#drinkplay

The human he had been tasked (and generously paid) to assassinate was panting heavy breaths, soaked head to toe in the sweet autumn harvest pale ale and they looked like a drowned rat. Their clothes clung uncomfortably sticky to their body in awkward angles and slumped off of them around their shoulders. The jacket they wore had actually been the first thing that had disappeared down River’s throat with a hearty swallow of ale to mask it.

He hadn’t entirely realized it had happened until he’d noticed the human’s jacket they had worn when he’d put them in the glass had gone suspiciously missing.

“Not much of a talker, huh?” He mused lightly to the person standing drenched in the glass, a brow quirked in question and his lips turned down into a light frown.

How disappointing.

So far this person had had little to no fight. No survival instincts either, that was obvious. Sure, they’d screamed and cried and begged for their life as anyone else he did this to did but now they were stubbornly silent. Likely choked and half drowned from the overbearing rush of alcohol, but still, that was no reason to give up the battle so easily, was it?

Their tiny hands were pressed flat against the cool see-through material and even as River kicked his feet up and leaned back on the bench all the more, he could hardly make out the even tinier fingers.

The charm he’d planted on the person shone and pulsated lightly through the white sleeve that was now almost see-through itself.

“Fuck—” they panted, choking on the alcohol as they breathed in, “fuck you.”

“I get that a lot,” River snorted, finding his gaze moving back up to watch the sun fading over the skyline as he easily lifted the glass to his mouth again.

Pressing it against his bottom lip, he tipped it enough to force the rush of liquid back down toward him. Though his eyes were up and kept a careful lookout for any passersby—he didn’t actually want to get caught doing this, not really—he heard a shriek of terror.

The human slid along with the alcohol, unable to keep their balance as it rushed forward. They tried to skitter backwards but found very little purchase. As River kept his mouth open enough to let in the last swallow of drink, he felt the person’s whole body press against his upper lip as they struggled to right themself on the unsteady would-be ground.

The feeling of such minuscule hands was always fascinating. Fingers that were so deft and perfectly sculpted to someone and their size. It was a very faint feeling, but they were pressed firmly into the soft skin of his lip as if they hadn’t exactly realized where they were or what they were holding onto.

A low chuckle rumbled out through his chest and reverberated through them, and the person flung away from his mouth after they registered their actual proximity to the man. Especially when they didn’t want to be so close to the half-elf actively threatening their safety.

Once they had noticed that the glass had been tilted sideways enough to allow for them to stand on something a bit more solid, they stood as far away from River as they possibly could in that confined space.

Swallowing the rest of his mouthful, he licked what few droplets remained off his lips before focusing entirely back onto the shivering human standing as far back in the bottom of the glass as they could. Their arms were huddled tight up around themselves, hands wrapped around their biceps as their hair stuck to their face in awkward angles.

“Wh—” they wheezed, letting out a shocked gasp as they slipped on the glass below them since their shoes had suspiciously gone missing now as well. They kept watching him warily as they regained their unsteady balance. “Why are you doing this to me?”

He hummed quietly in response, almost as if he was feigning being in thought. Truthfully, there was no reason to lie to this poor soul. They were already doomed to the evening in his stomach, so it didn’t really matter what they did and didn’t know. “Someone paid me to get you out of the picture. Client didn’t specify how they wanted it done, only wanted proof that I’d finished the job. I’m just fulfilling my end of the bargain.”

They stammered, coughing a little as they choked on the information he gave freely. “Wh-what?!”

“Seems like you’ve made a few enemies in your lifetime,” River continued unheeded, tipping the glass further and further until it was right-side up once more and the human had found themself once again huddled against the furthest wall of the cup from River.

And now with no alcohol left, they knew they were the last thing of interest within it. With how he was talking, they had a good idea they knew what he was planning.

“That’s— that’s not what I meant!” They demanded, a little sharply and when River quirked a brow in response, they almost immediately lost their bite. However, their stubbornness seemed to win out, but not by much. “How– how is this fulfilling your end of the bargain?!”

