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
I love these sorts of tags, thank you so much @virshiral 🌿💚
This is a great activity in procrastination (but I am currently working on chapter 3 of A Witness to My Crimes and chapter 69 of The Theory of Being, I promise.)
I am going to try and choose one chapter of a few different fics, which is a little difficult to narrow down on some more than others (looking at you, The Theory of Being).
From The Theory of Being, Chapter 8 (To Break Chains):
The song continued and began to crest. A buildup of emotion and sound at its peak. Wait, no. This wasn't right. This never happened. The song was new to her, one that never rang through the halls of the Forgotten.
I chose this chapter for my longfic because it was the scene that popped into my mind that sort of inspired the entire story.
I was driving down the road and a song (Theory of Being by Audiomachine) came up on my shuffle, and I had a daydream-y kind of moment with Fen'harel at a masquerade and the thought of 'what if Lavellan was a Forgotten One?'
So reaching that chapter and writing out that vision, it'll probably remain as one of my favorites.
Dragon Age - Explicit - Solas x Lavellan
From A Witness to My Crimes, Chapter 2 (Payback's a Bitch):
More flashes. Like an old film running off its tracks. Screaming. Riley yelling his name as she clawed at the ground. He never felt helpless before and he fucking hated it.
Granted there are only two chapters to choose from in regards to this one but c'est la vie.
I had been mulling around dabbling outside of the Dragon Age fandom for awhile, and had done some one-shots here and there but this one is turning out to be one of my favorites. The tone change in terms of what I am used to writing has been fun, leaning into a toxic dynamic and playing around there has been great.
I am really proud of how I meshed the past and present in this chapter, along with the fine line between intimacy and possession later on in the chapter.
The Boys - Explicit - Soldier Boy x Cataclysm
From One Nug Short of Sensible, Chapter 3 (A Nug Worth Keepin'):
Her palms felt cold against his clammy cheeks. All he could think was how pretty she was. A light, purposeful pat refocused him, bringing his attention back to her while a weak chuckle dropped from her lips, "You can tell me I'm pretty later. Can't check out on me now, cowboy. Gotta let me gloat about this later."
The first of my Rhela / Geldauran stories in a multi-chapter. There is something about these two that has captured my heart so so much. I am decidedly not normal about them in any way (gods, look at how much commissioned art they have now...) and had low key made me the 'cowboy person' in a few writing circles which is... endlessly hilarious to me for a variety of reasons.
I wanted their attraction to be instantaneous but both of them trying to ignore it for as long as they can. This story was meant to be a one-shot, turned into 3 chapters and is just about my god reincarnation modern AU Geldauran (as a Texan-style Sheriff) meeting his eventual Undersheriff and love of his life.
Dragon Age - Teen - Rhela Ghilain x Geldauran
From This Forgotten Binding, Chapter 8 (Banal'rasen or Mien'harel):
Hope that began to crawl underneath his skin. Hope that was broken, and bruised. Like a soldier who could only pull themselves forward with their fingers. Clawing at the dirt beneath them. But that hope was there, alive, and refusing to surrender to the idea that the course of his life was already decided.
I love this entire story for so many reasons and I truly wish I could share it with more people. It's from my first fandom event (summer DABB 2025!) and it was my first dive into a true AU.
Forgotten Gods, god reincarnations, modern Thedas (with magic!), museums, universities, archaeology, the works. It had so many things crammed into it and I am so immensely proud of it.
This chapter (much like my chapter chosen for The Theory of Being) contains the scene that sort of kicked off the entire idea. A walk through a museum of relics owned by the Forgotten Ones.
Dragon Age - Explicit - Solas/Fen'harel x Isathe/Aseradiva
From Mending Strings of Loss, Chapter 2 (Confronting Fears):
About ten minutes after their arrival, as Cullen was passing a message to a scout, his door swung open violently. Ellana standing in the doorway, both the Commander and the scout jumped at the noise.
The Inquisitor pointed to the door, "Out, I need to speak with Commander Cullen alone." Maker's breath, she is still mad. She also had him cornered. The scout made a swift exit and every part of Cullen wished he could follow.
I chose this one as it appears to be the first one I finished for the Dragon Age fandom? It was a short, 2 chapter piece. Some of my early early work but I also love it as something to look back on and see how I have changed in terms of my story telling, and own writing ability.
It also isn't Solavellan, which is fun! And I truly enjoy torturing Cullen (affectionately).
Dragon Age - Mature - Cullen Rutherford x Inquisitor Lavellan
Tagging people I know have a few works they can choose from, and that I think would enjoy this?
@vanillastrange @theriothag @dayntee @fadetouchedlurker @iamsuperconfused @mishwanders @prettypavus @crittadownunder @magicalmysmalin @exia-1 + anyone I definitely forgot and wishes to do this. <3
