EVENT #010

[larkers]

WHO: Everyone
WHERE: New Amsterdam and any other megacity the Displaced happen to be in/travel to!
WHEN: May 28, 2512
WHAT: Golden-eyed monsters stream into New Amsterdam and other megacities the world over.
NOTES OR WARNINGS: Violence, death, body horror, mind control, and transformation.

> EVENT #010

It starts in the middle of the night, when most everyone should be fast asleep in their beds, whether they're still taking up a cot in the safehouse or staying in their own apartment. One moment it's quiet, with most of the rest of the city having also turned in for the night, and then in the next? It isn't.

There will be mass confusion as the scope of the situation becomes clear. Monsters stream out onto the streets, thundering up the stairs of a train station, skittering out of construction sites, or climbing up the walls. Some of them fly. Others slither. Others run, loping forward with only one goal in mind: to find something to sink their teeth or claws into and to leave destruction in their wake at every turn. They are a horde, a swarm, a teeming mass of creatures that have no intention of stopping. All of them have eyes or bodies that shine gold and wherever they go, they seem to leave decay. Concrete turns black and porous where they step; plants wither and die.

There is no real preparing for an attack of this scale. New Amsterdam will awaken as the sound of these monsters crashing down on cars or bursting through storefronts or into homes forces people to run screaming from their dwellings or places of work. There is no discrimination in who these beasts might target, and no discernable pattern in where they go.

All that one can really tell is that they seem to want to spread out. They're constantly on the move, leaping from victim to victim, and they're relentless. No one knows why they've come, where they're come from, or what will make them stop. At least for now, the only option seems to be to cut down their numbers. It's time to fight the horde.

The first night will be utter chaos as everyone reacts to the monsters' sudden appearance, but by the morning hours news reports will start streaming in. This is not only happening in New Amsterdam, or wherever else a Displaced might be staying, but seemingly everywhere. Some cities seem harder hit than others, but practically every megacity is overrun with the creatures.

With no way of knowing who might have unleashed the monsters, all of these cities have essentially been turned into battlefields. Not many civilians are prepared to fight for their lives, and it will take a mobilization effort from the police, Morningstar, the Displaced, and anyone else who's willing to take up arms in order to survive.

◉ As a note, this attack starts simultaneously in multiple cities. While it's the middle of the night in New Amsterdam, the monsters will appear at other times of the day in other parts of the world depending on the timezone!

> BESTIARY

So as to not make this post overly long, we have compiled all of the monster descriptions into a Google doc here for everyone's reference!

> (NOT SO) SAFEHOUSE

For those Displaced who stay at (or spend any time in) the safehouse under the hoverbike shop or the Red Wings bar, they may become aware of the presence of the monsters sooner than others, due to the fact that at least a few of the giant mole monsters will end up burrowing up through the concrete basements to wreak havoc. The screeching noise of steel claws tearing through the floor will be sure to wake up even the deepest of sleepers.

This won't just be an occurrence on the first night of the attack, either. Unless something is done to deter them, tunnels leading straight into the safehouses will continue to be created, allowing even other types of monsters to find their way through (the smaller ones, that is). Where exactly they're coming from won't be entirely clear, though it's a safe bet to assume that they must have originated in the cave system somehow.

Suffice to say that El won't be happy about the safehouse being compromised in this way, though this isn't a possibility that ze or anyone else could have really prepared for. While ze can't do much to physically help with containing the invasion of the monsters, ze will offer whatever resources ze can—though Morningstar is going to be busy in plenty of other locations, as well, and they only have so many resources.

The Red Wings, being a Displaced-operated location, will also be in need of assistance, especially if it's meant to be a point of safety and a hub for handing out supplies. Speaking of—

> RED WINGS HQ

As things begin to deteriorate, Clarke Griffin and Stephen Strange sink their resources into Red Wings, adapting it into a base of operations for the Displaced. Clarke also called in PRESERVE to set up a checkpoint here, too, and anyone—from the Displaced to civilians—will be able to seek aid here. (Of course, Red Wings will be just one of a few locations throughout the city where they attempt to set up shop, but Red Wings may prove to be more fortified thanks to the talents of the Displaced.) Civilians will not have access to Red Wings' safehouse, however. That's still something that Clarke and Stephen want to keep under wraps, for now.

