#so if you just recently followed and read really the only things worth checking out are tthe sections labeled update

[matrixbearer2024]

Blips In My Routine

Vox x CollegeStudent!Reader

A/N: A slight interlude in the "Get Off My Screen!" Series to keep you guys entertained while I write it's continuation. I apologize that it's taking so long! School's kind of been kicking my ass recently and I've had to focus more on work than my fanfics. Don't worry though, I'll still be writing more Vox content(Lord knows we don't have enough /j) as long as you guys want to see it!

A/N: I love 🥭 Anon's idea and tbh I don't put it beyond Vox to do it either, I'm not sure if this is as good as the other installments but I hope you guys enjoy it nonetheless. Btw, reader is in college so she's somewhere in her mid to late twenties. Happy reading!

You glanced at the ticking clock above the whiteboard.

It was just five more minutes before the bell would ring and free you from this boring lecture.

You fought to keep your eyes open as your gaze wandered back to the teacher's PowerPoint.

You hated this subject the most, not even because of the topic itself.

Rather, the professor could be kind of an old-timey asshole.

Thankfully though, it wasn't all that bad.

Not when you had to deal with an equally irritating digital companion anyhow.

Somehow you'd rather take Vox's bullshit over your professor's-

Speaking of, you both had fallen into a somewhat odd routine in the following months.

From greeting each other when you woke up or went to sleep-

To checking up on the other every so often within the day.

Not to mention spilling gossip when anything remotely interesting happened.

Either on his end or yours.

Like that time you saw someone's skirt snag in their locker door and just rip.

You could only snicker at their panic and shame.

The bitch highkey deserved it anyway.

Vox couldn't stop laughing when you eagerly told him all about it.

He knew you could be vicious if you wanted to.

Even if he was aware how much more inherently kind you were compared to the likes of him.

Sometimes the fact you found his companionship worth maintaining-

Or at least tolerable enough to keep-

Genuinely surprised the tech overlord.

Especially because you'd both been communicating for a little over a year by now.

It was nice interacting with someone else that weren't Velvette or Valentino.

Not that he'd ever openly admit to it.

It wasn't like Vox hadn't seen or heard you either, despite the fact he couldn't directly mess with the microphone or camera on your devices.

Your photos and files had more than enough stuff.

You often left him imagining your reactions and voice whenever the both of you chatted.

After all, most of your interactions were practically texting.

Sometimes you even wondered if Vox was constantly bored to end up finding companionship with you.

Or maybe he was lonely, who knows.

You genuinely couldn't be fucked.

He was an interesting guy and that was all that kind of mattered to you at the moment.

Your notepad window popping up snapped you out of that train of thought.

Glancing over at your laptop screen, the small desktop pet Vox gave you merely sat in the corner pointing at the notepad.

Oh it could do angry emotes too-

A slurry of words started pouring into the blank open text window, you figured Vox was probably having another shitty day.

Geez, who would've thought that hell would actually be absolutely crappy?

Well, let's see what he's complaining about this time...

This man was really typing way faster than you could read-

You were able to garner pretty quick what he was bitching about though.

Even if you kind of found the source of his irritation quite childish and kinda stupid.

"It's so dumb! The fact I can only talk to you with this goddamn thing is driving me insane!"

"Aaaand? What's wrong with the notepad? You also have the desktop companion."

You definitely started calling it that only because Vox was getting pissy that you were referring to it as a 'pet'-

"It can only do so much dollface, it's just glorified texting at this point. Besides, the tiny version of me is just an animated emoji keyboard."

"Well you already mess with my software regardless of what I tell you, what's stopping the great 'Technology Overlord' from hacking my camera and microphone?"

"Haha, very funny doll. Don't you think I would've done it already if I could?"

At this point you kinda just wanted to laugh at the whole situation.

Vox, a demon, one who could control electronics to his every whim-

Or so he claims.

Was being pissy about not being able to talk to you properly.

You couldn't tell if that was supposed to be endearing or hilarious.

He always got worked up over the smallest inconveniences.

You saw it as him being just very observant-

But it could also highkey be from his captain control freak tendencies.

"Then just make an app or something, you'll figure it out. Mess with the software settings or whatever."

That was the last message you wrote before the school bell suddenly rang out loud and clear.

You didn't even read his reply before shutting your laptop down and arranging your belongings.

Soon enough, you were the first one out of the classroom and more than ready to go home.

Vox knew you'd shut down your laptop after he got hit with his custom Voxtech screensaver.

Similarly to the wallpaper, he'd changed your screensaver to something more on brand.

While he did take your suggestion into account, a part of him wondered why he didn't bother trying in the first place.

But given the issues with him trying to access the built-in camera and microphone-

Vox felt a little concerned that modifying your devices too much could corrupt them.

That alongside all of your files and the data you had stored.

Wait...

Concern?!

He didn't actually care about your shit did he?

Oh fuck it!

He'll do whatever he wants to!

He was still careful not to really change much, he knows how annoying file corruption is and he didn't want to actually damage your data in case it had stuff you needed.

You weren't surprised that he'd taken your words literally-

You noticed a peculiar looking app appeared on all of your devices when you had arrived home.

That's a really fancy looking V design, was this Vox's doing?

Upon opening the app, you were greeted to a slightly odd looking interface.

It looked kind of like a more... sci-fi-esque styled chat room?

You wanted to say it lowkey looked like an Omegle room-

Before you could really nitpick at the design though, a text notification popped up on your phone.

You had just set everything up too, it seems like it came from the new app.

"Testing, testing. Are you getting this (Y/N)?"

To say you were amazed at what Vox had done was an understatement.

He was able to do so much in just so little time-

Just- how???

Oh, right- you should probably reply to that-

"Yeah yeah, I gotchu."

"Fucking finally! Working around your firewalls and antivirus was an absolute nightmare!"

Aaaaaaaand here came the usual ranting and bitching-

You just threw your phone on the bed and left to take a shower and freshen up while he kept at it.

Vox was actually quite proud he got the app to work.

Especially without affecting the existing system on your computer much.

If anything, it wasn't any different from the games or social media applications that already existed on your computer.

Granted, when he first booted the app to try it- the darn thing kept crashing and glitching.

But that was easily and swiftly dealt with.

Well, after much frustration and screaming but yes- taken care of.

By the time you came back, you saw an animated version of your wallpaper appear windowed in the app.

Right... that was supposed to be his face.

"Hello? (Y/N)? Can you hear me?"

What-

What the fucking FUCK-

Apparently, the thing you thought that was just a gif or an emoticon was actually a livestream of Vox's face.

And that was how he sounded like?

Okay that seemed pretty on brand for a telecasting television now that you think about it-

But how the hell did he manage to do this-

"Vox?! What the hell!"

You yelled out in retaliation, only growing more confused when Vox didn't reply or just kept repeating if you could hear him.

So he couldn't hear you, but he found a way to sort of project himself into your device.

What kind of upside-down thing is this?

Picking up the phone, you quickly used the chat-box to reply.

"I can hear you, but I don't think you can hear me?"

Vox just audibly cursed from what you could guess was frustration, staying silent and presumably typing out a reply.

Just how long had he been trying to fix this problem?

"I can't access your cameras or microphone whatever I do dollface, this was my last resort."

Seeing his live reactions allowed you to notice the genuine frustration and exasperation he had with the situation.

It kind of made you feel a little guilty for just brushing him off all the time now.

You always thought it was quite... old-timey for Vox to want to talk to you face to face.

Hold a "proper" conversation as he put it.

But maybe that was just because he grew that fond of your company.

Geez, what a sap.

"It's fine dude, I'm glad you made a specially designated space for our conversations though. My notes were starting to get cluttered with our conversations stuck in there with my school stuff anyway."

You could swear the small smile you saw on his face made saying all that worth it.

There really wasn't any reason for you two to switch mediums, but the new app wasn't unwelcome.

You were really starting to care more about this dumb TV head.

As you and Vox went back into comfortable regular conversation, you found solace as both you and your companion once again fell back into the odd routine you grew used to.

Come morning however, you were seriously reconsidering giving Vox the idea about making that custom application.

It was a stupidly large can of worms that you didn't even realize existed-

Notification after notification, you wondered just how much time the technology demon had on his hands to constantly bother you.

"Vox, I know you're happy about your app but can you stop spam sending me memes for five seconds?"

"Eh, not feeling it."

"Go to hell you dumb picturebox."

"Already here dollface, already here."

You facepalmed.

What an idiot.

Well, he was your idiot.

A/N: I'm leaning towards this being more than a just friends thing, dunno if I'll make it romantic or not in the continuation but I'd reckon that Vox and reader would get pretty close by now sooooo hahaha have fun y'all :D

#hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel vox #hazbin vox #vox #vox x reader #hazbin hotel vox x reader #hazbin hotel x reader #hazbin vox x reader #vox x you #x reader #Get Off My Screen Series

[flower-cage]

(WIP) flower-cage's personal library

Welcome to my library! Here you will find my absolute favorite fics and authors, the ones that really stand out to me in one way or another and that I go back to often. Check out flower-cage's writings for my own work!

Please enjoy, but only if you are 18+. Minors do not interact. If you are an author listed here and would like me to remove you, just message me!

Last updated on 27.08.2023. Updated every Friday, on Flower's Fic-Rec Friday :)

masterlists

UPDATED @marthawrites's masterlist

I love everything she writes. Top-tier smut, with a style very unique to her! My favorites are the Midnight Passage series and the Darkened Corridors one-shot. Tags: top-tier smut, Dark!Aemond, several kink checks. Warnings: 18+ only, explicit sexual content.

@softcoreparadise's masterlist

Very distinct author. To me, her works are dark, beautiful, and melancholic. Her writing style is by far one of the most beautifully poetic I've come across in any kind of literature. When it's sad - and it often is - it will gut your heart out in the most delicious way. My favorites are bloodletting, aftertaste, and give peace a chance one-shots, and the Flesh Without Blood series. Tags: angst, dark themes, sadness, beautiful imagery, AUs, Dark!Aemond. Warnings: 18+ only, non-con, gore, and other dark themes.

chaptered

@mllemarianne's Deserving

My take: This fic is my everything. Strong!Reader is almost an OC and she is a fantastic character. Aemond is deep and emotional, yet as rigid as we know him to be. Both are extremely well-rounded characters. All the feelings in the book. Long sexy scenes for all tastes! Chapter count: 3/3 Summary: When you are betrothed to another, Aemond doesn’t want to address it strangely. Annoyed by his reaction, you reminisce about your whole relationship and everything that led to this very night, during the storm, in a tiny inn room with only one bed… Tags: angst, fluff, smut, all the feelings, some mildly dark themes, purity culture. Warnings: 18+ only, explicit sexual content, darkish themes.

@hamatoanne's Survivor

My take: I've shared this work a bunch of times recently but it's worth reinforcing. It is insanely entertaining and insanely sexy. Deliciously torturous slow burn and a little dark. Chapter count: 8/8. Summary: In an abrupt turn of events, you are taken prisoner in the Red Keep. With no family and nothing to fight for, will you lose hope? Tags: enemies to lovers, pining, slow burn, dark themes, angst. Warnings: 18+ only, forced marriage and other dark themes.

@arcielee's She Walks In Starlight

My take: Beautiful imagery, poetic without being overly complicated, a little dark and melancholic. Everything you never knew you needed. Chapter count: 3/3 Summary: A goddess comes to ask for help to save her friends. Tags: Greek Mythology AU, Hades!Aemond, Persephone!OFC, dark themes. Warnings: 18+ only, incest.

@oneeyedvisenya's A Dragon Without Wings

My take: Sexy, fun, and just a little angsty. Unique plot! Chapter count: 5/5 Summary: In the year 130 A.C., Prince Aemond Targaryen narrowly escapes the Battle above God’s Eye with his life. Wounded and desperate, he is found by a common girl of the Riverlands who cannot bear to watch someone die, knowing that she could have changed that outcome. She rescues him, the Dance of Dragons comes to an end not long after, and the Targaryen prince finds himself a fugitive in the country he so recently ruled. Tags: angst, gore/violence, fluff, smut. Warnings: 18+ only, explicit sexual content, gore/violence.

@sapphire-writes's Down In Flames

My take: One my favorite things I've ever read! SO much fun. Aemond is too fucking sexy in this work, it's almost too much. Delicious soap-opera-level drama and delicious smut. Chapter count: 10/10 + a lil prequel Summary: Dracarys is the next big thing, and you have followed the band to the top. But tensions rise as the band grows into fame. Will you make it out in one piece, or are you destined to go down in flames? Tags: Modern!AU, RockBand!AU, enemies to lovers, angst, smut, drama, some dark themes. Warnings: 18+ only, explicit sexual content, violence, irresponsible drinking, addiction, and other dark themes.

@dulcewrites's Fool Me Once

My take: I love FMO with all my heart. A part of me really wants this to be endgame Aemond x Reader but I don't want to ask and ruin the surprise. We all love this OC, she's the best. Aemond is a shitty husband and there is a lot of angst. Chapter count: 10/10 Summary: After learning about Aemond’s indiscretions, you decide to take matters into your hands. Tags: angst, violence/gore, cheating, smut, war. Warnings: 18+ only, explicit sexual content, violence/gore, and other dark themes.

@its-actually-minicika's Dragon Sickness

My take: This fucked me up. It's the only thing on my mind. And holy shit I have never wanted two people to fuck more. Chapter count: 2/4. Prompt: Hi, love your works so much! Can't wait for more updates 🥰🥰 I was wondering maybe you'd like the idea where book!Aemond and Velarion!(Strong?)Reader are in an arranged marriage. But Reader just knows what to say and how to act so that Aemond is wrapped around her finger (kinda thought of Margaery and Joffrey situation, she was such a talented schemer, worthy of winning the Throne 😭). I don't really know about the setting, like if it's before, during or after the Dance... just thought it'd be interesting to see this kind of plot with our beloved Prince 🤴🏼🐉 Tags: enemies to lovers, smut(ish) so far, heart-clenching, Aemond is so fucking hot. Warnings: 18+ only; sexual themes, violent themes.

@sylas-the-grim's Deep Rivers Run Quiet

My take: This is by far one of the best things I've read recently. The way the author paints Aemond's trauma and internal turmoil is brilliant yet simple, effortless, and without making the story too dark. The way his wife helps him work through it is beautifully realistic. I've been through a similar struggle and was surprised how much I resonated with it. Beautiful, lovely, sexy - a must-read. Chapter count: 3/3. Summary: Aemond's first experience at a brothel left him scarred and with deep-seated performance anxiety, because it takes him a long time to climax. After a disastrous wedding night, his wife and him work on ways to build up his confidence and finally consume their union. Tags: smut, arranged marriage, hurt/comfort, heartwarming, first time, fluff, OC Baratheon female character. Warnings: 18+ only; explicit sexual content, sex/intimacy trauma.

@humanpurposes's My Heart Belongs to Daddy

My take: I was SO hooked on this, the plot is so intriguing and unique! The sneaking around, the love triangle, the infidelity (not with Reader), the... questionable morals... will have you on edge and biting your nails until the very end. The smut, the angst, and the fluff are 10/10. Chapter count: 7/7. Summary: She loves this little game of theirs, taking what they can from each other with the brief moments they have. Tags: smut, angst, fluff, infidelity, Modern!AU, Modern!Aemond x Step-daughter reader, daddy kink, power dynamics, misunderstandings for days. Warnings: 18+ only; explicit sexual content, infidelity, some power imbalance.

@targaryenrealnessdarling's Consequences

My take: I loved reading this. It broke my heart and stole my breath away. The author paints his internal turmoil and what drives him to commit this sexual violence and you are sucked in to his crazed mind. It's entirely captivating in its every gruesome detail. Mind, this story can be extremely triggering so heed the author's warnings before you proceed. Chapter count: 8/8. Summary: Only nine and ten, she does not know much about the world and when she acquires a job at the Red Keep as a maidservant, she catches the dark and ominous attention of the One-Eyed Prince. Unsure if she even wants it, she may realise that the realm is not so kind to lowborn women, regardless of the situation they find themselves in. Tags: smut, heartbreaking angst, non-con, hate/love(?), sad ending, sad sad sad. Warnings: rape, power imbalance, sexism, abortion, sexual violence, gore, blood.

