REIGN

TRUTH. & JUDGMENT. & DEATH. i will reign.

[reignthem]

𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐚 𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐬  | 𝐑𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐍 |  𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞 & 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐫𝐥  |  𝐦𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲

this  is  a  roleplay  blog  for  samantha  arias   &   reign  from  the  cw  series  supergirl  &  dc  comics.  this blog  is  prose-heavy  and  is  strictly  21+.  some  things  to  know  about  me:

bucku,  she/her,  30+

multi-ship,  panfandom,  oc  &  au  friendly

memes are always up for grabs & the best way to start writing with me. i write all memes as a potential starter though you should feel no pressure about continuing.

BLOGROLL: @aliasinvestigate​ @awbro​ @picksmusic​ @queensupe​ 

carrd   |    memes  |   wishlist  | affiliated with @danviers  &  @sunlightreverie

[reignthem]

@sunlightreverie

" i keep thinking. about you. & alex. "

[reignthem]

@danviers gets a random angst crime.

" alex, " rushes free before she can stop it. the bottom of her ribcage has opened up, gravity yanking her stomach through the open maw of it. the vacuum sucks a thudding, icy jolt through the vacant space. & sam is left cold in the threshold.

alex is standing in their bedroom with a flutter of red fabric pinched between her thumb & forefinger, the expression stamped onto her features inscrutable.

( there's another world, where alex already knows, where she'd been there from the beginning. but this alex, who meets supergirl & superwoman with such measured coolness ... sam hasn't wanted to know )

so now, sam is standing in the doorway, lungs crushed from the same void that had plummeted its way the cavity of her chest, with glasses that she doesn't need perched on the bridge of her nose. & she's staring the bald fact that she's been lying for months to the love of her life because she doesn't remember ...

" ------ i can explain. "

[sunlightreverie]

too much.

it's a descriptor that lena has been intimately acquainted with since her preschool years. too much noise, too much space, too much drama, too needy ----

even too much danger -- a half lie and a whole truth that lena proclaimed in front of a judge and her wife while driving this wedge right between them. and yet despite being here, asking for too much, lena can't manage to gather up all the too many pieces enough to leave.

sam holds out an opening and lena's nodding before any remaining rational part of her can speak up.

"that--- that would be great," she says, earnest. samantha always had great choice in wine, and lena can practically taste the tannins already. the heat of the dry liquid slipping into her empty belly in an attempt to warm the parts of herself that she's tried fruitlessly to freeze away, the woozy weight of the buzz as it softens of the edges of her sharp tongue....

she toes her heels off at the door, her feet aching in relief as they stretch against the polished hardwoods.

"i know i'm asking you for too much," she says, trying not to let her eyes wander as she slides onto one of the stools at the kitchen island. a scoff catches itself in her throat. "...i've always asked you for too much. i--- i know things are different now, but i can't help but worry about you. both of you. ruby's... she's doing okay with all of this?"

[reignthem]

sam has the mouth of a bottle of pinot noir tipped into a goblet's bowl when lena's question tips the set of imaginary scales that has been precariously teetering since the moment lena's knuckles had brushed against her door. a white hot bolt of anger lances up from her belly. & by the time sam finishes pouring lena's glass in a futile attempt to douse the flame of her budding wrath, her molars are tightly pinched & a dark channel splits between her brows.

" no, lena. "

the glass sits, waiting, instead of being offered. sam scoops up her own by the stem & turns with the counter biting into the middle of her back. honeyed affection that so typically warms her gaze flashes near black with fury. sam's own crushing rejection, she can handle. but ruby?

her fingertips flare white against the wine glass' shank, the purpling tannins dragging legs as they swirl around the swell at the bottom. a brittle edge on the precipice of breaking girds the tight undertone pinning the next words that leave her lips. " no one is doing okay with all of this. "

the money that comes with this job is a band-aid on a wound that won't quit. & lena knows it. has to. she's here, those doe eyes pleading for an absolution from the way she'd severed their relationship & both sam & ruby's hearts with it. sam blows out a disbelieving breath that breaches the grit of her teeth.

