littlemissfix-itfic

Latest Posts by littlemissfix-itfic

Last night, I dreamt that I accidentally started a trend called the Geezler. In the dream I made a joke post about having to sleep with my feet covered no matter how hot it is bc otherwise the Geezler will mess with my toes *ambiguous yet threatening vibes*. Anyway, this grows into a trend called the Geezler challenge (sleeping with your feet uncovered) which spirals into a real thing where people are being attacked by the Geezler across the globe.

I woke up in a cold sweat, panicked shooting down my back to the feeling of something messing with my feet. I nearly cried from how sacred I was… that was until I opened my eyes to see my bother’s cat, playing with one of her stuffed mice on my feet. She somehow managed to get into my room (likely squeezed under the doorframe??) and was tormenting me in my dream world with her mouse toy. What a way to wake up.

Beware the Geezler:

“average person eats 3 spiders a year” factoid actualy just statistical error. average person eats 0 spiders per year. Spiders Georg, who lives in cave & eats over 10,000 each day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted

167

a

u know what makes me lowkey sad? when someone says ‘i know it seems silly’ before talking about something they clearly care very deeply about bc u know that means someone gave them shit for caring that much about that thing before which is Fucked Up.

Lmfao they just keep proving OPs point

new atheists deride religion as “primitive superstition” but when you hear their take on what religion is it’s clear they have the shallowest concept of it

hihi this isnt meant to criticize at all - just asking if youd consider changing your profile picture to something other than the tumblr default, since that can make someone assume youre a bot

have a nice day regardless of if you do or dont change it!! i dont want to overstep at all haha

You’re all good! I appreciate the advice! I honestly just dk what to put and i always forget that I don’t have one lol

Cute

In my last post, a lot of ppl were very exited about Nanami adopting Yuji AND Choso so I drew an AU with an alived Nanami after the end of season 2 (Also for my own personnal therapy haha)

Hey y’all, I know I try to keep non-fandom stuff off of here, but I would really appreciate it if you took the time to do this survey! It’s just for the final in my data analysis class, so none of the information will be used outside of my groups slides. Thank you so much!!

Screaming crying throwing up this is the best fic I’ve read in a hot minute. Idc if you know the fandom or not if you’re looking for a good read? Babe look no further AHHH!!! This has consumed my mind. It’s incredible.

Ludos Imperiales 10

Summary: The boys are back in the Arena

Content Warnings: Reader's Still Drugged; Canon Typical Violence, Mentions of Blood, Gore and Death

Author's Note: Thank you all for your kind words and messages, your support truly means so much to me! You're all amazing and I appreciate every one of you. <3 Updates moving forward might still be a little sporatic, I have a lot going on right now, but I'll try to keep you updated as we go. Rest assured that I truly love this story and it'll keep progressing, maybe just a little slower.

Previous Chapter / Masterlist

---------------------

The Arena looms overhead, a Titan blocking out the blazing summer sun. Gold and crimson flags flap angrily in a rare summer breeze, beckoning everyone for miles to come see what wonders might lay inside today.

Starlight trots through the crowded streets with ease, despite my swaying form. I don’t remember getting in the saddle. I don’t remember waking up.

Everything feels foggy, muddled like soup in my skull. What the hell happened to me last night? 

My hands tremble as I hold the reins, a dull burning sensation under my skin making my muscles feel taut and tender. Every bump in the saddle makes my head pound; my whole body feels like a bruise. 

The Praetorian keep me surrounded as the crowd thickens, the crimson plumes atop their glittering gold helmets like streamers in the wind. None of them had spoken on the ride over--not that they usually did, but the silence feels deafening this time around, especially as they tighten around me, close enough to touch as beings crowd in around us.

“Rebel fucker!” Someone screams in my direction.

A rock hurtles through the air, bouncing hard off one of the Guard’s helmet, nearly knocking him from his horse. 

“Illyrian whore!”

I shift in the saddle, head foggy; my mates should be behind me, right, that’s why it’s so bad? We’re going to the Games today? But the space behind me is empty of the males that have become so dear to me and it takes me too damn long to process why. Last night seeps in like a fog, crawling forward inch at a time until I remember.

My head whips back towards the arena. Shit!

“Get me inside!” I snarl at the nearest guard as another rock whizzes past my head. Seems Anise was right about the rumors in the city, at the very least. At this point, I’ll take the insults and rocks being hurled at me instead of my mates, but this is a distraction I can’t afford right now.

Anise must have slipped me something more before sending me on my way this morning. The sluggishness feels like it might be mirthroot. A sharp pain shoots through my chest. She’d really drugged me and then passed me off to the Guard like it was normal. She’s supposed to be my family.

The Guard pushes through the crowd with some difficulty, still dodging rocks until they can get me to a side entrance. The front is clogged with protesters and champions alike, the path blocked by too many screaming people for it to be safe. One of the Guard bodily hauls me off Starlight and practically drags me in through a heavily guarded iron door, only pausing to make sure it’s locked behind me.

Glad to see I’m finally making an impression in the city.

“This way, Highness,” the Guard says gruffly, gesturing down the stone hall. We’re somewhere in the upper levels of the catacombs beneath the main viewing area, not close enough to the barracks to hear the gladiators, but not close enough to an exit to hear the crowd preparing either. If something happened down here, no one would hear me.

My legs sway uneasily beneath me and it is an effort to not lean my weight against the wall. The drugs aren’t weaning!

“I need to see my champions,” I insist, my voice as shaky as I feel.

“You’ll see them from your booth,” he counters, un-anchoring a torch from the wall to help us see the path better in the dark. 

“Before the fight.”

He’s a young Guard, newer, I haven’t seen him often enough to know his name. “New rules, I’m afraid. Too many tamperings with the gladiators. Everyone is to go directly to their booths by order of the Emperor.” He gestures with the torch for me to follow him. “I’m sorry, Your Highness, but those are my orders.”

To hell with his fucking orders! Those are my mates! I need to know that they’re ready! That the armor I found works. 

He reaches out a hand like he might drag me, then drops it, thinking better of it. At least he’s a smart male. 

I should try and run. My head feels like it’s made of stone as I turn to get a better look around. Everything is the same opaque stone that it would be easy to get lost, and it’s not as if they’re putting up signs directing the way down here. If I could touch the bond, maybe I could follow it down into the barracks, but with it being so buried..

They’d come for me, if our places were switched. If it had been me dragged away in the middle of the night, it wouldn’t matter if they’d been drugged, it wouldn’t matter how many guards there were to stop them, they’d come for me.

“Highness, please don’t make this difficult,” the Guard sighs. 

“I need-” Gods my mouth feels like it’s full of cotton! Everything is moving so godsdamned slow! “-Need to see that they are properly prepared for this fight. I don’t trust that my competitor’s didn’t bribe their way down there already.”

“I can assure you they didn’t.”

I square my shoulders, wincing around the tenderness at the base of my neck. “And what should the word of a simple Guard mean to me?” 

The belligerent princess voice usually works, but this only makes him frown. “You would have me go against the Emperor’s orders?” He challenges.

Footsteps sound down the tunnels behind him, stopping the words in my throat as a shadow inches closer. But not my shadow. Not the one I really want to see. 

I know the footsteps. Know the heavier crunch of the right heel against the earth is from an old battle injury that never quite healed right. 

“Causing a fuss, are we?”

“Your Majesty!” The Guard bows swiftly, the plume of his helmet brushing the floor he’s so low.

I make sure I’m not leaning against the wall. 

Father’s slate gray eyes assess me, a wolfish grin splitting his usually stoic features. He’s in a better mood than he was at the Senate Meeting, that’s for sure. 

I clench my skirts in my hands, trying not to make my fists so obvious. Of course he’d fucking be here waiting for me! Why wouldn’t he ever give me a moment of peace?

“I was just telling my Guard that I need to check on my gladiators,” I say, voice low. Maybe the obvious submission in my tone will keep him from hearing the way it still shakes. Maybe if I pretend hard enough to cower like the good little daughter he wants, he’ll overlook whatever he thinks I was planning on doing down here.

His grin broadens. “And I’m sure Lucius explained the new rules to you?”

Lucius straightens, trying a little too hard to look proud. “Yes, Your Majesty, I did.”

Father gestures back the way he’d come. “Then let’s not waste any more time, shall we?”

I can’t run for it now.

If I felt anything other than hollow, I think I might have burst into tears, but even my emotions feel out of reach, locked behind an invisible wall. I’m aware of them distantly, like they’re not truly my own. 

I follow numbly, hands still clenched in my skirts. I wonder if he can tell that there’s something off about me; if he can even recognize my mannerisms enough to know I’m under the effects of something. 

“You look uneasy,” he says, like he can hear my thoughts.

Sometimes I wonder if Brannagh and Dagdan’s powers come from his side of the family, if perhaps he too possesses the mind reading skill and has simply never chosen to announce it as my cousins have. It certainly would give reason for his distrust in people, or why I could never  get away with anything as a kid.

The tunnels take us closer and closer to the seating area of the Arena, the noise of the crowd starting to filter through the walls. Every step towards it feels like someone is dropping stones into the pit of my stomach. I’m not going to be able to see them. I wasn’t able to prepare them.

“I didn't sleep well,” I lie.

“Nervous?” He taunts.

I square my shoulders, trying to remember what my courtly mask looks like. Trying to fight off the mirthroot and regain control of my composure. My body doesn’t feel like my own; I have to find a way to make it mine again. “Excited.”

Disappointment flickers in his eyes like the twinkling of the torchlight. A small victory. Did he truly think I’d be so easily beaten?

