Valko approaches Sylus, his hair and tail dripping with salt water.
"Valko, do not step any closer," Sylus commands from his beach chair, angling his book to hide the pages against his chest. Valko doesn't stop until he's right in front of him.
With a small, innocent smile, he shakes. Water splashes everywhere, dotting the sand, the chairs, and the towels, but mainly Sylus.
Despite his physique, you always forget how fit Sylus is until you're giggling at him chasing down Valko, both of them sprinting at full speed, until Sylus tackles him into the ocean. They narrowly miss Rafayel gliding through the water, their private section of the beach allowing him to show off his brilliant tail.
Beside you, Xavier stirs, peeking one eye open and squinting against the sun. You smile down at him. He's adorable like this, all groggy and disheveled, his cheeks tinged pink from the heat and the sun.
"Hey, Xavie. Good nap?"
He just hums, rolling over to rest his head in your lap, eye closing again. With a small laugh, you card your hand through his soft hair, allowing him to make himself comfortable again, his arm flopping over your ankles.
"I'm never doing this again!" Caleb's voice travels across the beach. "It's impossible!"
"You can fly a fighter jet, my love. I'm confident that you can surf," Zayne replies, a bit of amusement in his tone underneath the encouragement.
"The sky likes me way better than the sea does. I swear, I think that kelp was tryin' to drown me."
Zayne hums. "I think a certain fish would come to your rescue, should you need it. Now let's put some more sunscreen on and try again." Caleb just stares, and Zayne raises an eyebrow. "Don't give me that look. I know you won't give up that easily. You're too stubborn for your own good."
You could stay here forever, you decide, with zero responsibilities besides keeping your favorite men company.
Polylads where they all live together and share the same bathroom but none wants to aknowledge there's been a pair of underwear with dried cum just hanging on the towel rack for a few days
Just imagine Zayne's silent rage and cold stare as he gathers everyone on the big ass couch they bought, so they could watch tv cuddling each other without leaving anyone out. Sylus, of course, brought his own black leather armchair.
Despite the size of the couch, the new addition to their home makes it difficult to sit comfortably even with Zayne standing.
Rafayel is sandwiched between Caleb and Valko, Xavier napping on top of their laps. If it wasn't for the fact that Sylus had just checked the room temperature, he would swear Zayne's stare had just brought it down below zero.
To be fair, he was also curious about who the culprit was, after all he was the only one who had been in the house when Zayne found the boxers. And so he was the one who had to help him get the edge off until everyone came back.
He glanced over towards the doctor but there was not a single hint of the moaning mess he'd been until 20 minutes ago. Fuck, he'd even taken a shower, his hair still dripping over his nape. For someone in charge of taking care of others, he surely forgot about himself sometimes.
Zayne gazed at him briefly, but turned his attention back towards the other four the moment Sylus's smirk started forming.
It was going to be a long night.
Started writing this but got tired real soon lmao wtf is wrong with me. Long day sigh
Not sure I'll turn this into something longer, but if anyone wants to continue, you're welcomed to do so!
Princess [Reader], forced to get married to an elderly man, runs away from her toxic family and gets lost in the woods near a countryside. That's when Rafayel, your kingdom's famous painter, rescues you. He was just going in for a horseback ride and that's when he spotted you, wandering in the woods.
So, he carries you, takes you to a cottage big but not bigger than your palace, it's a mansion. And so you meet his poly (Zayne, Caleb, Xavier, Sylus, and MC), and you're like...flustered that the famous Rafayel, whose paintings have been worldwide known as splendid, is in a relationship with not one, but 5 people, and all of them look so handsomely appealing.
Zayne's a famous physician.
Sylus and Xavier are well-known spies.
Caleb is your father's most trustworthy and loyal warrior (but you were never allowed to see guys, you were locked up in the palace, like rapunzel).
And MC? Well, she owns a bakery in your kingdom.
Anyways, weeks go by and you warm up with them, having your first time sex with Rafayel in his bedroom.
A day later, they go to work, you're alone but bored so you decide to take a bath on a lake in the forest where Raf rescued you.
Oh no...the guards...they've captured you...
You're back in the palace. The king does a virginity test on you...
But a spurge in your body erupts and you transform into an owl. You fly all they way back to the mansion and MC is there, early. You land on her feet, return to being a human, tell her everything and she embraces you. Few moments later, she eats you out on her bedroom.
Months go by, and you're safe. You now find yourself in a field of flowers (pink daisies) with zayne, and also moments later, he's stuffing you with his cum.
Then days later, Sylus + you = chest pressed on the counter and naked while he is taking you from behind.
