Tag: my fic

Alzu gets drunk. And chatty. No warnings for anything other than drunkenness and Alzu being slightly lewd. 

“Yer tasty.”

Almul was reasonably certain that they were, in fact, not
tasty. Alzu’s approval was probably at least mostly due to the fact that he was
drunk. Very drunk, evidently, and gnawing lightly on Almul’s helm. Which was
confusing, and kind of hot and damp, but not really objectionable. Almost cute,
actually, and-

Almul squeaked lightly as Alzu licked at their face, then
sighed and leaned away slightly, staring up at their lap full of Lyca. Okay,
definitely cute. But- maybe not good for public? Almul hadn’t seen Alzu drunk
before, they weren’t certain if he was going to get loud or otherwise
troublesome, so it was probably a good plan to leave. Good thing Alzu was
already all gathered up- all that Almul had to do was wrap their arms more
securely around him, supporting his butt (which was made difficult by that
rapidly wagging tail) and holding his lithe frame close so he couldn’t fall
off. Alzu was obliging enough, content to lean his head over Almul’s shoulder
and nibble on various parts of his back, so all Almul had to do was start
walking. The benefits of having paid for one’s alcohol in advance.

Once outside the bar, Almul shifted Alzu up a bit higher,
slinging him over one shoulder for easier carrying, and warbled in complaint
when Alzu started to gnaw on their cape. Not that it hurt, they just didn’t
like the tugging sensation very much, and they could do without drool inside
the material. Or drool anywhere, but at least on the outside of them it was
easy to clean off.

Alzu gnawed lightly at various parts of Almul for most of
the walk, chewing on their shoulder for the most part, and occasionally paused
the chewing to aim a saucy grin at anyone who caught his attention. Also things
like “hey, gorgeous, you’n’me’n that hot stuff next t’ ya” now and then, most
of which was ignored. Someone did take
the opportunity to smack Alzu’s rear as they walked by, but Almul recognized
them as someone Alzu had played with before, so they just chirped in response.
That wasn’t a threat- not with someone who knew that Alzu enjoyed that sort of
thing. Which he clearly did, as his response to the smack was an even wider
grin and a short bark.

Almul didn’t stop for interactions, though, they wanted to
get to someplace quiet. Just in case Alzu got feisty in one way or another.
Because- what was Alzu going to do? Flirt with everyone more thoroughly and
then seduce someone into bed? Alzu didn’t like when drunk people were being hit
on, and Almul had some understanding of why, so… probably shouldn’t let Alzu
hit on people further than comments. And, hm- drunk people lost their
inhibitions, right? What if Alzu decided to start grinding on Almul? Because
Almul wouldn’t really mind that, in fact it would probably be enjoyable, but it
didn’t seem appropriate for anywhere in public.

Once they were in private, that changed. A quiet patch of woodland,
out of easy earshot of everyone- this would work. Chirruping softly, Almul set
Alzu down and sat down next to him, waiting to see what would happen- and was
immediately pounced on again.

Yep, they’d expected this. All right, fine by them, might be
interest-

No grinding? Also interesting, though a different kind. What
was Alzu up to, then, if not-

Puzzled, Almul wriggled until they got comfortable on their
back, chirping occasionally in gentle protest if Alzu stepped too hard on any
particular spot. So… what was he up to?

Alzu shifted around for a minute or two, trying to get
comfortable, then flopped gently against Almul’s side and propped himself up
enough to grin down at the other. “Yer cute. Real cute, know that? Lookit-
cutie. Cutie li’l. Yeeeah- cute. Lemme nuzz’l.” he muttered, then attempted to
nuzzle at Almul’s face. Since Almul had more empty space than face at the
moment, it didn’t do much- he just ended up with part of his face inside Almul’s
helm, which earned a pouty whine and a sulky expression. Which was rather hard
for Almul to see until they pushed Alzu’s face away.

Cute?

Almul murred softly, intrigued, but dismissed the comment.
Alzu was drunk, after all, and drunk people said silly things. And they really
had no complaints about their appearance, but they weren’t cute. You couldn’t be cute without a face. Also, they were made of metal and fire, so… not cute, no.

Then again, Alzu had called a dragon cute, so… his standards
were different. All the same, Almul shook their helm slightly and chuckled, a
visible signal of their dismissal. Nope.

“Yeeeah. Cute cute. An’ yer a smart- learnin’ stuff all
good. An’ a strong, yeah- an’ real brave. If I were you, I’d’a wann’ move t’
where there ain’t any humans ever. You? Yer walkin’ ‘roun’ wi’ all th’ humans.
Real good, yeah- brave. A good’n.” Alzu purred, tail waving, and kneaded his
hands firmly on Almul’s frame as he snuggled into the other’s shoulder. “Yeah…
warm. Good’n. Good, good.”

Doing his level best to hug Almul despite them being on the
floor, Alzu squirmed happily and pushed his face into Almul’s frame, gradually
settling against them until he could get comfortable lying still. “How of’n’m I
gonn’ have t’ say tha’? I wan’ y’ t’ hear.”

Oh, well- they weren’t so sure about all that. The first
couple of points, maybe, but- brave? No, that was silly. They kept having nightmares, for goodness’ sake, had
still barely gotten over that happening often. Yeah, definitely drunk talk. It…
felt nice, though, even if… a lot of it might not really be true. Heh.

Okay, they could… they could enjoy this, as much as they
would get of it, right? No harm. Just… talk, that was all. Just… talk.

Alzu must have noticed their disbelief, though, because he
grumbled softly before bapping Almul lightly in the helm with one hand. “Hey.
Yer a good’n. Brave’n good. Shoosh’n, you. Shoosh. You a good. An’ I got no- no
words, bu’ you a good. Y’ hear’n?
Yeah.”

Clumsily attempting to gather Almul’s entire frame into his
arms, Alzu snuggled up close and purred, nuzzling into their throat as much as
he could with such a long snout. “Good’n. You’s a good, Almul. Yah. Good’n.
Lookit- I luv ya, hear? Yeah- luv ya. Sweet li’l. All cudd’l.”

…what? Yeah, okay, Alzu was- was very drunk, and-

And still talking, not giving Almul any time to think, to
dismiss anything-

“Good’n warm, a li’l sweet’n. I gotcha. Good’n, luv ya. An’
I- lookit, ah’m drunk. So you- you ‘mind me, an’ then ‘ll tell y’ again, yeah?”
Alzu murred, then opened his mouth and fit it lightly around Almul’s throat before
slowly moving up to grip their helm. Shaking his head slowly back and forth, he
rocked Almul’s helm in a gentle, affectionate, very drooly gesture, then
finally let go and settled again. “Good ‘un.”

Oh.

Almul’s hands skittered uncertainly across Alzu’s back, then
they wrapped their arms around him and hugged, tight, staring up at-

Okay, so he was drunk, but he sounded sincere. Looked it, too. Ears up, eyes wide, tail waving, not
giving any sign that he was lying or- or anything.

Goodness.

Alzu meant that. All of it.

What… what were they supposed to do with that?

Almul had… absolutely no idea. Less than no idea. So they
just… didn’t do anything, not really, other than staring at Alzu. For… probably
two minutes, at least, during which time he got comfy and started to doze off.

Eventually, Almul raised one hand and stroked down Alzu’s
head, then curled fully into him and snuggled into his throat. Chirping quiet
sounds, they stroked his back and sides, as much as they could reach, trying to
figure out the odd fluttering in their chest that was not coming from any part of them, then…

They couldn’t speak. Never had been able to, as far as they
knew. But… they could try some other things.

They didn’t know exactly where Alzu’s heart was, but they
put their hand firmly over what was probably about the right spot, squeezing
gently at the thick fur there, and crooned the most affectionate sound they
could manage with a throat made of metal shards.

I think I love you
too.

Almul has a nightmare, Alzu tries to help. 

Warning for a nightmare involving something that, though technically non-sexual, is probably best termed ‘rape’. 

Strong hands forcing
buckles apart despite their feeble efforts to struggle free, bare human skin
somehow not parting under their claws, muffled skreels for help going unheard
as the pool of Alzu’s blood started to soak into their back and stain their
cloak-

Clasps clamping down
painfully tight, fixing their plating around unpleasantly shifting limbs and
damp, wet skin, their last few scraps of mobility vanishing as a being far
stronger than them forced them to move-

Oh-so-familiar despair
and helplessness sinking in again as their vision started to fade out, as the
sounds around them dimmed, as their voice gave out, as their entire frame was
pressed around the body of the being who was controlling them, forcing them to move, their entire
world fading to nothing but the sensation of someone inside them-

Alzu was dead, and the
being who had killed them had caught Almul, wasn’t hurt by their claws, wasn’t
burned by their flame, was stronger than them and had them prisoner and they
couldn’t get away, and Almul’s last
coherent act was a silent scream of panic as their claws tried to clench on
nothing and failed-

 

“Almul, hey- hey, wake
up-“

 

Suddenly, the clammy heat inside them and the sticky, hot
puddle against their back vanished, replaced by coolness against their back and
a familiar, soft, comfortable warmth
sprawled across their front. Correction: sprawled across them, wrapped around
them, and licking their helm.

And somebody was screaming.

Oh. Their voice was back.