@targaryenrealnessdarling's A Perfect Score

My take: WE HAVE A FIGURE SKATING AU. I REPEAT: WE HAVE A FIGURE SKATING AU. I'm so excited about this work! I'll be eating those long chapters up as they come out because the very first one is already a master piece. Enemies to lovers? Check. Reluctant skating partners? Check. Unavoidable physical touch? Check. Hate turns into thick sexual tension? Check. There is not a reason for anyone not to read this. On top of that, we dive into the sexism and nepotism of the sports industry. Chapter count: 10/10 + Epiloque Summary: Striving for a place in the Olympics, Aemond desperately needs to find another partner to step in when his becomes injured. With little experience in couples figure skating as well as Aemond’s closed-off and antisocial nature, it will be a challenge to work with him. Tags: Figure Skating!AU, Modern!AU, enemies to lovers, reluctant skating partners, bedrooms across form one another. Warnings (so far): sexism, nepotism, explicit language, injury.

@giorno-plays-piano's House of Chains

My take: Holy shit this is amazing. I am so excited to have such a wonderful new writer in the fandom! I can't wait to see what else you'll write. Plot is very engrossing, reader is such an interesting character, and Aemond is *chef's kiss* dark and shy and messed up. Highly recommend you read the one shot, Unsteady, also featured in this library in the one shot section, which led to this incredible series. Chapter count: 7/7. Summary: In return for help to come back to your home world, you have been faithfully supporting the Greens to put Aegon on the throne. But when your promise is fulfilled, neither Otto nor Aemond are keen on letting you go. Tags: Mage!Reader, different words collide, dimension (?) traveling, frenemies to lovenemies (?), ambiguous ending, angst, sexual content. Warnings: 18+ only; some violence, sexual abuse/rape/nonconsensual sex, explicits sexual content, mentions of blood and death, dark themes.

@arabellasleopardcoat's MAD

My take: Absolutely LOVING this! I don't think I've ever read anything quite like it. It has a bit of dark themes, nothing too far off what we see in canon, but the way the author tells it makes it light-hearted and so much fun. Every turn of it is so unexpected, I'm surprised I really can't tell what's coming next in a genre where we read for comfort, which usually means we at least generally know what to expect. Wonderful. Also a very unique portrayal of Aemond. Just love the way you tell it! Chapter count: 3/3. Summary: Caught in the crossfire of your familiy's ploys, you never expected to catch the eye of the enemy. Tags: angst, fluff, pining, funny, Beesbury/Beekeeper!Reader. Warnings (so far): mentions of noncon, mentions of sex, manipulation.

@targaryenrealnessdarling's No Pain, No Gain

My take: Really spamming your notes lately but holy crap... that was so freaking hot. Top-tier sexual tension will drive you insane. Personal trainer Aemond is so freaking sexy. Chapter count: 4/4. Summary: The personal trainer your roommate Baela recommended to you is rude, condescending but also hot as hell. Tags: enemies to lovers, sexual tension, smut, fluff, summer vacation loving, so much sexiness. Warnings: 18+ only; explicit sexual content, toxic/misogynistic ex, mentions of infidelity.

series

@oneeyedvisenya's Education

My take: Top-tier smut and it feels like slow burn even though it isn't. Parts count: 3/3 Summary: Aemond's betrothed is consumed by feelings of guilt for the lust she feels for her husband-to-be. She is soon to discover, however, that those feelings are mutual. Tags: top-tier smut, betrothal, newly-weds, first time, fluff. Warnings: 18+ only, explicit sexual content, purity culture.

@arcielee's Call It Dreaming

My take: Insanely sexy stuff, with a delightful sprinkle of dark (and simp) Aemond. Though I see it as a series of one-shots, I highly recommend reading it in order so the plot makes more sense! Parts count: 5/5 Summary: You have a delightful sex dream. Tags: top-tier smut, Modern meets Canon, obsessive Aemond, heartwarming. Warnings: 18+ only, explicit sexual content, dark themes.

@marthawrites's Midnight Passage

My take: Parts count: Summary: Tags: Warnings:

blurbs

@warmfieldofgrass's by your side

My take: A tiny little thing that I want to put in a jar and keep close to my heart. So lovely, so sweet. Word count: 975. Summary: aemond is reminded that you will be by his side through anything. Tags: hurt/comfort, married, a tiny bit of angst, fluff, heartwarming. Warnings: mentions of pain and violence.

DEACTIVATED @jasonsmirrorball's HIGH INFIDELITY

My take: This one gets its own jar too. Lovely and a little angsty. Beautiful writing. Word count: 903. Summary: he watches the white of your clothing flutter in the wind and thinks he doesn’t mind so much being a glorified babysitter. Tags: unrequited love, melancholy, heart-clenching. Warnings: 18+ only, mentions of sexual content.

DEACTIVATED @blayresmuses's invisible string

My take: This one is so lovely, just a tiny bit (suggestive) smutty, yet leaves you wanting so much more. If I give you my firstborn, will you give me a part 2? Word count: 893. Summary: you recklessly put your betrothal to aemond at risk but he proves he’s willing to have you anyway, no matter what. Tags: heartwarming(ish), smut(ish). Warnings: 18+ only, suggestive sexual content.

@daenysx's unnamed little blurb

My take: Just a sweet little thing that is now part of my "I need a hug but can't get one right now" routine. Sweet, sweet, sweet. Prompt: Hi! Just saw that you're in need of requests, and I was thinking about how Aemond would react if he was sick, like he's got that flu that is so intense he can't get out of bed for days. I can imagine him being grumpy and needy, but idk. Thank you!! Tags: hurt/comfort, sick Aemond, fluff, Modern!AU. Warnings: 18+ only; suggestive content.

@aemondavenue's allure

My take: Wonderful, gripping little thing - I could feel the longing, the allure, and makes me want to read so much more. Word count: 900. Summary: N/A Tags: Siren!Reader, a little angst, heart-clenching. Warnings: mentions of pain.

one-shots

@wackapedia's Just One Day

My take: I'm gonna have to collect tiny jars to keep close to my heart and one of them is for this work. It is angsty, sweet, and the right amount of dark. I would give you my firstborn for a part 2. It will make your heart clench. Beautiful writing style too. Word count: 1,871. Summary: Aemond gets his oh moment when his betrothed gets really ill and is at the brink of death. Tags: angst, fluff, hurt/comfort, heartwarming, heart-clenching. Warnings: mentions of death and some dark themes.

@aemxnd's the thrill of the chase

My take: YES. PLEASE. YES PUH-LEASE. yes... please. Word count: 5,2k. Summary: Aemond has a plan, whether you like it or not. Tags: smut, real hot stuff, kinky, married. Warnings: 18+ only; dark(ish) themes, explicit sexual content, consent play.

@jasonsmirrorball's SMALL SPACES

My take: So so so so sweet! The kind of fic that'll have you coming back whenever you're in need of comfort. Lives in my heart rent-free. Beautiful writing. Word count: 1,764. Summary: requested by anon for the 777 follower celebration: comforting him when the pain in his eye gets too much. Tags: hurt/comfort, a bit of angst, heartwarming, fluff, married. Warnings: mentions/thoughts of violence, pain, and infidelity.

@themotherofhorses's his handmaid's tales

My take: I've said it before, I'll say it again - this has royally fucked me up. It's my favorite part of the series by the same name (so far). It's SO fucking hot. Aemond has the dirtiest mouth AND is a dom AND is total simp. Kinks for the whole family! Word count: 1,239 (and several parts to the series). Summary: cassandra baratheon dreams of prince aemond. the same cannot be said for prince aemond himself. Tags: top-tier smut, all the kinks, power play, breeding kink, voyeurism(ish), infidelity. Warnings: 18+ only; explicit language, explicit sexual content, infidelity.

@hamatoanne's over and over again

My take: Sorry I'm always spamming your notes! But I am obsessed! With how you write smut! Aemond says the most unbelievably hot stuff and it catches me off guard every time. If you like forbidden, sinful love (sex), this is for you. Word count: 1,512. Summary: You want to resist. Why is it so hard? Tags: top-tier smut, Targcest/incest, infidelity, puritan guilt (?). Warnings: 18+ only; explicit language, explicit sexual content, infidelity, incest.

DEACTIVATED @silverwinged's Experience teaches

My take: I sometimes skip warnings because I Iike living on the edge and this... really did... take me... to the edge. No but this is so chin-dropping. It's super hot but it like- creeps on you. I don't know what I was expecting going in but wow. P.S.: please don't be like me and do heed warnings. Word count: 4.4k. Tags: hurt/comfort, top-tier smut, Targcest/incest, heartwarming. Warnings: 18+ only; explicit language, explicit sexual content, incest, purity culture.

@theromanticegoist's play your part through to the end

My take: Beautifully written, melancholic story that will make your heart clench. Incredibly sweet yet tragic, but what stands out of course is the prose - reads like poetry. Word count: 1,087. Prompt: "I’d like to request a fic where Aemond’s wife helps him get dressed before he goes into his first battle." "i see this & i raise you (a heartbreaking) aemond’s wife helping him get dressed before he goes into his final battle" Tags: hurt/comfort, angst, fluff, heart-clenching, ambiguous ending. Warnings: allusions to violence, allusions to character death.

@arcielee's dōna mandia

My take: I'm not usually into the "sharing is caring" trope, but this really turned me. I think because the romantic relationship is still between Aemond and reader - and how sweet it is -, the kink creeped on me by appealing to my poor, unexpecting heart. 10/10 smut with inappropriateness from incest, purity culture, and innocence kink. Oof. Word count: 4,085. Summary: Her brothers convince her to play a game of hide-and-seek. Tags: Older brother!Aemond, Older brother!Aegon, threesome, innocence kink, first time, possessive brothers. Warnings: 18+ only; explicit sexual content, dubious consent, incest, purity culture.

@fidelias's dragon's blood

My take: So so so sweet and lovely. The kind of story you go back to when you need a hug. Word count: 3,479. Summary: you and aemond have always been close. but when your brother is killed, the ensuing rift threatens to tear you apart for good. Tags: hurt/comfort, married, angst, fluff, targcest, Aemond x Niece!Reader. Warnings: 18+ only; character death, physical violence, derogatory language, allusions to explicit sexual content.

@giorno-plays-piano's Unsteady

My take: BRAND NEW BRILLIANT WRITER IN THE HOTD FANDOM ALERT. This wonderful short story, that has spun off into a series that will most definitely make its way here, has an intriguing plot, a mystic, powerful reader from another universe, vulnerable yet dark Aemond, and, above all, incredibly captivating, lyrical, somber prose that paints the set up of the plot like a dystopian movie. Read at your own risk of being enchanted. Word count: 2k. Summary: Quiet, you stand together, leaning on the balcony and watching the dead sea, each left to your own thoughts. The silence between you is not strained but comforting, an indication of peace and, perhaps, some sort of unity. In the end, you are on his side. Tags: magic, different universes coming together, dark, shy, vulnerable Aemond, Mage!Reader, hurt/comfort, fluff, angst. Warnings: dark themes, pain, mentions of death, mentions of gore, mentions of violence.

@arabellasleopardcoat's Last Man On Earth

My take: Oof. This is just one of those things you never knew you needed until you read it and are completely awestruck by it. Beautiful, dark, and poetic in its simplicity. An understanding of the trauma and complexity of these characters told with incredible ease, in incredibly engrossing, touching imagery. Just go and read and enjoy. Word count: 12,644. Summary: No one told King Aemond about the Song of Ice and Fire. As the daughter of Rhaenyra, you have one last mission left. Tags: heart-clenching, bittersweet, dark themes, Targcest, arranged/forced/dubious consent marriage, angst, fluff, smut. Warnings: 18+ only; explicit sexual content, dubious consent, toxic dynamics, codependency, violence, mentions of blood, mentions of death.

#this is a continuous WIP! #fic recs #hotd fic #hotd fics #hotd fic recs #hotd fanfiction #aemond targaryen #aemond targaryen x reader #aemond targaryen fanfiction #aemond targaryen fic #aemond targaryen fanfic #hotd

[charmwasjess]

Okay, I finally finished The Living Force, and as promised, I have thoughts. These are just my musings as a fan and a reader - if you enjoyed the book more than I did, I'm really glad! If you hated it, good for you too! Let people like things, let people not like things. <3 My feelings with this book were somewhat down the middle. I'm interested in reading it again in a couple months and seeing how I feel.

Overall: a fun, engaging read, genuinely hard to put down once the action starts going. The book isn’t afraid to be funny. SO MUCH GOOD JEDI CONTENT! Miller takes on a huge task trying to write perspectives for all twelve Council member characters and does a pretty good job bringing them to life. Mace and Depa steal the show. I had a hard time with some of the meta plot and overriding messages about the Jedi Order.

Andddddd the long version:

The entire conceit of the book comes about when Qui-Gon goes head to head with the Council, who are bogged down in committee red tape Senate paperwork disconnection, and challenges them to “help one person.” So inspired, the Jedi Council in its entirety goes to the planet Kwenn to help close down a hundreds-year-old Jedi Outpost. 

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan serve as the book’s inciting incident, our quest giver NPCs, who hang around close enough to the action to keep the readers who bought the book only for them engaged. It reminds me a little bit of a spin-off TV show where the fan favorite character from the original series shows up to boost ratings, saying their classic catch phrase while the live studio audience goes crazy. Look, Qui-Gon is Being Kind to Pathetic Lifeforms! Obi-Wan drops a “hello there” in the first scene! Oh, them!

Lest you think I’m being shitty, let me say that it was actually great to see Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan on the eve of TPM working together well and having a blast. Both in Padawan and Master & Apprentice, they are still very much figuring out their relationship, and now it’s clearly evolved to its final magnificent form. They’re utterly corny together - I love that for them. This is the same pair that gave us “the negotiations were short” and the baffling “there’s always a bigger fish!”

I’ll talk a little bit about Sifo-Dyas because of course I will. He appears only in mentions, but so many of them, he's a huge part of the subtext of the book as he's recently left (been fired) from the Council and been killed - he's apparently on everyone's mind. I’ve posted about this before - I love the Seeker Sifo addition, and further, letting him be a rightful problem, a true pain in the Council’s ass and who ultimately got himself fired for not following the rules. Of course I have sympathy for him: this is a person who is beyond desperate to save his world and willing to try anything at this point in his life. And I think it’s worth mentioning that this is well within Cavan Scott’s characterization of him as a natural born troublemaker. I mean, he’s on screen for about two pages in Dooku: Jedi Lost before he just fucking literally steps on Yoda. Apparently, he never stopped. 

The book is oddly complimentary of him in weird places. Canon is inconsistent about Sifo-Dyas and how much his visions were impacting his judgment or even his simple ability to function. The last we heard of him in the Yoda comics, Sifo-Dyas was so routinely incapacitated by them that he was traveling with Lene full time. So it was cool to see that he had apparently gotten in control of them enough to be a super crucial member of the Council. Mace complains about Sifo’s absence and how that has directly impacted their entire ability to perceive the future, an acknowledged blind spot that comes up quite a lot in the prequel films and Clone Wars. Yoda goes on and on about how what a powerful Jedi he was.

...I don’t think the scene where the ENTIRE FUCKING Council round robin style takes potshots at Sifo-Dyas for *checks notes* rescuing some orphans was particularly successful. Of course, accuse me of bias, he’s a favorite character of mine, and it’s rough to see his colleagues - who are also his only friends and family - sitting around talking shit about him (to a bad guy no less!) for a page and a half, when he literally just got violently killed. (And they know he’s dead, at least, if not the circumstances. Killed on Felucia was the official story reported to the Council per wookiepedia.) Just tonally weird.