“Kallias’s Orc has quite the reputation,” he counters, clasping his hands behind his back, a move that has always made him look superior. 

“As do Illyrians.” I remember then, the ribbons I’d purchased at the market yesterday. There was never an opportunity to find a way to hide them in my outfit somewhere; Anise had stolen that from me too. I can’t even quietly support them. 

“There are rumors,” he begins as we draw near to a familiar set of stairs. This is the way we’d come in last time, on the way to meet my mates that fateful day. “Of your… affections.”

“You do not believe in rumors.” I counter.

“I believe they all start somewhere,” he growls.

I make sure he goes up the stairs first, just to ensure I don’t end up taking another tumble down the worn steps. “I am to be married, am I not? Do you really think so little of me as to assume I would ruin that chance?”

“To spite my efforts, yes I do.” 

Lucius pauses at the door, waiting for a signal that it’s all right for him to open it. The Emperor comes to a halt next to him, dwarfing him. The poor male shrinks against the wall to try and give his precious ruler breathing room.

If I was in control of myself, I’d be biting back bile, but there is nothing inside me, perhaps that might actually save me in the end. “I would not debase myself with a couple of slaves just to spite you, Father. As I said before, I only mean to make up for my absence and help the Empire in whatever way I can.”

He huffs as he motions for Lucius to open the door, spilling sunlight into the tunnel. The burn doesn’t register as it should. I force myself to put a hand up over my eyes just so it looks like I feel the sting they all do. What the hell was in that serum?

We find ourselves along the winding pathway that leads to the various booths and bench seats that line the massive Pit. Overhead, hanging from the rafters of the awnings enchanted to keep out most of the heat, hang the flags of the various houses that own and sponsor gladiators, the brightly colored emblems snapping in the breeze.

“Speaking of your soon-to-be husband,” Father says and that devious glint has once again returned to his eyes. 

Shit! Me and my big mouth!

“I asked the main contenders to sit with us today. It looks good for your image.”

This day keeps getting worse and worse!

“Contenders? As in more than one?” 

We follow the path past the first two levels of seating, passing the bench seats where the middle classes can mingle, their sections filled to capacity, vendors with trays of food screaming at the top of their lungs to promote their wares; the second for the upper class, all well off but not favored, equally as crowded, though the shouting is for the betting tables instead of snacks. The third level is for the Elite, Father’s favored few, with their own booths, separated from each other by gauzy curtains and lounges covered in pillows. It is not the most ornate thing in the Empire, despite the gaudy display of gold embellishments and the servants waiting with palm fronds to fan any belligerent senator who beckons. The wine flows freely and servants flitter about to place their masters’ bets so they never have to leave their recliners. Food comes in silence, offered on golden platters, brought to the lips of beings who’ve never lifted a finger a day in their lives by hands that have no choice but to submit to this degradation. 

“I have three,” he says as we draw near to his booth. More of the Praetorian wait for us, standing at attention with spears as tall as they are in hand. “I’m curious to see how well they fit with you, so I invited them to watch with us.”

“You say that as if you would consider my opinion on the matter.”

He grins at that. “I suppose that’s true, but I want to know who will be capable of putting up with you. Most people aren’t as forgiving as me.”

I bite the inside of my cheek so hard I taste blood, though I still cannot feel the sting. 

The Guards part the curtain blocking my view of the booth aside, and three males turn to greet us.

It’s going to be a very, very long day.

Honestly, at the rate my life has been going lately, the fact that the first male to bow and greet us is Eris doesn’t even surprise me. The red-headed scoundrel was bound to find a way to weasel his way in with my Father with or without the blackmail, but I’m sure my lack of enthusiasm when I broached the subject with my Father the other day helped influence his opinion greatly. 

“Eris,” Father says in greeting.

The Autumn male bows first, long hair nearly brushing the floor, before coming up to take my hand and kiss the back of my knuckles again. At least Azriel isn’t here to see him this time. I don’t think he’d survive another interaction without trying to put his hands around the male’s throat. 

“Highness,” Eris purrs. “It’s a pleasure, as always.”

“Likewise,” I have to at least pretend to be pleasant. I don’t really know what to expect from him now that I’m the fly trapped in his web. Usually I just watch the spider hunt from afar, but I like being caught even less than watching other people be caught. 

He steps aside, the picture of courtly manners, to let the next contender for my hand through. Tamlin looks about as thrilled to be here as I feel. So at least we’ll be miserable together. 

“Highness.” His bow is stiff, awkward, shoulders locked nearly to his chin. He is one of the youngest senators and it shows; wealth and power have not yet given him a complete air of superiority, unease still coats his movements. I give it a few more years before the prestige goes to his head; which has to be why Father has him as a top contender. Right now, Tamlin is moldable, a walking slab of clay for the Emperor’s skilled hands to shape into whatever type of puppet he sees fit. And vulnerable to boot, the trouble in his province with the Tythe means he’s in desperate need of both direction and approval, and if marrying me gives him that, well, he’ll swallow whatever unease he feels and do it for the sake of his position.

“Senator.” Honestly, I think out of the two, Eris might be the lesser of the two evils. If this draws out for long enough and I do have to go through with a wedding, Eris might be more inclined to give my leash some reach. Tamlin, by that time, will be eating out of Father’s hand and I’ll have lost any opportunity to get out.

Tamlin steps aside with the grace of a large animal in a room full of glass, broad shoulders bumping into a Guard’s chest as he tries to not slam face first into Eris. The red headed bastard doesn’t move either, just grins. 

The final contender is a surprise, with Father’s prejudices, the fact that he’d consider a Nephilim at all is shocking. Senator Romulus keeps his great, feathered wings tucked tight behind his back as he bows, salt and pepper curls sweeping over his tan forehead. He’s old enough to be my Father! It’s an effort not to turn and look at the Emperor to see if this is some kind of joke. He can’t really mean to offer me to Romulus?! The male’s last two wives died under “mysterious circumstances”.

“Highness, it’s an honor.”

I’m suddenly grateful I don’t have the capacity to feel anything, because I don’t think I would have been able to keep my voice neutral or the sheer horror off my face. Eris really is looking like my best option at this point!

“Senator,” it’s a miracle my voice is steady. “What a surprise! I thought you were back home dealing with matters of the court still.” Matters being a rebellion, which has to be the exact reason Father picked him. I’m certainly not dragging the figureheads of a separate rebellion into his province after he squashed one himself. 

“I’m quite adept at dealing with traitors,” he says, smoothing his large hands over his finely decorated toga. The deep purple fabric, edged in gold matches one of the banners that flies from the rafters and I wonder if there will be more than Illyrian rebels in the Pit today. 

“I hear you’ve been having trouble with your own?”

A very pointed question, but I’m less worried about my answer and more about what Eris might say about it, if the grin on his face is any indication of what’s about to happen. My eyes narrow on him with enough venom that he spins dramatically, calling for a drink. 

Bastard. The last thing I need today is to have to monitor every little thing that comes out his mouth.

I move around the three large males to find my seat, hoping the air of dismissiveness makes it clear how much of this conversation I want to have. “It’s been an adjustment, but it is coming along better than most people seem to believe.”

Eris is watching me with a wicked glint in his eyes over the rim of his goblet and Mother help me I’d take my shoe off and hurl it at his head if I didn’t have to explain myself for it. 

“Keeping them at your residence instead of here with the other gladiators was certainly a bold move, Highness,” Romulus continues, weaseling his way around Tamlin in a move that is incredibly graceful for someone with wings, to steal the seat beside me. 

He’s close enough that I can smell that leather and citrus scent of him. Only the drugs keep me from crinkling my nose in distaste, the scent acrid and harsh in my nostrils. 

“Keep your enemies close, and all that.” I reach for a goblet of wine myself; at this point if the Emperor decides to poison me, well at least I can get out of this damn booth. 

“A reckless decision,” he counters. “It lends ear to the Capital’s gossips and puts you in unnecessary danger. I’d never allow my wife to be in such a precarious position.”

The first real feeling I’ve felt all morning flickers through the fog, rage making my teeth clench. 

“You haven’t earned her hand yet, Romulus,” Eris sneers from his seat behind me. 

The Emperor watches the exchange with amusement, as if this is just another part of the day’s entertainment. 

“I wouldn’t either,” Tamlin mumbles, voice soft in comparison to the others. There’s a lot of fanfare and music coming from the level beneath us, I almost didn’t hear him speak over it. 

Romulus turns to face Eris, weathered face crinkled in a snarl. “I should think the work your Father had to do to keep your whore of a Mother in line would have taught you to keep your females on short leashes.”

Flames erupt in Eris’s eyes, sparks flying from his ringed fingers. 

“Mind yourself,” the Emperor chides, his Guards shifting behind him to reach for their weapons. 

Eris draws a deep breath, teeth pulled back in a sneer, “Watch your mouth, Nephilim.”

“How is Hellion these days?” Romulus presses.

I’m damning myself to a life of misery. Any retribution or show of discomfort on my part guarantees that Father will pick whoever makes me the most uncomfortable, just to get back at me for making a scene. But I can’t sit here and listen to this. 

Maybe a couple weeks ago I would have just kept my mouth shut and my hands in my lap, but I can’t be that girl anymore.

I move like I’m trying to set my goblet on the arm of my chair, but purposefully leave it on the edge so when I let it go it tips right into Romulus’s lap.

The Nephilim jumps out of his seat with a shout of surprise, wine dripping down his toned legs.

The look in Father’s eyes is enough to tell me he knows he’s won, but all I see is gratitude in Eris’s. 