Bewildered, Almul trailed off and stared up at the
blackness, claws flexing on whatever they were hooked int- ah, no, that felt
like thick fur and skin, and this was Alzu,
alive and warm and now bleeding but
only thanks to them-

And the seemingly invincible human was gone. Just Alzu- hugging them and licking gently at their helm.

What… what had just-

“Ah, fuck- ah’m sorry, Almul. Figured you’d be sleepin’ f’
awhile, ran off t’ get some supplies- an’ then I come back an’ yer screamin’
yer li’l helm off. Shh-shh, ‘s okay- ‘s jus’ me. I gotcha. Ain’t hurtin’ ya.
Ain’t no one here, shush, I gotcha. Now, ah… take yer claws outta my
shoulders?” Alzu asked softly, letting his head rest gently on Almul’s
shoulder, and loosened his grip on them slightly. “Ain’t no good tryin’ t’ let
y’ sleep alone, huh? Easy, sh-“

Almul’s vision flickered back into existence, and they
chirped out a quick apology as they removed their claws from Alzu’s hide,
leaning up to see if he was- no, no, he wasn’t bleeding much, his fur had
gotten in the way, he was probably-

He was alive, Alzu
was alive, Almul was free, no one was hurting either of them-

Almul made a soft, rattling, sobbing noise, shaking all over, and buried their face in Alzu’s
shoulder. Pressing up against him, they rocked slowly, whining, arms tight around
Alzu’s frame, clinging with everything that they had to the one who kept them safe-

Safe from people, safe from the weather, from their own mind.

Quivering, Almul tried to curl into a ball with Alzu,
chattering softly as he obliged them and curled with them. Pushing into Alzu as
much as they could, they tried to rock into his frame, doing their absolute
best to just melt into him and into the ground.

“Yeah, there we go- shh. Ah, Hell- you’d be cryin’ now if ya
could, wouldn’ ya? Poor thing- heard ya screamin’ all th’ way back on th’ road,
an’ you got plenty t’ be screamin’ about. A’ight… tha’s it. No lettin’ you
sleep alone. M’kay- you keep clingin’, y’ rattle-cry all y’ want, I am gonn’
sit up an’ try out- look, I got polishin’ stuff. Lemme get you all shined up-
gonn’ make ya look pretty. Lemme know if any o’ this ain’t comfy.”

Alzu didn’t try to get loose of Almul’s grip, but he did
wiggle until he had the top half of himself free and could reach his bag.
“A’ight. I got good scrubby sand, a new scrubbin’ cloth, an’ some oil. Talked
t’ the local armorer, asked ‘er ‘bout magical armor, an’ she says this ain’t
gonn’ mess wi’ anything. Didn’ tell ‘er what kind of magical, don’ worry. I figure- we get you all shiny, you
prob’ly feel nice.”

Crooning softly, he started on a spot on Almul’s shoulder,
rubbing firmly with a cloth coated in the sand and oil. It easily cleared away
the assorted dirt, and, after a bit more work, it removed the thin outer layer
of dingy plating. Alzu had figured out at that point that Almul apparently
shed- as their outer plating began to tarnish, it would eventually be easy
enough to scrub loose, but the thickness of their plating never decreased.
Presumably they grew more somehow. That also explained why their lighter scars faded
away, why only the scars that went entirely through plating stayed over time.
Interesting, and helpful. Besides- as Alzu scrubbed away the ready-to-shed
bits, there was a soft sheen revealed underneath, and it looked nice. Hopefully
he could get Almul cleaned up enough to see that nice shine everywhere.

Soothed more than slightly by the pleasant scrubbing, Almul
gradually stilled, their shuddering easing away. Chirruping quietly, they
pushed their face into Alzu’s shoulder again, hugging close, and began to knead
softly at what they could reach of his back. Okay, maybe this could… could they
apologize? They’d dug their claws into Alzu, hurt him, and, oh- he was so good to them, he didn’t deserve that, he
deserved good things. And that- that was much nicer to think about than what
had just been happening, so they were just going to lay here, rub at Alzu’s
back, and try to decide what else to do.

By the time Alzu had finished scrubbing both their forearms,
they had a plan. Chirping quietly, they wriggled until they got free of him,
then immediately climbed up onto his back and straddled his hips, just above
his tail. A tail which immediately started to wag much harder, especially as
Alzu placed both hands between his shoulder blades.

Azu instinctively pushed up into the weight, propping
himself up on his elbows to look over his shoulder, then relaxed a bit and just
aimed a lazy grin up at Almul. “Hey- get yer rusty ass back down here, I gotta
finish cleanin’ you. Can’t reach ya if yer up ther- ooh. Ooh. Ah, m’kay, thiiis is not quite what I intended to- nnh, nope,
not complainin’. Yeah, that is nice.”

Slumping down against the ground, Alzu laid his head down
and just relaxed, eyes fluttering shut as the heels of Almul’s hands pressed
against the areas just below his shoulder blades. “Ah, yeah… mmh. Li’l bit in?
Yyyyeah. ‘S too bad you ain’t gotta dick, otherwise y’ could fuck me an’ do
that at th’ same time, an’ you know how much people like it when I do that t’ ‘em.
We gotta get y’ a fake cock, strap ‘er onta ya, an’ then we have some fun. Ooh- y’ wann’ try?”

Much calmer now, Almul massaged gently up and down Alzu’s
back, everywhere they could easily reach except the bleeding spots. They
thought about the suggestion for a moment, then shrugged and nodded, definitely
intrigued. What- that was something that could be done? They wouldn’t feel it, of course, but it would
probably be fun. Good noises from Alzu, probably.

And definitely a much more pleasant thing to consider than
some other thoughts that wanted out.

Hm. Come to think of it, Alzu distracting them with touch,
attention, and talk of sex was very in-character.

Nice.

They’d have to let him continue polishing them once they
were done rubbing his back. But first- this. See if he kept making pleasant
noises. Maybe see if this was the sort of contact that led to people becoming
aroused. Then again- Alzu might not be a good measure for what got people
turned on. A lot of things got Alzu turned on.

Though, apparently, not this. Maybe because his crotch was
pressed against the ground? Or maybe just the wrong sort of attention. Almul
could try to ask later, but, for now, rubbing.

And not thinking
about before.

Not right now.

Maybe eventually, but not right now.

Alzu and Almul inspect a corpse, Almul takes out some frustration on said corpse. Warning: messy. Descriptions of a corpse being messily taken apart and inspected. Also- it’s not technically cannibalism because they aren’t the same species, but Alzu is an opportunistic carnivore faced with a body made of meat. His response is unsurprising. 

“What- you wanna know why that works?”

Alzu kicked lightly at the corpse of someone who had
formerly been a rather nasty rapist, turning the body over to look down at the
severely burned face. “Yeah, actually- not a bad question. See- clearly dead,
but you only burned ‘is face. Got all choke-y, though. Bet he couldn’t breathe,
but- yeah, might as well, let’s figure ‘er out. Gonn’ make a mess o’ the guy
anyway, may as well learn.”

Hefting the corpse, Alzu tossed it over one shoulder and set
off, tail wagging slightly as he watched Almul following. Almul got an energy
boost from being near something that was dying, so they were now trotting
happily, almost seeming to whistle as thin lines of smoke wafted up from their
frame. If Alzu were to open Almul’s chest, their life-flame would be visible
and burning bright.

Once they were well away from the road, Alzu dropped the
corpse and pulled a large hunting knife from its spot alongside his pack,
crouching to inspect it. “A’ight- let’s see if I can open this wi’out makin’ a
mess.”

Almul sat down nearby and rested both hands on the ground,
watching intently as fragile human hide parted under the knife, and didn’t
bother trying to hide their satisfaction at the noise it made. Ugh- smooth
skin. They had nothing against humans, really, but the squishy things still had
such an awful texture. And, after so
long feeling that inside them, unable
to see properly or focus on anything else, there was something viscerally
satisfying about watching-

Wait, now… it didn’t have to just be watching. Rumbling
softly, Almul reached out with one hand and slowly dragged it down the man’s
leg, watching the cloth part, then repeated the motion- this time tearing
through skin. And he was right- it was satisfying.
So very, very satisfying. Enough that he repeated the motion, then again- with
both hands this time, clawtips sharp as possible, ripping pale skin to shreds.
Then further through skin, into and through muscle, shredding in further until
the still blood started to cake their hands-

“Woah, hey- Almul, you wanna mess ‘im up, I got no
complaints, bu’ you might be gettin’ kinda- hey now, easy, shh. Catharsis is
all well an’ good, jus’ no good makin’ yerself more upset while ya do it. Easy-
shift t’ th’ other leg now, gonn’ get blood all up in yer hands. Yeah? There we
go.” Alzu purred, pausing in his careful parting of the skin and muscle to
watch Almul for a moment. “Tha’s better.”

