#doom driven bonus

[notoftheskaal]

Break m e| CynthiaxSerana.

Leave a “Break Me” in my ask, and I will write an angsty drabble.

I tried to have this from someone else’s POV, to have Sithia be Cynthia. But then Serana happened, as she usually does. Things will be different in Doom Driven when it comes to this point, so not really spoiler material.

“Ready to leave? We need to go if we’re going to get to the castle in time to—”

“You’re not coming.”

Serana stared at Sithia. “What? But… I thought… You said… You lied to Isran. You don’t trust me.” Ice cold hurt radiated from her bruised heart.

“Of course I trust you! I don’t want you there because of this.” Sithia unslung Auriel’s bow from her back. “If you come, we’re taking your father everything he needs to blot out the sun. I have to take the bow, you’re the one who said it’s the only thing that can kill him. You can’t come. I won’t let you.”

Serana stifled a sob of mingled rage and hurt. “I won’t let you leave me behind!”

“I can’t lose you! I can’t risk it.”

“Nor can I,” Serana took her Dragonborn’s face in her hands. “I can’t let you face him alone.”

Sithia hissed between her teeth. “I won’t be alone. There’s the Dawnguard, any guards the Jarls can spare, the Companions, and my housecarl.”

“They’ll be busy with my father’s court! I’m coming with you, like it or not. We’re in this together.”

“Serana—”

Serana kissed her. Hard, their lips meeting with a furious intensity. They eventually parted, Sithia gasping for breath, leaning heavily against Serana.

“You can’t stop me,” Serana breathed, her lips pressed against Sithia’s temple.

Sithia pushed herself back, eyes closed, face set. Grim. Her eyes snapped open, cold and hard. They narrowed. “That is where you’re wrong.”

Serana raised an eyebrow. “I’d like to see you try!”

Sithia’s lips thinned, her knuckles whitening where they gripped Auriel’s bow. “I’d do anything to keep you alive.” She nocked an arrow. Sunhallowed, it shone with blinding light so bright it hurt to look at. Like a shrine.

Serana’s eyes widened in disbelief. Shock paralysed her. ‘No…’

Sithia pulled back the bowstring. She was a terrible shot, but even she couldn’t miss at point-blank range. She released the arrow.

Serana’s world exploded in agony, pure Aedric force searing her, burning through her blood.

She couldn’t feel anything else, couldn’t see anything but white-gold light, as if she were in the sun itself. Everything else was deadened.

Sithia’s voice came as though from far away, breaking through the raw pain. “Anything. Including hurt you, no matter how much I hate myself for it… I’ll do what I must.”

The blinding brilliance was gradually fading. The pain receded to white-hot burning in her arm. “Don’t follow me.” Serana dimly felt Sithia’s lips on hers, her last words brushing against her like a dying breeze. “Goodbye, my love.”

Sight returned just in time to watch Sithia walk away, a bloodied Elven arrow gripped in her hand. Serana glanced down at her arm, at the smoking empty wound. She blinked. Despite its removal, the Sunhallowed arrow still burned her arm.

Her blood still stung in her veins. But the grievous injury was to her heart, the cold twisting knife of betrayal. Serana whimpered, tears trickling down her face. She lay there, helpless, as Sithia left her behind.

“Sithia, please, you can’t… Don’t leave me like this! Come back!”

‘Come back to me…’

[notoftheskaal]

Remember Me - Sithia/Serana [i'll let you pick why one of them has forgotten the other]

Leave a “Remember Me” in my ask, and I’ll write a drabble about one character trying to get another to remember them.

Oh whoops, it's almost a month since you prompted me with this, Silver. Better late than never?

Under a read more cut because it may or may not be something that ends up in Doom Driven at some point. So potential spoilers, but only minor ones as this is the sort of thing I might move to a fic dealing with Sithia's Daedric misadventures.

“Sithia, please! Remem—”

Serana tripped over a tree root, falling back onto the carpet of pine needles. Slathering jaws snapped shut right where her head had been.

The werewolf snarled and pounced. Serana rolled away, pine needles and soil exploding into the air as claws raked into the forest floor.

Serana kicked out, sending the stinking monster flying into a tree trunk. It – she – whimpered. Sithia scrambled up, shaking herself. That great shaggy head came up, Void-dark eyes flashing with crazed, ravenous fury. She growled, a bone deep rumble.

Serana pushed herself up. She blasted the werewolf with a storm of ice as it lunged towards her. She easily dodged this time, Sithia’s movements sluggish.

She caught hold of thickened, hairy wrists, dodging behind the foul creature her Dragonborn had become. Serana wrenched those long arms behind Sithia, holding on grimly when she thrashed around.

“Remember who you are, this isn’t you, you’re not a monster!” Serana regretted her desperate pleading when it meant she had to breathe in the reek of filthy wet dog. And so close to her! Ugh. But she had to try to get through to Sithia, to bring her back.

“I know you’re in there somewhere!”

‘Please be in there, remember me… Damn you, Hircine!’

Ordinarily Serana wouldn’t dare to curse a Daedric Prince, even in the relative privacy of her own head. But this time, for taking Sithia from her, for turning her into a senseless, stinking dog… If she could, she’d spit in Hircine’s eye socket.

