Ahh traveler, the wait has been long (like a few days sorry) but I made sure it was worth the wait! Its gonna be a gooood one trust homie 💰💰💰💰.(oki tbfr tho I put everything into this chapter I hope u guys leik it 😁)
It was early morning and you were packing up the rest of your things, you could already hear Christians voice as he talks with your parents. What was I packing? Right, the last few things, you dig through your dresser for your most important pieces before finding Rags wielding apron he gave you, it had no use to you in this new life, but you can’t even bear to think about leaving it for some reason. So you fold it up tightly and hide it under your dresses, along with your leather pants, they’ll be easy enough to hide since you’ll be doing all the laundry.
You shut the wooden luggage case and slide it off the bed, rushing off quickly to the front room where you see him, he immediately stands up with a smile to you. Blue eyed and tan, his blonde hair a yellowy blond rather than a white blonde you imagined, athletic like normal but nowhere near as athletic as Grom. What are you doing, stop thinking about him.
Your mother tugs your father out while you both sit down and shake each others hands, a pot of hot tea and four cups already neatly arranged, you pour yourself a cup of tea as you speak
“So, tell me about your village?" you ask
“Bigger than yours” he explains, “lush and greener, with far more houses, we’re not surrounded by forests and are much closer to the mainland, you’ll have a great view of the castle. Its a wonderful place to raise children"
You smile, big, that means a lot to explore, surely I won't be bored
“Um my tea is empty”
You sit up to notice that its teacup was empty “so it is” you sit back to sip your own tea
“Um…pour me some more?”
“Oh!” you say in realization, dropping your own and quickly pouring him tea, he sips his tea and sighs obnoxiously loudly “ah this is the life, im so excited to be married, knowing all the housework will be complete, and food always be made, to finally have some kids…we’ll start tonight”
You perk up in realization. Right, you'd have to do a lot more work than normal, including cleaning of the whole house, cleaning of clothes cooking…and he’s wanting to try for kids now so its only a matter of time before you’re pregnant
Though this was all normal, you still felt…distasted at him. He was the typical man for you, but you find yourself not as excited as before.
To make things worse, right outside you had the most perfect view of the orcs packing up their
things into a newly refurbished wagon they bought that morning, one of the orcs underneath to fix more structures to support their weight.
You jerk your head back to him but he already noticed what you’re staring at “disgusting
creatures” he doesn’t mutter it, he says it loud and proud for your parents to hear from the other room, “never want our family to be close to any of their kind anyways, Elizabeth!” he leans back as he calls for your mother, a sight and tone that reminded you too much of your father “whats all this waiting for? Let's go down to the church now!”
Your mother interrupts your conversation with a chirp “ oh! I just want to send y/n with a few pieces of my prized china. Christian, could you please help me reach?
A smile quickly goes onto Christians face as he happily walks to the kitchen, your father comes in to sit in his spot and relax while sipping tea casually with you, you try to tell yourself this is what will make my life best, my parents know what's best for me, they know I will be happiest like this, why doesn't it feel like it now?
“Father?” you ask “In the end…what do you want for me”
“For you to live out a successful life of course”
“And what's your idea of living a successful life?”
He slurps his tea quietly “Well of course being wed, a good wife, and producing a lot of children”
You take a sigh, “I…father, I have been waiting since I was a teenager to leave this town and find my own place in this world, but now I'm starting to think I will never have time to even explore, or even be my own person.”
Laughs “of course not, that's what the men do, you’re to stay and be supportive of everything, and don;t worry, you'll be grateful for this when you’re older”
You start to think about Agral, how she was told the same thing that she could never leave because she wasn’t strong enough, but proved them wrong, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to do what a man could do. Same as her. But there's a little voice in your head that tells you you’re wrong.
