you. You stayed lying back, acting as cool as could be. She leaned down, placing one finger under your chin to tilt your face up to meet her eyes. She didn’t smile as she said, “You’re real cute when you act like you’re in charge.” She pointed across the room. “In bed. Now.”

A shallow breath fell from your lips and, yeah, just like she said, you couldn’t even remember what money was. You wanted her again—you needed her.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Fuck, you’d make up the money some other way.

You stood up, slipping past her as she ran her hand down your back and watched you go. Her gaze was like glue to your backside, you could tell.

“And get rid of that fucking mask.”

You threw it to the floor.

You crawled into your bed, pushing the covers back and sitting up by the pillows. Across the room, Sevika walked over slowly, pretending to be interested in everything else in the room but you.

When she reached the bed, She stood at one of the banisters, leaning against it and crossing her arms.

“What’s wrong?” You cocked your head to the side. “Water too cold for you?”

She shook her head. “Not at all.” She gestured to all of you. “I want you to touch yourself.”

Her tone had you wishing you would listen to her. She did something to you no other fuck did. Just the way she raked her eyes down your body made you shiver. But you couldn’t let her know that.

“Why should I do that?”

“Because I’m not doing anything to you until you do, and if you don’t start listening to me when I tell you the first time, we’re going to have some problems.”

“Then I guess we have problems.” You stuck your bottom lip out, mocking her.

She sighed, raking her hand through her hair. She looked back down at you. “Come here.”

You crawled forward, stopping at the edge of the bed where she was and getting up on your knees to meet her eye level.

“Oh, but you’ll listen to me now?”

You smiled. “I choose what I want to do.”

“Yeah, alright.” She wrapped her hand around your throat. “I thought you learned your lesson last time. Now, I’m losing faith in you.”

She squeezed just tight enough to have you dizzy. You grasped her forearm, leveling yourself and she held you up just slightly. Excitement riddled your body and you felt yourself getting wet. You wondered how much longer until you broke.

“And, gods, you’re gonna have to stop talking,” she growled, getting close enough to your face that you could smell her.

“But—“

She pressed a metal finger to your lips. “No.”

You swallowed a boulder. Her grip on your neck was starting to have you see stars. It was heavenly. She leaned in, but flinched back when you tried to do the same. She held an ironic, menacing grin as she held you still and kissed you.

It felt like a wash of relief. As much as you were playing to cool, you wanted her so badly. Your panties were ruined and soon you would be too. The heat in your core was nearly unbearable.

Her hand squeezed just the slightest bit tighter around your throat and she had you gasping. You clawed at her forearm and she continued to kiss you, sliding her tongue beside yours. Instead of letting you win, she took one of your frantic hands and brought it down to your underwear, encouraging you.

The room was rocking and spinning around you. Sevika kept you wrapped in her kiss as your shaky hand slipped into your underwear and you dragged one finger through your folds.

A strangled moan ruptured your kiss. Sevika moved to kiss your cheek, jaw, and then your neck as your fingers began to circle your clit. The feelings together were the perfect mix, and you felt yourself relaxing into her touch. Despite this being only your second time together, she knew exactly where to drag her teeth to have you moaning into her ear.

She took her hand from your throat, caressing it down your body as her metal arm kept you firm in her grasp. You needed it. You kept a slow, torturous pace on yourself and it was starting to make you weak. You’d finish soon if you weren’t careful.

Sevika kissed down your neck and across your collar. Her arm hooked around your waist and reached for the laces of your corset. “How do I get this off of you?”

You could hardly think with your hand still massaging your clit. With your free hand, you reached behind yourself and felt around for the right tie.

She was impatient, taking her sharp metal finger and slicing through every row of laces.

“Sev!”

The corset fell off your front and she pushed it out from between the two of you. She stared down at your breast, taking one in her hand as she muttered, “I’ll get you a new one.” She rolled your nipple between her fingers, having you sigh. “Now, shut up.”

“You can’t make me—“

Her lips caught you in another kiss and she led you to lie down on your back. She moved you so the two of you were lying properly in the bed.