In the bar proper, there will be medical aid, supplies, and even weapons for those who can use them. During rare moments of downtime, the gang at Red Wings will also work on reconnaissance missions to find safe spots throughout the city to provide much needed protection and safety for the people of New Amsterdam. This task may be much easier said than done. Gathering intel on the monsters is a high priority, too, and for anyone who tries to capture a monster to learn more about them, the basement might be a good place to hold them. If the Displaced are going to be able to fight back, they need to know exactly what it is they're fighting.

However, the truth of the matter is that this attack happened quickly, and in the middle of the night to boot. As much as the group at Red Wings tries, resources are stretched thin, and they didn't have time to prepare as much as they wanted to. Supplies need to be rationed, bandages and stitches used for wounds that really need them, and if you're not a great shot, it might be best to let someone with more training take that gun you're eyeing.

More than anything, despite the difficulty, this is a way for the Displaced to help out as many people as they can, and a way for them to cement their humanitarian efforts and affect the population's opinion of them. The citizens of New Amsterdam are sick of this cycle of destruction, and are just waiting to be empowered. Now's the time to teach them to fight back and help them protect their city.

Red Wings' safehouse underground will be damaged by burrowing monsters as well, and will need protection. The bar itself will escape relatively unscathed.

> INVESTIGATING / GATES

Maybe the best way of dealing with the monsters isn't violence at all. Maybe there's a more strategic way to deal with this.

The monsters will be moving from city to city via the gates, just like the Displaced do. There might be a way to keep them from spreading, or at least slow them down, by shutting down the gate network. Of course, with the mag trains shutting down, getting back home could be an issue. One option is the delivery network of hover trucks. They'll still be running to get supplies from city to city, but their batteries don't run indefinitely, so these will be relatively local trips only. No getting from New Tokyo back to New Amsterdam with this method, unfortunately, and convincing a driver to let you hitch a ride might be a challenge, but it's doable.

Of course, there's also the question of where these things are coming from. Intrepid characters might be able to track them back to their nests, which are tucked away in wildly different places depending on the city. In New Amsterdam, they might be in the caves below the city. In other places, they might not be in the city proper at all, but just outside of it. It's important to keep in mind that the nests are far away from any of the action taking place elsewhere. Tracking these origin points may provide some answers, but the cost would be less involvement in the crisis taking place.

And then there's the matter of the monsters themselves. How can you fight an enemy you know nothing about? For those determined or crafty enough, capturing them might be an option, although this will take some creativity. Once these creatures are captured, they'll need to be kept contained, and kept alive. Just because they're monstrous doesn't mean they don't have to eat, after all, and some will need special environmental considerations as well, such as the mind control slugs.

What happens after that is up to the Displaced. Is dissecting them the best bet? Their internal anatomy won't be wildly different from most "normal" animals, with the exception of some creatures who have strange appendages or the like. Still, this might give the Displaced a better idea of how they operate and what their weak spots are. Sending samples to a lab is another possibility, if the Displaced can figure out how to safely store those samples. After all, the world is in a crisis, and no one is running tests at the moment.

All monsters, though, seem drawn to the blue light. When a Displaced uses a power or activates the empathy bond, the creatures will lock onto it, utterly transfixed, and if this is done enough times, that gold glow of theirs will intensify. What does it all mean? Maybe figuring that out will be a pathway to stopping their attacks.

> PITCHING IN

While all of this is going on, it certainly won't be just the Displaced who are heading out into the streets to try and stem the flow of the monster attack. These creatures are certainly not holding back, and no matter how much work might be put in, their numbers are overwhelming. Plenty of people will end up dead as a result, ripped to shreds or dragged off somewhere to be eaten. Yet, for some reason, these monsters are not as vicious toward the Displaced. They'll engage them in a fight and injure them, but they never go so far as dealing a fatal blow.

