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monstersmashorpass · 3 days
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SMASH OR PASS: Kar'niss, Baldur's Gate 3
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lemonyoatmilk · 17 days
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Praise the Spider Queen 🙏✨🕸️🕷️🕸️✨🙏
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To think they left out the best Spider-Man in the trailer:
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monstersandmaw · 1 year
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Male drider pirate captain x gn human (mild nsfw)
Disclaimer which I’m including in all my works after plagiarism and theft has taken place: I do not give my consent for my works to be used, copied, published, or posted anywhere. They are copyrighted and belong to me.
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Surprise! A story out of the blue! Hope you like it.
Content: a human who faces daily discrimination for being one of the only humans in a relatively isolated society of non-humans, non-explicit/detailed mention of unwanted sexual/physical contact (it’s brief, but it’s in there - paragraph beginning ‘Still, they couldn’t be any worse than the naga...’), a reader who was orphaned at a young age, a dread pirate captain who’s actually a total softie, a motley crew of pirates who are also all secret sweethearts, and a tiefling friend who wants the best for you. And a briefly spicy ending. Enjoy? Wordcount: 8710
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For all its pretty beaches and steady flow of gold and goods, Cutthroat Cove was hardly the kind of place that people aspired to reach, and it wasn’t the kind of place people lingered once they washed up there, humans least of all.
To get off the island, you had to find a pirate ship willing to take you, and the price of passage was usually dearer than it first appeared. Most of the crews didn’t like humans aboard either, which was another odd stacked against you.
“To the Empress!” A shout went up from the furthest corner of the dingy tavern, and tankards were raised in a jeering chorus of howls and inhuman noises. You glanced up from where you’d been drying off the wooden mugs that Harrow had just finished washing, and you watched as the crew of the Blackbird, flush with fresh plunder, began a familiar toast. “May she continue shitting out shiny gold coins for us to keep plucking out of her fat little merchants’ hands!”
Their laughter filled the small, low-ceilinged common room and made your ears buzz. There must have been a siren among them, you thought distantly as you shook your head to clear it. No one else seemed affected, but a nearby patron — a triton leaning heavily on the wooden bar — leered toothily at you and flared the fins on the side of their head in a mocking sneer.
As you turned away to diffuse the situation, your elbow caught a bottle of rum on the edge of the counter. It teetered and would have smashed had Harrow not grabbed it with his prehensile tail and shunted it back to safety. He shot you a warning look and rolled his dark eyes affectionately. A creased dimple appeared in his cheek and the tiefling smirked a fanged smile at you before throwing a wet dishcloth in your face. “Watch it, clumsy,” he snorted playfully. “Honestly. What are you like?”
“Thanks,” you mumbled and tried not to watch too closely as his purple tail uncoiled slowly from the bottle. Perhaps it came from being raised on a mostly non-human pirate ship, or perhaps you’d just been made differently, but your fellow humans had never done much for you, and in fact, the less human someone looked, the more likely you were to find yourself tripping over your feet around them.
With another sigh, you turned to see to a goblin with blood red hair who had just leaned over the bar to yell an order at you above the clamour in the room, a gold ring glinting in her nose, when the door flew open and a small harpy boy flapped inside, with his feathers all ruffled and his chest heaving from a wild flight up the hill to the tavern.
“The Widow’s Web docked down on Rum Quay fifteen minutes ago!” the boy panted, wide eyed and sweaty faced. “And they’re coming ashore!”
For a moment, the entire, packed tavern went completely still. Everyone seemed to be holding their breath. Someone set down their tankard with a loud clunk but for a good ten seconds, that was the only sound in the whole room.
“The Widow’s Web?” someone finally hissed. “She never docks anywhere. What the fuck is she doing here?”
“Maybe they need to resupply?”
“They don’t resupply ashore,” someone else scoffed. “They just take what they need off the Imperial Navy and keep on sailing!”
“Maybe one of them is sick?”
“Or they’re looking for new crew?”
“I heard the captain wraps people up in his webs to eat later…” came a nearby, dark muttering.
“Or maybe —”
“— Maybe they just want a good drink for once, and find Her Imperial Majesty’s rations perennially disappointing,” came a deep, smooth voice from the open doorway behind the harpy boy.
The poor lad squeaked and puffed up in surprise, floundering out of the doorway in a twittering spray of mousy feathers and gangly, avian legs, and everyone stared at the figure who had melted from the darkness beyond to fill the doorway completely.
It was impossible not to stare. You’d seen driders before, but you’d never seen one like him.
He moved on seven dark legs that were armoured with a natural carapace like a crab, with pointed spikes at the joints that glinted in the low light, and the eighth was a prosthetic, replaced below the articulated ‘knee’ joint of his right front leg with a shining, steel limb that had been sharpened to a point to match his other limbs, and which clinked softly when he walked. He had to duck almost double to squeeze through the tavern door that had been built wide and tall enough for even a draft centaur to get through.
As he leaned down, his straight, white hair fell forwards around his face like a shroud, momentarily concealing his slate-grey skin that was tinged with purple. He had four eyes, all completely black, and dark mandibles at the corners of his mouth, and as he entered the tavern, he took off his cocked hat and hooked it casually over the upward turning spikes on his left foreleg.
His spider’s body was huge and pendulous and black, covered in a downy fur that shifted like moonlight and spread up his human back, vanishing out of sight beneath a heavy, black coat with silver buttons and emblazoned on the back with the silver web of his ship’s emblem, the Widow’s Web.
Someone dropped a glass in the silence of his arrival, and you startled a little at the sound. Beside you, you heard Harrow inhale slowly. “Holy shit,” he hissed, and his dark, cloven hooves made a soft clopping against the flagstones as he sidled up to you. He was shorter than you, and you glanced down to find him looking up at you with wide, worried eyes. “That’s… That’s him…”
“Capitan Steelsling…” you whispered. “I thought he and the Widow’s Web were just… a myth? You know?” you added, glancing between Harrow and the pirate captain.
Behind Steelsling, a truly colossal, silk-white bison minotaur dipped her horns beneath the lintel and surveyed the room. She had red eyes and a pink nose, and was almost as legendary as her captain, and together, they made their way towards an empty table near the bar.
“Good luck, mate!” Harrow elbowed you in the ribs and ducked away with a mumbled lie about checking the stock.
You could hardly hear anything through the fear that had started a pounding at the back of your skull. You were going to have to go over there.
Still, they couldn’t be any worse than the naga who’d grabbed you with their tail and coiled around you tightly enough to make your ribs creak last week, only releasing you when the laughter of their companions had faded and you’d nearly passed out. Or the gnoll who’d tripped you into her lap and laughed about you being a soft little human while her claws had picked through your shirt. Or the siren who’d made you take your top off and dance a jig on the table with their hypnotic voice, to the rabid amusement of a packed bar. You’d endured a thousand humiliations in your life at Cutthroat Cove, and you were certain that you could weather whatever this dread pirate could dream up for you too.
Squaring your shoulders, you set the damp cloth down on the bar, wiped your hands on your trousers, and strode across the room towards the newcomers, with the eyes of the entire tavern on you.
