#“and to the victor goes my heart” on ao3 ^^

[ar1adne-hopelesslover]

Jedtavius wedding art!! It doesn't rlly read well but hey, at least I tried

[suzukiblu]

this is a question that is not meant to come off as judgemental, and if it does i apologise and you don’t have to answer

for you, or anyone out there in the world if they see this,

What is the appeal of (the?) Omegaverse?

Ive never quite gotten it? And it might be the big bold orange, blue and white letters spelling out aroace, or being european, younger than most people who are knowledgeable about that particular genre of content (still 18+) and while I did get on the internet at 11, I didn’t start reading fanfic until 14-15

this is a long and rambly ask so I just want to clarify, this is a genuine question I would like an answer to, no matter how short and sweet, or long and convoluted it may be

It's all good, I don't mind getting questions! And, like, I've written a LOT of omegaverse, so it's a thoroughly relevant question to this blog, haha.

. . . and this definitely wound up long and convoluted. So like, yeah, we are SO gonna need a read-more here, friend. 😅

Obviously everyone's gonna have their own reasons for liking the genre, but as another (much older, I'm assuming) aroace, for me the appeal is the opportunity to use the tag "Fantasy Gender Roles". Like, there's other stuff there, def, but "Fantasy Gender Roles" is my favorite part. Omegaverse is a game where the rules are made-up and the points don't matter, and you can interpret and re-interpret the involved sexes and genders however the heck you wanna, and in fact are ENCOURAGED to. I also really like certain tropes that are common to the genre, like pack dynamics and breeding kink and having babies and feral behavior and courting/courting rituals, I just really enjoy playing with and reading about all of those.

Also, the worldbuilding. I get to do ✨GENDER-BASED WORLDBUILDING✨.

And obvi, like, some people are just into omegaverse for the kink/porn factor, which is totally fair, but personally I am here for ✨GENDER-BASED WORLDBUILDING✨. And then also the kink/porn. Generally speaking a recurring comment I've gotten from a lot of readers is "I literally hate omegaverse but I love yours", so a lot of my stuff is allegedly a decent jumping-on point for the genre if you're looking for that. Like, I'm not the only person who writes omegaverse the way I do, obviously, just I'm a pretty accessible one who's written a LOT of it.

( and in the event you DO want any jumping-on omegaverse recs from my stuff, I'mma just pop a few of them from various fandoms here. no DC-related ones 'cuz I don't have any of those currently on AO3, only scattered in my WIP tags, but hopefully something helpful will be in here. )

original fic

to the victor go the spoils - human omega OMC/dragon [ GENDER NOT FOUND ] OMC; 16.7k; explicit Fantasy AU. This one includes porn but honestly the heart of it is just one of those fairy tales where the protagonist is somehow both incredibly genre-savvy in their story and yet still a total fucking idiot about other people's feelings, and especially considering it's original fic, it is honestly one of the most popular things I've ever posted, hah.

The dragon arrived early in the morning, and by noon the entire village was in a panic in the town hall. No one in the village knew anything about dragons, aside from what they’d heard in fairy tales and stories, and the plans for dealing with it were about that level of sophisticated.

“We’re not sacrificing a virgin to the dragon,” Viktor said in exasperation.

“Well what would YOU do?!” the mayor demanded.

“I’m going to go talk to it,” Viktor said reasonably, and got up from his seat and went to do just that.

.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

does the pain feel better when I'm around? - beta!Sokka/omega!Zuko, beta!Sokka/beta!Suki, past alpha!Mai/omega!Zuko, polyamory; 3k; teen Societal dynamics-focused fic. Zuko goes into heat at the Western Air Temple immediately after the Boiling Rock happens and goes off to den down alone and stay out of everyone's way without realizing that the local betas are gonna lose their ever-lovin' MINDS about that.

“Cool,” he says. “You realize we’ve been looking for you for, like, two HOURS, right?”

“Why?” Zuko asks, sounding confused, which is kind of sad.

“Because the world is full of people who wanna kill you and you didn’t bother telling anyone where you were going?” Sokka says. “Obviously?”

“Oh.” Zuko falls silent. Sokka glances moonwards in supplication. Yue save him from dumb, dumb firebenders.

every act of communication is a miracle of translation - alpha!Mai/omega!Zuko; 5.7k; teen Post-series fic where Mai and Zuko are about to spend their first cycle together and they're both really awkward about working out how it should go. Not actually a sequel to "does the pain feel better when I'm around?", but you could definitely draw a relationship between 'em.

They leave the office, Mai pretending that all her senses aren’t full of Zuko’s warm, spicy scent, and he keeps looking worried. She wonders if it’s THIS he’s worried about, now that she’s thinking about it. They agreed they’d share their next cycles together, but again, they haven’t really talked about it.

They can talk about it now, Mai thinks.

Unfortunately, that means now they actually have to talk about it.

.

Overwatch

even if I do I don't, even if I could I won't - omega!Genji/beta!the-character-who-was-at-the-time-I-wrote-this-fic-known-as-McCree; 5.1k; explicit Blackwatch-era fic where Genji did not fill out his heat partner designation forms and "Fuck or Suffer Unspecified Health Consequences" is gonna make that a problem. Worldbuilding, assisted negotiation, a touch of workplace-influenced pack dynamics, and porn.

“Yeah, you’re hilarious, kid,” Gabe says. “Get back to work. And Shimada, call your heat partner and we’ll see you next week.”

Shimada’s shoulders tense. Gabe . . . pauses.

“Shimada,” he says slowly. “PLEASE tell me you have a heat partner on base.”

“I have a heat partner on base,” Shimada lies. Gabe and Jesse both stare at him, then Gabe calls up his file, takes one look at it, and starts cursing.

don't, don't, don't let's start (I've got a weak heart) - alpha!Genji/omega!the-character-who-was-at-the-time-I-wrote-this-fic-known-as-McCree; 17.3k; explicit Blackwatch-era fic about Genji and the character formerly known as McCree dealing with their complicated feelings about each other and also the cybernetics and trauma and physical disabilities that are fucking up their sex life, including ED.

“You busy?” he asks. Genji stares at him in bemusement, which is fair. Genji’s only ever busy when they’re on a mission or he’s in the middle of an upgrade. “Dumb question. My heat’s coming on, wanna do me a favor?”

“What favor?” Genji asks, still looking mystified. Jesse tries not to laugh at him.

“The obvious one,” he says meaningfully, tipping his hat back and raising his eyebrows at him. Genji looks no less mystified for a moment, then startles. “THERE we go."

.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

come hang (let's go out with a bang) - omega!Darcy Lewis/omega!Johnny Storm; 5k; teen Darcy almost dies again, tries to figure out which omega buys the courting gifts in an omega/omega relationship, and has her first date with a super-hot superhero.

“Was there traffic?” Jane asks.

“I have a date with Johnny Storm,” Darcy says.

“What?” Jane says.

“Oh, and I almost died again,” Darcy says, pulling out Jane’s papers for her. “But that’s kind of secondary.”

“WHAT?!”

pack up, don't stray (oh say say say) - alpha!Natasha + polyamory; 3.4k; teen Natasha collects a harem pack and Captain America is fucking difficult about it.

Natasha is an alpha on a mission, and that mission is simple and clear.

I said you're holding back, she said shut up and dance with me - alpha!Peggy/omega!Steve/omega!Bucky; 10.3k; mature Alternate timeline where Steve and Bucky don't "die" and they all run away from the States to get married and start a family. Illegal adoption and biokids and lowkey pack dynamics involving figuring out how to fold pups into their lives, oh my!! And also, they all get to dance.

“One alpha mating two omegas? Really, Steve?” Peggy asks, mouth quirking wryly. “What WOULD the newsreels say?”

“We’ll go to France,” Steve says. “No one will care in France.”

“I do love France,” she muses.

oh don't you dare hold back, just keep your eyes on me - alpha!Darcy/omega!Bucky, polyamory; 187.4k; explicit MY MAGNUM OPUS, MY WHITE WHALE, THE LITERAL REASON OMEGAVERSE TOOK OVER HALF MY BLOG FOR HALF MY STINT IN MCU FANDOM. I wanted a goddamn female alpha and I wanted that female alpha to be Darcy Lewis, and Bucky was my fave blorbo at the time so the inevitable happened. The inevitable happened for three and a half years and 187,430 words, to be more precise.

Darcy is thirty feet out of Stark-cum-Avengers Tower when she starts craving cinnamon rolls--the sticky-sweet iced-up old-fashioned kind, yummy and messy and dripping gooshy icing all over your mouth and hands and down your yuuuup, yup, that is a super, super fertile omega that she is smelling, holy SHIT is it ever.

“Jesus Christ,” she groans in frustration, then follows her alpha instincts (and, more easily and importantly, her NOSE) to go track them down. They’re in the middle of New York City; middle of the day or not, not checking on somebody who smells like THAT is, like, the ultimate dick move.

.

OKAY SELF THAT'S ENOUGH LINKS, WE MOVE ON NOW, haha.

I will also say, if you're interested in, like, gender-exploratory AU concepts, apiary genders might be more your thing and more easily accessible for you? It's a MUCH newer thing than omegaverse and really only has a few fics around, some of which are linked in the "inspired by" of that AO3 primer linked above, but the concept is a bit more strongly "hive"-based than a lot of omegaverse is "pack"-based, and also there's no physical differences from baseline. I've got a WIP or two going about apiary myself, actually, but I haven't gotten too far into them yet, alas. The only one I've posted anything from is this one Superbat one.

[ya-killin-me-smalls]

short stupid vicmos sickfic from a stream I did months ago that I finally finished. too short for AO3 so under the cut it goes

-

"You should call outta work. And like, the rest of the week too."

"'m fine…"

"Vic, you look like shit. Seriously."

"I'll be fine, Deimos, I just gotta… gotta…" his voice trails off, Victor sagging against the wall to his left and then Deimos is moving on reflex, hopping over the back of the sofa to catch him before he can fall.

He gets an arm under Victor's shoulders, supporting most of his weight and guiding him back toward the couch. "'Fine' my ass."

Victor makes a raspy, groggy noise of protest, somewhere between a curse and a whine, but doesn't have the strength to actually fight his way out of Deimos's arms. "You're gonna get yourself sick too," he complains, voice harsh in a way that makes Deimos wince.

Pale. Eyes glassy and unfocused. His legs throw in the towel as soon as they reach the edge of the couch, Victor resting his head back against the cushion and staring blankly at the ceiling. Deimos presses the back of his hand against Victor's forehead, then frowns.

"Do we have something for fevers lying around somewhere? You're hot as fuck."

"Not too bad yourself."

"Vic, I am so serious right now."

"Hm? Oh… uh… I dunno. Just check the uh… the thing."

The thing. Not helpful. There's a million things in this stupid little apartment.

Deimos starts with the kitchen, leaving a blanket at Victor's side so he can go rummage through cabinets and drawers, digging through cans and spices and bottles with labels he can't pronounce. Vic will be upset later about his organization being messed up, but that's a future-Deimos problem.

No meds.

He spares a glance toward the couch on his way to the bathroom. Victor hasn't moved. Usually things are the other way around, Deimos delirious with fever while Victor takes care of him and frets over his health. He's good at that. Deimos feels stupid when he rounds the corner and his eyes immediately land on the medicine cabinet on the wall. He probably should've checked there first. The box of pills is right there on the middle shelf. Deimos tears off two of the little foil packets, then heads back to the living room.

"Where'd you go?" Victor asks, now lying on his side and using the blanket as a pillow.

"Got ya some drugs. Need water?" Deimos gets a single nod in response, stepping back into the kitchen for a moment to fill a glass before bringing both to Victor.

"I'm gonna be late to work," he says as he sits up, hand held out for the pills.

"Nuh-uh. I'm calling you out sick."

"We've got rent coming up-"

"Ssshshshsshsh. Rent ain't real. I'll deal with it."

Victor stares at him, worried even through the haze of illness, but doesn't press the issue. He takes the pills without further argument, face screwing up in discomfort as he washes them down with the water. "You're a pain. It's prob'ly just allergies."

Deimos rolls his eyes. "Vic, I ain't never seen an allergy that makes people faint."

"Peanuts."

"That's different."

"Shellfish."

"Those just kill people. Doesn't count."

It gets a small smile out of Victor at least, even as a shiver wracks his body and he starts unfolding the blanket. "Cold," he mumbles, hands uncoordinated and giving up easily when Deimos stops him.

"Hey, hey, let's get you outta your uniform and into something comfy first." It makes his heart clench just a bit to watch Victor deflate, then slowly nod, reaching for Deimos to help him up.

---

"Uh-huh…

"Yeah, no, there was so much blood…

"Yep…

"The doc says it could take days. A whole week, even…

"Dunno, Gil. Maybe hire on a few more people while he's out. I can promise you don't want this spreading to everyone else though. Pretty sure hurling blood into the deep fryer is an OSHA violation or somethin'…

"Yeah… Yeah, he says he's sorry. Good luck."