You could feel your orgasm coming. You rubbed your clit faster as she seemed distracted with your breast. She dragged her lips down your body and took one of your nipples in her mouth. She ran her teeth over the sensitive skin, sucking it into her mouth. The sensations of all your pleasures made you feel electrified and you could stop from moaning her name.

You were expecting a boring night. But this was anything but that. her figure over yours was enough alone to send you over the edge. Just to know that you were in her arms, being ordered around by her, being punished by her, was maddening. You felt dizzy even without her hand around your throat.

Just as you thought you were going to cum, she pulled your hand out of your panties.

“But…” Your eyes got lost in hers.

“You really don’t stop talking,” she grumbled. You watched as she leaned over and pulled one of the drawers of your nightstand open. Excitement fluttered in your stomach as you wondered what she was grabbing.

She came back with a cloth tie. She sat back between your legs, holding it up menacingly. “Maybe this’ll help you shut up.”

Before you could protest, she was wrapping it around your head and tying it tight enough that you couldn’t speak. The gag pressed into your mouth and you bit down on it with as much attitude as you could, glaring back at her.

“There,” she smiled. “So much prettier when you’re quiet.”

You spit curse at her through the cloth, only becoming more irritated as she nodded along mockingly. As if she could understand every gargled word. Her grin only widened with every nasty word.

Her coarse hands ran over your ribs, reaching around you to flip you over on your stomach. “Stay there.”

And before you could jerk your hands up to move or untie the cloth, she had your wrists pinned behind your back. They fit between the grasp of her calloused palm snugly and she held you still.

She was reaching over again, grabbing another tie to keep your wrists together. “I wouldn’t have to do this if you were more obedient.”

You lay there, completely at her disposal, as she picked up your hips and moved them where she wanted. You were on your knees, shoulders and face pressed into your sheets, and growing wetter by the second. Your clit still pulsed from your fingers, and you needed her to touch you.

Everything she did to you was different and electrifying. Hundreds of people came to visit you but none knew how to touch you like she did.

You turned your head to one side, craning your neck to see her behind you. She was pulling her shirt off and then her bra. It was an entrancing sight, watching the muscles in her shoulders and neck move to pull the clothes over her head. Her brow was tense with focus as she dropped her things off the side of the bed.

You looked at her bare figure, nearly moaning just at the sight of her. You needed to see her pants come off too, but she was done, looking back at you with a hooded stare. She was devouring you with her eyes. it sent a shiver up your spine.

She leaned over you, pressing her chest against your back as she pressed a kiss to the side of your neck. Her breath was hot against your bare neck, and the sound of her breathing so close to your ear made your core drip. She groaned as you pushed your ass up against her hips, her teeth biting down on the back of your shoulder.

Her hands ran down the sides of your torso, dragging her fingertips over your skin to make you shiver. Her hands rubbed the underside of your breasts, massaging your soft mounds.

She cupped your breast in her hands, pressing them against her palms as she pinched your nippled between her fingers. A sigh fell from you as you continued to grind your hips back against hers.

One hand moved down your front, toying with the edge of your panties as she bullied your nipple until it was sure to bruise.

“You don’t need these, do you?” She asked.

Before you could even try to respond, she was ripping through the fabric and pulling it off you. She discarded the tatters before slipping her hand back down and diving into your sensitive folds.

“Mm,” she hummed, collecting your slick on her fingers. “So fucking wet, and I was starting to worry you didn’t like me.”

The tips of her fingers began to push into your entrance, causing you to relax into the mattress as a moan slipped past your clenched teeth. Her two fingers curled inside of you, her palm rubbing your clit as she set a slow and burning pace.

The cool metal of her arm slid around your hip, guiding you to ride her fingers. She forced you to comply with her slow pace though you wanted to rest your finish so badly. With every curl of her fingers, she pressed hard against your most sensitive spot. Your soft walls tensed around her hand, dripping down her knuckles as she left a hickey on your upper back, right where your muscle met your neck.