Seeing how that's not the case for the rest of the populace throughout the world, however, some groups and organizations will be rising up to do their part.

Police departments will be mobilizing in every megacity to put the monsters down, and while they are armed, it's not on the same level as the UNA. They also don't have any sort of training that's prepared them to fight monsters, but they'll still be putting their lives on the line to put a dent in the monsters' onslaught. When it comes to enforcing regular law and order, they certainly won't have the bandwidth for anything like that. Then again, most people won't be in any position to take advantage and commit crimes either, given the chaos that will be a constant everywhere.

Morningstar will also be jumping into action around the world. The New Amsterdam branch will be most likely to work alongside the Displaced and share some of their resources, particularly with those who are signed up as official agents or those who've supported them in the past. In cities like New Prague and New Beijing where the Displaced have made some contact with Morningstar before, they'll also be open to working with the Displaced. However, their resources are by no means robust. Morningstar is an organized rebel group, but they're hardly an official army in any sense of the word. They might be able to hand out a weapon here or there and they have a safehouse set up in almost every city, but beyond that, they'll mainly be getting boots on the ground to help with the fighting.

UNA soldiers who have been left without any sort of purpose or guidance will now have an opportunity to put some of that training to use. Their involvement will be much more scattered, though in some cases small groups of these soldiers who used to work in units together will reconnect in their effort to fight off the horde. However, having been cut off from the UNA in an official capacity, they won't have much in the way of gear or weapons. They're still formidable fighters, though, and now might be the perfect time to reach out and make a connection with some of them.

Mercenaries belonging to various different outfits, depending on what city they're based in, will also be joining the cause. Whether they're acting out of a basic desire to survive the attacks or if they're actually being paid by someone to go out there and risk their lives will be less clear, but they're some of the best-equipped fighters (other than the police). They also won't really find much reason to protest any of the Displaced pitching in to fight with them. The more firepower, the better, right?

A group of regulars from the New Amsterdam fighting rings will be rising up to add their fuel to the monster-fighting fire, as encouraged by Hawke and whoever else might know them well enough to reach out. Given that some of these people have illegal mods to enhance their strength or cybernetic attachments that can do impressive amounts of damage, some of them might hold their own against the monsters. Hell, some of them might even ask the Displaced to demonstrate some of their powers if they end up fighting together, as word of their abilities has become more known among their ranks. Either way, they'll be jumping into the fray with quite a bit of gusto.

PRESERVE will be involved on the other end of these efforts and will be doing their best to tend to the wounded and the dead, along with finding shelter and safe spots for people to barricade themselves from the attacks. It's not like the grand majority of civilians could stand a chance against these monsters, after all, yet not all of them can rely on their homes to be safe enough to stay in. They'll be quick to accept an offer of Displaced help, as they'll be doing their best to try and drag the recently dead to hospitals to get them put into medi-units before they're too late. Along with what's set up at Red Wings, they'll also be cobbling together other relief spots throughout the city for taking care of wounded and offering up what supplies they have (food and water, medical supplies, etc).

And what are the corporations doing in all of this? Well, suffice to say, mainly just panicking. Unsurprisingly, they're not much help during a crisis like this, with most of the super-rich opting to hide away in whatever highly secure bunkers they might have. Too bad that these bunkers might not prove so secure in the face of these attacks. Could that prove to be an opportunity if someone went looking?

> FINAL OOC NOES

Please refer to the OOC EVENT POST for all OOC info, including suggestions for directions on how to engage with the event. Given the spread out nature of this event, as well as the amount of additional details provided here, please direct all questions to our QUESTIONS thread below. This is, naturally, a huge event in terms of scale, and so we're certain there are aspects of it we haven't covered and questions that have yet to be answered. We do encourage that all of our players use the event planning post for any additional ideas and for touching base!

