A WITNESS TO MY CRIMES
Pussies, every last one of them. Ben’s fist slammed hard onto the table, interrupting the woman who stood in the center of the meeting room as she rambled on about her strengths. Crimson to his left jumped in her seat, startled, and the rest of Payback nervously shifted around the table.
They had been sitting in the room for hours. Interview after interview. Supes of varying levels of god-awful bending over and begging to be considered for the team. One of the contenders was covered in fucking fur, and the one after that made ice - barely useful unless Ben was in the mood for an Old Fashioned. The first in the pile that day could encase himself in metal, but something about him rubbed Ben the wrong way, so he was quickly dismissed.
The Supe in front of them now had the unfortunate alias of PussPuss. That had to be a fucking joke.
Rating: Explicit
Chapter Word Count: 4,096
Total Word Count: 15,429
Setting: Canon Divergent, Combines Comics & TV Show (20/80)
Pairing: Soldier Boy x Original Female Superhero
Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Humor, Established Relationship, Jealousy, Drug Use, Drinking, Strippers & Strip Clubs, Revenge, They Make Each Other So Much Worse, Toxic Relationships, Bruises Are My Foreplay, Unreliable Narrator, Bonding Over Trauma, Propaganda, Vought International, Blood and Gore, One Is Bad Both Are Worse, PTSD, No Beta We Die Like Timothy, Human Experimentation, Child Death
Chapter 01: Freedom’s Fire
Chapter 02: Payback’s a Bitch
Chapter 03: The Black Site
Chapter 04: Resonant Cascade
A WITNESS TO MY CRIMES
The sweltering heat in Nicaragua was that heavy, brutal kind that did not seem to care where they were in the god damned country. Shady up in the mountains? Not much better. And it only grew worse with each day that passed. The nights held little reprieve, forcing them to lie in a tent covered in sweat. The CIA agents and soldiers murmured something about it being a dry season, not that Ben paid much attention to whatever it was they had to say. Unless, of course, they were fawning over him. He liked that. Maybe too much.
Nah. He deserved it.
Rating: Explicit
Chapter Word Count: 3,727
Total Word Count: 7,048
Setting: Canon Divergent, Combines Comics & TV Show (20/80)
Pairing: Soldier Boy x Original Female Superhero
Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Humor, Established Relationship, Jealousy, Drug Use, Drinking, Strippers & Strip Clubs, Revenge, They Make Each Other So Much Worse, Toxic Relationships, Bruises Are My Foreplay, Unreliable Narrator, Bonding Over Trauma, Propaganda, Vought International, Blood and Gore, One Is Bad Both Are Worse, PTSD, No Beta We Die Like Timothy
Chapter 01: Freedom's Fire
Chapter 02: Payback's a Bitch
A WITNESS TO MY CRIMES
The Midwest always smelled like ass and dead things. Sometimes, it even smelled like something that had crawled out of the ass of dead things.
Endless wheat and corn fields - along with whatever else they grew, or slaughtered, out there - didn’t help with that, and actually made the stench worse. The car had no A/C, windows barely worked, and the heavy odor of oil and gas combined with manure and the animal processing plants was making Riley’s skin crawl.
Once the sun slid beyond the horizon, it helped some. Less heat. Less smell. But the perpetual drone from the car’s engine - some shitty beater from the 70s - and the crickets that echoed like a crappy indie concert along this stretch of the highway didn’t help her restlessness. Lightning bugs might’ve been pretty though, if she weren’t wound so tight.
Riley’s fingers drummed against her bouncing leg in a steady rhythm that didn’t match the song on the radio. Her jaw clenched so hard she was pretty sure she was a hair away from cracking a tooth.
All she wanted to do was fucking scream.
Rating: Explicit
Chapter Word Count: 4,522
Total Word Count: 19,942
Setting: Canon Divergent, Combines Comics & TV Show (20/80)
Pairing: Soldier Boy x Original Female Superhero
Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Humor, Established Relationship, Jealousy, Drug Use, Drinking, Strippers & Strip Clubs, Revenge, They Make Each Other So Much Worse, Toxic Relationships, Bruises Are My Foreplay, Unreliable Narrator, Bonding Over Trauma, Propaganda, Vought International, Blood and Gore, One Is Bad Both Are Worse, PTSD, No Beta We Die Like Timothy, Human Experimentation, Child Death
NEW CW TAGS: Psychological Trauma, Identity Crisis, Implied Sexual Slavery, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat
Chapter 01: Freedom’s Fire
Chapter 02: Payback’s a Bitch
Chapter 03: The Black Site
Chapter 04: Cascade Resonance
Chapter 05: Violation of Protocol
A WITNESS TO MY CRIMES
Tremors. Small, insignificant. They started in Riley’s hands as they stood just outside the perimeter, bringing the joint up to her lips. A simple gesture really, each action as if she were on autopilot. Another deep, slow inhale. Cherry at the end lighting up in the darkness granted to them by the treeline. She felt the tremble with each movement, not so different than her own power.