But really, I think what actually bothers me about that scene is the treatment of the baddie, Zalestra’s motivation as in any way legitimate, credible, or worth an apology by the narrative. Wow, the villain had a good point! To be clear, her issue with Sifo-Dyas taking her friends away to be Jedi is not that it changed her situation in any meaningful way in terms of care provided. It was a crime of omission. And these friends were so dear to her that she goes around indiscriminately killing Jedi of their exact generation? I suspect Miller liked his cool Nautolan Pirate Joker OC and wanted to give her a sympathetic excuse for why she was going around torturing and murdering Jedi (and just random people, including children) for fun, and “I got separated from my friends as a kid because of a Jedi” was the best he could do. Of course, it sets up Depa for a really beautiful line about not using other people as a canvas to paint grief on. 

The question of Attachment is a strong theme. Depa seems to be Going Through It - about attachment in particular, but also generally in the book. She’s shown relying a little too firmly on the no attachment cause in the wake of grief for a lost student. For example, she is quick to volunteer that Zalestra’s friends who were brought into the Temple together would be immediately separated so as to not form attachments - without pointing out the rest of that, that this separation would be specifically into Creche clans so they could bond with other Jedi kids and grow up in a community. Mace’s reaction to Depa’s attitudes make me suspect this is a Depa character growth thing, not something we’re supposed to take as a face value fact about the Jedi Order. Indeed, she ultimately overcomes her fears about this and decides to take a Padawan. And the final lines of the book include Qui-Gon defining for us that it isn’t attachment that’s a problem for Jedi – it’s indifference. 

Mace and Depa are the clear stars of the book. The Shatterpoint lineage vibes are immaculate. I’d read that the Living Force is supposed to set up an upcoming novel about Mace, and I am legitimately thrilled for it after reading this. Anyway, their dynamic is fantastic. Mace treats her 100% like a respected colleague, no cute Padawan infantilization tropes, even when he is put in situations like rescuing her after weeks of prolonged torture. Instead, he gives her his lightsaber to use, since hers has been taken. A really powerful and beautiful moment of support, while still recognizing her strength and agency. 

That said, if you’re looking for a deep dive into more obscure members of the Council or an EU/Legends junkie looking to see your favorite backstory pulled from the fire, this book might not be it.  With his five wives and seven daughters in old EU, Ki-Adi-Mundi might be the least likely Council Member to be the comedic butt of a bit revolving around awkwardness around women, but Miller goes for it, and there’s no mention of his family situation. 

Another odd reference, this time to current canon: the civilians the Council are working to help are mentioned as being the relocated survivors of the Protobranch disaster. It’s an ironic choice to frame the narrative of “the Jedi have been too focused on the big picture/the future at the expense of their duty to ordinary people” and then set the story in a community of people that the Jedi literally saved after getting a vision of the future disaster. The fact that it was our problem child Sifo-Dyas’s vision, and the rescue only happened after he and Lene outright defied the Council to get the gears moving is never mentioned or addressed, despite its seeming supreme relevance to the other themes in the story. 

For a time, I thought the narrative tension there between those two truths - that the Jedi should be concerned about ordinary people and living in the moment, but that this doom future is truly about to be a huge problem for the Jedi Order and the galaxy - was intentional. Having now finished the book, it doesn't seem to have actually been. Maybe someone else has a different perspective.

In truth, I didn’t understand what I kept reacting negatively to about with some of the meta themes of the book until the literal last page, John Jackson Miller’s author’s note where he says it outright. He talked about the other Star Wars books he has written over the last decade - how they all have depicted (Jedi) characters who are off on their own, away from the Order, “loners like Luke Skywalker,” and how his depiction of the Jedi Order from that perspective has been very critical. With this book, he decided that ALL Jedi couldn’t be bad, and that “Qui-Gon Jinn was the greatest symbol (of diversity of thought in the Order)” so he wanted to explore that. 

I closed the book and gently placed it in the trash can.

No, I’m kidding. Kind of. You know that I love Qui-Gon Jinn, he is my first favorite character, but this take exhausts me. That he is the magical exception to all of Jedi’s problems leading up to the prequels, and that if he were somehow not a direct product of that same Jedi Order, which encouraged him in his particular way of thinking almost to a fault, starting with Dooku.

In the final scene, with a magical twinkle in his eyes, Qui-Gon explains his own “defiance”of the Council: “I’m not insubordinate. I’m unorthodox. The insubordinate are ignored. The unorthodox are heard - grudgingly.” So the book finally resolves for us the narrative confusion in the difference between Sifo-Dyas’s bad future-fixated rulebreaking, which is shown to create villains and piss off his colleagues alike, and Qui-Gon’s good Living Force-serving unorthodoxy, which creates friends for the Order and moments of spiritual understanding for the Council. 

...Smashcut to six months later when Qui-Gon himself is outright defying the Council’s decision on Anakin and sidelining Obi-Wan because he’s convinced the Chosen One prophecy is just that important. 

Star Wars: The Living Force by John Jackson Miller, 6.5/10 stars, would have been 7 if I hadn’t read that asinine author’s note and gotten all mad again. 

#star wars meta #star wars books #star wars discussion #sifo dyas #qui gon jinn #book reviews #kind of #book recommendations #star wars: living force spoilers

[cxncrie]

Anonymous asked: Hey, are there any HH roleplayers you recommend to check out?

Unprompted Asks || Always Accepting

God a LOT actually. I'll only name a few though so this post doesn't become super long.

@leftrib/@perditicn - Always gonna recommend this person, this is my buddy Hound, and while they're a slow writer their stuff is ALWAYS worth waiting for. They also like to plot and discuss things extensively which is a VERY big bonus for people who like to talk things out on how muses would respond to things / each other and see where things can lead, especially when it comes to plotting, etc etc. They put a lot of thought and love into their characters and writing and it certainly shows.

@shadowzgather - Another instant recommend. I've been writing w/ Tera since joining the ducktales / dwd fandom. Their main two is Pentious and Valentino but they've also recently added a few ocs, Abel, and Alastor. They're a good writer with interesting takes on their characters. 10/10 would recommend. { They also just reminded me that they recently added Stolas, mb }

@xluciifer - goofy fella, does a REALLY good job with Lucifer and puts so much thought into him. They're always a joy to read with their threads, don't let the fact they're mobile bound turn you away ! They put a lot of effort into their blog and the character and it certainly shows.

@demondads - SAM. 10/10 WOULD RECOMMEND SAM. They have another blog too i'm pretty sure its @thestupidmeanone which is Church w/ a HH AU on it. Sam's a JOY to talk to and a joy to watch on the dash and write with. 

@plxgue4two - I haven't seen MUCH thread wise but what I have seen i've enjoyed a LOT. Bug has SO much passion for this OC and she's SO well written and thought out. Just { chefs kiss }

@hellshoard - I've been following them for awhile but I gotta say I'm glad I FINALLY got to start writing with them and I would 100% recommend them as well. The mun's a sweetheart { and chaotic } and the muses are great. 

@fearedelight - Sal is another one I recently followed but they also have some REALLY neat ocs + i love their takes on their canons, especially Mammon. { sorry Sal i've been snooping in your HC's } They're also super nice and easy to talk to.

@vietat0 - I see a lot of eve's around but I think this is probably the first one I've gotten to write with and they've def got an interesting take on her imo. Worth checking out + mun is really nice.

@arachnaemboss - and last but not least, this Zestial, I haven't gotten to write with them but I very much do enjoy the portrayal. I'd recommend checking them out if you haven't yet.

@pompedia - I lied I have one more, pom I have followed for a long time and while she only has charlie and emily she writes them SO well. 10/10 give love

@waywardsculs - ALSO BECAUSE THEY POPPED UP THREATENING TO LOVE BOMB ME I'M GONNA THROW THIS MF ON HERE TOO BC I ACTUALLY AM VERY INTERESTED IN THEIR MUSES AND THEY ALL LOOK VERY NEAT GO GO GO GO GO

#★ ► ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴛᴀʀꜱ ꜱᴘᴇᴀᴋ. ◄ ⌠ Out Of Character ⌡ #★ ► ʟᴇᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴛᴀʀꜱ ᴛʜᴀɴᴋ ʏᴏᴜ ♥ ◄ ⌠ Ask Answered ⌡

[beautifulpersonpeach]

Bpp, what's your take over this Scooter Braun // all his artists leaving // HYBE situation? I just read that HYBE paid $1 trillion USD for Scooter's company to get Ariana Grande and if she leaves that deal is worthless. What do you think?

***

I’m watching this with interest, but I really have no idea what’s actually going on or how it’s going to play out (it’s been 24 hours and reports are still unconfirmed from all parties). Right now the implications here are all negative, obviously, but if it’s in fact true that Ariana Grande is no longer affiliated with Scooter Braun and by extension HYBE America, and Bang PD’s investment is rendered useless as a result, a big part of me would be a bit happy. To be honest with you.

I mean, I’ve felt for a long time that Bang PD’s business moves in recent years have shown an arrogance that’s disproportionate with the results. I’m very curious to know what kind of risk matrix he uses to filter deals and arrive at valuations. Because just like the SM acquisition he was attempting this year, and just like I said back then, Bang PD seems to discount intangible and social costs significantly more than I think is prudent.

Getting into business with disgusting unscrupulous characters, and acquiring businesses with horrible company cultures, doesn’t seem to be a headwind for him going by the fact that he partnered with Scooter and was going to absorb SM Entertainment despite both entities’ long and notorious track record of being bottom barrel filth. To be fair, it’s normal in business to discount reputational risk when evaluating a deal, but Bang PD seems to either have an information disadvantage, or a massive inflated ego to go ahead with certain things he’s done.

It’s why I was so cautious about the SM deal when he was pursuing it. Though acquiring SM made pure business sense looking at the numbers, (the company was basically dirt cheap, many of the synergies were obvious and Bang PD did wisely backstop his fiscal exposure), he seemed to have no idea that acquiring a company like SM would be bad news in every possible way and would likely leave him with more liabilities than assets in the most realistic scenario. Or that he’d end up at par in the best scenario. I mean, imagine if he completed that acquisition and then the CBX - EXO - slave contract news broke, the FSS announced the multiple raids and inquiries on SM that followed, and he still had to comply with American SEC rules.

It would be the clusterfuck of the year. Like, it was bad news every which way you looked at it. The only thing that made me not worry is that at the very least, for SM he’d be paying chicken change relatively.

That’s not the case for his deal with Scooter, and like I’ve been saying, Scooter has always had very limited utility. The only time he proved worth the money was in 2020 and 2021 when he helped facilitate the promotions and distribution for Dynamite and Butter with many of the tools he brought out again for Seven. But in terms of A&R, Nicole did a much better job than anything Scooter has done, and she did it without a $1 trillion *Won acquisition.

When HYBE lost her to Columbia Records in May this year, that gave me pause more than anything else that’s happened so far.

Anyway, Bang PD could use the reality check. If this in fact turns out to be a gaffe, it would be one of the most expensive and embarrassing ones he’s made recently. And a part of me hopes it happens because he’s gotten very comfortable in recent years. Whatever good eye he had to find people like Nicole in the first place, he needs to find it again. The tannies will be fine though. HYBE is so cashed up that even if they lost 50% of their value, they’d still be in better shape than at least two Big 3 companies. Plus soon the boys will be doing the military service and will hopefully be shielded from the worst of the fall-out.

But we’ll see. :)

#Hybe #bighit #scooter braun #Hybe America #sm entertainment #Bang PD #BTS #bangtan #kpop #kpop industry #kpop music

[cha-melodius]

I'm not a writer but I've had this concept for a firstprince fic in my head for months and I really wish someone would be interested to write it! Love your stuff, and this isn't a request or anything, I just know you are followed/you follow many writers and maybe one of them will like it. Since Jude Law is canonically Arthur Fox (in my mind) and I recently watched The Holiday (2006), I'm dreaming of a Holiday AU where Alex and Pez switch houses, so Pez goes with June/Nora to DC or LA and Alex gets the British cottage. And eventually a drunk *spoiler: hot single dad* shows up at his door.

Hey anon! You're not the only one to have thoughts about The Holiday and firstprince, although I haven't seen one quite like you're saying—most focus only on the Alex/Henry side of things, so adding the Pez + Junora side is pretty cool!

For existing The Holiday AUs, I can heartily recommend all my time is yours to spend by @smc-27, and for another with similar vibes, AirBnB My Baby by @indomitable-love. There are a couple of others floating around as well that I haven't read (find them on AO3 here), but are worth checking out too.

Anyway, if anyone reading this wants to adopt this idea (never too early to start writing for next Christmas 😉), have at it! Everyone loves a good house swap fic!

#rwrb #firstprince #rwrb fic recs #rwrb fic prompt #asks and answers

[beps-brainrot]

Any good fanfics you read recently? Can be just Sun & Moon, or SAMS related. Just braindump about some works so that I can dash and read them plz

Your art is gorgeous btw just thought I’d let u know

Ahh thank you, thank you! That's so nice of you to say, and I really appreciate it<3 Unfortunately, I haven't read many DCA fics, and even more unfortunate than that is I haven't been keeping up with the ones that I'm in the middle of. I'm also wanting to read more fics, so if anyone has any that they want to share about, please feel free to! Still, I'll take the opportunity to ramble a bit.

The most recent fics I've read: Missions Under the Sun by the wonderful and thorough @chaotikanvas. This is a fic based on @lavenoon's Accidentally Undercover AU, and it's such a satisfying read. You get to follow Sun's point of view as he finds himself in the frustrating predicament of being in love with you, his coworker, which he can't breach many boundaries with due to the nature of your jobs. It's such a perfect fic of pining with a capital P that portrays Sun's thoughts and feelings in an indescribably real way. Even if you aren't familiar with Lavenoon's story, this fic is still easy to understand and enjoy. And! As I understand it, Lavenoon has many things to read up on too. If Kanvas' piece is any indication, their stories are captivating and well worth a check out.

Thread Carefully also by Chaotikanvas. This is a red string of fate AU where fate has decided to screw over the poor reader. Basically, the reader has a form of automatonophobia, the fear of animatronics, and is tied to the DCA by the red string of fate. Neither parties can stray too far away from each other without the red string preventing them from leaving. This sets up the exploration of an interesting dynamic between the Attendants and the reader as they have to make do with their new and permanent(?) situation. The way the reader's deep distress and anxiety is portrayed is perfect as Kanvas has an excellent way of detailing a character's introspection. Right now, only one chapter is available, but in my opinion it's enough to hook you and get you invested in what's to come.

Fics I've fallen behind on and am sure you know about: Holler If You Need Us by the incredible @castercassette. It's the wild west, and Sun and Moon are outlaws who run circles around you, the Sheriff. What more could you want? You don't know you need it until you see it, and my love for Caster's work can never be fully expressed.

Solar Lunacy by the imaginative @bamsara. The favorite slow burn with a compelling story! Need I say more about it?

Celestial Omens also by Bamsara. "Get a boat," they said. "It'll be fun," they said.

Twin Animatronics With Too Much Time On Their Hands by the awesome @twinanimatronics. The longest 24 hours you'll ever experience. A very hurty hurt/comfort fic that's eventually greatly rewarding.

Lofi Beats to Capture Children to by the brilliant and meticulous @dana-chan-the-control-brain. Sun and Moon's turbulent relationship in this can be quite upsetting especially if you're like me, someone who only desires fluff and wholesomeness for the boys. However, Dana's characters and intricately woven story are so good that simply reading it is its own reward.

I Can't Handle it also by Dana-chan. A spin off fic about Dana's OC from Lofi and Twin Animatronics, Ted, otherwise known as Dadler. He is my favorite wet sandwich of a person. I can't help but resonate with his deep self-loathing and melancholy. I miss him. I seriously need to catch up on these fics.

