A secret tryst in the little stand of weeping willows by the bend of the river. You insisted I accompany you on your morning walk, and now you're pulling me by the hand through trailing greenery. Looking back at me with a glint in your eye - Thank goodness for spring, you say. The leaves are grown lush enough to hide us once again, are they not?
I know exactly what you want. I'm meek as a lamb while you're pulling me in, the obedient servant - Yes, Your Grace - and then I'm on you like a wolf, shoving you against the rough bark of the trunk, crushing my mouth down onto yours. Slipping my hand down the waist of your velvet hose as I hold you pinned with my forearm. Nibbling your throat hard enough to hurt, but careful and precise so as to leave no lasting marks, while I wrap my fingers around your hardening length and stroke slowly.
Here, for a few stolen minutes, you will let go all that power and responsibility. You will be helpless, writhing and whimpering in my grip, trying to push me away just so you can feel the frisson that runs through you when you find you can't. You are strong, my prince; but I am stronger and larger, and for the next few minutes this royal body belongs to me. I want to feel the moment your arms go limp, see the instant in which your eyes darken from that adoring shine into glassy arousal. I want to hear you moan low in your throat as you begin slowly bucking into my hand, wanton and seeking, because the soft gentle strokes I'm giving you are making your thoughts all fuzzy and they're not enough.
Such a needy prince now. Shhh, not so loud. If you're quiet I'll give you a little more. Can you be quiet for me? That's it. There you go. Oh, there you go. That feels nice, doesn't it? Yes, that's right, go on and take it. Take what's yours. It's all for you, my prince, my love; this secret pleasure that only I can give you, hidden away in a place where no one sees.
part one | two | three | four | five | six | seven
masterlist
including :: frostheim
Or…a collection of your last moments together, and what happens after your gone.
One week. One week until the one year anniversary of you coming to Darkwick Academy. There's also just one week until the day you turn into an anomaly fully.
You think you’ve accepted it, you think you’ve come to terms with changing. But looking back, it hurts to leave so much sooner than anticipated. And you wonder if there was anything you could have done to change things. What if you hadn’t been on that train? What if your favorite group hadn’t disbanded?
What if the others had done a little more to save you?
You don’t blame them, you try not to. This was just an unfortunate experience, and an unfortunate end for you.
It was complicated, the relationships you had built with the ghouls of this school. But it clearly wasn’t enough for them to want to try and little harder to save you.
So with the last week of your life, you spend it away from all of them, spending the time for yourself, writing letters and getting all the things you never got to say out of the way.
Laying down for the last time you close your eyes, knowing you’d never wake up as yourself again.
FROSTHEIM
—jin kamurai
your last moments together
“Don't be stupid," Jin said roughly, followed by a yawn. Fluffing up the couch pillows you rolled you eyes. that was a response you had seen coming from a mile away.
"I'm serious Jin, i can't wake you up anymore," you said hands resting on your hips, hoping to get your point across.
Jin didn't get up from his bed, instead he cracked on eye open to look at you disapprovingly. "Waking me up every morning was your idea, so I'd better see you here tomorrow too. That's an order." you stifled a laugh. had it been the old you, you might have been scared by his words, but not anymore.
Trudging over to his bed you plopped down besides him, nudging his arm with your head. "Get your shoes off my bed," he grumbled and you laugh. "Already took them off."
Silently, Jin wrapped an arm around you, pulling you into his side. Mumbling something about you being quiet he closed his eyes. But you couldn't sleep, you had been having sleeping problems for a while now. Your impending doom weighing too heavily on your shoulders for you to properly rest.
Maybe Jin's warmth would bring you some peace, maybe now you could actually close your eyes soundly.
after it’s all over
A groan escaped Jin’s lips. Opening his eyes he glanced down at the crumpled paper laying on his chest.
You were a fool.
Usually servants were obedient, not going where they weren’t given permission to go. So what made you so different? What made you think you could go off and die? He had long accepted it, he thought. He knew your time was limited, and he reminded himself of that time and time again as he felt himself grow more fond of you.