It was hot and painfully slow how you rutted against her hand. A slow moan slipped from you as she tugged at your sore nipple once more. She rolled it in her fingertips, massaging your soft tissue as she rubbed your clot against the bone of her palm.

“You’re so fucking nasty, baby,” she groaned. “Can’t believe I’m fucking a whore like you.”

A blush spread across your face as you whined, grinding your hips faster to try and get her to speed up. You cried her name with a demand to get her to do what you wanted, but it only came out as a string of muffled grumbles.

“What was that?” Her voice was laced with teasing pleasure. It was dripping with amusement. She pulled her fingers out a bit just to shove them back in harshly, having you suck in a hard breath. “You’ve got something in your mouth, babe. I can’t understand you.” She said it so plainly it was like you didn’t already know. Like you were just that fucking stupid.

She seemed to be taking pity on you, ravishing in the way you squirmed when she went faster. Her assault was unwavering as the pleasure spread throughout your body.

Heat shot to your head as you felt your orgasm coming. Your body was frantic, trying to grind and ride her hand just the way you needed to finish. Stray curses and moan were muted by the gag. The cloth was now soaked with your spit and drying out your tongue.

“What’s that?” She taunted, “You’re close, aren’t you?” Her gravelly voice right by your ear. You nodded quickly, face rubbing against the mattress as your eyes snapped open to look at her. The hair was falling out of her ponytail and curling over her forehead as she hovered behind you, close to your neck.

The constant rubbing of her fingers inside of you had you hardly hearing her. The room was filled with your strangled, muffled moans as all you could focus on was chasing your finish.

As quickly as you felt the orgasm coming, she pulled her fingers out of your soaked cunt. The sudden loss of sensation had you twisting under her, hard and angered words spat through the gag as you flared back at her.

“Hey—hey!” She gripped you by the hair on the back of your neck, tugging your face up to look her in her eyes. “Don’t be suck a fucking brat. You’ll get what you want, be patient.”

Your hair slipped through her fingers as she dropped your head back down onto the mattress. Your face smushed into the sheet as your lower half went cold. She moved off of you, once again reaching into your nightstand to find something else.

Your eyes widened as she pulled out a strap that was bigger than one that had ever been inside of you. That one was only for you to use on other people. You didn’t think it could fit in you.

Her name was butchered through the gag as you tried to get her attention. She was too busy pulling the harness over her hips to care about your worries.

Her pants had already been dropped to the floor, and you fought your hardest to break your wrists from the tie she’s put them in. You wanted to feel the strong hacks of her thighs. Her plain black underwear was low on her hips, revealing how far her deep purple scars went down her body.

“Sev…”

Her eyes flicked up to you. Her face was shadowed with lust. Even if you could tell her that would be too much, she wouldn’t listen. You could still see your juices on her two fingers as she walked back over to the bed, crawling behind you.

“I know,” she assured, rubbing your ass and hip. “You’ll be okay, baby. I know you can take it. You talk a lot of shit, but I see right through you. You like it when I treat you like this.”

Your fingers clenched as you tried to pull your wrists free. She only took it as an opportunity to reach down and kiss your knuckles gently. As if she was trying to be chivalrous and sweet.

A final snarky remark was spat into the gag, and this one was louder than the last. A sharp sting spread across your ass as she spanked you. “Watch your fucking mouth.”

Your eyes squeezed shut as she smacked you again, the pain tingling under your skin. It lingered as she adjusted behind you and began to rub her cock through your soaked folds.

The cold silicone made you shiver and whine into the mattress. She eased you into the feeling, but soon enough she was pressing the tip against your entrance. So covered in your slick, the tip pushed into your puffy pussy with more ease than you expected, but soon the stretch became painful.

A sharp cry broke through the gag as she continued to abuse your cunt. Every time you thought all of it was in you, she pushed just one inch more. Finally, the base of her cocker your entrance and you whimpered at the fullness. There was no more you could’ve fit if she tried. Your walls clenched around her and you pushed your hips into her to convince her to move.

Perhaps her teasing was over because she complied, pulling out and rocking back into you. She found a rhythm that you could keep up with, your thighs shaking and tensing as she thrust you again and again.