“I’m such a clutz!” I feign embarrassment as a servant with a towel comes over to help. “I’m so sorry, Senator!”

Romulus snatches the towel with a huff. The color of his clothes will hide the worst of it, and the summer heat will dry the wet patch between his legs quickly, but he’ll be sticky for the rest of the day; a small victory. 

“It’s a miracle you haven’t already married her off, Your Majesty,” Romulus snarls at my Father, as if he hadn’t heard me. 

“I’m sure you could find a way to keep her in line, Senator,” Father returns. 

My heart is in my stomach, but at least that means the drugs are finally weaning. 

The servant cleans the rest of the spill off Romulus’s seat and I slide a couple coins out of the purse on my belt and into her hand for the trouble, even as I continue the show of apologizing like I really, truly regret my actions. 

Romulus continues to huff and mutter under his breath, but never directly addresses me for the slight, probably due to the company. This would be a much different circumstance if we were alone, of that I’m certain. 

When another round of drinks makes its way into our booth, it’s Father that snatches it from my hand before I can do anything else with it, a warning glare to behave thrown my way. I duck my head in feign embarrassment and try to make myself as small as possible in my seat, letting them strike up another conversation around me as males typically tend to do in my presence. I can pretend to be small and cower as I used to in the face of their misogyny, just as Mother always taught me. I find myself trying to imagine what she would think of me now, but my mind does not have to wander far. She would be just like Anise. 

A sharp spike of pain filters through the fog. Am I to have no family left at all?

The horns sound, telling the crowd to find their seats before the festivities begin. Amarantha arrives with the twins in tow as the second warning blares. Dagdan leans drunkenly on his sister, already grumbling about the betting pool. Brannagh’s slate colored eyes land on the males around me, brow furrowing when she finds their usual seats occupied by Eris and Tamlin. 

“Looks like you’ll have to find another booth,” Amarantha hisses at them. By the fire in her eyes, it looks like the twins have been doing what they do best and making a nuisance of themselves. Good, it keeps her mind off my mates for a little while. I haven’t forgotten how she’d looked at Rhys the last time she’d seen him.

“Uncle,” Brannagh starts to whine but Father merely motions a hand for the Guards to deal with it and my belligerent cousins are promptly escorted from the overly crowded booth. 

“Quite the family,” Tamlin huffs under his breath. 

“I’ll remember to lock up the wine for the wedding,” Eris says with a grin as he reclines in his seat, long legs stretched out before him, a hand behind his head. He’s reigned in the fire that lives beneath his skin, tamped it down and shoved it into a neat little box where it can be hidden. Perhaps we have always been more alike than I’d ever bothered to notice. I know Azriel will hate it, but perhaps he could be a useful ally one way or another. I will have to bring it to their attention when this is over.

If we all make it through the day. 

The Games Master takes his perch on the podium across the Pit from us, the platform jutting out just slightly to allow the whole arena to have a good view of the gaudily dressed Fae in a ridiculous wig. The mage in all black beside him casts an enhancing spell and the shrill voice of the Games Master echoes through every corner of the arena. “Welcome, welcome! To all our esteemed guests!”

Bookies make their way through the booths, collecting our bets before they close the booths for the show. Eris and Tamlin don’t place any. Romulus frowns at me before scribbling down a number, and I manage to sneakily see Kallias’s Orc written under his bet. 

I don’t bother to shy away from his withering stare as I write out my mates’ names in the margins, and scribble out a number that would make most people faint. I’ve never bothered to look at the exact amount of my inheritance, it’s never been an issue. I don’t even think the number will be a dent. But when they win, that money goes to Illyria, or what’s left of it. 

Amarantha makes sure to tell Father exactly how much she bet against my mates, hoping for a reaction. I remain facing the Pit floor, ignoring her. 

The Pit looks no different than last time, the floor muddy and uneven, littered with bones and debris and scattered, rusty weapons. The section of the wall the Giant had knocked over has been seamlessly restored, not a crack or chip in paint to be seen. It’s as if we never left; it’s a very strange sense of deja vu. 

I send up a few silent prayers to Fortuna and Victoria for my mates’ continued favor, and a third to the Mother in thanks that the Pit is not under water. At least they will have an advantage in that department. 

Worry worms its way into my chest and I focus on my breathing. There are too many beings here watching my every move for me to start chewing on my lip or fiddling with my skirts. I need to keep my mask in place. 

They will win. They will be fine. They will come back to me. One breath, then another. They will win. They will be fine. They will come back to me.

The Games Master announces the first match and Romulus sits a little straighter beside me as some of the remaining rebels from his province are dragged into the Pit in chains.

“Your prisons must be full if you have this many rebels to bring back with you, Senator,” Amarantha muses. 

There are twenty in total. Twelve fighting men, their bare chests tattooed with Nephil runes and battle blessings, all now slashed through with a blade in a public display of humiliation. Three women, their wings bent and broken, some of the feathers missing in chunks like someone had ripped them out by the fistful. Two elders, their backs bowed with age; city officials perhaps. But the last three…

I shut my eyes against the image. The three boys can’t be more than fourteen! Their cheeks still youthfully round and tear streaked. They stand in a semi-circle, away from the others, wings trembling behind them. The chains around their wrists are too big for them, slipping up nearly to their elbows. Their dark hair and bronze complexion remind me too much of mates for my liking, making their place here all the worse. 

“You brought children?” I snarl at the Senator.

“I brought rebels, Highness,” he says curtly.

“They are not even old enough to be out of school.”

“Age has no factor in rebellion, Daughter.” Father chastises. 

He can’t do this! He can’t!

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Tamlin wince, but he says nothing. He does nothing in the face of such cruelty. 

Eris meets my gaze and shakes his head subtly in warning. This is not a battle we can have here.

Cowards!

I turn my attention back to Romulus, who smooths a hand over his drying toga like it’s the most entertaining thing in the world. “Take them out of there.”

Across from us the Games Master calls out the rebels' crimes and gets the crowd going as he hypes up their opponents. 

“Too late for that,” Romulus shrugs as the gates open. 

Three Chimera’s come bursting out the gates before they’re fully opened, causing the iron to catch on the lever system that opens them, keeping them locked half way out into the arena. 

If the boys could get back into the tunnels, would they be safe? Was that allowed?

The Nephilim rebels descend into chaos as half of them try to find weapons, and the other half try to run, all while they’re still chained by the wrists to each other. The lion head of the first beast tears through two of the fighting men before they can even turn to find a discarded weapon on the Pit floor. 

The crowd cheers wildly at the first sight of blood. 

The three boys stay together, bent down looking for something in the mud. One of them manages to find a big enough rock, and he frantically bashes it against the chain that connects him to the elder who has curled up into a ball on the floor, wings wrapped around himself like a cocoon. Another grabs a rusty sword from a discolored rib cage on the floor. The weapon is too big for him, his small hands shaking as he tries to get a grip on the worn hilt.

I can’t stop myself from clutching my skirts as I offer up every prayer to the Mother I can think of. 

Some of the rebels rally, using their chains to their advantage as they manage to loop it around one of the beast’s necks and drag it across the Pit floor. The creature makes a terrible howling sound as they slowly cut off its air supply. 

The third beast goes for the weakest link, charging at the second elder with its gaping maw open. 

The elder stays rooted to the spot, weathered head tilted upwards to the sky, hands outstretched. “May the Mother greet me with open arms. May her favor carry me to the Afterlife. May her wrath find those who have wronged me,” he prays.

The crowd boos him.

The female he’s chained to digs her heels into the mud, gripping their joint chain with both hands, trying to pull him out of the line of danger, but he won’t budge. 

Goddess forgive us!

I will hear that crunch of bones and the female’s screams until I draw my dying breath. 

One of the boys falls onto his knees, retching up the contents of his stomach, even as the other manages to finally break the chain that tethers them to the first elder with the rock. He and the one with the sword grab the third boy under the armpits and drag him behind the shelter of a large boulder as that third Chimera abandons its meal to come enjoy the other elder. This one doesn’t pray, and the shelter of his wings around his body only hides his view of his impending doom.

The rebels that managed to take down one of the beasts take a long time to untangle the now bloody chain from the thing’s neck, costing them precious seconds as another launches towards them. One of the females gets her hands on a ruined spear and hurls it with a scream, but the shot goes wide, barely clipping the beast’s ear. She goes first, pulling the next male with her into its jaws. 

I’m going to be sick! The fog is beginning to lift more and more and the title wave of my emotions is almost too much to manage at one time. I find a spot on the wall to fixate on, willing myself to breathe, to not let it overtake me, shoving each into their own quaint little box in the back of my mind. There will be time to let them out later, right now, I need to stay in control. 

A feat easier said than done when the beast finishes off the elder and sets its sights on the boys peeking over the boulder.

Shit! Shit! Shit! Please, they're just children! I don’t know what Goddess I’m praying to any more, what deity I might beg to spare them. I keep a death grip on my skirts. Would a jump from the booth into the Pit kill me? Could I land with enough time to save them? If my powers can be touched just a little, maybe it would be enough…

I lean forward, muscles tensing. They’re running out of time! I have to move and I have to move now--

From the darkness of the half open gate, movement catches my eye. My stomach plummets; not another beast! It moves too fast to track at first, nothing more than a dark blur that rolls out from under the bent iron and hurdles forward. Time slows, I’m suddenly aware of the spraying of dirt as something moves across the Pit floor. The shouts of the crowd feel muffled and far away.

The Chimera prowls closer as the boy with the sword steps out from behind the shelter of the rock, weapon outstretched in his trembling hands. He screams at the monster, voice cracking in an attempt to be brave.