CW: MDNI, sexual content, kink & bdsm topics, past child abuse, science experiment, mildly graphic description of experimentation/torture
Notes: Going back to my roots of ranting about love and deepspace while I recover from being sick (again). When I finally recover from this impossible fucking cold it's over for everyone, I will be an unstoppable writing machine fueled by chaos and caffeine. Genuinely though this is just me rambling about anything and everything that even mildly relates to the beautiful and amazing chart I spent the better part of a week filling out (it was worth every second filling out these templates it's so much fun)
I've already done a whole rant about what I think about everyone's sexuality is so I'm just gonna skip over that bit and focus on the general stuff that I've been fixated on
everyone is touch starved and I will be taking zero arguments on that, am I projecting? Yes. But also I'm right. That being said I think some of them are going to have trouble adjusting to touching people
Basically everyone but Sylus and Rafayel struggle with physical touch at first, despite how desperately they all crave it
Lyra didn't struggle with physical touch initially, she was always the first to initiate a hug and casual affection with friends. However, after Caleb and gran died she shut down. Her entire world (literally) exploded and collapsed around her, it only continued to unravel as she learned more about the woman that raised her and the truth about her life prior to living with Josephine. The more she learned, the more memories she recovered, the less she sought out the comfort of other people. Not just because she was focused on solving the mystery of her life and everything connected to it, but also an inherent lack of trust in other people now. The person who was supposed to take care of her turned out to be the reason behind the scars she couldn't remember getting and her fault heart. And the person who she shared everything with left her alone, it didn't matter his reasoning, he promised they would always be together... and yet he disappeared from her life with no intention of ever returning. How was she supposed to trust anyone?
Caleb didn't struggle with physical touch when it came to Lyra and eventually Zayne. They were safety, home, always have been and always will be no matter what changed... but sometimes to keep home safe that meant never going back. Sometimes the danger to home is yourself. After being taken by the Farspace fleet and EVER he lost all sense of himself. Those memories of Gaia that he had buried in the recesses of his mind resurface in full force. Hands on his arms didn't mean a hug from a girl he loved like it was breathing or the boy who made his heart skip a beat, it meant someone was coming to cut him open again. Take him apart piece by piece to see what made him tick and what they could improve. A hand cupping his face wasn't with the guilt laced affection of a grandmother but the calculating callousness of another researcher trying to scramble his mind. No matter how soft his lovers are to him... he doesn't know if there will ever be a day where he doesn't flinch away from unexpected touch. God forbid one of them touches his false arm or the seamless transition from flesh to metal...
Xavier struggles with physical touch only at first. He's spent so long only being allowed to observe. A voyeur in his own life. It was for the best, Philos was a place without emotions. There was no loving, no affection. Simply an empty forever to look forward to. Affection was something that brought only destruction and suffering. It was the sins of the past that drenched their history in blood, at least as it had been taught to him. His mother had loved him, held him so tight that she bruised him... or maybe that had been because they tore him from her arms when she tried to run away with him. He never had the chance to ask, they marched her to the planet's hungry core and no one spoke of her again. That was where affection of any kind brought people, let alone love. Absorbed into the planet's core and erased from history as if they had never existed at all... it's what happened to the Lemurians and the dragons. It happened to his playmates and his friends. So, he simply stopped. It was better this way. To be detached from everyone, even his little brother. Except being detached cost him his queen. It brought him to this world far away from his home teetering on destruction. And it showed him a world where his queen was brought to the core that ate everyone else he's ever loved. It only made sense that after everything he's endured, he's given up on being detached. He doesn't know how long this happiness will last, but he refused to sit bit and watch this time
I do plan to write various fics about everyone's first meetings so I'll keep this simple
On some capacity they all remember Lyra or at least feel compelled to take care of her. Usually with that lingering sorrow in the back of their minds that something very bad was going to happen to her
Those who met Caleb before the explosion were mildly unnerved by him but couldn't place why. Those who met him after the explosion are outright hostile towards him at first. With the exceptions of Lyra and Zayne who are mostly coping with the horrors
Everyone has a crush on Zayne. That's it, even without memories of those distant lives everyone has a crush on him. They think it's incredibly sexy of him to exist
Rafayel unnerved everyone. Lemurians are predators and though they don't lure humans into the waves anymore it doesn't mean those functions no longer exist. His beauty is a lure finely crafted just like his voice, it isn't until you're staring for too long that you realize something is deeply unsettling about him, he undercuts it with his persona
Sylus isn't liked by most of them at first, he got on their nerves or endangers their lives upon first meeting. He was so desperate to get his hoard back that it didn't click that his behavior was driving them away. With the sole exception of Rafayel, the two have a turbulent history in the current timeline messy exes my loves
Xavier also set off people's alarm bells but for different reasons than being a threat or uncanny (though both of those things are true). He was just so fucking odd they couldn't figure him out
Cooking for them
Lyra doesn't love cooking, at best she's ambivalent towards more often than not. Cooking for herself was the first sign of independence after she moved out from gran's house, but when she wanted, she could always go home and get a homecooked meal... of course than that wasn't possible after the explosion. Sitting hungry in the kitchen after work craving Caleb's cooking was a humbling and isolating experience. Cooking at home for herself... it felt wrong and gross. She ate out instead, it wasn't as if she didn't have the money. People brought her food too, for the first few months after the explosion. Talia and Simone of course. Zayne would share his lunch whenever she visited the hospital. And Rafayel would cook for her whenever she was at his place. Funnily enough, it was Xavier who got her to start cooking at home again. They usually ate out together but during a bad thunderstorm he came to keep her company and cook her dinner. The experience while heartwarming made her take up cooking classes and cooking for herself again, though she prefers having someone cook for her cooking by herself doesn't feel so bad anymore