The tie around your wrists was beginning to strain the muscle in your shoulders and wrists. Your head pressed to the side made your neck crane and cramp as you were pushed harder into your bed. So fucked out, the pain was hardly noticed compared to the coursing, heated pleasure thy she sent through your core, all the way into your lower belly.

You would’ve stayed there forever. The bed creaked with every thrust of her hips, hitting against the wall as she muttered a mix of cruel and sweet saying to you to coax you along.

At some moment, she moved behind you slightly and slowed her pace. Your worries grew and you thought she was denying you your finish again, but she soon began her cruel humping again.

“Here, sweetheart,” she cooed, leaning down so you could see her. In her hand were her two hexes. “Take it.”

You glared up at her, wrists writhing in their tie.

“Come on,” she urged, holding her hand closer to your face so you could really see the money she was going to give you. “You can’t have it unless you take it from me.”

She jerked her hips into you harder, making the strap shove further into your cunt. She had you groaning, face smushed further into your pillow.

Through the bag came a muffled “fuck you”, and she frowned at you pitifully. She shrugged, moving out of your gaze and dropping the coins somewhere on her clothes.

She thrust roughly into you again. “I think you should just give up on this bratty act. I like you a lot more when you’re broken and fucked out underneath me.”

Sure, she was talking to you, but you weren’t listening. One of her hands had snaked down to your front and was rubbing tight circles around your clit. Together, her stimulation and rutting was quickly driving you to your finish.

If you could talk, you would beg. The pleasure was too overwhelming for you to come up with any bite. You needed to cum. You needed her to take you there.

Your peak was approaching fast. and she could tell from the way your hips pushed back into her more sloppily than before. It was a frantic attempt to finish before she could stop you.

“Come on, baby girl, you can cum.”

That was all you needed, her deep voice pushing you over the she as you keened, going limp into the bed as your orgasm shot through you. It came in heated waves that had you crying for her.

She was kind and slowed with your finish. The ribbed sides of the dildo beginning to burn as she slowly pushed in once more time. Then, she pulled out, rubbing the muscle in your shoulder as she sighed.

Her hand slipped up to undo the gag at the back of your head. Your limp body had her pulling the cloth out from under the other side of your head as you spat it out of your mouth.

A thick breath heaved from your lungs as you licked your dry lips. “Give me a break.”

She lifted an eyebrow.

Your nose wrinkled. With the nastiest, most disrespectful tone you could, you spat out a “please”.

She shook her head, smiling to herself. “Okay, baby, I’ll give you a break while I untie you.”

“What if I run?” You hissed. She loosened the tie around your wrists, and you immediately pulled your hands free, rolling your wrists as you pushed yourself up onto shaky arms.

“You couldn’t even if you tried,” she said, helping you roll over onto your back.

You stared up at her, the hair sticking to her forehead, her chest rising with her heavy breaths, and the imprint of a wet spot on her underwear. The sheen on her broad shoulders and biceps was entrancing as you were lost in the sight of her as she leaned down to kiss you softly.

Her hot tongue slipped against yours as you whined against her lips, cradling her face in your hands. She rubbed her palms down your hips, adjusting your legs and spreading your thighs as she brushed the sticky strap against your core again.

A weak sigh slid between your mouths as you braced yourself to take her again. You were sore, but as the dildo rubbed against your clit, you were alight with arousal once more.

She frowned. “I’m sorry, but I’m not done ruining you, sweetheart. I want to see you cry on my cock.”

She sunk deep back into you, having you a heaving mess under her. “Now,” she began. “Do you think you can stay quiet without this?” She held up the gag, looking down at you with an expectant gaze.

You let out a heavy breath. As it fell out of you, you realized she’d won. You were too tired and fucked out to bite back. All you wanted now was for her to take care of you. You’d do anything to keep her here with you.

“Good girl.” She rubbed her thumb across your cheek. “See? You can behave.”

She pulled out just enough to ram back in. Your mind was lost in the heat of her. You were ready to beg if need be. You just couldn’t focus on anything but the feeling of her fucking into you.