The bathroom door creaks open as Deimos hangs up the phone. "Why are you lying to my boss?" Victor asks, leaning heavily against the doorway.

"Because your boss is a dick to my boyfriend. Should'a told him you had ligma." It doesn't get the smile out of Victor that he'd wanted, rather an unamused frown. "Man, good thing I'm studying nerd shit and not trying to become a full-time clown."

The frown stays only for another couple seconds before Victor huffs out a quiet laugh and shakes his head. He pushes away from the wall to wrap his arms around Deimos, sinking forward into the embrace. "You're already a full-time clown."

---

It's been two hours since Victor passed out, head resting on Deimos's chest and drooling only a little bit, the two of them laying on the couch under a blanket. His breathing is rough but steady, a thin layer of sweat along his hairline, and the dark bags under his eyes contrast starkly with how pale he is right now. But he's resting. Peaceful.

Deimos sits up a bit so he can kiss Victor's forehead, frowning at how warm his skin still is against his lips. They probably have a thermometer lying around somewhere…

---

103.4° is… it's not good. It isn't the worst according to everything he's read online, but it's definitely not good.

Victor would actually strangle him over a hospital trip. But Victor has also barely been coherent enough to drink some water and get his temperature taken periodically before going right back to sleep.

Groogle says ice baths will make it worse.

The medicine doesn't seem to be knocking it down though and they're already at the three hour mark.

"Deimos…" Victor mumbles against his chest, voice groggy.

"Mm?"

"Th'fryer's left on…"

"…The fryer?"

"Mhm…"

Deimos frowns, carding his fingers through Victor's hair. "Vic, we don't have a fryer. You're at home."

"Oh…" is all he gets in response, Victor drifting back off into soft snoring.

Of course he's still thinking about work, even now. Deimos has an interview coming up soon though, and if he lands the position then maybe Victor won't have to take on so many shifts. Maybe they'll be able to have lazy days at home like this without one of them being at death's door with illness.

---

At some point Deimos must have fallen asleep because he wakes to Victor squirming out of his arms rather roughly, shoving the blankets away and then yanking his sweater off like it offends him.

"You good?" Deimos asks, sitting up and rubbing sleep from his eyes. Victor's color looks a lot better despite him being drenched in sweat. With any luck, his fever broke.

"I'm so fucking late—" he starts to stand but Deimos grabs his hand to stop him.

"Nuh-uh, we called you out, remember?"

Victor stares at him like he's grown a second head. "Are you sure? Gil never gives us sick days and—god, Deimos, we can't afford a sick day. I need to-"

"Vic, I handled it, I promise. Don't worry about Gil or rent, I—"

"What did you do?" It's phrased as a question but they both already know the answer. Something illegal.

Deimos doesn't say that though, instead shrugging and smiling a bit sheepishly under Victor's gaze. "I just called in a favor, nothing serious."

"Nothing stolen?"

"Nope."

"No one dead?"

"Scout's honor."

Victor sighs slowly out of his nose, lips pulled into a tight line, but then his shoulders droop and he reluctantly sits back down. "I'm not posting bail if you end up getting arrested."

"I ain't gonna. This guy owes me like, at least three favors. We're all good."

A nod, and then Victor scoots over to curl up at Deimos's side, the brief panic seemingly sapping whatever energy he'd gained from resting. "You're a pain," he says, eyes falling shut when Deimos starts petting his hair. The blanket gets pulled back over his shoulders, and then Victor leans up just enough to kiss Deimos's cheek. "Love you…"

"Yeah, yeah, love you too," Deimos says before returning the gesture, his own eyelids growing heavy now that he's certain Victor will be okay.

[quotablefanfiction]

“Yuuri won gold at the World Figure Skating Championships twice, the Grand Prix three times, and silver at the Pyeongchang Olympics.” Yuuri takes off his glasses and rubs his eyes at the resulting onslaught of Oh my God! and That’s so cool! “Why would you not tell people that?!” Lark asks. “That would be the first thing out of my mouth every time I met somebody! Hi, I’m Lark Wu, you might know me from the motherfucking Olympics.”

Viktor brags about Yuuri to his oblivious classmates (chp. 1)

icebreaker by Cesare (AO3) Yuri!!! on Ice – General – Katsuki Yuuri/Viktor Nikiforov #Post-Series #POV Outsider #Retirement #College #Happy Ending #Friendship #Coach Viktor Nikiforov #Oblivious Katsuki Yuuri #Established Relationship

Yuuri’s husband is possibly not as oblivious as he seems, because he grins and asks, “Have you never looked up Yuuri?”

“There’s a porn actress with the same name who went into politics,” says Nate, “so she’s most of the results, and some stuff about figure skating.”

“Some stuff about figure skating,” Victor says ruefully to Yuuri.

(((A post-skating-retirement college scenario based on skygemspeaks’ idea about Yuuri’s college classmates learning about his figure skating career. I wrote a variation mostly because I just really wanted to include Victor in the mix. This also heavily draws on kevystel’s ideas about Yuuri unknowingly breaking hearts everywhere he goes.)))

[ficfinder-general]

I'm new to Codywan. Doyou have a list of Must Reads or Fandom Classics or anything like that? (Bonus points for longfic!)

Funnily enough, I'm not sure I'm an expert on Fandom Classics, but I do think that the long Clone Wars rewrites/fix-its are a perfect way to start! (And then you can move on to shorter fics and crazy AUs haha) So these are all longer, and can be fit into TCW continuity, even if they diverge at some point because the writers can't help themselves and will fix canon (as they should).

{recs under the cut, please mind the tags listed on ao3}

in our hearts some ancient song by whimsicalimages (@keensers)- Fives discovers the chips, he's on the run and gambles his life on the assumption that there's something going on between Cody and his general, so they would help him. Some amazing lore in this fic. 40k words

Golden Shield of Brightness by NerJetii (@nerjetii)- Soulmate AU, your soulmates' (romantic and platonic) names are written on your wrists. "Only" 15k, but I would recommend it even if you're not a fan of soulmate AUs (=they don't fall into each other's arms just because they're soulmates). Focuses on Obi-Wan, mostly, but we also learn a bit about how the Kaminoans treated the clones.

I am teaching myself how to be free by tattooedgreenhouse (@gershwyndl) - this might be THE Clone Wars rewrite for me because the author has taken upon themselves to literally retell the whole series from Cody's AND Obi-Wan's POV. It's ambitious, I'm pretty sure it's technically canon compliant, but we do get our happy ending. Appropriately, it's 113k long.

i'll orbit your flickering star by sunskippa (@sunskippa) - Also a Clone Wars rewrite (by this I mean that it goes through the events of the series from Cody's POV), also canon compliant, 78k words. Might be my favourite ending in the genre, beautiful. I don't even know how to sell this, but it's a must-read imo

|to failure sweet victor| by littlekaracan (@cillyscribbles)- 20k words. In case you've read all those rewrites and you just want to skip to the part where Cody leaves the Empire and they find each other again on Tatooine *with a twist*

you read my mind, I'll read yours series by sospes - This is very much canon divergent. Starts off as a mission fic, Cody and Obi-Wan discover an artefact that creates a Force-bond between them. Misunderstandings ensue. Look at the tags/ratings, some of the works later on are spicier/angstier. But you could also read the first one and call it a day if those aren't your jam. (The whole thing is 166k long at the moment.)

will you be an anarchist with me? by a_alene (@birdiedoessw) - an outsider POV (Rex's) on Cody's and Obi-Wan's relationship. With the extra twist that they can't stand each other at the beginning of the war. This is something I would've loved to read when I was getting into codywan, it's a great way to start. (25k words)

shoulder the sky series by Night Fury (@shootingstarpilot) - Last but not least, an ongoing series (all but two works are finished, more than 200k words atm). You'll have to "get through" the first work to read the more codywan-focused fics (and I don't mean this in a bad way because the story is a m a z i n g. Just so you know.) To be honest, I think it might be a bit confusing to read at the moment because as far as I can see a work was removed from the series, but it's still up? I'm not sure what happened there, but I suppose you could simply read all the author's works in chronological order :D This series is pretty much Obi-Wan AND clone troopers focused and relies a lot on the Jedi Apprentice series (which isn't canon anymore) but you're gonna be fine if you haven't read it.

(If anyone reads this, please feel free to add your own suggestions!)

[threepandas]

@dairy-farmer Posting here instead of dumping in the the ASK box~☆ o/

That SAID! I have just come across the Predator/Prey tag on Ao3?

And oh MY, Oh My~ Hello Ideas~✨️

Cause TELL me that's not a Certified Bat Kink™. I'll call you a liar.

Letting them RUN? Chasing them down? The adrenaline, the pounding heart in their chest, gasping for air as they struggle to to think, the desperation, the FIGHT? Winding path ways and fear spiked arousal?

Every shadow could be you~

Every sound, bouncing from the walls, a signal of your next attack.

Where are you~? Did they escape? Gotta run! Gotta Run~! But they can't escape. And they get them. Death from above, a lunge from an alleyway, striking from below. Legs swept out from beneath them. Flailing limbs sent crashing to the cold earth.

The STRUGGLE.

Hot, frantic, bodies pressed tight against each other. One trying to "escape", one trying to pin them down. Can't make it EASY now, can we? That defeats the purpose.

Gasping for air. Flushed with exertion. Clothes torn or cut free. Pressed to the dirt. Trapped. Like a cornered animal. With someone POWERFUL pinning you down.

Is it the Bat? Nightwing, finally letting his rage and brutality have a constructive outlet? Jason, trying to rewrite their bloody past with something BETTER? Or maybe it's Ra's, some part of a scheme he did not realize would cath the Detective's attention so~

They HAVE circled each other for so long, after all. Hurt and been hurt. Fought like dogs. To think, all he had to do to catch the boy's eye... was to HUNT him.

Do you see him as a man NOW, Detective? Pressed to the dirt? Held, grappled, still beneath him? Dispite your best efforts you could not escape. But of course, he WILL release you... when he's DONE with you. To the victor goes the spoils, after all.

A voice meant to be so very calm, growling in his ears. Calloused, powerful hands, roaming possessively. Taking as they please. Bites and sucking, groping hands, arms like steel bars that hold him still. As he is filled. As he is fucked.

Rut into like nothing else matters.

Shaking apart on it. Letting his brain go blank. Nothing but how deep and rough and perfect it is. Undignified and whining, gasping for air, feeling like he's only held together by the powerful arms pinning him down. Temporary relief, yes, but addictive, isn't it? That beautiful, restful, blankness? The high that sex and adrenaline gives you?

Can anyone ELSE really give you that, Detective?

Ah, but no need to snap. Just a question, isn't it~?

[thgfanfictionlibrary]

General Rated Fics Masterlist (19)

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 / Part 7 / Part 8 / Part 9 / Part 10 / Part 11 / Part 12 / Part 13 / Part 14 / Part 15 / Part 16 / Part 17 / Part 18 /

Created: March 25th, 2024

Last Checked: —-

I Don't Belong, My Beloved, and Neither do You-HuntersWithCellPhones (ao3)  Summary: Post-War, everyone in 12 has moved on. Everyone but Peeta and Katniss. If you Wanted Me, you Really Should've Showed-HuntersWithCellPhones (ao3)  Summary: After the Quell is announced, Katniss sits in the Cellar of another home in the Victor's Village and realizes she loves Peeta. So she goes to Haymitch, where she's told that Peeta is madly in love with her, so she should tell him. And, after standing in his porch light for a while, she does. It only goes south from there. Very angsty. Pretty much the exact same as 'Standin’ in My front porch light', but with a different ending. I Heart You Bad (Another Everlark Valentine’s Day Drabble)-hutchabelle (ao3)  Summary: Katniss Everdeen hated Valentine’s Day until Peeta Mellark gave her a card that melted her heart in sixth grade. Now, she’s thirteen, and her boyfriend has a message for her. I Knead U Bad (An Everlark Valentine’s Day Drabble)-Hutchabelle (ao3)  Summary: Twelve-year-old Katniss Everdeen hates Valentine's Day until Peeta Mellark makes sure she knows how much he likes her. It Won't Be Long-forthegenuine (ao3)  Summary: "The blues they send to meet me / Won’t defeat me / It won’t be long ‘till happiness / Steps up to greet me." Inspired by the bicycle scene from 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.'  Kill, Kiss, Be-FanficAllergy (ao3)  Summary: "They'll either want to kill you, kiss you, or be you." Three different people. Three different desires. Knight in Rusted Armor-FanficAllergy, RoseFyre (ao3)  Summary: Haymitch didn’t want to be Katniss’ champion. Someone else had other plans. Matchstick-Gamemakers (ao3)  Summary: Johanna longed only to escape from the constant surveillance of the Victors Village, but the forest gave her far more. Nothing to Save-forthegenuine (ao3)  Summary: Post-Mockingjay. He isn't sure what he's doing there or what he'll say to her. He knows, though, that if she forgives him and asks him to come home with her, he would. Implied Katniss/Peeta. Okapi-hutchabelle (ao3)  Summary: Katniss and Peeta take their children to the zoo and see a mutt.