Caleb loves cooking. He can't explain why exactly but cooking for Lyra felt more than right. It felt good. The first time he cooked for her everything fell into place, like it was something he's been doing for years. Providing for his other half, though that wasn't the phrasing he used at the time. He was just Caleb and he was taking care of his Lyra. From there his love of cooking evolved to extend beyond her, teaching his classmates at flight school and showing off his skills to Zayne whenever they met up. Sharing food that he made with people was the closest he's ever come to connecting to other people on a real level without having to divulge the truth about his life
Zayne is a good cook and he enjoys being in the kitchen. When he was in med school his classmates taught him everything they knew about cooking (which was admittedly limited). Whenever he successfully completed a dish they rewarded with treats and sweets, he took to the task well. At the time he had been overjoyed not just at the treats but learning a new skill, from there he pursued cooking skills based on his needs. Meal prepping when he first started at Akso, how to use a slow cooker when he was overwhelmed with paperwork, fancy knife skills to impress his partners, and so on
Rafayel can cook, he's good at it but doesn't really derive joy from it. That is until he began cooking for people he cared about, it was subtle at first. Like when he was small bringing fish to the king and queen, or when he'd bring food to offer up to his teacher. He'd puff his chest a little and watch eagerly as they ate what he brought to them. The feeling grew stronger as he got older, more so when he began cooking for Lyra. She had been grieving, needed care that he was more than willing to provide for her. Watching her eagerly devour every meal he cooked for her all but made him purr. He would've if he was capable, providing for her felt so good. Cooking with Caleb has become one of his favorite past times with the man, it just felt good
Sylus is ambivalent towards cooking, why cook when you have the finest chefs in the N109 Zone at your disposal. The entire culinary world if he or his hoard ever saw fit to demand such a thing. There wasn't any point in cooking for himself when he has no lack of options when it came to meals. When he cooks it's for a purpose greater than feeding himself or his hoard. Sometimes it's to teach Luke and Kieran because, though he loathes to think about it, there will come a day where they'll leave the nest. And of course the excuse to spend time with the people he loves was always something he did with zeal
Xavier can't cook, dear god keep him out of the kitchen. He does his best, truly, he's not purposefully incompetent. It's just one of the few things he was bad at. For good reason at least, he was a prince. Cooking wasn't a task worthy of his time according to tutors. On the Traceback II they had their rations. then on earth there was no reason for him to cook, eating out served his needs just as well and took up less of his time. But just as she had done many times before, Lyra changed that. He wanted to help her in any way he could but at the time the closest he could get to her was through the guise of being a concern coworker and neighbor. When he saw Simone and Tara bringing her home cooked meals he figured he could do the same for her, since then he's taken great pleasure in attempting learning to cook
relationship experience, and I use the word relationship very loosely here (all prior to polycule forming)
Lyra had a sapphic situationship in college with her roommate. It destroyed her. Situation so emotionally scarring she started valuing herself as a person outside of relationships altogether and began a journey towards independence. Fuck a pros and cons chart she did a swot analysis and reconnected with nature. Then proceeded to cope with the aftermath of said situation through copious amounts partying and body shots for like three months. Poor Caleb came back that summer expecting to find his cheerful pipsqueak and instead found her blankly staring out the window with ruined makeup asking if love even exists (godspeed to sapphics surviving and recovering from their situationships you are our strongest soldiers (￣^￣)ゞ). Outside of that she hasn't dated anyone or had any situations, just a one nightstand here and there
Caleb hasn't dated anyone. No flings, no hook ups, no situations. Nothing. He's been committed to spending the rest of his life with Lyra since she took his hand in those labs. Dating would take him away from her and that wasn't something he was ever going to let happen. If he had to, he would've spent the rest of his life following her around without any promise for a future with her. It would've destroyed him to watch her fall in love with someone else... but he would've helped her, better to help her fall in love with someone good and kind. Before the explosion he decided it would be best if she picked Zayne. Zayne was perfect in every way that mattered. He was smart, dependable, and attractive. A reliable person who would protect her... and who wouldn't mind him hanging around. It'd be like when the three of them were kids, spending every hour together and playing games. And he'd try his best not to think about the pout of Lyra's lips or the way Zayne's curved softly
Zayne has gone on dates but never dated anyone consistently. Friends and colleagues used to try and set him up with women they thought suited him, it always fell through. He wasn't trying to be cold, truly he wasn't, but that didn't change his dates' perception. Some tried to set him up with a man to see if the result would be different, the result was always the same. They quickly gave up. With the excuse of his busy schedule and demanding workload he managed to avoid the topic whenever his parents brought the subject up. Though they always managed to tease him about how much time he would set aside for Lyra and Caleb. Claiming that if he paid even half that much attention to a date he would be married by now
Rafayel had a handful of flings and hookups, it was more of an act of self-destruction than companionship. The same way he drove recklessly and chased down thrills that could get him killed. It was a way to finally feel something, feel anything that reminded him that he was a living breathing person. Feeling pain and sorrow and filthy and hurt and disgust was so much better than feeling nothing at all. When the anger ran too deep and he nearly suffocated in it, there were only two choices he ever made. Diving in deeper into the anger and vengeance or chasing a different sort of pain. It was the same cycle until he met Sylus while digging into EVER, and for awhile that was okay. Sylus didn't feel bad. He felt good... even after they split Rafayel didn't have flings or hookups anymore. Maybe it was spite or maybe it was so much anger and pain that no amount of meaningless sex could change it