The captain watched you approach with an unnerving intensity in his four, jet black eyes, but his minotaur first mate seemed entirely bored and unimpressed by the entire establishment. You included. Clearly you posed no threat to her or her captain, so she ignored you for the time being.
You drew to a halt in front of their table and looked up into the captain’s inhuman face. He was sharply handsome, with the hard, cut-glass plains of his cheeks and jawline thrown into start relief in the low light of the bar, and the thick, black, curved talons at the ends of his mandibles glinted in the lamplight like pieces of obsidian.
He tilted his head in a manner that might have been either patronising or curious, you couldn’t quite tell, and blinked his black, almond-shaped eyes slowly. The two pairs moved slightly out of time with each other, the smaller, lower outer pair starting first, followed by the larger inner pair. Holding his gaze for long though was like trying to hold an oil slick in your hands.
“What can I get for you?” you asked, cursing the way your voice cracked a little.
Conversation began to pick up hesitantly around you, and in the far corner, someone got out a tin whistle and began to play a well-known and popular song. The captain smiled when he heard it, his mandibles chittering briefly, and he leaned over to his first mate and grinned, “Remember when Keel played this and Harrik fell overboard trying to impress him?”
She snorted suddenly, her wild, white mane of curls bouncing and her large, fluffy ears flicking back and forth. “How could I forget that?” she chortled. “He looked like a wet rat when we hauled him back on deck. Couldn’t look Keel in the eye for a week!”
You stood stock-still while they reminisced, wary and patient and silent.
The captain turned sharply back to you and twitched his head a little. “My apologies,” he purred. “We are still waiting for a few more of our crew, but I know what they’ll have to drink at any rate. Perhaps you could bring a couple of pitchers of your finest ale over, and six tankards?”
You nodded and paused just long enough to see if they were going to add anything else to their order.
The first mate leaned forwards towards you, resting an elbow on the thick tabletop. It groaned under her muscular weight. “What’s in the kitchen tonight?” she asked. Her voice was rough and deep, but her tone was gentle enough.
“Roast pork,” you said quickly. “And boiled vegetables.”
The captain nodded. “We’ll wait for the others to order food, I think. If that’s alright with you?”
You blinked. “What?” you said before you’d thought about it. “I mean, of course. I’ll be right back with the ale. Excuse me.”
And with that, you bolted back to the bar, sweaty and a little shaky. They hadn’t been at all what you’d been expecting, and they weren’t like the usual patrons of the Salted Kipper.
Harrow had emerged by the time you returned, and he shot you a look. “Well?” he asked.
“Well what?” you snapped, distracted.
“Well what’s he like? I heard from Maggie that Steelsling ripped a human’s head clean off their shoulders just for looking at him too long, and one time, he used that legendary ‘steel’ web of his to garrote the commander of Port Liberty, but the thread was so fine the man didn’t know it had happened til he was bleeding out on the marble floor. And his first mate is hardly any better. I heard —”
“You shouldn’t listen to what people say,” you said with a frown as you fished the enormous pitchers out of the cupboard under the bar and turned to fill one from the barrel on the wall behind you. “You know how much bullshit gets peddled through here in a single night — how much sailors love to exaggerate.” In truth, you didn’t want Steelsling to overhear Harrow’s words and think you were gossiping about him.
“Yeah, but… no smoke without a fire, right?”
You just shook your head and concentrated on filling the pitcher without creating too much of a foaming head on the ale.
With the two pitchers set on a wide, wooden tray, along with the six empty tankards, you set off for their table again. En route, someone with sharp claws grabbed a fistful of your arse and you had to step over the swaying, serrated tail of a lizardfolk at the table next to the drider captain’s. She cackled a laugh at you when you nearly spilled the pitchers because of it. One slid a terrifying couple of inches along the tray as it tipped, and you wobbled in a desperate attempt to stop it sliding all the way off.
You cursed as you staggered, completely off balance, but something solid caught you at the hip and buttressed you up. Cold relief sloshed through you as you saved the pitchers from toppling off to make an ungodly mess all over the floor, only to look up and find that the drider captain himself had jutted out one of his huge, armoured legs to steady you. It was the steel prosthetic of his right foreleg, you realised, and you could feel its coldness seeping through your clothes the longer you stayed pressed against it.
All the blood drained from your face and you felt your jaw go slack. “I’m so sorry,” you blurted, and you almost leapt away from the contact to set the tray down, hoping to disappear as quickly as possible.
“It’s no trouble,” he said in his oddly polite, lyrical voice. You’d expected something coarse and harsh from the legendary sea captain, but he was refined and softly-spoken. “Does that happen often?” he asked, sounding genuinely curious.
“Uh…” you swallowed, stepping back with the tray held in front of you a bit like a shield. “I mean… I’m pretty much the only human on the island now, so where else are they going to get their fun, you know?”
You’d said it with a false lightness to your voice, hoping to make him smile and say ‘fair enough’, but his expression darkened and his eyes glittered dangerously.
“It’s fine,” you babbled. “Really. It’s harmless. They’re just blowing off steam, you know?”
That also didn’t help.
He glared around the room and you got the vague impression that the people who had been staring, hoping for an impressed reaction from him, suddenly looked away in shame.
“Excuse me,” you said again, and fled.
The rest of his crew arrived not long after that, and they were an equally odd mix of people: another drider, though she was stocky and built like a tarantula, and her arms and torso were thickly muscled where Steelsling’s body was lean and wiry; a delicate cervitaur who looked about as unlikely to find a home on the sea as the Empress herself, with a white coat and white antlers and a dancing, graceful way of walking that wouldn’t have been out of place in a palace; a rugged, crab-like merfolk who was armoured to the nines in his own orange chitin and had pincers for hands and a sour look on his face as he squeezed his bulky carapace between the tables; a forest naga with a rainbow shimmer to her tail and dreads that fell to her waist; a tiny, waifish, hummingbird harpy whose iridescence matched the naga’s in vibrancy if not in hue; and finally… a human?
Yet again that evening, you tried not to stare, but it was so unusual to find a human among a crew of pirates in these parts that you weren’t the only one taken aback. People hissed and whispered behind their mugs, but no one tried anything with the other human in the room. They saved that for the one they knew was alone and largely unprotected.
As you worked the other tables that night, dodging wayward hands and sneaking trip hazards in a familiar dance, you caught glimpses of the way the crew of the Widow’s Web laughed and joked among themselves. They were clearly close as family, the realisation of which struck you to the core with something akin to genuine, physical pain. The other pirates who frequented the Salted Kipper were business partners and tight-knit groups, but there was always something festering away beneath the surface — some jealousy or scheming distrust — but the Widow’s Web crew touched each other frequently with a friendly nudge or a playful shove, and they laughed. They laughed until they cried and fell about on each other’s shoulders over something and nothing, and even Steelsling himself seemed amused. He kept a little back from the others though, as though he wasn’t quite a part of it, and he kept his four eyes roaming the room every so often too, as though keeping watch for trouble. Wherever he looked, people looked away, uncertain.