He had to crack the ribcage rather carefully to get to the
lungs intact, but it worked, though he had to pull a few large chunks of rib
out. And, of course, pop them into his mouth to chew on. “Now-“ *crunch* “-what
we have here arrrre- lookit, tha’s a heart, you know ‘bout them. Now, these’re
lungs. You also know ‘bout them, yeah? We got heart here- pushes blood ‘round.
Lungs, they get air in ‘em. People really need air in ‘em or they die, you
figured tha’ out. This, here- diaphragm. Real strong hunk o’ muscle. This-
pretty sure it pulls down an’ helps open th’ lungs. Ain’t no good for eatin’,
not bad fer jus’ chewin’ on. Anyway- lungs. They got air in ‘em. All th’  way up- that’s th’ windpipe. Gonn’ cut that
through, an’-“

A few deft cuts and nicks with his claws, and he lifted the
lungs out of the human’s chest, splaying them grotesquely across the relatively
intact stomach. The hunting knife, next- slicing down the windpipe, then into
and across one of the lungs. When he spread them open, thick burns were
revealed all down the windpipe and into the lungs, scorching them almost beyond
recognition. “Well. There’s yer problem.”

Pausing to point out the issue, Alzu aimed a tongue-lolling
grin at Almul, prodding at a particularly bad spot. “Lookit this mess, Almul-
that ain’t good! Okay, look- I dunno how lungs really work, but I doubt they can do it when they’re
all burnt up. Tha’s why ‘e’s dead. You gotta have lungs t’ be a workin’ human,
an’ they gotta work, an’ you made ‘is lungs not work. Nasty. But- mmph-“

Clearly he had to
see what those tasted like. And they fit in his mouth in two nice bites.

“-like a lotta nasty things, tasty.”

Almul had mostly been ignoring Alzu’s work in favor of
clawing up the corpse’s other leg, stripping long ribbons of skin free and
hissing in satisfaction with every long stroke, but they stopped to look the
organ over before Alzu, once again, ate their anatomy lesson. Chirping quietly,
they shook their head and flicked both hands, peeling loose the bits of gore,
and leaned over to look down at the exposed organs. Humans were complicated.
What did all this do, again? They only knew about the bits that could make
someone dead if you damaged them right. So, making the noise that they’d
established with Alzu as meaning “please explain”, they indicated something
that was in the “this will eventually kill someone but not right away” section,
wanting to know what some of those things did.

“Wha? Ah- let’s see. Okay. That, there, tha’s a liver. Real
tasty, lotsa meaty flavor. Not certain wha’ it does, bu’ I know people who
drink a lot got real messed-up ones, an’ there’s some diseases that’ll do it.
Makes people ge’ yellow eyes, an’ they get real sick when they got messed-up
livers, so I think it does somethin’ like blood-cleanin’? Now- this, in here,
dunno. Uh- tha’ thing? Tha’s a kidney. Lookit- you follow th’ string down, goes
t’ the bladder. Tha’s where piss stays. I figure kidneys’re wha’ make it. Dunno
why, sorry, y’d need a doctor. Uh- you punch someone in their back, o’r th’
kidneys, they start screamin’. Don’ taste good, either. Now- I am gonn’ eat
this liver.”

Alzu then proceeded to eat the liver, tail wagging
vigorously, before just driving both hands into the corpse’s innards and
ripping. Standard contract deal- make a horrific mess of someone’s innards,
hang them up as a warning, write whatever they did on something nearby.

In this case, a cliff.

Almul sat back and watched, fascinated as always by the way
flesh tore under proper force, and kneaded their claws in the leaf litter to
clean the worst of the blood away. As Alzu continued to work, they edged over
and grabbed the pack, pulling out a length of rope, and fastened it around the
corpse’s ankles. The knot was not neat, they were still learning how all that
worked, but it held well enough, and they had the end of the rope in their
hands as Alzu stood up.

“Yeah- there we go, yer learnin’ how ta make knots.” Alzu
declared, tail waving a bit harder, and hoisted the corpse in both hands so
that the end of the rope could be tossed over the branch. A quick pull and
another knot later, and the corpse was suspended from the tree by both ankles
and one arm- thoroughly undignified, plus it showed off all the damage. Alzu padded
over to the cliff nearby for just long enough to paint “RAPIST” in messy
letters across it, using the blood all over his hands, then shook himself and
scooped the pack up as he padded away. “Startin’ ta leak gut contents
everywhere. C’mon- let’s get a river.”

Churring in agreement, Almul followed Alzu and snagged a
cloth from the pack to clean their hands off, quiet and satisfied. Okay. That…
that had felt nice.

Maybe they could do this with the next target. It wasn’t as
if the average rapist deserved any respect, after all- might as well use them
for something helpful.

“I said-“

Bristling, Alzu stood up and stretched to his full height,
glowering down at the target of his ire. His easy, relaxed manner had vanished,
as had his accent, and he made certain to pronounce each word very carefully so
that there would be no hope of a “can’t understand you” blow-off.

“Do not touch them. They do not like that, they have made it
clear, and you will respect that.”

The source of the problem, an unpleasant male human who had
gotten far too grabby, visibly blanched at being told to back off by 7+ feet of
pissed-off Lyca. There were too many people watching for him to back off,
though, so he did his best to stretch enough to match Alzu. It failed entirely,
of course. “What do I care? It’s a damn suit of armor- supposed to be something
you wear,” he hissed, then reached
out with one hand, planting it firmly on Almul’s arm.

“Wrong answer,” Alzu snarled, and lunged- shoving the human
away and putting himself in front of Almul. Hunching his shoulders and lowering
his head, he opened his mouth and curled his lips in a snarl, displaying every
fang in his long, long jaws. As he spoke, he prowled closer to the human, fur
bristling in a thoroughly intimidating threat display.

“When I said respect
that, I meant fuck off.”

On the last word, he lunged, snapping his jaws shut so close
to the human’s face that his front teeth nicked skin.

That did it. The
blood drained entirely from the human’s face, except in the shallow scrapes
welling bright red, and he just about tripped over himself turning to run.

Alzu watched the human flee with no small amount of
satisfaction, then turned away from the rest of the bar, ignoring the stares
and mutters. “There we go. Got rid o’ ‘im. Y’okay, Al- ah, no, not okay? A’ight,
easy… I gotcha. C’mon- don’t smell so nice here anyway,” he muttered, pushing
his muzzle against the side of Almul’s helmet, and nuzzled softly until he got
Almul standing. “Easy- get on up. Gotta leave, an’ yer heavy. ‘Sides, I figure
you don’ wan’ me carryin’ ya.”

It took some nuzzling and gentle pushing, but he managed to
get Almul standing, gently steering them towards the door. “G’on.”

Almul was trembling, but they obeyed, albeit clicking
rapidly and almost pushing back against Alzu. They didn’t want to be moved, but they absolutely wanted to go
the way Alzu was suggesting, and- oh, they wanted to leave, they wanted very
badly to leave.

Alzu stayed close and nuzzled Almul’s scruff the entire
time, crooning gently, and tried not to touch too much aside from the necessary
steering. Almul tended to walk in a fairly straight line when upset like this,
and they needed to be somewhere off to the side. “G’on… trees, see? Gonn’ go
over there an’ sit, hm? Shh, shh- gotcha.”

Once they were behind enough trees to be hidden from
passers-by, Alzu sat down with his back against a tree and crooned enticingly,
patting his legs and trying to lure his friend down. “C’mere- y’wanna touch?
Nice’n soft- c’mere, pet me. Tha’s good, right?”

Yes.

Clicking very softly, Almul fidgeted for a moment, agitated,
then crouched in front of Alzu and reached for him. Making an agitated scraping
noise, they tucked their frame into Alzu’s lap, folding into a little ball and
stroking at his arm with both hands. No, no, no- why? They had been enjoying
things at the bar, enjoying all the people, and then someone had insisted on touching them- hadn’t
listened, hadn’t backed off, had just grabbed-

Almul flinched as two hands slid up under their cloak, but
gradually relaxed at the familiar, slow petting, slumping further against the
soft-furred frame. Alzu was soft, nice- so, so soft. Didn’t feel like before, like the humans who had caused
this, just felt like Alzu. Safe,
comfortable, not about to try anything, just… holding them, trying to comfort,
trying to make them feel better. Nuzzling their helmet- all soft, gentle. Nice.
Almul leaned into Alzu’s snout, clicking in appreciation, and lightly stroked
at all the thick fur on his front. They were still shaking, though, claws
trembling against his frame as they tried to shiver away the sensation of hands
grasping at them, forcing buckles apart, sliding up inside them and manipulating them-

Squawking a harsh sound of metal on metal, Almul shuddered
violently and kicked out, claws scraping on the tree behind Alzu as they tried
to claw away from the memory and the sensations.

“Oh, hah, shh- easy, y’a’ight, shh-“ Alzu crooned, sliding
his hands up further to grip firmly just below where Almul’s cloak was
attached. This was a good spot to touch, it didn’t seem to upset Almul, and
that- that was important right now, he needed to make this better.

Tail waving as much as possible given the position, Alzu
shifted until he could rock slightly, continuing to speak gently and pet
Almul’s frame. “Shh, ‘s a’ight. Ain’t anyone tryin’ anything. I gotcha. Ain’t
gonna haveta worry ‘bout that any more, no one’s gonn’ make y’ do anythin’.
Promise. Ain’t gonn’ let anyone do that t’ ya.”

Alzu continued to rock and croon for several more minutes,
licking gently at the side of Almul’s helm then sighed and shook his head when
it failed to be effective. “This ain’t workin’, huh? A’ight. Bet we can find ya
some water- y’ wanna get washed off? Yeah? C’mon- that’ll help ya. Up, up-
c’mon, shiny, I gotcha. There gotta be near a river here. Always rivers near
human stuff. Up, up.”