#if i got dadler's name wrong i'll scream #i'm terrible i haven't read ANY sams fic waaahh #though my interest is piqued by your sams fic sinistershepherd👀 #sorry this is not a super helpful answer fahkjsksaj #beps ask #i think i've overthought all this

[mystxmomo]

IDV fic and artist recommendation list.

On curiouscat I recently got a question about authors and artists in the idv fandom that I would recommend for people interested in my content. Given that I mostly write Game Five and Edgar content these days, that is what I am assuming they're after. Anyway! I broke character limit on curiouscat. On top of that, it is far easier to recommend fics and artists on tumblr, where I can like, directly link out to them.

So! Here's a few fics and authors I recommend for this fandom. It turned less into a recommendation list of "Content like mine" and more just an all around recommendation list (though, I was sure to include a lot of recs as to reasons I like their content.)

If this is your introduction to the IDV fandom - Thatttttts great! Sorry ahead of time. The unfortunate reality of my life is that I've been in this fandom for roughly going on 3 years soon. As such, some of these authors have long since moved onto bigger and better things. Still - It's worth appreciating those that built the base we ride on.

Disclaimer one - A lot of these authors write explicit content. Some of these fics are explicit by nature. Check the warnings before you go into them.

Disclaimer two - Some of these people are my friends, and I'm absolutely bias to their writing as a result. That's the way these things fall in communities as small as these. I have put everything in alphabetical order, so you won't know who I know. :devil imp emoji:

FANFIC AUTHORS

Anonymous - Who the fuck are you. How are you going to drop “Halibut“ on us and then just run away. It’s an absolutely fantastic character study/Smut piece for Wu Chang and José and the day they come back is the day I thrive. Please read this and give them a comment (I’m a hypocrite and haven’t yet - I should probably do that soon)

annelester (meimentomori) - I need to recommend all of the character studies and platonic explorations I can FIND. “the weight of it all“ Is a FANTASTIC Annie Exploration. “unforeseen circumstances“ is another Annie fic which I think hanles her voice perfectly, and I personally really like her fic “but i still stop and stare (every time that you call)“ which is a Michiko/Mary fic (I really like Michiko/Mary) and, of course, And/Luca with “keep me in the dark“

ArguablyMelon - I miss this author. Their Nort/Naib fanfics are fundamental to the tag. I personally really like “The Past Knows How to Knock“ Which is a reincarnation au thats just fantastically done. “I'll be here.“ Is one of their earlier fics that I personally still think holds up, and with my weak spot for Zombie au’s, I absolutely have to recommend “At Road's End, You're Still There“

Ampenah - They only have one fic I can recommend you, and I can praise a lot of things about it. Despite that, I will be putting a pin in only one. This is a Nort/Luca fic. Despite that, the thing that sticks out the most to me in “Fang and Claw (Tooth and Nail)“ is the Patricia characterization. There’s so much love and care put into her characterization, and I cannot recommend it enough for that reason alone.

It’s also just a solid plot. Set largely in the viper essence.

ethelel - I don’t normally like Hanahaki Disease. But I really liked their KevJose fic “baptisia“ and I think thats a huge praise for both of those accounts. They’ve done a few KevJose fics worth looking into, “like you a latte" Being a nice coffee shop au and “suojelija“ being more angst, with an appearance by wu-chang to boot.

Eversleeping - Absolutely fundamental author to the AndLuca community. She's been around since before I have, and deserves nothing but the upmost respect for her influence.

Anyway, here's her porn.

If you know her for anything, it's probably "amperage" or "relay" Which are some of her older fics. They're both sort of character studies and relationship masquerading as smut ; Following this trend, and on the more safe for work side of things, is "an eden of our own" Which is a personal favorite of mine. She also started up mothman!drew, which is iconic. ("the demon of lutz cemetery")

"Folio" is her anthropology series, though quite a few of them have breached containment and become their own fics. This is a good introduction to her writing, as you get a good taste of her characterization. "spoils" is andlucanort at it's finest.

fairydolls - Has mostly done edluca and VALE content, but I need to start with how I was introduced to their fics “across the table“ Which is a Luca & Tracy fic. The next fic I would recommend of theirs is then their EdLuca fic “en août“ which is a historically accurate exploration into their relationship. And then. I’ll drop this final one without any explanation, and implore you to read it even if you lack context. “edluca tumblr davekat kindating adventures“ Yes I’m serious. Yeah, it holds up. I’m sure it surprises them as much as it surprises you.

funeralphoto - I’m actually only going to recommend you one fic of theirs. It’s old, it’s discontinued. It’s a comedy, and it’s wonderful. “you have 1 pending follow request“

ghastimafrix - Once again, I have to recommend the platonic fanfic exploration first. “ritual sacrifice“ Is a great Edgar and Antonio interaction fanfic, but is part of a larger overall series “lonely, together“ Which has three fics in total. I’ve managed to contain most of my VALE deepcut up until this point, but their fic “stories in skin“ is a great vale exploration from Edgar’s pov. We love Edgar here. Here’s one exploring his trauma in “the past is“. Given that, mind the warnings on it. They’ve also done one of the classic EdLuca fic’s “i wish i could show you more of yourself“

glueskin - PLEASE read their series “í tunglsljósinu þú breytist í blátt húm“ I cannot recommend this series enough. The characterization is incredible, the premises are memorable. I think that their writing honestly influenced my Luca characterization to this day.

gvldenratio - Eddrew author of the hour. His most recent fic “thanks be to god“ Is one of my personal favorites. I really like the character interacts in that one in particular. I also think that the characterization in his platonic fic for Luca and Aesop is really incredible “who do you long for“ and his “Kinktober 2022“ fic collection has a few pairings like Edgar/Norton and Aesop/Victor that I think a few people that follow me might like. Most of his profile is genshin and Eddrew, all with absolutely wonderful Edgar characterization.

Mind the warnings when going into fics, of course.

 howthewindsarelaughing - Is a comparatively newer author in the fandom, but what they’ve published so far is incredibly memorable. I personally really like their short “Ghost in the Machine“ Because. As I will later mention on this list, Antonio/Edgar is a guilty pleasure ship. but they also do a fantastic Antonio/Andrew fic in “Icarus“ If you like the White Tombstone settings, they’ve also done “Me and Mine“ and “Sleep Study“

 hurricain - Please read “yellow flags“ I’m begging you to read Yellow Flags. It’s a Norton/Aesop fic. Another hidden gem in the fandom is his Vera/Aesop fic “l'odeur de charogne“. Both of these fics are incredible memorable explorations into each of these characters, with absolutely fantastic voices for all of them.

However, he’s also done some more common ships like.  “I Was Fucked Dry By The Painter And Lived To Tell The Tale ! ! ! Vol. 1“ which is an Eddrew fic, and “watching you, beautifully“ Which is an Aesop/Eli fic.

 Komilk - If you’re here for José, this is another author for you. She mostly specializes in José/Joseph, and her fic’s “(blood)thirst“ and “crime of passion“ are really good introductions to her characterization. But I personally also really like her Kevin/Aesop “"I'm asking you" Fic a whole lot, and my introduction to her fanfiction was actually the anthropology she did for kinktober “What happens in the manor stays in the manor... “ Which has a few Edgar’s in there (Aesop/Edgar and Aesop/Edgar/Joseph)

MagnaAlmaMater - I’m going to be honest with you, of everyone on this list I find Alma’s writing style to be the most haunting. She drops a new chapter of her fanfic and it sits with me for days. While the fic is Andrew-centeric, her Edgar characterization in “Qui absolvisti” is so palpable. That fic in particular actually focuses on quite a few different characters, and has been running since 2020. If you’re going to read anything of her’s, give that one a look through. Mind the tags, however. She doesn’t shy away from heavy themes on a lot of her stories, but they’re all wonderfully handled and explored.

If you like Norton/Melly, you’ll probably Like “Yukon“ Her Melly characterization is absolutely incredible, and It’s been getting some beautiful fanart recently. “Suit Of Cups“ is Naib/Edgar centeric, and another one with a wonderful Edgar voice. You definitely should mind the tag warnings on that one though.

mauye - Once again, you might actually know her stuff already. Her Edgar characterization in "Craving" (Long boy) and (the much shorter) "old dog learns new trick" is legendary. Craving is an Edgar/Everyone fic, and Old dog learns new tricks is EdLuca. I don't engage with Aesdrew often, but "speak softly, so that one may come closer to hear" scratched an itch I didn't know I had the first time I read it. Their most recent fic is a Nortnaib fic, which is a personal deepcut ship for me ("muscle memory")

NightLamb - Does a Lot of Edgar content, with some rare pairings at that, so of course I’m bound to like their stuff. They only have three fics right now, and “Little Red“ is an Eddrew fic of their’s I like a lot. Mind the warnings on their content, a lot of it isn’t for everyone.

pansythoughts // PansyFennelRue - Does fantastic Luca-centeric content. More often then not that's AlvaLuca and NortLuca, but she's also done some great VALE content. It's worth plucking through her profile, but her stories "A Current to Purify" and "Treatise on the Nature of Change" are a great introduction to her writing.

If you're interested in LucaNort side of things, a hidden gem is her COA fic "Every Breath That Comes Before" If you're here for José, she's done KevJosé in "Spending time chasing ghosts" and EdJosé for a Secret Santa in "Keep Painting Doorways". Also give her femslash some love, she's done Martha/Demi ("Pensive, Theatrical, Thoughtful") and MaryDemi ("Powerful (With a Little Bit of Tender)") and I think those deserve more attention then they get.

Raddish - has moved onto other fandoms, but from my bookmarks alone I give you their TonTon fic “The Things That Come Up While Doing Laundry“ Which is a nice PTSD exploration, their Antonio/Andrew fic “From The Beginning, Con Moto“ and “Family Ties“ One of the few family fic’s that actually managed to keep me engaged. They’ve done quite a few more pairings, as an understatement, so it’s worth scrolling through their profile and seeing what they’ve left.

Rainbow Renaissance - If you've dipped your nose into the Kevin/Edgar tag, you've absolutely seen them around. They actually kinda sold me on Kevin, which. If you've followed me for a while. Don't worry about it.

Of their Kevgar fics, "Tempus Fugit" is a wonderful character and relationship study. "Manzoku" and "Porfiado" are nice stage play au smut style smuts, and I personally kept returning to "Ukiyo"

Of the fics of their's that aren't Kevgar "Extremis" is a lovely Wu/Edgar and "Eros" is riding high as one of the only other José/Edgar fics in the tag. Bless them. I've re-read it A Few Times.

skullfuckery - Has done exactly one fic. This was in the early days of Edgar’s existence, and so “shut up and put on the maid dress“ Feels like something I need to dig from the depths and actually recommend

Soulmarionetter - Soulmarionetter has actually also been around for a while, and as such she has a bit of a backlog worth shuffling through! Her most recent fanfiction "Monomito" is an Aesop/Frederick fic with absolutely fantastic characterization, though it's just started recently and only has one chapter. I! really like! "Onwards (and downwards)" But Antonio/Edgar is a secret sleeper agent ship of mine, so I was bound to like that one. They did Demi/Vera for a zine ("Perfect Blend") and have a small, contained Edgar/Luca series in ("serendipia")

As a bonus, because I always like recommending platonic fics, they have a really nice Vera & Naib fic you should dip your toes in ("count on me")

tragicperformer - Is a Joscarl author, largely. As such, I feel like I should probably introduce them through their "post-canon joscarl series" It has 11 fics in it and is roughly 22k words in, so I feel like with that alone you’ll probably find a bit to read through. Their chapter fic “Between the Lines” Also is incredibly characterized. It’s stageplay au based - Not just in setting, but on principle.

With that said, they don’t just do JosCarl! Their Ed/Luca fic - “to be again” sits with me to this day, and (Remember Nortnaib deep-cuts me hard) I really personally enjoy “surrender“ Of their recent Edgar focused fics, I cannot recommend “precipice” Enough. Mind the warnings on that one, however. It’s a Dream Witch/Edgar fic, and it plays into the horrors of Dream Witch really, really well.

Quinzel25 - I wait with baited breath for them to update “His Lost Memories“ Which is a KevJose fic. It’s also the only fic they’ve done.

Fan-Artists

Despite posting this to tumblr, I’m mostly linking twitter profiles. That is because that’s just kinda where the fandom is most active these days. QQ. Alas. Again, a lot of these artists are 18+ Accounts.

This one is in no particular order, because I’m just going through my follower list at this rate. I’ll give a brief rundown of what they do, but go through their media tab. I cannot give you my entire twitter following list - so here’s the list of people that does game five and edgar content on my feed

篠山 - Mostly Kev/Jose. Occassionally does Vale content.

らお子 - Mostly does Kevin Content

冷楓雲_black-nyanko // @sc6557cc - KevJose

Cringe Central • kevin morgan // @tokobokos - Big Kevin Enjoyer, does Kevin-Centeric ships

쥐치 // @jjakgu - Edgar and Game Five content.

木兆虫義 // @Macc5_a_li - Ed/Jose and VALE

ハタ// @momocadesho - Ed/Jose and various other Edgar ships.

nas // @nas_1005 - Jose content.

온혜 // @on_identity - Vera focused, occasionally more Game Five Centered

A_Drawn_Sketch // @p0oplord69 - Follow them for Jose and Kevin centeric content. Does quite a bit of EdJose too.

Javol // @Javol_cowpho - Jose content.

SIRATAMA // @SIRATAM03235614 - Jose Content

前座 // @zazazapt2 JOSE CONTENT AND THEY draw him like a pathetic cat that got dunked in a lake!!

彼 // @ShiRo_Art5 - Edgar content QQ

688 // @BIGCARTEL@_six88 - Edgar and Bane is what I know them for, but they do a lot of content for very niche characters

Edluca NSFW comic soon!  | Locke // @42431235L - Kevin, Edgar, and Game Five. Their AO3 account is actually on this list.

维末尾 // @wimwi9 - Edgar Edgar Edgar Edgar Edgar their edgars are VERY small and VERY cute.

kalista // @_bloodwine_ - Edgar.

church of andrew christ // @bornagainwhore - Eddrew.

The Saiki _Wolf // @WolfSaiki -Ed/Luca but Edgar.

I’m sure I’ll come back and add a few as they pop up on my feed, but this should be a decent list.

Enjoy me rec’s.

#Identity V #Recommendations #Fic Recs

[apparitionism]

Decalogue 5

I’ve been chipping away at this “story” for three years now—it’s more a conceit that got out of hand, really, but ten years’ worth of regular fanfictional postings can send the conceptual car into some unreasonably esoteric cul-de-sacs. This one, as the title makes clear, has to do with ten commandments—not THE Ten Commandments, but one for each year of the Bering-and-Wells situation (I started this excursion on the tenth anniversary, intending to finish it soon after and wind up the ten, but...). Part 1 covered years one through five, with commandments as follows: one, meet at gunpoint; two, thou shalt not touch; three, suffer in silence; four, make mistakes; and five, thou shalt not hold grudges. Part 2 was year six: Thou shalt not damage. Part 3 dealt with year seven and instructed, “Thou shalt take nothing for granted.” Most recently, part 4 yielded year eight’s “Remember the anniversary,” which is always good advice, so here’s year nine, which via time’s-arrow shenanigans and bizarro chapter-math is part 5, being posted on the thirteenth anniversary.

Decalogue 5

Year 9: Calm down.

It would of course have been wise for Myka to have applied such a directive, spiritually, throughout most of her years with (and without) Helena. It would have been wise for her to have applied it throughout most of her interactions with Helena... and if anyone had asked her, she would have said she’d tried to do so. But apparently her efforts hadn’t met the universe’s expectations: such that by their ninth year, said universe saw fit to insist, insistently, that she work much, much harder at it.

That insistence came over time to manifest as an incessant tapping against her consciousness... naturally (or was it artificially? and was there a salient difference?) everything that happened served as a commentary on everything else that happened, for Myka would over the course of the year come to understand the heavy significance of a particular tapping sound.

