Gem lies back, between Scott and Impulse. Their blood still tastes sharp and iron at the back of her throat, which is a little silly, given that it's not like she licked them or something. There's no reason she should taste anything. She just... stabbed them, when they asked her to.
Stabbed them, because they knew they had to go red eventually, and for the sake of the team they wanted her to win.
Stabbed. Scott and Impulse.
Here's the thing: she'd told herself she wouldn't feel guilty, and she'd told herself this ages ago, when she started leading people to the End to see if the dragon would kill them. She told herself she wouldn't feel guilty, because clearly, she wouldn't let these games wear her down the way they do some people. She told herself she wouldn't feel guilty because people like to mistake her for a prey animal when she's a predator, and guilt would give the game away. She told herself she wouldn't feel guilty, because why feel guilty over having fun? It's just a game. A bloody, bloody game. She told herself she wouldn't feel guilty.
She told herself. She told herself.
There's no reason to feel guilty. She enjoyed herself, the rush of blood when running with Pearl, and then the heady feeling of having life, life, life running through her. She's pretty sure, despite being a red name, she has the most life anyone ever has in these games. It makes sense! Life and death are all wrapped up together, and Scott had choked on his own blood before he went down, even though she'd tried to make it quick, and as he gurgled over the injury she'd inflicted she'd felt life running in her and her heart pounding and everything getting dizzy and--
It doesn't matter. They told her to do it. She shouldn't feel guilty. Impulse had smiled at her. It had been a lovely smile. She hadn't known what to make of it.
And she closes her eyes and sees the life leave his.
But she shouldn't feel guilty. She tried to make it quick. Impulse had turned around, told her to do it like killing a chicken, destroying the brain stem so that he doesn't have to feel it, those last few minutes. It's fast. Humane. Like killing a chicken. Almost impersonal, except that he'd been so gentle, and they both had Scott's blood on them, and there was so much blood, and she likes blood. This whole game, that's been the point. She likes blood.
Impulse had died surprisingly bloodless but he'd screamed, for just a moment, because she doesn't actually know how to make it fast and humane, even if it's supposed to be like killing a chicken, and she'd felt--
Felt--
She'd felt good, is the thing. It had felt good, even though he'd taken several blows to bring down, in the end. Even though she hadn't managed to make it quick. Even though, for a moment, he'd been terrified, and then after that, he'd convulsed, twitching on the ground, and she hadn't known if he was able to feel that at all. These are games. They're supposed to be fun. She won't feel guilty, she tells herself. There's no reason to feel guilty.
They told her they loved her, afterwards. Quietly, through actions and words. They told her not to feel guilty. It's in her nature.
One does not blame a lion for biting when it's given meat. It's in their nature.
This is her nature. This is what she is. She knows that now. That's what this has all taught her, this game she's playing. She knows well what she is; everyone will know well what she is, when next they take her in.
And maybe that's why, as she starts laughing, she can't stop from feeling guilty for what will happen next.
272 notes
·
View notes
Hi! I just went through your entire WtTK AU and I have a (potentially sad) question :D
Has baby Eclipse ever accidentally hurt Y/N? Cause I noticed he's got some pretty big claws, and kids (especially young ones!) don't tend to have very good control of their strength and coordination when they're little
*grabbing you and shaking you*
Thank you for liking my au and for engaging! I love these fish a normal amount!!!!! As for your question~
———————🐠🐟🐠🐋🐳🦭🦈🪼🦐🐙
The first time it happens, Eclipse is too young to realize what he’s done. Tiny baby teeth are still sharp enough to pierce and tear, and when he mindlessly mouths at you a little too hard Moon is the first to notice the blood at your shoulder where your baby nestles his face. Sun is a mess of anxiety over the realization that your little guppy has teeth and claws sharp enough to hurt his mama now, and no will yet to prevent it. The bites don’t leave a visible scar, but the boys never forget.
