margins of the known cosmos.

Trapped against the wall, no immediately obvious means of escape, one hand in her possession and the other stuck behind his back...in any other scenario, Ryker may have been concerned, but here? Now? The thrill of the moment made his heart hammer in his chest, adrenaline coursed through his veins and the promise of mischief shone in his emerald eyes. He'd missed this; missed her. Wren was one of the few people he could truly let his guard down around: no hesitation, no doubt. It was a rare feeling for him, the feeling of being able to trust someone so completely and be trusted in return; to know that whatever happened, if one led the other would follow.

He'd be lying if he said there weren't other feelings there as well. Comfort, familiarity, safety. Lust. Fuck, every time he saw her there were so many thoughts running through his head. Every time she peeled off her armour, every time she swept her hair back from her neck, every time she smiled, swore, cursed at him...every time she existed he had scenarios playing out in his mind. But he'd never admit that: Wren had more important things to focus on, she needed a familiar face now, not someone dreaming about pushing her down onto the deck and-

A grounding breath later and Ryker was back in the moment, listening to Wren as she expressed her playful disappointment. The smirk only grew as spoke. "Predictable? Maybe. But you can't deny it works: I either win the fight or I have a woman on top of me. I can't see where I lose there." Softening his expression, he tilted his head down towards his captor, the tip of nose mere millimetres away from brushing hers, as the hand between the wall and his back began to glow. "You are stunning, Songbird." The grin returned just as Ryker used his biotics to drag a loose cable across the deck towards the unsuspecting Commander. "...bet you look fantastic on your knees." With a wink, the cable wrapped around Wren's legs and yanked her to the ground.

Rolling his shoulders, Ryker placed some distance between himself and his opponent before ending his biotic hold on her and readying his fists again. "Did you really think you'd win that easily?"

Wren grins at his shamelessness. She continues to hold their positions, interested in where he’s taking his line of commentary. “Some mixed signals there. I thought y―” She’s cut off as she startles at the feel of cable rapidly wrapping around her legs, yanking her down before she has the chance to react.

Hitting the floor with an oof, she scrambles to disentangle herself, only to find the cable still tightened by his biotics ― clever trick, she has to admit, though fuck if she’ll express her admiration to him. Once she’s able to toss the cable, he’s too far for her to yank him down with her.

“Thought you wanted me on top of you, rather than on my knees,” she finishes her line as she sits up. She half-glares, half-pouts up at him through disheveled hair. “Using your biotics? Cheating,” she complains, half-heartedly. “If you wanted to tie me up, all you had to do was ask me nicely.” It’s definitely not unexpected in the slightest. Ryker wouldn’t be Ryker if he didn’t fight at least a little dirty; Wren’s not above that, herself, not even in sparring if that’s how it’s going to go, but she only has her brawn and her wits; she can’t play dirty with biotic abilities.

The shakiness of Van’s voice pierced through her chest like a knife, twisting deep right into the heart. Taissa hadn’t meant to scare her— but it was no surprise Van had woken up and immediately freaked upon discovering she’d managed to wiggle free from her hold and sneak out of the cabin on one of her late night ventures without anyone noticing.

She’d started to sleep walk again. Almost walked right off the snowy cliff’s edge this time following the eyeless entity that haunted her dreams and wouldn’t leave her alone. Taissa had thought it’d stopped. For a while— being wrapped up in Van’s strong arms seemed to help. But even her embrace couldn’t fully cure her. Thankfully, she hadn’t hurt herself.. not this time. Sure, she’d almost fallen to her death.. but Van didn’t need to know that.

“Hey, hey, no. Shh..” Her voice softened the way it only did around Van, a frown furrowing her eyebrows together as she pulled her girlfriend into a tight hug. Taissa felt terrible. Van had already been through so much. There was a lot on her plate. And now, she had to shoulder the burden of a sleep walking girlfriend every night who could possibly get herself killed.

Pulling away just enough to look at her, Taissa’s hands came up to caress Van’s face, thumb gently tracing her scarred cheek. “I’m here. Look at me. I’m right here. I’m sorry.” She repeated quietly, before ducking down to press a lingering kiss to her forehead. “How long have I been gone..?”

Van feels like she’s just gained some security in at the very least having Tai in her arms as they slept. That maybe she didn’t have to worry about Tai’s sleepwalking, anymore. That maybe she could sleep peacefully, not waking up to every little twitch and turn Tai made in her sleep ― she was there, she was safe. And now Van’s woken up alone in their blankets, the rest of the cabin in a quiet slumber, oblivious to her distress ― and though she’s found Taissa now, or Tai’s found her, she’s not so sure anymore ― her heart still has her in what feels like a chokehold, a trapped animal inside her ribcage.