[cynicalone94]

A visit to Stateville to interview a prisoner with a connection to their case lands Jay in hot water. What history does Voight have with the man calling the shots?

The 6th and final chapter available now.

Read on AO3 here or below the cut.

By the time the smoke – or rather gas – clears, it’s all over. 

Thirteen inmates are on the ground with knees in their backs as the prison crisis team and additional SWAT support flood the room. 

Jay is down too.

Unlike the loud, harsh coughing of the inmates his distress from the gas is limited to the hitching of wheezing breaths. 

His eyes are open to half mast as Hailey unties the t-shirt scraps from his wrists and rolls him onto his back. 

“Hey.” she says softly, cupping the side of his face. “It’s okay, sweetheart. You’re going to be okay now.”

“Hail.” he gasps. 

“I’m here.” she promises him. “And even better, so’s the SWAT medic.”

“No’in… bedder.’ he wheezes.

“Suck up.” she teases, inching to the side to let the medic slide an oxygen mask over his face. 

He smirks at her but it fades to a grimace as another pressure bandage is pressed against his abdomen and cinched tight. 

“I’ll get an IV going, get you some fluids.” the medic tells him. “And then we’ll see about getting you out of here.”

He nods tiredly and Hailey squeezes his hand. 

“Just hang in there, babe.” she soothes. 

By the time the IV is in place in his arm, the inmates have been cleared from the room and paramedics arrive with a backboard and stretcher to transport him. 

Hailey walks alongside him as they wheel him through the corridors. 

Kim jogs up as they pass. 

“Hey.” she says breathlessly. “How’re you doing?”

Jay lifts his hand, making a so-so guesture. 

“Sorry.” she says, grimacing. “You saved my ass, Jay.”

He reaches for her hand and she squeezes back. 

“Thank you.” she tells him. 

He offers her a weak smile. 

“We need to go.” the paramedic points out. “Need to get this guy to the hospital.”

“We’ve got a lead to run down on Victor Mendoza’s killer anyway.” Kim says, releasing his hand and stepping back. “Just wanted to check in.”

Hailey squeezes her arm and then follows as the paramedics keep moving. 

They’ve gotten the bleeding significantly slowed but even greatly reduced blood loss is still loss. 

And with the amount that he’s already lost, every little bit makes a big difference. 

Jay’s doing his best to stay awake but it’s a struggle that he’s losing; especially as his heart rate slows and his blood pressure falls. 

And his breathing isn’t improving much either. 

Between the complications from the CR gas and the effects of blood loss the oxygen mask is helping less and less all the time. 

“His O2 levels are falling.” the paramedic says, shaking his head. 

“Is there anything we can do?” Hailey asks, squeezing her husband’s hand. 

“I’m a little worried we’ll have to intubate him.” she says with a frown. “Hey, what’s our ETA?”

“Three minutes.” her partner calls back. 

Jay’s eyes fall closed and an alarm sounds. 

“Need that sooner.” the paramedic shouts back, reaching into her bag. 

Hailey watches in horror as she tips Jay’s head back and slides a tube down his throat. 

The tube goes into place without a lot of resistence. 

A quick check of it’s positioning and then she asks Hailey to take the bag. 

“The CR gas accelerated the rate at which he stopped breathing on his own but we need to get him in surgery, repair the bleed and get his blood volume back up soon.” she tells her. 

Hailey swallows hard. 

She’d been the one to push for using the gas. 

But if she hadn’t… Jay’s in critical condition from blood loss as it is. 

She’s jolted as the ambulance comes to a sharp halt. 

The doors are pulled open and hands reach in, taking hold of the stretcher and pulling it out. 

Hailey jumps out after them, continuing to work the ambo bag as they move into the hospital. 

A nurse takes it from her and she falls back, running a hand through her hair. 

“Rapid infuser is ready to go and waiting for him.” Will says, falling in next to him. “They’ll get his blood volume back up. He’ll be okay.”

“We should have been faster.” she mutters. “Should have gotten him out of there sooner.”

“Hailey.” he sighs. “You can’t do that to yourself. You got him out. That’s what matters.”

“Let’s get you to that waiting room, huh?” he says. “Wait for news.”

For once, the beeping isn’t the first thing he hears. 

It’s an apology. 

“I’m sorry, kid. I shouldn’t have lied to him. I was so proud of myself for pulling a fast one that I never even considered the possibility that it could come back to bite me. Or rather us, you.”

Is Voight… apologizing?

“I never meant for you to be hurt, kid.”

Of course he would do it while Jay’s still unconscious. 

“I know you’re waking up, kid.” 

Oh. 

He forces his eyes open, blinking slowly. 

His stomach hurts and his head is pounding. 

The lights are too bright and he almost closes his eyes again. 

“Hey, easy.” his boss soothes and then the lights dim. “Need you to stay awake. Your doctors want to take a look.”

He nods, licking his lips. 

“Here.” Voight says, handing over a glass of water with the straw angled toward his mouth. 

His hand stays on the glass, helping Jay hold it up while he takes a few sips. 

“Hailey and Will are here too.” he adds as he sets it down, motioning across the room. 

Will is asleep in a hospital recliner while Hailey is curled up on a small cot. 

“I can wake them up if you’d like.” Voight offers. 

Jay shakes his head. 

Much as he’d like to talk to them, they look peaceful for once and he’s not sure he’s up for both of them fretting over him at the same time. 

Voight smirks. 

“Can’t put off the fussing forever.” he points out. 

“Jus’ … no’ yet.” he manages and the man nods. 

“I’ll ask the doctor to keep it down too.” he promises. 

“Vic… tor?”

“ID’d his murderer and linked him back to Dupree.” Voight tells him. “And I… I sent the letter he wanted to his lawyer. He’s going to get some slack on the original charges, not sure how much. I’m kind of hoping the new charges between his culpability for the murder, the riot, and assaulting a police officer will make sure he still stays in prison for a long time.”

Jay nods. 

That is pretty convenient for his boss but maybe the fact that he’d admitted his mistake still means something. 

Maybe he’d actually learned something?

[gentil-minou]

Background Info about OUAT for my MDZS fic

So I recognize not everyone has seen Once Upon a Time so this fic and premise might be a bit confusing. I wanted to make a short notes/guide in case people might be curious about the premise of the show and how it will fit into my fic specifically.

You can read the fic itself here on Ao3

Once Upon a Time is a show where characters from various western fairytales get cursed to live in modern day Maine. The hero is Emma, who is the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming but was separated from them as a baby when the curse hit. She grew up in the real world and suffered the perils of foster care and other not fun realities, so by the time we meet her she's almost 30 and pretty jaded. Then, the son she gave up for adoption ten years ago finds her on her birthday. He says he's her son, Henry, and that she needs to follow him back to his hometown, to lift the curse set by the evil queen and help bring these fairytale characters back where they belong.

The fun part is, this evil queen, Regina is actually Henry's adoptive mom and the primary antagonist of season 1. And although Emma is skeptical of Henry's claims, she realizes she wants to be his mom after all and get to the bottoms of all the mystery surrounding the town and its odd inhabitants.

There's like so much more involved, like Emma's best friend actually ends up being her mom Snow White, and in one season they go to both Camelot and Hell, and also they play fast and loose with what a fairytale character is because the doctor is Victor Frankenstein. and pretty much everything gets fixed with True Love's Kiss it practically becomes an in-universe meme. The plot gets absolutely unhinged (I mean this with all the love in my heart, I adore this show), but I'm mostly drawing from the first season.

Mostly the bits I took from the show are the whole curse, except here the cultivation world is dragged into some American small town with no memories of where they're from. There are some hints that not everything is as it seems, like all the signs being in Chinese and no one being able to leave/contact the outside world. However, just like in the show, because of the curse the people in the town have no idea anything is wrong, they just believe this is all normal.

The show goes a bit further in that the town has basically been frozen in time while Emma aged 30 years, only unfreezing when she arrives. I decided to do away with that, so in my fic it's been about 5 years since they arrived and everyone aged normally.

Another important thing to remember is all the fairytale characters are basically growing up miserable and cursed with the exception of Regina, the evil queen who set the curse and acts as the mayor of the town. For instance, Snow White and Prince Charming are cursed to be separate as Prince Charming is both under a sleeping curse and engaged to someone else. Basically everything sucks then Emma comes and fixes it. That is something that will also be happening in my fic, and the first few chapters are about establishing the level of suck before we get to mystery involved.

The formatting of the show is also important. Similar to the MDZS novel, each episode features flashbacks to the fairytale land in the past that tells a bit more about the story happening in the present modern day. That's not something I can easily achieve in fic form, so instead at the end of each chapter (hopefully) I am including a once upon a time excerpt meant to tell clues about what happened to lead our characters to where they are. It's canon divergence from the burial mounds, as evidenced by the fact that in the first chapter Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian are already together in the burial mounds with A-Yuan and the Wens. I'm hoping to give more info at a steady pace, but the intention is to leave the readers as confused as Wei Wuxian and everyone else is.

Otherwise, besides the basic premise and a few easter eggs, the plot and characters in my fic are more true to MDZS and not at all to OUAT. For instance, Regina's role is taken by Lan Wangji but he is absolutely not the one who set the curse and is under it just like the others. There's more, but I won't spoil it.

Some of the bits of fun easter eggs I added were Wei Wuxian's Lilttle Apple Bug, based on Emma's yellow bug that basically becomes a character of its own in the show. Also his red leather jacket is based on hers too. The book A-Yuan shows Wei Wuxian is also based on the fairytale book Henry shows Emma, except I'm picturing it looking more like a more extravagent version of the books in the Cloud Recesses

I want to add more Easter eggs as we go but my main focus here is on MDZS than the show, but if you catch anything else you get a gold star!!!

Thanks for reading this mess if you did sdjkghd. I think I covered the main bits I wanted to clarify, but if you have any questions dont be afraid to reply or send an ask, or leave a comment on the fic! I'm having so much fun with this AU featuring two of my favorite fandoms, so yay!

[suzukiblu]

Hi! I have a funny lil question for you. Did you ever end up continuing your AO3 story “To The Victor Goes The Spoils”? If you didn’t, do you ever plan to? I know it’s literally almost been ten years LOL but it’s SO good so I had to ask lol. If no to that too, could you at least share how you think it would’ve ended? So my imagination can be sated haha. Thanks :)

oh mannnnn, how did I forget to go back for Viktor and his dragon and write them a part three?? hOW, self???? I LOVE that story, it's just been so long. Though I think it's only been four or five years, I haven't QUITE managed to pull another "yes it's been roughly a decade since this fic updated, now have 20k of complicated feelings about abuse and trauma and codependency via an ATLA/Animorphs fusion fic".

( . . . yet. 👀 )

I haven't written another installment/sequel for it, alas, but I DID have designs on doing one more update, and I do have a lil' bit of it started. So like, for that reason I'd prefer not to share exactly what I was planning for it in the hopes that I'll eventually get my brain to go back to it.

Buuuuut since you're asking and I'm easily influenced, lemme toss up the first scene behind a cut for you in offering to your imagination and thanks for your interest, haha.

( also, gonna include a link to the original human/dragon fantasy omegaverse story, for anyone who's currently reading this post and wondering which of the two HUNDRED things I've got on AO3 we're actually talking about right now, haha )

.

My treasure, the dragon rumbled. Viktor didn’t look up from weeding the garden. He was dealing with a particularly stubborn taproot. 

“What is it?” he asked distractedly. 

I have learned things, the dragon said, leaning into his line of sight. Viktor eyed them, then ripped out the taproot. 

“I still haven’t forgiven you, you realize,” he said as he tossed the root aside with the other weeds. 

You ASKED to be bred, the dragon grumbled sullenly. 

“You don’t even know if it’ll have claws,” Viktor said. 

All dragons have claws, the dragon said. 

“And that seemed like a good idea to you?!” Viktor demanded. “That seemed like it would work out?!” 

You ASKED, the dragon repeated, visibly put-out. 

“So you just did it without thinking and now we don’t know what’s going to happen,” Viktor said. 

I know what will happen, the dragon said. There will be a hatchling.

“But what kind of hatchling?” Viktor said. “Will I even be able to carry it?” 

Yes, the dragon said. If you wish to.

“It wasn’t a wish,” Viktor said, ignoring the way that thought made his heart clench. He’d been stupid with lust and heat and the dragon had fucked him so overwhelmingly and he’d just . . . 

It hadn’t been a wish. 

I know what a wish sounds like, my Victor, the dragon said. Viktor bristled. 

“And I know when I’m making one!” he snapped at them, getting to his feet and abandoning the weeding. The damn weeding could wait. This was at least the fourth fight they’d had since he’d realized what the dragon had done, and he didn’t want to have it. He didn’t want to fight at all. 

It was just hard not to, under the circumstances.

He just wasn’t this kind of omega.

[forabeatofadrum]

20 questions for fic writers

Thank you @wellbelesbian for the tag! Here goes:

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

... 162. what the FUCK.