Sylus is ranked highest purely because he's the only one that remembers the various lives they've all lived together. Countless lifetimes that whispered into his mind and took hold of his dreams in addition to the ones he remembers vividly gives him the most experience by default. In this lifetime the only person he was with before the polycule was Rafayel. Beautiful and cunning Rafayel who always managed to find himself in trouble, no matter how much he tried to dissuade him. It wasn't something he could bring himself to be part of... he has watched his lovers corrupt themselves too many times to willingly be part of it once again. He watched, protected, and loved from afar after Rafayel told him to leave. And he waited, he's spent more years than he can count waiting... it only hurt a little
Xavier never dated anyone, even when he was "with" Lyra it wasn't as her boyfriend. There have been times where they were nothing more than friends, others when she was his wife for a short awhile, runaways, lovers, partners. Each time, every title, no matter what it was meant everything. Standing by her side as her equal, her friend and confidant. Supporting her decisions and following through with her requests no matter how much it pained him. And when she died... as she always did... he waited. It didn't matter how many times she died, how many times she came back with no memory of who he was or the lives they lived together. She was still her, still the girl he's loved for 112,238 days. There are others lives he knows, ones that he found himself entangled in during his voyages in deepspace. Lives where Sylus taunted him from a lavish bed of gold, ones where he traded blades and stolen kisses with Rafayel, lives where Caleb kneeled before him as loyal knight before his king, lives where the mysterious Foreseer brought prophecies to him, lives where he has them all. He waited for them patiently in this world. Every second without was worth the wait. After all was there anyone else as lucky as he to have his soul woven together with five people who love him so terribly
ethical versus immoral (let's face it none of them are the most moral people in the world so they're all pretty skewed towards immoral, they're not necessarily bad people but fucking hell)
Lyra is a fair middle ground of the group. Overall, her decisions align with the good of humanity and all that. She enjoys helping people and takes pride in knowing that she is making someone's life better. The picture-perfect hunter, prioritizing the safety of civilians over glory and thrill seeking. That is until her personal goals directly contradict with the best course of action. The good of all matters little when it interferes with her personal wants. She especially becomes cruel and selfish when it comes to her lovers
It's not that Caleb doesn't have a sense of morality, he is acutely aware that the things he's doing are wrong and immoral. Lying and using the people who love him more than anything... loving them at all felt like something he wasn't allowed to do. Or the ugly feelings that whispered they were all going to die if he didn't do something, that they'd be better off if could just take control. Cameras, tracking devices, anything to clip the wings of the birds and keep them with him at all times, hidden away from all the evil things in the world. The fact that what he wants and does goes against all morality is part of what keeps him up at night. But in his mind, that's simply his role. To ruin his own soul (if he has one at all). So long as the people he loves are alright, he doesn't care about the price he has to pay.
Zayne also has a strong sense of morality, the difference between him and Caleb is that he is (for the most part) uncompromising. Truly the only time he breaks his personal moral code is when things fall out of his realm of control, like when Dawnbreaker takes over. Outside of extenuating circumstances he keeps with his regimented morality, easier to keep himself in check this way. He didn't want to hurt anyone ever again
Placing Rafayel on the spectrum of morality is difficult. He does horrible things to people who very much deserve it. He isn't a just killing people he's killing the people that organized the mass genocide of his people. The deaths that pile up belong to the ones that trafficked, murdered, and used his people so it feels wrong to pass moral judgement. That being said his methods border on cruel and inhumane, whether it's deserved or not isn't the point so he's towards of the immoral end of the spectrum
Not at all shockingly the man who is a wanted criminal both in Linkon and across deepspace, leans more towards immoral. Sylus' morals center around his desires. Sometimes that means setting loose a planet of enslaved animals and allowing them to take their vengeance on their captors. Other time it's starting wars for resources or to undercut the power of someone who happened to get on his bad side.
Xavier leans is more moral than most of them, save for Zayne of course. The reason for their difference being that Xavier's decisions are fixated around his goal. While overall he makes the better choice (seeking out alternative sources for Philos, preventing needless sacrifice protecting people from wanderers, etc.) there are times when the good choice is ignored in favor of the one that feels right. Arguably it would've been better to keep tabs on the Backtrackers than to let them wander off on their own at all, but they've all suffered enough so he made the call to let them live freely so long as they didn't give him reason to track them down. But he's consistently doing his best to make the right call, he's simply in a position where it's difficult to tell right from wrong. It's all so murky
building ikea versus watching, there's nothing that really needs to be elaborated on here. But please just sit with me and imagine this. Sylus and Caleb like working with their hands, assembling machinery is their shared love language. The others like to watch them work
The first time they assembled furniture together
Zayne coming from work to see Caleb and Sylus assembling some complicated ass piece of furniture, while the rest of his spouses are perched on the nearby counter: do you want some help?
Caleb looking up from the instructions with a big grin: welcome home Zaynie, don'tcha worry about us! We've got it under control
Sylus: No need to doubt our skills, we're simply taking the scenic route. Besides... we can't risk you injuring these precious hands can we doc-tor?
Zayne only being able to rapidly blink as Caleb uses his evol to place him on the kitchen counter and watch them get back to work: ???
Xavier leaning on Zayne's shoulder: welcome to the counter love
Lyra sighing dreamily as she rests her head in her hands and watches them work: we should let them assemble furniture more often
Rafayel: Shirtless next time, in the summer
Lyra: please god yes
Zayne: !?!?!?