The cursed ring caught the moonlight from where it cut into Sithia’s finger. Serana glared at it. If only she could pull it off! But even if she could risk freeing a hand to try, it would never slip over that clumsy claw.

Sithia howled. Serana flinched, her ears ringing. She almost lost her grip, but somehow managed to hold on.

It wouldn’t be long now. Werewolves couldn’t stay transformed into their monstrous form for long. Except… what effect would dragon blood have on the Beast Blood?

What if Sithia was lost to the werewolf forever? What if…

Sithia finally transformed back to her true form, naked and covered in the blood of the werewolf’s victims. Serana let go of Sithia’s arms, and wrapped her own around her Dragonborn.

Sithia fell limp against Serana, body trembling. Shivering. Falkreath wasn’t the coldest Hold, but…

Serana unfastened her cloak. She wrapped it around her Dragonborn, and cradled her in her arms, holding her close.

Sithia’s eyes snapped open. Wild. Crazed. She struggled in Serana’s grip.

By the blood, please, no… Had her fragile sanity snapped? What if she never remembered herself?

Sithia’s eyes abruptly focused on Serana. She relaxed, heaving a shuddering sigh of relief.

She remembered.

Serana kissed her, disregarding the stench. But the taste… She froze, horror-struck. The taste. Even worse than the smell.

Sithia shoved her away, face contorted in a grimace of utter disgust. She wiped a shaking hand across her mouth.

“Serana, what… What the fuck just happened to me? Why do you smell and taste so…” She shook her head, retched and shuddered. “Ugh! So fucking horrible?”

Serana bit back on angry retort. Sithia would soon know that she smelled – and tasted – every bit as bad to Serana.

“Hircine cursed you, like Sinding. Except to do that, he had to turn you into a werewolf.”

“Well, fuck.” Sithia pinched her nose closed but gave up, coughing. Presumably the stench was bad enough that she could still smell it while breathing through her mouth.

Sithia dragged a hand back through her hair, or attempted to, wincing when it caught on tangles. “Is this it for us? You might be able to hold your breath, but I can’t. I’m sorry, but… I really can’t stand the smell of you. It’s like you’re a rotting corpse.”

“You smell no better to me,” Serana snapped. “But no, this isn’t the end. We’re going to find that stag, slaughter it, offer it to that damned Daedra and bargain with him until he takes away his foul taint.” She frowned at Sithia, a sudden suspicion forming in her mind. “Did you cross him too? Is that why he’s done this?”

“No!”

Serana raised an eyebrow.

Sithia winced. “Maybe? I didn’t think so… Hircine laughed about it, and every other Daedra I’ve made an enemy of has threatened me. But to curse me… Maybe he did mind about the drunken graffiti scrawled on his statue back in Cyrodiil.”

“Damn it, Sithia.”

[notoftheskaal]

What about... Forget me (not)? (Character of your choosing.) I'm curious to see what you'd come up with.

Leave a “X Me” in my ask, and I will write whatever it is that you wish, specify.

Odahviing shuffled out of the cavernous hall containing Dragonsreach’s dragon trap, and onto the balcony, wings serving as clumsy forelegs. Sithia turned to Serana and pulled her into a tight embrace, clinging to her.

“Fuck,” Sithia whispered against Serana’s shoulder. “Then this is it. I’m sorry, but... I’m doomed.”

Serana’s arms tightened around her Dragonborn. “No. I won’t believe that Sovngarde is the end. If Alduin can return, why not you?”

Odahviing laughed, a bone-deep rumble. “Alduin’s way into his feasting ground lies on top of Skuldafn. He has always taken to the air before his return, soaring up through his portal, out into the skies of Keizaal. You might defeat Alduin, Dovahkiin, but you cannot return through his portal without the wings of a dov!”

“There you have it – he has wings. I don’t. He’ll be stronger too, after guzzling lots of Nordic souls. He almost killed me the first time. If not for you…” Sithia grimaced and shook her head. “Serana, I can’t let—”

Serana kissed her. Anything to shut her up, and that was far more pleasant for both of them than a slap. “I’ll come with you, I won’t let—”

Sithia laid her fingers over Serana’s lips and stepped back. “No. Sovngarde is in Aetherius, it would kill you, don’t you remember what touching a shrine did to you?”

Raw pain etched the harsh lines on Sithia’s face even deeper. She looked worn and tired… older. Serana stifled a sob at the agonising reminder of her Dragonborn’s mortality.

Sithia’s shoulders slumped. Seeing her like that... So defeated... It twisted the knife piercing Serana’s heart.

“Don’t wait for me. You deserve better than that, an eternal wait for an impossible return. Promise me. That you’ll let me go, move on.”

Serana clenched a fist, resisting the dark impulse to slap Sithia. If she misjudged the power behind it, she might really hurt her, maybe even kill her. “You don’t get to tell me what to do. I love you, I’d do anything for you… But not this.”

“I don’t want you to face eternity alone.” Sithia took her hand and prised her fist open. The blessing of the night healed the stinging shallow gouges in her palm left by sharp nails. “Eternity might not last that long if I fail, but I have to believe I can do this. For you.”