Frequently, his glinting gaze landed on you. When that happened, you ducked your head and busied yourself with another task, but you felt the weight of his four eyes on you as you crossed the room all the same.
If the scattered crumbs of gossip were to be believed, which they rarely were, that night was the first time in six years that the Widow’s Web had formally put to shore, and no one expected to see them again for another six at least.
And yet, a month later, the door opened and in strode the hulking form of the first mate, accompanied by her eight-legged captain and a few of their crew.
You served them ale, and he asked you how you were as you set the pitchers down. “Fine, thanks,” you mumbled, head down.
It seemed to irritate him that you were so deferential, and he sighed sharply.
“You?” you added, glancing up as you tacked the question on as an afterthought.
His mandibles twitched in what might have been an arachnid smile and his shoulders dropped a visible inch. “I’m well, thank you. We had a successful couple of encounters on the Whale Road Shore lately.”
“You went all the way to the Whale Road Shore?” you gasped, staring openly at him. “But that’s… that’s at least a two week sail from here, even with the winds in your favour? How did you make it there and back in so little time?” Distances, maps, and charts had always fascinated you, the way a caged bird dreams of open windows.
Across the table, the first mate chuckled, and with a jolt you remembered yourself, and your place, immediately.
“Forgive me,” you said quickly. “I didn’t mean to pry. Enjoy your evening.”
“Wait?” came Steelsling’s soft, rich baritone. He didn’t speak loudly or harshly, but the simple, politely uttered question stopped you in your tracks. “You weren’t prying, and I don't mind. We have a wind witch aboard. Makes things much easier and faster.”
“Oh,” you breathed. A wind witch? Was there no end to this crew’s mystery?
“They’ll be here any minute,” Steelsling said carefully, deliberately, pointedly. “If you want to meet them.”
“Oh, no… thank you,” you said, despite the way your heart ached to meet a real wind witch. It was a particular talent that only humans had, though other species had similar gifts with the weather. It might have been nice to talk to another human after so long. “No, that’s alright. I don’t want to intrude, and I… I should get back to work.”
The captain just nodded, but he didn’t speak to you directly again that night. The human on his crew — the wind witch — did show up a little while later, accompanied by the pretty cervitaur and the fiery-looking orange merfolk, and the crew lost themselves again in their food and drink and conversation. All but one of the crew, you realised after they’d been there an hour. The captain himself was sitting back, resting his humanoid upper body against the wall of the inn, his spider legs tucked up tightly around him, almost like a cage of spiked, black steel with one silver bar, and he had his arms crossed over his chest and a dark glower on his face. You tried not to look at him when you discovered him already watching you, and you traded a week’s worth of floor scrubbing with Harrow to avoid serving their table again.
Month after month, the crew of the Widow’s Web returned to the Salted Kipper, and month after month, the captain watched you.
He watched you dodge the other patrons, sloughing off their insults and jibes and clumsy, pawing attempts to get you into their lap, and each time, his expression grew darker and more severe. He stopped taking part in his table’s merriment, glowering in the corner like a monster from a fairytale while his crew carried on around him. Only his first mate would frown at him and try and get him to engage, but he never did for long. You started to think you’d insulted him by refusing the honour of a conversation with the wind witch, and he was concocting a truly venomous revenge for your rudeness.
Then, after six straight months of visits, they vanished.
No one saw the black and silver sails of the Widow’s Web for months, and gossip about them erupted.
Rumours circulated like gulls on the wind: they’d been sunk by the Empire; they’d been swallowed up by a kraken who’d been hunting Steelsling for years after taking his right leg off; there’d been a mutiny and they’d all killed each other in the process; they’d strayed off the edge of the world; they’d strayed off the edge of the world and then returned with some mysterious illness; the captain had eaten his crew one at a time while stranded in the doldrums… Each theory was more ridiculous than the next, but you came to miss the crew’s polite presence in the corner of the inn. The lowering eyes of the deadliest pirate in the known kingdoms had gone some way to lessening the way you were treated as a human among so many of what the Empire called the ‘monstrous species’ and the ‘beast folk’. Monstrosity was a relative thing, you’d found.
One morning, after preparing the inn for the day, you headed down alone to the harbour to stock up on supplies for the kitchen. The folk who ran the market were used to you, given that you’d been on the island since you’d washed up there at the age of eight, and they’d stopped trying to fleece you on each purchase you made for Silas, who ran the inn.
You’d just added a box of smoked salt into the groaning basket on your arm when a gasp went up from the nearby shoppers and you turned to see what had snagged their attention. The elegant and eerie prow of the Widow’s Web — a series of carved, black spiders crawling up a cylindrical spar — and the furled black sails of the legendary ship as it was towed into port drew the attention of everyone in the harbour-side market.
You’d never seen them outside of the inn, and you watched as the small, efficient crew scuttled around making last-minute preparations to the lines and the sails before docking, and there, leaning his weight casually against the taffrail with his white hair streaming out behind him like a banner, was Captain Steelsling himself. Your mouth went dry at the sight of him and you stared openly, drinking in the contrast between the curve of his dark spider’s body and the angular lines of his slim, armoured legs. They looked like they could puncture the hull of a warship like a harpoon, and his prosthetic caught the sun and flashed blindingly for an instant.
You watched in awe as he left the deck and scuttled up the rigging with enviable ease to talk briefly to the figure tucked away in the crows nest. That done, he fearlessly descended the rigging and joined the others on the main deck. Just as he turned to give an order to someone on his left though, he froze and you looked on with an odd mix of trepidation and delight as he noticed you.
For a long time, he stared at you. Then, finally, he inclined his head and went about the business of making port.
You had intended to be gone from the market by the time the lengthy process of bartering for better docking fees was over, but fate it seemed had other ideas. You were halfway through haggling with the knife-sharpener for a more reasonable price for her services when she looked up and she dropped the small paring knife she’d been using as a prop to try and frighten you into giving in and accepting her price.
“Captain Steelsling…” the skinny naga exclaimed, and then she hissed at you. “Get out of the way, you little bilge-rat. Don’t you know who this is? My apologies, Captain, my apologies. How can I help you?”
“I know who he is,” you said carefully, turning and smiling shyly at him. His dark mandibles hitched up on one side and he crossed his arms. His long, white hair was plaited back off his face in a series of intricate, interlaced designs, cascading down over his trademark black coat with its silver buttons, and he looked so dashing that your heart skipped a beat. His captain’s hat was nowhere to be seen and he carried no visible weapon, but the authority washing off him was enough to make people skirt around him with their eyes averted.
“Good to see you again, and in daylight this time,” he said, and the knife-sharpener sputtered something unintelligible behind you while he ignored her completely. “How are you?”
“Well, thank you,” you replied. “You’ve been gone a long time…”
A sad expression flickered across his face. “Yes,” he sighed, and his posture sagged. “A sad business, but it’s over now. I’m glad to be back. I’ve grown rather fond of a certain inn here in Cutthroat Cove after all.”