The beast lowers itself into a crouch, serpentine tail switching across the floor, splattering mud in all directions. 

A scream starts to work its way up my throat, my body still too sluggish to follow my command to get out of the seat in time to do anything.

And then a blast of red energy knocks the beast off its path.

Time comes flying back in a rush, the cheering of the crowd turning to shock and outrage. 

“Get back into the tunnel!”

Cassian!

The Illyrian puts himself between the beast and the boys, wings fully outstretched shielding them from view. 

“What the fuck?!” Amarantha drops her goblet of wine, splattering crimson across the floor.

I can’t stop myself from putting a hand over my mouth, nearly choking back a sob. My selfless, stupid mate.

“Go!” Cassian bellows, every bit the General.

The boys can barely be made out from behind Cassian as they sprint for the open door as fast as their legs will carry them, sword forgotten in the mud.

I have to bite the inside of my cheek to try and keep the tears at bay. They might kill him for this, he has to know that, and yet he’d come anyway. I don’t know how he’d gotten past the Guards that monitor the tunnels, but he’d done it. 

“Can he do that?” Tamlin asks. 

“No!” Romulus snarls. “Your Majesty, you must do something about him!”

Much to my surprise, my Father shrugs. “If he dies now instead of against the Orc, so be it. What’s one male going to do against two Chimeras?”

The beast gets back on its feet, shaking its massive head to try and right itself again. Cassian crouches low, bouncing on the balls of his feet, waiting like he just might try and wrestle with it. He’s not wearing the armor I bought him, his chest bare and… bruised? He didn’t have those bruises when he’d been at the house. But the bandage around his thigh is not blood stained, the stitches still hold. 

“You will let him get away with this?” Romulus asks incredulously. 

“We will see what happens,” Father shrugs. “I’m entertained for once.”

The beast stalks forward, ready to pounce and Cassian waits until it moves to launch into the air, using his wings for momentum to get himself up and over the thing’s head. With the tender spot of its back exposed, he has the right angle to hurl another crimson tinted blast of energy at it, effectively breaking its neck. The Chimera crumples to the floor with a howl and Cassian lands hard in the mud, wincing just a bit under the pressure it puts on his wounded leg, beside the spear the female had thrown earlier. He then lifts it high and drives it through the creature’s skull as it twitches and howls at his feet. 

Relief settles into my bones and I find myself leaning back in the seat with a sigh. For the first time all day I can feel that tiny little tether in my chest that links me to my mates and I run a mental hand down it affectionately. I hope he knows, whether he cares what I think or not, how incredible I think he is. How brave and good he is.

There’s still one beast left, and five of the Nephilim still chained together. The boys have made it into the safety of the tunnels, and none of the Guards have tried to shove them back out. I hope that’s a good sign. I will inquire as soon as this is over. There has to be something I can do for them too.

“Here!” There’s a length of chain still attached to a severed arm, and one of the male’s tosses it to Cassian. To his credit he doesn’t bat an eye as he catches the mutilated appendage but it certainly makes my stomach turn.

He works in tandem with the other rebels to use the chain to trip the charging beast and it flips end over end until it slams into the wall.

There aren’t enough words to describe the pride I feel watching him with them. They might have never interacted before, might never see each other again after this, but they have a common goal here. They are gladiators together; fighters with a common enemy. Race or creed doesn’t matter; they are of one mind and they move like they have always fought alongside each other. 

This is how it should be, in everything. 

Cassian still has the spear and when the creature tries to stand he hurls the rusted weapon right through its eye! 

Under different circumstances I would have stopped to admire the rippling of muscle, the gleam of sweat trailing down every ridge and dip in his bronze chest; every bit of him is sculpted for battle. But it’s a battle that’s not over and the realization quickly sours the moment.

“The money he has cost me,” Amarantha snarls at my Father, the only one here who would dare speak such things to his face.

Father runs a hand over his beard thoughtfully, “I’m sure the payout of the next fight will be reward enough.”

The Nephilim file out the broken gates, only eight total compared to the twenty that started. The remains of the others litter the Pit; no attempts to move them are made. Cassian doesn’t even try to walk out, he knows what comes next. He simply collects his spear and waits.

The relief at this first victory is short lived. 

“Well that certainly was entertaining, don’t you think?” The Games Maker calls.

Cassian tilts his head to look up at where the pompous male stands and raises his middle finger at him. I bite the inside of my cheek to keep back a laugh. He is reckless and foolish and yet I think I admire him all the more for it. 

Eris snickers behind me. 

Romulus crosses his arms over his broad chest with a huff. 

“Now, who’s ready for the real show!”

The crowd goes wild, chanting for Kallias’s Orc. The senator’s booth is a few down from ours, far enough away that I can just barely make out where he stands on the balcony, waving for his fans. 

I’d roll my eyes if I wasn’t so distracted watching the tunnels, waiting to see Azriel and Rhys. Seconds tick by like hours, my ears straining to hear footsteps from the tunnels--as if I could ever possibly hear something that far away under the din of the crowd, but hope tints everything in shades of possibility. The crowd continues to chant, louder and louder as time continues to tick by. 

I risk a glance at the Emperor, who reclines on his throne, sipping a goblet of wine, eyes bright and… excited. When was the last time my Father was excited about anything?

I look to Amarantha next, if he’s planning anything, she’ll know about it, and it will be much more plain on her face. Her pointed nails scrape absently through the hair of the slave reclined at her feet, other toying with the fragment of bone that hangs around her neck. A surefire sign she’s anticipating something, but aren’t we all?

Dread crawls its way up my insides; maybe I was too distracted about who their opponent should be to focus on what else they might encounter in the arena. It is an effort not to bite the inside of my cheek as two figures finally step out of the ruined gates into the Pit. 

I miss Azriel’s shadow around my ear. I hadn’t truly noticed how great a loss the silence of the bond had been until they were standing there, unable to really hear me. I can feel a glimmer of them there, in the darkness, but nothing like it was. 

When they step out into the light, Rhys’s eyes are on me in an instant, roaming every inch of me like he’s assessing why he can’t reach me. 

Every muscle in my body screams for me to get to him as I take in the bruising around his eyes, the dried blood along his lips. The marks are a twin to Cassian’s and Azriel’s, the dark purple marks smattered across their skin like freckles. None of them are wearing my armor. There’s not an arm guard or chest piece in sight, just their boots and pants, ripped and blood stained. 

My powers simmer deep beneath the surface, a flash of feeling breaking through and then suffocated. Someone beat them before they even got out here! It is an effort not to turn and glare at the Emperor. I don’t have to wonder hard about who that someone was. 

He’ll pay for this! For every last cut!

The crowds’ cheering turns to booing and cursing as the three step into the center of the Pit, collecting weapons as they go.

“Quite the crowd favorite,” Tamlin sneers. 

“You encountered them in your province, did you not?” The Emperor asks. 

“Once or twice,” Tamlin admits. “I made it clear they weren’t welcome.”

I have to bite my tongue to keep myself from telling them to shut up as Kallias’s Orc lumbers out of his side of the Arena. The male is monstrous! As tall as Cassian and twice as broad, leathery skin a patchwork of scar tissue. The left side of his temple sags over an eye that’s too cloudy to be functioning; nose bent at an odd angle. Each breath is a rumbled wheeze as he stalks to the center of the Pit, a belt of wicked looking daggers already around his chest.

Azriel assesses him from head to toe, calculating, then inclines his head towards Cassian as they silently confer. They seem to have a language all their own, no words or even Rhys’s abilities necessary. I can practically see them forming the battle strategy with just the movement of their eyes. 

I’d breath a little easier about my choice if the ground beneath us didn’t start rumbling. 

I risk a glance at my Father as one of the Mage’s standing with the Grandmaster starts furiously waving his pale hands, blue sparks of magic flying from his skeletal fingers.

“I think you’ll like the entertainment, daughter.”

My stomach pitches violently as the Pit floor cracks and splinters like old wood. Cassian’s arms pinwheel, trying to keep his balance as the ground beneath his boots suddenly shoots into the air! It happens so fast he gets airborne, wings flapping hard to try and find his balance again.

The Orc tips his swollen head back and laughs as the ground to his right sinks like a crater, a billow of steam rising in its wake.

Shit! The blast of heat from the quickly disappearing earth is unmistakable, the air tinted with a hint of sulphur. That’s lava!

Rhys grabs onto a jagged piece of earth that shoots up into the air as the rest of the ground beneath him crumbles into a pool of fire. 

“Lava?” Eris asks incredulously. Of all the crazy things this Arena has seen, it’s never been something like this. The ground continues to shift and rise, new pieces of steaming rock rising from the depths as others sink beneath the boiling waves. 

This is a new low. 

“The last challenge was too easy, the Gamemaker had plenty of complaints for me.” The Emperor takes a sip of his wine with a shrug. “I let him get creative.”

I have to stop this! This has to be some kind of bad dream! The drugs in my veins are making me hallucinate. 

That has to be it, right?

Azriel perches precariously on a thin strip of rock, arms outstretched to keep his balance. If he tips backward by even a hair, he’s going right down into the lava! 

Our eyes meet for a brief second and everything around us momentarily falls away. The grin he sends me is cocky, roguish; he winks and then he dives, rusted knife in hand, right on the Orc’s head!

Cauldron fucking boil me!

The ground the Orc stands on is not big enough to maneuver in, he has enough time to duck his lumpy head and take the full brunt of the blade and Azriel’s weight right on his shoulder. Azriel uses the momentum of the fall to swing himself up and around to another patch of safe ground a foot away, leaving the blade embedded out of the Orc’s reach. 

