#(I like in pathfinder where I expected him to go down a slippery slope of evil choices but instead the power of love and friendship

[parasite-core]

Adramelek found the necronomacon and gave it to his vampire crush, learned about the Shadow Druids and found a convenient excuse to kill Kaga’s child murdering ass, and poisoned the goblins’ ale to kill off like half of them in one go.

I promise I’m really not planning to play as much of an asshole as Calio a second time 😂 He’s just going to slowly redeem himself as the story goes. The seeds are being planted in act 1 and will pay off in act 2, the big change eventually being of course refusing to kill Isobel and facing the consequences.

[kestrelsansjesses]

Revisiting Aya

[[Anonymous requested “Jaal and Ryder at the waterfall location” and I took liberties. Also, this got sort of out of control.

NSFW, smut

Ryder x Jaal

AO3]]

There were certain perks in being Pathfinder, one of which was that if you asked people to clear out of a small area at a given time, they generally fell over themselves in their haste to accommodate. At one point in time, it was something Wren Ryder may have felt guilty about, but today she was reveling in the comparative freedom it gave her, steering the small shuttle from Aya’s bustling city into the quiet of the foothills.

“Ryder, you are sure you can drive this?” Jaal was stuck in the passenger seat, blindfolded and trying to sit with his hands folded, every now and then turning his head in her approximate direction and trying to look as skeptical as one can with half their face blocked.

“Nope, but how difficult can it be? Few switches, ignition… I’ll wing it.” And winging it she indeed was, having not yet managed to crash and burn and kill them all. It would be a bad beginning to what she had envisioned as the perfect day. An anniversary. Their first, hopefully of many. She was uncertain if angara even thought of anniversaries in the same way humans did, and even less sure that they followed the same calendar year, but she kept her mouth shut, simply telling Jaal it was a surprise. He would have to live with that.

With surprising smoothness, the shuttle landed, a soft burst of hair preventing it from crushing too many plants. They were here, and the butterflies in her stomach were suddenly overwhelming. “Okay, you can take off the blindfold. Uhm, surprise?” Doubts assailed her; this was a bad idea, he wouldn’t care, this was cheesy, too over the top. It took all her willpower just to look at him and try and gauge what his reaction would be, rather than looking away and just attempting to hope for the best.

Jaal pulled the blindfold off his face, eyes widening. “The hot springs. You have taken us back here.” He turned to smile at her, his hand drifting over to cover her own and squeeze it gently. “I asked Liam to show me a human calendar. It has been a year since you said yes to being with me.” Ah, so he hadn’t forgotten. Not at all. “I was going to surprise you back at the Tempest, but I see you’ve beaten me to it. The punch.” The phrase came out garbled, as if Ryder had ever expected anything else.

“There’s more. Come on.” Stepping out of the shuttle, Ryder walked with more confidence than she actually felt, moving to the edge of the water and looking out over it. It looked the same as it had before- maybe slightly more lush, but equally as beautiful, the cool air contrasting with the natural heat of the water and creating a pleasant shimmering effect over the whole area. It had been perfect then, and it was perfect now, and there was a comfort in this new familiarity. A year and it felt like yesterday in the best possible way.

Jaal followed her with his eyes, leaning against the shuttle and simply watching with a half-smile on his face. Shooting a look back at him, Ryder removed her shirt, hoping that this paid off. It had involved a lot of asking around human settlers woken from Nexus, trying to figure out who had their priorities out of order enough that they would bring the item in question in the first place. Eventually she had found someone, but talking the woman out of it had been another battle entirely, and it had cost her so many credits… Not the point Ryder, she told herself. This is the point.

Her back was to Jaal as her shirt landed on the rocks, and when she looked over her shoulder, she was trying to gauge his reaction to the swimsuit she was wearing. Two pieces, far flimsier than her tastes usually ran. She felt almost like a kid playing dress up than an actual adult, but the last time they had been here they had undressed themselves, and there was something lacking in that. Jaal’s hands couldn’t deal with the intricacies of human clothing so well, but pulling on a few pieces of string? Even a krogan could manage that.