" you were her step-mom. we were a family. & you just ... left. " a sudden pressure rises behind her eyes. " you don't get to ask about her being okay when it's convenient for your conscience. "

[swallowpitted]

"soooooo is that a no on the sandwich? it's really good, i put like. coleslaw and barbecue sauce in it and everything. i'm a blt kinda gal, but sometimes i swap the tomato for a kfc wing -- humans can't eat the bones but i really like the extra crunch. c'est la vie, right?" kara swings her legs and likes that if she puts the bar up high enough, her boots only just about skiff the ground. she stares up at the ceiling tiles and wonders how many there are.

"can i talk to sam? she's way cooler."

[reignthem]

" samantha, " bristles a dark, snarling lip. " is a nothing. a mask while i bided my time. "

samantha is a gnawing parasite clamoring at the edges of the dark valley & prickling the nape of her neck. reign's shadowy lids blink down, stifling silence. samantha is no match for a worldkiller ; she & her offspring are of no consequence.

" you cow-tow to this mortal drivel. " a swishing sweep of a black-tipped cape against the floor of her confinement until she's standing at the staticky edge, looking down at her fellow, lesser kryptonian. " & so you will fall with it. "

[narraboths]

Lena + comforting Sam

[sunlightreverie]

lena slips into the opened door, eager to find herself on the other side of the threshold before sam can retract the invitation. her eyes scan the room before she can stop herself; the pieces of sam and ruby spread so familiarly across an unfamiliar space. she recognizes the soccer cleats, carelessly kicked off at the entry despite samantha's protests to make sure her muddy shoes sit nicely on the mat. there's sam's keyring on a hook by the door, under a framed picture of her and ruby at the Metropolis fair.

her breath catches, the echo of another picture flashing behind her eyelids: a sun-kissed sam and a windswept lena sandwiching a grinning, ice-cream faced young ruby at the boardwalk, the line of their keys hanging under the frame.

"i-----"

there's no good explanation for her presence here. her lack of sleep could be remedied with a hearty wine glass or a xanax. her worries about the unveiling could be discussed with her cfo tomorrow, during office hours. because sam's right, isn't she?

"no, no, it's not... that," she assures, folding her hands in front of her to quell the urge to fidget. "i'm just----"

her gaze turns to sam, the furrow in her brow begging her to understand.

"we've been so busy at the office, i don't think we've even had a chance to speak." she misses her so much. "i know it's not the same, but i'm still allowed to care about you... right?"

[reignthem]

sam remains stuck in the middle of lena's push-pull. she is ... angry, hurt, the lancing pain of a pen scrawling signatures at the bottom of divorce papers still sharply pierced through her chest. that wound, too, is vulnerable ; she wants, never stopped wanting lena in spite of the chilly distance between metropolis & national city. it's in want of healing, of closure, of something simpler to mediate than the complexity of romantic entanglement among corporate ledgers & publicity stuns.

so, arms closes across her chest, sam pries both shoulders up in the uncertainty flashing hot & cold all over.

" i don't know, lena. " she sinks back into the corner of her sofa, thumb & forefinger bracketing her temples where they're busy buzzing with the endless, fine print scrawl of quarterly earnings stacked up next to ruby's soccer schedule, now cramming, too, up against the space where ex didn't used to be next to wife. " i don't know what you want me to say. you asked for a divorce & i gave it to you. you asked me to come here, so i did. "

the moment that passes after is so swollen-humid with the potential maelstrom of what else she could say & do, that sam closes her eyes for a moment, sagging under the expression of her sigh. she motions, lamely, at the wine glass perched on a coaster next to her elbow, then back toward lena.

" do you want to sit down & have a glass? i'm guessing that you're not going to plan on leaving any time soon. it feels like we have a lot to talk about. "

[sunlightreverie]

weight shifting from once aching heel to the other, lena has to snuff out the desire to pick at the faint edge of a cuticle starting to peel on her index finger. fidgeting is unbecoming of a luthor, she knows. she can still hear lillian's voice as if she were right here, saying stand up straight and stop picking, lena. keep your hands clasped at your front if you can't manage to keep the damn things still.

and yet her thumb nail catches the raw edge anyway.

it's almost a start when sam opens the door, lena's gaze shooting up to meet her warm eyes.