It happens again, of course. Many times. Little nicks of careless baby claws and eager baby teeth. Nothing serious, and your mers are diligent in teaching Eclipse to be careful with his mama and her delicate body. Sun maybe goes to far with it really, and for a while your little boy handles you like you’re made of glass. Eventually you ease the anxiety he develops over hurting you into a more reasonable level of caution, but he’s always very careful.
But even the most careful, cautious people slip sometimes, and Eclipse is just a boy after all…
He hadn’t meant to. He swore up and down around hiccuping sobs over and over again how he hadn’t meant to and how he’s so so sorry. You coo and shush him, one hand pressed down firmly to stem the bleeding from your calf, and the other holding onto his hand (so much bigger than yours already, and covered in your blood) even as he tries to pull away.
“Clip, sweetie, look at me. I’m ok. It’s going to be ok. It was an accident. I’m not mad. It’s ok.” You talk to him as gently as you can, holding him as close as he‘ll let you. For a moment you resent how big he’s gotten so fast. Eleven years old and he’s already taller than you.
Moon doesn’t take it well, of course. Sun takes it worse. They get your injuries cleaned and stitched up, and they end up healing into four pale pink scars just a few inches above the first scratches Moon gave you on your ankle years and years ago. Eclipse doesn’t speak almost at all for weeks. He stays with Moon most of the time, and his nocturnal father uses the time to share whatever wisdom he earned from his own time as a sharp and dangerous creature on how to be gentle. Your son keeps his hands entirely to himself for that time, accepting hugs but not returning them. Your heart hurts far worse than your leg. Sun stays by your side while the other two are away, and his son won’t meet his eyes for days either.
Things get better. They heal, they scar, the marks fade and leave behind lessons for all four of you. Eclipse grows into a frighteningly deliberate predator, and those claws and teeth never do any harm that they don’t fully mean to do by the time he’s mature. Certainly after that, though he causes his fair share of carnage, he never hurts you.
145 notes
·
View notes
The degree to which Davos and Brienne are going to become reluctant BFFs, because their lieges keep coming to them complaining about each other, is UNREAL
or, more from this fic that's slowly eating my life
~
Their journey to the Northern army's camp had revealed a great deal about Lady Stark and her lords and petty chieftains: their patronizing generosity, their gruff suspicion of outsiders, and above all their mind-boggling obstinacy. Ned and Lyanna had been much the same, from what he remembered, and Stannis had seen shades of it in Jon Snow, though couched more gently than he'd expected from a bastard. He'd imagined — insofar as he'd imagined her at all — that Lady Stark would be gentler still, her mother's line warming that chilled Northern blood.
He had been disastrously mistaken. It was a wonder only one Stark had survived, but it was already clear that she had gathered the entire share of Stark mulishness.
"I have conditions, Your Grace," said Lady Stark. "If this alliance is to succeed in retaking Winterfell, I feel it right that you hear them." She placed the parchment in her hand carefully on his table and stepped back, hands folded primly.
She had requested, and been granted, this conference shortly after Stannis's army had made camp alongside the Northern soldiers. Stannis's tent had barely been erected when she came to him with this parchment, her wolf, and a determined expression. He had thought he'd listened to her enough on the journey as she'd prattled away with Shireen, but he was in the mood to be permissive.
Reading through her list of demands, he could feel the headache building along his jaw and up through his skull. "Have you lost your mind?" he said, for the second time in a week to an unreasonable woman.
Melisandre had brushed his question aside, but Lady Stark was not made of such supple stuff; she stiffened and glowered at him. "That is a peculiar way to agree to my terms, Your Grace."
"Your terms are rather more than peculiar, my lady," he said, tossing the parchment back on the table.
In truth, the first one was not so peculiar: it said that should they regain the Keep, he would recognize Sansa Stark as Lady of Winterfell and Warden of the North in her own right. He would not pass her over in favor of some lesser Northern male relative, nor would he obligate her to marry and rule only as companion to her husband. Considering Stannis's own intention to ensure Shireen sat on the Iron Throne after his death, he could hardly begrudge her this.
Considering the other two stipulations, however, he felt very much inclined to begrudge her everything.