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

1,323,028. WHAT THE FUCK

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Well, almost half of those 162 fics are Glee fics. My other two bigger fandoms are Check, Please! and the Simon Snow Series.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Everything will be alright, the only Brooklyn Nine-Nine fic I have ever written.

All shall know the wonder, probably my favourite Check, Please! fic that I've written, so hooray!

The last to know, which was a reaction fic for the end of year 3 of Check, Please!

How lucky we are to be alive right now, which is my first ever Carry On fic and I don't even like it that much anymore, but I guess it's the origin story yada, yada.

The 2020 Young America New Year’s Eve Gala, my sole Red, White & Royal Blue fic. I wrote it in 2020, but thanks to the movie, it got a lot more views and kudos.

I am actually surprised (but also not, I think I have seen this before) that there is no Glee fic in this list. My Glee/Klaine fic with most kudos is the 15th on the list!!! (It's Myosotis sylvatica, by the way.) (My goddamn Love, Victor fic is higher on the list WACK!!)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

No. I do read all of them, but I always feel super awkward responding. Idk. It's a me problem, I guess. So I only respond when I have something specific to say or if a comment totally blows me away and I want to at least acknowledge that. Although... I am behind on that as well.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hmmm. Does Your heart is in your chest again, not hanging from your sleeve count? It's a Next to Normal AU Klaine story, and if you know the musical, you know.

There's also My rose-coloured boy, a pre-Wayward Son Snowbaz fic that shows that Simon is not dealing with shit and it has an unhappy ending, I suppose, but it also fits in canon so does it count, because in canon, the entire Snowbaz story does have a happy end.

OH WAIT A HOT MINUTE THERE IS ALSO MY WIP Dalton 8 Days of Wrath. That fic is supposed to be Sad Shit Only!!!

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I love writing happy endings, so I am not sure which one is the happiest.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Nope, luckily.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Nope. I uhhhh have a whole ass essay on why I don't.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Yes, I am one of those "how can I Klaine-ify" bitches. The craziest is probably my Glee/Animal Crossing fic Wandering. I don't like it THAT much, but it was fun. I also had a very extensive, not-published Glee/Barbie Mariposa and the Fairy Princess crossover (yeah) once.

And I've been talking for ages about how I will one day write a Glee/Winx Club crossover.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I unfortunately assume that it's happened, since ya know, AO3 scrapers.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I know someone wanted to translate Charms & Pearls into Italian, but I don't know it's happened. @klaineship2 also translated one of my Hearing verse fics into German: Musik nur, wenn sie laut ist. I once read this translation out loud and sent it to my German friend @vreniii and I may have hurt her ears.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes! Call Me Maybe, my aroace Agatha fic with @captain-aralias and Stage Fright, a Halloween Klaine fic with @spookyklaine, @esperantoauthor, @justgleekout, @snarkyhag, sopheadraws, MissFlurry and keyiqiang.

14. What’s your all time favourite ship?

(Yes, Alex, I still say OTP.)

Klaine. Look, I will be a Klainer 12 till the day I die. You will catch me crying over Teenage Dream (gcv) at the nursing home.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I have... so many WIPs. So. Many. WIPs. I don't want to give up on them yet.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I like to think I can write dialogue and that I can be pretty funny.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Alex, I so feel you on the second hand embarrasment thing with sappy stuff. I also bitch a lot about not being able to write romantic endings. I also have struggles with describing movement.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I mean. I have done it before, most noteably Paradiso, aap noot mies and Ik was meteen ondersteboven., so I am down for it.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Published? Glee.

When I was a wee child writing stories about other media, Winx Club and Harry Potter, although I never published those.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

OH. Oof. In no order, split by my 3 main fandoms (because I cannot narrow it down!):

For Klaine: Myosotis series (especially part 1 and 5), Mendacious, I’d cry a river just for you, All the pretty things that we could be and Ljubim te.

For Snowbaz: Paradiso series (especially part 1 and 3, rip part 2), Time After Time and make a fire out of this flame.

For Zimbits: All shall know the wonder and Center Ice.

Forgive me for not tagging anyone. I am taking the lazy "everyone is free to do it!" approach because I am tired!!!

[clatoera]

Always Remember We’re Burned for Better Chapter 12: Meet Me at Midnight

HOOOO BOY. HERE WE ARE. CHAPTER 12. The entire Quarter Quell. Liberties have been taken of course, but oof. Here it is. This is the longest chapter. I have spent about 18 hours on it all together. I wanted to post at midnight but here were are with Midnight (3 am version). I am so sorry this took so long, and hope this makes up for it.  I am now done with exams and should be back on our regularly scheduled weekly post schedule! Hopefully! Stay tuned! 

Alright. 

This chapter is.. a lot. I hope y’all don’t hate it. 

It does serve to remind us that while we love clove and cato and glimmer and marvel..they are still career killers. This is who they are. It’s violent, i’m definitely on a watch list for this. 

masterpost

ao3

Chapter title from t-swift Lavender Haze. 

Do you know how excited I was that chapter 12 is the quell and is midnight themed and theres 12 districts but you know whats even more exciting? That chapter 13 is next. During SN TV week. Can you believe this chapter is where this fic was truly supposed to start? Thats bonkers to me. 

Anyway. As usual. A thank you to my loves who talk with me all day. @ohhowwehavefallen and @afterfawn. And thank you to everyone for your complete and total support with boards. I cannot thank you enough.

Well. Meet me at Midnight. 

Day One.

Clove’s feet hit the rocky sand and she runs, runs for her literal life towards the stack of supplies. Her eyes flicker rapidly over the various piles, and she notes instantaneously the lack of stuff that they are so used to from their own games and their training. No food, no matches, nothing but shiny silvery–

“Weapons, that's all there is!” She calls out to Glimmer the instant she sees her, having been the first of the others to reach her. Glimmer is beside her in an instant, rummaging through the stacks before their biggest competition could start to pick them off.

“Probably hoping we’ll flash them something for water.” Glimmer snaps, before effortlessly twisting on her heels and catching the first person she sees within arms length with the long, curved knife in her hand. When she pulls it out from the side of the woman’s abdomen, the woman from district five goes limp on the ground, twitching like a gutted fish out of water.

Clove can’t help the little smile on her face as she weighs a butterfly knife in her palm, watching one of her only friends slaughter the woman like livestock.

At the end of the day, they’d die like the trained career killers they are.

“Look at them,” Comes the voice of Marvel, who now looks out at the field of victors struggling to stay afloat in their wedges, some of whom are still remaining on their podiums. “Like sitting ducks.”

Cato finally convenes with them, coming around from the tail end of the cornucopia. He tosses something into Clove’s arms and she immediately recognizes the familiar weight– a knife vest, just like she had in her first games. “Happy fucking Birthday.” He remarks, before he nods to the side. “Johanna’s already run off, I saw her grab something and run down the spoke that way.” He raises his arm, and for the first time she realizes he’s found himself a long silver sword that so naturally acts as an extension of his arm.

Clove realizes then that her wedge partner, the boy from 7, was nowhere to be seen and likely ran off to join her. Great. They’re already escaping them.

In a moment of rage and impulse she had to have learned from him, Clove launches the knife in her hand directly into the neck of the male from five as he struggles to doggy paddle towards the sand. His throat makes a bubbling gurgling  noise as the air escapes into the water from his severed trachea, and before long his entire body sinks under the current. He wasn’t a true threat, not really, but everyone was far more of a risk than they would be in a normal game.

She feels the way her heart speeds, the way it pounds in her chest like a bird trying to escape at the thrill of another kill on her roster. Nothing would ever come close to the feeling of this.

“Looks like you still got it.” Cato teases in passing, stepping over the body of the nine woman who is crumpling to his feet after his hands skillfully internally dislodged her skull from her spine.

“Not so out of practice yourself.” Clove grins, raising her eyebrows playfully- if only briefly- at him before she hears the voice of Marvel.

“Finnick and the twelves are running off.” He gestures in the direction of the tale of the cornucopia, where Clove can see Finnick running followed by Katniss. Fuck. That was enemy number one, getting away.

Without a second thought Clove had a knife in her hand, poised and aimed directly at the heart of the girl on fire. She releases just as Finnick sees her, and he must give warning to the girl just in time for her to turn her shoulders just enough to turn the blade off course. It lodges in Katniss Everdeen’s shoulder with a satisfying scream from the girl, and before Clove can prep another Finnick has pushed her into the water next to her faux-lover.

Finnick shoots Clove and Cato a look that could only be described as a plea before he jumps in the water after the Twelves.

“Fuck!” Clove screams, watching as one of her limited weapons sinks into the ocean with Katniss, taking her double cannon with it. She doesn’t have long to be upset, kicking the sand below her as she hears her allies calling to her.

“Clooooove, I’ve got a present for you!” Glimmer calls to her in a sweet sing-song voice, luring them back towards the mouth of the cornucopia.

Cato and Clove head towards the sound, stepping over a discarded body from District Ten, noting another floating about 50 yards out in the waving, angry ocean. On the way there the man from nine attempts to dart past them, meeting a sharp end as Cato shoves the end of his sword directly through his abdomen. A trail of bowel falls out of the wound as Cato retracts, leaving the man from nine on his knees, holding his intestine in his hand as he gasps for the last gulps of air he would ever take.

They round the cornucopia in time to see Marvel pulling a spear from the back of a woman- Cecelia, the mother from eight, that Clove would not have to kill after all- and see Glimmer press her foot deeper into the neck of the man from eight.

“Remember her now?” Glimmer taunts, grabbing the dark haired man by his hair, forcing him to look up at Cato and Clove before him. There's a wicked grin on the Blonde girl’s face, beyond any of the happy smiles and sweet laughs she was normally so full of. “If you want to start begging, now’s the time. “

Hell, it almost felt like seeing her in her natural habitat, all that anger finally having somewhere to go.

There was a reason they ended up friends after all.

“He’s all yours.” Marvel kicks the man’s side, nodding at Cato to twist the guy onto his back, “you know. Birthday gift and all that.”

Clove isn’t sure she’s ever smiled wider than when she realizes the opportunity that is finally in front of her. An opportunity she can remember dreaming about, all the way back to her fifth birthday, when she learned what killing actually meant.

So what if she lost twelve, if this was her last kill. Maybe it was the best, saved for last.

“All this for me!” Clove feigns surprise, fingers searching for the most cruel, carved blade she can think of on her vest. They’d get a good show, back in two. Like a cat, Clove was always good for playing with her food. “How’d you know this is exactly what I wanted!?”

Clove immediately kneels over the man, held down on all sides by her friends. Once she got started she wouldn’t need the aid– but this was their gift to her after all– all wrapped up nicely.

“I’m sure you don’t remember me.” Clove starts, dragging the pointed blade down the side of this dark-eyed man’s face. “You feel it yet?” She practically purrs, as the knife in her hand deftly separates skin from the fibrous fascial covering underneath as easily as she parts the peel from the orange. “That sense of deja vu…” She starts at his chin, peeling the skin back from his face leaving only a beefy red musculature underneath. “I’ve got him, now” Clove tells the other three, who drop his limbs to retreat to allow her to have her moment of glory and revenge. His body is already limp, no longer bothering to thrash underneath her (or maybe it was the shock, the burning pain from severed nerves in his face, that had him numbly twitching under her).

“You got kids at home?” The dark haired girl taunts, dragging the hook of her blade lower over his neck, where she slips the metal just beneath the tissue- deep enough to hurt, but not to kill. “I have some advice for them..” Clove digs the nail of her thumb into an area of exposed musculature, resulting in an agonized scream that echoes throughout the cornucopia. “Watch this, every single day. This moment. Right here.” She pulls back on the flap of skin on his face, a noise like velcro filing her eats as she separates the thick layers. “Over and over and over again.” Clove withdrawals her knife before dragging it sideways along the expanse of his chest, slicing the upper layer akin to the way parmesan curls from the rind. “I have waited my entire life for this.”

Her knife finds his chest. Over. And Over. And Over. And Over again. The knick of an artery sends blood splaying in her face and onto her skin, but Clove is not once distracted from her intention.

She does not know how much time passes. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours.

“Clove, baby, you need to stop–”

“He’s dead Clove, save your energy–”

Clove may not respond but she feels a pair of arms around her waist, hoisting her up and pulling her off the body beneath her. Her pupils are long past blown, practically pure black holes honing undeniable, extreme rage.

Clove only fights the arm around her waist a little– it’s Cato, of course it’s Cato– when he pulls her back,

She is covered in hot, sticky blood in various stages of congeal, the splatters adding an entirely new layer of freckles to her face. The knife falls from her right hand as she takes in her handy work.

The mangled body before her could no longer even be called that. The pile of flesh far more resembled ground meat, or sausage removed from a casing before it could be cooked. There was no more body to be sent home– simply remains.

“Where’s the cannon?” Clove growls, poised to go back in to finish the job, as if this were not a pile of minced meat before her. “The blood bath is over. I should get my cannon.”