"not... exactly," she returns, furrow digging into her brow as she breathes out on a sigh.

she shouldn't be here. it isn't fair to put this on sam; she gave up the right to her comfort when she ripped them apart two years ago and turn their home into a graveyard of her insecurities.

"i couldn't sleep," she admits. "you know, it's probably just the stress of the statue unveiling later this week, but i just keep thinking about you, and ruby, and how you guys are settling in to national city, and how she's doing at her new school, and---" she draws a breath, only realizing when her chest hurts that she's gone too long without one. "...i'm rambling, aren't i?"

[reignthem]

" oh. " sam's gaze cools to lukewarm. in spite of the open door, her arms casually come up to fold across her chest. her eyes sweep up from lena's heels to the beseeching gaze peering back at her in a brilliant emerald green that pitches a treacherous swoop through her stomach.

sam leans back on her heels, considers them on either side of the threshold & whether in this moment, she's talking to her boss or her ex-wife.

" you are, " she confirms. after a moment's pause, sam slants to the side & offers lena into the house they have never shared together with a gesture. it is, not for the first time, so unfair the way it feels like lena is pushing her thumb into a bruise when they're alone together talking about anything other than corporate ledgers.

" but ... " sam hedges, brow arcing, smile pulling thin around the edges. " i kind of thought that we'd left these kinds of conversations in metropolis. unless you're worried that the two of us together at something as public as the statue unveiling is going to draw undue attention? "

[swallowpitted]

@reignthem

"hey, welcome back to the land of the conscious and, y'know, willingly able!" kara is cheery, head to toe in the cape and the boots, holding a tray of assorted fruit, veggies, a nice sandwich that she's made especially (thank you very much!) with all her favourite toppings, assuming that sam would probably just appreciate the same.

if she even is sam right now. there hasn't been much of a routine to the changes according to lena, but kara is optimistic. she grins, wide and cheesy, "what's up, buttercup?"

[reignthem]

" bide your time wisely, kara zor-el. " reign's voice is a tinny thunder rumbling low. there is no rage. she is patient ; she is judgment. no curtain of flimsy, mortal-crafted static can restrain her for long. beneath the surface of her skin, strength blossoms, dna re-stranding to withstand any crude barrier to reign's final authority.

" your hubris will not serve you when it comes to the time of your reckoning. "

[comicstrips]

❝  the only thing more bruised than my ribs is my ego. ❞

@reignthem.

[reignthem]

sam drifts to the ground boots first, cape fluttering its crimson tendrils out behind her. she squints, kate's silhouette fading to sharpen around the skeletal latticework beneath her armor.

" uh ... cracked, actually, " she offers mildly, smile splintered into a flat-mouthed grimace. " need a hand? "

[sunlightreverie]

@reignthem

she shouldn't be here. despite the restless desire to run, her feet remain firmly planted on the flagstones, hand poised only inches from the doorbell she can't bring herself to ring.

sam deserves better. better than a luthor's guilt at midnight, a billionaire looking for a free handout in the arms of her ex-turned-friend, especially when she's got a preteen to get off to school in the morning.

she shouldn't be here. and yet she makes no move to go, car keys heavy at the bottom of her pocket while her fingers slide across her phone screen to text.

[lena > sam] Can I come in?

[reignthem]

sam is burning the candle at both ends & feeling the sear bristling roughly behind her eyes, radiating to her temples. the little fine print for this quarters numbers tilts & swims together in front of her. it's the hour where pinching her thumb & forefinger to the bridge of her nose does little more than send little static starbursts along the asperous landscape across her lids.

she needs a break.

fatigue grips the nape of her neck, too. ruby is in bed for the evening, but there's still a lunch to pack, homework to check over, soccer cleats to tuck neatly back into their bag.