Please do not begin to thread out any aftermath until AUGUST 8, 2020, which is when we will put up the aftermath log and OOC post. If this date changes, we will provide a gamewide update as needed! As a note, the August calendar will be posted alongside the aftermath!

As a reminder, there is one power level up available for this event, granted for a thread of at least 5 log/action comments containing your character utilizing their power in some way during the event itself. They will need to reach the 5 comments required by SEPTEMBER 11, 2020 to be eligible. Submission will be handled on the wrap up post.

Our Activity Check will be posted AUGUST 1 at 12 AM UTC. It will run for seven days and close on AUGUST 8 at 12 AM UTC.

Have fun and fight some monsters! Or … whatever else you might do with them. 😉😏 Your secret's safe with us. 😙

> NAVIGATION

Comments

[harmistice]

[Well, if he had known how easy it would be to gain access to all of this information, he might have threatened her sooner. He is not a fan of the cost of this information, but it is certainly better than being eviscerated.

And, as he had predicted, he is not fast enough with the knife to stick her before she sticks him. On the other end of the empathy bond, there is panic, surprise, and an undercurrent of euphoria once he is stung. A short burst of air frees itself from his lungs once he is stung, and the motion to free himself is quickly aborted. This had been something of an anticipated outcome, though he had been hoping to be spared any gruesome transformations.

As it turns out, bracing himself is a waste of time. The first thing he realizes is that he is not dead. The second is that he is not changing. The venom makes him lightheaded, and only one thing that she’s said sticks in his mind.

“You won’t touch me”. So he doesn’t — his hands slide off of her carapace and he just sort of hangs there crumpled against the wall, heart hammering. He very very clearly wants to defend himself, but something has paralyzed his initiative.

But the venom doesn’t stop him from speaking.]

If I wanted power over you, I...wouldn’t have asked.

[And whether she knows it or not — he has it now. Maybe not right this second, but he knows what it is that she fears.]

nsfw -> (cw: dubcon)

[angerberg]

You were ready to attack me.

[ she studies him. yennefer has been attacked plenty of times in her life by plenty of men. women, too. she has survived all of them, and then some. thrived, some would say, even if she is pathologically dissatisfied with her own life. so when she points this out, it isn't with any sense of fear, any hint taht she feels threatened. it's stubborn. ]

If you didn't want power over me, then what is it? [ she smiles. it's not a pretty smile. her teeth are sharp and multitudinous. her violet eyes have grown too large. ] Is it the opposite that you're interested in, then? [ she tugs at his shirt to dispel any ambiguity as to her meaning. ] Did you hope to provoke me?

[harmistice]

[He is already a disheveled mess from trying to fight her off in the street, and so a little bit of tugging only adds to the whole look he is currently rocking.

His head rests back against the wall, and the contrast of a cool surface against skin that continues to grow hot with the aftereffects of his adrenaline spike brings him enough momentary lucidity to reply.]

I might have done it sooner, had I known it was so easy.

[The voice of rebellion that might have pushed back the assertion that he was anyone’s servant is drowned out by other things. And the reality is that this isn’t so bad — and there are plenty of alternatives that don’t end as happily.

He’d been a servant plenty of times to ensure he lived another day. What was one more? At least this posting gives him an overdose of serotonin to enjoy.]

You’re right. I do favor dangerous people. It is a sickness.

[angerberg]

Why do you think that is, Armitage? [ yennefer has her theories. it helps her feel a little better, displacing onto him her instability and outrage over how she can always have power but never control. no. that's not feeling better. that's only distraction. it serves the same purpose, in the end.

she has always found hux too greasy and pathetic to be considered rightfully handsome, but with his hair in disarray and his clothes battered, one might be convinced he had actually worked a day in his life. he does not look like the man who stands at the edge of the conflict out of cowardice and to avoid dirtying his hands, like this. such was the result of actually hurling himself into the conflict down in the city. the potential for him to be attractive is there. it's just his personality that ruins it, apparently. ]

Is it cowardice? To stand as close as you can to the most powerful people you can find, so they can protect you while you don't have that power yourself? Or is it just the comfortably familiar that attracts you? I think you were born like this. You may even die like this.