“It went off nearly an hour ago, Clove.” Marvel fills in, poking at the mass of remains with the pointed end of a spear. “You just really finished the job.”

“An hour?? I was down and distracted for an hour?”

“You weren’t in any danger.” Cato sets her down beside him, letting her have the space to go dip her skin and knives into the nearby water to wash off.

“I think you deserved to do it!” Gimmer chimes, before craning her head up to the sky, noting the sun was already setting leaving the sky with a pink hue. “Not to ruin the moment..but should we stay here? In the cornucopia.”

“Probably better than risking the woods tonight, with twelve and Finnick out there.” Cato agrees, looking towards their stockpile of weapons sans survival supplies. He looks up to the sky, calling out to Enobaria and Brutus and whoever else was listening.  “We could use a fucking treat, you two!”

“Brutus always did send a reward when it got bloody.” Clove mumbled, rejoining the group now free of the blood that had dotted all over her skin. Her hair was now in wet, loose clumps down her shoulders, having needed to free her hair in order to wash the blood and other tissue remnants out. “That's salt water, it’s of no use to us.”

“Oh your hair is so pretty like that, Clove. I used to have hair like that! Then they used some chemical on it, to make it like this.” Glimmer compliments, tossing a bouncy curl over her shoulder before she begins sorting through some of the piles at the base of the cornucopia. “There’s a..fuck..ton of arrows but no bow. I’d guess Katniss got to it already?” She sighs, before bringing up the arrows and one by one snapping them over her knee, making them useless if fire girl got her paws on it.

Marvel is working on a little fire– they weren’t going to be targeted, not together, not when everyone already ran full speed in the opposite direction of the four of them– as the little silver pods finally – about fucking time– floated down their way. Sure enough they were sent their fresh water and a few half-filling snacks.

What were they supposed to do? Hunt down exotic birds? They’d starve, before they got to that point.

Absently they note the claws beginning to scoop up the bodies that are face down in the water or along the sand, before deep from in the foliage there comes a sound that distantly reminds Cato of the bug zapper that the academy would use in the late summer months. Back when late night runs would result in dozens of severe bites covering them all. It is a quick zap of electricity, like a fly getting its little wings crisped off.

For a minute they even thought they heard a scream– but no cannon followed.

Hmm. Must have been imagining it.

Such is how the first day passes. Organizing their stacks, watching as different “slices” as Marvel called them, of the forest sort of came alive at different times. There was a hissing sound from one– a bug infestation, probably– and another faces a large tidal wave that originates at their feet before flooding the entire slice.

It’s a unique vantage point– able to watch how the arena genuinely does seem to be sliced into sectors.

“It’s probably twelve, like districts, right?” Cato suggests, as he picks up a few rocks from the beach to throw out into the crashing white caps of waves. “That's got to be what it is.”

“They’re obsessed with the whole twelve districts things, so, I'd venture to say you’re right.”

Clove settles beside him, her dark head full of curls resting on his shoulder. “Think we should go looking for people tonight? Start hunting them down?”

“...eh, what's the point?” Cato shakes his head, leaning back to lay in the sand before pulling her down beside him. “We need to see who’s already dead and figure out a plan..” Obviously a plan to take out Katniss, but also when they would have it in them to turn on their friends who, despite choosing a different alliance, had been their friends before enemies ever even was a possibility.

Clove lays back beside him, her head resting on the fleshy part of his upper arm and chest. “We can plan tomorrow, then.”

The Panem emblem is blinding as it comes into the sky, and Clove squints as she gazes up into it despite the impressive brightness. The first deaths are from five– damn, somehow Finnick’s little old woman survived as did both from three– Glimmer had gotten the girl and Clove had the man. Then the pair from eight– Clove and Marvel’s takedowns– and the two of them from nine who Cato had personally taken down. Both from ten were also out, not at any of their hands, as well as the woman from eleven.

That made nine out of the first day. Nine dead, leaving four careers tributes, the B team alliance, and a few random tributes floating around. Yeah..definitely not worth hunting them out tonight, they had plenty of time.

“Why don’t you two go in and sleep.” Glimmer suggests, appearing from behind them and sitting on the other side of Clove in the sand. “We can watch for a few hours.”

“Go in?” Clove cocks an eyebrow, glancing around. “Where are we going in?”

“Oh, you  know.. The Cornucopia?” Glimmer nudges her shoulder with her own. “It’s private to sleep you know…no cameras.” She flicks green eyes between the two of them with a knowing smirk. “Oh come on, like you two never had a little fantasy of being in the Games and getting a chance to well…you know..” She winks at them and nods her head in the direction of the cornucopia. “Go. We’ll watch, as if anyone is going to be stupid enough to come after us.”

“And hey..if they do..go out with a bang, you know?” Marvel teases, now sitting on the other side of Cato in the sand. “Go. Just..not all night.”

Clove and Cato share a look, one they know had Enobaria clawing at her face in the Victor’s Suite, quickly rising to their feet. Cato offers her a hand which she’s never taken so quickly as he starts to lead her off like two kids in a candy shop.

The crack of lighting and accompanying booming make all four of them jump. Clove whips her head around just in time to see the massive bolt of lightning strike a tree directly in line with the tail of the cornucopia. The following boom rings out twelve times, signifying…something?

“Twelve again, it’s got to be a district thing.” Clove reiterates, before  shrugging her shoulders and shooting Cato an absolutely wicked grin. “As we were?”

“See you in a few hours.” Marvel reminds them, before a silvery laugh from Glimmer pulls him from thinking about Cato and Clove any longer.

Day Two.

The alternative sleeping works out well for them, the conglomerate of them a combination of well rested or at the very least pleased as they head into day two of the Quarter Quell

Overnight had been the loss of someone– a high pitched scream from a quadrant filled with fog was all Glimmer had been able to piece together in the dead of night,  but it was another one down and out of the way.  Right before that had been the sound of a storm- heavy rain, maybe– the sound of that bug zapper, and another cannon. Two more down in the middle of the night. Who it had been hadn’t mattered, unless it was magically enemy number one and her accomplice.

The sun is high enough that it could be late morning or midday- who knows how to tell in here, when they finally decide to get a start to their day.

“What if we split. The two of you go to the one slice, we’ll go to the twelve slice… work our way inwards?” Marvel is the one to suggest, pointing out the different sectors. “We come back here at three and nine, switch partners, and then go back out.”

“Why are we going to switch?” Clove huffs, though she is already clipping her knife pack onto her chest.  

“Bonding, I don’t know, Clove, it was just an idea.” Marvel rolls his eyes, before twirling a machete-esk knife in his hands. “It could be fun.”

“Fine, whatever.” Clove agrees, glancing up at the sun in the height of the sky. “It has to be about twelve, I'd think?”

As if on cue another lightning bolt rips through the tree at the apex of the Cornucopia, before the chimes of the clock tick by. Twelve dings, probably.

“Twelve chimes again.” Cato confirms, nodding towards the edge of the beach they had perched themselves on. “Three segments then we regroup.” He reiterated, before nodding towards Clove and heading off the first spike.

They walk in line with one another, him before and her behind, step after step with each other.

“I can’t see past your giant shoulders.” Clove mumbles, kicking rocks off the long runway as they walk ahead.

“Yeah, like you usually complain about how big anything is–” He turns, quirking an eyebrow at her before he’s wrapping his hands around her to throw her up over shoulder. “Can you see now?” He taunts, earning flailing legs trying to kick him directly in the chest.

“This isn’t what I meant!” Clove hisses, wriggling her best to get put down to maintain some semblance of dignity. “Put me down!”

“Yeah? Okay, Clovey.” He wraps both hands around her waist and feigns tossing her into the bobbing water beside them.

“Cato, what the fuck!” She screeches, wrapping both arms firmly around his neck so that if he tossed her he would certainly topple over with her.

“You’re so cute when you’re yelling.” He teases, placing her feet first in the sand once they reach the beach. He brings a hand up to her face, tilting her up by the chin as he looks her over, taking her in. “it’s a fucking shame we never got to go to an actual beach.”

“Why, so you can oogle at me in the sun?” She taunts, running a hand through the length of her salt-scrunched hair, before getting a good look at him, too. Even just the twelve hours they had spent in a sun had bronzed the skin of his face enough that it reminded her of those late summers in the academy, when they ran around the lakes on top of the mountain and came home with sunburn so deep their skin ached from the muscles moving underneath.

“Yeah, exactly.” He twists his finger through a long strand of hair that framed her face. “You’ve got more freckles than usual.” Cato didn’t even remember her hair ever being this curled, ever in the twelve years he had known her. “It suits you.”

“There's a lot we never got to do, just add the beach to the list.” Clove nodded towards the crest of the forest, taking his hand and leading him in. “Come on. Lets look like we’re at least trying.”

The two of them slip into the depths of the rainforest, immediately choked by the intense humidity of the sector. It’s not just hot and wet air, but terribly sticky, like a thick warm syrup drenching their skin in the air.

“It’s like literal hell in here.” Clove groans, wiping at her skin with the forearm of her wet suit. “Are these designed to trap heat in? Are we supposed to sweat to death, what a way to fucking go.”

“Didn’t Marvel have a jungle like this in his games? Maybe we need to send him in–”

As soon as Cato says it, a storm cloud cracks with thunder above them, and distantly they can hear the beginnings of rain in the highest layer of the canopy. “Maybe it’ll be freshwater?” He suggests, before he sees the first few drops of red hit the skin under Clove’s eyes and along the bridge of her nose.

She must have noticed something similar on his own skin, because she reaches out and runs her thumb along his nose, pulling it back to reveal a thick, sticky red gel. “Is this–” She opens and shuts her fingers, the telltale way the liquid spreads through the grooves of her fingers confirming all she needs to know.

“Blood.” Cato agrees, as they both look up in time for a hot wave of Blood to rush down onto their faces.

It’s wordless, as so many of their conversations are, that they immediately head directly towards the crest of the forest behind them. Fortunately they were not terribly far in– a few hundred yards– but by the time they make it out (Which, they have impressive speed, thank you very much) –  they are covered head to toe in blood from an unknown source.

“Think it’s human?” Cato asks, using the heels of his hands to wipe the thickness away from his eyes.

Clove, however, isn’t thinking about the blood itself.

She’s taking in the way the deep maroon makes the brightest shade of blue in his eyes jump at her, or how the tint of red in his sunshine blonde hair reminds her of a sunrise in hue, somehow.

Oh for fucks sake, Clove, this is the Hunger Games pull it together.

“...babe? You okay?” Cato calls out, snapping his fingers in front of her glazed over eyes. “You’re breathing pretty heavy there, come on let's wash this off in the–”

“Don’t you fucking dare get in that water.” Clove warns before she’s pulling him down to her height with both hands on his face. She kisses him hard– biting down on his lip so hard she isn’t sure if the blood she tastes is his or that of the unknown source that covers them. Not that it matters, as Clove realizes here and how that this is what they had always so casually joked about those last few weeks before their games were split.

What’s more definitive to Cato and Clove, than bloodlust turning into lust with blood.

Cato’s mouth trails down the side of her neck as Clove tilts her head back for him, when it hits her that they are entirely open– not only to cameras but to Katniss and Finnick and Johanna. “Cato- Cato we need to go to the Cornucopia. Now.”  She whines out, holding his face in her hands as his mouth finds any expanse of exposed skin she has in these stupid wetsuits she has never wanted off so badly.

Cato says nothing, and literally picks her up before heading back towards the center of the arena.

“What happened to you two!” Glimmer practically screams when she sees them, covered in blood and walking with intensity towards the center of the cornucopia.

When they say nothing in response and just scurry past them, Marvel tilts his head in curiosity. “Sure! We’ll keep look out! Thanks for asking!” He shouts past them, as they stumble into the hidden cavern inside the metal structure.

Again, no one is sure how much time passes.

Cato and Clove rejoin them, and eventually do wash off the blood in the salty beach nearest the cornucopia.

They’re sitting there divvying up another gift from Enobaria

“Real fucking Classy you two” The note on this one had said.

They’re laughing at the note, thinking of ways to show their appreciation when they hear a commotion on the beach. In the distance they can see the B Team Alliance, emerging from their own sector and heading towards the back tail of the Cornucopia via one of the spokes.

“Oh they’re idiots.” Marvel shoots his own allies a grin, as they quickly and wordlessly disperse amongst the goods. “What are they coming for?”

“A fight.” Cato decides, before he himself hides in the depth of the Cornucopia itself. Noone is actually sure what they’re heading into the center of the arena for– just that they all wouldn’t be coming out.

The four of them fall into silence as soon as the crowd of the others arrive. They’re talking about time– and the woman in the back is clearly off her rocker. Marvel locks eyes with Clove from where they sit in opposite sizes of the darkness– she’s an easy target, get her down first– and Marvel is the one to move first.

The frenzy that unfolds can only be described as akin to sharks smelling blood in the water.