Riley could see it in her fingers that held the joint between them. A huff. Quickly dropping her hand to her side, head tilted down as she exhaled another plume of smoke through her nose.
The facility in front of them was the usual, some sort of cliché - chain linked fence topped with barbed wire surrounded the nondescript white building. Hidden and nestled deep in some mountain range upstate - a black site, or whatever Vought liked to brand it. Probably closer to a Research Institute if they wanted to make it sound fancy, or a Community Development Project if they wanted to appease the locals. Or maybe it was far enough away from everything else that it did not need a bullshit name to keep people from looking too hard. Could be that they paid off the right people at the right time to just look the other way.
Rating: Explicit
Chapter Word Count: 11,334
Total Word Count: 4,308
Setting: Canon Divergent, Combines Comics & TV Show (20/80)
Pairing: Soldier Boy x Original Female Superhero
Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Humor, Established Relationship, Jealousy, Drug Use, Drinking, Strippers & Strip Clubs, Revenge, They Make Each Other So Much Worse, Toxic Relationships, Bruises Are My Foreplay, Unreliable Narrator, Bonding Over Trauma, Propaganda, Vought International, Blood and Gore, One Is Bad Both Are Worse, PTSD, No Beta We Die Like Timothy
NEW CW TAGS: Human Experimentation, Child Death
Chapter 01: Freedom's Fire
Chapter 02: Payback's a Bitch
Chapter 03: The Black Site
RULES: I am sure I am not the first to think of this/start this, but I was considering lines that I felt were standouts in my own work, and thought it would be fun to share them. 🌿
So, pick 5 lines (doesn't need to necessarily be 1 single sentence, we can be a bit fast and loose with this rule) and share them.
It wasn’t carefully curated to perfection - La Cima was a beautiful melting pot of chaos and change. The art Vero had experienced before was by invitation. This? Was grace by accident.
The Penalty Kill
(Dragon Age, Teen & Up) Written for a private OC swap where I got to have @wishforhome's amazing, deep and beautifully flawed OC Vero go on a playdate with my own OC. I loved writing this (even though I was petrified of fucking up someone's OC).
If he wasn't who he was, if he didn't remember the Gods as they once were, he might've prayed - begged, even - to anyone who would listen that this feeling, what they had, would never end.
Higher Than a Nug in a Twister
(Dragon Age, Explicit) A one-shot, a little smutty about my modern AU Sheriff Geldauran and his Undersheriff Rhela Ghilain.
"I do not want to exist as they made me. I want my sins to be mine alone."
The Theory of Being
(Dragon Age, Explicit) Narrowing down a line from my longfic was a challenge. But I feel like this one is so quintessential Isathe.
Knowing that she 'failed' Vought's imperative, that she loved him so deeply that it fucked up their whole experiment? Fuck, he couldn't be prouder of her.
A Witness To My Crimes
(The Boys, Explicit) I just, I love Ben and Riley's whole dynamic and how it has shifted with the flashbacks and all the new revelations.
"Allowing you to forget would be a tragedy to her memory that I cannot allow. Your love was a truth, and truths cannot be undone. Should not be hidden away because it causes you anguish. You will continue to carry her - until you meet again."
This Forgotten Binding
(Dragon Age, Explicit) A line said by Anaris in my 2025 Dragon Age Big Bang work that just, oof, gives me a lot of feels even now.
BONUS
There was something in the way he spoke, a reverent hushed whisper. No, he was not venerating the space they stood in, he was worshiping her, “Not all those who kneel do so in submission, Lilith.”
Blasphemy
(The Sandman, Explicit) Because I can, and wanted to add something else outside of the Dragon Age fandom. 😏 Still quite proud of this short one-shot. Technically an OC and Morpheus, my version of Lilith doesn't exist in that world.