Almul rasped unhappily the whole way up, protesting at being
moved, but followed Alzu when he started walking. Alzu could smell water, Alzu
could find water, which meant Almul could get clean, and they wanted that beyond what they could express.
Whining an unpleasant sound of metal quavering against metal, they pressed up
close behind Alzu as they followed, pushing their face into his back now and
then. He smelled like warm fur, sweat, leaf litter, and dead things, not at all
like humans, not like the cloying scent that had taken what felt like weeks to scrub free of their insides-

Hands sliding up under their own chestplate, Almul clawed at
the inside of their plating, trying to scrape away the sensation of sticky heat
and the stink of a furless mammal in
a closed space, and they sped up to get past Alzu and at least try to find some kind of water. Alzu was
not moving fast enough.

“A’ight, I gotcha- c’mon, fast.” Alzu muttered, ears going
back at the sounds, and sped up to just under a run. He wasn’t certain how fast
Almul could run with both hands stuffed into themself, but this would have to
work- that amount of distress was unacceptable.

The river was easy to find, upstream of town judging by the
lack of human-smell, and he wasted no time in stripping off everything he was
wearing in order to get in. “Go on, then, I gotcha, be right in, jus’ go an’
make y’self feel better.”

Almul did not wear clothing, and they would not have cared
if they did. They just plunged directly into the river, wading out until they
were almost submerged, and spread their plating apart far enough to start frantically
scrubbing their insides. The cold of the water pushed away the remembered
sticky heat, but the smell, the texture, was
still there, and it needed to stop, they
needed to get it out-

 

Once the pack was off his back, Alzu went digging around
until he found two items: a bag of coarse sand, and a large, rough cloth.
Pouring some of the sand into the cloth, he folded it a couple of times, then
called out a soft noise and waded into the river. “Shh, hey- gotcha. Uh- gotcha
if ya come out jus’ a li’l bit more, yeah? Y’ in too deep t’ scrub properly,
c’mere where I can see what ah’m doin’- yeah, there we go, c’mon.”

Standing chest-deep in the gently flowing river, Alzu
pressed softly against Almul’s back, stroking and nuzzling gently for a few
moments before touching low on his friend’s stomach. “Hey- lemme in? Jus’ fluff
tha’ plating out, lemme scrub ya clean. Yeah? ‘s okay, though, don’ haveta-
jus’ maybe lemme help? Ah, yeah- there we go, oh, good Almul, tha’s it, good- lemme help.”

Almul obeyed, chirping softly in distress, all the plating
along their front floating apart to let Alzu’s hands in. A quick shudder at the
sensation of armor being pushed further apart, but then it was a touch of fur rather than skin, coarse pawpads
rubbing softly before the cloth was brought to bear. The sand didn’t hurt,
being used like that- in fact, it felt good. Invigorating. More importantly,
cleansing. Rough and firm and familiar, Alzu
trying to make them feel better, Alzu caring
about them, praising them-

Another shudder, softer this time, and Almul went limp
against Alzu’s front with a quiet hiccupping noise (and gesture) that spit fire
from the gaps around their helm. Whirring quietly, they turned their helm to
the side and leaned it against Alzu, their hands slowly coming back out from
their own innards in favor of reaching back to touch Alzu’s sides.

“Yeah… tha’s it. There we go… tha’s better. Good, good… so
good o’ ya t’ lemme try this. We feelin’ better, yeah? Good- gotcha. I gotch- ow, okay, I still gotcha, bu’ could you
move a li’l? Yer leanin’ yer shiny ass on m’ dick, an’ normally I would not
complain ‘bout somethin’ like this, bu’ you are made outta metal- there we go,
thankya. Okay. Still gotcha. You lean all nice on me- ain’t that heavy. Hol’ still, lemme scrub.”

Tongue lolling in a deliberately casual expression, Alzu
leaned the side of his muzzle against Almul’s ‘face’, rubbing his cheek against
the open spaces. He kept scrubbing, as well, shifting around to get at
different spots. The insides of Almul’s chest and abdomen, first, then up into
their shoulders before going down to clean around the insides of their hips. No
sexy comments, though. For once, Alzu was not in the mood for sexy comments.
Nor would Almul want that, of course. Other times, sure, it would be funny. Now,
heck no.  

Right, Alzu was naked. Almul shifted to not lean on any
sensitive parts of him, pushing their face into Alzu’s muzzle, and whined
gently as they began to settle. The sensation of their insides being scoured should probably have been unnerving, but it felt good, and it pushed away
every other feeling in favor of something nice.

After a few minutes, they chirped quietly and nudged Alzu’s
arms until he withdrew, then settled the plating on their front, turned around,
and flared the plating in their back. Pressed chest-to-chest with Alzu, they
waited until his hands were back inside them, this time reaching in to rub at
the inside of their chest, then put their arms around Alzu and squeezed. They
had no voice to speak with, not really, but they purred as softly as possible
and nuzzled into his throat in an effort to make their thanks known. Alzu had
protected them, then brought them here and made them feel better, and it was good. They were thankful. Did- did Alzu
know that? It seemed very important to make sure that Alzu knew that.

Crooning as softly as they could, Almul began to knead at
Alzu’s back, trying to offer their thanks for what he’d done for them. Hopefully
it would be understood, even without words.

“Ah, yeah, I gotcha. Yer welcome. Shh-shh, gotcha- good,
good Almul. Yeah. Feelin’ better now, huh? Y’know, ‘s a good thing fer those
folks who hurt ya that they’re already dead, otherwise I’d’ve killed ‘em all
messy by now. You know I would, right? Yeah. I gotcha. Gotcher back- ain’t
gonna let anyone hurt’cha. An’ you don’ gotta put up wi’ that, ya know, you got fire.” Alzu reminded, letting a growl
slip into his voice, and tightened his grip just slightly. “Y’ can burn people.
Make’m back off. Make’m be dead. Ain’t
gonna be hurt like that ever again. I ain’t gonna let ‘em, you ain’t gonna let ‘em.
Not gonn’ be hurt again, promise. Shh-shh, good- relax. Ah, ‘ere- wanna get
out? Let’s go’n sit an’ be warm, hm? Sit in th’ sun.”

Good- Alzu understood. Almul rumbled in satisfaction, then
gently detached and backed off, turning away to get out of the water. They
paused to duck underwater all the way and flutter their plating, an
invigorating motion that rinsed them clean, then headed for the edge of the
river. It took them some effort, their boots were sinking into the mud and
there were what felt like large insects crawling on their legs, but they
managed to get back to the shore. Even if they had to stop in about a foot of
water to empty the mud out of their legs.

Once completely out of the water, they fluffed their plating
and shook, removing at least the majority of the water from their frame. They
wouldn’t rust if they stayed wet, but it was time to be dry now. Rumbling
softly, they stretched, settling themselves down, then clacked quietly and sat.
Okay- they could sit here, be in the sunlight, and just… relax. Much nicer than
a bar full of loud, grabby people. Less interesting for Alzu, but… this worked.
Right? Was this OK?

Hm, Alzu had vanished under the water and, from what Almul
could see, was trying to stuff something into his mouth. Apparently there was
food. In that case, this was probably fine by Alzu.

Grinning, Alzu raised his head and triumphantly held up a
crayfish, crunching on what were probably more crayfish, then popped the last
one into his mouth and waded back to shore. Pausing a respectful distance away,
he shook himself off, then loped over and flopped onto his belly near Almul. “There
we go. No more li’l noisy scumbags. M’kay- next town? I go to th’ bar an’ I get
drinks, then we sit in, like, a tree, an’ we enjoy th’ stuff an’ don’ haveta
worry ‘bout grabby folks. ‘cos fuck grabby folks. Eh?”

Perfect. Almul chirped in agreement, then edged over,
reached down, and roughly scuffed a hand up and down Alzu’s spine. Alzu liked
this, right? Ah, yes- wagging tail. Alzu liked this.

Their insides still tingled pleasantly from the scrub, every
other feeling had been pushed away in favor of the lingering sensation of rough
pawpads and a sand-filled cloth, and they were sitting in the sun to let their
frame dry. Plus, Alzu was with them, was happy, and specifically was happy
because of something that Almul was doing. That was… mm. That was very nice.

Thank you.

Slightly over a thousand words of Alzu waking up with a boner and using it as a teaching opportunity for a living suit of armor. No warnings, there’s just a werewolf jerking off for an audience of one. A knot is present but is not put to proper use due to lack of somewhere to put it. 

I don’t know, it’s past midnight and I thought this might be cute. 

“Nnh- hm, eh, Almul. ‘Lo. ‘s up?”

Alzu panted a lazy grin up at the suit of armor sitting on his
legs, head lolling to the side, then blinked and glanced down at his crotch. “Ah.
‘s me. I’m up.” He cackled, tail wagging absently as he got a look at his own
crotch, and glanced up at Almul after a moment. “Eh- oh, right. Ya ain’t got
tha’, wouldn’- yeah, m’kay, y’ wann’ see?”

Almul had already been tugging on Alzu’s waistband with a
clawtip, and they responded to the question by nodding and pulling a bit harder.
Clearly, something was going on, and they wanted to know what. There was, what-
okay, right, people had things in their pants, but- this was something a bit more than usual, wasn’t it?