Xavier kissing his cheek: accept it
on the subject of children, they all want kids at some point but it's more of a vague desire rather than a plan. None of them are at a stable enough time in their personal or professional lives to even consider having a serious conversation about family planning, though that doesn't stop them from having conversations about their theoretical children or projecting any parental feelings onto the kids they already have
Lyra going to the shooting range with Luke and Kieran to keep their skills stay sharp and teach them gun safety: No, I know you guys know how to use your weapons very well... but I want just to make sure. Let's just go through it one more time okay? Then we can go play the claw machine I promise
Caleb very affectionately cooing over Mephisto while he fixes a break in his one of his wings: you're doing such a good job buddy, you're real brave know that? If you keep being good I'll get ya something nice and shiny as a treat afterwards
Zayne taking Luke and Kieran to get their shots, muttering over their incomplete medical record and mentally cursing everyone that's every hurt them: you'll likely experience some minor side effects after, it's not uncommon for people to get sick after being vaccinated. It's important to monitor your symptoms of course, but you'll be perfectly okay. I'll be monitoring your conditions personally to ensure that. Now where would you like to get lunch after your appointment?
Rafayel bringing Mephisto, Luke, and Kieran clothing shopping after seeing the woeful lack of colors in their wardrobe. Mephisto was dragged along on the insistence that he also deserved a nice charm or something similar. He made certain to rent out the entire store to allow the twins privacy and sits back and watches them gleefully try on various outfits, often asking his opinion on what suited them: take your time to learn what colors suit you best... not that though. That color doesn't suit any of you, it'd look horrible against Mephie's feathers. Try the darker one, much better
Sylus spending hours painstakingly arranging the most precious room in his home. Not filled with weapons, protocores, or gems there was a plethora of places to keep those things. But the ones that truly mattered deserved their own safe spot. A room filled with all the gifts brought to him by Mephisto, Luke, Kieran, and his lovers. Rafayel's paintings line the walls alongside Xavier's old weapons framed, Caleb's various models and papercrafts neatly arranged on a shelf next to Zayne's ice creatures, Lyra's trinkets mingling with the ones the twins got him, and every gemstone from Mephisto shined in their case: perfect.
Xavier makes a habit of introducing the twins to "old" videogames and teaching them how to play so they can team up to beat Sylus during their next family game night. Luke and Kieran take well to Mario Kart once they figure out how to use the wii controls: See that power up you just got? That's a blue shell, try it out
Lyra, Caleb, Zayne, Rafayel, Sylus, Xavier
Favorite Activity
Resonance was something that drained Lyra in any other situation, it was difficult to level with someone so perfectly that she could achieve resonance with them. But when they were all like this, woven and slotted into place like a complicated puzzle everything felt right. Like her soul was missing pieces and part but like this they were whole. One inextricably messy and complicated soul split amongst six people. And also having five husbands take care of you or vice versa is sexy as hell. Losing sense of herself in them and simply letting them take care of her, or taking control of them? There hasn't been a single thing in her life that's been able to beat that type of high
Caleb just likes being told he's a good boy. Situation can immediately be improved by calling him a good boy. He wants to make sure he's doing a good job, especially early on in their relationship. He doesn't know what he's doing, not like the rest of them do, and he's just so eager to please. Whether he's topping or bottoming doesn't matter, could be having the nastiest angry sex and he'll melt like putty if any of them call him a good boy. Astra forbid they praise him while calling him a good boy, he's gone before they can even finish their sentence. It absolutely has everything to do with the fact that he's convinced his presence in their lives is for the worst and he's not worth the effort they expend on him. A consequence of the suffering he endured at the hands of the Gaia Researchers and the Fleet. His lovers are all too eager to prove that's wrong
Zayne is a brat tamer at heart and he has so many of them. His lovers make habit of getting on his nerves in so many different ways it's almost dizzying. From the mundane of teasing him while he's at work or recklessly endangering their lives. Stubborn and frustrating though they may be, they are his, he's grown used to their attitudes and refined methods of dealing with them. Sex was one of his personal favorite ways in which he managed to take control and expel his frustration. There was also something... intoxicating about these people who are so inhumanely powerful begging him for release and answering him with moaned apologies
Lemurians are aquatic predators. Their bodies and senses are built around hunting and living within the ocean. While their sense are better than the average humans, even on land, they are especially heightened within the water. Being in the ocean makes many things better for Rafayel, sex being incredibly high on the list. More than just feeling everything more, he's at his element when in the water. The mask of being human slips away with the tides, what is left is the instinct not just of Lemurians but of the Sea God claiming his lovers. And it is more than addicting to have them willingly walk into the tumultuous ocean, trusting him to not only keep them safe from the waves but to keep them safe from himself
Sylus is willing to try almost anything his hoard recommends at least once. So long as they're all there, he'll be more than happy. Not to say that he doesn't have favored positions, situations, and so on but all of that came second when compared to having all of his lovers with. He's spent so fucking long gathering his hoard. Entire lifetimes spent apart or having each other only to be ripped away from them. Now there is nothing that makes him happier than simply having all of them near here. No matter the situation or circumstance, if they're there then it's good. Whether it be mundane, sexual, or death all of it is made better with their mere presence
Xavier has lived longer than he ever should've and may yet live longer. He's had the chance to try and experience all sorts of things, both now and in the many lives that are tangled in his mind due to his travels in deepspace. So, it's with absolute certainty that he can say favorite thing is sleepy sex. They all have such busy lives, rarely able to make time for each other when the horrors of their lives overwhelm them. There simply isn't always time for all six of them to be together no matter how much they schedule or plan. But when they are collapsed in bed either after their days have ended or before they can begin? When they sleepily exchange kisses, locked hands, and nuzzling against each other as they undress... it's perfect. It's everything
Would you believe me if said I cut this short? I fully intended to rant about all of it but decided to limit myself to the ones I had the most to say about. That being said I can and will happily yap about anything related or unrelated to the chart so ask away
Template and Inspirations
onusfate otpoverboard template
navydoves' post
pearlescenthoney's post
gegesbabysister's post
I got sidetracked, and I found this sad trend where it's like “oh, that's MC's kid.. That's not my kid though :(” for Love and Deepspace. For the record, I'm supposed to be sleeping 😅
Anyway, instead of bringing more angst into my brain, MC and the LIs are in a polycule together and these are their daughters :)
These three are the oldest! Valerie is Sylus’s daughter, and she's the first born. Second born is Jasmine, Zayne's daughter. Third born and middle child of the group is Sloane, Caleb's daughter.