“Fucking hell!” Romulus hisses beside me.

Azriel’s barely got his footing before Cassian makes a flying dive, spinning in dizzying circles like a bird of prey around the moving pieces of earth to blast the Orc with a wave of red tinted magic that makes blood spray. 

The crowd gasps as the Orc’s ear goes flying into the lava and the male falls to his knees gripping his head. 

This fight might actually be over faster than the last one!

The coordination the three of them have is breathtaking! The moment Cassian flies out of the way, Rhys is there, leaping from rock to rock until he can get close enough to blast the Orc off its perch with a wave of star tinted ether. They’re movements are flawless, picking up right where the other left off with no room in between. This is a rhythm they’ve found a thousand times.

The Orc tumbles, slamming into jagged pieces of rock, hands scrapping for purchase, managing to catch itself at the last possible second. It dangles not more than an inch above the bubbling stream of lava.

Beside the Gamesmaker, the Mage’s hands move furiously and the piece of rock rises higher and higher, until the Orc can find a new place to stand on.

Cheater!

“Wonderful! Look how agile Kallias’s competitor is!” The Gamesmaker declares with an exaggerated clap of his hands. 

If it had been Cassian, the rock would have sunk. I should have been prepared for fowl play, but the obvious sight of it has me biting the inside of my cheek. 

A servant comes to wipe the sweat off the Mage’s brow as he continues to select which pieces of the Arena to sink or float. What I would give to have Azriel’s shadows! To be able to use them to distract the Mage and keep the playing field level! Sometimes the pieces separate mid way through their ascent and float like boulders aimlessly across the air until they hit the Arena walls and crumble. 

This makes people cheer all the more, as if this is a new interactive mode of the fight for their entertainment. 

Rhys finds his footing across a spinning boulder, trying to get the right angle for another blow and right as he finds one, small grooves in the arena walls open with a clunk and flying discs come shooting out like arrows!

What now?!

The disks are fast, zipping across the Arena with a buzzing noise not unlike a bee. One hits Rhys right between the shoulder blades and the contact makes a wave of crackling energy pulse from the center, skittering across his bare skin, filling the Arena with the scent of burning flesh as he tumbles from his perch and lands hard on a piece of rock three feet beneath him.

“RHYS!” Cassian screams as he dives down after him, racing to get there in case the ground drops out from under him before he stops twitching.

“New toys of yours, Your Majesty?” Romulus inquires.

My mate lays there on his back, eyes glazed over, muscles spasming in waves that I can see from my damn seat.

I have to stop this!

“My Mages have been working for months to get them just right,” the Emperor says proudly. “It’s taken quite some time to get the spellwork and disc shape just right, but with proper training, I hope to send them out with our armies to handle larger… opposition.”

Romulus rubs his hands together gleefully. 

“This is our first official testing before we begin mass production.”

Goddess! He just found a huge fucking upper hand and he’s using my mates as test subjects to get the finer details right. I need to get them out of there now!

The Orc finally manages to get his bearings again, and with a shout, he jumps up, using his hands and feet to find purchase in any and every shifting rock and climbs his way towards where Rhys lays, the easiest prey out of the three. 

Azriel, weaponless now with his blade still in the Orc’s shoulder, chases after him anyway, leaping from spot to spot, but the faster he tries to climb, the more the ground shifts beneath him! Every time he starts to catch up, his perch suddenly shoots down into the lava, taking him right back to where he started each and every time. 

My stomach shoots itself into my throat. I need to think and think fast! Jumping down there isn’t going to do them any good, not when my powers still slumber, no matter how deep I try to dig. No amount of panic breaks through the fog to drag them back to the surface. Anise has thoroughly ruined any chance I had at using them to save my mates. 

If I make a scene, would it be enough? 

Cassian throws a blast of energy but it goes wide. His wings still give him the advantage, the ground won’t be his problem, but just when I think he might reach Rhys first, another one of those disks come hurtling across the Arena, slamming right into his chest!

The carefully crafted mask I’ve managed to hold onto by a mere thread cracks, a choked sound slipping out of me as I try to bite back a full scream. Romulus’s attention is now fully on me as Cassian plummets towards the lava.

“Highness?”

Azriel’s not going to get there fast enough, nor will the Gamemakers’ Mage give him the footing he needs to get there. His only shot is to throw out a blast of blue tinted magic at one of the spinning boulders. It spins like a top as it hurtles across the Arena, right into Cassian’s path. He’s falling too fast, his body hits the rock and bounces like a ball. It’s only by some miracle, some divine influence that the trajectory of the fall knocks him right into Rhys and the two of them don’t slide right off their perch!

The Emperor’s looking at me now, brows raised inquisitively. 

Welp, here goes nothing!

I fan myself with my hand. The stress has sweat clinging to my skin anyway, might as well use it to my advantage. “I don’t feel so well.”

I can practically hear Amarantha roll her eyes. “I told you she wouldn’t have the constitution for this.”

“Let’s get you some water,” Eris suggests.

I let myself go limp and slump in my seat so fast I accidentally fall right out of it as I pretend to faint. 

Romulus curses.

Father just sighs. “Useless fucking girl.”

Somebody with a palm frond runs over to fan me to try and cool me off as I keep my eyes shut and my breathing shallow. 

The seconds tick by and I hope and pray that my Father is so vindictive he’d actually pause the Games just to make me watch them later once I’ve recovered. It’s one of the few cards I can play. 

It’s Eris that lifts me off the floor and back to my seat, the cinnamon and ember scent of him clinging to my damp skin as he scoops me off the floor. 

“Should I fetch a healer?” Tamlin asks.

My Father huffs and I hear him shuffle around for a moment, then he tosses a cup of water directly in my face!

I let my body react on instinct, jerking upright with a splutter and cough worthy of a theater performance. 

Not a single person outside the booth has noticed. 

“Dramatic as always, daughter,” Father sighs as he goes back to his seat. 

A servant remains to fan me, the only face aside from Eris that looks genuinely concerned and not irritated. 

The match continues to play out before us completely and utterly unhindered by my antics and my heart sinks into my chest. 

Father calls for another glass of wine and takes a sip, watching as the Orc inches closer to my mates. “Wouldn’t want you to miss such an important moment, now would we?”

------------------

Tag List:

@sirenpearldust, @saltedcoffeescotch, @littlemissfix-itfic, @waka-babe , @raisam

//

@hjgdhghoe, @krowiathemythologynerd, @urfunnyvalentin3, @mack234-blog1, @kissesfromnovalie

//

@anainkandpaper, @rafeecameronsbitch, @whothehelliskayleigh, @lifetobeareader, @blimpintime

//

@marrass, @lia-h-r, @celestialzdiviner, @daughterofthemoons-stuff, @tenshis-cake

//

@of-outerspace, @erencvlt, @corvusmorte, @lindsayjoy444, @raccoonworld

//

@byteme05, @art1012, @the-tummo, @kiwi-mothball, @onthewaytotimbuktu

//

@dreamloud4610, @justtryingtosurvive02, @sapphichotmess, @nishinoyastoes, @acourtofladydeath

//

@amelya5567, @cardanenthusiast, @auraofathena, @edance2000, @acourtofbatboydreams

//

@getosimping, @georgiadixon, @throwing-up-butterflies

As always, let me know if you want to be added to the tag list! =)

THIS SAVES ME SO MUCH GRIEF OMG

So, let me guess– you just started a new book, right? And you’re stumped. You have no idea how much an AK47 goes for nowadays. I get ya, cousin. Tough world we live in. A writer’s gotta know, but them NSA hounds are after ya 24/7. I know, cousin, I know. If there was only a way to find out all of this rather edgy information without getting yourself in trouble…

You’re in luck, cousin. I have just the thing for ya.

It’s called Havocscope. It’s got information and prices for all sorts of edgy information. Ever wondered how much cocaine costs by the gram, or how much a kidney sells for, or (worst of all) how much it costs to hire an assassin?

I got your back, cousin. Just head over to Havocscope.

((PS: In case you’re wondering, Havocscope is a database full of information regarding the criminal underworld. The information you will find there has been taken from newspapers and police reports. It’s perfectly legal, no need to worry about the NSA hounds, cousin ;p))

Want more writerly content? Follow maxkirin.tumblr.com!

Without Bobby Singer, Dean Winchester would have killed himself before Sam’s first death in season 3. Without Bobby Singer, Sam Winchester would have fallen into a depression and gotten himself killed on a mission or drank himself into an early grave following Dean’s suicide. Without Bobby Singer, the world is never saved, not because of his knowledge or his research, but because he loved those boys, because the Winchester boys were his sons, that he loved more than anything in this life and the next.

In this essay I will…

Y’all this is top tier

Ludos Imperiales IIII

Summary: Princess!Reader tries to convince her mates to leave the Empire, but they have other ideas.

Content Warnings: Mentions of Slavery/Abuse

Part 1, 2, 3

-----------------

Anise is right; I do look like shit. No attempt at washing my face or fixing my hair or changing my clothes changes the sickly color that remains on my skin from the time spent with my head in the toilet. Secluding myself in the house these last couple months have already sapped the color from my cheeks, but today’s events have not helped bring any life back into my features. The dull, lifeless gray of my eyes, the limpness of my hair, the way my dress hangs limp off me… I do not recognize the face in the mirror.

“Anise?” She’s still pacing in my chambers, biting on her weathered thumbnail. Her anxiety makes the vines sprouting from her head grow, leaves and tiny, yellow flowers blossoming as the thick strands slither down her waist. 

“You shouldn’t see them alone,” she persists.

