Can you please write about the poppy wars characters mourning our deaths maybe we took the blow for them sacrificing ourselves or something and just collectively haunting the narrative for all of them (like altan)
I lov your works btw pls don't die đđŒ
àšâŻ if you sacrificed yourself âŻà§
â°â†INCLUDES : fang runin, chen kitay, sring venka â vague injury detail, angst (i think)
fang runin (tbg spoilers)
âi hate to do this,â riga hums as you watch him tap his blade against the side of rins neck where she laid below him, âkilling off the last of you. itâs so final, but you speerlys never gave me any choice - you always had to be troublesome.â his voice is like gravel in your ears.
youâd been knocked down not moments after the missing third of the trifecta had been awoken from his years long slumber, a blow you hadnât been expecting but had resulted in you loosing consciousness until a moment ago.
you thought this would be a good idea - rin was convinced the only way to beat the hesparians was to force them to face the complete strength of the trifecta, so youâd followed them up this mountain as back up. and yet, now the four of you were practically beaten by the man youâd travelled all this way to recruit.
rigas sword retreats into the air in preparation to swing down at rins neck as your pupils dilate, and the world came to a stand still for a moment. suddenly you had all the strength in the world, adrenaline pumping through your veins as you clamber to your feet and make your way towards them as fast as your limbs can carry you.
you wedge yourself between the two of them the moment rigas sword comes down at a speed you didnât think was humanly possible. your blade snapped in two at the sheer force of his strength, crumbling between you as his blade lodged into your shoulder. you couldâve sworn you felt the bones being split in two as his blade somehow ended up lodged into your upper chest. part of you grateful heâd swung at the side your heart wasnât located in, so you had at least one last moment to see rin.
your legs shake as you use every ounce of strength to hold yourself up between the two of them, looking over your uninjured shoulder at rin. she was still in a pile on the floor, sat up a little as she stares at you with the saddest eyes you think youâve ever seen. which surprises you a little - for such an angry person, you thought sheâd have a gaze full of determination to avenge you, but instead she looked like a heartbroken version of the girl youâd first met back at sinegard.
ârun-â you manage to muster up, your legs shaking beneath you and juxtaposing the cracking tone of your voice. as you speak riga attempts to yank his blade free of your shoulder, a searing pain shooting through your upper body as he does so, your teeth sinking into your bottom lip to hold back a scream.
out of the corner of your eye, you notice jiang beginning to push himself up from where heâd crumpled to the floor - a glint in his eyes that told you he wouldnât let riga push him around this time, that heâd help give rin the opportunity to run.
âgo!â you gather up the last of your energy, fighting back the black thatâs creeping up on the sides of your vision. you watch as rinâs eyes flicker between the door and you, before pushing herself up from the floor with the most apologetic expression youâve ever seen on her face - which disappears from your sight as she turns to run to the door.
rin had lost count of how many days it had been since youâd sacrificed your life to give her a chance to run. every day blended into one - but theyâd succeeded. arlong belonged to them, and therefore nikan was theirs. the southern coalition had won the war, but rin was still at war with her own mind.
beads of sweat begun to appear on rins forehead as she tossed and turned in her sleep, kitay none the wiser as he stares out one of the many magnificent stained glass window in the yinâs estate. her eyebrows pinch together in anguish, the same dream plaguing her sleep as everytime she closed her eyes.
ârun-â you breathed out, weakeness too obvious in your voice for rins liking as she took notice of the blade lodged deep into your shoulder.
rin wanted to cry but the shock and adrenaline in her system made it feel like her eyes had been sucked dry as a desert. barely having taken notice of what theyâd said.