“Yeah- a’ight. ‘ere- okay. So- I tol’ ya ‘bout masturbatin’,
yeah? M’kay- that iiis-“

Alzu wriggled around until he was comfortable on his back
again, now with Almul sitting between his legs, and worked his shorts down off
of his hips until Almul could see properly. “Yeah. Tha’ is wha’ we call an
erection. Mos’ people jus’ say ‘boner’, though, slang term’n’all. So- ‘ere.
Real careful, ya got sharp bits, bu’ touch.”

Well.

Almul tilted their head to the side, slowly reaching out
with one hand, and pressed the side of their finger against the tip of Alzu’s
shaft- trying to touch without bringing any sharp bits too close. They didn’t
like the texture, though, and withdrew with an unhappy squawk of metal on
metal. Too smooth, no thank you- too much like the sort of skin they didn’t
like.

“Ah, eh- yeah, ‘s all- ain’t got fur there. Sorry. Bu’, tha’
aside- ya wanna demonstration? Yeah?” Alzu rumbled, tail thumping happily, and
slowly wrapped a hand around his cock. He’d explained sex to Almul earlier, as
much as possible without overwhelming them, but- nothing better than a
practical demonstration. “M’kay. So- sometimes this ‘appens. People wi’ bits
jus’ wake up wi’ their bits goin’. Sometimes it’s cos’a sexy dreams, sometimes
cos’a nothin’. Me, t’day, nothin’. Jus’woke up like this. Sit back- ya watch.”

Hey, he didn’t have anything to do right now, he could
indulge. Especially since it would be educational for his very curious friend.

Tail waving softly, Alzu grinned up at Almul, offering a
good look at his body language, then ran a fingertip softly over the six narrow
slits at the very tip of his cock. “Now… these’re only on th’ Lyca. Lookit-
drip slick stuff, see? ‘Cos it ain’t any fun I’ everythin’s dry, y’gotta have slippery,
so. ‘s usually th’ females o’ whatever species tha’ got the slippery, bu’ Lyca,
‘s both. So- rub m’self real soft an’ gentle ‘till th’ drippin’ gets down
further, rub th’ slick ‘round a bit. Then, mmr- then th’ fun happens.”

Alzu stroked lightly at his own length for a minute or two,
enough time to demonstrate that the dripping from the slits increased greatly
as his arousal built, then quickly slid a hand around himself to spread the
lube before squeezing around his shaft.

Intrigued, Almul settled a bit to watch, listening intently
as Alzu’s breathing sped up. It almost sounded like distress, but Alzu had his
tongue lolling and the rest of his face relaxed, so he clearly wasn’t upset or
in pain. Excited, then. Which fit, from what they’d been told about how this
sort of thing worked. But- the fluid was interesting. Not a good texture, but-
good to look at. Shiny. Shame it was more like skin than Almul liked, or they
would have been much more interested in touching.

As Alzu’s breathing sped further, Almul leaned in further to
watch until they were just about looking down at him, watching his hands and
the shiny fluid between his fingers. Interesting sight, very interesting
sounds- quiet moans, whines, noises they’d never heard from Alzu before.

Alzu didn’t bother to take his time once he saw that Almul
was fully intrigued. He rocked his hips nice and slowly, thrust up into his
hand, paused to rub around the tip of his cock now and then, and that was it.
As his arousal built, he added in the occasional squeeze around his knot, tilting
his head to look up at his companion. “Yeah- th’ knot’s made t’ lock in, so-
only does its thing if th’ dick thinks there’s somethin’ ‘round all o’ it tha’s
worth knottin’ in. Gotta –hhah- fool ‘im.”

Hindpaws twitching lightly, Alzu aimed a happy grin up at
his observer, shamelessly showing himself off.

When he came, it was with a soft, panting whine, tail thumping
furiously on the ground, and he tightened one hand firmly around his knot.

He was awake now, and it was a very nice awakening.

Almul chirped quietly in interest and reached, rubbing a fingertip
through the silvery fluid spattered lightly up Alzu’s stomach, then lifted that
hand to taste. Interesting. And- the sounds, also interesting. Really, this
whole thing was very interesting, and they rather wanted to see what happened
when two people got up to this sort
of thing. It wasn’t as if Almul could get involved. Nor did they want to, urgh.  fluids everywhere and fur-less bits, but maybe
they could watch? Did people do that sometimes?

Alzu propped himself up on his elbows for long enough to
lick his own stomach clean, “Yeah- c’mere. Now ‘s f’ warm.” Alzu declared, reaching
up to pull Almul down for snuggles, then grinned and glanced down at himself. “Lookit.
Usually- th’ whole thing goes back all soft, like here, bu’ I got a knot an’
that part stays all hard f’ awhile. Tha’ expands, see? Wants t’ be locked
inside. So- gotta sit f’ a li’l while, be comfy, ‘cos pants ain’t gonna fit
real good yet.”

Okay. Almul allowed themselves to be pulled down to cuddle
alongside Alzu, happy to share the warmth of their life-flame, and slowly
reached to touch again- this time on the knot. Now that they were prepared, it
wasn’t actually as bad as they had thought at first. Strange, slick, but hard
underneath and not quite the texture of skin. Not that they were going to get
grabby, these parts were delicate and Almul was not made for delicate. So they
settled in, flopped on top of Alzu, and relaxed, resigning themselves to a bit
more rest before Alzu wanted to get up and eat something.

Brother

I have you.

One thought, running through their minds and EM fields and
sparks, pulsing between them with everything that they had.

I have you. I am here.
I have you.

Slender frames pressed tighter together, plating scraping
and paint transferring, and they sobbed out
a delighted note as they slowly moved to lay down.

They’d driven until they were exhausted, then found a
relatively intact building, slammed every door they could find between
themselves and the outdoors, and wedged a cabinet against the door of the room
they were in. It wasn’t wedged very well, though, because they’d noticed a
berth and they only had one thought between them.

Touch.

They’d taken a moment to cling to each other before,
watching the security camera feed of their captor’s already-lifeless optics
outright dissolving before the feed fizzled out as the toxic gases ate into the
camera, but that hadn’t exactly been intimate.

This? This was desperate, the twins practically tackling
each other into the berth, but they were pressed so tightly together that they
might as well be-

The same thought flashed through their minds, and their
chassis armor parted in unison, outer and inner plating sliding aside until
their spark chambers met. They stayed like that for a long moment, panting at
the onslaught of sensation, arms wrapped tightly around each other as they
tried to adjust, and then-

They were split-spark
twins, after all. Inner plating whirred softly as it transformed, forming an
air-tight seal between the both of them, and outer plating clicked into place
to lock them together. Once it was safe, the final, inner barrier slid aside,
and energy leapt between them as their sparks trembled, reached-

And fused.

A complete merge was the most intimate act possible for the
Cybertronian species. The combination of two sparks, two beings, into one. Potentially dangerous – but not for them, never
for them. They had been born from the same spark, had been one for the first part of their lives. That was not true now, they
were two separate beings, but-

Their sparks remembered. It was nigh-impossible to
differentiate the two of them on scans, needing a sensitive enough scan to pick
out the tiny differences in frequency, which was why it was safe for them to do
this. To merge so completely, with so
little preparation, and stay locked together.

They were together again,
truly, truly together, as they hadn’t been for centuries. And they could feel each other, feel familiar plating
under servos and thigh plating rubbing as they clung, feel each other’s
thoughts as if they were one. Because they were-
their combined spark was pulsing steadily as one, their field had always been one unit, and their thoughts
were in unison as nowhere else.

They were together.

They were one.

They couldn’t stay that way. As good as it felt, they weren’t
one person, not really. They were one, but it was still them. Not him or her or xi or they, them. They were different, after all, in tiny places. And that-
that was good, too. They’d dreamed about being just one being, before, when it was
the most appealing thing in the world to be impossible to separate. But now,
well-

They were together. That was all they needed. So they stayed
together for a long time, rocking slowly together and holding each other close,
and then… withdrew. Slowly. Their sparks separated, their chassis plating
shifted to keep them covered as they arched away a short distance, and their
innermost plating slid back into place to protect their sparks. Their inner
plating also closed, but they kept themselves locked together by their outer
plating, purring quietly at the soft rubs between their inner chassis armor.
Slick, smooth- pleasurable. More than that, familiar. Incredibly familiar. It
was them. That was the only thing
that felt like this, was them, together,
safe.

It took them some deep venting to settle back into their
frames, as always. They had to collect their identities again. Scissors and Syringe.
Duo. Two as one.

Together.

When their optics finally opened, they were both grinning as
widely as physically possible, pushing their faces into each other’s shoulders
and biting softly. Affectionate, as always- tasting each other, dentae scraping
lightly over scratched paint, getting as close to each other’s throats as they
could without one of them letting go. Their arms were still locked around each
other, as well, a hug that blended the two of them together until it was
near-impossible to see where their frames separated.

Brother.

I am here.

You are here.

We are here.

I love you.

Touch

No matter what, touch came first. Being together came first.

No matter how urgent the situation, no matter what they
needed to do or who was in the way or how much energon was on the floor, touch
always came first. A full-body press, at least, contact of plating against
plating, and more if they had even the slightest chance. 

Touch and stroke and run
fingertips along each other’s frames, soothe hurts, re-familiarize themselves
with each other in the wake of everything that left new scars. Touch was all
they had- not their freedom, not safety, not respect, nothing else. Just touch,
when they were allowed it, and each other.