Marvel slits the throat of the crazy, babbling woman, and the resulting cannon has firegirl on him in a minute. She shoots at him, and while she clips the top of his shoulder, Clove gets to her first.

Glimmer is behind Clove, able to grab Johanna by the arm enough to throw off the path of the axe in her arm. The weapon tumbles along the rocks and into the water behind them, which results in an enraged shriek from Johanna Mason.

“Oh you stupid whore.” Johanna screams, lunging for Glimmer by the throat this time.

There’s a sickening thump as a body hits one of the rocky spokes, and by the blood curdling cry from Katniss under Clove’s knees  it’s clearly Bread boy being tossed by Cato.

Alright. Cato’s got Peeta, Glimmer’s got Johanna. Marvel is after Beetee when Clove settles into the main event.

Katniss wriggles underneath her, fighting desperately to escape the grasp of the hundred-pound girl so easily holding her down.

“Gotcha.” Clove snarls, her hand wrapping around Katniss’ throat as she reaches for a small, detailing knife. “You, stupid, stupid bitch.” Clove barbs, words as sharp as the knife in her hand. “Look around, fire girl. You’ve lost. Glimmer’s drowning Johanna as we speak. Bread boy’s choking for air over there with a broken spine, one wave flips him and he’s done for. Not that you care. Between you and me, that little love story wasn’t well played. You never should have kissed him on screen if you can’t sell it. Finnick’s run off, left you to fend for yourself. It was always going to be me and you, sweetheart.” She nearly coos, running the dull edge of her knife down the side of Katniss’ cheek. “I have wanted my double cannon for you since the interviews, you know. Not that I believe for a second you’re actually pregnant, I don’t think he’s ever even touched you, but a show is a show. It must suck. Dying a virgin and all that.” Clove presses down, watching Katniss gasp as her palm cuts out her breath enough to make her whimper. “Even if I die here, at least I'm going to be remembered as the one who snuffed out the girl on fire.”

Clove raises the knife in her right hand, just as her wrist is grabbed and she is in the air. For a second she thinks it has to be Cato- who else is going to lift her like she weighs nothing–but when she has the breath knocked out of her when she slams into the metal frame of the Cornucopia she knows it wasn’t him. Clove groans as she lifts her head, just in time to see FInnick Odair pulling Katniss up and telling her to run, run down the spoke as fast as she can. He says something about meeting her in the..5 o’clock?... segment and for what it’s worth she does run.

Finnick pauses, giving them a look somewhere between desperation and exhaustion, looking for all the world like he is about to speak to them, to try to make amends. But when Cato rounds the corner, looking for him and him alone, he dives into the water and disappears beneath it.

How the fuck did they get away?

Clove rolls onto her hands, gasping for air to refill her lungs, suddenly acutely aware of the severe pain along her back where she had hit the metal. That would leave one hell of a bruise on her corpse.

“What happened, where’s the cannons?” She gasps out, leaning against the metal frame of their shelter structure and closing her eyes to try to will away the tears.. “They should all be dead where’s the–”

“They all made it.” Marvel admits bitterly, plopping down on the sand beside her with a hand holding pressure to his shoulder. “Well, other than the crazy woman.”

“The fuck do you mean they all made it?” Clove snaps her eyes open, before narrowing them at him specifically.

“Oh yeah, judge us, you’re the one who had to go on a little monologue moment and lose Katniss!” Marvel reminds her, leaning on the metal across from her. “The least you could have done was kill her considering she SHOT me.”

“You couldn’t even kill that old guy from three, I don’t want to hear it.”

“Will you two cut it?” Glimmer huffs, before she immediately collapses to sit beside Marvel. “Johanna almost got me. I thought I had her then the bitch tried to fucking drown me. And she called me a whore!”

“We’ll get her.” Clove assures, though right now she isn’t sure she’s capable of even getting a fish. “Tomorrow. We’ll get her tomorrow.”

“I thought I got twelve, I thought his spine was snapped for sure.” Cato growls, before he settles in next to Clove. He doesn’t even think about it before he pulls her into his lap, wrapping his arms around her middle when he feels her immediately melt into his chest. “That fucker got dragged off by Johanna. I was going to go after them and then Finnick showed up–”

“I got the guy from three on the leg. He’ll at least be injured.” Marvel promises, before he wraps his good arm around Glimmer’s upper shoulders. The blonde slumps against him, head resting in the crevice of his neck and shoulder.

“That was fucking embarrasing.” Clove dismayed, “We’re literally from the best districts, and we just got out of that with no kills, a near drowning, an arrow to the shoulder, probably a collapsed lung. And four bruised fucking egos.”

“They didn’t get any kills either.” Glimmer reminds, but she is fading hard and fast to exhaustion or the aftereffects of near-drowning. Her words are starting to slur and her body going limp little by little against her boyfriend, slowly but surely slipping unconscious.

“I got one!” Marvel tries to defend, but he is shaking Glimmer just a little to keep her awake. “We can’t stay here any more. They know we’re here. We’re at risk.”

“We’ll move tomorrow.” Cato decides firmly, noting how Clove is going out nearly as fast as Glimmer, the pain catching up to her at last. “We’re all dead if we try to go out like this. We move tomorrow, find a sector without bloody rain..”

“Or bugs. We found one with bugs.” Marvel reminds him, desperately trying to keep Glimmer conscious enough for the Conversation. “You’re pretty quiet over there now too, Clove.”

“I’m just thinkin-” She slurs, waving her hand off haphazardly.  “Did-ya hear what FInnick said, ‘bout 5 o’clock?”

“Yeah it’s five o’clock somewhere.” Marvel tries, as if he’s going to finish a joke she’s starting off with.

“No you idiot, he said the five sections…” Clove suddenly sits up, despite the way her body desperately screams for her not to. “The 5 o’clock section..” She cranes her head around, crawling to the edge of the Cornucopia so she can see the lightning tree one last time as if it will confirm all her fears and suspicions. “One..four…six…ten..twelve- oh my god. Oh my fucking god.” Clove whips her head around, frantic to her allies, her friends and her lifelong love. “It’s a clock. The twelve— they aren’t districts, they're hours. It’s a clock. The tree, it’s midnight. Or noon. Whatever.”

“It’s a clock.” Cato repeats a few times to himself, before quirking his lip in disbelief at his wife. “You’re a genius, you know that right?”

“The blood rain, that was in the one segment. Do you think each hour is something else?”

“The bugs were in the 11.” Marvel chimes in, Glimmer long since passed out, having slumped over so much that she was laying on the ground, her head using his legs as a pillow.

“Every segment is something new. The wave is one. That haze is another.” Clove tries to walk back towards Cato, though the severe pain with standing takes her back down to her knees.

“It’s a clock we can figure out tomorrow.” Cato insists again, all but scooping up Clove to hold her in his lap again. She was in pain, clearly, but he would never point it out in front of their soon to be competition.

Time was wearing down. It was only a matter of time before the alliance had to split, too.

“We gotta get out of here, man.” Marvel groans, leaning his head back along the sheet metal. While the most obvious ‘here’ meant Cornucopia, Cato would have ventured to say there was a different kind of longing in that phrase. As if they could just up and leave the arena all together in one piece together, the four of them.

“Tomorrow.”

“Looks like we’ve got the first watch, anyway.” Marvel nods towards Clove, who has also slipped into unconsciousness now, her body curled up against the expanse of Cato’s chest.

He nods, and begins doing some mental math after a couple of cannons go off not long after. “I think there’s only what.. ten left?”

“We wanted to be dead before the final eight.” Marvel admits bluntly, running his hand over Glimmer’s somehow still perfectly curled hair in her sleep. “She doesn’t want to live in a world after this, and I don’t want to live without her in it.”

“....tell me about it.”

The day two recap confirmed their suspicions– Mags and Blight, that seven boy, died overnight– followed by Wiress at Marvel’s hand in the cornucopia. The ones from 6 died at some point since the girls fell asleep. Five more dead. Ten more total.

At some point the girls wake up with the intention to take over watch after Dinner, another generous gift from sponsors for one of the four of them.

Can you actually finish them next time?  Came the unsigned note with this meal.

The impending final eight leads to a conversation that had been a long time coming, and a long time dreaded.

“We can’t split, not until that group is done for. We at least need them separated to have a shot at taking them out.” Clove admits, sharpening one of her less useful knives on a nearby stone. She hates to admit that they are a match for their very trained, skilled career pack. But it is just as dangerous to underestimate your enemies– and everyone here was a victor at the end of the day.   “We have to stay together until they’re weaker.”

There's a tension in the air none of them can address. Their time is coming to an end, both as a career pack and as living people. Noone wants to be the one to throw the first knife, make the first slice to their alliance. Noone wants to be the one to kill one of their only friends.

Clove and Glimmer head out in the middle of the night, with Marvel and Cato content to sit back and watch over their stuff. The two of them run into the man from 11, Chaff maybe, practically seizing on the jungle floor. Clove holds him down as Glimmer carves their names into his chest, and Clove delivers the final blow to his chest, severed aorta pulsing out blood with every last futile heart beat.

“You know I should have ripped his throat out like Enobaria.” Clove laughs out on her way back to the Cornucopia, as Glimmer links their arms together. “Homage to my dear dear mentor up there.” Clove blows a kiss dramatically at the sky, and Glimmer just shakes her head.

“Nah, you’ve got your own signature kills. Crazy girl with the knife and all, no one's ever going to forget those things about you, Clove.”

When they return to the cornucopia the boys head out, and Clove is the one now laying with her Glimmer’s head in her lap, laughing at some bad sex story of the blonde, when Cato and Marvel practically run back, looking like they’ve seen ghosts.

The mood shifts as the girls sit up, looking them over as they pant to catch their breaths.

“What’s wrong–”

“Birds, the birds were screaming.” Marvel explains, doubled over with hands on his knees.

“The birds were screaming?” Glimmer cocks her head, though she pushes herself to her feet when she realizes something has genuinely shaken them up.

“Mockingjays I think.” Cato huffs out, though his newly tanned skin has gone sickly pale. “They sounded like my sister.”

Day 3 (Meet Me at Midnight)

“Hey, what did they take from the cornucopia yesterday?” Clove inquires as she reloads her knife vest for a long night ahead of hunting down the others. The end of the third day meant they had to get it down to the final eight in whatever means necessary. That only meant one kill- probably the guy from three. She had lost a few in the fight the day before, and had been sure to restock before they headed out.

“Uh..wire or something?” Cato tries to remember, scratching some flecks of blood off the very tip of the sword, polishing it until he could see his reflection staring back at him.

Recognition comes over Glimmer first, and she pushes herself to her feet as fast as any of them had seen her. “We need to get away from the water, now.”

“We’re moving, Glim, what’s the rush?” Clove tucks a knife into the center of her newly reformed– at the hands of Glimmer– ponytail.

“No you don’t get it, we need to move now,” Glimmer takes Marvel’s hand, and begins to tug at him, trying to pull him deeper into the woods. “That's how he won, he electrocuted everyone.”

“That's how who won?” Cato asks, though the frantic tone in Glimmer’s voice moves him with an urgency he didn’t know he possessed anymore.

“The guy from three. He electrocuted everyone..that's why there's wire, he’s going to try to fry us. We’re on the sand–”

“He’ll use the tree.” Clove realizes at the same time, moving quickly and efficiently to try to pull herself and Cato off the wet ground. “What time is it? He’ll go to the lightning tree, that's where they’ll all be.”

“It’s got to be eleven, I'd think.” Cato doesn’t argue as Clove pulls him deeper inside the treeline, clearing the sand. “We need to move fast if we’re taking them on.”

“This could be our last chance– they have to be splitting soon, Fire girl isn’t a team player.” Marvel points out, craning his neck to look towards the tree a few slices down. “We have to work fast.”

“Take them by surprise.” Glimmer agrees, looking at the three of them over. “They may not be together anymore, but we are.”

“...if we get split up where do we meet back up?” Marvel is the one to ask. It’s a moment of truth. Separation could be a natural end to their alliance. It could be the formal beginning of the end, if they chose to let it be.

“The cornucopia. We meet back up there, if we all make it out alive after this.” Clove decides, taking the plunge to decide to maintain their alliance a little longer, not quite ready to sacrifice this friendship yet.

“At midnight. We meet at midnight.” Cato agrees, looking down at Clove with a nod.

“Meet up at midnight.” Marvel echoes, before Glimmer chimes in with finality.

“Back together at midnight! Oh! That will be your birthday, won’t it Clove?”

“Yeah..I guess it would be, huh? Maybe I'll see twenty for a few hours, after all.”

The four of them move in synchronicity, heading towards the quadrant with the big tree. At one point Marvel nearly trips over a rock, earning a laugh from the rest of them. For a moment, and only a moment, they look like a regular group of friends, stumbling home after a long night out.  As if they did not know that for some (or all) of them this could be their last midnight.

They round the corner into the jungle as they broach the 12 segment, and immediately the tone shifts.

There are no more laughs or jokes about Marvel’s two left feet, only the sound of their boots crunching the foliage beneath them. They manage to transform from a pack of hyenas into stealth hunting predators effortlessly, as if they had been doing so their whole lives (they had).