You’re not an orc, you’re not strong
Yes but Agral was told she was weak when she wasn’t, I have been told that I cant make myself a good life without a human man, neither things we were told were routed in factual claims
You’re not brave like her
I've risked beatings on multiple occasions just to learn more, I think that compares to hunting out a dangerous creature to get food
What about your children? They'll be abominations to the world
You’re stifled by that argument and can’t respond back to yourself, but then you think about what Grom said when you saw that homosexual couple “it is never wrong to love”
I don’t want to live in a world where it is wrong for me or my children to love someone just because they're different. I'd rather them be “abominations” than have to be with someone who is “correct”. I don’t want this cycle to continue with my bloodline.
You wait for the little voice to come back but it doesn’t. But still something prevents you from standing up, you glance outside one more time, Grom and the others now smash out their stone beds since they couldn’t carry them home, their bags already in the back of the wagon. Your heart races worrying you’ll miss your chance but also pick wrong. Pick quickly or else they'll leave and you’ll never see him again, time is ticking.
One last question: You shut your eyes and think, “what do I want” and the first thing you see is Grom.
You sigh in relief, you know what your decision is, you open your eyes to see your father staring at you hard, his expression unreadable, while your mother was now at the table, smiling obviously while wrapping up her china plates and bowls to set into the luggage
“Th-thank you mother” you quickly take the case and close it, sliding it off the table to hold both cases in your hands “I'll go put the luggage in the carriage ” you lie, speaking quickly from the nerves wanting to quickly leave, you stand up walking to the door. You jolt feeling his hand on your wrist, him pulling you back.
“i know what you’re thinking”
You stiffen “i-i’m not thinking of anything, father”
“You’re going to see that orc before you leave aren’t you? I know what you’ve been doing, you were late last night and don’t think I haven’t heard your giggles”
You're tugged back and you panic as you try to fling yourself out of his arms with all your strength. You heard a horse neigh from outside and you panic at the thought they're already mounting them, you use your luggage’s weight to twirl back and knock him somewhere on the body, he groans loud in pain and you hear your mother cries, your father lets go long enough for you to messily rush to the door to open, seeing a glimpse of Grom still carefully leading the lambs their place on the back of the wagon, you're not too late.
“Grom! OW!-” you cry in pain as a hand comes to grip at the base of your hair and pull you back, your head leans back and your eyes shut in pain, reaching to grip the hands
“You’re not leaving for a fucking orc y/n! I should’ve never let them come into our town, I should’ve never let you stay.”
“Grom!” you cry one more time desperately, as loud as your vocal cords will allow, your whole body tenses at the sound of many heavy footsteps “you get your hands off her!” Grom, your heart misses a beat at the sound of his roar he heard you.
Your fathers hand releases your hair and you drop to the ground boneless, putting your head between your thighs and hands clutching your head in pain, the throbbing seemingly increasing in intensity.
“Hey what seems to be going on!” this voice was now Rags, but your focus was placed on the large hands that were sliding down the sides of your head to cup your cheeks and gently tilt your face up, at first you can’t see from the pain, your sight just shows a blob of green blurry from the tears, but judging on how gently they are you smile at the familiar feel, “Grom?”
“Are you hurt?” his voice turns from gentle to a growl of anger “he pulled hair strands out”
You blink rapidly to try to get the tears away “i-ill be fine” his fingers gently massage your scalp as you sob in relief “I’m sorry, I've changed my mind! When you told me about the beautiful place you lived in I thought “wow I want to experience that” and I didn’t think more about it because I thought I just wanted to be there in the grove but I actually just wanted to be with you.
Slowly your vision clears to see his handsome face turn from a mix of concern and anger to joy and tearful relief “r-really? You want to come with me?”
You sob happily “yes!”
“NO!” your father roars as his marches towards you, Grom's face jerks up, before he quickly scoops you up in your arms and skillfully moves out of your house.
Your father pushes past Rag, somehow, and wobbles over towards you both, but Grom was already in the middle of the town while your father couldn’t take a step without gripping the door, “You give my daughter back right now!”
“Why should I?” he demands loudly, his accent getting thicker as he shifts your weight to one of his arms while the other reaches for his back to sharply whip out a sharp axe, the sound of the blade causing a shiver down your spine, you could practically feel the sharpness on it.