It wasn’t always something they were allowed. If they hadn’t
done well enough, if they gave in to exhaustion, they were kept apart. Primus
forbid one of them actually make a mistake,
because then the other would be locked away and hurt, and they wouldn’t be allowed together again to try to make it
better until the mistake had been wiped away and the project vastly improved.

They spent a long time terrified of making mistakes.

And then… they were free. Their captor lay dissolving in the
bottom of a closet filled with enough toxin to down a legion, and they were
off, together, and free.

Touch.

That was, as always, their first priority. Find a safe place
and touch, merge, press together into
one and hold each other close for as
long as they could.

Then, after that-

Raid a ruined mine. Find the massive drills, machinery meant
to carve out tunnels in rock, and take the laser emitters. The lasers had to be
downsized considerably for their purposes, but, eventually, they had a supply
of servo-held lasers that could cut through just about any barrier between them.
Sure, it would overheat, but that didn’t matter. The tool just needed to last
long enough to do its job, and its job was to cut down anything in their way.

Because nothing was
ever going to separate them again.

And they proved that, to themselves and to the world. The
first mech to try, a former guard of theirs, died messily as acid ate through
his spark chamber. The first wall to be placed between them crumbled and fell
under an onslaught of lasers meant to carve through miles of solid metal. The
same went for the next, and the next. Mechs who tried to order them apart were
threatened, those who tried to enforce it paid,
those who kept trying died. Walls and doors and air vent covers alike caved
before them, and they stayed together.

Until finally, finally,
they could stand not to be touching. Until they could stand on either side
of a table, not in reach of each other, and not start panicking. Until they
stopped flinching and reaching for each other if one of them made a mistake or
an experiment didn’t work out.

Because they were safe.

They were together.

They could touch, no
matter what, no matter what happened or how badly something failed.

Because nothing, absolutely
nothing, could stand between them.

Because they were together.

Batter Up

fortheloveofsinkind:

This was not how sex usually went for The Batter. People who got a look at his equipment usually wanted to try it out, and- well, he generally ended up topping, for one reason or another.

But the creature he’d ended up propositioning tonight had made a very inviting offer,  enough that he’d decided to give it a try, and he was not regretting his decision.

The position he’d taken was one he usually saw others in, but it earned him an appreciative growl and a long, slow lick up the full length of his spine, his partner panting against the scruff of his neck as he was mounted. And the frustratingly long foreplay suddenly made much more sense as he felt the tips of his partner’s twin shafts press against him, but the first careful thrust had slid easily, and-

At first, he’d been snarling every few thrusts, a wordless challenge to the lanky thing holding him down. Was there even enough power in those skinny hips to give him what he wanted here? But, well-

Turned out it wasn’t a question of core strength so much as leg strength. Which his partner had in abundance.

Which explained what he was doing here, bent over a desk, panting softly as he was railed by something with seven eyes, four arms, and a wonderfully long tongue- and enough flexibility to put said tongue against the small of his back while fucking him. Not what he was used to, but Hell yes. The Batter’s clawed hands tightened around the opposite edge of the deck and he hissed up at his partner, pushing back hard against Gravescratch, and stifled a moan as he was pushed back down. There were probably going to be bruises across the fronts of his thighs after this, but it was worth it.

A long tongue with a split tip ran up his back, then sharp teeth nipped at the back of his neck and his partner snarled down at him, panting hot air against the scruff of his neck. Four sets of claws dug into his skin from two hands wrapped around his ribcage and two locked onto his hips, and a particularly hard thrust drew a shaky growl of pleasure from him, plus an attempt to push himself back into his partner again.

A low, breathy chuckle hit his ears, and the jaws on the back of his neck released long enough for their owner to purr “not so cocky now, hmm?” down at him, grinding firmly into him and hitting some very nice spots. And he really didn’t have the coherence to answer that- but he tried anyway, opening his mouth to respond, and just… got stuck. Mouth hanging open, tongue lolling, fangs bared in the closest thing he could manage to defiance. The effect was entirely outweighed by the sounds he kept making, though, growls that were more like moans every time Gravescratch hit a good spot. Which was often, given how fast he was thrusting, and he was not going to last long if this pace was kept up. Not that he minded.

A pause gave The Batter enough time to push himself up a bit and glance over his shoulder, watching in confusion as his partner contorted to place one clawed foot against his hip. That shifted the lanky thing’s twin shafts rather nicely inside him, but the positioning was a bit odd, so what-

And then Gravescratch started thrusting again, hard, trading speed for power at an angle that was very strange but felt-

–oh-

All four of his eyes opened very, very wide, and The Batter’s back arched in pleasure, a shaky cry escaping him, then he shuddered and hissed softly as clawed hands cupped his face. His partner’s friend. Presumptuous. But the odd white eyes were nice, the cocky grin was promising, and it was very hard to feel even slightly indignant with two very nice dicks stuffed up his ass.

Especially not as Gravescratch shifted his hips and hit the perfect spot, drawing a cry of pleasure from him, and all four sets of claws dragged against his skin-

The Batter came undone with an unearthly shriek, lanky frame shuddering, claws putting long gouges in the wood of the desk.

Gravescratch held on for just a few moments longer, for one,, two, three thrusts, then bit down on the back of The Batter’s neck and came, keening  quietly in pleasure as the two small knots at the bases of his shafts expanded. Not enough to be a considerable additional stretch, but enough to hold him in place as long as he made no real effort to pull out.

Blackspark grinned at the shocked-slash-pleased look on The Batter’s face, then purred gently, one hand sliding back to ease Gravescratch’s teeth off their handsome find’s neck. “Oh, look at you…” he murmured, taking in The Batter’s expression, and not even pretending not to be turned on by that particular face. Eyes wide and rolled back slightly, mouth open slightly, tonguetip lolling out, too blissful to be cocky any more. Perfect picture. “You like those knots, hm? Good way t’ stretch you out a li’l bit more. An’ you’re gonna need it, ‘cos I’m getting’ my turn wi’ you soon as he can pull out, an’… hm. What d’you think? S’pose you can take th’ both of us a’ once?”

…how was he supposed to respond to that?

The Batter blinked a couple of times, shifting slightly and pulling his claws out of the desk, and found his answer as he felt Gravescratch shift in him.

 Teeth clicking together as he shut his mouth, The Batter took a deep breath and pushed himself up off the desk with both hands, getting his face as close to Blackspark’s as he could with Gravescratch still buried in his ass.

“Game on.” 

Blue Zircon continues to be extremely confused, Gravescratch attempts to remedy this. Also, nature happens rather loudly. Part 2 of https://bettsplendens.tumblr.com/post/161343231179/an-experimental-weapon-noodle-obtains-a-very. 

3281 words, warning for a “I am property” mindset. 

Zircon woke slowly, confused, but couldn’t bring herself to
be frightened of whatever this was.
She had been… unconscious? Which should be concerning, but she was fine. Just… waking up. No pain, none of
that lingering unpleasantness that came with re-forming, body still where she’d
put it.

Uncurling a bit, Zircon rubbed her eyes in an effort to
reboot her brain, then shook her head and looked up at-

Oh, right, this thing with way too many eyes. Which… hadn’t
eaten her yet, apparently didn’t intend to, and was currently reading a… thing.
A small object, made of extremely thin pieces of something moderately flexible,
that had what looked like some sort of writing on each piece.

“That looks inefficient.” Was her first thought, and not one
she quite managed to contain. It did look
inefficient!

“Yes, well, I do not keep data storage devices over my face.
Besides- the locals here are only just beginning to migrate all reading data to
digital form, it is a rather recent invention. This is what they use instead,
it is called a ‘book’. Perfectly serviceable, albeit inefficient compared to
the tech you are used to.”

Having calmly explained himself, Gravescratch set the book
aside and looked down at his lap full of public defender, taking in the utterly
confused expression. “And you were
just asleep. Sleep is a state of mind and body, mandatory for the physical and
mental health of many organic creatures, which Gems also benefit from despite
not being organic. It is not necessary, but it is helpful for mental health, particularly
among those under high stress. Homeworld discourages it and hides the knowledge
due to it being seen as unproductive. It is something like meditation- the mind
relaxes, all conscious thought ceasing, and the body largely relaxes. Consider
it a reboot. You were terribly confused and upset, but now- better, yes?”

Zircon elected not to answer. Mostly because she did not
want to admit that, yes, she was feeling better now. Or… comment on her
emotions and what had just happened.

Except, actually-

What exactly, had-

Zircon had several questions, but they were all derailed by
something… chiming? Chirping?

The chirping turned out to be coming from a small, blue,
fluttering creature, something that was perched on the back of her former
hiding place. It would have fit in her palm, its coloration was startlingly
close to hers, and it kept making rather pleasant sounds as it bounced around
on two tiny limbs.

New question.

“…what is that?”  