[harmistice]

[Yennefer’s assessment actually provokes a slow bit of laughter. He is clearly trying to keep it to himself, a private joke in understanding as she succinctly manages to peg his entire state of being in just a moment of quiet observation.]

Ah...maybe.

[He has to give it thought, and thought isn’t a primary function at the moment. So he only thinks for a second before he replies with a better answer.]

When so many people want you to die, you start to live out of spite. Like a little beetle.

[Forgetting his earlier command, one of his hands comes up to run over the arm fisted in his clothes until it finds carapace again.]

[angerberg]

[ for all that he has been disgusted and terrified by her transformation, he doesn't appear that way now. he gropes at her like he can finally see this monstrous body of hers for what it is: the very power he seeks. ]

Go ahead.

[ as she invites him, she tears through his shirt. there's not much worthy of note under there. pale, mostly hairless skin with little evidence of hard work. but he is warm and solid and there is something promising in losing herself to taking it anyway. she will feel powerful again, in control. and she will be distracted. for a little while. ]

[harmistice]

[He only has the vaguest sense of what to do here. Armitage was not actually popular with any other sentients, and those who did bother to interact with him intimately only did so because they wanted something from him.

This is likely not very different. Something in the pleasant cloud in his mind reminds him of this. But he had not cared before — why should he care now?

So his hands set to roaming a bit more indiscriminately once cool air touches his chest. He is a pale and thin man, save for what few genes he had inherited from Brendol‘s lineage. The broad chest, the fiery red hair, and the only muscles he’s ever bothered to put work into: his hands.

He is fascinated by the texture Yennefer’s change had brought. The carapace doesn’t quite fold under his grip, nor does it crunch or flake away. But her dress is still an obstacle, so he sets to pulling at it to try and get it out of the way.

His rips are not as clean as her’s, but they are enthusiastic, and that’s what matters here.]

[angerberg]

[ in some ways, this is born of understanding and self-loathing. yennefer has thrived like a beetle too. but where hux has cowered, she has scraped and grabbed for every ounce of power she could find, desperate to make herself more than the nothing she began as.

she would be outrunning four marks all her life. she's outrunning it now, in how she pushes him away from the wall, to the nearest flat surface — bed, couch, it doesn't matter. the burst of her new clawed, insectoid limbs had already ruined her dress, left rends in it that hux could take advantage of. he likely couldn't have ripped it without them, if she's being frank with herself. but she pulls the tatters of it away with two of those spare limbs before she advances on him.

something in her jaw shifts, a faint clicking that is not entirely conscious on her part. something about how arachnae display their intentions, their arousal, maybe. she descends on him, then, claws scraping at his bare chest. her other limbs work open his pants. at the very least her new form could be celebrated for its efficiency. ]

[harmistice]

[The instinct to fight when she claws at his chest rises within him like a wave and ebbs like the tide. A sound escapes him, confused and pained at first, before it melts to a groan. His hands fly up her chest with the intent to wrestle them away before another flood of endorphins hits him and the abuse becomes ... almost as pleasant as it was thrilling.

The click he hears in the back of her mouth causes the hair on his arms to raise. She is still thinking about devouring him. She must be.

Later, he will be embarrassed of how the abuse has aroused him. But for now, the weight of Yennefer’s new form coaxes him into lifting his hips into the hands that work at the waistband of his pants. He cannot sit up while she is leaning on him, nor could his nails even dream of ruining her the same way she ruins him.

If he was enjoying it (and he was — the slightest brush of her hands while working at his pants promised that much), then perhaps it was just...normal.]