No pressure, just me going 'I love you and want you to know I am thinking of you' tagging:
@fadetouchedlurker @coacklebee @prettypavus @dayntee @vanillastrange @theriothag @summergreen009 @purpleasters-inseptember @theluckywizard @magicalmysmalin @virshiral @fagetwrites @iamsuperconfused @wishforhome + anyone else who might want to do this.
You should all know by now I have no real list and just kinda tag on vibes. Love you all though. ✨
A WITNESS TO MY CRIMES
It was cold. In fact, it was really fucking cold. And Riley found herself standing on a doorstep with its fancy gold marker - PH4 - shivering, skin red and tingling from wading through the snow outside barefoot. Wearing little more than what she would have generously described as glorified hospital pajamas and a jacket she was able to lift from some tourist in Union Station.
Though she remembered very little about where she had just been - and honestly, she had no real idea what year it was - there were a few facts that were startlingly obvious from what she did retain: Benny was gone, and dead. Payback had betrayed them both. And Riley had this deep, nagging feeling that where she had been, someone would be looking for her.
What she did notice was that enough time had passed that no one gave her a second glance as she trudged down the sidewalk in the snow. No swarming fans, no cries of “Cataclysm!?” from pedestrians. A few side eyes directed toward the barely covered woman who was wandering the streets. But their looks were primarily disgust and disdain, not recognition.
Some fragmented memories lingered in the back of her head, but Riley was unable to fully drag them back to the surface.
Bits and pieces of the Nicaraguan heat, the feeling of dirt under her nails as she desperately clawed at the ground while pinned down. Unable to breathe due to the knee at the center of her chest.
New York, overcast and solemn. Walking down the street, a dull roar of a crowd. Listening to the fanfare and bagpipes. An arm around her waist, holding her up.
White walls of a lab. Freezing rooms and stainless steel tables that bit at her skin while she screamed and fought until she couldn’t anymore.
She blinked. And they were gone.
Rating: Explicit
Chapter Word Count: 4,287
Total Word Count: 24,229
Setting: Canon Divergent, Combines Comics & TV Show (20/80)
Pairing: Soldier Boy x Original Female Superhero
Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Humor, Established Relationship, Jealousy, Drug Use, Drinking, Strippers & Strip Clubs, Revenge, They Make Each Other So Much Worse, Toxic Relationships, Bruises Are My Foreplay, Unreliable Narrator, Bonding Over Trauma, Propaganda, Vought International, Blood and Gore, One Is Bad Both Are Worse, PTSD, No Beta We Die Like Timothy, Human Experimentation, Child Death, Psychological Trauma, Identity Crisis, Implied Sexual Slavery, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat
Chapter 01: Freedom’s Fire
Chapter 02: Payback’s a Bitch
Chapter 03: The Black Site
Chapter 04: Cascade Resonance
Chapter 05: Violation of Protocol
Chapter 06: Off Script
He knew Riley better than that. Hell, he knew Riley better than anyone. Even at her worst - broken, bloodied and half-dead - she would not stumble down the street in front of anyone. And for fucks’ sake, she wouldn’t let Tek Knight or anyone hold her up like she was a weak thing. She’d rather walk a mile on a broken ankle than let anyone carry her. There was something wrong.
The hum slowly intensified, vibrating inside his skull.
Ben’s hand gripped the edge of the coffee table, the cheap wood splintering and cracking under the sheer force of his annoyance. Hughie next to him tensed and cleared his throat.
“We can turn it off -” He began before Ben shut that down quickly.
“Touch it and I’ll feed you your balls.”
He didn’t want some fucking platitude about watching his own god damn funeral. Ben spared a glance from Riley only momentarily to look at Hughie before his attention was drawn back to her like a moth to a bonfire, “Cataclysm. You know what happened to her after this?”
Ben’s jaw ached under the tension. Every muscle in his body wound tightly as the footage continued. Stan Edgar speaking first about the incredible loss they suffered, Crimson Countess upping the spectacle by saying that Soldier Boy had proposed to her before he died - bullshit - all the while Riley sat at the end of the row borderline catatonic. Tek Knight’s hand resting on her lower back. The way she moved, the way she swayed; it wasn’t her.
He knew how she moved, they fought beside each other for years. She was the lethal finesse to his raw power and fuck, he wanted to pummel Tek Knight into the god damn ground for even thinking about touching her.