“You have?” you asked, astonished. “I thought you only came to the Kipper because your crew like it. You always look so miserable.”
The knife-sharpener gasped audibly at your bluntness and started to titter something about offering him whatever he wanted, free of charge.
“I didn’t come to talk to you, and I sharpen my own blades, thank you,” he snapped at her, and turned to look over his shoulder, away from the market square. “Will you walk with me? I have a hankering to stretch my legs after so long at sea.”
“Uh…” You would expected back at the inn soon, but there was little you could do if the king of pirates himself wanted a moment of your time. “Sure.”
He smiled again, and held out a hand. “Let me take that for you.”
Still a little stunned, you mutely handed the creaking basket to him. He took it like it weighed nothing at all and hooked it over his other arm so that it was in no danger of swinging and accidentally clocking you around the head. He was massive on his stilt-like legs, after all.
You walked in silence for a little way, along the waterfront towards the old Imperial fortress that had been taken over by the Raven Queen - the local pirate power in these waters. She, ultimately, deferred to Steelsling though, as most pirates did. And there you were, trotting along at his needle-like heels while everyone stared.
“Why would you think I’m miserable when I’m at the tavern?” he asked after a while.
“What? Oh… I didn't mean to offend you,” you said quickly. “I’m sorry.”
He sighed at that, and you got the feeling you’d said the wrong thing. Instead of pressing the issue though, he paused at a bend in the fortification walkway and looked directly at you. “Why do you stay here?” he asked.
You frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“If you’re so unhappy here — treated so poorly — why do you stay?”
You scoffed a little laugh and turned to look out at the bright blue sea.
A strong wind was whipping the peaks of the waves to foam and the gulls dipped and soared on the currents, buffeted this way and that and seeming to love every minute of it. Further out, near the cliffs off Needle Point, gannets speared straight down from the clear sky with barely a splash as they disappeared into the waves, chasing the fish that glittered and flashed beneath the surface.
Salt air filled your nose as you inhaled and you shook your head. “Don’t have much choice, I guess. I can’t afford passage on a ship — not at the prices they charge a human — and… I have nowhere else to go anyway.”
“No family?” he asked carefully.
You shook your head. “No. My parents were killed when the Albatross was captured.”
You caught the soft inhale of shock from the drider captain and turned to look up at him. His solid, black eyes were wide and his mandibles had parted to reveal soft, almost human-like lips behind, and a row of sharp, white teeth. The soft, ombré shading of grey that spread up his jaw, fading from almost coal black around his mandibles to a heather grey around his eyes, was almost mesmerising enough to ignore the look of open horror on his face. “Your parents were on the Albatross?” he whispered at last.
You nodded. “My da was the cook. Ma was a gunner.”
His black eyebrows rose at that. “But you survived?”
“Got washed overboard,” you shrugged. “I was eight.” You fought down a tide of sickening memories and rested your forearms on the stone wall of the old fort.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “My first mate, Ellary, led the mutiny against the captain of the Bloodcrest after what he did to the Albatross. She killed him herself.”
“Good.” Somehow, that did bring a bitter kind of consolation, and you managed a smile. “Anyway,” you said. “When I washed up here, Silas took me in as a pot-washer and floor-scrubber at the Salted Kipper. It’s not so bad…” you said, but you didn’t sound convincing, even to your own ears.
Steelsling shot you a flat look. “I’ve seen the way they treat you there,” he growled. “I’d have cut off their hands if they tried to touch me like that.”
“Yeah, well, we can’t all shoot barbed wire out of our bodies, can we?” you said, speaking yet again without thinking first.
Instead of being insulted though, the captain laughed loudly and freely. “I suppose not,” he said when the sound faded naturally, like a retreating wave on the shore. “Listen, there’s an opening on my crew. It’s nothing exciting, but we’re a soul down now, since Tammas had to go back to his family on land, and I’d like to ask you to join us.”
You blinked at him. “Me?”
“Yes.”
“But… Why? I haven’t been at sea since I was eight. I’d be no use to you.”
“I know for a fact you can cook, and I bet you’re just as capable at mending and fixing things. Besides, I think you’d make a good fit in our family.”
Sure, you’d grown pretty handy in a number of areas over the years, but you were hardly a sailor. “You’d do better to ask around the market,” you said, fighting down a wave of anxious pressure in your chest. “I — Thank you, for the offer, but I should get going. They’ll be wondering where I am.”
You turned without another word and walked away before you’d even realised he still had your basket over his arm. Seconds later, he scuttled up behind you, his needle-like legs making scarcely a sound on the stone, save for the single steel pin of his prosthetic, and he darted in front of you, blocking the way with his body. Your breath caught as a moment of panic flared and dissolved almost immediately. He held the basket out to you but didn’t relinquish it once your fingers gripped the handle. “Think about it,” he said. “The Widow stays here for a week, but I shan’t push you.”
And with that, he let go and stepped to one side, and you fled back to the tavern with your heart pounding.
You dropped three tankards that night, tripped over two tails that weren’t even in your way, and nearly landed in a slime’s lap before Harrow pulled you to one side and asked if you were coming down with something.
You shook your head. “No, I’m sorry. I’m just… distracted.”
“What’s going on?”
With a sigh, you told him, and he gawped at you like you’d grown another head when you got to the part about being offered a spot on Steelsling’s crew.
True to his word, Captain Steelsling and his crew stayed away from the tavern until the very last night that the Widow was due to stay in port. When Ellary opened the door and stepped in, the usual hush descended on the common room, and Harrow shot you a look. ‘Do it’ he mouthed at you along the length of the bar, and you sucked in a huge breath for courage and held it til your lungs burned.
When you made no move and looked like you might possibly throw up instead, Harrow marched over to you and poked you right in the centre of your chest, none too gently. “Fucking do it,” he said. “I’m going to miss the hell out of you, but if you don’t take this chance, you’ll never get off this gods-forsaken lump of rock. Plus, he fucking likes you.” When you frowned, Harrow rolled his eyes. “The dread pirate Steelsling, who famously never comes ashore, takes one look at you and comes back here to this shitty tavern once a fucking month for six fucking months, apologises for being away for so long without telling you, threatens to personally skin anyone who lays a hand to you, and —”
“— wait, what?”
“Oh.” Harrow’s dark eyes widened guiltily. “You didn’t know?”
“No, I didn’t know! What the fuck?”
Harrow shifted his weight. “I only learned about it when I overheard Lannicka grousing about how she wanted to teach you a lesson but didn’t want to wake up in a fucking web, dangling off a spar on her own ship…” He cleared his throat and glanced at the floor between his dark goat’s hooves. Behind him, his tail swished back and forth. “Turns out your captain overheard someone a few nights ago down at the docks laughing about getting you to spill ale all down your shirt, and he let it be known that the way people treated you was… ‘unacceptable’…”
“I wondered why people had backed off a bit this week,” you muttered. “I just thought they’d finally had enough fun and got bored with picking on the human.” You wanted to be angry with him for doing it behind your back, but it had made your work noticeably easier.