[angerberg]

[ her claws are not made for this fine labor. they are too large and unwieldy. her additional arms lack the opposable thumbs that would simplify it, but even those ... leaving fine red scratches in his pale skin is one thing. unfastening a button is apparently quite another entirely.

it infuriates her, of course. snappishly, ] Take these off.

[ she prowls backwards to give him plenty of room for it, watching him. this is how she would usually go about things. commands, not brutal tearing. she'd gotten caught up in it, fervent with her want to escape herself. the remove gives her the chance to breathe. and he'll obey. he's too placid, too foggy-headed not to. she knows like she knows which way to bend her knees that her venom would make him pliant. ]

[harmistice]

[There is a haste in how he obeys that has been absent any other time she has asked him to perform a task. As insolent and as irritating he may have been before, the efficiency and swiftness with which he follows through on orders now is a stark change.

He has always had it in him. He commanded the First Order, after all. He had been instrumental in indoctrinating others. It only made sense that his natural response to being ordered around was to comply.

First, he sits up to untie his boots in order to kick them off. The, he stands to speed up the rest of the process, eyes fixated on Yennefer’s while he divests entirely. Blood slowly begins to spiderweb down from where her claws had broken skin. The tattered remains of his shirt slide down his shoulders while he unbuttons his slacks and peels them and the briefs he wears away with them.

Naked as the day he was born, there are only a few scars left from the minimal times he had seen active duty action. From the destruction of Starkiller Base to the collapse of the Supremacy and scattered misadventures from prior to his posting, he largely remains an unremarkable figure.

But his cock still functions fine, by the look of things. The paleness of his skin and the progression of arousal is highlighted by a red shading that runs the length of his torso down between his legs.]

[angerberg]

That's ... [ she stops to think about it for a beat. he's nothing to look at, but he isn't particularly offensive either. she's done worse. ] Better.

[ when she returns to him, she uses her most humanlike hand, with fingers that have elongated and gained additional joints, to cup over his erection. wetting her lips is an exercise in futility. the skin is too tough for it, not designed for such things.

her other appendages skim along his ribs, her claws equal parts threatening and enticing. that's when she kisses him, a distraction, so he doesn't scare himself to death thinking about precisely what she's capable of. he won't do her any good as a corpse. her tongue is longer when it presses into his mouth. a little too dextrous.

despite the care she takes not to claw any critical parts of him, her kiss isn't gentle. she crowds him backwards again, now that he's bare. ]

[harmistice]

[Armitage’s torso quivers slightly when the other appendages dance over his rib cage, and he welcomes the kiss that becomes the distraction from his imagination running away when he feels her segmented hand close over his cock.

He isn’t entirely soundless when she moves him backward, lips parting around her’s when he finds himself needing to take a breath to relieve how quickly his blood rushes south. He was not used to this sort of treatment, and only the faintest of instinctual response to guide him.

If nothing else, he knows what feels good, and so his hips move encouragingly into the steady pump of her hand. His own hands get much more grabby, weaving in between various sharp limbs to explore the strange planes of her chest and torso.

He feels like he may choke on the additional length of her tongue as it wrestles with his own, but it doesn’t stop him from kissing her back messily, saliva stringing between the mixed textures of their lips.]

[angerberg]

[ it's hard to tell if he has only the barest idea of what he's doing or if he's only keenly aware that he should not overstep with her. it makes no difference in the end. she lays him back, crawling over him with an additional grace afforded by all her many-jointed limbs. and this next part, it's familiar. gripping him tightly, she drags the head of his cock between her folds, and when he is satisfactorily wet, brings him inside of her.

something has changed here too, though she cannot explore the particulars further. small cilia pock the smooth ridges of muscle that welcome him. but the warm fullness of his cock stretching her is familiar, at least. even if she cannot appreciate the softness of that skin, it gives the same under the flutter of her body.

heavy breaths choke out of her mouth and she gives up on the kiss for the moment, forehead pressed to his. she hunches over him, the claws of her tertiary limbs digging between his ribs. ]

[harmistice]

[He has no idea if this is meant to feel the way it does.