Your hands, still sore from the tie, pressed against her collar and chest. Her skin was softer than expected, and slick with her sweat. You reached between your bodies and cupped her soft breast, massaging it gently. She moaned into your skin, rutting into you so the strap stimulated her clit just as much as she pleasured you.

You were so full, her cock so thick as she rubbed the ribbed sides against your abused walls. You wrapped your legs around her, pulling her closer as you ran your hands through her hair.

Her lips met yours in another heated, hungry kiss. She was nearly desperate, spit mixing with yours as she thrust harder and you whined against her mouth. Her teeth nipped at your bottom lip. She rested on one elbow, hand threading through your hair as her metal fingers gripped your thigh to keep you tight against her.

She wasn’t focused on your pleasure, humping against you just so she could feel the strap rub against her clit and get her off. She used you as a fucktoy to reach her climax, being ceaseless in her own pace.

The idea of it made you feel close regardless. The fact that you were her’s and she used you however she wanted had warmth spreading through your core and sparking to your clit.

Your eyes began to sting as tears built at the edges. It was a flood of sensations that had you moaning and crying out as she kissed you again.

“You’re okay, sweet girl. You look so beautiful right now.”

She bit down on your neck so hard you were worried she’d draw blood. Your makeup was running down your face as tears collected in your eyes from the overwhelming pleasure. You tugged at her hair, having her moan against your skin.

You met her hips, trying to persuade her rhythm to please you, but she only pushed your hips down harder. “Stay still, baby, I’m close,” she groaned. Her incessant thrust only hurt, smacking against your cervix as she chased her high.

Another wave of arousal rolled through your body as her chest pressed against yours, her nipples pressed into your skin and breasts. It didn’t take much longer before she became a mess above you, moaning loudly in your ear as she jumped her cock into you quickly to satisfy her finish.

Stray whispers of praise fell from her lips as she continued to thrust into you, wanting to see you cum and you were close. Shivers shot down your spine as she dragged her lips across your jaw, and your orgasm came on suddenly, having you shake and your vision go white. You screamed, nails digging into her shoulder as your pleasure overtook you.

She hushed you, hand rubbing your hip to coax you down from your high. Heavy breath heaved through your chest as you lay there, hot and thoroughly fucked as she helped you come back to her. Your eyes cracked back open, finding her looking down at you gently with a slight crease in her brow.

“You there, doll?”

You smiled, nodding as she rubbed her thumb across your bottom lip. Sharp exhales still shot through you as you relaxed against the bed and in her arms.

She pulled out slowly, easing out as you but your lip from the sensation. You watched as she took the harness off. She came back with a cloth and wiped the insides of your thighs.

“Why can’t you be this nice all the time,” you jested, pushing her shoulder gently with one foot.

She scoffed, laughing lightly. “I could say the same thing to you.”

You made an annoyed sound in your throat, brushing her off as she got back up. The mattress shifted with her weight and you tried your best to sit up and lean back against your pillows. Your wrists ached as you pushed yourself up, and the tendons in your thighs were sore as you closed your legs.

“You’re such a fucking bitch,” you muttered. “How am I supposed to do my job now?”

She shrugged, pulling her pants back on. “That’s not my problem.”

You crossed your arms. “Food is expensive.” You didn’t make enough money that day to buy dinner for yourself yet, and you were starting to get hungry. She tired you out in every sense. Hell, you really needed some water too.

“Okay,” she nodded. “How about I make it up to you? I’ve got a poker game tomorrow night and one of my guys just bailed. There’s an empty spot at the table if you want it.”

Your brow furrowed. Why the hell did she want you there?

“You can eat as much as you want,” she offered.

Your head tilted to the side. Every pro and con ran through your mind and a million questions shot through you, but one came to the surface: “Why me?”

“Because I want someone easy to beat,” she teased, pulling her shirt over her head. She saw your glare and shook her head. “Really, there’s just no one else, and the game won’t be as good with less people. You seem like you could hold your own against the guys I hang out with—much better than the girls down the hall.”