She clings to Tai; she doesn’t want to let go, still holding onto the hem of Tai’s shirt with both shaking hands even as Tai withdraws enough to look at her. The moon is out to illuminate the woods, its light reflected from the snow, and it’s cold, but in a soft way, not bitingly freezing; the snow is heavy, everything muffled in its blanket. Instinctively, Van closes her eyes as Tai kisses her forehead. Her heart beats a little slower.

“I don’t know,” she says, her voice small, lips trembling; she stares at the ground, worried she might cry if she truly looks at Tai right now, she’s so frightened. “I woke up and you weren’t there, so I came to find you, and, and...” They’re not that far from the cabin; Tai must have woken up and been making her way back.

As her panic begins to dissipate, a twinge of shame stabs her ― here she is, making Tai feel like she has to apologise and calm the situation. It’s always Tai, the stoic one, the strong one. When it should be Van making sure her sleepwalking girlfriend is OK, making sure this wouldn’t even happen, how could she have let this happen...

Character updates:

Added characters:

Baldur's Gate: Astarion Ancunín, Minsc, Shadowheart

Blindspot: Jane Doe, Rich Dotcom, Roman Briggs

Mass Effect: Legion, Mordin Solus

Supernatural: Jody Mills

Yellowjackets: Van Palmer

Original characters: Vivian Wright

(Moved from her previous blog, Mass Effect/Original character: Wren Shepard)

These are (aside from Wren), for now, on a test muse status, though I have very high inspiration for some, and am more hesitant on others. E.g. Astarion has been shouting at me in my brain for over a year at this point for me to write him... I just don't want to put anyone directly to non-test muse status like I've sometimes done before. Fifteen and Jake also still remain on this status even though they were added much earlier.

Dropped characters:

Chloe Price

Eloise Bridgerton

Ever Hayes

Mary Stuart

River Song

I had no threads or dynamics for anyone except Ever, and I've messaged everyone I had threads with about dropping her. (Not that I drop characters because they have no interactions - I just usually don't drop characters who do have interactions.)

Activity status changes (if I can remember):

Wren Shepard technically added to primary status, but she had her own blog before so... same status...???

Jillian Marks: from primary to secondary

The TARDIS: from primary to secondary

Garrus Vakarian: from secondary to tertiary

Lucius Spriggs: from secondary to tertiary

Rules changelog - it'd be nice if you either skimmed this post, or re-read my rules page; however, nothing major has changed (in my opinion?) so I'm not going to tell current mutuals they have to re-read. I'll make individual posts about some of the more important (in my opinion...) stuff as well.

Send a dialogue tag and/or a # for reverse aka for receiver perform a chosen action on sender.

OBJECTS.

Send "knife trail" for sender to trail a knife along receiver collar bone.

Send "gun tilt" for sender to tilt receivers chin up with a gun.

Send "knife hand" for sender to stab a knife between receivers fingers.

Send "bat" for sender to smash a bat against head.

Send "axe" for sender to throw an axe at chained up receiver.

Send "roulette" for sender to play russian roulette with receiver for information.

Send "crossbow" for sender to shoot receiver with an arrow while they are running away.

Send "sling" for sender to choke receiver in a sling.

Send "plane" for sender to hold receivers head out of a plane.

Send "crossbow" to hold receiver at gunpoint with a crossbow.

Send "flail" to taunt receiver with a flail.

PHYSICAL.

Send "finger trail" for sender to trail their finger along receivers temple.

Send "grip" for sender to harshly grab receivers chin between their fingers.

Send "smash" for sender to smash receivers head against a wall.

Send "throat" for sender to hold receiver against a wall and cut off their oxygen.

Send "finger" for sender to bend receivers fingers back.

Send "chains" for sender to chain receiver up and torture them.

Send "yank" for sender to grab receivers hair and yank their head back.

Send "slavic squat" for sender to slavic squat down in front of receiver, taunting them.

Send "corner" for sender to walk toward receiver, cornering them.

Send "hand offer" for sender to hold out hand to receiver after they have tortured/hurt them.

Send "gun mirror" for sender to force receiver to hold a gun to senders head in a mocking way. (Works best when receiver is scared and trembling *eyes*)

LOCATIONS.

Send "mausoleum" for sender to kidnap receiver and take them to a mausoleum.

Send "forest" for sender to take receiver to a forest and tell them to run, hunting them down.

Send "boat" for sender to kidnap receiver and hold them captive ono a boat drifting away on the ocean.

Send "alley" for sender to finally have cornered receiver in an alley after hunting them down.

Send "house" for sender to show up at receiver's house after receiver had just run for their life from them.