Harrow looked across the common room and his tapered ears pulled back suddenly, his multiple earrings flashing in the lamplight. “His first mate’s looking at you. She just pointed at you and beckoned you over.”
With a sigh, you turned your back on Harrow and looked at Ellary. She cocked her head to one side in a silent, expectant question.
“Go,” Harrow said. “I’ll miss the fuck out of you, but —”
“That doesn’t even make sense,” you laughed, already taking your apron off. You hugged him and he hugged you back. “Thank you for taking care of me,” you said. “You could have been like everyone else, but you weren’t, and I’ll always love you for that.”
He squeezed you more tightly. “Don’t forget about me, alright?”
“Never,” you promised, and set your apron on the counter top. “And thank Silas for me too,” you said. “He could have turned me away.”
“Still could have treated you better,” Harrow growled, canines showing.
You shrugged. “Doesn’t matter now though, does it?” you said, and grabbed the small bag you'd packed earlier and stowed beneath the bar. “Take care, alright?”
He nodded. “You too.”
When Ellary saw the bag in your hand, she grinned and stood up. Beside her, the delicate cervitaur rose from the soft cushion they’d been seated on — or, more appropriately, draped across like a slightly wilted lily — and flicked an ear at you.
“You’re coming along, then,” Ellary said, clapping you on the shoulder hard enough to send you staggering. You reeled backwards and found yourself righted by the crab-folk merman, who laughed like an open drain.
“I hope your sea-legs are better than that, friend,” he guffawed, snapping his pincers like percussion instruments.
“Last time I used my sea legs, I was eight,” you said, embarrassed. “I’ll be lucky if I’m not throwing up over the sides before we leave port.”
“Ah, Anneke has a potion or concoction for everything, seasickness included. You’ll be fine. Come on,” he said, and he chivvied you out of the tavern amid a forest of astonished gazes from the patrons.
When you reached the harbour, with the small fishing boats gently bobbing and the larger ships creaking and swaying at their stone quays, you had begun to wonder what you’d got yourself into. Ellary had strode along on huge, near-silent hooves, her scarlet coat flapping open to reveal only the thick fur of her pelt and the vaguest impression of her physique underneath, and Macs, the crab-folk — who apparently never shut up unless Ellary threatened to put him in a cook pot — had talked himself hoarse about their plans for the coming weeks’ sailing, while Phlox, the cervitaur, had tittered at almost every joke Macs made. You snorted softly through your nose when you realised that the most fearsome and mythical pirate crew of the era were actually a bunch of kind-hearted dorks.
“Something funny, human?” Macs asked, glancing sidelong at you while you all headed along the stone dock towards the sleeping figure of the Widow’s Web where she rocked quietly in the darkness.
“You know what?” you said, “I was actually afraid of you lot when you first walked into the tavern.”
“Ha!” he barked, and elbowed you in the ribs so hard you actually tripped over your feet at last and went sprawling sideways onto the stones. Or at least, you would have done, had Ellary not anticipated it and grabbed you at the last minute and hauled you up again with her huge hands.
“For fuck’s sake,” she muttered. “Can’t even take you to collect a new crew member without you causing physical harm to someone, Macs,” she said, and then looked at you. “He’s our master gunner, believe it or not.”
You raised your eyebrows and he clacked his pincers together. “Ain’t no one able to make a shot like me, human,” he grinned. “You can bet your unarmoured hide on it.”
“I’ll take your word for it.”
“I’ll show you, soon as we clear the reef tomorrow,” he said, puffing his chest up enough that Phlox giggled again and he looked mightily pleased with himself.
“I live with a bunch of buffoons,” Ellary said dryly and ushered you up the gangplank ahead of her, probably so that if you tripped, she could catch you before you toppled head-first into the salty, sloshing muck of the harbour at high tide.
A flap of dark wings from the rigging above made you look up once you were aboard, and a black-feathered kenku dropped to the deck. In Ellary’s own voice, using what was clearly a carefully-curated selection of her own words, parroted back at her, they said, “About time you got here. Captain’s gonna start spitting webs in a minute.”
Ellary snorted a laugh and turned to introduce you to the kenku. “This is Specs,” she said, gesturing at the avian creature. “Lookout and navigation.”
“Pleasure,” you said, muttering your own name.
In Macs’ voice this time, Specs cackled, “Nice to have new blood aboard.”
“C’mon. I’ll show you where to put your stuff, and we’ll find our illustrious, brooding captain, shall we?” Ellary sighed.
Knocking on the carved, ebony door of the captain’s quarters a short while later, Ellary didn’t wait to be called in, barging her shoulder against the salt-warped wood and stepping in with the familiar ease of a lifelong friend.
Part of you had expected to find webs slung in the corners and the carcasses of dessicated animals dangling from the ceiling, but of course, it was just a simply but comfortably furnished cabin, with a large desk smothered in charts and navigational instruments. The captain himself was standing behind it, his body little more than a dark silhouette against the large window at the rear of the ship, and his silver hair dangling like a drifting ghost in the light breeze that wafted in with Ellary.
The minotaur shoved you into the room and saluted the captain without a word before leaving, closing the door behind her.
“You… You decided to come?” he faltered, sounding unsure of himself for the first time.
You nodded. “I do have a bone to pick with you though, Captain,” you added and he cocked his head.
“Oh?”
“What’s this I hear about you threatening to flay people on my behalf?”
He did have the good grace to look embarrassed about that, and dropped his onyx gaze to the floor. “I apologise,” he said. “I lost my temper with someone in the docks, and did nothing to stop the spread of the rumour once it started.”
You shrugged. “Figured that was how it had gone.”
“Did Ellary show you your quarters?” he asked, as much to change the subject as to find out the answer.
With a nod, you looked around his cabin. “Nicer than a mouldy mattress in the Kipper’s storeroom,” you said. “When do we sail?”
“With the tide,” he said. “I’d almost abandoned hope you were coming with us.”
“Why did you want me, really?” you asked with narrowed eyes.
He sighed and came around the desk to stand in front of you, his prosthetic making a soft ‘pinging’ noise on the wood as the wickedly sharp tip pulled free with each step. You wondered, not for the first time, how he’d lost the limb, but didn’t ask.
“I warmed to you the moment you spoke to me,” he said simply. “You were afraid, but you still came over, and you were… yourself. The others… they all know my — our— reputation, and that changes how they speak to me, how they act around my crew, but you remained yourself, and I admired that.”
Swallowing, you tried not to choke. Other than Harrow, no one had ever made you feel like you were worth more than a passing moment their time, but here was the most successful pirate captain in the known kingdoms, telling you he thought that who you were was valuable to his crew. To his family.
“Look, you must be tired,” he said, clearly reading your emotions and not wanting to overwhelm you. “Why don’t you settle in for the night? We’ll sail within the hour, but you don’t have to do anything. Of course, you’re welcome wherever you like on the ship, but no one will ask anything of you just yet.”
Blinking through your tears you nodded and choked out a vague ‘thank you’ before vanishing below.
It was three days before you felt like you could contribute anything useful, and, just as he’d promised, no one asked anything of you until then.