âiâm killing myself so you can escape, and you canât even listen to me this once?â your voice rings through rinâs ears as the temple around you both fades to black.
but not before you turn to face her, blade lodged deep into your bone as riga fades to darkness. the expression on your face was one rin had never seen on you before - one of hatred, pure despisal and distain.
you knelt down in front of her, hand roughly gripping onto her chin as you tilt her head up to face you. a cruel grin pulled at the sides of your lips, the same one sheâd seen before on altan as he plagued both her nightmares and waking moments.
however as you open your mouth to spew hatred into her system, sheâs jolted awake by kitay shaking her shoulders.
as rin opens her eyes she notices her sped up breathing, his her heart is hammering so hard against her ribs it feels as if it might burst out, and that her hair is sticking to her forehead due to being dampened by sweat.
she canât hear anything as kitayâs lips move, but she could guess that he was asking her whatâs wrong. kitay always cared like that.
âiâm fine,â rin whispers, not trusting her voice not to crack if she spoke any louder. but she wasnât okay, and kitay knew that - he could feel it, he could see it in her eyes, the same heartbroken look sheâd worn since theyâd lost you. they mightâve won the third poppy war, but rin was still fighting with all the lossâ your loss.
chen kitay (tpw spoilers)
this wasnât a battle - it was a massacre. master irjah had been flayed and hung above the gate into the city, the empress had fled, the ninth and twelfth divisions had surrendered and been gathered into prison camps. golyn niis had become hell on earth.
âkitayâ listen to me! for once!â you plead as your hands grip onto the blood soaked material of kitays uniform, eyes stinging with tears as you realised your fate had already been decided. no one was surviving this, but if you could help kitayâ he might.
âlay down, itâs inhumane i know but iâll help cover you with bodies like our comrades are doing-â you ramble, eyes darting desperately between his, then behind him to look out for the federation soldiers you could hear approaching.
âare you insaneâ what will you do?!â kitay argued back, you could practically smell the fear seeping from his body, just like everyone else. but it was easily masked by the metallic smell of blood that filled the city.
âkitay youâre much more important- your mind could save this country if you surviveâ *please* just listen to me!â you continue pleading, beginning to grow desperate as the clashing of swords grows closer to you.
âi will find somewhere to hide myself after youâre hidden and safe,â you promise, talking so desperate and fast itâs a miracle he could even understand you.
kitay looked at you like he wanted to take your hand and run, but that would be suicide - the federation and control of every exit from the city, and fighting back had become hopeless. the mugenese were ruthless and bloodthirsty, whatever people thought of speerlys those years ago, you didnât think it could even compare to the federations military.
after a moment kitay seemed to give in, the exhaustion of battle settling in to his limbs and stopping him from fighting back any longer as he lacked the adequate energy to do so. you gave him a hand as he laid down amongst a handful of bodies - the bodies of the men youâd ran side by side into battle with. he gagged once or twice but soon just closed his eyes and obviously began thinking of how this was necessary.
you take a deep breath and summon up all the energy you had left to drag a few barely cooled bodies on top of him as others had been doing around you, not stopping to take a breath until you could no longer make out where he was yourself.
standing just next to the pile of corpses, you notice how your hands were beginning to shake, something unusual for a trained soldier. this was true fear.
âstay thereâ when itâs safe iâll come out and find you again, stay alive kitay,â you wouldnât have noticed you were beginning to cry if you hadnât spoke, voice cracking slightly and giving it away. however youâre interrupted by the clashing of swords meerly meters away now - and so you wipe your tears on your blood-soaked sleeve and unsheath your sword.
it couldnât be many of them, theyâd come through this part a few times now - but how you were wrong. youâd planned to fight off the few coming your way and then run to find shelter. but as you stood in a ready position, at least 40 men round the corner.
you barely had time to process any features of the men charging at you before you were skewered on a handful of blades. blood dripped from your lips as you coughed, falling back onto the same pile of bodies youâd just tugged over kitays alive form. as the light fades you can almost hear kitays laboured breathing from under the bodies, a soft smile tugging at your lips as you die knowing heâs alive.