A Witness To My Crimes
Because I have absolutely no chill about my OCs, I commissioned the absolutely lovely @commander-sarahs-art to create my Ben (Soldier Boy) and Riley (Cataclysm) in their style to match the other OCs they've already created for me.
A softer moment between them, bandaging each other up is just *chefs kiss*.
The slight little smirk on his lips! all that fuzz! Ben and Riley are awful (I love them).
4 chapters are currently out, and another one should be coming next week!
I would like to know, from my fellow writers, their favorite romance scenes that they have written. Kisses, dramatic confessions, tragic partings, tearful reunions, I want to know.
Thank you for the tag @fadetouchedlurker, I am staring at the screen trying to remember my favorite romance scenes. It's difficult!
I will tag some of the following (I think most others got tagged already?): @coacklebee @vanillastrange @theriothag @dayntee @prettypavus @crittadownunder @iamsuperconfused @summergreen009 @tinybatjoly + everyone I know I missed. Sorry I suck.
I am going to pick two because I cannot help myself. The first is the first time Solas and Isathe kiss - though they are in the Fade and using their persona's of Fen'harel and Aseradiva.
The Theory of Being
Chapter 12 - Touching the Veil
Aseradiva stood and began to wade through the creek, stepping gingerly so she did not lose her footing. Her hands held aloft at her sides for balance. The woman’s pale curly hair piled on top of her head, only a few ringlets free from the bun, they swayed from side to side as she moved. He finally answered her after realizing he had been staring, his words continuing their song, “I will admit I was thinking about you.” His internal conflicts always felt so much farther from himself while in the Fade, Solas willing to follow whims while he wandered there.
The elven woman nodded her head slowly, a small chuckle escaping her. She stopped to look at him for a few moments before stepping through the water to the bank he was standing on. Solas extended his hand much like he had the time they danced in another one of her memories. This time however, she took it without hesitation, stepping up onto the steep embankment so she was on solid ground, even with him.
Solas ran his thumb along the fingers that grasped his, the warmth of her skin pressing against his palm. The two stared at one another for a long time until he followed that impulse, that pull toward her. The urge that sat in the back of his mind every time he stood with her in the Fade. The one he liked to ignore and push away. Leaning down he gently pressed his lips against hers, the woman responded in kind. Soft kisses turning frantic between the two elves. Like they were starved for touch. Aseradiva’s hands found the collar of his tunic, grabbing onto it for dear life as he guided her away from the creek. Soft, sweet sounds vibrating through his mouth as she kissed him back. All other thoughts - the guilt, the conflict, melting away as he slid his tongue between her teeth.
Their movement stopped when he pushed her back against a tree. He pulled from the kiss only to grab her by the thighs, lifting the woman up. Her legs wrapped around his waist as they resumed. Solas felt the weight of her arms as she draped them across his shoulders. There was a faint glow that sat in the center of the woman’s chest, an echo of the spirit she was - is - shining through the skin and bone. That is what his made his body truly ache.
Solas was not sure how long he pinned her there.
A gasping breath coming from Aseradiva as she pulled from the kiss to lightly nip at his lower lip, sucking it between her teeth. He groaned softly. Her head drifted back toward the tree and Solas took the opportunity to graze his teeth against the skin of her neck.
Toward the back of her neck on the side was a set of three scars. They looked old and long since healed. It gave him pause and that moment he heard the woman speak again, “We really should not be doing -” her voice sounded sad and wistful. Like she hated herself for stopping them and he understood.
The logic began to return, biting at him and what he wanted, what he truly wanted in that moment. The two elves leaned their foreheads against one another, Solas still holding the woman up against the tree. They were trying to regain some semblance of composure, the sadness in her voice continued, “I wish I could. This… could complicate things da’fen.” He saw her swallow slowly, a deep and shaking exhale through her nose.
He lifted a hand from her thigh, looking into her eyes as he pushed some of the ringlets of hair that had fallen in front of her face. Her cheeks were flushed and there was a distinct sadness in her gaze. Solas unfortunately understood, as much as he wanted to. By the Sun and Sky did he want to, his life was complicated to begin with. He still wanted it though.
“There is not anyone who I would allow to call me little wolf, but it sounds beautiful coming from your lips.”