I brush a strand of hair over my yellowing cheek, then push it back behind my ear. I can explain away a bruise. Besides, it is not as if I can expect them to care enough about me to ask how it got there.

I sigh as I push the hair back in front of my face. I do not want to appear weak and frail, not in front of my mates. Not in front of anybody. I need to remain strong.

“Anise,” I try again, turning away from the mirror. There is nothing I can do to change it now, the damage is done and it’s too late in the evening to call for one of my lady’s-in-waiting to come help me fix it. “I need you to do something for me.”

“Get the guard? Yes, a splendid idea!”

I snag her arm as she goes for the door. “No, Anise.”

She huffs her irritation. “You’re being foolish, Little One.”

Probably; she won’t hear that from me though. “I need you to look into something for me and I need you not to tell a soul about it.”

She goes still at that, her emerald eyes widening in surprise. “What’s wrong?”

“I need you to see if there is passage out of the Empire and into the Wastes through the sea.”

Her bark-like features twist in surprise as I continue. “I need a passage my Father doesn’t know about, and I need it quickly.”

“What have you done?” She whispers. 

“Nothing. Not yet anyway.”

Anise fights her way out of my grip so she can take my face in her hands. “Now you listen to me, child! I have already lost your Mother, do not ask me to sit here and lose you too.”

“It’s not for me.”

Her eyes flick to the door and back. “Them?”

I nod.

“Why?”

“They’re dead men if I don’t,” I say, hoping the heaviness in my voice is enough to keep her from pressing further. I do not have it in me to admit what they are after what I’ve done, not even to her. Her loyalty was always to my Mother first, and I trust her more than anyone, but there are some secrets best kept close to the vest. Maybe she’d never tell anyone, but her mouth wanders sometimes, and if it were to slip… any number of the staff would sell me out to my Father in a heartbeat. I have to be careful. This is all I can tell her for now.

“I don’t like this,” she whispers. “You are entering a dangerous game. If your Father finds out…”

“Don’t let him find out,” I counter, pulling free of her grip. If I linger any longer, I will lose my nerve. I need to see them now.

My hands shake as I open the door. Moonlight spills into the hallway from the high, open windows on either side of me. I’d kept the heavy, silk curtains pushed against the far walls closed for months and months, refusing to accept that time was moving on without me. Anise had opened them this morning, when I’d announced I was finally ready to go out again. She’d hoped the fresh air would be good for me, truth be told, so had I. I didn’t expect so much to change in such a short time frame. 

There are guards on patrol outside the windows. A couple torches had been lit along the path through the gardens, bathing their armored heads and ridiculously large horse hair plumes in an orange glow. As a kid, I’d thought they were monsters when I’d see them in this light, stalking through the palace grounds; maybe I hadn’t been so far off.

Anise trails after me. “I will do it, but you will let me accompany you for this first.”

“No.” I should head out the side door and follow the footpath to the guest house, but I make a show of walking towards the kitchen instead. There is a servant’s passage through the cellar that will keep me out of sight. As far as the guards are concerned, I’m getting a snack in the kitchen with my maid. No one needs to know that I’m meeting the Illyrians. 

“Why are you…” she stops when we come to the kitchen. All the lights are off. The staff asleep earlier than usual so they can, undoubtedly, rise earlier in the morning in order to prepare bigger meals than they’re used to. They have to be in an uproar over the sheer amount of guards they’ll have to feed every day now. The House has not seen much attention in the last couple of months; I certainly wasn’t hosting any parties. 

“Is this a sex thing?”

I am grateful the dark hides the blush working its way up my neck and cheeks. “What!?”

“It’s not like you to sneak around, I’m just wondering if there’s something happening here between you and them?” She is the only other person that knows about the secret passages in the house. Mother had them built as a safety measure against intruders, and promptly found an excuse to execute the architect before he could show Father the plans. There are a number of false doors and hidden hallways throughout the house, a couple of secret exits and a panic room only accessible with a key I keep around my neck at all times. She was as paranoid as my Father, but at least hers had practical applications. And could now serve as a means to move around my house without arousing suspicion. 

“This most definitely is not a sex thing!” I hiss. 

I mean, yes, some sponsors do sleep with their champions. Hels, some sponsors sell their champions for a night of pleasure to the highest bidder. Amarantha and my cousins included. It was an abhorrent practice that I tried not to think about in the past, but the mere suggestion of it has me clenching my fists. Did she truly think I’d stoop to that?

“You’re being strange is all I’m saying,” she returns. 

“I don’t have time for this. If you’re going to insist on hovering, just make it look like we’re in here making a snack, will you?”

“Will you tell me why this is necessary?”

I pry the door that leads down to the cellar open slowly, conscious of how loudly it squeaks and trying to minimize the noise as best I can. “No.”

“Then I’m coming with!”

I slip behind the door and hold it nearly closed as she approaches. “Fine, we’ll talk when I get back. Happy?”

Even in the dark I can see her eyes narrow suspiciously. “Don’t get pregnant.”

“I’m not fucking them!” I hiss as I close the door. She’s impossible! Once she sets her mind on something, she just can’t let it go. At least she doesn’t try to follow me. 

There’s a slim set of stairs that leads down into the cellar lined with fae lights that flicker to life as I descend. Rows of dried meats and herbs hang from the rafters, casting eerie shadows over the shelf lined walls. The cellar is lined with rows of more shelves and barrels of wine, everything cataloged and arranged in alphabetical order. Our steward has always been exceptionally neat, and the concealed door in the backs sits connected to the wall where he keeps all his flour. I will have to remember to sweep the floor upon my return, just in case anything falls from the shelf and gives the door away. 

The door opens by turning one of the panels in the wood in a full circle, disturbing a sack of flour as it swings inward with a groan. The hallway is dark and dusty, a heavy layer of cobwebs disturbed by the door. I haven’t used this tunnel in years. 

I take one of the bobbing fae lights out of its perch on the stairs and carry it with me into the dark, making sure the door closes behind me, just in case any of the guards decide to come do a sweep of the place now that they’ve seen Anise in the kitchen. I can’t be sure of their orders, I have to assume that they will check on everyone in the house if there is the slightest deviation from the routine. Which also means I need to make this quick.

The silence of the tunnel is not good for my nerves, I find myself once again digging my knuckle into the knot in my chest. Without Anise to distract me, I’m once again consumed with the guilt of having to look at them after what I’d done. Not knowing why they’re asking to see me doesn’t help either. 

The tunnel slopes downward, filled with cobwebs and the occasional rat I startle back into holes in the walls. There’s some rain damage along the supports I should really have looked at, but updating these means having to tell someone about them, and that’s not an option. Not unless I wish for Father to find out about it, or worse, be forced into a situation where I have to consider killing an architect after rebuilding it as my Mother had done. There haven’t been any reasons for the tunnels since I was a child, I’ll avoid having to make any decisions on it until I absolutely have to. As long as the roof holds, I can make do.

Mother wanted to ensure that this place had multiple advantages, one of them being strategically placed and concealed vents for both air flow, and espionage. The vent hidden in the garden lets me hear the stomping of boots as the guards pass overhead. Some of them complain about the quiet as they pass each other, but it doesn’t sound like they’re yet suspicious of me moving around the house this late. 

I keep moving, comforted just a little by the fact that I don’t have to worry about dealing with them yet. 

The tunnel curves in a crescent shape to come around the back of the guest house, where there’s a door carefully hidden behind the lararium built for the Mother. The carefully carved statue of our beloved Goddess hides the door, and the altar serves as a deterrent to keep people from looking too close at the seams in the wall. It also hides the vent that lets me hear three, arguing voices, even in hushed tones:

“This is a bad idea, Rhys!” Cassian. 

“It is our only shot,” Rhysand shoots back. 

Their voices are so different: Cassian’s gruff and husky, Rhysand’s smooth and rich. Having them near soothes an anxiousness I didn’t know was inside me, I find myself drawn closer and closer to the door, just for a chance to listen to them speak. I’ve never had something as simple as a voice cause such an intense reaction before. All of this is so new and foreign; it will take some getting used to.

“I don’t care!” Cassian returns, the words sharp as a knife. “I don’t want anything to do with her.”

And just like that, my revelry is broken and that pesky knot in my chest returns. It is an effort to get a deep enough breath in, as if someone had sucker punched me right in the stomach. He really does hate me. It was one thing to think it, but it’s another to hear it so openly. I really have ruined this before it even had a chance to begin.

“She is our only chance,” Azriel chimes in, voice a hissed whisper. He sounds agitated, I can picture him pacing in front of the altar. 

“She’s his daughter! Am I the only one bothered by that?” Cassian protests. 

“That’s exactly why we need her,” Rhysand counters. 

Time slows to a crawl. Need me? Hope is a pesky, irritating, thing that I shove down inside me, even as my body moves to press itself against the door, waiting for them to continue. 

“We can’t trust her.”

“Yes we can,” Azriel retorts. 

I wonder if they can hear my heartbeat stuttering through the door--no matter that it’s waded so I can hear them and they can’t hear me, it’s so loud it still feels like a possibility. 

“What, because your shadows can smell that on her?” Cassian sneers. 

“Because I looked in her head,” Rhysand hisses, his voice rising. 

I know that I have a limited amount of time to do this, but I can’t bring myself to open the door, not with a confession like that. What does he mean he looked in my head?

“She’s terrified of him.”

“She could have fooled me. She didn’t look a bit terrified of branding us.”

“Because she didn’t brand us at all!” Rhysand snarls. “I did.”

“You hit your fucking head harder than I thought.”