And these are the youngest of the family! Juniper is Xavier's daughter, and Gwendolyn; the youngest, is Rafayel's daughter.
And this is Helena Annette, my MC and their mother (in an alternate universe, anyway!)
The family trope will always have me in a chokehold, I fear 💕
For the fic prompts, 2 ("Hey, hey, calm down, they can't hurt you anymore")?
Any fandom, have a ball!
Hihi! I'm so sorry this took this long, but I hope you enjoy!
Gravitational Breakdown
Words: 2.1K
Main Pairings: AppleSnow, PolyLADS
Caleb suffers from nightmares and hurts himself and others. Zayne tries his best to pull Caleb from his downward spiral.
Ao3 Link
“Hey, come on! Wake up!”
Caleb banged on the glass, eyes wide with horror as she didn’t get up. Scientists ran around in a panic, yelling about how the energy of the Aether Core was unstable. Terror gripped him, and he yelled louder. His evol cracked the glass before he received a hard electrical shock.
Finally, she woke up, gasping for air. Caleb pretended not to hear the scientists say she’d been dead. This wasn’t the first time she’d danced with death, and it wouldn’t be the last. Over and over he saw her die and her heart restart. It made him sick, and each time he vowed to get them out of there. Get her to someplace safe where they could grow up together without the fear of more needles, pain, and experiments. The scene in front of him melted away, replaced by one that was no less terrifying.
“What did you do!?”
Caleb lunged at Zayne, eyes blazing. Zayne didn’t even try to stop him. In the background he could see her being taken away in an ambulance. The air was still freezing, the ground decorated with lethally sharp spikes of glimmering ice. Caleb knew it wasn’t Zayne’s fault, but he couldn’t lose her. Not again. Never again.
“Since you’re grown up now, I won’t cover for you.”
Smoke burned his lungs as he tried to gasp in air. His body hurt like hell, and he couldn’t feel his right arm. His head spun and his ears started to ring. Caleb struggled to his feet, vision blurring as he thought he saw people dressed in black approach the rubble he was trapped under. Before he could say anything, it all went dark.
Caleb screamed in agony, fighting against the evol cancelling restraints. Scientists with tools fiddled with his right arm, making him metal braces and prosthetics. It hurt so much. Caleb screamed again, clawing at nothing. He tried to reach out for his evol but nothing happened.
The chip was worse. They were cruel enough to keep him awake as they implanted it. A test of pain tolerance, they said. Caleb knew the truth. They just liked to hear people scream. EVER, the damned professor, the Fleet, Caleb didn’t know who to blame anymore. His throat was raw from screaming.
“Stop it!” Caleb jolted up, breathing fast and hard. He clawed at his hair, pulling and tugging. His heart pounded and cold sweat dripped down his back. It was dark, and he couldn’t recognize the sight of his room. His body wracked with shudders and quiet sobs. Theroom was too dark and too quiet, reminding him of dark isolation chambers.
He reached under his pillow with his mostly numb right arm, relaxing slightly when his fingers curled around something hard—the handle of one of his guns. The other was hidden away in case of emergencies. Even though he could tell there was something in his fist, the lack of sensation in the heavily modified limb meant the familiar cold creeping from the metal of the gun was missing, so he switched it to his left hand. Caleb needed to feel something. He shivered and shuddered, his hands shaking.
His chest hurt. He couldn’t breathe properly. There was too little and too much noise all at once. The walls were closing in on him, and if he shut his eyes he’d be plunged into a deeper darkness. The chip sent pain through him as his emotions kept rising.
Pain, pain, pain, pain…
Pain is all Caleb had ever been in. He grit his teeth. When would the pain end? He wanted it so stop! Why wouldn’t it stop!? He felt like he was drowning and he couldn’t swim. The gun fell to the floor as he ripped his night shirt off, clawing at his chest and where the metal merged with skin on his shoulder. More pain.