There's a slip on your fathers face in hesitation, or is that perhaps fear? He goes away quickly to be replaced with anger. “You drop my daughter right now!” you instinctively grip onto Grom’s shoulder tighter, you could see your mothers face of sadness and fear from behind Rag, it breaks your heart. However Christians flabbergasted look sets you off, as if he couldn’t understand how something green could be better than him.
”if you touch her again I will cut you ear to ear” you could feel the tension of his jaw in his tone,
You turn your head to your father, by now a mob has formed of your neighbors, some look in disappointment, some in disgust as they form around your house. But you could also hear the unshielding metal behind you, you turn to see one by one each orc pull out their own weapons.
Your father wobbles as he stands up, but just as he takes a step forward Groms grunts loud as his arm whips forward to throw the axe, the top of the door frame just barely missing your father, Groms breath is loud in the aftermath. Your father jumps startled and cowardly and backs up until his back hits Rag and he turns sharply around to him.
“You won't hurt me, you can’t! The mayor-”
Rag cuts him off with a cold slow tone “Seems to be busy with the extra silver we gave him”
“A-A war would be started!”
“You are right…” Rag admits calmly, and at first you tense thinking he was going to tell Grom to let you come back, but then he reaches behind him to unshield his sword “but we are very able to Mr y/L/N (your last name), ” he wordlessly picks up your luggage from the ground, you noticed one of them cracked, and walks backwards towards you still facing your father, “besides, orcs live for war”
Your father stifles a grunt. His gaze shifts to you, hand still clutching a large amount of your hair in his right hand. As he points to you with his left. “you will be condemned forever y/n! No amount of purgatory will fix this! God will not take you back! You hear me!?”
You clench your jaw, head still buzzing from earlier as something inside you snaps “I rebuke your god!” you yell.
The whole world seems to still, everyone in silence for what you have said and for a second you couldn’t even believe that was your own voice
Then the town seems to come alive again. some yell obscenities and slurs to you, some whisper to others pitifully, others spit at the ground in disrespect, one of which is your father. “take her then! Her soul is already corrupted, god does not want her anymore and neither do I! I have no daughter anymore”
The crowd roars with anger towards you all, Grom and the orcs make no hesitation for the carriage, quickly hopping in as the crowd start to throw produce at you. A tomato almost hitting you if it weren’t for Grom's skilful catch, you recognize the plump vibrant tomato, they were throwing the same produce that the orcs gave them. Rag hops into the front of the carriage, gently setting your luggage cases besides you and Grom with one hand and reaches for the reins with the other to sharply flick them, setting the horses on a fast sprint, but not before a few other fruits and vegetables land perfectly in the orcs hands.
There's a long bit of awkward silence as you look down at your lap, panting in disbelief of what you said, I rebuke your god you still can’t believe you said it, you tear up “god what have I done, god will never forgive me” you let out a sob into your hands “f-fathers right, god will condemn me, and i-i will never get to see my mother in heaven” your throat is on fire at each word
His hands are warm and inviting as they slide down your arms and wrap around you from behind, “it will be okay, y/n”
“I will go to hell…what god will accept me?”
“our gods will accept you” Grom says immediately, you perk up and turn to him tearfully, his expression breaking at the sight of your tears
“He-they will?” you ask
He nods as his hands go to your cheeks to wipe away the tears “for life and in death” he murmurs “they will take your soul and give you everlasting happiness”
You hiccup from the tears “you…even though im?...”
He shakes his head “no doubt they wont” you stop crying long enough to clean up your face and let him pull your face to his chest
You don’t care if you’d never see your home, town or even father again, but you will miss your mother, though she usually followed your fathers orders to the letter so much that you never truly got to know her, she was never cruel. You hope that by having all her children moved out she would have more time to be herself. “How long is the ride”
“A few days”
“Okay…we should hurry”
He nods and yells something to Rag in orcish and instantly feels the wagon go faster, and for the first time since you first met Grom, you were surrounded by things that were unfamiliar, and had no idea what your future looked like anymore.