It’s Marvel who sees them first, who raises an arm in the direction of a shining cord weaving through the underbrush.

Cato is the one who feels a sudden rage that Glimmer was right– that bastard really was going to try to fry them like a coward.

He flashes Clove a smile, which she responds with a cocky raise of her eyebrows

Showtime.

Cato brings his sword down on the copper wiring, severing it, and sending the ends flying below them. When they peak down beyond the hill a shining axe flies their direction and Clove is the one who calls the wielder first.

“She’s fucking mine.” Clove hisses, chasing her down over the hillside, running full speed after the girl.

“Not if I get her first!” Marvel calls out, following only a few steps behind Clove. Johanna was his, if for no other reason than the whore comment she had directed towards Glimmer the day before.

Cato is about to go after Clove, not to let her out of his reach, when Glimmer calls his attention.

“Come on, Fire girl’s going that way!”

Cato follows only a step behind Glimmer, on the heels of Katniss Everdeen.

When they reach a clearing they see her pause, and nearly take their moment.

When they see Beetee twitching on the ground, they take pause. Clearly his own plan had turned on him.

Katniss makes some decision that has her aiming an arrow at Finnick, and they wait. Let her kill him. Let her take that blood from their hands before they take hers on their own.

Finnick utters something about  “Remember who the real enemy is,” and they see Katniss in a split second change her intention. She’s wrapping a coil around her arrow, no longer aiming for Finnick.

She must know they’re there, that's who the real enemy has to be, right?

“Get her.” Glimmer hisses to Cato, at the exact moment that Katniss sends an arrow flying upward, the arena flashes white, and everything goes black.

Post-Midnight

Cato woke up to screams before. That’s nothing unusual in the academy. Punishment started early, and if you did something to deserve it well… physical punishment was completely okay, if not expected, in training for the games.

Screams from a girl though, that was unusual.

Screams from a girl, screams that were so distinctly not from Clove, screams that were full of anger, and guilt, and despair, no those were not from Clove.

Screams that were an agony of heartbreak rather than physical pain, well, that could pull him out of his sleep.

If you could call it sleep.

Cato felt like he was fighting cinder blocks in his eyelids, his body, his muscles, his very bones begging him to stay down and sleep.

When he tugs on his arm, he realizes there's something attached to it. Adrenaline takes over as his eyes fly open, ripping whatever needle and tubing is in his arm out. Someone was drugging him, and even if it were the Capitol, he wanted nothing to do with it.

The effects of the medicine wear off quickly once they are no longer being infused, and Cato is able to center more firmly on the agonized cries of someone, some girl, who was most certainly not Clove.

He pushes himself to a standing position, stumbling a bit, before he steadies himself and walks along the wall, standing just out of the doorway to get a listen as to what’s going on.

“You left them! You left them to die!”

“We had no choice–”

“Why didn’t you leave me with him!”

“Trust us, we had no intention of bringing the two of you along, but Plutarch here thinks you could prove useful.”

“They’ll kill them over this–”

Glimmer. She is the first voice he recognizes. It is her agonized cries that woke him– they left someone..but who is they and who is someone.

He decides to look around the corner, for some bearings on where he is.

Finnick is holding Glimmer back, as she claws both at his arms and her own, blood dripping and mingling on the floor at their feet. Haymitch Abernathy is there., and god dammit that man from three is still alive, along with some other random men he does not quite recognize but also cannot entirely say are foreign to him.

“Cato!” Glimmer cries, kicking harder against Finnick’s legs. “Cato, they left them!”

“Left who? Where are we, what’s going on?” He steadies himself along the table, the after effects of that sedative leaving his head reeling.

“Welcome to the Revolution.” Haymitch snarks, waving his hand around. “We don’t want you two here either, cupcake, but you may end up useful–”

“Rebellion? Useful to who?” Cato growls, lifting his head to catch Glimmer still thrashing in Finnick’s grasp, “let her go.”

“Cato, listen, they left them in the arena. Katniss blew it out and they took us and left Marvel and Clove in there, Snow’s going to get them!” Glimmer is pleading for him to understand something he is not able to process right now, absolute, pure fear in her voice that he had never heard from the woman before.

“Okay! They’re safe then there, we weren’t involved! They know that, they know we’d never be involved in this, Glimmer, they’re safer there…” Cato reasoned– of course they’d be safer, not in some crack show of a rebellion with a bunch of treasonous assholes.

“Cato, you don’t get it! We’re here! We look involved!” Glimmer pleads, digging her nails into Finnick’s arm to get him to let her go, twisting in some of the wounds she has already created.

“....you took us.” Cato realizes slowly, snapping his head up to Plutarch Heavensbee, head game maker, himself. “You made us look involved.”

“They’re going to kill them Cato, or they’re going to hurt them.” Glimmer explains, finally, as it falls into place for Cato.

Rebellion.

The head gamemaker.

Glimmer’s screams of pure, unadulterated fear.

They left them.

They left her.

“You left her to die.” Cato realizes, all of a sudden seeing nothing but angry, pulsating red. At the same time Glimmer breaks free to bring Finnick Odair to his knees with a kick to the side of one, Cato lunges at Plutarch Heavensbee.

“You fucking left her to die.” He wraps an arm around the Gamemakers neck, and at the exact second Glimmer lets out another helpless, desperate sob, his entire world fades from burning red back to black.

[rlpersephone3259]

“Haymitch Abernathy!”

It all starts with that silly accented voice reading just two words and my world falls apart around me.

My lungs catch and suddenly, suddenly, I can’t breathe. My feet try to lurch forward, but my brain isn’t firing entirely and they trip up.

Luckily, someone close by grasps my hand and doesn’t let me fall.

Haymitch…my heart cries out and I give a sob as I watch him, head so high, climb the stairs.

“At least it’s a day off school, Ro,” he’d said, so surely, just an hour or so before, as we made our way over after a meager lunch.

“You’ll be alright, sweetheart. I won’t let them take you,” he’d assured me as we parted at the check in.

And they weren’t. They aren’t taking me. Aren’t, just this moment, walking me into the Justice Building on my way to being thrown to the wolves for slaughter.

They’re taking him. It’s not any better.

I fight my way forward, find myself at the door to the building with the Tributes’ families and friends. I find his mother, his little brother.

“I have to see him,” I manage. She nods, her mouth set tight.

“Of course, dear. We’ll make sure.”

They take the families first, leaving the rest of us in a small room. Tears. I don’t look around, trying to breathe. Trying, desperately, just to breathe.

Soon, much too soon, the families are back and one of the white uniformed Peacekeepers is calling my name. He grabs my arm roughly and I follow him through a hall before he opens a door. “Five minutes,” he says and locks it behind me.

“Haymitch…” I hear my voice catch in my throat.

“Ro…” He opens his arms and I fall into them and suddenly, though I know I shouldn’t, I’m weeping into his shirt.

“Shhh, little Rosie,” he whispers, stroking my hair. “It’s alright, sweetheart. You’re okay.” He just holds me; lets me cry.

When I am finally able to speak again, I shake my head against his chest. “You can’t go. You just can’t. I won’t let them take you.”

He laughs. “You know you can’t stop them. It’s how they play the Game.”

“I can’t lose you.”

“You won’t. Someone goes home, sweetheart. Somehow, I fully intend that to be me.” I have to smile. I have to believe him. “Do you trust me, Ro?”

“With my life.”

“Then trust me now. I’ll see you in a month.” He kisses my forehead. I hear the lock and know my time is almost up. I blink back tears.

“I love you, Haymitch.” He smiles. So rare.

“Love you more, Ro. See you soon.”

I nod as the Peacekeeper grabs my arm and drags me from the room.

I want to believe him. I do. I know that District Twelve has a victor, who will be Haymitch’s mentor.

I know he’s strong. He’s smart. Maybe, just maybe, he can make it.

But I’ve seen them year in and year out, those children I know, even if only by sight if not by name, go into that arena. And every year they come home in a pine box. Gone gone gone.

There are forty eight of them. Only one gets to go home. How can I possibly have hope it will be Haymitch?

But he promised. He’s never broken a promise, not to me. Not in the almost twelve years of memory of knowing him and certainly not in the last two. Part of me says if there’s anyone who can do this, it’s Haymitch.

I’ll just have to believe. Somehow, maybe, I can make myself believe.

I go home, walk wordlessly past my parents and brothers, go to my room, close my door, curl up on my bed and stare at the wall.

I’m not entirely sure I’m ever coming out.

READ THE REST OVER ON AO3!!

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

Batman: Legend of the Gotham Knight

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/fATQdNW by Rigid2021 You know how the story goes. Thug shoots parents. Dead parents traumatize child. Child swears revenge. Child becomes adult. Child becomes bat-themed superhero fighting crime. However, this story is a little bit different from what you are used to... Bear witness to the legend of the Gotham Knight! His struggles, his victories, his romance and so much more laid bare before you all to witness, to laugh, to cry, to wince and to cheer at! Long live the Bat and his mission to not only improve his home, but also inadvertingly improve his own life! Words: 18, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, Original Work, DCU Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Categories: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Other Characters: Bruce Wayne, Selina Kyle, Rogues Gallery (Batman), Batman Ensemble, Batfamily Members (DCU), Barbara Gordon, Alfred Pennyworth, Harvey Bullock, Harvey Dent, Kirk Langstrom, Background & Cameo Characters, Other Character Tags to Be Added Relationships: Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne, Pamela Isley/Harleen Quinzel, Nora Fries/Victor Fries, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Other Relationship Tags to Be Added Additional Tags: Based on my artwork, takes inspiration from the entire franchise, Genderbent Victor Fries, Viktoria Fries in this case, Monster Poison Ivy, Harleen Quinzel was Harley Quinn for only a year before returning to her original profession after a change of heart, So she did not do any of the more heinous stuff Harley has done in the comics, Action/Adventure, Action, Action & Romance, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Romantic Fluff, Romance, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, Eventual Happy Ending, Angst with a Happy Ending, Angst and Fluff and Smut, BatCat endgame, Humor, Attempt at Humor, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, someone who must not be named did good ol' batsy a little dirty later on, Canon-Typical Violence, Developing Relationship, Developing Friendships, this batman is a little more on the lighter side of the spectrum of batmen, Superheroes, Supervillains, Not Canon Compliant, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, has some pulp era vibes to it, references to some stuff from the greater DC universe, I love Batman, he is awesome and I love that he always tries to be the better man despite it all, Bruce Wayne's No-Killing Rule, his more vile adversaries are really pushing it, Late Night Conversations, Mystery, Murder Mystery, Mystery Character(s), Mystery Stories, Origin Story, story arcs are included in this heavily, Bruce Wayne is Batman, Selina Kyle is Catwoman, Bruce Wayne is Bad at Feelings, Bruce Wayne is Bad at Communicating, bruce wayne tries his best being the hero gotham needs, Protective Selina Kyle, Bruce Wayne Loves Selina Kyle, Selina Kyle Loves Bruce Wayne, selina kyle loves to troll the batman like no one else, Other Additional Tags to Be Added read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/fATQdNW

[doktorblitz]

Creature Commandos Vampire AU pokolistan scene

also on ao3

https://archiveofourown.org/works/62944120

Summary: main things you need to know, Victor and Bride fled from Eric and roamed Europe, they ended up bumping into a vampire with a local ghoul den, and Victor and B killed the vamp, but he had to be turned to survive. He got turned, now he's a bloodsucker, grappling with his humanity somewhat, and he's been glued to Bride since, now that he's basically as immortal as her.

They go to Pokolistan as in the canon version and this is in the evening after he wakes up from his day nap, and goes to catch up with her on the mission etc.

She's still bunking with Nina, Vic is visiting her in the girls room.

He'd woken up from the Osprey flight at least a little jittery, though he wasn't sure if it was from being back here, or the discomfort of a long flight in a coffin. He hadn't expected to ever see Pokolistan again. Truthfully, when he sent his family away to the countryside for a "vacation" almost 200 years ago, he hadn't expected to ever see the castle again.

All he knew was he needed to see her to ground himself, funny how sometimes she was the more rational of the two, when he got more impulsive. He knocked on the door to Her and Nina's room, entering after a familiar "door's open", not surprised to find Nina already getting into her tub.

Bride was by the window and looking out just as wistfully as he'd been a few moments ago, and he joined her by the window with a gentle hand on her shoulder.

She looked to him for all of 2 seconds before she whispered about the elephant in the room. "You're thinking of going back? Ever thought of being back here, with how long it's been?" He smiled ruefully at how easily she always read him, but didn't try to deny it. "Just think of the potential. My journals, my research, all of the work I did on you is there. Sure not all of it may have survived but still, it's a tempting idea, isn't it?" at the last part he looked at her with open vulnerability, and she couldn't help her heart squeezing a bit at that. "Who knows if we'll ever get back here again, with Waller's tight leash, it does seem like quite an opportunity." she said with a complicit smile, and far too much fondness. "Shouldn't you be the one saying not to do something stupid this time, when my usual caution fails?" he couldn't help a small smile even as he said it. "I have something of my own to recover, not just your damned journals, Vic. Remember that tourmaline necklace that you once gave me? The one lost in my fight with Eric?" she looked genuine about wanting it back, and the mention brought back fond memories of his about making her smile.