His bright blue eyes, so often frozen like ice, are wide once she descends on him — like he has only just realized what is happening. His fingers dig into her flesh, clawing for some kind of purchase or control of the situation where there is none to be had.

It isn’t unpleasant, the way she hugs his cock. He is confused by that, no doubt due to the way her pointed limbs dig into the softer flesh of his belly. He isn’t quiet anymore. It hurts every time she moves down over him now, as much as it pleasures him.

He is left with a confused myriad of bodily responses, but he eventually starts to move with her. Feeling muscles flex beneath his fingers reminds him of how easy it would be for her to snap his neck, at the end of all this.

But he is determined not to simply be ridden like a beast of burden, so long as he could help it and now that the cloud of venom has begun to lift slightly.

He can feel her on the other end of the empathy bond and the calculated efficiency with which she approaches this. Some competitive piece of him wants to unravel that, even if he is not sure how.

So he experiments once she pulls her mouth away from his. Trying to find folds between the varying skin textures to dig into is challenging when there is so little blood pumping to his brain.

But since his mouth is free, he makes use of it and leans in to drag teeth and tongue along her neck.]

[angerberg]

[ her jaw cracks as it comes open to release a soft groan. the earnest jerk of his hips is too soft to give her what she really needs, but it offers a pleasant friction between their hips as he sits up to explore her throat.

yennefer rocks ardently into that, lifting her hips to seek a firm rhythm at which she can thrust. there's a near suction the way her body clings to him as she draws back. she finds a nice, steady pace, a practiced pace, arching only to find the right angle.

her arms — her own arms, the ones she has always had — wrap around his middle, pulling him closer to her. she leaves scrapes behind. draws blood. the air smells like iron and some of the blood on his chest from the earlier cuts smears against her skin. ]

[harmistice]

[Armitage simply does not possess the experience nor the desire to drag this out. The suction Yennefer’s new body offers him quickly saps energy when she finds her rhythm, and his mouth dragging along becomes lazy in turn.

That is, until she slices him open again. A sound caught between a moan and hiss of pain catches in the cords of her neck muscles, and he clings a little tighter as his muscles lock up.

A few of them spasm in his thighs, unused to the abuse they currently endure. He has begun to sweat from her treatment, and finding a grip that allows him to move properly upwards means he is rapidly chasing the end he can feel approaching.

It feels a bit like a panic attack, chasing that end. Like he is becoming increasingly aware of what he is doing, and fears the fact that he doesn’t want to be stopped.]

[angerberg]

[ the empathy bond offers up his near-panic to her. she can feel how his body tightens. some heightened awareness afforded by her new form makes her recognize the way his skin prickles. she isn't ready for that. she settles on her estimation of his inexperience then. but she won't allow something as silly as his virginity get in the way of her getting what she came for.

she grips his shoulders and pushes him down. ]

Not yet. [ she demands. ] You don't finish until I do.

[ if he can actually follow that order remains to be seen. she won't risk it. yennefer leans over him to swallow any potential protest in a kiss. this time, when she forces her tongue into his mouth, it is not with the persistent coaxing of a kiss, but it were as if she were trying to fill him as he fills her, probing it back towards his throat. a distraction while she ruts against him. ]

[harmistice]

[Fuck.

Armitage’s protest is too slow. He snarls with all the ferocity of a dog who’s bone has been stolen when he is shoved backward, and is silenced handily by Yennefer’s follow up.

When he starts to have trouble breathing, he squirms beneath her — the distraction does well enough to keep him in peril staring over the edge of an orgasm without being able to fall over. That isn’t the worst of it. The worst is the choking. He hates it — it reminds him so vividly of Snoke and Kylo Ren and all the others who sought dominion over him.

Armitage’s choked sounds of pleasure start to sound like pleading the longer she keeps him like that. He seeks to appease in whatever way she will allow him to, whether it is clawing at what passes for her hips for purchase, or shifting the angle of his to give her a better ride.