After three months as part of the crew, you knew you were never going to set foot on land again willingly, and you understood why they just kept sailing from prize to prize. It was bliss. Even in the worst of the weather, you felt safe. Anneke, the weather witch, kept the most violent of storms from touching the ship, and the crew knew their business, tightening and trimming the rigging and the sails til the ship fairly thrummed with the joy of being at sea.
Ellary, you came to learn over the course of many an evening, had a dry sense of humour that left you breathless before guffawing a great laugh that would have made you self-conscious before, and Macs was just as bad. He was a practical joker, but never in a way that made you feel small or embarrassed. You met the other elusive members of the crew as well — those who had not felt confident or comfortable in coming ashore — and you fell slowly in love with all of them in their own way. Minal, an aqrabuamelu with a scorpion’s body and a human’s torso, was the cheery chef of the ship, and Gráinne, a selkie with a voice like singing glass and a burn scar across her face, was the ship’s quartermaster. Others on the crew included another minotaur named Wilf, a huge but incredibly sweet gnoll with a habit of giggling at the most inappropriate of moments, and a twitchy werefox named Keel who still treated you with suspicion, even after three months.
But above all, you found yourself drawn back to the captain. He stood on the deck with the wind in his hair and a smile on his handsome, inhuman face, and he looked truly relaxed. His strange body absorbed the motion of the sea and the rocking of the ship, and he would just as happily spend the morning dangling from his webs amid the rigging, scouting the horizon with Specs, as on the solid deck below, but oddly enough, when he seemed most happy, he was with you.
He taught you to read the charts properly and to map the course of the sun, to plot the stars and read the ocean currents and the patterns of the birds. He introduced you to the colony of orca merfolk who hunted just off the shore and provided information on the movements of the Imperial navy. He ate with the crew on the deck on warm nights, laughing shyly and encouraging them to play their instruments and dance and sing. Keel was a talented violinist, and Harrik, the gnoll, would always watch him with wide, dark, bashful eyes. It was unbearably sweet.
One night, as you leaned back on your hands and tilted your face to the stars while the others continued their revels, you caught a huge sigh from the captain, and glanced up just as he looked away from you and rose to stalk away towards the stern of the ship.
With a little frown, you noticed the way Ellary shook her head too, and when you met her gaze she rolled her red eyes and said under her breath so that no one else would hear above Keel’s lively gig, “Go after him, for pity’s sake.”
You nodded, and slipped away from the others. Climbing the stairs to the deck above the captain’s quarters, where you weren’t really supposed to be, you found him staring out over the ship’s wake, leaning his forearms on the taffrail and resting his great spider body on the boards of the ship’s deck. He looked small and sad and deflated in a way you’d never known, and it sent a frisson of worry through you.
“Captain?” you asked.
He startled a little despite the noise your boots had made on the stairs, and he twitched around to look at you. His breath caught audibly in the moonlight and you watched him swallow. “Yes?”
“Are you alright, Captain?”
His large eyes turned especially glassy for a second and he looked away. “Yes,” he lied.
“Captain, you —”
“It’s Ruven.”
“What?”
“My name. It’s Ruven.”
“Oh,” you breathed, wondering how you’d gone so long without learning it. Then again, everyone called him ‘captain’ with the same affection they called you ‘human’. “Can I join you, Ruven?”
Slowly, and with an unbearable sadness in his eyes, he looked back over his shoulder at you. He was wearing only an undyed linen shirt, and it flapped loosely around his lean torso in the breeze. It made you want to touch, to draw it up to expose the musculature and chitinous plating underneath, to explore his body with your hands. “Yes,” he said quietly.
You approached on his right side and watched as he drew his long legs in a little closer to his body, as if to welcome you further into his space. You leaned your weight carefully against his steel prosthetic, knowing it could take it, and he let out a shaky breath.
He towered over you but you’d never felt more at ease with someone, and he nestled a little further down to accommodate your height. You smiled at him. “Thank you, Ruven,” you said, trying out his name again and enjoying the sound of it on your tongue.
“For what?”
You shrugged and stared out at the dark sea, a little overwhelmed. Little flashes of phosphorescence danced on the ship’s wake, like a heartbeat in the depths. “For giving me a family again,” you said with a glance back at the crew who were capering about on the deck below. “For making me feel loved.”
“You are loved,” he said without hesitation. He exhaled your name and leaned down to take your fingers in his dark grey hands. “You are loved,” he said again with sincerity burning in his black eyes. “Never doubt that.”
You smiled up at him, and gently tugged one hand free of his, then reached up to cup his sharp face in your palm. “I don’t. Not now.” You ran the pad of your thumb along his right mandible and he shuddered bodily, eyes rolling shut with a rasping breath. “You’re so beautiful,” you whispered.
A second or two later, a large, slow tear rolled from one eye, down his cheek to splash onto the deck between you.
“Ruven?”
“No one has ever said that to me,” he croaked, nudging his cheek further into your palm without opening his eyes again. “Terrible, monstrous, ruthless… but never beautiful.”
“Always beautiful,” you said, and he picked you up.
He held you to his chest, supported by the knees of his forelegs, and hugged you. His hands began to wander and you gasped, arching into his touch.
“Take me below,” you whispered and he smiled. “I’m yours.”
He didn’t linger, scuttling silently down the gangway to his cabin and closing the door behind him.
He laid you down on his large, soft bed and took you apart with slow kisses and lingering touches until you were moaning his name and shaking with a pleasure you never dared dream would be yours.
“Come over me,” you gasped as he kissed you where you were most sensitive, enjoying the taste and feel of you. “Please, I need —”
“Don’t encourage me,” he laughed. “I’m so close, and I’m making such a mess…”
You looked up at that and saw that he was dripping clear fluid from his abdomen onto the floor beside the bed.
“I’ve never made such a mess,” he laughed again.
“Please…”
He shifted his legs, looming over you again, and he rubbed his sensitive core over your legs, enjoying the slide of your bodies together at last. In three strokes, he came undone and cried out, arching his human spine to bring his spider’s body close to you, and he came with a yell in a wave over your lower body, his legs twitching and his body convulsing.
When he was utterly spent, he lay down beside you on his back and you curled up next to his cool, human torso, tracing the lines of chitin plating where his abdomen blended into the soft, moonlight fur of his spider’s body. He twitched occasionally but otherwise lay still and stared at you with his black eyes.
“I love you,” he said, apropos nothing.
You kissed him and let his mandibles rake tenderly over your cheeks while he kissed you back. “I love you too, Captain,” you smiled and he groaned into the kiss. “I love you too.”
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Thanks for reading this story, and I hope you’ll consider reblogging it (as well as leaving a like) if you enjoyed it, as that will help others find it.
Take care, and I hope you have a lovely day/night wherever you are, and whenever you read this.
Masterlist | Ko-fi (tip jar)
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Consider... if you will... spider monster shibari...