"Supposing your younger brothers turn up?" he asked, thrusting his chin at the parchment. "Or Jon Snow is legitimized?"
This question didn't faze her, he suspected because it was a question of logistics and protocol rather than a personal remark. "If Jon is made legitimate, I don't believe he would want Winterfell—"
"Duty is not a question of wanting, Lady Stark," he reminded her. "And the Lord Commander is—"
"The Lord Commander, as you say, is the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch," she retorted. "His life has already been pledged to the Wall. If he didn't abandon that cause in aid of my brother Robb, he won't abandon it now."
Stannis observed her. There was bitterness there, certainly, though less than he would have thought. Lady Stark clearly understood the ties that bound men to their duty, even if she did not like them.
"However," she continued, "Should any of my brothers wish to make a claim to Winterfell in my place, I won't stand against them." She paused for a moment, and added, "I have no wish to die at their hands out of misplaced pride."
Stannis clenched his jaw but let that go for the moment — it would be addressed soon enough. "You call me 'Your Grace,'" he said, tapping at the parchment, "Yet your second stipulation says that you will not bend the knee to me, even if I regain Winterfell for you."
"No, it says that I will not bend the knee to any claimant to the throne until they hold the majority of the kingdoms," she shot back. "The Lannisters hold the Crownlands, the Westerlands and the Reach at present. The Riverlands are still in chaos, the Vale has withdrawn from all alliances to sulk in their mountains, and both Dorne and the Iron Islands have declared for themselves, more or less. You can, at best, claim that the Stormlands still support you, though I've seen no evidence for it — they didn't march under your banner at first, did they?"
That was the second time she had brought up Renly, however obliquely. If she were trying to drive him mad, she couldn't go about it any better. "When I hold the North, my lady, I will have more land—"
"Setting aside the notion that it will be you alone who holds the North, you'll have more land and fewer men than any other region. If you wish to win against the Lannisters, you'll need more than mountains and glaciers fighting your battles. And if I wish to be Warden of the North, I can't keep the respect of my lords by swearing fealty to a man who has yet to earn it."
"I could have you burned for such talk," he said, getting to his feet and pouring himself some water, hoping it would ease the throbbing in his head.
"You don't burn nobles, you behead them," she replied cooly. "I should know. I was there when the Lannisters took my own father's head for supporting your claim to the Iron Throne. I have no intention of sharing his fate." She took a deep breath, and only then did he note that her hands had been clenched together, her right covering the balled-up fist of her left. "I won't take arms against you now or in the future, on that I give my word."
"And if I do have you beheaded?" he asked, putting the tin cup down before he crumpled it in his hand.
It seemed to amuse her. "Then my words will mean even less than they do now."
"They mean nothing, because you will not give them!" He pinched his nose and attempted to regain his composure. Surprisingly difficult, with this — child.
She regarded him for a moment. "You call me Lady Stark, Your Grace," she said, "but tell me, have you heard anyone else call me that?"
Stannis, thrown by the question, was forced to consider it. In truth, he had heard only Lady Sansa, though said with more reverence by her men and lords than he could ever recall being addressed himself. "You are Lady Stark."
"Not without Winterfell," she said, shaking her head. "It's more than just the home of the Starks, it is our…place in the world. We belong nowhere else. Just as there must always be a Stark at Winterfell, so too do we need Winterfell to truly be Starks." She gave him a pointed look. "Just as Your Grace needs the Iron Throne, and the fealty of all the Seven Kingdoms, to truly be king."
She was wrong, of course, but Stannis felt the same lurch in his belly whenever his footing slipped during a bout. "Perhaps your reticence has something to do with this last stipulation," he said instead, going back to the table and jabbing his finger at the third line. "Falsely accusing a king is treason."
"Is Lady Brienne falsely accusing you, Your Grace?" she asked, smooth as ice. Her hands were still clenched, he noted.
"I was nowhere near Renly's camp when he died," Stannis said, with perfect truth, even as he felt himself balanced on a knife's edge.