Jaal’s hands carefully settled on either side of her waist, pulling her around where he could look her up and down with obvious appreciation. “I will devour you,” he said simply, emphasizing ‘will’ to stress how imminent it truly was. “But what is it?” One hand picked up one of the strings, rubbing it between two fingers gently, the texture clearly strange for him. To be fair, neoprene felt weird even just on her skin after so long in either armor or her own ship clothes, like it was too slinky and too slippery, as if it could slide right off. Which was kind of the point, come to think of it.

“It’s a human swimsuit. Women wear them. I mean, I haven’t worn one in years, but. I bought one.” Her sentence finished lamely, and the urge to become self-conscious was overwhelming. He’s seen you naked. There’s no reason to feel so… exposed.

For all her uncertainty, however, Ryder wanted to take control of the day. Last time they had been here, Jaal had very much been in control of the situation, and while that had its ample appeal, a relationship was about give and take and an equal balance of powers, at least for her. She wasn’t one content to simply have her partner plan things, and to have him… Dominate was the wrong word, but today she was in control.

Their height difference was pleasant, all things considered. He was taller than her, but not so much so that she couldn’t lean up to kiss him, feel him reciprocate and press his body against hers. Her hands reached up to unclasp his Rofjinn, and then he guided her into removing the rest of his clothing, well aware that just as he struggled with hers, she would struggle with his, especially those areas of angaran armor that clearly weren’t intended for small, fragile human fingers.

In a mirror of their time before, Ryder led Jaal to the water, walking until it hit her waist. It lapped against them in warm waves, but the heat her body generated was more than enough. They kissed again, arms around each other, until Jaal’s hands found the strings holding her top together. One hand gently tugging each string was enough to remove the top, floating down to hit the water. Ryder found herself utterly unconcerned with it, despite its cost; it wasn’t like it was going to go anywhere, and Jaal’s hands were doing more interesting things still, like untying the strings on the sides of the bottoms, sending them floating near to their companion piece.

“Ryder, I-,” he began, to which the best and only response was to kiss him, silencing Jaal and then using the buoyancy of the water to help her wrap her legs around his waist, gripping tightly. Close, so close, but…

“Let’s go to shore,” Ryder whispered in Jaal’s ear, to which he was only too happy to oblige, carrying her out of the water and then laying her down. A year and they had been in this same spot, but their bodies had been so new to each other, and there had been more hesitance in each of their actions. It had been alien territory in a very literal sense of the word, but it was far from it now.

Ryder bit the corner of Jaal’s lip as they kissed, provoking a not unexpected moan. Her legs still around his waist, she could feel him harden, her own body responding in kind. Their kiss broke apart, and then Jaal pressed his lips to the hollow of her throat and downwards, lingering among her breasts, playing with them and taunting with his tongue, before continuing downward, stopping by her hipbones with a tease, looking over Ryder through the slopes of her own body while she squirmed, arching to meet his lips each time.

“No,” she gasped out. No teasing today. Her mind wanted one thing, the memories of this place propelling her forward almost as much as Jaal’s touch did. Today was a day for new memories, and though slow exploration had its time and its place, there was hunger running through Ryder. It was still and quiet, save for their own sounds, and every ragged breath Jaal drew in made her burn hotter.

Reaching down, Ryder took a hold of Jaal and guided him in. At other times all too aware of her tendency to not be… quiet, , she bit his shoulder to muffle himself, moving with him with each thrust, even as they moved more rapidly together. He sent burst of bioelectricity down through her, not strong enough to shock, merely adding a tingle that pushed her over the edge faster than she had anticipated, and himself a moment later.

They lay together still, panting, unwilling to separate. “I love you. Happy anniversary,” she finally choked out, exhausted, and yet…

There was time for round two.