As you look forward onto the trail, you grip one hand onto the wagon and the other the Grom, a deep churn of unease burns in your stomach, why does it feel like this isn’t the last time you will see your family?
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Just to be clear, this is not the end! Next chapter will be out soon
As always LIKE COMMENT SHOW PROOF OF LIFEEE.
Pls I live for comments 😭 anything please I beg of u strangerrrrr
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Also tell me if you have any title ideas for this fic!!!!
Your new roommate is an android. You could tell when you saw them, their skin is pretty obviously artificial material, their eyes glow a little, and they have that voice and those mannerisms that a lot of them have. They're warm to the touch, warmer than any human, most androids are warmer than humans despite the serotypes. This isn't surprising, you've met a lot of androids before, and you know a lot go to this school.
What is surprising is that they don't admit it. They call themself a human, act dismissive towards the idea of androids as part of human society, try to avoid anything that's part of android culture. You adapt pretty quickly to referring to them as a human, but you'll always know they aren't. You assume it's because of bigotry, you know androids still face a lot of social issues, but bigots can still tell they're an android as much as you can. And it's not like things are like they were back in the 21st century, especially in a college in a large city, bigots can't just openly say they hate nonhumans, they're subtle in ways that make pretending to be a human hurt even more. But you are human, so you think it's best not to say anything.
You see how much your roommate sacrifices just to look human. They never show any skin other than their face and hands, which makes overheating even worse. They waste hours trying to fake sleep, when everyone knows they can't sleep, they always make excuses as to why they can't eat any given meal. And you can't even mention nonhumans around them without them being dismissive of anyone openly nonhuman. They don't have solidarity with any other androids, can't participate in any of the things on campus specifically designed for people like them. You want them to be happy, and you know they'd just be happier if they admitted being what everyone knew they were.
There's a lot of nonhumans in your friend group, a lot of clones and cyborgs, and one or two androids. Most of the time you don't think about how they aren't human. But not your roommate, you always think about how they're an android because you have to in order to pretend you think they're human.
And they become so proud of their humanity. Humanity they don't even have. Like they're loving the fact that they can say that they're human, that they can say they're part of the most privileged group in the solar system. It's almost like they're larping as a character, they've mentioned family on Mars at this point, family that you know they physically can't have. It's best to just pretend.
Your roommate knows a lot about certain places, about how certain practices work, places and practices that are horrifying to think even still exist. Places where android suffer in ways that make you feel guilty just to be a human. Places only someone whose been there could know about. It's a miracle this person is in college at all. They don't want to be an android, don't want to be able to be hurt the way only their kind is hurt.
Eventually they cut their face. Cut it deeply enough so that you can see they don't bleed, so that you can see the metal under their plastic skin. They have to walk around like that for a while, they can barely go to class, barely talk to anyone, knowing they can't pass for human. By the time they get the cut fixed everyone knows, well everyone always knew, some people are confused because they didn't even know your roommate wanted to be a human.
When you talk to them again you realize they expected you to want nothing to do with them. They're still uncomfortable around other nonhumans, they don't want to be one of them, but they can still talk to you. They're not even wearing clothing, they don't need it, their only skin is on their head and hands, everything else is raw steel, but they still look themself despite everything. They expected you to see them differently, if anything you see them as an android less now.
When you hug them, it's warmer than any human hug could be.
Does anyone ever care about reading original work on wattpad or ao3? Cuz I have this whole thing but I don’t think I have the bravery to post anything just for it to never be read?
Silly little guys! Been reading a lot of homestuck lately and now I'm kind of debating doing a homestuck style web comic instead. We'll see what happens
I know its early and I'll do another post about it closer to art fight, BUT, I do have an art fight account now!!
Feel free to follow me, I'm not gonna do much art for art fight I don't think (College is kicking my ass) but if you follow me I'll be sure to attack you!