Lighting a cigarette Jin could only stare at the ceiling. There was dust on the curtains, and his bed needed to be made. So where were you? He asked himself even though he knew the answer.
He also knew there was more he could have done. There was wishful thinking that some of the other ghouls would help you, that he wouldn’t have to lift a finger. He wasn’t one to blame himself, but he acknowledged that he and the others were at fault. He had consciously chosen to not help you actively, he had chosen to let you die.
So why? Why were your final words to him so sweet? How could you leave him a letter filled with anything but hateful words? It pissed him off.
He wanted you to hate him, curse at him and wish horrible things upon him.
But you’d never do that, and your letter filled with sugary words made that clear. And your words would taunt him for just as long as your memory would.
—tohma ishibashi
your last moments together
A sigh left you as you plopped down in a heavy bench in Frostheim. Running around and doing various tasks for others seemed to take more out of you than you had anticipated for the day.
“You seem a bit overwhelmed,” said the familiar voice that seemed close by. Looking up you were met with the piercing eyes of Tohma. You gave a tired smile and only nodded. At his words, it finally settled in you body how tired you were. “Good health is a treasure, you do best to acknowledge this.” There was no bite in his words, instead there was a caring tone he rarely took.
Before you knew it he stood directly in front of you. “Please don’t overexert yourself. There are many people here who need you.”
That made you freeze. Because you wondered, what would they do without you? If they really did need you. But that was an easy thought to push aside. They had live before you were in their lives, and they would continue to live after you were gone.
Looking back up at Tohma you gave him a smile. “I’ll do my best,” you said simply.
“Come with me,” Tohma hummed turning around, expecting you to follow, “I’ll brew us some tea.”
after it’s all over
Lately, Thoma had been working late into the night. He spent many hours simply going through paperwork, running errands, and taking care of appearances in front of his dorm mates. Before he even knows it, night creeps up on him, engulfing the halls of frostheim. He also found a habit of looking up at the stars.
He used to laugh when people would say the stars were looking over them. But somehow he wonders if you had become one of those stars. If just maybe you had been looking down at him.
That’s what you had promised him after all. In your last letter to him you wrote about how you’d always be there, always watching. If the circumstances had been different he would have found it strange, but knowing what happened, how you ended up, it brought him some comfort.
Trudging out of his bathroom he sat on the bed and opened his bedside table. He took the letter out and gently flipped through it. Your last words ringing in his head. And they would continue to do so for a long time.
—kaito fuji
your last moments together
"God, please don't make me go on anymore missions..." He begged with a groan when he saw you getting close to him with a mission paper in hand. "Kaito," you called out sternly and he only shook his head.
"It's not like me being there is any help to anyone anyway..." He added on soon after to try and argue against you. Instead of your words, however, he was met with silence. Looking up, he was met with your tear eyes and mad face.
"(N-name)?!" He almost shouted in shock, "I'm sorry! I'll go! Please don't cry! there there...." He tried to sooth you but your expression never changed, you were mad at him.
"How could you say that about yourself?" you blubbered, "I hate when you say stuff like that!" Kaito froze, shock taking over his face as his own eyes watered.
"You’re so nice," he blubbered back, his own tears crowding his vision. And then there were no more words said between the two of you, only tears and hugging.
after it’s all over
Kaito's voice was hoarse and his eyes stung. He can't tell you how long he had been crying. Hours? yes. Day? yes. How many days? he couldn't tell you.
Not even his neighbors minded. Usually they'd come banging on his door telling him to be quiet. But they knew what had happened, he knew he was grieving.
Your letter to him was left on his desk, unopened and left there. He couldn’t bring himself to open it, what good things could you have to say to him? The one thing he did best was run away. He was a coward, he knew this, he could accept this. What he couldn’t understand was how you looked at him in such a good light. How could you think so much of him?