He had been nowhere near. He had woken up just before dawn with the lead weight of certainty in his belly, knowing what had happened — what the Red Woman had said must happen — and lying there, staring up at the tent's canvas, he had wept. Wept for the brothers he had loved and who had never loved him back. He would never know if Renly had had a hand in Robert's death; just as he would never know if he himself had had a hand in Renly's. Had he ordered Melisandre to kill him? Had he believed her when she said she could make such a thing come to pass? Davos had begged to tell him of what had happened in the cave that night, what monstrous thing the Red Woman had done to bring Renly's death about. Stannis had refused to hear it. Perhaps there was a sort of rough justice in facing his accuser now, the only one living who knew the truth.
"Lady Brienne has served me faithfully," said Lady Stark, "and my mother before me, at great cost to herself. I believe her testimony, Your Grace."
"Her testimony that I murdered my own brother."
Lady Stark regarded him steadily. "I will not insult either of you by declaring one more honorable than the other. But when I regain Winterfell, my duty as Warden of the North will be to adjudicate all such matters, and this falls under my purview. Even if you were crowned King of the Seven Kingdoms in the Red Keep itself, the North holds all persons, regardless of title, under its laws while they reside here."
"Renly didn't die in the North," was all he could manage to say.
"He died, Your Grace." Lady Stark looked almost pitying. "And for that, I'm sorry. I know what it is to lose your brothers. But on this point I will not waver."
"Is there any point on which you have?" he asked, curious.
She continued serenely. "Lady Brienne will be permitted to make her accusation publicly; how you respond to it is your affair, but if you prevail, you must give me your word now that she will not be held guilty of treason, nor will she be killed by any member of your party by any means." She put enough emphasis on the last two words to make her meaning plain.
"And if she prevails?" Stannis asked. "Your stipulations do not mention the outcome of the trial, only that it will take place." He smiled grimly. "Your father always said that he who passes the sentence should swing the sword, my lady. Will you behead me yourself?"
"I doubt either of us would find that a pleasant exercise, Your Grace," she said, her lip curling slightly. She didn't blanch, however; young as she was, she had seen worse. Had possibly done worse, if the rumors about the Purple Wedding were true. He'd not asked. "If you are found guilty, then you will ride south. If you win the support of the other kingdoms, the North will bend the knee to you. But you'll never come north of the Neck again. Does that satisfy?"
Stannis glanced down at the parchment again. There it all was, in black and white: the price he must pay for the North. The blasted girl had even provided a space for him to sign at the bottom.
"Not remotely," he said, but reached for his pen.
67 notes
·
View notes
At the end of season 3, Hopper should have been blasted through the opening gate somehow. If he was gonna survive what happened, it should have been that he got blasted into the Upside Down, and he's been in there, surviving on his own somehow for months.
or maybe not entirely on his own. one of the Russian soldiers got blasted through with him. some guy named Dmitri. You know the one.
He knows enough English to talk to Hopper, but he doesn't reveal this for like a month because it pisses Hopper off and they are busy being enemies. Well. Mostly enemies. They band together when they have to, to stay alive. They turn Hawkins into a little war zone. It's mostly against each other since not much actually lives there for a while. When stuff does show up it has to deal with them having Home Alone'd the town against each other except they both know what the other one's doing anyway, so they can both use all the traps.
It's not like they're friends (they're a little bit friends).
Vecna turns up after a bit, with all his fuckin' bats, and they get ousted. They don't go far. Vecna's plans are actually delayed by like a month because stupid shit keeps happening when he goes into the town, courtesy of our two little shits. They're not even doing anything new, it's just all the leftover booby traps and shit.
Anyway please imagine everyone's surprise when the fruity four turn up and get spotted by Hopper and Dmitri, who join in on going home. What have they been eating all this time? Listen, just don't ask. it did NOT taste like chicken. They just want a beer and some pizza, and then also in on whatever the new plan is.
forget the frankly boring as fuck russian prison garbage, I want upside down shenanigans. hopper still finds a whole fucking actual sword in someone's house tho. that can stay.
387 notes
·
View notes