Being tied up by some sort of hot spider person as they weave back and forth to tie you up in such a nice way
Imagine being a spider person and tying up your tasty little morsel with your own silk, weaving to and fro until You're watching them writhe, restrained by your handiwork, gift wrapped just for you... <3
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space-blue · 2 months
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BG3 Fic Feb, comic edition, day 18 :
Everyone's favourite Drider, Kar'niss
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No lighting and png without background, lineart, all below the cut.
I wanted to add my Tav and Gale on his back, but from the moment I decided to paint, it became a no go. I'm getting fast, but not THAT fast...
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edenspetals · 5 months
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𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒎𝒂𝒅 𝒔𝒄𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒕
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inky-black · 3 months
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Ig: @the_sepp_tattoo
Leipzig, Germany
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frostiecake · 9 months
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Have some poorly drawn monster ASS trio!!
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We got Fire Monster Sam, Crow Harpy Abby, and Tarantula Seb!
Some lore on the fire monsters! In their natural state, they lack facial feature, but lately younger generations have started mimicking expressions with paler flames! This means if their focus of making facial expressions is broken, whether that be intense emotion, focusing on something else, or simply forgetting, their face will distort and eventually disappear until redone, since it’s done manually. Also no bones
With Sam himself, I imagine human Sam has heterochromia, and I decided to translate this into fire terms by making some of his flames blue!
I don’t really have much lore for spider monsters or harpies, but if anyone has any suggestions they would be greatly appreciated!
You can use these designs/interpretations, or take inspiration from them as long as you tag me in the post!
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chernobog13 · 10 months
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Some of the bad guys Infra-Man has to battle to save the world: Fire Dragon, Spider Monster, Plant Monster, Mutant Drill, Long-Haired Monster, and the Iron Armor Monsters.
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itsthebeastpeddler · 7 months
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The first of my Mab's Drawlloween Club beasts, a spooky self portrait. This tracks actually.. the posture, the thousand yard stare, the unkempt hair. Although this guy looks a bit lankier than me. I'm only like 5'4".
Ozyx will be in the shop today at 2pm et, though my lovely patrons have a chance to adopt early, as always. Happy First Day of Halloween!
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Too touchy too touchy
Artist: @spemmort
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edenspetals · 5 months
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𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕-𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒐 𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆𝒓
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a strong arm loops your waist and your head flushes to a red-cladded chest as you listen to a speedy heartbeat that mimics your own. a shaky breath is all you exhales and in turn feel a reassuring squeeze around your body as one last swing of web brings you to safety atop a building.
there you are, the cold wind of the city fanning your face as you look upon your masked boyfriend. “do I get to see you?” comes your shaky breath. “o-or did I nearly fall to my death only to not see your face?”
with that, the tech mask dissipates, revealing a tender, smiling expression of maroon eyes and curly hair. with his arm still around you, the hero tugs you closer by the waist and he dips his head to ensure you see the truth in his hues.
“now,” his free hand raises, a cruxed-index finger tilting your head up. “I promised I’d never let you fall. I meant that.”
the reaffirmation of his vow makes you exhale and so you bring your head to rest on his shoulder while his hand cups the back of your head, fingers easing a massage upon your scalp.
“although. . .”
red-tinted lips flush to your ear. “I’m beginning to think you’re purposefully putting yourself in these situations just to be saved by the scarlet spider.”
your light smack to his chest sends his hearty laugh into the air and soon he’s intertwining your fingers in his before bringing your hand to his lips for a kiss to knuckles. “meant what I said, sundari. I’ll keep you safe, no matter what.”
and so he hoists you closer. “ready to go home? think we need some hot chocolate and cuddles after that one.”
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valentine-cafe · 5 months
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 . ˚◞♡ 𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒐'𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒂 209 — spider-monster mad scientist◞ ₊˚
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⊹ ۪ ࣪ ᥫ᭡ “ eyes on me, mi cielo. . . those pretty eyes are just for me, huh? all mine. even when you have long since passed, I shall hold your heart within my hands ” ꒱
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˖ ࣪ earth: 209
˖ ࣪ face claim refs: ( x ) ( x ) ( x ) ( x ) ( x )
˖ ࣪  species: spider/symbiote-mutate
˖ ࣪  ethnicity: mexican-indian ( awadhi-tamil )
˖ ࣪  age: 38
˖ ࣪  gender: male-presenting ( but works on the way people perceive him on different days )
˖ ࣪  mbti: istj
˖ ࣪  aliases: carnage ( heroes ), the mad scientist ( the resistance ), the lunatic ( the resistance ), the scarlet plague ( mutants/resistance )
˖ ࣪ about: as whimpers echo the dimly lit laboratory, a pair of keen maroon eyes gaze down at their latest experiment, pupils nearly constrict into slits from excitement. yet rishen o’hara feels another uneasy feeling along his rather androgynous face, the threat of his added spider features comprised of three more pairs of eyes; and yet he forces it down. dipping closer to the poor mutant, his medium-length, dark brown hair that is fluffy, curly and layered, slips from its spot place upon his shoulders and tickles the face of the one below him. a soft croon of fake kindness sounds from him, revealing his fangs, along with venom piercings at the tip of his tongue. his hand that reaches out to grab a syringe is adorned in rings and extends sharp, deep red nails along with finger pads that hide retractable claws. those red lips curl into a sadistic smile at the squirming and he tilts his head in amusement — causing light to shine upon his septum piercing and nose ring. along with the beauty spot at the corner of his right eye and a few more scattered. after yanking the syringe out, he draws back, rising to his full height of 6’2” ( 187cm ). he stretches to relieve his aching body, showing off his slender physique with hints of lean muscle, yet all the more androgynous. with small rolls of his neck, the piercings along his ears are revealed; a pair of standard lobe and industrial piercings — his right ear dons a transverse lobe, rook, orbital and snug piercing while his left ear holds a daith, stacked helix and forward helix piercing. with the unease growing he turns to his corner of the lab, yet hears shuffling — a large, black and scarlet tendril shoots out from his back and wraps around the mutant’s jaw, forcing their head back into the metal table as he tuts before turning back. eyes on his stabilisers, he groans at the sharp pain to his back, the thought of those long, four spider-like appendages tearing through his flesh, dark and spiked. and so he takes his stabiliser, rolling his shoulders back so that the satin material of his maroon poet shirt strains, flushing against nipple and navel piercings beneath. such an outfit comprises of dark trousers and heeled ankle-boots; along with his lab coat. one of many feminine, classy outfits of his wardrobe. after a moment of easing himself temporarily of his mutated genes, those sharp eyes cast over to his victim. along with that cunning smile that strikes fear into the hearts of many.