Circumstances began to converge—though Myka didn’t realize they were converging, and that in itself ended up being salient—when she and Pete were driving home, late at night, from a retrieval that hadn’t mattered at all. Late at night, though: that mattered. Nearly midnight, in fact, which mattered most.

“Helena hasn’t called me yet,” she said. She hadn’t really intended to say it aloud, but there were only five minutes left in the day. And when Helena and Steve were away on a mission, Helena called Myka at some point during each and every day: a compromise, one designed to mitigate Myka’s urge to smother, at least as far as Helena’s health and safety were concerned. It wasn’t that Helena wouldn’t call, left to her own devices. But Myka was able, was allowed, to expect it. To rely on it.

Pete snorted. “Charlize Theron hasn’t called me yet, but you don’t see me checking my phone every ten seconds about it.”

Myka had given up trying to explain to Pete what a non sequitur was. Instead, she asked, “Why would Charlize Theron call you?”

“Why wouldn’t she? It’s like you’ve never looked at me. But also: get it?”

“I think there’s a significant difference with regard to roles in lives.”

“Only because Charlize hasn’t got the memo on her destiny with me. Don’t be acting snooty just because you and H.G. got all the memos. ‘Agent Bering,’” he pronounced, high-voiced, “‘we’re forever destined to meet at gunpoint.’”

Another thing she’d given up: getting offended and telling him his Helena impression was atrocious. Instead, she said, “I really wish Claudia hadn’t told you about that.” She did wish it. But she knew it was—

“Pfft. Water, bridge, under,” Pete said, reading her mind. “I really wish you’d quit checking your phone every ten seconds. You’re making me nervous.”

“You check your phone constantly!”

“But not for a reason.”

“I just want to know why she hasn’t called yet,” Myka said, hearing herself sound not a little desperate, aggravated that she hadn’t scrubbed—apparently couldn’t scrub—all that evidence from her voice.

Pete didn’t seem to care. “Maybe she’ll tell you when she calls. Or hey, I just realized, phones work both ways.”

That wasn’t the deal, but with three minutes—no, now two—to go, Myka gave in and called. Straight to voicemail. She then went entirely in-for-a-penny on it and called Steve, who picked up quickly, only to say, “Can’t talk; call you back when—”

And then the phone went dead.

Myka’s throat wasn’t really closing in panic, was it? It couldn’t have been. Through the obviously nonexistent clutching choke, she said to Pete, “I called Helena and she didn’t answer and then I called Steve and he said he couldn’t talk and he’d call me back but the line went dead. What do I do now?” She wasn’t really looking for advice, but she had to ask to at least try to force her heart back down.

He didn’t turn his eyes from the road. “Here’s an idea: calm down.”

“I’m very calm,” Myka lied.

Now he did look at her, with an eyeroll of oh please. “Another idea: quit lying.”

“As ideas go, you should quit Steving. And answer my question!”

“I don’t remember the question.”

Myka exhaled with purpose. “What do I do now?”

“Finally an easy one. Wait till Steve calls you back.”

She didn’t have much choice.

Myka had always taken pride in being practiced at simulating calm; that kind of fakery was practically part of an agent’s job description. But she was being forced to learn (and resisting being forced to learn) that such simulation wasn’t enough to resolve every situation... or, more broadly, that appearances unfortunately weren’t reality.

Not until nearly two in the morning—after Myka had showered, changed into her pajamas, pretended to read some pages of Svetlana Alexievich’s Secondhand Time (she and Helena were mutually bookclubbing that), and finally given in to doomscrolling news, because at least that didn’t require an attention span—did Steve call and say, “Everything’s fine. She’s about to call you, but I told you I’d call you back, so I am.”

Helena opened her own call by saying, “Via miscalculation, I broke our deal. I know it, and I apologize.”

“Miscalculations happen,” Myka said, because of course they did. Then she said, “I’m too rigid,” because of course she was. Probably.

“I’ll make it up to you,” Helena said, with a fervent affection.

“By calling twice tomorrow?” Myka asked, her own affection rich.

“It’s already tomorrow, and I’ll be home then. Or now: it’s today.”

“You make no sense.”

“Be that as it may, and it may, but: how was your appointment with the physician yesterday?”

Myka had figured that was going to be on the agenda, whenever this call happened. Earlier in the day, she’d been happy enough to put off talking to Helena about the results of her physical; now that wish for postponement returned full force. “Better than your retrieval, I bet,” she hedged, hoping that Helena might just... drop it. Drop it and regale Myka with retrieval exploits.

That was a vain hope, of course: first, Helena had an uncanny ear for reluctance and would seize it and shake it till it yielded a why; second, a full physical, with its palpations, percussions, auscultations, and analyses of the living breathing body, was jam-packed with the sort of trackable data Helena found endlessly enthralling.

“Steve and I are fine,” Helena said, of course declining to elaborate on the mission, of course dashing Myka’s hopes. “Are you?”

That was without question a shake in search of a why. “Do I look unhealthy to you?” she countered.

“I can’t see you. This isn’t a video call.”

“If the answer’s yes, just say it.”

“The answer is that to me, you look reasonably healthy. I’ve certainly seen you look far less healthy.”

“You have?” Because Myka had hardly been sick at all, these past several—

“I suspect you’d rather I didn’t talk about that.”

“I would?”

A breath. Then: “Boone.”

Stupid mistake, Myka chastised herself. You should have understood immediately. Should have understood—which still often took the place of “did understand”—even now, after so much time. She breathed out heavily, trying for that elusive calm. “Okay. Yes.” They had talked, at first poorly, about the cancer. Talked, continually poorly, about Pete’s role in making it go away. Talked about—argued about—who had the right to, who deserved to, save whom. “I can’t change the fact that he did,” Myka had said.

To which Helena had said, not enraged but resigned, “I can’t change the fact that I resent his doing what I couldn’t.”

“Because you didn’t know,” Myka had tried.

“For which I blame myself,” Helena had gloomed in response.

“Blame both of us,” Myka had tossed into the breach. Before, she would have said “you should,” but she’d seen how time could stretch the boundaries of fault, of responsibility, for so many acts. In this case, she’d made sure to push those boundaries herself. On purpose, hard and away. “Blame the Warehouse. Blame everybody everywhere. There’s so much blame to go around...”

Now, Myka was at least able to follow up with, “I can honestly say I’m glad I looked worse then. Because comparatively, this is not a big deal.”

It wasn’t. At any rate, it didn’t seem to be. Her primary care doctor, whom Myka trusted because he’d steered her through the non-Warehouse parts of the cancer without making any of it weird, had been factual: “Most everything looks fine, but your systolic blood pressure falls in a range we refer to as ‘elevated.’” He then perked up, like he’d been itching for an opportunity to have something to do, in these years she’d been untumored: “In younger people like you, this generally results from lifestyle issues, so I’ll link you to some articles in the portal outlining changes, steps to take so you don’t develop dangerous hypertension.” Myka had thought he’d sounded overly enthusiastic on the word “dangerous”... but she’d hoped that was a figment of her hyperactive imagination.

“And yet you’re telling it to me,” Helena said, after Myka explained what he’d said, trying to downplay it, omitting in particular his use of the word “dangerous.” Trying and failing to downplay it, apparently, despite the omission, because Helena followed up with, “And you sound a trifle agitated, most likely a bit about my failure to call as I should have... also a bit about the diagnosis itself. But perhaps something else as well?”

She was discerning, Helena was, reading Myka not like a cipher, rendering a single message, but like a novel, allowing for varying interpretations. What could Myka have done but reward her by telling the truth? “He wanted to know about family history,” she said. “I had to call my parents. Well. My mom’s blood pressure’s fine. I mean my dad.”

“Ah. A still-fraught proposition.”

“A useless proposition,” Myka said. “I got myself all geared up for it, but he wouldn’t tell me much of anything. Like I was trying to pry military secrets out of him.”

“You two do often seem to be at war.” And Helena added, as if she’d seen Myka’s immediate nod of agreement, “In keeping with that, perhaps you should try another sortie.”

“I’ll need to gear up again. Which I guess is in keeping too.” She harrumphed. “Won’t be good for my blood pressure, I bet.”

“Nor is being awake at this hour of the morning. We should end this call, and you should sleep.”

“But you’re on this call, and so am I. I don’t want to end it.”

“Nor do I, but you should sleep.”

“So should you,” Myka said.

“Lost cause. But we’ll both sleep better tomorrow night. No, tonight. It’s today.”

“You make no sense,” Myka accused again, but drowsily.

Helena rewarded her with a low chuckle. “And you make nothing but sense?”

“You wouldn’t know,” Myka said...

They continued on in that vein that for some time, until they finally agreed to end the call at a three-two-one same moment. Myka felt grateful, as she often did, for the way in which her life with Helena gave her access to some very typical experiences, ones that she probably wouldn’t have appreciated if she’d had them as a teenager. As an adult was better. As an adult with Helena was better still.

But just as Myka was about to slip into sleep, her mind began to race: she realized that she hadn’t asked Helena again about the retrieval, which had to have been more than a little fraught, and while she knew she wasn’t supposed to smother, she berated herself for what must have seemed like a total absence of real concern.

Thus when Helena and Steve arrived home, met by the cadre of Myka, Pete, and Claudia, the first thing Myka said, with a carefully calibrated mix of casual interest and earnest apology, was “I should have asked you before: what was the artifact, anyway?”

Helena didn’t say anything, but she glanced at Steve.

“You... what?” he said. Their imperfect communication—but communication all the same—reminded Myka of herself and Pete. What they’d had before they got it all wrong... what they were ever closer to fully getting back.

Helena shrugged, the very picture of resignation. “Go ahead.”

“It’s Nikolai Korotkoff’s sphygmomanometer—his Riva-Rocci cuff, they called it in his day. He’s the guy who discovered the sounds doctors listen for when they’re taking your—”

Myka’s knee-jerk response, she had to admit, was not ideal: exasperated, she interrupted, “This was about blood pressure? You’re kidding. You’re actually kidding.”

Steve turned to Helena, and while he wasn’t exactly panicked, he was clearly unsettled. “I want to tell her I am. I really want to. I feel like it would make your life easier if I do.”

Helena shrugged again. “Well. ‘Easier.’ Sorting out life’s relative ease, moment on moment, is a tricky business.”

“Is that a dig?” Myka snapped. “Why didn’t you say something last night? Or no, I mean this morning, because it wasn’t last night, which doesn’t matter now, but...”— she glanced at Helena, in a little apology for the snap—“...did. Look, if this thing lowers blood pressure, wrap it around my arm right now.”

That got her an eyebrow. “As someone tends to intone: not for personal gain.”

“Wouldn’t it be personal loss here though?” Claudia asked, with a surprising absence of snark.

That made Myka laugh, and she applauded, a triple-clap for emphasis. “See, this is what the Warehouse needs: a Caretaker who knows a loophole when she sees one.”

Claudia’s jaw dropped. “Who are you? The Myka I know and mostly love but am also driven nuts by because she’s such a rule snob hates loopholes.”

Obviously Myka was going to have to rethink her relationship with rules, if only to get some benefit from... something. “You know what? I’m just going to say—to postulate—that the Warehouse owes me one. Or several. I think it owes me several.”

Helena said, “Keeping score with the Warehouse is the very definition of a fool’s game.” That was her you are overreacting voice, rarely deployed except for when they were in Colorado. “But more importantly, that isn’t the cuff’s effect. It matters not at all to the one being measured, but rather to the measurer, in whom it increases sensitivity to, and the ability to interpret, diagnostically informative bodily processes. Hence our difficulty persuading the doctor who relied upon it to... relinquish it.”

Myka, reacting poorly both to the news and to the tone in which it was delivered, said, “It absolutely figures that the Warehouse would ping out something completely useless at a time like this.”

“Ping out?” Claudia asked. “Do we say that now?”

“I will say what I want. Stupid artifact,” Myka muttered.

Pete and Steve had been notably silent during all this. “Um,” Steve now said. “I feel like something’s out of proportion here, for reasons I’m not getting.”

Pete, apparently similarly confused, said, “Since when are you weird about blood pressure? Used to be anything about H.G. was your trigger, but now mostly it’s anything you think triggers her. So what gives?”

Myka was tempted to let him go hard on painful nostalgia, just to avoid having to talk about this ridiculous medical situation. But Helena gave her a look, one that said both “your reaction is out of proportion” and “you can’t hide this forever and certainly not if this is your response to related stimuli,” and even though Myka would have much preferred to hide it forever and was pretty sure she could if she worked hard enough, regardless of stimuli, she had to acknowledge that the whole thing was about what could stay hidden but would probably have adverse consequences if it did. So she grumped out, “My blood pressure. Is elevated. It’s a term of art,” she added, to try to forestall—

“Wow. That’s a biggie,” Pete said.

Oh well on the forestalling. “No it isn’t,” she told him.

“Except it is.”

“Except it isn’t. This is just a preliminary-warning type of thing.”

“A ping!” Claudia shouted. “Ping out!”

Steve said, “You sound a little too enthusiastic about that.”

“Kind of like my doctor,” Myka said, “who started going on about ‘lifestyle issues.’ I would like to state for the record that I do not have ‘lifestyle issues.’”

“Except for isn’t stress a thing? Working here’s a big part of your lifestyle,” Claudia pointed out, unhelpfully.

“And... you know,” Pete said. He nodded toward Helena, who spread her arms in an angelic “who, me?” gesture.

“‘Lifestyle’ is a stupid word,” Myka grumbled. “So I guess I’ll quit my job and break up with Helena, so I can live to a ripe old age and be broke and miserable. Excellent ideas. Thanks for the help.”

Steve—being his wise, confrontation-avoidant self—said, “I think I’ll just take this little artifact to the Warehouse so it can settle in.”

That had the unfortunate effect of reminding Myka of the artifact’s identity. “Did we all get whammied a long time ago with something that makes everything that happens in our lives rhyme in the most annoying way possible?” she asked. “Or was it just me?”

“I think it’s more repetition than rhyme,” Steve said, though in an I don’t want to be implicated in this way.

“Repetition with variation, however,” Helena said, and Myka wanted to be able to want to smack her.

“Right,” Steve said. “Would that be reprise? Maybe? Or am I thinking of something else?”

“None of this is lowering my blood pressure,” Myka informed them. Pointlessly.

Steve, to his credit, hotfooted it out of the situation, but Pete said, “You should look into stuff that would.”

“ON IT!!” was Claudia’s response.

Myka tried to head off whatever that was going to be with, “I’m supposed to check the online portal for links to what the doctor rec—”

“Links?!?” Claudia enthused. “I got all the links! Let’s run through some together!”

“Let’s not,” Myka said. Pointless again.

“Here’s the first one: ‘Lose extra pounds.’”

“She’s a pretty skinny drink of water,” Pete said. “Not much extra.”

“I guess,” Claudia said, sounding disappointed. “Next one: exercise regularly.”

Helena tilted her head a bit and said, “The regularity of her exercise is indisputable.”

“Come on,” Myka said. “I try really hard not to wake you up when I leave for my run.”

“I was not referring to your run.”

Claudia’s face pinked, and she said a quick, “Okay, okay! Moving on! Next really good idea: Eat fewer processed foods.”

That was patently ridiculous. “When was the last time I ate a processed food?” Myka asked.

“When I made bean dip in the food processor,” Pete said.

Myka sighed. “Look, this isn’t helping.”

Claudia nodded, despondent. “Yeah, you’re also supposed to quit smoking.”

“Like I said,” Myka agreed.

“But wait, here we go,” Claudia said, perking up, “like I said: reduce stress! And there’s a whole list!”

Myka waited for enlightenment.

For once, Claudia didn’t seem inclined to read aloud; in fact, she perked back down. “These are just... tips. Life-hacky,” she said, frowning. “How’s ‘plan your day’ supposed to do anything? And this one totally contradicts it: ‘Don’t experience future pain.’ Aren’t plans all about future pain?”

“Myka’s sure are,” Pete said. “So she’s doing everything right and wrong?”

“This is not a surprise,” Myka said.