The denial causes him to swell some with the effort.]

[angerberg]

[ it is his helplessness that does it, more than any promising maneuvers on his part, that tips her over the edge. yennefer can feel his conflict over the equal pleasure and disgust with himself, not to mention the panicky strain of holding himself back. the empathy bond ensures that. she delights in it.

the rolling shudder of orgasm hits her. the involuntary clicking of her jaw returns as she moans her way across that finish line, squeezing the life out of him and digging her claws in. her thighs grip him, and her tail arches up, up, up, poised as it had been at every other heightened moment of threat.

she rides him through it, even gasping, trying to wring whatever she can from it even as the flood of pleasure drowns out any fear that may still float amongst her thoughts. ]

[harmistice]

[He continues to pitch and squirm in an effort to reclaim his ability to breathe normally. One good gulp of air would do it — just one.

Even the beginning of her orgasm doesn’t wrong anything from him until she pulls back to vocalize. The dramatic rush of oxygen nearly gags him and feels like a seal breaking as he finally releases inside of her. There is no warning except for one last and desperate jerk of his hips, his own grip weak as it slides down her carapace.

He collapses not long after, boneless, dizzy, and dehydrated. And that is when the entire weight of what just happened hits him.

When his blue eyes slide open again, a familiar rage curdles in his stomach. It spoils some of the pleasure —- but it was easy to tell himself that it was a good thing. Yennefer couldn’t be allowed to have this much sway over him.]

Don’t even think about it.

[He doesn’t have the energy to snap it out — but he sees what her tail is doing, and he plans to make it very clear that there will not be a round two while he still can. The command is firm, if not a bit hoarse.

One hand moves up to his neck, feeling for the area where she had stung him.]

[angerberg]

You're fine.

[ she tells him with a faint snort of dismissal, pulling herself off of him. she shifts to her side, lying next to him on the bed. there is nothing intimate about it, but she looks relaxed, at least. all things considered. his bed doesn't leave a great deal of room for both of them, certainly not given her shape. but the hormones have done their duty. she is able to lounge idle instead of fixate on her inability to cleanly harvest the venom that had turned her.

a huff of breath disrupts her labored wheeze. it wasn't just the orgasm. she feels better because she at least had power, like this, a power she had lost when she came here and lost her magic. she is not helpless, anymore. being a monster had disadvantages, but now ... the outside just matched the inside. maybe she would adjust. she doesn't pursue any of these thoughts too seriously. no. she would gather herself and find the right approach to an antivenom, in time. ]

That was your first, wasn't it? [ she attempts to tuck one clawed hand under her head, but it fits awkwardly. it leads to some shifting. ] That explains a lot.

[harmistice]

I imagine that would have been anyone’s first.

[It’s not a direct answer to her question, but he is pointedly not looking at her, even as he finishes the process of adjusting himself to lay boneless on the bed.

He hurts all over. He has used muscle groups he only knew existed in text books and theory. And he is staining his sheets with his own blood.

But he is alive. And aside from the dull buzz of pain — he actually feels good. That is what is most unsettling here. It means he is distracted from the fact that his chest is still glowing faintly.]

I was raised in a military.

[As if this is supposed to explain it off. He doesn’t necessarily feel bad or awkward about being a virgin because he never really cared —- but he still felt the need to explain it away.]

[angerberg]

A soldier? [ she hadn't realized. yennefer takes some interest in that now, officially pliant enough to be toothless. she surveys his features, the warm flush of arousal that creeps across his high cheekbones as well as his ears and neck. ] You don't act like any soldier I've ever met.

[ perhaps it's just the nature of his world, but soldiers of any kingdom she'd been in were used to frontlines fighting. he was obviously not. ]

[harmistice]

That is because I am not what you might call a soldier.

[God, he is tired. And lightheaded. Who would ever do this voluntarily?

Finally he ventures a glance at Yennefer when he feels her eyes on his face.]

I am a long term strategist, and a weapons developer. Groomed for it, you might say.