“There’s only one thing I want you to do for me: come back to me.”

“You know I will if it’s within my power, but you heard Odahviing.” Sithia nodded towards the red dragon waiting on the balcony. He shifted restlessly and snapped at fluttering moths.

“I have no choice. I wish…” Sithia’s lips twisted into a bitter smile. “I wish I never gave into you. Deep down, I knew I was doomed. I keep dreaming about it – my death. It’s always the same, has been for years now, long before I came to Skyrim."

Sithia glanced back at Odahviing. "A big black dragon burning around me, my body broken and bleeding in his jaws. I’m sorry. I let myself believe it was only a dream, but don’t you see?”

Sithia sniffed hard and swiped at her eyes. “The dream was that I could have you. It’s too late to save you from heartbreak, but I’ll be damned if I let you waste your life waiting for me.”

Sithia reached up and cupped Serana’s face in her hands. Sithia stretched up on tiptoe and kissed her. Deeply. Tenderly. Lingering, yet over far too soon.

Sithia stepped back, but didn’t get far. “Serana, let me go. This is my only chance, Odahviing won't wait for much longer.”

Serana shook her head, arms tightening around Sithia, refusing to let go.

Sithia inhaled deeply. Too late, Serana realised what she was about to do.

“FEIM!”

Like a ghost, Sithia slipped through Serana’s grip. She backed away, towards the watching dragon. Serana followed her, she’d soon leave the cold grasp of the Void and—

She hit the wall, sliding down to sprawl on the flagstones.

Odahviing spread his wings. The big red bastard had thrown her back with a blow from one of them!

“Krosis. I tire of waiting. Come, Dovahkiin, Skuldafn awaits. Fly with me, and envy the dov.”

Dazed, Serana could only watch, helpless, as Sithia solidified and swung herself up to sit behind Odahviing’s head. She swiped at the tears trickling down her cheeks, and met Serana’s accusing gaze. Sithia whispered two last words. They rang in Serana's ears as if she'd shouted.

“Forget me.”

[notoftheskaal]

Quiet me - Sithia/Serana. ^___^ ~

Leave a “Quiet Me” in my ask, and I’ll write a drabble about one character trying to calm another down

Sneak preview from Chapter 10 for you! 238 words, because I can’t cut it down to a 100 for an actual drabble.

Sithia’s frown deepened, and she glared at Serana. “Stop looking at me like that,” she snapped. “Don’t you dare pity me! I’m still the same person I was before you found out that Elenwen… That she…” Sithia looked away, face burning.

Serana reached out to cup her chin, gently but firmly making her meet her eyes again. “Compassion isn’t pity. Out of the two of us, I’m the one who should be ashamed about that sort of thing. I told you that I earned my vampirism direct from the Father of all of my kind. To do that, I went through a degrading ritual. You can probably guess what was involved. Do…” Serana swallowed hard. “Do you think less of me for that?”

Sithia grabbed Serana’s wrist, pulling her hand away from her face. Serana’s heart sank. Of course she wouldn’t want Serana’s tainting touch, not after learning that she’d been defiled—

Sithia’s fingers slid up to intertwine with hers. Serana stared at their clasped hands. That… that wasn’t the act of someone disgusted with her.

“Of you? No. Of Molag Bal? Absolutely. I’d kill Him for that if I could.”

“Are you insane?” Serana hissed. “Don’t threaten a powerful Daedric Lord!”

Sithia smirked. “I’ve badmouthed half of the Daedric Princes already. Most of them to what passes for their faces. What’s one more?”

Serana closed her eyes and heaved an exasperated sigh. “I’m amazed you’re still alive.”

[notoftheskaal]

Zip Me. Serana + Sithia.

Leave a “Zip Me” in my ask, and I’ll write a drabble about one character dressing another, or the other way around

Oh, my… I actually already have something of the sort written. But taken in isolation, with no mention of which future chapter it’s from… I don’t think it’s really spoiler material, so I won’t stick it under a ‘read more’ thingy.

105 words according to Word, so technically it’s a tiny bit longer than the strict definition of a drabble. But I can’t be bothered to try to cut it down, so have five extra wordses for free, my dear Brunette!

Sithia pulled her armour on, covering her myriad scars with enchanted leather. Serana stepped closer, reaching for the ties dangling from the open seam over Sithia’s back.

She paused right before touching the leather strip. “May I?”

Sithia nodded, reaching back to pull some stray strands of hair out of the way, tucking them into her braids.

Serana laced her armour up, lingering longer than she needed to, making the most of their closeness. She reluctantly stepped back, away from the warmth of Sithia’s body.

Sithia pulled her cowl on, but left the mask down. Serana would have to make the most of that too.

[notoftheskaal]

Sometimes I wish I had Skyrim on PC. Like whenever I want to take screenshots. My PS3 and a camera is the best I can manage, sadly.

It's about time I posted a few more pics of my tumblog's titular Dragonborn, as featured in Doom Driven. Well, how she looks in game, anyway.

And because she doesn't always have her masked cowl on: