May I humbly request a bit of Reivak? Still going a bit crazy about what you wrote during Bioshipping Week ❤
Could Avak have killed him?
No.
Not even a question.
He was too scrawny, too scared, not nearly relentless enough to make any significant progress in a fight against him - it'd be half a miracle if he managed to dig a deep enough scratch on his armor. He could trap him, yes, and the thought was enough to throw Reidak into the spiraling throes of nausea, but he lacked the strength, the size, the sheer power necessary to be a real threat to him in a one-on-one fight, and both of them knew that.
Could Avak have killed for him?
Now that was an interesting riddle.
Because he knew there was blood on his hands (hardly a surprise: his own were stained in the same manner), and if he'd truly been as meek a creature as he looked his permanence on Odina would have been short, painful and brusquely interrupted; but it was that little conjunction, that "for", which stumped him and gave him pause.
Killing at its core is a selfish act. One kills for money, for food, for vengeance, for boredom, for an opportunity, for their life, for their comfort. Killing for someone implied a transaction - after all, what mattered to him if some poor fool happened to have ticked off the wrong being? Nobody, under any circumstance, would have cared to get make heads roll at the fussy demands of the first fat Muaka with too much self-importance to get their own hands dirty. There had to be an incentive, and profit is the most reliable one.
Idiots who killed for someone out of some demented Hordika instinct got themselves in more trouble than it was worth. It was a waste of time and energy, and what would you get out of it? Companionship? Gratitude? Defense? Bah. Too temporary, too ephemeral, too volatile. Look at their lot when they'd split from the Dark Hunters: who would think it worth it to risk their life for a bunch of knives just waiting to get lodged in their back?
But the problem was...
Well, the problem was that he knew the answer.
Avak would kill for him.
Avak had killed for him.
He'd torn a Bone Hunter to shreds, and maybe if Reidak hadn't stopped him he would have tried to carve his way through two more at the cost of dying, all for the crime of having drawn a drop of the Earth Skakdi's ichor - something so small, so trivial in the face of his Adaptation--
And yet.
Reidak could feel the warmth against his back.
Avak ran as hot as a Ta-Toa, even in the freezing dead of night, and kicked and shivered and curled up tighter and tighter the whole time in the vain hope of holding onto the heat that instead, traitorously, bled into the sand and rock until it faintly stained black armor. It sank into the scars like golden paint, dripping upwards, inch by inch... It was so damn cold. It must have felt so comfortable to hold him, if his stupid spikes wasn't so perfectly knife-shaped.
His claws ghosted over the wound the other had stitched close, feeling the difference between the tendons' toughness and the sensitive flesh very carefully.
He was the Fikou's shield. His barrier. Of course he'd stuck to him, of course he'd fought for him - without that hulking earthly mass to cover his ass he wouldn't last a day, maybe not even half of a day in this blasted alien world populated by overly aggressive, excessively intelligent, lizard-riding, sword-waving, fleshy, furred bastards.
It made sense, perfect sense. If he hadn't had the luck of being made as prime a specimen as he knew he was, he too would probably whine and scuttle in the shadow of the nearest wall of protodermis he could find just to be assured a bit of safety.
And yet.
He kept feeling the closed wound, the trickling heat, the shifts so close yet far of an antsy body trembling beside him.
Your recent reivak tag on my reblog reminded me I drew some time ago a duet of pics, based on that "touch starved" meme with the cheeta melting in affection on a photographer's hand and AAAAA
I can't muster the energy to finish it properly, so have it!
For the request thing, Devastator x Avak x Reidak?
Having two very large, very cuddly boyfriends had its benefits.
Having a small, very warm boyfriend who enjoyed the safety of being held like a hot water bottle also had its benefits.
Having a bed made for one generally averagely sized being available, on the other hand, had nothing but disadvantages - especially when trying to fit a massive monster of a man, a slightly less large indestructible Skakdi, and a tiny jailer on it.
Which was a long-winded way of saying they broke it almost immediately after getting on it.
Not that it discouraged them: in a few minutes they had gathered whatever could be salvaged from the heap of their once bed, thrown any and all soft things they had at their disposal into the mix, stirred the whole thing a few times over, and ended up with a mostly functional nest of sorts that could certainly hold their complessive weight much better than the structure they'd shattered on their mission to snuggle.
Avak settled into Reidak's rough grasp, curling up like a ball of incandescent magma; Devastator scooped the both of them up in his massive arms before dropping into the comfortable mass, digging into it to make himself nice and cozy as he nuzzled his awful snout against his partners' terrible spines and chompers, rumbling snores already builing up into their throats as they dozed off.
Dunno how many requests you have but perhaps...a smidgen of Reivak?
Also hope you're having a good day :3
Im always up for a smidgen of reivak
Damn this stupid place with its stupid organic life and its stupid inconstant temperatures. In what respectable universe would one settle at the feet of a mountain, full of green trees and bushes and whatnot, only for it to be covered in snow of all things after two days?
Those Agori had said something about "seasons" and how they changed, and the coming one being the colder kind, but nobody had said anything about it being this cold, or about snow.
It was utterly stupid that there would be snow out of nowhere. Everybody knew that dreadful thing only sat where temperatures were low enough for it to persevere, and that only happened on too high places or on perennially frigid islands that had been made to be covered in ice and frost and all that came along with that terrible element. That was why he'd insisted on remaining on the lower half of the mountain, which was covered in greenery - and now there they were! Swamped on all sides by that white plague!
Avak gritted his teeth hard enough that the high-pitched shrieking in his audio receptors almost waned for a bit, grasping his arms tighter and shaking like a leaf. Across from him in their unduly insulated shelter, Reidak shifted with an uncomfortable grumble.
Why, why, why did it have to be snow! Why couldn't it have been a heatwave? He wouldn't have handled it gracefully either, but at least his small useless body would have had a reason to burn out its own heat as fast as it did!
As caught up in his frustrated thoughts as he was, he startled harshly when he felt something snake around him to try and wrap him within it. He attempted to put on a struggle, but an arm roughly as wide as his own head had already ensnared him in its iron grasp, and was less than keen to let him go.
Warm breath tickled at his spine, tremendously close to an exposed muscle: "Not a word," Reidak growled, sounding in equal measure as threatening as he was embarrassed.
Avak followed his instruction.
He let the Earth Skakdi coil around him carefully, taking his time to find a position that was as comfortable as their hostile anatomies allowed: the more the large body settled the less chill managed to seep into the smaller frame, until every piece of brown armor was at last completely shielded from every natural force that might have tried to latch onto it.
Reidak gently squeezed his source of warmth with a sigh of relief, his own body temperature at last rising slowly. He could feel the other curl a little tighter into his chest and stomach, silently exploiting his associate just like he was being used: he did not mind. So long as he got some respite from the chill out of him, Avak might as well do the same.
They snuggled close the whole night, and every winter night after as well.