“Ah, there it is. That, little one, is a ‘bluebird’. Birds
are small, avian, organic creatures found across this planet. There are several
thousand different species, ranging from the size of your finger to about the
size of your torso, in many different colors. That is a small local species. It
is supposed to be outside, but it found its way inside earlier and I did not
wish to pursue it for fear of harming it. They are very fragile. I would like
to put it outside, as that is where it belongs, so, if you will pardon me…”

Gravescratch gently tipped Zircon out of his lap and stood
up, circling around the wall of the room until he was near a section of a soft
wall hanging. Pulling it aside, he revealed a transparent section of the wall,
which he opened- letting in a good deal of humidity, a gust of moving wind, and
more sounds similar to the first creature’s sound. “Yes, yes, here you are- you
can leave now, bird.” Gravescratch declared, turning to look at the bird- and
blinked all seven eyes in mild surprise as another bluebird flew in.

Both Gems stared at the new invader for a moment, then
Gravescratch shook his head, sighed, and turned back towards the window. “That
was exactly the opposite effect I had intended this to have, so- little one,
please stay in here, I am going to encourage them to leave.”

Zircon wasn’t watching the “birds” any more. Her attention
was now on the opening in the wall through which her kidnapper had just left. Slowly
standing up, she carefully approached the opening, staying to the side so the
strange thing might not see her looking out.

That was… a lot of green. A lot of bright, bright green. The
sky was a bizarre soft blue with moving patches of white, and the ground was a
fuzzy green that her eyes couldn’t properly focus on. This was far too large to
be another room, so- apparently that was what the planet looked like. Now-
which one was this? Had she seen any images of a planet like this?

She had not.

That was a bad sign. So was the lack of anything even resembling
Homeworld tech. Or anything coherent, everything
was fuzziness and rounded edges and-

Apparently the ground came apart. Her captor was scraping
away the green, revealing a layer of dark brown, and he did it with no visible
effort.

Gravescratch cleared away a patch of the green, then sat
back and stared up at the sky, waiting until-

After a short time, another few bluebirds came fluttering
down, landing on the exposed patch of brown. Making sounds very loud compared
to their tiny frames, they bounced around in the brown and plucked at it as if
searching for something, completely ignoring the lanky thing standing near
them.

A few moments later, the birds inside seemingly heard the
sounds, chirped in response, and flew outside, joining the others in the
exposed patch.

Gravescratch gave a satisfied hum, but didn’t come back
inside, just sat down and watched the birds- especially as more, of differing
colors and sizes, appeared.

Her captor was distracted. Distracted, and facing away from
her. With an opening to the outside still available.

But her captor looked very fast, wasn’t far away, and was
familiar with the local area. She was not made to be fast, and she didn’t even know
what planet she was on.

Running was a bad idea. It was a very bad idea.

So… was staying here a better idea?

She didn’t trust the strange thing that had captured her,
and she still had no doubt that it was going to hurt her. It seemed calm now,
though, whereas running would risk making it angry with her.

But… if it was angry, it might just get whatever it was
planning over with. Which, given that she had no hope of rescue, would probably
be better than it toying with her for however long it intended.

And this might actually work.

Staying here, she had no hope of escape.

Trying to run would give her the tiniest scrap of hope.

Which was something that she needed.

So, shakily, Zircon crept over to the opening in the wall.
One last check to be sure the creature wasn’t watching, then she clambered
outside, dropping to the ground.

She didn’t stop to look around. Partly because she couldn’t, her eyes couldn’t focus
properly on all the incoherent shapes around her. She just set off in one
direction, as quietly as possible, heading towards what looked like cover. A
series of objects much larger than her, blobs of nonsensical green patterns
supported by relatively straight grey-brown columns. Hopefully she could hide
among some of those. She just had to get there.

Zircon tried to be quiet, at least until she was away from
the building, but the ground kept making sounds.
Unpleasant squishing noises from everything she stepped on, urgh. Worse
than that, she ended up yelping as a small, bullet-shaped creature leapt out of
the ground and hit her in the face, and there was no way her captor hadn’t
heard-!

Time to run. Zircon abandoned all attempts at secrecy and
just bolted, panic fueling her as she ran for cover. Maybe if she just got a
head start, got ahead of it far enough, she could escape-!

Unbelievably, it seemed to be working. When she finally risked
a glance over her shoulder from between the columns, nothing was following her.
It wasn’t there. Maybe it- could she
have escaped its notice?

Maybe it hadn’t been watching because it hadn’t expected her
to run.

Well, she’d showed it!

Zircon had time for a moment of satisfaction before a crashing sound registered. Slow,
powerful, and repetitive- coming from somewhere in front of her.

Was that good? It might provide an opportunity to escape a potential
tracker’s hearing, but it might also present another threat. Except that it
almost sounded like… water.

She was a Gem of Blue Diamond’s court. Water was a good thing for her.

And she was too tired to run.

So she kept walking in a straight line, slowly, cautiously,
as the blue of the sky started to show up again and the crashing grew louder,
and she kept walking until she ran out of ground to walk on.

The ground fell away. Not even in a sensible fashion, with
hovercraft docks or any sort of transport, it just stopped being ground and
turned into open air. “Of course. Because nothing here makes any sense.” Zircon
muttered, staring out at the sky in front of her that seemed to somehow stretch
below the horizon, and-

Wait. There was a
line. But the ground was almost the same color as the sky out near the horizon,
except that it was moving, white
lines rippling across it towards her.

Oh, her eyes were not made for this. She was made to operate
in well-constructed buildings that made
sense, to process data at high speeds, not to stare out at messily shaped
things that someone had put far away.

But, squinting, she managed to make out what was in front of
her.

Water.

More water than she’d seen in her entire life, stretching
from horizon to horizon around the outcropping she was standing on. There were
waves rippling across the surface of the water towards her, crashing against
the base of the outcropping far below her. As she watched, a massive grey
creature broke the surface of the water, sent a white spout from its back, and
sank again, and more birds –these larger and grey- drifted across her
view.  

“What in Blue Diamond’s name…”

“Oh, she had nothing to do with this.”

Zircon gave a very undignified yelp and jolted in place,
very nearly jumping right off of the outcropping. Whirling around with her arms
up as a futile shield, she backed up until she was right at the edge, trying to
escape the punishment she was certain was coming for her escape attempt-

But nothing happened. Her captor twitched towards her, as if
about to grab, but didn’t touch her. Just- waited. Staring. And did nothing.

It unnerveed her enough that she ended up blurting out “well?!”
up at the thing, then immediately regretted it and covers her gem with both arms,
which unfortunately left her with no good way to hide her face.

“I am not going to grab you.” Gravescratch rumbled, taking
one long step back, and sat down- out of reach of her. “Unless I feel that you
are in danger otherwise, I am going to respect your bodily autonomy as much as
I can. And I am not going to harm you for running, understand? You are not in
trouble. I do not blame you for running, either, although I do need you to
return. And, preferably step away from the cliff before you fall off.”

Bodily autonomy?

She knew what those words meant, separately, but- together,
and in this context?

And why didn’t her captor intend to punish her for this? She
ran, which is precisely what she was
told not to do- it would make sense for her to be punished, why wouldn’t-
not that she’s complaining, of course, but-

The only logical part of that was the suggestion that she should
move away from the cliff. She did so, forcing herself to walk closer to the thing that so effortlessly found her,
and tried to draw herself up as she spoke to it.

“You make no sense. Explain yourself at- at once! You have kidnapped me, why- why wouldn’t you- and- ‘bodily autonomy’,
what do-“

She didn’t want to get closer, but she did, moving slowly towards the thing as if drawn by a magnet. “And
what did- did you do to me? How are you
making me feel like- nnh-“

“I did not do anything to you. As I said before, little one-
you are a member of a social species, in a society that forbids affection. You
are terribly touch-starved. That contact earlier helped, and now, whether or
not you intend to, you are searching for more. Easy… I am not going to hurt
you.” Gravescratch rumbled, leaning in slightly, and pressed his muzzle to her
forehead when she was close enough. “I am sorry- I do not mean to upset you,
but, as I am not causing this, I have no way to stop it.”

Eyes shutting, Zircon took the final step closer, hands
curling into fists as she tried to fight the urge to get closer. She did not
succeed. The best she could manage was not hugging
the thing that had brought her to this planet against her will, the thing
that could shatter and eat her if it
so chose, the thing that-

That was explaining again. She should listen. Explanations
were good.

“You are not in trouble because your reaction is
understandable. You are frightened of me, and for good reason. I would have
been shocked if you did not make some escape attempt. Now… bodily autonomy. A
concept that is going to seem very strange to you, because it goes against
everything that the Diamonds encourage. It is, to put it simply, the idea that
you have the right to decide what happens to your body. You have the right to
decide who is allowed to touch you, what they are allowed to do, and when they stop.
You have the right to decide what you are comfortable doing and what you are
not, and no one, even the Diamonds,
can change that.”

Gravescratch lowered his head just enough to meet Zircon’s
eyes, or, at least, enough to meet her eyes if she would open them. “No one has
the right to manipulate or control you in any way, save only what is necessary
to prevent serious harm to you or someone else. Why I refrained from grabbing
you away from the cliff just now, for example- you were not in serious enough
danger to warrant me capturing you in such an alarming fashion. I am trying to
respect your autonomy as much as I can. Which is why I am not holding you- I am
concerned that it would distress you further.”

Explanations were still good.  Except when they only made things more confusing.

The Diamonds were entitled to whatever they wanted of her.
Anything and everything- theirs.

Or… maybe not so much the Diamonds any more.

She’d been taken, removed to another planet, and there was
no one en route to rescue her. Which meant, legally, she belonged to… this.