deceptive are his eyes, his smile — everything about his body language and the way he formulates his words. charming and so sickeningly-sweet, his kindness and comforting touch is so convincing. there isn’t one thing about him that’d strike anyone as a man with grim intentions and ulterior-motives. . . unless they are a mutant finding themself spread out on his examination table. even so, he keeps his kind face, the caring and comforting facade, while cooing at them. his whole aura is eerie, even when he is experimenting, it is unclear what his true intentions are. should people begin to grow concerned with him he would be quick to shut them down with his silver-tongued reassurances and his charisma. he barely needs to lift a finger when it comes to convincing others that he is but a friendly businessmen that charms those around him effortlessly.he enjoys playing mind-games on people, allowing them to see him and then bring them back into trusting him. his quick wit and intelligence are great weapon of his — giving him so many more advantages in his morally evil deeds. when you run a city you must have the brains to do it, no? while conniving and incredibly cunning, his cool confidence exudes off of him — everything always seems so effortless and elegant when it comes to him. he is certain that his actions are for the betterment of humanity and dwells in his self-righteousness beyond measure. rishen believes that this is the true path to a greater, more orderly world and he stays stubborn in his opinions, as much as he is stubborn with his work and himself. this can lead to him overworking, spending hours in his lab, day and night without putting much care for himself on the line. instead he puts work in front of him as one of his number one priorities. while he appears serene he is can be quite temperamental, yet displays his anger and bitterness in a scarily calm way with a charming smile and smooth words in spite of his horrific actions. should you ever be so unlucky to be one of those that his eyes find they like looking at, be prepared for his obsessive and possessive behaviour, he is indulgent. he will do whatever it takes to get what he wants. . . and he always gets what he wants.
rishen's childhood was nothing of the normal, his father was a scientist who experimented and tortured many other mutants of their world. at the young age of seven, his father began experimenting on him. his father was obsessed with the idea of creating something similar to the spider-man of their world. this led to endless experiments that broke rishen’s mind at a young age. while he did not succeed, he gave rishen monstrous abilities and a lack of control, leaving him unstable. rishen loses his mother, who had earlier lost her mind due to the treatment of her husband — something that rishen hates his father for. at the age of seventeen, mutants escaped the lab and caused havoc, resulting in his father being severely wounded and in his lab, toxic fumes brimming the room. rishen rushes to the lab to finds his father immobilised and demanding for help. however, instead of saving him — rishen locks the lab doors and watches as father eventually died, all while rishen barely gave any sort of reaction. he makes up a lie for the press and law officials. from that day, rishen inherited the scientific megacompany that his father ran, alchemax, and vows to ‘dedicate his life to complete his father’s work.’ throughout his highschool career, rishen befriended zhao jingyi. this morphed into an obsessive love in university and eventually a romantic relationship. after graduating, rishen works fulltime as alchemax’s ceo with jingyi as his co-chairmen. rishen puts on the front of a kind and polite businessman, yet he is anything but that. he spends his days kidnapping and experimenting on mutants trying to decipher their x-gene so that he can not only find a way to control mutants but also find a cure for his mutation. 
that charming personality does not fade with a lover, rishen is often quite flirty and all sorts of teasing with his beloved. one of his favourite pass-times is seeing you flustered, all so that he can snatch you by the waist, pull you closer and tease you even further — mumbling about how cute you are with that blush over your features. his affection is mainly displayed in a physical manner. he simply cannot keep his hands, and more especially, his lips off of you, resulting in kisses scattered all over your face, neck, hands — anything that you will allow and that he can worship, he will. another form of his affection is through gifts. he adores spoiling you with a wide variety of whatever it is you either need or want. always bringing home new clothes and accessories for you to try, some in his colours, of course. he is also very verbal in his love for you and shameless in every way; his tongue holds no filter. should he wish to express what he is feeling towards you, he shall. late night dances in his office, bringing you coffees or teas through the day, and finding you in the middle of the day simply to pour his affection out on you. he is a very passionate and dedicated lover — however, there is a darker side to it. rishen grows obsessive and quite possessive, his nature that of a yandere. he takes it to the extremes, getting rid of those that he thinks are not only a threat to you but your relationship with him. should someone merely look at you in a way he deems wrong, it is their funeral. do not fight him on this, he’ll lock you away for his eyes only; simply. . . behave, and he will be the kindest, most adoring lover.
˖ ࣪ strengths: 
˖ ࣪ ଓ intelligence: highly intelligent from a young age, resulting in advanced, prodigal level of skill in science and technological fields
˖ ࣪ ଓ increased bodily function: advanced strength, speed, agility and durability.
˖ ࣪ ଓ heightened senses: advanced sight, smell, hearing, taste and awareness of surroundings.
˖ ࣪ ଓ healing factor: an average healing factor that heals his injuries far quicker than an average human
˖ ࣪ ଓ tendrils: strong, resilient, red and black tendril-like appendages that can be produced from his back and extend from his hands
˖ ࣪ ଓ spider legs: large spider legs that tear through his back at times, it is extremely painful for him but are very useful in combat.
˖ ࣪ ଓ fangs & claws: retractable fangs that secrete paralyzing venom at will along with retractable claws from the pads of his fingers that can tear through a variety of materials.
˖ ࣪ weaknesses: 
˖ ࣪ ଓ mutation: his mutation as a whole, while it does grant him a wide variety of abilities is also his greatest weakness. his fangs and claws can hurt immensely when they push through his flesh and often cause him spouts or agony. his advanced senses can result in migraines and overstimulation. the spider legs that produce from his back tear through his flesh and hurt quite a bit. he has episodes in which all of these occurrences can happen together.  
˖ ࣪ ଓ metabolism: has an extremely fast metabolism that requires him eating *a lot* through the day. if he does not eat for long periods of time, he can either get very weak or become terribly erratic, and will immediately switch to the mindset that is: “i need something to eat and i will eat anything.”
˖ ࣪ ଓ abandonment issues: he suffers from horrible abandonment issues, which can cause him to get erratic and panicked whenever someone he loves does leave him on purpose after arguments, tiffs, etc. he cannot stay without his beloved for too long without getting irritable or sour.
˖ ࣪ ଓ heart condition: suffers from a heart condition that requires him taking medication in order to make sure his heart stays stable.
˖ ࣪ ଓ stabilisers: in order to control his mutation, he is required to inject himself with stabilisers on an alternating daily basis. should he not, his abilities grow out of control and have a negative affect on his personal well-being.
˖ ࣪ relationships: 
˖ ࣪ ଓ jingyi o’hara: husband, best friend, business partner
˖ ࣪ ଓ miguel o’hara: father, deceased 
˖ ࣪ ଓ rishima singhania: mother, deceased 
˖ ࣪ ଓ alessio agresta arias: best friend, deceased 
˖ ࣪ ଓ wei lixue: enemey 
˖ ࣪ ଓ shao lisheng: enemy 
˖ ࣪ ଓ zhao haitao: enemy 
˖ ࣪ ଓ lorenzo agresta arias: enemy 
˖ ࣪ ଓ park tae-hyun: enemy
˖ ࣪ extra: 
˖ ࣪ ଓ he is the ceo of alchemax and practically runs the city of nueva york 
˖ ࣪ ଓ he is also the supervillain known as carnage 
˖ ࣪ ଓ speaks spanish ( latin american ), speaks mandarin, speaks hindi, speaks tamil.
˖ ࣪ ଓ he knows asl.
˖ ࣪ ଓ has a cat named beauregard. ( his and his husband’s “son” )
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inky-black · 3 months
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Ig: @the_sepp_tattoo
Leipzig, Germany
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