Surely, she had some ultimotives. She probably just wanted to get in your pants again but was trying to be nice enough so you would let her. A night at her poker table would probably be a good time. You gambled with some of the other workers when business was slow and you thought you were pretty good. Besides, being seen with her so publicly would probably keep you safer when walking down the street.

“What time should I be there?”

She was fully dressed, standing at the edge of the bed. If she was happy with you agreeing, she didn’t show it. “About nine.”

“Okay. Fine.”

She nodded, leaning over the bed. “Okay, I have to go now.” She motioned for you to come forward and kissed you slowly when you complied.

She hummed against your lips. “Walk me out?”

“Funny.”

She laughed, leaning back and muttering a goodbye as she walked out. You said it back quietly, face slightly contorted in confusion as you tried to figure her out.

After she was gone, you laid there for a while in silence. Your sweat stuck to your skin as you ran your hands over your hair to tame it in the back. You wiped the makeup that was smudged under your eye.

A few minutes later, Zanria poked her head back into your room. You assumed she was just being nosy, but you soon saw she was carrying a tray of something.

“What?” You asked, feeling a bit too tired to be nice.

“She paid for this,” Zanria said, walking up to you in the bed. You sat up more to see the platter full of grapes, cheese, chocolate, and other small foods. There was a small pitcher of water, too.

Of course she did. She seemed to care about you a lot more than she was supposed to, and you weren’t complaining.

You only hoped it wouldn’t get too deep

[pyrriax]

i am a deranged man.

im just putting this here for fic storage sake but this fic is the fluff i must make up for.

[addledmongoose]

WIP Wednesday

I'm not going to do one of these very often since it would just be the same stories over and over, but I do read a small number of WIPs as they're updated, and since I don't recommend stories on my Friday threads until they're 90% or more done (and with the belief they'll be finished), I wanted to call out a number of WIPs that are worth keeping track of.

A.Z. Fell & Co: The Yelp Chronicles (38K; Ch 15/?; Rated T)

Funny outsider POVs for the bookshop. Besides Yelp reviews and comments, there's an entire transcript of a Youtube series by a cryptid hunter. The voices are spot-on and hilarious. You'll want to read this with the workskin on if at all possible.

***

And I Did (23K; Ch 5/13; Rated E) by @di-42

Post-S2. Aziraphale is the Supreme Archangel. Crowley is the new Grand Duke of Hell. They have to stop the Second Coming, but their sides are still suspicious of them, and they aren't talking.

***

End of the road (71K; Ch 13/?; Rated M) by @ochre-sunflower

Human(ish) AU. Aziraphale has left the city to become a small town librarian when he gets trapped in a town controlled by a mysterious, red-haired creature, and no one will tell him what's going on. This story is super tense and exciting, and I can't wait to find out what's really going on.

***

The Last Angel (102K; Ch 23/30; Rated E) by @bellisima-writes

An AU where Crowley has always been Hell's Grand Inquisitor and neither of them were ever their side's representatives on Earth. And during the apocalypse, Adam destroyed the world, and the angels lost. The last angel (Aziraphale) has just been captured, and it's Crowley's job to unlock his secrets.

There is so much more going on in this story, and it'll keep you on the edge of your seat.

***

Scorn and the Saint-Maker (42K; Ch 11/45; Rated E) by @e-rated-beardo

Part murder mystery. Part "who turned them human" mystery. Part romance. Doctors Crowley and Fell work at a university. They seem to have a strange, immediate connection the first time they meet, even though they don't really understand why. The mystery of what's going on will have you eager for each weekly update.

***

we shall have the world forever for our own (33K; Ch 5/7; Rated M) by @quitequaintrelle

They move to a cottage in the South Downs, and let's just say they don't always get along perfectly with their new neighbors. A very funny series of events in the lives of the two retired supernatural beings.

[ruawk]

Why am I not seeing more people freaking out that @lynnearlington (author of stay the night) just updated one of my favourite supercorp fics!!?? It's got it all, superb writing, hockey, fake relationship au, college au..the last goes on!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18697774/chapters/44344453#workskin