âitâs only a day dearest, donât miss me too much,â rinâs tone was laced with sarcasm, âiâll see you tonight,â an attempt to cover up any fear she felt - something that had always mirrored you.
kitay however didnât laugh, âcome back down,â his expression was grim as his hands gripped onto her shoulders hard enough to be grounding, go bring her back to the present. âi donât care what happens up there, but you come back to me.â
kitays heart broke a little everytime rin and him had to go seperate ways - because everytime he saw your teary eyes back at golyn niis, the last time he ever looked into your eyes. heâd hold onto rinâs shoulder in the same way you did the last time you touched him, and whenever she left he could always hear the sound of your voice in the back of his head.
âiâll take care of her on the other side when she one day leaves and doesnât make it back.â
once rin is almost out of view as she begins the ascent up mount tianshan, for a moment the clouds around her mould her sillouette into something like youâ and he almost lets himself believe heâs watching you hike up that path. that heâs letting you leave him alone again.
but at the last moment rinâs familiar outline reappears and kitay has to concentrate on not sinking to his knees in dismay. itâs not uncommon for his mind to play tricks on him and mould the world around him to almost allow him to believe youâre still here with him, but it hurts just as much each time, maybe even more as time goes on.
sring venka (tbg spoilers)
you hadnât meant to do it, honestly. but as rin began grilling venka about her theoretical, traitorous activities from her time alone earlier in the war, time felt as if it stood still for a moment.
you notice the figure in the window the moment it appears - ironic really, how you noticed it just as venka did and yet she jumped into action before you could blink. even while being accused of being a traitor by one of her closest comrades.
and just as quickly you notice how rins hands are stubbornly pushing back against venkaâs shoulders as she lunges forwards to push the tanned girl from the line of fire. to say rin was herself recently was far from the truth, but her new found severe unawareness of her surroundings and clouded judgement was about to get one of them killed.
with time frozen, your body reacts on pure instinct. before your consciousness can catch up with your body youâve flung yourself directly in front of the two of them. and almost as instantaneously, you feel the wind knocked out of your lungs.
it almost felt as if someone had come along and removed your windpipe within a split second, and panic rises up your spine until you glance down and notice the crossbow bolt lodged into the centre of your neck.
youâve barely even hit the floor as the life fades from your eyes, you donât feel the heat rise in the room as rin sends a flame rumbling towards the assassin following a second bolt, and you donât hear how venka winces as she realises rin has burnt handprints into her shoulders.
it takes a second but as the moment comes to an end, as the danger is quelled and the trio can assume some basic level of safety again, venkas heart sinks as she notices the lack of a presence behind her. as her eyes trail down to the floor where your still warm body rests, for the first time since she was just a girl she feels the urge to sob.
but she doesnât, the idea of not crying for you is almost physically painful, and yet she kneels there in silence as she gawks over your far too still form. because this couldnât be real, surely? any moment now youâd push yourself up from the bloodied wooden floor and assure her that you were fine as you always did.
but you didnât stir, and your chest didnât start to rise and fall again. and she really has to admit to herself that you were gone - from now on, she was in this virtually alone. but it didnât make sense to venka - sheâd been the one attempting to push rin out of the line of fire, and when rin pushed back sheâd realised the bolt would be coming straight for her neck. but it never hit, and instead you were dead.
guess whoâs making a comeback!!!!! i hope LOL
anon i hope this does a little bit of justice to what your ask, i wasnât quite sure how to get all characters in one scenario where reader sacrifices themself for everyone SO i split it up, but then i got stumped on nezha altan and the rest of the cike so it sat in my drafts for a month :,) iâll probably end up doing a part two with them, but i wanted to post these three and hope it gave me some motivation back!! (iâve also been busy and sick my apologies </3)
late merry christmas to those who celebrate and happy holidays!! my parents got me the poppy war collections edition and i fear itâs the best present iâve ever got. plus iâve been reading babel to start making my way through all r f kuangs books and i canât get past seeing robin as kitay but im LOVING it
anyways! iâm gunna try make my way through the asks i never got round too - so my apologies to the people who sent asks and iâm yet to answer them!!!