“Maybe what’s next is simpler,” Claudia said. “Like, philosophically: ‘Make time to do the things you enjoy.’”

At that one, Pete leered, Myka groaned, and Helena objected, “I am not ‘things.’”

“I should’ve seen how that would go,” Claudia said, managing to refrain from turning red this time. “Okay, but this last one’s for all of us, except Steve, king of zen: practice gratitude.”

“Huh,” Pete said. “You know, I could probably stand to work on that.”

“I as well,” Helena agreed.

They all looked at Myka. “Fine,” she said. “I could too. In that spirit, thank you, Claudia, for caring enough about my blood pressure to find at least one thing that might lower it.”

“Score! And thank you for understanding how helpful I am.”

“Steve might not approve of your mixing gloating and gratitude,” Helena told her.

“No, no, I’m grateful for the gloating: it means we’re done,” Myka said.

Claudia said, “The internet’s a big place. I could find more!”

“Let’s end on success,” Myka said. “For everybody.”

She didn’t actually do very much practicing over the next while, not until she one evening received a surprise call from her father, right before she was ready to head upstairs to bed. She was tired—tempted to fend him off with “I’ll call you back tomorrow”—but it was a ready-made, if challenging, opportunity to practice. So she said, “Hi, Dad. Are you okay?”

He said an expectedly brusque “fine,” but then: “So, about what you were... asking about. The other day. I don’t like to talk about this kind of thing.”

Myka couldn’t quite hold back a dry “Really.”

“Don’t get smart with me,” he said, but with far less snap than he would have in the past. “Sorry. Look. Your... wife. Convinced me I should be a little more up front.”

“She... okay.” That presented a truckload of issues to process—and, she had to admit, to be grateful for.

First, the word “wife.”

That was new, as a word that applied—newly, quietly, it applied.

“I don’t want a wedding wedding,” Myka had said to Helena, once they’d got down to talking about the actual logistics. She knew it was likely to be a problematic position: knew and felt a powerful anxiety rise as she articulated it.

Helena had said, “Claudia does, and—”

“I know,” Myka began, her rebuttal at the ready, “but—”

“And,” Helena had interrupted. “Yet. While we owe her a great deal, that does not include dominion over how we enter into a legal union. And given all I’ve come to understand about modern weddings, I agree with you.”

Thus small it was, with Steve and Claudia—who continued to insist that she was, in fact, the flower ninja—their only witnesses.

Small, yet legal. About which Helena had evinced something very close to wonder: “A binding contract,” she had said, after words were pronounced and papers signed, as if the idea had just struck her.

“You’re the one who proposed,” Myka had reminded her, floating, light; she was in a bubble of something like wonder herself.

“I beg to differ,” Helena reminded back.

“The one who intended to propose. I have to believe you knew about that binding-contract endpoint of the proposal process.” That they could be these people. These word-trading, contractually bound, wonderstruck people.

“Of the proposal process,” Helena agreed. “Endpoint. Yes. But otherwise: beginning point.”

She’d said that last part quietly. But in the silence that followed, it swelled to a clarion.

Steve cupped his hands, as if to have and hold a bit of the air in which the words resonated.

“And here I was worried this—” Claudia had said, gesturing around the small conference room, which they would soon need to vacate for whoever was solemnifying next, “wouldn’t be enough.”

“Enough for what, darling?” Helena asked, though Myka was pretty sure they all knew the answer.

Now Claudia gestured at the two of them. “This.”

A decent enough word for it all, as words went.

Word-wise, and more salient to the present phone call, “wife” was new as a syllable her father would willingly pronounce of someone who was Myka’s. So: gratitude. There was also the matter of Helena having “convinced” her father of anything, although Myka was really unsure about where to place any appreciation for that. Further... well, no, that about covered it.

Her father then said, “I told you numbers. Befores, afters, but not what I did to move them.” He paused, and Myka had no trouble picturing his facial reluctance at having utter whatever might come next. What did come next: “Meditation.”

Not a word she’d ever expected to hear him utter—on a par with “wife” in its new application.

“Your mother makes me,” he said. “Thirty minutes a day, strictly enforced. You could try it.”

“Could,” he’d said, not “should.”

She knew she ought to have appreciated the call for what it was: seemingly sincere, part of an overall positive trend. But instead she worked herself up to offense, marching upstairs to find Helena—brushing her hair, innocent of any intent—and demanding, “You called my dad?” Petulant. An uptight whine. Definitely not her finest hour.

“I did not,” Helena said, not pausing her strokes for even a millisecond. “He called me.”

“He did?” So she’d climbed up to offense for no reason. The climb back down involved an awkward reset of her face and her breathing, but she did it, ending on a cringed, “Sorry.”

“He wanted to know if you were well,” Helena said, still conducting the stroke, stroke, stroke. “This was after he called your sister and asked her the same question.”

“He told you that?”

“No. Your sister did. When she called me to warn me that your father would be calling me, because she had told him she had no information on the point but that I most likely would. I asked her if she wanted me to tell her anything about said point, and she said no, that she would get it from your mother after your father told her what he found out from me.” Now she stopped the hair show and turned in Myka’s direction, brandishing the brush. “Your relations seem to take comfort in communication that is as indirect as possible.”

“I can’t even begin to argue with that. I sort of hate that everybody in my family—but especially my father—likes you more than they like me. But obviously I’m grateful for it too. It’s a slow-motion relief.”

“If your father’s concern for your health is any evidence, he likes you a great deal. I’ve never heard him inquire about my health.”

“Then again, maybe he doesn’t like you,” Myka said. “He thinks it’s your wifely duty to force me to meditate.”

“Coercion seems antithetical. And yet I do have every intention of fulfilling my wifely duties, including such new ones as arise—including this one. Given that it... has?”

“I guess it has. And I appreciate the intention. It’s important. Required, even. I honestly have a hard time believing this particular one’s going to have any tangible effect on the future, but I appreciate it.”

“Well, the future. What did Claudia say? ‘Don’t experience future pain.’ You should experience future effects—even pain, if necessary—when they happen. Not before.” Helena turned back to the mirror. She set the brush down and watched herself breathe in and out, very deliberately.

“Are we still talking about me?” Myka asked.

“I confess I’ve had to put effort into... braking trepidatious anticipation. With regard to effects.”

“Effects?”

“I can, for example, report that my blood pressure is fine.”

“Of course it is,” Myka groused, because of course it was.

Helena ignored that. “Fine for now, that is, which I know because Dr. Calder keeps a close eye. As part of her unplanned, yet obviously necessary, case study of the long-term effects of the Bronze, which she records as I... experience them.”

Myka felt her pulse speed at the thought. Not helpful.

Nor was the overall fact that the future, whatever pain it would or wouldn’t deliver, was unknowable.

“I try—often unsuccessfully, but more successfully with the passage of time—to remain securely in the present moment,” Helena went on. “Steve’s a great help.”

“Pete wouldn’t be,” Myka said immediately.

Helena turned fully around to face Myka; she leaned forward and said, “Wouldn’t he?

“Of course not,” Myka said, because the idea of Pete being helpful in some mindful pursuit of present-ness? Helpful like Steve would be? Preposterous.

“I believe you’re mistaken. Pete has many habits that vex every one of us, but you of all people should know that he does not fret. Certainly not about the future.”

Myka had to think that out for a minute, then a minute more. “You’re... right,” she said. “If something’s unknowable, he doesn’t try to know it. He forgets about it and reads a comic book.”

“A lesson for the both of us?”

“I don’t like comic books,” Myka said. “And neither do you.” But formulating this basic fact about her partner sparked Myka to think of her childhood, the way she would turn to a book in order to soothe herself, so as to simultaneously leave and fully inhabit as many present moments as possible... to Helena, she admitted, “It is a lesson. I used to be able to... lose myself. More. Better.”

A very small smile ghosted its way onto Helena’s face. “You lose yourself quite well.”

That was welcome, if (still, even now, a bit) embarrassing. “Thank you? But for the purposes of peace, maybe not ideal.”

“Well then, I suppose I’ll have to force you to meditate,” Helena said, and was that enthusiasm in her voice?

“Now?”

“No time like the present.”

Myka allowed herself to be manipulated toward the bed, then to be situated there cross-legged, even as she complained, “It seems like it’s going to take up a lot of time. Like the present. Thirty minutes a day, my dad said, but wasn’t one of Claudia’s tips about making time to do things I enjoy?”

“You just now rejected that,” Helena said. She put out the light and joined Myka on the bed, facing her, sitting similarly cross-legged.

“You’re just lucky ‘Things’ isn’t your new nickname. But come on, when you think about it, half an hour’s half an hour. Wouldn’t it just be stealing time from, you know, us?”

“Stealing present time—minimal present time—yes. But to increase the likelihood of maximal total time. For, you know, us,” she concluded.

It was a low blow; Helena knew how susceptible Myka was to having her own speech patterns mimicked by that voice. Nevertheless, she tried, “Didn’t you just say there’s no time like the present?”

“I did, and I was correct. Now focus.”

“Fine.” She closed her eyes. Then she cracked one open. “On what?”

Helena gave that some consideration. “At the risk of adding insult to injury, we might try Korotkoff sounds. I’ve been thinking on them since encountering Mr. Korotkoff’s instrument. We didn’t know them in my day... we could have produced them, used them for diagnoses, at any time. Yet to us, in our ignorance, blood moved ever silent.”

“My ignorance too. I’ve had my blood pressure taken a million times—and there’ll be a million more, and now more often—but I don’t know how it works. Tell me.”

“One imposes pressure by inflating the cuff around the arm, then one releases it, slowly, and listens. Silence at first, then five distinct phases of sounds, telling sounds, emerge as blood begins again to flow. The phases, the sounds. The same in all bodies. Yours. Mine. Everyone’s. Five. In succession.”

Her voice was slow. Lulling. This might not be meditation, but it was an easing. “Tell them to me,” Myka said. She closed her eyes again, imagining a wrapping, enveloping density, an inflating push of an determined cuff... yet even as she did so, a tendril of unease slipped its way in, an instinctive pre-flinch of discomfiture at what the release of pressure might reveal. She reheard “you lose yourself quite well”—felt the reflexive, nervous rise of self-consciousness—but she pressed against it, willing it down, down and away.

“In phase one,” Helena began, “the blood signals its return with clear taps, low but clear, knocks of announcement.”

Myka reached for the lull again, working to hear the silk-low voice both for itself (to be here) and for what it gave (to be elsewhere).

Helena thwarted her for a moment, becoming less hypnotist than lecturer as she said, “The pressure at which phase one occurs is the top number, that troublesome number of yours.”

Eyes still closed, Myka reached her hands out, feeling for Helena’s body, reaching her arms, and at the contact Helena seemed to understand. “In phase two,” she said, slow again, “the knocking softens, joined by a new sound, a swishing, soft, long, the blood taking its time, finding its way...”

Myka let her hands move, just a little, wayfinding.

“Phase three,” Helena said, with a small hitching throat-clear. “Here the knock returns, insistent now, the blood knowing its way, impatient to resume its course, pushing itself to phase four: an abrupt muffling, as if reassembling for a final push of sound.” Her hands now met Myka’s body, grasping her arms, tightening as she said, “But no, no final push, for phase five is the disappearance of all sound, the reestablishment of what the doctors of my day knew only as unrevealing silence. Yet not so unrevealing after all: that restoration is the diastolic pressure, the lower number, completing the diagnosis, culminating the story of how the blood speaks as it relearns to move: sound to less sound to more sound to no sound.”

That repetition of “sound”... it rang in Myka’s head. Sound, sound, sound...

She opened her eyes. Her hands were at Helena’s waist, and Helena’s hands had moved to her shoulders; now they were locked in the pose, statues waiting for a spell-break.

Myka willed herself not to move her hands as she said, “I didn’t meditate.”

Helena wasn’t moving either, but it seemed to be taking just as much effort. “I’m grateful,” she said.

“Are you calm?” Myka asked.

“Not at all.”

“Good.”

But later, later, in the still: yes. Calm. No sound.

TBC

#bering and wells #Warehouse 13 #fanfic #Decalogue #part 5 #I very nearly didn't finish this part in time #and it's less cohesive than I'd prefer #but it's yet another mark of time #my personal observation of occasion #apologies for the obsessive focus on the sounds #but they are quite striking #(no pun intended) #and honestly I think there's a sad lack of awareness #of how bodies are medically understood #such discoveries #and their revelations

[slashingdisneypasta]

Harper Alexander x Fem!AFAB!Reader || Smutshot

Note: Y'all can thank @darlingpassion for this! It was inspired by her recent 18+ Harper Headcanons (Oh my lord, go check them out. I read them in the middle of class and- I- 😅 lets just say we're lucky I'm still unwell otherwise the colour my face turned woulda been sus XD )

Plot: You (A would-have-been victim if you hadn't have been so cunning and wormed your way into Harper's good books) teach Harper what a lady in this day and age expects from her lover 👍👍👍

Warnings: Cunnilingus and begging, and slight hate fucking?. Plus both parties are dominant so there's a sort of ongoing dispute involved. Not super hot at the start but trust me- it heats up XD

"You want me... to put my mouth... down there?" Harper never looked so confounded when he finally understood what you were getting at- that sweet accent of his growing thicker and his judgemental eyes flickering from the dead-serious look on your face- to your parted legs.

"I promise this'll be a hit with the gals that come into town for the jubilee... " You insist, smirking at his reaction and crossing one of your legs over the other thigh once again, now that he got the picture. Then you hold two fingers by your head, like a scouts oath. "I guarantee it."

Rolling his eyes, Harper takes a seat on the edge of the bed next to you, before leaning forward in order to look at you. "You know, when you said y'could teach me a couple'a things... I was thinkin' a long the lines of interestin' role-plays... and knots."

"Yeah we'll get there," You brush him off. "But this is essential, my guy! If you cant do this, you're really only worth the length of your little mr- and I've seen him. Now, I don't wanna emasculate you, Harp, but... ehhhh, he's average."

Harper's jaw drops. "Avera- "

"Which is why this is such a good idea, that I have had! You can thank me later- now go get on your knees."

He just squints at you, not moving an inch except to squeeze the edge of the mattress on either side of his hips; frustrated by you.

Lord, this guy is always frustrated with you. All you want to do is help- and maybe survive, also- and all he has for you is arguments and a stink face. Huffing, you set your hands on your hips and twist your upper body to fully face him. Lets see how his ego fairs with this manoeuvre. "Should I ask Buckman, then?"

... His eyes narrow. "... Why?"

"He's, like, your pimp right?" Harper mouths the word 'pimp', like he doesn't recognise it - adorable country boy that he is, - and you huff. Okay, lets try that again. "He looks like the kinda man that gets it- maybe he can talk to you about the importance of a ladies pleasure, instead of me? Is that what you want Harp? Is it?- "

Harper cant take any amount of teasing from you, it annoys and frustrates him, and before you can even finish what you were saying he's got one of his hands curled around the back of your head and his mouths crashes into yours.

He's not really the most skilled kisser, he kisses like an old man who believes its just a stepping stone to get a woman to suck his dick, but fine, damn, it does the trick!~ And besides- you can work on it with him later.

After a moment you lean away from him, too far for him to follow you, and flick your eyes from his- down to the ground in front of you.

Hm?

For a moment he sits there, his perfect workman's hand still a comforting - almost affectionate, - weight on the back of your neck as he thinks, grumpily to himself. Then he sets his jaw and goes to kneel down in front of you. "Fine- teach me howta do it already."

"... You know, that sour face is not doing you any favours. Some men like this kinda thing- " He cuts you off, picking lazily at the waistband of your pants while you stop and just blink down at him. You watch him take out a blade from his back pocket (And first of all, WHY does he have that back there?? God, this man- infuriating and hot at the same damn time), and consequently let out a yelp.

"Hurry up, or I'm gonna slice these things off myself."

"... Rude."

That makes him smirk; An unfairly devastating smirk for such an asshole-... but pleasant. So pleasant. When he does that, the rest of your life stuck here doesn't look quite so grim.