“Asking for us to be spared threw Hybern off his game. Whatever plans he has for us got derailed because of her. And we need whatever edge we can get right now. When I slipped into her mind, she was panicking, she couldn’t do it and we would have all been fucked. I moved her hands around that iron, I touched it to your skin. Not her. She was so distraught over it I had to hold her upright the whole way back. Trust me, she liked it as much as you did.”

“But the collar…?” Cassian stammers.

“It dims a lot of my powers, but not all of them. I threw what I had out there. It only works when I’m close. Whatever she felt after we separated, whatever she’s doing now, I can’t get a feel.”

Rhysand was that invisible hand on me? I hadn’t just imagined it? How is that even possible? The twins are Daemati, but even they can’t reach into someone’s head and control them like that, especially with the gorsian chains in the way. At least, they’d never shown me they could. I suppose I’d never thought to ask.

“We have to act fast,” Azriel chimes in. “The quicker we get ahead of this, the more time we have to work around Hybern. Until now, he’s always been one step ahead of us. We’ve been playing his games on his terms. She… changes things.”

Does he know that we’re mates? Could that really mean something to him?

“Why are you so quick to trust her?” Cassian challenges. “Let's say what Rhys saw in her head is even real, because let's face it, she very well could be like the twins and been throwing those things up to see if you’d take the bait, but for the sake of the argument, sure they’re real. So what? What do you think she’s going to do here? Throw in her lot with us and help us overthrow her father?”

“Yes,” Rhysand says, as if it’s just that simple.

They can’t really be serious with this, can they?

“What could she possibly get out of it? She’s a spoiled princess who has not had to feel the effects of this Empire a day in her life! The best of this place has been handed to her and you think she’s just going to give that up to a couple of bastards like us?”

I dig my knuckle into my chest again, trying to ease the tension that feels like it’s trying to claw its way out of my skin. 

“You don’t get it,” Azriel hisses. 

“Explain it to me, Az!” Cassian shoots back. “Explain to me how the limited interaction we had convinced you that she’s a good person who would help us for the hell of it?”

“You don’t have to trust her, Cass,” Rhysand interjects. “That doesn’t change the fact that we need her.”

I take my lower lip between my teeth. I’m supposed to be saving them; I’m supposed to be getting them as far away from this place as possible and they want me to what? Overthrow my Father? It’s delusional. No one can outmaneuver him. Mother tried and failed. How many rebels has Amarantha executed? How many slaves have been carted from the far reaches, having been defeated for daring to oppose the Empire? Everyone that has ever gone up against him has lost and paid for it with their lives. I can’t let them do this. It’s suicide!

I get my hand on the hidden lock and turn. It’s my responsibility as a mate to save them from themselves. I have to put this foolish notion to bed. By tomorrow, Anise will have an answer about a way out of here. I just need them to stay put for the night and this mess will be over. 

I get the impression they are not males used to being taken by surprise, if the way they stand their gaping at me is any indication. Dark shadows wreath Azriel’s, still bare, shoulders, curling around his ears like they’re living things whispering in his ear. His scarred hands twitch over his hip, as if he’s reaching for a weapon instinctively, despite there being nothing there. 

Rhysand grins wolfishly as he leans a bruised shoulder against the doorframe, violet eyes once again roving over every inch of me. “Aren’t you full of surprises, Princess?”

“What if we had been indecent?” Cassian retorts.

“You’re barely dressed now,” I blurt before I can stop myself, though it is true. He’s stripped down to his boxers, using what was once a white towel, but it’s now brown, to clean up a gash across his thigh. Judging by the color of the bruising and the still forming scab, the wound is from before the arena. He needs to have it cleaned and looked at by a healer. I should be focusing on that. I should not be focusing on how large his thighs are, or imagining what it might feel like to sit in his lap.

Rhysand’s grin broadens like he can hear my thoughts, and then I remember that he can. 

Shit! I need to focus. I need to put my shields up, just like I do when I’m around the twins. Just because they’re my mates, doesn’t mean they’re incapable of using their abilities on me. Who’s to say, if Rhysand really is powerful enough to move me around like a puppet, even with the collar, that he won’t simply reach in and use me as he sees fit if I don’t cooperate. I don’t know anything about them. I have to be careful.

“We can strip down if you’d like?” He purrs.

“Did you make me come all this way just to harass me, or…?” I let the question hang there so I can give myself an extra second to reinforce my mental shields. 

“Sorry to pull you from your ivory tower,” Cassian snarls.

I instinctively take a step away from him, the venom behind each word enough to make me flinch despite myself. Azriel moves away from where he’s been sitting on the edge of the altar, effectively putting himself between us. “No, we didn’t.”

“Then what do you want?” My shields are in place, but I feel my confidence waning. I thought that this would be easy, that the bond would make everything click into place for us. They could trust me and I could trust them and this thing that tethered us together would put us at an even playing field. But it doesn’t. Our goals are off and I don’t know how to get them even, I don’t know how to get them to listen to me. 

“We want your help,” Rhysand says. 

“We need your help,” Azriel corrects.

I should just tell them that I heard them and skip all the repetitiveness, but there is a piece of me that worries I was naive before, and that they will tell me something different to my face. Maybe I’m the only one who feels the bond and they merely see me as something to be manipulated and used. I have to be sure.

“With what?” I ask.

“We want Hybern off the throne,” Rhysand explains. He hasn’t left his perch against the wall; though his gaze lingers on me, he gives me space that feels intentional. As if I’m a rabid dog he thinks might bite if it feels cornered. “We think you do too.”

“And why would you think that?” It is only from years of training that my voice doesn’t shake. How can they be so flippant about this? Saying those words out loud is enough to have their heads removed from their shoulders. The thought that any guard walking past might hear has me shaking, yet they don’t even flinch.

“He scares you,” Azriel says. His voice is already a low whisper, but it softens when he looks at me. A tendril of shadows slithers down his leg and across the floor, tentatively drifting across the pale tiles to come poke around at my ankles.

“He scares everybody and for good reason.” I need to keep my original goal in mind here. I’m here to get them out. They need to see the necessity of it. “Do you know how many people are dead because they underestimated him? No one is safe.”

“That’s why he needs to be stopped,” Rhysand presses.

Cassian folds his broad arms over his tattooed chest, frowning, but he doesn’t jump into the conversation. While Rhysand’s gaze is assessing, Cassian’s is cold, unyielding. He’s made up his mind about me. 

The fact that the others haven’t gives me more hope than I know I should have. They will have to leave anyway. I should hope they haven’t felt the bond, hope that it doesn’t convince them to stay. They need to be far, far away. But there is a small, desperate piece of me that clings to it anyway. 

“He can’t be stopped.” I bite back all the bitterness and rage that threatens to escape out of me and try to keep my tone even, unbothered. 

“You stopped him this afternoon,” Azriel counters as his shadow brushes up my calf like a phantom cat. They feel like a slight brush of breath against my skin, gentle and strange and I might giggle against the sensation if I wasn’t so focused on keeping my composure. 

I don’t kick it off either. A broken, desperate piece of me claws after the attention and blatant need for affection like a lifeline. 

“He listened to you,” Rhysand presses, doubling down when he sees me hesitate. Azriel isn’t wrong, though he’s not, technically right either. Still, he sees an opening and he swoops down like a vulture to take it. “No one else has that kind of influence.”

“It was a fluke,” I retort. “He was surprised. That won’t happen again.”

“It will if you keep surprising him,” Rhysand counters. “He has you, and everyone else, in a quaint little box, but if you deviate from the script he’s written for you, you can maneuver him where you want him.”

My hand goes instinctively to my bruised cheek, right as Azriel’s shadow comes slithering up my shoulder. It lets out a soft huffing sound as it follows my wrist to see what my fingers are doing. The shadow still curled around Azriel’s ear hisses softly, like the two are communicating. Maybe they are, given the way his eyes darken. 

“You cannot fight him.” I pull my hand away from my face a little faster than I mean to, and the shadow curls into my palm, inspecting the indents my fingernails had left earlier.  “You might as well quit while you’re ahead.”

“I wouldn’t call this being ahead,” Cassian huffs, turning his wrist to flash the brand I put there.

“I can find passage out of the Empire for you.” We’re going to run out of time if we keep standing here talking in circles. The guard will get curious eventually. They are bound to wonder why the lights are still on and no one is preparing for bed soon. “I should know by morning when it will be here.”

“If that’s true, why haven’t you taken it?” Cassian challenges.

Azriel takes a tentative step towards me. For someone so large, he’s surprisingly quiet on his feet. “I was terrified of my father too,” he says gently.

I can’t help but look at his hands. Had his father done that to him?

“I thought it was normal, how he treated me. I thought everyone was afraid of their father. I didn’t know any better until I got out. Until I met these two jackasses.”

Rhysand snorts a laugh behind him.

Cassian grumbles out a retort that sounds like it’s in another language. 

Azriel stops when he’s only a few inches away from me. I have to tilt my head back to look him in the eyes. “Sometimes you just need a little help. We can help each other, like you helped us earlier, right?”

I’ve lived around the ass kissing and political games of the palace long enough to know when someone’s trying to work an angle on me, and this isn’t one of those times. He means it. As hard to imagine that someone his size, someone who just took down a Giant and a bunch of Wargs, even with his wings broken, could be scared of anything, I believe him.

The bond warms, just a little. It’s nice, after years of feeling like no one could hear me when I whispered my complaints, to have a kinship with someone. I cling to that little shred of warmth like it’s a roaring fire amidst a blizzard. How long have I begged the Mother for even a shred of solace like this?

Perhaps that makes me weak. Perhaps I am a fool, but I want this. I want them. 