Her nose crinkled up as she laughed, chasing away the sadness there for a few moments, “If you can find me, da’fen. Then it may be worth the complications.” Aseradiva placed a gentle, chaste kiss on his lips before fading from in front of him. Wherever she was, she awoke in the world. Leaving him behind in her own memory.
Solas turned and leaned against the tree, sliding down into the grass. Maybe complicated could be worth it.
The bonus one below the cut is NSFW. One of my favorite smutty one-shots for Rhela and Geldauran. Cowboy smut - yeehaw.
Higher Than a Nug in a Twister
It started as a tingle first at the very tips of his fingers, slowly creeping its way up his arms and into his chest. So subtle, at first, that Geldauran hadn’t realized that the intended effect of the elfroot had kicked in. Permeated into his core being. Each muscle weighed down, heavy and unmoving while his mind floated, weightless. A combination that he did not know existed until that very moment. As if the Fade itself suffused into his skin. Enveloping him with an intimate awareness of the blood that rushed through his veins, each heart beat that kept this version of himself alive.
The weight of a body crawling up his own, the bed bowing beneath him - when did he get into bed? - caused his eyes to open, finally summoning the strength to open them. Fighting that endless pull into the nothingness that the elfroot assured.
Geldauran was entirely sure that his heart stopped dead in his chest the moment his vision focused. A strangled, needy groan found its way involuntarily from the back of his throat, witnessing the prettiest damn thing he had ever laid eyes on in his many, many lives.
Rhéla, endlessly pleased with herself if her expression was anything to go on, sat perched on his lap as if she owned it. All sin and curves while she straddled him, wearing nothing but that Void-forsaken, crooked smile and his favorite cowboy hat cocked on her head.
Rich, russet skin that damn near glowed in the firelight - looking soft and inviting. The smooth expanse of her stomach, dotted with scars from a life fiercely lived, caused every muscle in his body to tense. His hands shook, sliding up her bare thighs, palms and fingers pressed into her body to remind himself that she was real, and for some reason she had decided that he was worthy of her time. He never wanted to leave this life behind if she was in it.
If he wasn’t who he was, if he didn’t remember the Gods as they once were, he might’ve prayed - begged, even - to anyone who would listen that this feeling, what they had, would never end.
He couldn’t see much of her face, the brim of the hat obscuring her features, which allowed for her smirk to continue to steal the show. A hint of teeth, a single dimple, the left side higher than the right. “What? Mabari nip your tongue?” Rhéla’s voice dropped lower, a tease as she rolled her hips, his denim pressing against his groin in an enticing way. Geldauran’s hands tightened around her thighs, unsure if he wanted her to continue the torture or if he was ready to beg. She damn well knew what she was doing to him, and if she didn’t - well, she certainly had to feel it.
Rhéla placed her hands over his, guiding them higher up to her hips, his mind wandering into the future where he was -
“Rhéla.” Geldauran’s voice came out hoarse, and dangerously close to a divine petition, while his eyes rolled up. His head dropped back into the mattress, breathing ragged and shallow. The sensation of her deft fingers working their magic on his belt caused his head to swim. A soft click of the metal buckle as it was released. He opened a single eye to watch her face as she concentrated on the task at hand.
Full lips pink and parted, with a few fiery curls hanging in her face. Soft curves of her breasts, her breathing slow and deliberate. Muscles in her stomach shifting under the skin as she rose up on her knees. None of it easing the heat that had begun to pool in his stomach. “Sugar.” His voice cracked. “I don’t got it in me to -”
She interrupted him with a click of her tongue behind her teeth, shifting so she could push his pants down far enough to release him from his boxers but little else. Thighs pinned by her straddling him. The only thing he could do was lift his hips so she had an easier time, quickly sinking back into the soft mattress.
“Now, handsome. Let me do the work.” Rhéla’s voice was the only thing that managed to break through the haze caused by the elfroot. Between the way she said ‘handsome’ - breathy and quiet - and the way she looked at him, he was done for. Heat flooded his body as her hand trailed down his stomach. Skin on skin below his navel, weaving through the hair that led down until she wrapped her skilled fingers around his cock.
Already painfully hard and aching as she teased him. Her thumb ran along the bottom of the head, his hips jutted upward and hands twisting in the sheets. Rhéla squeezed a little tighter to keep him in line. Stopping him from bucking like a bronto, “Ah, ah. Not yet. I got plans for you.”