Even though he's a dick-

~

"Am I doin' this right??"

Giving a sigh, with your back on the bed and your legs spread wide for Harper, you roll your eyes. "If you're talking, no... "

"... You're sure wet enough... " He mutters back under his breath, and you promptly get up onto your forearms to spit some facts at him.

Ohhhhh this guy. That smug look on his face as his eyes move slowly from your core to your face. Infuriating!! You're gonna kick him. In the face- "Hey- you. Barn-Boy. For your information, that is because I've been picturing Granny Boone this entre time- now stop staring at it and do something." You exclaim, before plopping back down on the bed, blowing hair out of your eyes. His eyes only seemed to light up with me yelling at him, you think, rolling your eyes. And he says the kinky thing is all an act...

Pfft. I see your soul, Harper Alexander.

While you're lost in thought over Harper, he seems to decide on taking another crack at this- and leans his head in towards your pussy. You don't feel any breath, because he's dead and he doesn't breath, but you definitely feel a presence. A tingle. You just know something's about to happen, and its maddening- you wanna arch your hips, slip the heels of your feet into his shoulder blades and push him forward, or buck up- anything to just feel his lips on you- but you curl your fingers subtly into the bedsheets, instead. No need for him to know the effect he has on you. That wouldn't do.

When his lips do touch you, its not without skill. He has been kissing for a long long time, so he isn't unfamiliar with using his lips, but there's just something missing. Its nice, but... not amazing. As he presses his face into you, slowly taking his tongue all over you, you think back to moments in the past when men have touched you like this. When its been so good your toes curled and you couldn't help but grind your cunt against his tongue.

... What was the difference?...

Biting your bottom lip, you rack your brain over this for a few more moments as Harper continues to explore; Even using his thumbs to rub up and down the outside of your lips, leaving lovely tingles in their wake. Still, you wonder... what's missing...

Maybe... he's not... really into it?? If not, you really shouldn't make him-

Wait.

Suddenly your whole body goes stiff, remembering. You hope he doesn't notice, which he mustn't because he doesn't stop his ministrations at all, because you have had an epiphany. Even the first time you two were together, he was like this. Without a spark. But he warmed up and it got really- really, good.

Because you started begging him.

Getting up on your elbows again to see him, you glare... even though the sight of this beautiful man with his face in your pussy does send butterflies all the way up through you. Because, god... This narcissist. Of course. Of course- he gets off to you begging him. You're not surprised, but you are irritated.

... well. Its worth a shot anyway.

Shifting, you slide your legs slowly up over his shoulders, caging the beautiful man between your thighs and allowing him a better angle, and transform your face- closing your eyes, parting your lips, and tipping your head back. When he leans in some more and licks a particularly broad stripe through your lips, gliding his tongue fully over your clit, you let out your moan. One of your heels digs into his back, and you push your core out a little bit closer to him, biting your lip and bunching up some more of the bedding into your fists. "Damn... " You whisper, putting on a performance- even though your pleasure is real.

Harper stops. He disconnects from you, and leans back on his heels, and when you crack your eyes open ever-so-delicately, you see him raising a brow at you. "What in the world was that??"

"That was encouragement, Harper."

"Y'think I need it?" He asks, though one corner of his mouth quirks up.

You just give a wink, before laying down again on your back. There's a secret smirk on your lips as you look at the ceiling. "Please... just do that again."

The pleased lilt to his voice is clear, and you're expecting to just put it on for the rest of this, for his benefit. "... hm. Well, your wish is my command I s'pose. Get comfortable, Miss Y/N."

... But when he comes back in, you're immediately shocked at the sudden change in him- you actually let out a sudden yelp of pleasure, feeling his thumbs spread your lips wide open for him now and his tongue dart deeper inside your core then you thought he could. You very nearly slap a hand over your mouth because of the very unintentional gasp- and then- "Oh god!- "

Your hips jolt forward, too, into his soft lips and immediately feel him chuckle against you. It make sit even worse, the vibrations directly against your clit. "Fuck!- fuck, fuck, fuck- "

Harper presses his mouth hard against the outside of your cunt and devours you, shoving his tongue into you as deeply as he can get and thoroughly tongue-fucking your most sensitive parts- making you whine, and yelp, and buck into him like a desperate, needy bitch.

The sounds he's making, too, are hot. Groaning into your pussy like he's eating something fucking delicious, your taste on his tongue exactly what he was looking for as he rubs his mouth more securely into the crevice between your thighs.

When you're so close to a very sudden, very violent orgasm- Harper takes the moment away. Starts giving you slow, language strokes that are just not deep enough- the bastard even takes one of his hands away from you in order to hold your calf on his shoulder. Tight.

Stopping you from pushing him in again.

He chuckles once again against your poor, throbbing and now tragically empty cunt, and gently rubs his nose against your mound. It would be sweet, affectionate; if you didn't hate his guts for it.

Giving a whine crossed with a desperate, frustrated sob, you throw an arm over your eyes so as to hide from the shame of outright begging this asshole. "Harperrr, plee-eesseeeee... "

"Don't you worry, Miss. Heh, I aint done."

"... Wh- Ah!" When he suddenly slips a long finger into and starts torturously rubbing at your inner walls with it you really do slap a hand over your mouth- afraid of the noises coming out of you, now. Another finger goes in, covering more area as he ruthlessly attacks your deepest, most private, most sensitive spots.

Your hips aren't just arching anymore, they're following his rhythm; Grinding into his evil fingers now, rolling so they move inside you just the way you need. "Y'like that, Miss Y/N?"

"More Harper, please Harper- "

"I gotcha."

Then he leans his head in between your thighs again, and he struggles, but he manages to lick you while his sopping wet fingers thrust in and out of you fast.

With your most embarrassing sound yet and one more roll against his face, you cum right into his damn face.

~

While you sit up with your hand on your chest and a pillow between your legs, just trying to calm down from that ridiculously amazing high, Harper gets up and sits down next to you; A hand on your knee and a smirk on his face. When he speaks, you give him a bemused look, while you continue to feel your racing heart inside your chest still. "So... how'd I do, then? Did I master the importance of a ladies pleasure, then? Or do we needa' do that again?"

For a moment you consider telling him to shut up, but the horny outweighs the need to wipe that look off his face. So instead you lean in, eyes half lidded, and look at him down your nose; A finger under his chin to make him look back, though he isn't looking away from you. "Practise does make perfect, Harp."

"I couldnta' said it any better myself."

#Harper Alexander x Fem!AFAB!Reader #Harper Alexander x Reader #Harper Alexander x Reader Smutshot #Harper Alexander x Reader Oneshot #Harper Alexander #Smut #Horror Villains #Horror Villains x Reader

[qan-t]

warning gundam 00 spoiler

hi! i really enjoy your posts. can i ask about innovators (pure or innovade) eyes when they change color to yellow, is there explanation about what kind of abilities they can do when that eyes activated? i know about when setsuna used it to activate quantum burst or when innovades interact with veda with it, but is there more lore about the eyes? or if you have opinions about it i wanna read it too. thanks in advance!

glad you like the blog, anon <3 it's funny you ask this, because i was just thinking about innovator eyes for writing reasons. this is very rambly and i apologize in advance. the first interesting thing i can think of harkens back to some older lore that should still be somewhere over on the gundam 00 lj community under the translations tag. the gist of it that i remember is that it served as an explanation for why tieria wears glasses despite not needing vision correction. apparently it's to protect his eyes, on account of something to the effect of his eyes being necessary for the connection with veda to be made. maybe they're the specific component that allows this interface to happen? it seems a little like a handwave to explain what was probably just an aesthetic choice on yun kouga's part, but it's an interesting tidbit nonetheless. notably, the super soldier characters' eyes don't glow despite being capable of using qbw. innovades and innovators have stronger qbw (a stronger capacity for them, maybe you'd put it?), so there being something special about their eyes that helps facilitate their use at higher levels actually makes a lot of sense. this has some pretty horrifying implications for tieria if you imagine a scenario where neil wasn't able to protect him from patrick. what if neil hadn't been the one to lose an eye that day...? what characters can actually do with qbw varies a lot between the super soldiers, the innovades, and setsuna. i think we can assume that qbw are always present to some degree -- alle and soma had serious problems just being in the vicinity of one another, and the els are attracted to anyone with the capacity for them -- but they can further still be 'activated'. we most often see glowing eyes when characters are intentionally accessing them -- consider when tieria activates them to get the els to follow after him instead of setsuna -- but intention isn't a prerequisite. regene and louise' eyes glow when their qbw are being accessed. ultimately i think it signifies qbw being used at a higher level on a whole. i get the impression too that ribbons had stronger qbw than the rest of his group if he was able to get into regene's head despite not being of the same genetic type. regene can presumably only speak telepathically with tieria, along with revive -> anew, etc. (worth noting, and i just checked this, but regene's eyes don't glow when he's speaking telepathically to tieria for the first time they meet. maybe this doesn't require high levels of qbw usage?) setsuna is an interesting case as the primary innovator we see. innovades as a whole seem to have a lot more control over the usage of their qbw than setsuna does. the one exception here would be anew, but only before she awakened to her true nature. setsuna has the strongest qbw potentional, but probably because he became an innovator so recently, his particular usage of them seems to vacillate between intentional and unintentional. quantum burst was intentional, but trans-am burst comes across to me like something that happened unconsciously out of setsuna's desire to protect everyone. consider also the scene where the lights on ptolemy go out and saji sees that setsuna's eyes are glowing. i didn't get the impression that setsuna even realized it. innovades were built to use them, but setsuna just kind of ended up with these abilities. that both innovades and innovators possess glowing eyes could be seen as another spot-on prediction from aeolia, too. imagine he anticipated how a true innovator might appear, and designed the innovade eye functionality in that image. from a meta perspective, glowing eyes are a great visual shorthand for QBW Stuff Is Happening, and thematically it conveys something too (although i might be reaching here). eyes are considered the windows to the soul, and i think you could argue that was taken into consideration here, where glowing eyes to ultimately represent the transference of information. communication.

#ask #gundam 00 #meta #tumblr does not want to let me edit the fucked up italics i give up

[feralattentionwhore]

Get to know the blog:

So apparently my horny posts are something worth following for so I guess I'll do a bio and about me thing that definitely won't turn into a random ADHD ramble about shit

About me

I'm Feral, 19 and I never learnt how to read ✌️

^^ I'm leaving this up because I think it's hilarious but I'm 20 now

Living in the UK but not white

demisexual as fuck, preference for women but honestly I'm more interested in how we vibe than any gender. I tend to identify most with lesbian/sapphic labels because I feel most comfortable in this community.

fuck knows my gender either, I mostly present femme atm but I just identify as *all* I'd say I'm more nb/w or nb/nb & t4t but just in love with queer people in general. I am a girl but I'm also a boy, I'm not cis. You aren't straight if you're attracted to me

Owned, completely and utterly in love, technically poly. I'd rather start off as friends and see how it goes (benefits available if we vibe)

-Dni and more under than the cut-

DNI:

I'm saying this now, I love y'all but minors please get off my page *respectfully*. This includes blank blogs without your age/ age range

Cis men-Age regressors-People who fetishise trans people, s*ssies and cross dressers-Gender/sexuality correction-terfs/homophobes etc-

Oh and PSA this fucking includes people who gatekeep LGBT labels, including but not limited to hating on butch lesbians who transition, nb&he/him lesbians. Just honestly if you aren't accepting of the ✨ENTIRE✨ LGBT+ community and how people choose to identify please leave. No buts no ifs no maybes

How to give attention:

Asks are completely okay, if you want to talk through anon regularly pick an emote and I'll be sure to tag it so they're easy to find. Flirt with me or ask questions, just keep it within my limits please.

Requests are also totally okay along with reblogs of any of my posts. They're always appreciated!

Unless we've interacted before please don't randomly DM me. Mutuals are obviously always welcome to chat, for non moots I prefer asks as I get a lot of anxiety

I tend to check out profiles that reblog/follow so if you want to be moots then that's the way to go

I can't believe I have to say this, but if you're only messaging me to sext or roleplay or whatever you call it you can leave. It makes me uncomfortable, and will most likely make me feel weird about talking to you again in the future. I'm happy to flirt but unless we've talked about it nothing more.

Safe words and talks about boundaries and limits are non negotiable in kink. If you're not respectful of that you're not a dom, if you don't have complete understanding of how this works and expect to engage in anything sexual with someone without doing proper preparation you're practicing unsafe and frankly dangerous kink. Kink is something serious and you need to know what you're doing

I'm demisexual, with a partner and require actual communication before I engage in anything other than flirting. If you're literally only talking to me bc I'm hot or for sex n stuff you're going to be disappointed

I also have a shit tonne of anxiety, so I will disappear if something makes me feel unsafe. If I don't reply, don't make it worse by getting upset. I'm sorry but I really just don't have the energy to deal with things, especially when we don't really vibe.

About ✨whore✨me:

I'm a sub mostly, total bottom and complete mess irl. thought I was ace until this year and basically innocent af (I mean significantly less as of v recently but still fairly shy). Also kinda a hermit so I'm very touch starved.

Short long summary of my kinks.. To be continued..

- Praise and nicknames, specifically cute ones that start with "my"

- Exhibitionism Mostly being uh, fucked in front of people and stuff

- hands and fingersJust god, everything to do with them. In my mouth? Yes, Pulling my hair? Yesss, choking me?? Yesssssssss, hurting tf out of me?? Please

- being manhandled, strength, just be stronger than me and throw me around pls&ty

- being a simp for me and letting me get away with pretty much anything?? Yes

- being controlled and posessiveness Like a lot, like probably more than a healthy amount

- being teased, constantly

- marks.. Just fucking marks feeling owned and having proof of it with collars and stuff

- and also pain, pain and more pain all the hard kinks

- voices, dirty talk, the way they beg, and moan, and call me a good girl, the way their voice drops when they tease me. Everything about voices

- corruption.. 👀 😤

- being free use, letting friends fuuck me, being a whore for everyone. Them sharing my nudes with their friends, them letting their friends fuck me? Yes please

- affectionate domination / soft doms but rough sex

- most of this is just the long way of saying I have a massive kink for my pretty ass girlfriend though.. Just everything about them.. Mostly their hands, and their voice and uh.. Yeah just them

Limits:

-degradation, any way shape or form,I'll most definitely cry. Acting like you don't like me, hurt me because you love me not because you think I'm worthless

- pet play, Ddlg and that kind of vibe aren't for me

- I don't quite know how to explain it but the strict af, black suit and tie, academy / high protocol/training style/straight people bdsm. It's just way too nonpersonal for me and not fun. I prefer messing around and stuff plus my gf looks way better in a skirt

- discipline, punishments and other things that make me think you hate me (see: I'm a big ass baby and sensitive af)

- refering to my uhh *anatomy* just uh it gives me dysphoria like a lot so please don't

- body fluid shit, incest, feet, tickling, hypnosis

- other things that I'm not perticularly comfortable talking about here, you don't need to know unless we're talking

Tags I use:

Yes I'm insanely bad at tagging things, yes I'm trying, no it's not working. If I forget to, just get mad at me in asks or something. I'm sorry ADHD just kind of does that

#feral asks - all asks that I've answered

#feral music - music recommendations because I have a god complex about music

#feral in love - direct posts about my gf/wife/partner/Dom/love of my life

#feral tmi - random personal shit about myself and figuring out my body

#feral reblogs - stuff I reblog, I have a separate account where I keep most of my reblogs but sometimes I can't help it

#needy feral - me begging for attention on Tumblr

#feral exposed - photos of me

#tw feral - depressing shit, mute the tag if you don't want to see that shit

#dark feral - hard kink shit, mute if you'd rather not see it

#feral complaints - shit that bothers me

#feral blogs - thoughts, updates and questions for you all about the blog

#nsft #About me #get to know the blogger #get to know me #rambles #im in looooove #i don't know how to tag this #needy feral #feral tmi #feral asks #feral in love #feral music #feral complaints #dark feral #tw feral #feral exposed #feral blogs

[swampstew]

Thank you @thus-spoke-lo for the tag in this fun self-recommendation game! I always feel a bit awkward posting reminders and announcements when chapters are ready for reading, but I'll take a moment to hype myself and the words of my labor up. Here are my 5 favorite things I've written so far!