At least it was him and not her. That thought alone was all that grounded him as the agony running through his body threatened to drag him back into that kaleidoscope of all the worst moments of his life. Another broken sob escaped him. He cursed EVER for taking him as a child. He cursed them for blowing him up and taking him back and turning him into this weapon. He hated it. He hated it. He hated it!
The burden of it all—the pain, the horrors, the secrets—threatened to break him but there was nothing he could do but bear it. He couldn’t bother Pips,he made a promise not to. He was supposed to be the one to carry everything, to protect her from what she couldn’t fight against. Besides, Pips had just gotten home with Xavier from a long mission, and Caleb refused to wake her up. If she saw him like this, she’d panic and ask questions he didn’t want to answer. Caleb had always been the strong one, the one to shoulder the pain and burdens of the world for her. He’d never allow her to see him breaking down. It just couldn’t happen.
Pain jolted through him, and his fingertips came back red. He didn’t have to look over his shoulder to see the blood from scratching and pulling at the metal. He grimaced and angrily scratched harder. Pain was nothing anymore. It was so frequent he’d gotten good at ignoring it. More blood coated his fingers.
Screams echoed in his mind, followed by flashes of electricity and those cruel, cruel bastards. The EVER logo ever present in the background. Caleb hated them. He wanted to crush them under the weight of his gravity, throw them into the deepest, darkest black hole he could muster. Or maybe he’d simply blow every EVER lab and building he could find.
“y…ey…h’y…HEY!” A hand smacked him, his head jerking to the side. Purple eyes widened and locked onto blue-pink ones, reflecting his own sweat-drenched face back at him. Rafayel frowned, the arch of his eyebrows and the twist of his lip spoke of anger, likely at being woken up in the middle of the night, but there was a faint trace of concern in his eyes too. “Snap out of whatever crisis you’re going through. Some of us need to sleep.”
“What are you—” Rafayel was cut off by Caleb lunging at him, hands wrapping around his throat, cutting off air supply. The Lemurian sea god coughed, eyes glowing a deep blue as scales formed on his face. Before he could summon a sea spirit or a rush of water, the room got cold, too cold, and Caleb was pulled off of him.
“What the hell was that?” Rafayel spat, gasping for air and coughing. He rubbed his throat, already mourning the makeup he’d have to use to cover up finger shaped bruises. Hiscomplaints were cut off when he saw the state Caleb was in, eyes wild and panicked, body quivering and shaking, blood on his hands and shoulder.
“Hey, hey,” Zayne soothed, holding Caleb tightly. “Calm down, they can’t hurt you anymore. You’re not there anymore.” He gently cupped Caleb’s face in his hands, the cold grounding Caleb. “You’re home. With me. With us. Breathe.”
“Make it stop! Make it stop,” Caleb trembled violently, pain shooting through his arm and head. The more he got worked up, the more it hurt. Tears slid down his cheeks, his vision blurred as he tried to focus on Zayne and Rafayel. His chest hurt from hyperventilating.
Mephisto cawed, signalling Sylus’ return from Onychinus business. Caleb barely registered a fourth person in the room, too lost in scenes from years gone by and the feeling of a knife jamming its way through his brain. He vaguely heard Zayne tell Sylus to get the medical kit, a clean cloth, and some water. Gradually, the throbbing in his skull receded and he allowed his head to drop onto Zayne’s shoulder, all the while wishing he could disappear.
Caleb despised showing any kind of weakness, especially around Pips. He certainly didn’t want to have a literal god and a dragon watch him fall apart, the cracks he was usually so good at hiding, gaping open and leaking the ruined pieces of him all over the floor. Zayne was the only one he truly trusted he could break down in front of. Zayne wouldn’t hold his weaknesses over his head for blackmail or manipulations. No, Zayne would never do that to him.
The doctor frowned when Caleb barely flinched as he cleaned his bloodied shoulder. He was still shuddering violently, his shaky exhales interrupted every so often by a faint sniffle. Zayne didn't have the heart to push Caleb's head from his shoulder,it would help with his visibility and mobility in cleaning his bloodied shoulder, but Caleb's comfort was more important right now.
“You're safe,” Zayne murmured quietly, feeling cold anger in his chest as he looked at the scars littering Caleb's back and torso. He finished wrapping up Caleb's shoulder and wiping away the blood from his hands.
“Don't go,” Caleb hissed, clinging to Zayne when the doctor moved to inspect Rafayel's bruised neck. “Please,” he whispered quietly, the vulnerability in his voice making Zayne's heart clench.
“I'm not going anywhere. I just need to check on Rafayel,” Zayne spoke gently yet firmly. “I'm right here.”
Caleb winced as Zayne mentioned Rafayel, vague memories of his hand clenching around the Lemurian’s throat resurfacing. His grip on Zayne loosened, and he was stuck with the desire to sink into the floorboards and away from the watchful eyes in the room. It was a small miracle Pips hadn't woken up with the commotion.
“What happened?” Sylus' deep timbre echoed in the small space. He sat down on the plush armchair in the corner of the room. The bed was a bit crowded, and the dragon knew Zayne would yell at him if he tried to join them. The doctor needed his space while he treated Rafayel and Caleb.