"And how do you suggest we get there, given our guests?" he asked with a nod to the bathroom and Nina probably being half awake in the water. "I have an idea. Get on my shoulders and trust me?" she turned to him with a rather playful look.

With a fondly exasperated look he did as asked, and wasn't surprised when she scaled the Royal castle walls like a damn cat. She was only barely out of breath by the time he was dismounting her shoulders, and he was as impressed as ever with her sheer physical strength.

What neither expected was a rushed looking Nina panting and joining them down the stairs. "Bride" "How did you get down here?" suspicious as ever. "I walked….down the stairs" she sounded far too naive. "No one tried to stop you?" of course Bride would be the pragmatist. "We're here to protect them, why would they try to stop me?" again the naivete of the young woman struck him.

Bride and Nina proceeded to discuss the risks of Flagg realizing they'd left and the inevitable electric jolt that would bring.

He couldn't help a chuckle though when Bride's response of "Grow a pair Fish!" came in a sardonic tone. Bride then proceeded to get the money from the guard for a cab and Nina was amusingly surprised at her rather brutish methods.

"She means to say thank you" Nina was far too nice. "No, I mean nothing of the sort!" He could practically taste the sarcasm in that one.

"Charming as ever my dear, I'd doubt your methods if they haven't proven so useful time and time again." as much as he was a gentleman she was more of a ruffian and that was quite the attractive look on her.

All three got into the cab, with Victor in front. Leaving the city, Vic and bride were not especially surprised at the state of the area.

After all it had been the same in his time, poverty down below and gold gilded toilets up top. He even wondered if the "Can-Can club" was still open. The only difference was having a Disney princess for a ruler, Bride's words not his own.

In the meanwhile they didn't realize how close to the truth Nina had been, as Flagg fought Dr Phos and very nearly ended up jolting them all.

They made it to the castle, Bride breaking the padlock and stepping in carefully, and they briefly stopped at the entrance hall.

"This is where you were born?" Nina certainly seemed quite shocked. "Yeah" Bride's tone was weary, bone deep tired. "And why are we here now?" She didn't sound happy to be there, not that anyone had forced her. "We were hoping to find a few old mementos in this mess. No telling if they're still intact but worth a shot" he couldn't keep the weary hope out of his tone.

As they moved through the hall, Victor couldn't help recall his fated conversation with Eric, about making the Bride. It hadn't been in his plans. He had wanted to explore the boundaries between life and death. But by threatening his family Eric had forced his hand.

None the less he'd made her the best he could. Perfect careful stitches for every strand of skin and sinew, every vein and every nerve ending. Eric had almost been so impatient as to prevent him from completing the careful process of aligning and stitching her skin to complete her. He had felt an odd combination of fear and the excitement of a new discovery, should she come out right.

All the while thoughts of his own family nagged at the back of his mind, of Elizabeth and the girls. It had been only an obligation at the time, a condition of the Pokolistan royals to allow his research, but he'd gotten at least somewhat attached to them.

In the meantime, Flagg was getting his flagpole, sorry his wounds, treated by Princess Ilana, with Dr Phos trying to make up for his earlier disobedience by watching his six.

Somewhere on the upper floors of Castle Frankenstein, Nina was trailing behind the two immortal undead of the team, when a particular large portrait caught the Bride's attention first then Vic's. She couldn't help but notice the similarity between Victor and the man in the picture, and always far too curious asked about it. "Are those your parents ?" this was directed at Victor but the Bride was the one that scoffed, and after a pause the man himself replied as well. "Hardly, vampire remember? I had a family once, before I was turned." he even flashed her a bit of fang, but this wasn't meant to be playful, rather this was mildly menacing, or at the least a reminder he wasn't some harmless hunting hound to play with. "I kept my work here, all my research. The family homes were up the road." He said before moving further down the hall.

The fact the portrait held a wife and two daughters, more or less implied, raised a question in Nina's mind she wasn't sure how to ask, at least not without raising either the vampire's annoyance, or the Bride's.

As they made their way up to the lab she couldn't help her wonderment at the view, when she came up past the stairs. It was a far taller and larger room then anything she'd ever seen and it was clear all of it had taken some serious funds to build. "My father was a scientist, but he never had anything like this…" Nina's amazement was clear and in contrast both the reanimated woman and the vampire looked melancholic and weary, like the place held too many memories and they were trying not to think of them. "I was always told I had far too much ambition. If I could not build something myself I would find the person to build it for me. All of this is my research, my life's work." Victor's tone was bittersweet, and the expression on Bride's face matched it, a fondness sneaking in even there for the man next to her.

Seeing the metal table and restraints near the windows seemed to bring something forward for both of the two, and Bride was the one who told Nina of the process of being reanimated. Victor somehow looked both sad and fond at the recounting, having never intended to make her but glad that he did, eventually.

"That sounds horrible" Nina hadn't imagined that sort of pain can exist. "Birth is always horrible, God's gift to humanity is he lets you forget it. Science is not so forgiving" Bride's tone was snide but genuine this time, no asshole facade, just her truth. Victor took to scouting the edges of the room while Nina and Bride argued on the merits of being a human or a monster, or a "human being with gills" per Bride's opinion.

Eventually it was decided Bride would check upstairs in the sleeping area and Nina and Victor would continue down here. When the Bride described what Nina should be looking for, it was hard to miss the remembrance in Victor's eyes, given the necklace was somewhat of an impulsive gesture of his.

Meanwhile the Bride was upstairs remembering how Victor had defended her from Eric's insistence, Nina kept looking like she wanted to ask something yet not sure how to phrase it, at least in a way that wouldn't get her head bitten off.

So Victor turned to her still searching motions and casually said "I see you have some questions. As the daughter of a scientist I'm none too surprised. May as well ask them now while you can Miss Nina." With a careful breath to choose her words she asked "You…created….made her with the reanimation process, stitched her together yourself?" "I did, but it's a longer story than that. I made Eric first. I taught him as best I could, but he decided he wanted someone like him, a mate…. a wife. I wanted to refuse, but he threatened my own family, and I couldn't get them killed like that." he sighed and continued, clearly still troubled over the long ago events "I stitched her together, gave her life, and I tried to teach her what I'd taught Eric as well. Freewill and choice. That is what I've always given the both of them. Eric only understands his own freewill, not anyone else's, so he's been pursuing us ever since. As for her, her freewill was apparently to choose me over him, every time." he noticed the look Nina was giving him and responded, far more seriously than he had all night so far "I'm well aware of how the…..what is that modern expression, optics…look? I never forced anyone to do something against their will. And at every turn, every step she came closer, I gave her an out she could take. She never took the out, and she made her own choices." He looked drained but sincere, and genuinely fond of Bride in a way Nina had never seen directed at herself. "I don't kiss and tell, but bride was the one who initiated things, and all I've ever wanted was to make her happy. If having me makes her happy, than that's the solution I'll take, regardless if Eric understands or not."

While Nina was conflicted for a number of reasons, at the least age difference and the fact they'd both been hostages to Eric at the time, she understood the intent behind his actions. She might not agree but he seemed to make Bride genuinely happy, and Nina would be lying if she said she hadn't wanted a love like this eventually in her life, something so passionate.

It was quite lucky they then found the necklace not long after, well, Nina did, and much to her surprise the good doctor didn't take it himself, his eyes went almost misty for a moment before he said "I think it's best if you present it to her, after all you did the work of finding it. Gets you brownie points perhaps?" he chuckled at his pun for a moment before proceeding back to the hall.

They made it up to the sleeping quarters and Bride's look when she saw the necklace was almost heartbreaking for all of a second, Vic looking just as conflicted as her given it wasn't just the memory of them running off together. It was also the memory of Victor leaving his family and giving up everything but her.

"What happened to your family, Victor?" Nina couldn't help asking, when it became clear they'd run off eventually. "I had Elizabeth take a countryside vacation with the girls, she had this friend in the village, thought she could relax for a couple of weeks, since I would be so busy with the estate." his tone turned more than a little sad "That way by the time Eric realized he'd been played and we ran, he couldn't come after her so easily." The look in his eyes was cold enough to freeze hell, and the Bride placed a supportive but unexpected hand on his shoulder.

Just as the Bride was about to be glad she had her necklace back, there was purple light in the window and Circe started to cause a ruckus. Given that dawn would be approaching, Victor ran to the woods, barely dodging the Sons, and Bride and Nina had their little fight with the incel numbskulls before being beaten by Circe's goons and her magic.

Victor had nabbed a radio off one of the goons and managed to find safety in a cottage before sunrise came. Eventually Flagg and the rest made it there and got the girls out, and came for Vic with a blanket to keep him out of the sun while they got back to the Royal castle to save the princess.

A/N: This is part of a bigger AU I'm writing but I had someone ask about this bit and I thought, why not write this tidbit. A/N: I had to rewatch episode 2 to get the order of events relatively accurate, and god I love that episode, my goth loving heart swoons, and also why is Victor such a hot twink? That ain't fair man, he's far too pretty (jk jk I love the Frankenstein story and Victor is a weakness of mine). PS: yes the blanket bit is basically Spike in Buffy, I couldn't help include it.

[thgfanfictionlibrary]

General Rated Fics Masterlist (2)

Part 1 /

Created: August 23, 2023

Last Checked: —-

Campus Radio Station-absnow (Tumblr)

Summary: Drabble. Everlark meet-cute in student union coffee shop with a side of Finnick and Katniss friendship. Katniss works at the student radio station with some resulting flirting through music.

Honey-Gold Harvest Moon-songbirdheart (AO3)

Summary: “Pairs of dancers worn out from the string of reels or rags stumble away to get cider and catch their breath, but Peeta draws me close under the lanterns and the skeleton trees, and I rest my cold cheek against his as we sway to the music of the dulcimer.”

I Would Die for You in Secret-HuntersWithCellPhones (AO3)

Summary: Takes place in the scene of Catching fire where Peeta Hits the forcefeild and goes unconsius, but in Finnick's POV. Is the scene where he realizes Katniss and Peeta aren't just an act.

I've Been the Archer, I've Been the Pray-HuntersWithCellPhones (AO3)

Summary: While Training for the Quarter Quell, Finnick is keeping an eye on Katniss and gets a chance to watch her shoot, followed by Katniss, who he would've thought to be the harshest victor speaking to Mags in a quiet, calm tone as she teaches her to shoot a bow.

It's Not Like That-just_a_dram (AO3)

Summary: There’s some kind of joke happening at our expense that I don’t understand. Seems pretty sick to laugh about kids and their nightmares.

Making New Memories-tryalittlejoytomorrow (AO3)

Summary: She doesn’t know how to tell him, that she cares about him, that she’s scared of losing him just like she couldn’t bear losing Gale or Prim. She’s no good with words; Peeta’s always been the one pouring his heart out. Neither of them wants him to do so now, though; it’s her turn to say something, to take the first step towards him. “I wish they’d let us have a toasting first,” she murmurs. “I don’t want a big, fancy Capitol wedding. If we have to get married, I want it to be small and feel like home.” He freezes, the fingers that had been sifting through her dark waves coming to a halt. Katniss hears the tremor in his breathing, and she regrets saying anything. But Peeta recovers quickly, and draws her even closer, bending his head until his mouth is right by her ear. “We could do it,” he whispers. “If that’s really what you want.”

Snowstorm-songbirdheart (AO3)

Summary: “Spring is for courting, so mother will say; summer for wedding, rosy as May; autumn for keeping you warm from the cold; winter for babies to care when we’re old.” Written for the prompt: "No games, canon. Just a good, all time favorite “it would have happened anyway” story. Maybe throw in snowstorm trope to make it seasonal?" You got it. :D

Someday-Xerxia (AO3)

Summary: Modern AU, adult everlark best friends spend an eye-opening evening babysitting.

Sugar Spun-songbirdheart (AO3)

Summary: “Paper up the rabbits tonight,” Madge says as they break apart, and he puts an arm around her waist to lead her back into the house, “and tomorrow, I’ll make a special dinner for Sweethearts Day.” “Oh,” Gale says, sounding surprised. “Is that tomorrow?” “Meaning you didn’t get me anything,” Madge teases, ribbing him gently. “Meaning I still have a day,” he amends, stoking the fire as she starts setting out the things for dinner. A Gadge side story. Gale and Madge celebrate Sweethearts Day together.

What's Past Is Prologue-autumncolors (AO3)

Summary: In the cave, during their first Hunger Games, Peeta confessed to Katniss that he had been so captivated by her that he watched her walk home from school every day since they were five. That was the truth. But it wasn’t the whole truth. Submission for Prompts in Panem (Seven Deadly Sins) Day 7 – Envy