What he feared most was your disapproval. He was scared that your opinion would have changed. He greedily wanted you to keep thinking of him in a good light. He never wanted that to change.
So he couldn’t bring himself to read what you had wrote to him. He would keep crying in his ignorance, still believing that you thought highly of him.
—lucas errant
your last moments together
Peaceful moments were hard to come by in your day to day life. Missions after missions, ghouls after ghouls. There was very little time for you. So moments like these were treasured.
The wind blew through your hair, the sudden coldness making you shiver. “Are you cold?” Came the question from Luca, who looked at you with a concerned expression. “I’m alright,” you said before the two of you were engulfed in a comfortable silence. Your walk together being more calming than either of you had expected.
Glancing at Luca you saw him in deep thought, “penny for your thoughts?”
Luca only smiled and shook his head, “I was just thinking,” he began, stopping his walking.
“We have experienced many joys and sorrows together since becoming friends,” he spoke, tugging at your heart strings, “I’m very glad we met. I look forward to walking the road ahead with you.”
He said this all with a smile, but you couldn’t bring yourself to return it.
“(name)?” He questioned with a slight panic in his eyes, “did I upset you? I’m sorry—“
“You didn’t upset me,” you said softly in a shaky voice, realizing suddenly that you were crying. “Excuse me Luca,” you said before bringing the boy into a tight hug, which he returned after a moment of stiff stillness.
You couldn’t promise him you’d walk the road ahead with him. You couldn’t lie to him.
But you could forgive him.
after it’s all over
Luca had failed time and time again to protect the things close to him. It seemed to become a bad habit for him. Vaguely he wondered back to when you guys first met, and he wished he could go back. He wishes he could go back and fulfill his promise to protect you and cure you.
But now, as he’s sat in his room with his head buried in his hands. Thoughts raced through his head and suddenly he realized that, just like you that time, he had been crying. Moving the paper off his lap to protect it from his tears he silently let his tears fall.
He didn't even think he deserved to cry over you, but he couldn't help it. He had promised you he would help you return to normal, and here he was, without you.
And despite his mediocre efforts, you forgave him. In your last words to him you forgave him for not saving you. That brought him no comfort, instead it worsened the guilt eating away in his chest.
Once again, he had failed to protect what was dear to him.
Fantasy OSR game based around the ideas of meaningful decisions, active over passive abilities (even using armor is an active choice) and being "rules light, procedure heavy".
"What does that mean? Well, it means that the rules you need to play Errant are simple to understand and minimal. At its core, the basic mechanic is to simply roll a twenty-sided die and try to get a result that’s in between two numbers (“roll high under” or “blackjack”) to resolve tasks.
However, Errant has a number of procedures that are designed to help you navigate different play situations in fair and interesting ways. Want to know how to run an exciting chase scene, or establish a fried cockatrice restaurant, or sue a demon for emotional negligence? Errant has procedures that can help you do that!"
Aspen Silverglade used to be a force for good, but now she's just a sword for hire. On the run from the people she once trusted most, she needs to keep her head down and keep moving.
But old habits are hard to quit. One night in a tavern, Aspen tries to save a woman from some unwanted attention. The woman, Charm Linville, is in the middle of a subtle and delicate act of thievery, and she does not appreciate Aspen blundering in.
The disastrous and public rescue-gone-wrong makes the townspeople think Aspen and Charm are a couple. This mistake sets Aspen's bloodthirsty betrayers on Charm's trail, tying the two of them together.
Even if Aspen can't run from her past any longer, Charm shouldn't have to suffer. Despite Aspen's determination to work alone, Charm insists on helping—and she has a past of her own. The two of them don't care for each other's methods, but as they journey through the villages and wildernesses of Falland, solving problems and meeting magical friends and foes, Aspen and Charm grudgingly come to care for each other. Can these two guarded, stubborn women admit their feelings, or will Aspen's enemies kill them first?
Errant, Volume One is the first volume in a series of novellas. It contains two novellas, intended to be read in sequence, and is approximately 52,000 words total.