So, instead of faceplanting into its front, she probably
ought to show the proper respect.

Drawing herself up as much as possible, Zircon took a step
back and squared her shoulders, looking up at the being who towered over her. “Ma’am.
With all due respect- in accordance with Right of Conquest laws, you literally own me. What you are saying
makes absolutely no sense. You have every right to do- literally whatever you
want. I- there are- there are some things I would not recommend, and things I would
not prefer, but- I have no rights
here.”

“That again.”
Gravescratch rumbled, eyes narrowing, and leaned down to properly meet her
gaze. “Listen to me. I do not have any right to control you. I did not earn the
right to manipulate you by having the skills to capture you, and the Diamonds
did not earn the right to manipulate anyone
simply by being born as a certain variety of Gem. No matter what they
claim, that does not give them any right to anything
they are doing. But that is unimportant for now. What I need you to
understand is that you have rights. You
have the right to tell me to stop anything
that you do not like. And I am not inclined to take orders, but you may make
requests. Go on- try it out.”

…what?

Zircon didn’t manage to restrain
her expression of bewilderment, mostly because all of her brainpower was going
into trying to puzzle this out. First of all- the Diamonds had every right to
do whatever they wanted, with everything that they owned, and they owned an
extremely large number of things. Second, her captor –owner- had every right to- again, anything. This made no sense, but-

There was an order near the end of
that confusing paragraph. Probably another part of this twisted game, but… an
order. “Try it out”, referring to, presumably, her hypothetical ability to make
requests of her owner.

So… she tried it out.

Stared up at whatever this was,
tried to stay steady, and spoke as clearly as she could. Which… wasn’t very,
given her request. “Hold me. Ma’am. I- I still
think something happened to cause
this, but- I want- hold me.”

“There we are. Good. Assert
yourself- I promise I will not be angry with you.” Gravescratch rumbled, all
seven eyes shutting momentarily in a gesture of approval, and wrapped his arms
gently around Zircon’s frame. Pulling her just a bit closer, he rumbled gently
and hugged her with all four arms, giving quiet approving sounds every time she
moved to increase the area of contact.

Zircon slumped limp in her owner’s
hold, shutting her eyes for just a few seconds so that she could properly bask
in the sensation of touch, and…
stayed like that for far longer than she meant to. Oh. Intimidating or not,
this thing was warm, and it was
supporting her oh-so-well, and she wanted-

She wanted to curl in close and
get comfortable and never move away, wanted
to stay like this and hold this creature and
never let go, and it scared her that
she wanted anything so strongly-

She wanted more, but she wanted to stop,
and the twisting desires escaped as a soft whimper before she started to
claw at her owner’s front- trying to get away, trying to hide somewhere so she
could figure this out on her own without being touched in a way that made her
mind want to short out. “Stop, stop-“

To her shock, the creature did. It let go, it stepped back
slightly, and it crouched, making no effort to get closer to her again.

“Yes, like that- good!”
Gravescratch crooned, looking genuinely pleased, and took a step away. “Come
on- away from the cliff, please. And, preferably, back to the building- come
inside and sit, enjoy the electric blanket, sit somewhere away from all the
nature so you can think.”

Her owner obeyed when she tried to make a situation stop. Now that… that had to be part of a game, some kind of
trick, some kind of trap, but-

But the ground kept making noises,
and little things flung themselves out of it at her, and she wanted to be
somewhere that did not have anywhere near this many living creatures. So… she’d
obey. She’d go back inside.

And she was going to use every
step of the way back to try and puzzle this out.

Reality in Gotham

Hello to all watching!
I have a very important announcement, but first, I’m going to have to explain a
few things.

First, you must
understand that reality is fluid, and it is greatly influenced by how it is perceived.
Portions of reality only inhabited by nonsapient creatures rarely undergo
considerable change, for example, and-

Oh, I should define “change”,
shouldn’t I? 

Well- I don’t mean that everything in them stays the same when
they don’t change. Things change. I mean that what is possible changes. Not what could eventually be possible, through
improved technology- what will ever be possible, according to the laws of that
reality. In addition, the laws of probability are an important part of that-
and they are the first to shift.

Anyway- portions of
reality only inhabited by nonsapient creatures rarely shift because nonsapient
creatures have no imagination. With very few exceptions, they perceive reality
as it is, and only as it is.

Nonsapient creatures,
well- they get interesting. They have imaginations! They come up with things
that don’t exist. Now, usually, those don’t turn into anything. Either they’re
too much like reality, or they’re too far away for what human minds can
accidentally accomplish. But, sometimes, they hint.

Like those, oh, what
do you call them- cryptids. By and large, those don’t exist. The collective
belief isn’t enough to bring them into reality, but it is enough to continue producing what seems like proof. Because it
almost is proof- stories, tiny scraps of hints, strange things that don’t quite
fit. That’s what belief produces- those little hints.

And there are outside
factors that can influence probability, and therefore reality. Anything
improbable enough has some influence. My being here, for example, or the
continued existence of people who’ve survived things that should really be
impossible- people with things through their brains are a good example.
Normally that’s not a concern, though, please don’t go and kill improbable
folks. It takes a great deal of extremely improbable things in one place to
alter reality, and, usually, you can’t get that many improbable things without
there already being altered reality involved.

But, hm, I should get
back to my point.

I’m sure you know of
the gap in time, between 2 and 4 am, where nothing seems quite right. Now- this
is mostly due to the effects of a lack of sleep on humans, plus all the various
little things that are different when almost no one is awake. Reality seems
just a bit off. And that’s because it is! In that space in time, but only in
the parts of the world currently experiencing that space in time, reality is
askew. And it is that way entirely because of how sleep-deprived human brains perceive
the world, and because of how strange it seems to your brain to see normally
public areas empty of people. Because reality feels askew, it is askew.

Now, as I’m sure you
can imagine, this is where things can be dangerous.

Take this city, for
example. It’s absurd! Look at these buildings. It’s as if no one has updated
most of the city in a few hundred years. Everything is falling apart, it’s
crumbling and dark, and, oh, I can smell
the lead, that can’t be helping. And it’s full of crime. More than that, it’s
full of people who are extraordinarily improbable. Your hero is a man dressed
as a large version of a small flying mammal, accompanied by an entourage of
children in brightly colored outfits! This city has been held hostage by birds!
Actual birds! There is a man dressed as a clown riding a large robotic teddy
bear outside of- oh, my friend, your nemesis is here, you should deal with
that.

Nothing in this city
makes any sense, by the laws of reality that govern everything around it. And
that is because this city operates on a slightly askew version of reality. I have
checked the city myself- there are at least two creatures hiding here who take
advantage of that, but they did not cause this.

So do you know what
did?

Ask your neighbor why
all these things happen. They will probably tell you “because this is Gotham”
and then look at you like you are a simpleton for not understanding how reality
works.

And that is because something
happened. Something that can be termed a “mass belief event”. Now, it may have
been an intentional attack, or it may have been accidental- probably a poison,
a hallucinogen. The lead levels around us are not helping that. Or, maybe even
a serial killer- one with seemingly mystical powers who frightened everyone
living here. It’s difficult to tell, and probably irrelevant.

But, whatever
happened, everyone’s perception of the city changed. Gotham City became a dark
and frightening place, full of crumbling ruins, creeping scavengers, and
threatening figures with strange abilities.

Now, whatever did that
to everyone would have worn off eventually. But the city, well-

Look around you.

The city remembered.

Yes, places remember!
Patches of reality remember! They aren’t usually conscious, but things,
especially things made by other creatures, know how they ought to be. And how
they ought to be is heavily defined by how it is thought that they ought to be.
It’s why children can build things startlingly well from cardboard before they
realize they shouldn’t be able to- because children, and any other beings who
can imagine but don’t yet know what they shouldn’t be able to do, have the
power to alter reality. Just a fraction. Please, please do not try to weaponized
that, it has been attempted, it fails every time and it goes terribly wrong,
but that is a fact.

Places remember what
they ought to be. And reality shifts around them to help that. Cities left to
fall into ruins regrow nature more easily because they remember that they ought
to be full of plants. And Gotham, well- Gotham remained the frightening place
that its inhabitants perceived it as.

Gotham remembered what
its inhabitants thought it ought to be, and it shifted to accommodate. People didn’t
repair things as often as they ought to, scavengers moved in, and… the loosened
reality allowed for certain defiances in places. Such as your “supervillains”.

Now- if I lived here, I
would want to change that.

Do you?

Well, good news! You can!

And it’s really very
simple.

Stop believing. Start
questioning. Start asking “why has no one repaired this building yet? Why is
this man in a suit covered with punctuation marks still around? Why are these
people who are clearly mentally ill being allowed to escape time and again from
the same place?”

Start refusing to
believe!

If you are new to the
city- stop accepting it! Yes, the city is strange to you, and your perception
of it as strange can help to bolster the altered reality, but you have insights
into what other cities are like! Start questioning all the differences this one
has.

If it works, you will
start to see change, but it will not be as if by magic. People will start
refusing to accept situations, start trying to rebuild. Maybe… stop putting the
“villains” back into the place they keep escaping from. You cannot change the
past, but you can change the future, can push this city’s reality into
something a bit less Gothic.

Your perception of
reality is more powerful than you understand.

Use it.

Refuse to believe that
which should be unbelievable.

Refuse to accept this.