( & if she's lucky, a few hours of dead, empty sleep before she has to paint on her confidence with her makeup before marching in to face lena -- )

as if on cue, vibration skitters across the table. luminescent, her ex-wife's name blinks across the screen. sam shucks her hair away from her forehead, squeezes her eyes closed ... the crushing sensation in her chest is ... leftovers ... that's what she keeps telling herself ; it's the ugly aftermath of their relationship habits that hasn't quite dissipated now that they're spending so much time together again.

after she prizes herself from the sofa, collected herself several hours early, sam opens the door with a wry brow & a too-warm smile. " work emergency? "

[blackbirdblackbird]

[swallowpitted]

kara knows that feeling keenly and a wave of empathy for sam washes over her for a moment; the loneliness of being alone can swallow a person, even when they might be surrounded by friends, a good family, so she couldn’t imagine being left adrift with nothing at all — and a child to support alongside her too. she nods, understanding the depth of feeling sam is handing over and kara cradles it carefully. she loves her friends and she thinks she is coming to love sam too.

“well, you’re here now. and i’m pretty sure alex would drag you back to national city kicking and screaming if you tried to split any time soon.” there is a smile hiding a secret here - alex with her crush that she hasn’t exactly voiced but a sister, even one a little oblivious, can spot from a mile off. it’s all in the same dopey look she used to give maggie, but on a gradient now, smothered in doubt.

kara spins the pad and lets sam see the outlines of lena, the sharp cut of her shoulders and jaw, the lightly pencilled tracing of her shape and form as she twisted earlier to reach for a box of shoes. it’s not as if she’s drawing some explicit self insert or anything, it’s just a barebones rough sketch but a part of her feels guilty for it. “just doodles - kinda missed it. with snapper breathing down my neck lately and supergirl stuff just…always happening, there hasn’t been a lot of time to do anything like this. sorry —“ she hoists her bag up from the side of the bed and starts putting away her battered walkman, headphones, and pencils. “alex has a whole thing about paying attention. but i totally promise, i’m here, i’m on outfit duty.”

[reignthem]

" ah. well ... " alex. who is currently spending most evenings at sam's house with a glass or two of red wine, sitting tantalizingly close & yet also at the too far end of the living room couch. her reaction is double-pronged: a warm, enveloping squeeze she's coming to feel every time alex is in vicinity ( or, apparently, mentioned ), & the uncomfortable twang of knowledge that a transfer to the metropolis branch of l-corp is looking increasingly appealing. somewhere away. away from reign's oppressive presence, from the memories of shattered concrete & black-knifed claws extending from her fingertips. away from alex & the newfound chosen family.

" i don't know what ruby & i would do without alex. " effusive truth without sacrificing the secrets beneath it. " she's just been ... amazing throughout all of this. "

it's an easy, thankful transition to turn her attention to the pages in front of her. it's only a few lines, but lena stands out in full presence, authority in the strokes, feminine in the shadows.

" wow, " gushes free in an awed breath. " kara, this is really impressive. " sam, for all her uncertainty about the brittle line between friendship & more with alex, has eyes. & she's seen lena & kara together. but if she hadn't? this drawing, the care, the keen observation... it would say everything. " have you shown it to her? "

[swallowpitted]

kara pictures lena in her mind; stilettos and pencil skirts, the keen line of cuban tights with the back seam you could follow all the way up if you ever dared to get close enough, the sharp cut of tense shoulders, the way she is always tilted slightly as if looking back at something only she can see. jeans and sweaters don't really fit the image. like forcing too little saran-wrap over a misshaped object.

"you're probably right," kara says with a smile that plays off as secretive, as if she knows some inside joke everybody else is in on and she's just guessing at. there are a lot of things she likes to pretend she understands. but sam, she knows, will not pick at her for it either out of kindness or respect. in an effort to be a good friend and to be more present (alex has had it out with her about this a few times now), she sets the notebook down and pulls the headphones around her neck fully.

"i think you're overthinking this. you should just be yourself. be comfortable, y'know, wear what you would if you were going to lunch with us."