“A lot of good my help did,” it comes out in a whisper, like it’s dragging itself out of my throat. 

“But it does help,” Rhysand interjects. “Being your champions gives us an excuse to be close, and it gets us into places we couldn’t get before. You give us direct access to your father. That’s all we need.”

Azriel reaches out and brushes that loose strand of hair I’d pushed over my cheek behind my ear, scarred fingers brushing over my jaw with a feather light touch that is not unlike the one his shadow gives me. My whole body trembles all the same. 

“We won’t let anyone hurt you,” he promises.

I am entirely unprepared for that kind of promise. I’m supposed to be protecting them, not the other way around, but I’ve been on my own for awhile now, and I can’t help the way my body leans into that faint brush of his hand over my skin. Am I so starved for affection that even this feels like some grand gesture?

“We’re not asking you to do any fighting. You’re not challenging him.” Rhysand assures. “We merely need you to use these brands to your advantage. Drag us around with you. Show off the prize you’ve claimed like anyone else in the Empire would.”

My stomach twists. 

“Play the games the rest of the court plays, and we will do all the rest,” he assures. 

“I don’t understand how that helps you?” 

“For now, we need to observe his habits. There’s a parade tomorrow, right?”

Shit, I’d forgotten about that! 

“Yes.”

“Take us with you,” Rhysand explains. “Lots of people bring their champions out like bodyguards or trophies, right?”

“Or dogs,” Cassian hisses.

I wince. “Yes.”

“We don’t know much about the city. Just act like you’re showing us off so we can get a look around.”

He makes it sound so simple.

“And then what?”

He shrugs as he finally pushes off the wall. Though the touch had been brief, Azriel hasn’t moved out of my space, and seeing that it hasn’t sent me running, Rhysand takes this as a sign that he can move closer too. He’s just barely shorter than Azriel, and despite the fact that I inherited my Mother’s height, I cannot help but feel small next to them. I don’t think I entirely mind though.

 “Leave the strategies to us. The less you know what we’re doing and when, the safer you are. This is a long game, we have to take it one step at a time.”

“I don’t think you realize how dangerous playing this game with my Father is,” I warn. If anything were to happen to them because I didn’t insist on getting them on that ship in the morning, I’d never forgive myself!

He grins, flecks of starlight glinting in his eyes. He really is the most beautiful male I’ve ever seen, even with all the grime and blood on him. Which reminds me, they still haven’t seen the healer. Ember will never let me hear the end of it; I’m surprised she didn’t come with Anise to bust down my door. 

 “Let us do the worrying, Princess.” He’s very confident for someone who had just been thrown into a pit and been forced to fight a bunch of monsters. I hate to admit it, but that confidence worms its way through the bond like a rat chewing through a wall. No matter how hard I try to fight it back, a bit of it hits me anyway. Even without his presence inside my head, I feel safer when he’s near. 

My gaze flicks from him to Azriel for confirmation that this is something they have both agreed on, and he nods reassuringly. 

“You really think you can win?” I ask.

“Darling, there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for my people,” Rhysand vows. “Whatever it takes to see them free, I will do it.”

So much for me finding a way to get them out of here, they’re pretty determined to stay, influence from the mating bond or not. On one hand, if I do this, I can keep an eye on them; maybe I can find ways to rig another Game, can make sure they have everything they need to survive. On the other hand, this is crazy! We’re talking about taking on Hybern. Take him being my Father out of the question, no one has ever won anything against him, he’s always two steps ahead, always sees the outcome before it happens. 

I take my lower lip between my teeth again. I’m going to need a dark shade of lipstick in the morning to hide all the teeth marks I’ve undoubtedly left in it today. 

“Let’s say I agree, but only on a trial basis,” I begin, trying and failing to organize all my thoughts. The bond pulls me one way and rationale pulls me the other. I cannot find a happy middle ground. “If tomorrow goes poorly, will you get on the boat and leave the Empire behind?”

“Happily,” Cassian huffs.

Rhysand shrugs, “Ask me again tomorrow.”

I have a sinking feeling it’ll be the same answer tomorrow, but I’ll take whatever I can get, as long as it means there’s a shot at keeping them alive.

----------------

Tag List: @sirenpearldust, @saltedcoffeescotch, @littlemissfix-itfic, @waka-babe , @raisam

//

@anainkandpaper, @rafeecameronsbitch, @whothehelliskayleigh, @lifetobeareader, @blimpintime

//

@hjgdhghoe, @krowiathemythologynerd, @urfunnyvalentin3, @mack234-blog1, @kissesfromnovalie

//

@marrass , @lia-h-r

Thank you all for the comments and messages! As always, let me know if you'd like to be added to the tag List =)

I have so many thoughts. Maybe we’ll finally have a fic that leaves the drafts 👀👀

pretty girl reader who’s actually the sweetest person ever; unfortunately, no matter how kind you are, you’re still a flat broke college student with a heart bigger than your wallet. when your roommate keeps telling you to “use your face card to get us out of this shithole”, you tell her you can’t! she’s suggesting that you go on dating apps and plug your venmo so random men will send you money because they think you’re hot. you (unfortunately for her) have morals, so you think that’s the wrong thing to do. when the after school center you volunteer at doesn’t have enough funding to sponsor gifts for the kids, you finally give in and make the dating profile. you’re clear that the money is only to buy children’s gifts + you’re even willing to prove it by sending receipts of all the items you’ve bought with what you’re calling “donations”

enter in character. rich, hot character who’s focused on work but his best friend makes him a profile. he’s curious to see how his friend set it up and after getting the login info, he finds himself scrolling on the app, bored out of his mind. before he deletes it for good, deeming the app and the five minutes he spent on it a terrible waste of time, he lands on your profile. you’re beautiful, yes, but you’re… collecting money to buy gifts?

intrigued, he messages you. you message him back. you’re earnest and enthusiastic and even through a screen, he can tell: you’re a good person. you’re a genuine person. he doesn’t meet many people like that nowadays. so even after christmas is over and you’ve bought all the gifts, he still finds himself reaching out to you. you have a bright, overly optimistic perspective on everything, and he finds it endearing. he finds everything about you endearing.

just !!! him basically begging you to let him be your sugar daddy (without him ever explicitly using that phrase😭) man who wants to provide x oblivious reader who wouldn’t even take his money without at least doing something in return for him

The urge to make a character acct that people can like actively chat with me….

You’ve heard of one shots, now get ready for none shots! It’s when you think of an idea for a fic and then don’t write it

reblog only if you’ve received less than 1000 boops! we can all get each other to “max”

dumb thing i never posted

No bc I've only had tkdb for like 3 weeks and I've been inactive for the last two (life, uhg) and I just got to the chapter where Lyca is put into Obscuary and I already adore him.. he's just a dude I just love him so much AHHHGH

no you don't understand i literally ADORE them.

iwaizumi's favorite shirt is a faded old oversized godzilla tee that he's had since high school. the navy blue fabric has gone nearly threadbare in some places, the neck has certainly seen better days. and there's a finicky hole that needs to be re-sewn in one of the armpits before it gets too out of hand again.

oikawa, mattsun, and makki all learned the hard way at one point or another that one does not borrow iwaizumi's godzilla t-shirt—not even when one is camping and "iwa-chan, you're the only one who has a spare dry shirt left, and it's freezing out, you stingy bastard!"

so when you pad over to the front door early one fall morning to let the boys inside while iwaizumi finishes packing for their hike, you're met with several curious and somewhat dumbfounded stares when they see the shirt you're wearing as pajamas.

“IWA-CHAN, YOU FINALLY DID IT?!” oikawa calls out suddenly.

“does this mean i don’t have to keep it a secret anymore?” makki exhales in relief, fist-bumping mattsun.

“let me see the ring, he wouldn’t show me,” oikawa gestures impatiently toward your hand. “he’s had it for months.”

you blink in confusion. oikawa looks down at your very empty ring finger and also blinks in confusion.

“out. right now. all of you with your big, dumb, giant ugly mouths, get out,” iwaizumi barks from somewhere behind you.

it’s only once the front door swings shut and the entryway goes quiet that you finally turn around.

—and you find your boyfriend on one knee, his shirt halfway on and toothpaste smeared on his cheek.

“i did have this entire thing planned out for later tonight,” he sighs, smiling up at you, the diamond in his hand reflecting in the soft morning light.

(at the wedding, oikawa’s speech is a 5-minute monologue about how a 14-year-old iwaizumi once told him—after punching him in the face for trying to steal that very shirt from his closet—that the only other person he’d ever let wear it would be his future wife.)

girls will say omg he's just a boy loml!!!

and then its just this CertifiedBastard!

(im girls)

I love how emo he was when he was first introduced...

I love how emo he was when he was first introduced...

PLEASE!! boops for all!!!!!!!!!!

HOW MANY SPAM EVIL BOOPS UNTIL WE BECOME BOOP BESTIES AND MOOTS?!

Boop PSA, for Mobile Users:

To Boop - either tap the boop button next to someone's name or go to their blog and tap the cat paw icon

To Super Boop - go to someone's blog and hold the cat paw icon until it spins once, then let go

To Evil Boop - go to someone's blog and hold the cat paw icon until it spins twice, then let go

Can't Boop - either you or the person you're trying to Boop hasn't opted in yet

To Opt In - go to your feed and you'll see the boop-o-meter and the option to opt in

I'll update this when I know how to get certain badges and such.

No one:

Tumblr users on April Fools Day and Halloween:

I wish there was a counter for how many times you’ve booped someone, how am I supposed to make sure it’s the sex number, weed number or evil number