What's the Magic Word? - So I love how One Piece is this giant fantastical world where pirates are a real threat and mermaids, dragons, and magic quite literally exist. I thought it was odd that there wasn't a witch character at all, especially with how well it would fit into the universe, and what type of role/responsibility power like that would look like. Rowena my baby was born. It's everything I've ever learned while practicing the craft, enjoyed seeing in pop culture media, and inspired by cultural lores that I participate in or have great respect for. I wanted to create a character that could believably exist in the One Piece world and then have her do a bunch of fun and cathartic things (that may or may not be a reflection of real life). Falling in love with Eustass Kid was not on my radar (is falling in love ever?) - in fact the first draft of the story didn't have the Kid Pirates at all. Nope, just my witchy girl and the Straw Hats having adventures. Then I got to the Sabaody Archipelago and I saw him. I thought it would be fun to put these characters in a situation where they weren't friends or enemies but rather temporary witness protection body guards with a powerful ass witch as their protectee. Plus the smut. Love the smut and romance always. Its my first writng project I've done since college and I'm so happy to be back in the writing sphere. This book will have a sequel :)

Turn Back Time - This was a random dream that turned into a 20+ multichapter fic and I'm not even mad about it. In this one I took a fun approach to the story by centering it not just on the OCs but the Kid Pirates themselves. My first fic didn't really acknowledge many of them until the editing stage but this fic is entirely about the Kid Pirates and what it's like being in their crew. Especially as the love interests of some of the scariest, beefiest dudes that end up just being touch-starved men who are fully capable of vulnerability and love. It's been fun and I am excited for the upcoming themes and trials they'll go through! There will only be the one book but it will follow the journey of the Kid Pirates up until the very recent events in the manga.

At First Sight - this was a one shot that turned into a mini-series and I surprised myself with how much I packed into it. I didn't want to or expect to make it into a series but after giving it maybe a whole day's worth of thought and effort, I feel like I pulled a pretty good fic out of what was originally a stand-alone porn trope collab story!! This one is also on the Kid Pirates cause they're my comfort characters and again its been a fun way to put a spin on these murderous pirates when they're engaging with someone who's neither foe nor friend. Not a frenemy but a familiar with benefits! I lowkey based Y/N's badassery on Beidou from Genshin Impact.

KillerCook - I saw a hot dude make brownies on Instagram and thought 'what if Killer.' That's it. I wasn't sure how I was going to present it so I settled for creating a social media experience and I'm pretty sure I delivered. I'm a Kid Pirates loyalist, if you want something else you can check my Swampstew Bedtime Stories but my bread and butter are these anarchist psychos. Now comes with accessories such as: baker's hat and apron, and also a set of gold body piercings! The response has been supportive and excitable, and it's inspired me to do another modern social media influencer monetization fic, coming soon 😏 on Friday actually!

Oh Yandere! series - I wanted to give myself an opportunity to play around with some dark content and found myself really enjoying it. Especially in the noncon/dubcon vein. I've been too meek to do anything more than head canons but I have recently been inspired to explore some truly deplorable characters if I pick this series up again. If not, I might do a short series on Yandere Eustass Kid that has some...inspiration from another popular fandom that may or may not piss some people off. ANYWAYS! Live Laugh DarkContent

Tagging for funsies but def no pressure - I just think every author should get a chance to fluff themselves up and talk about their works that make them proud!

@abysscronica @cebwrites @goldenandhappy @zoros-sheath @kenruu @creamsickle-writes

#Raven gushes #turn back time #what's the magic word? #at first sight #killercook #oh yandere! #eustass kid x rowena #killer x candy #eustass kid x andrea #kid pirates #eustass kid x y/n #killer x y/n #tw dubcon #cw dubcon #tw noncon #cw noncon #tw dark content #cw dark content #wattpad author #ao3 writer #one piece fanfiction

[multiplicity-positivity]

Hi! I discovered about a week ago that I’m plural and probably have OSDD :-) I think I’d subconsciously known I was plural for years, but things have been going really well in my life recently and I feel super safe and at home in my new apartment with my partner so my brain must’ve decided that we were ready to process the fact that we’re plural and everything else that goes along with that realisation too ^^’ my partner has been super understanding and supportive but I think I’m sending this ask because I wanted to connect with another system even if it’s just through an anonymous ask haha uwu’’ As someone very new to online plural communities I have no idea where to start and it feels like everyone is arguing about words we don’t understand 🥲 Do you know any good resources to read or blogs to follow as someone totally new to all of this?

Hi! And yes, totally!

Please check out our post with resources for questioning systems - there’s a ton of articles and online books referenced with information about plurality and dissociative disorders, including OSDD!

We will give one bit of advice, if that’s okay! It is unsolicited, so it’s under a cut so you can avoid it if you’d like!

🌸 Margo, 💚 Ralsei, and 🐢 Kip

About self-diagnosis:

We understand that not everyone will be able to access or afford therapy, so for many, self-diagnosis is their only opportunity to actually understand what’s affecting them. However, if you can afford it, we’d advise you to try and seek therapy to help you understand yourself and your possible disorder(s) better.

If you do in fact have OSDD (we’re referring to OSDD-1 in particular), you undoubtedly have a history of childhood trauma (even if you’re not fully aware of it at this time). Healing from complex childhood trauma is no easy task, and something that should not be attempted without professional guidance, if you can help it. Trying to dive into and understand trauma without the help of a professional could end up damaging you and your system! That’s why we always will promote healing through therapy.

Please make sure you do lots of research before coming to a conclusion about what disorder affects you! It’s worth mentioning that dissociative disorders like DPDR, DID, dissociative amnesia, and OSDD-2, along with personality disorders like BPD, may present similarly to OSDD-1. So understanding your symptoms, how they manifest, and aligning your experiences to the diagnostic criteria of other mental disorders can help you narrow down what you have, without the help of a therapist or professional.

Please note, we’re not trying to dissuade you from self-diagnosis at all! We just would like to bring up that lots of research is necessary to accurately self-diagnose without the help of a mental health professional.

All that out of the way, we’d like to welcome to the plural side of Tumblr! We’re glad to have you here, and hope you can find enjoyment and learn more about yourself/selves!

#self diagnosis #osdd #plural resources #system resources

[traumasurvivorshelpingsurvivors]

tw: mental health (?) ableism(?), maybe manipulation?? mostly just asking a question and it isn't really heavy, it's a question about being low-empathy.

I was wondering what the difference between autistic empathy difficulties and other forms of lacking empathy? I highly suspect myself to be autistic, but recently I've been looking at anti social personality disorder (sociopath) because I don't think I fit into the autistic difficulty with empathy?

Like unless I'm looking at a very bad open wound, I never feel what other people are feeling (for the injury thing, it's purely because it reminds me of an old severe injury I've had and phantom pains will happen for a bit).

Empathy to me is going through a mental check list of "if that happened, would it be good or bad? would someone get mad or sad? etc etc. I have "saved" responses for the different situations. Like I am logically aware that a thing will have an emotional impact on someone and I follow the role of "oh that's terrible, do you want to talk about it? do you want a distraction?". But I have no reaction myself. To me it's just falls into the category of "good friend/person" behaviour.

And like, for manners and kindness and all that, growing up the message I got wasn't "it's good to be kind". It was "if you are kind to others they are more likely to like you, therefore you're more likely to get free food, benefits, etc". So the "good friend/person" behaviour stems entirely from that idea of "being good to someone means they'll be good to me, therefore I am benefiting in this situation".

I personally don't understand other people's emotions and moreso see people as actors/pretending/blank than vessels of emotion. Unless I have to interact with the person directly or it's someone close to me, I don't notice the other person's emotions unless it's super obvious (crying, screaming, jumping, etc) and don't think of reacting to it.

I also forget entirely that things I talk about can cause emotional reactions in other people (I might mention a trauma I went through and be confused when the other person is upset for example. To me it's just a fact, I don't get why they're changing the speaking environment and being emotional"). I've taken up saying "are you willing to hear possibly uncomfortable information" before speaking about certain topics just because people have made too much a fuss about it.

Is this part of an average autistic difficulties/differences with empathy or is it different than that? I only wonder because someone that's helping me with something keeps calling me impersonal, robotic, and disturbing because I don't emote properly and/or am too formal with words, and other than being annoyed about that I honestly don't care about what they're feeling. Like logically I'm aware that I'm the cause, but I don't see what it has to do with me.

Would you have any resources into being low-empathy?

Thanks for any response you give

Hi anon,

Personally though I am autistic I consider myself to have moderate or high empathy (I've never quantified it before), so to me it seems different but of course there are autistics with low empathy out there who may have a different perspective.

I think it's worth looking into the low empathy community here on Tumblr as they have some helpful insight into how others experience low empathy. It may be worth it to ask around and see what they have to say about where the low empathy could be coming from. If anyone reading has any suggestions or comments, please feel free to add on.

I hope I could help. Please let us know if you need anything.

-Bun

#mod bun #trauma talks

[c-is-for-circinate]

Okay! I did it! I renewed my library card after a pandemic-and-then-some's worth of years, and I read now.

Which I think means keeping a record or something, probably. If only to keep track of things I do and don't like, for future reference!

Books I've tried to read in the past two weeks, in roughly chronological order:

Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir -- never have so many people whose taste I respect disagreed so forcefully on a work of fiction. Plus I had a free epub of it on my harddrive from a Tor thing ages ago, so it seemed like a good place to start. I found it genuinely enjoyable! Gideon was a fun headspace to follow along, and while I absolutely did not go in expecting 'Agatha Christie locked mansion murder mystery, with lots of bones', I was down for it when it happened. A solid choice.

Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton -- DID NOT FINISH. Another random free Tor download. Got about a chapter in and then decided that there was too much cannibalism going on in the weird Regency-esque dragon religion for me, thank you no.

The Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson -- DID NOT FINISH. I was sad to not like this one! Tumblr keeps raving about Brandon Sanderson! But man, once you've hit the fifth chapter in a row (sorry, third chapter, there were two prologues first) with a brand new narrator, and one of the previous narrators is dead and you're pretty sure you'll never see two of the other POVs ever again, and you've had three timeskips and you're a hundred pages in and maybe the story is finally actually starting, and there have been a whole two female characters so far (well, one female character and one 'sprites aren't supposed to have gender but this one has boobs so I'll give her female pronouns') and we're supposed to like this one because she's Inappropriately Witty in a way her brothers like but her nursemaids scoff at, which mostly seems to consist of arch remarks about how men don't want to date her...big nope!

A Dead Djinn in Cairo, P. Djeli Clark -- A fun (queer) detective novella, prequel to one of this year's Nebula novels. The worldbuilding was very cool -- 1912 Cairo in an alternate history where magic has recently entered the world, very very grounded in its place and period while doing interesting things with magic and djinn. The mystery felt pretty bare-bones and formulaic in itself, but it was a short novella, without a lot of space for twists. An easy read, and you've got to love a dapper lady detective in a suit.

Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir -- I am now officially Up To Date with my various tumblr friends who raved about these books. I enjoyed it! I enjoyed it slightly less than Gideon, I think -- I liked a lower percentage of the characters, and the ones I liked were present a much lower percentage of the time, plus Harrow is just so miserable for so much of the book that it's less fun -- but 'enjoy' is slightly different than 'appreciate', and I did very much appreciate it. Not going to go rabid over the series any time soon, but I'll probably check Nona and Alecto out when they happen.

The Wolf of Oren-Yaro, K.S. Villoso -- DID NOT FINISH. Oof, another one I wanted to like, a random browsing pick when I went to grab a hold from the library. The protagonist of this book feels incredibly realistic and relatable as a woman who got married young to a man her family chose, who fucked off and left her with the kid and the family business after an argument, and then showed back up after five years with divorce papers because he wants his 50% of the communal property she's been taking care of the whole time. Which is cool! Unfortunately, said 'communal property' is an entire kingdom, and the protagonist makes zero sense as a queen. She's BAD at her job, in a way that could be interesting to explore as part of her youth/shitty support network, but it really feels like the author does not get just HOW BAD she is at her job. Or what basic logistic decisions could have been made to imply that the progatonist or literally a single member of her staff were even marginally competent. This could be a great setup for a novel about a merchant or a homesteading farmer or a clan leader, but it flopped hard for me.

A Master of Djinn, P. Djeli Clark -- Sequel to the aforementioned novella, and Nebula award winner! This one was, like its prequel, fun, and the imagery and really excellent worldbuilding is 100% its best part. It's very much a detective novel, with certain conceits. None of its characters are particularly layered, everybody is improbably good at sword-fighting, and there was definitely a point at which I was tallying up just how many different incredibly dapper, well-tailored suits in dazzlingly fashionable colors our heroine had worn so far, apparently bought on her civil servant's salary. But at a certain point, you just open yourself up to the joy of an extremely dapper lady detective with a sword cane and a bowler hat and an Extremely Hot Girlfriend who is sometimes a thief. There's an underground jazz club which functions as a speakeasy for no apparent reason but features a brass band direct from New Orleans. At one point Kaiser Wilhelm II shows up. There may or may not be a mecha. Again, the mystery itself is nothing to write home about (a lot more intricate and interesting in the middle than the prequel but still somewhat predictable in bits, and the bad guy at the end was pretty obvious), but the book is fun. Shouldn't dapper lesbian lady detectives get to have that?

In Other Lands, Sara Rees Brennan -- I enjoyed this way more than I expected! I read The Demon's Lexicon years ago, and was DEEPLY unimpressed (I mostly remember it as a mediocre British Supernatural AU made more boring by the process of filing the serial numbers off), but it looks like Brennan and I have both grown as people, because I liked this a lot. It sidesteps the low-hanging fruit of 'why do fantasy lands always need kids to save them? isn't that kind of fucked up?' and goes right for the throat of 'what the fuck kind of sociopolitical system is implied by this child soldier bullshit in the first place, and why is it so easy to be okay with it?'. I found the whole elven reversal of gender tropes grating sexism somewhat wearing, but I liked Elliot as a protagonist a lot. Here's a kid who knows down to his bones that he's bad at people, that he's abrasive and mean and judgemental and impatient, who still values people on just the most fundamental level. Kid's got a -2 to charisma and is still the party face because he's the only person in the entire system who wants to talk first and stab never. I appreciate that, and I appreciate him.

The Unspoken Name, A.K. Larkwood -- An interesting book! I read the whole thing and liked most of the beginning third and most of the end third a great deal, and the middle third well enough with a smidgen of 'I'm a little too ace for this, the Love Interest showed up and it's boring now'. It's a story about...isolation? Abuse, but not the kind that recognizes itself as abuse. In some ways the story feels very scattered, thematically -- a lot of theme going on but I'm not sure how much some of it actually resolves -- but I did really like it. Most of the relatively few relationships in this book, be it friendship or co-worker-ship or acquaintanceship or even just the relationship of a person to a place, are brief and thin, negative or unhealthily one-sided, or just absent, which isn't exactly my taste but does make Csorwe and Shuthmili's mutual understanding the sweeter for it. Fans of Gideon the Ninth would probably like this, although it felt a little less original than I think it might've had I not read that first, and the interplay of traditional fantasy language and extremely casual modern talk felt a lot more uneven. All in all, I think it's a rec if you're into vague unsettled feelings about gods and stories that are more about learning to stand up and leave your abuser than about said abuser ever getting any sort of comeuppance in return. Plus, stubborn lesbian orc girl with a big sword, always a plus.

I have a pile of recs from my last post! I will continue to collect recs! Toss 'em my way, I'm beginning to remember that, oh right, last time I regularly read books I read them voraciously. This is FUN.