Caleb clenched his jaw and looked away. “Just a nightmare,” he muttered bitterly. He didn't need Sylus worrying about him or worse, mocking him. Logically, he knew Sylus probably wouldn't mock him for having a nightmare, but Caleb's mind was too hectic to think logically at the moment.
Sylus raised an eyebrow, sharing a glance with Rafayel and Zayne. Caleb never liked to talk about what he’d experienced at the hands of EVER and the Fleet. But they all knew where these night terrors originated. The first time Sylus had heard what EVER did to Caleb, he wanted to see the entire organisation reduced to naught but ash, a sentiment Rafayel had echoed.
“Try again, without lying this time,” Sylus drawled, giving Caleb a pointed look.
Caleb’s frown deepened and he bit the inside of his cheek. If it were anyone else, he would have ignored them and changed the subject. But when it was Sylus or anyone in the polycule, the same rules didn’t apply, and the automatic dismissal died in his throat. Caleb looked down at his fingers, where Zayne was gently cleaning away the blood having already dabbed his shoulder with an antiseptic.
“...it’s just night terrors. Sometimes it’s about my childhood or other times it’s after the explosion,” Caleb quietly spoke, taking deep breaths and avoiding eye contact. He hated how vulnerable he felt and looked. He was supposed to be the strong one. He…He had to shoulder everything. To keep her safe. To keep the others safe. If they knew everything then they’d…No, Caleb wouldn’t think about that.
He didn’t notice Sylus and Rafayel sharing a look or the fact Zayne had finished cleaning and tending to his self inflicted wounds. Exhaustion crashed over Caleb, and he struggled to even keep his eyes open. He didn’t want to sleep. He didn’t want to end up back there.
“Don’t fight it,” someone murmured to him. “Sleep. We’ll be here when you wake up.” Caleb let them push him back into laying down, his shoulder twinging faintly in pain. Someone apologized, and then a warmth surrounded him.
When Caleb woke up hours later, he couldn’t move. Not due to fear or anxiety, but from the fact he was at the bottom of a cuddle pile. Sylus was on his right and Zayne on his left. His head was on Sylus’ shoulder. Blinking away his grogginess, he lifted his head to see Rafayel and Pips on top of him and Xavier sprawled out over his legs.
A small smile made its way on his face.
He wasn’t alone anymore.
For the first time in a long time, Caleb wasn’t afraid or in pain.
A huge thank you to @chronosdawn for looking this over and doing some minor edits! Thank you so much!
1. Rafayel's studio becomes their favorite spot. Its steady. First MC and Xavier often using the space for quiet reading napping respectively. Then Zayne joins them... in multiple ways. He likes doing write-ups and reading medical journals, while the large windows actually provide real sunlight. Rafayel's paintings and sketches often feature them draped on things. Xavier especially since so long as Rafayel does not actually make him be conscious for it, he's down to sleep in a variety of poses. Sylus looks almost distrusting of such a bright and open space. But Rafayel and MC collaborate to drape a corner with a small table and comfy reading chair in random fabric to create a cozy corner for Sylus to read or plot or whatever in. Caleb of course wanted to dislike it... but his inner golden retriever saw cozy and sunshine and the more... extreme parts of his personality were bulldozed. He enjoys napping in sunny spots with Xavier. Building airplane models, going out to run on the beach... For MC herself she reads here and their, or naps draped on one of her boys. Helps Caleb build models... sometimes she quietly sits near Rafayel and hesitantly describes her dreams of...past lives. With all of them. Rafayel will sketch them out for her, eyes warm and gentle. For his Part Rafayel had always thought he'd hate his space to be so invaded... but... it's nice. There is often always someone there and... the world feels a little less lonely...
2. Being in a six-some is just...not for the frail of body. It can be a heady thing but... she's relived that some of her beloved are also down to...get down with each other. A girl needs her sleep and rest okay? (Not that she doesn't pounce on them constantly...)
3. MC can't hide sometimes how happy it makes her to see Caleb of all people relax. She's pretty sure he didn't make a conscious decision about it. Just... especially around Sylus as Sylus' "of course nothing can touch us" vibe Caleb's stress of always being the protector relaxes. Sylus acts smug about it at times but MC can see the softness in his eyes at times when Caleb eases up on his high-alertness.
4. Xavier seems to enjoy having "excuses" to be "possessive" and again with the... who needs sleep? (But seriously poor Charlie. The man passed by all of them the other day and was treated to five possessive stares...
5. Zayne seems to enjoy having more people around to fuss over. He's been trying to convince Rafayel about "healthy sleep schedules" but Rafayel insists they are just "alien conspiracies" which usually prompts Xavier to don his alien glasses while MC provides alien music on her phone as he waves his hands at Rafayel or beams "thoughts" into Zaynes head.
6. Tara and Simone bless them, act like dating five men is a normal thing. They just tease MC for "snagging such good ones" though cheerfully introducing them to Gideon and Thomas has gone a long way towards getting them to drop their teasing.
7. The guys each have their own clothes and styles but there are a few pieces that just...make the rounds. MC really loves the one black shirt with differing weave. She really likes the way the guts all look a tiny bit flushed when she opts to wear it one day.
8. When they all agree to move into one house (mansions sykus it's a mansion)... (each with their own bedroom for personal space) the last thing MC expects is for her closet to start... exploding with new clothes that appear in it. Sometimes day. Her boys are ridiculous.