[reignthem]

kara makes it seem so simple & inconsequential. what to wear isn't important among friends who already know that she's uncoordinated, that she is unparalleled at multi-tasking her way through a merger while marking down a series of financial reports for the next quarter's improved margins, that she scrambled to cut up orange slices for ruby's soccer game last week because she forgot she was the snack mom.

just be yourself.

it cuts the invisible wire threaded between sam's shoulders. " you know, " sam shares, an actual confidence between them to supersede the tease at lena's expense. shrugging her way out of the jacket that isn't at all her style, she trades it for the green utility coat pulled from her own closet. " sometimes it's easy to forget what's like to have actual friends. "

" it's always just been me & ruby. we've never really stayed anywhere long enough to fit in. " she perches across from kara & her notebook, the outfit & its perils already forgotten. " what are you working on? "

[narraboths]

[causedavalanche]

FORTUNATELY FOR SAM, DAISY'S FAR TOO ENAMORED BY THEIR SURROUNDINGS TO PUT AN EYE TO HER FEEBLE DEFENSES. -- well, much. it's her first secret superhero base, to be fair. and maybe the atmosphere leaves some ... comfort to be desired, but it's a hell of a lot cooler than any S.H.I.E.L.D. base she's been in. ( and she's been in a lot of S.H.I.E.L.D. bases. ) it's also very unmistakably alien, and while daisy has her own personal heebie jeebies with that ― sam hasn't given her any bad vibes so far.

“ yeah, okay, ” daisy cuts a sly glance from her peripherals, corners of her mouth curving a similar slant to her brows. she's all broad grins and hands in her pockets, like the latter will keep the lid from blowing off her impending nerdgasm. GROSS. don't do that, johnson. “ just your standard, spiky, secret superhero fortress -- got it. ” she nods to seal her understanding, although her head tilts curiously when her gaze moves to finally settle on sam. she certainly doesn't give off SUPERVILLAIN, but then again ... there's a lot she doesn't know about this woman.

no matter. it's not her business unless it becomes her business. daisy withdraws her hands from her pockets to clasp them together, rocking on the balls of her feet. “ okay, so. remind me what we're doing here again? i'm not really practiced in hacking alien tech, and uh, i assume you don't want me to quake it apart either, so ... ” she lets the question mark hang off the end of her sentence, brows raised expectantly.

[reignthem]

this fortress is no close sibling to its fellow kryptonian citadels. those arctic strongholds are a mirror of home for their inhabitants & visitors, carrying souvenirs of a life under a red sun, of lost parents who sent their child anon with love, with tools to thrive in a new habitat. no. reign & her fortress of sanctuary were created together, themselves the tools to tear the world & its sinners asunder. it's clinical, scientific, loveless in its barren black spines & cool gleaming technology. there are no long-lost paternal messages tucked between the craggy corners of this place. it's bone-chilling, desolate, violent to they very destructive beams that make it up.

but, as she'd reclaimed the yellow sun-fueled abilities afforded supergirl & superman, sam is taking this back, too.

" you don't need to hack it, " sam explains, smoothing her palm over a series of geometric tubes spearing out of a console like angry icicles. this is a second nature to her, too, easy under the searching pads of her fingertips. they come to life, radiating light & a low, throaty thrum so powerful it shimmies the ground underneath them in a gentle quake. " ---- or quake it, for that matter, " she adds, as a hologram shimmers into existence before them. sam takes a step back, anchoring her shoulders & hiking her chin with what she hopes is superheroic authority.

" we're here to get information. " the figure emerges, black-robed, brooding. " & this can help us get a head start. because whatever we saw was definitely not from this planet. "

[reignthem]

@danviers said: [ calm ] your muse telling mine to ‘ just breathe ‘ .

❥      NON - SEXUAL   ACTS   OF   DOMINANCE . 

she wakes up because her eyelids are aflame. all she can see is scorched earth rendered black under a wash of blood red. all she can feel is violence, finality.

she wakes up like she's falling out of the sky, gulping for air from spasming lungs with her limbs flailing akimbo.

sam wakes up like this, lost, unmoored, in the corner of her own sofa where she'd dozed off with a glass of red wine at her elbow & hgtv playing on the television. she wakes up & alex is there, anchoring her with steady hands.

just breathe.

sam doesn't see crimson anymore ; the backs of her eyes are cool if tired. she is flesh & blood. she's human, which she knows because her heart is a rabbit in her chest that jumps over a beat for the concern creasing the corners of alex's warm gaze.

" i --- " spluttering, catching her breath, loosing one out while thanking whatever it is that's out there that ruby is in bed asleep. breathe in ( lungs expand, ribs stretch ) ; breathe out ( shoulders drop, she sinks into the cushion ). a shaky nod. " i'm okay. it was just a dream. "