“Oh.” He was actually a little surprised by that question, it wasn’t one he’d ever gotten before. At least, he didn’t think so. “I just wanted to do it this way.”

What little colour was in their face drained out at the nonchalant admittance.

River raised the glass a little further up, closer to eye-level as he studied the person within the bottom of it. He gave them a sly smirk, showing off those pearly whites in a threatening display of power. “I will say, I’ve found this encounter incredibly amusing, however.”

“Do you really have to do this?” They pleaded helplessly, trying to beg for what little sympathy he may have.

“I’m just doing a job,” River shrugged, “it’s quite literally nothing personal, Snack Size.”

“But,” they tried to gather their thoughts, easily intimidated by the sudden proximity River had put between them but still trying to form a coherent sentence. “But why; why like this?

River hummed lowly, tilting the glass this way and that, watching bemused as the tiny person inside scrambled to try and keep their balance as he swirled the empty glass again. “Convenience.”

They spluttered, almost looking offended. “Convenience?!”

“Aye,” River allowed, pulling the glass down and covering the lip of it when he caught sight of someone moving in his peripheral vision.

An older gentleman with a cane crossed by and nodded to the young half-elf sitting on the bench.

“Evening,” the older man said with a soft smile and a gentle attitude.

“Evening sir,” River offered back with a tilt of the head.

It was only polite and if they had a brief and genuine interaction, the old fella wouldn’t get suspicious. For all the gentleman knew, River was just enjoying the last warm rays of the day.

Which in a way, he was. But he was also enjoying a much more savory scene.

He’d also known that covering the mouth of the cup had been the right move, as the human from within had immediately tried to scream for help. And as muffled and as small as they were, evening the slamming of their fists and bare feet against the glass wasn’t enough to draw any extra attention.

Once the old man was out of sight, River uncovered the glass again and brought them right back up to eye level.

Fast enough that he had knocked them back onto their ass. Rubbing the back of their neck, they startled away from the side River was closest to once more when they realized there was very little space between them and the glass wall separating them from the predator that was still actively hunting them.

River quirked a brow, tilting his head to the side. “You’re not very good at this, are you?”

“Am I supposed to be?” They snarled back, cold and angry. “I’m not the one torturing another person!”

“Sure,” River allowed with a nod of the head. That hadn’t been entirely what he was asking, but at least they were attempting to bite back now. “But this whole calling for help thing, as futile as it is. You should know that a hand muffles glass.”

“There’s a first time for everything you inconsiderate asshole!”

He gave the human a bit of a look, before a shrug that quickly followed with a ‘fair enough’ gesture.

But with how little this person was actively trying to fight back, he found himself growing bored and the grumbling of an empty stomach was starting to weigh in the back of his mind. It’d been a few hours from lunch by now and he had meant to get something light to eat earlier to tide him over, but had been led to believe the human he’d been tasked to take care of would have been bigger. Not some scrawny little wiry dickhead with hardly any meat on his bones.

So, without another word River brought the glass right back to his mouth and pressed it into his lower lip to cushion the rim.

A short shrill shriek echoed out through the glass and he paused. And then pulled the glass away. Not enough to allow the human breathing space, but enough to consider his next course of action.

“I can’t believe—” the person wheezed hysterically, but they laughed relieved. “I can’t believe that actually worked! You wouldn’t.. you wouldn’t actually eat me, right? This is just some elaborate joke, right? You’ll let me go?”

River ran his tongue over his teeth, clearing out the last of the alcohol flavour that rested in his mouth.

“Tell that to your missing shoes and jacket,” he mused, using the back of his hand to uncomfortably stifle a hiccup that tried to crawl up his throat.

With that being said, River’s tongue actually managed to find one of the two missing boots and he used the pinky of his free hand to dislodge it, used his tongue to flick it to the back of his throat and swallow it down.

“We can call it even, fake it till you make it and all that!” They stammered, watching with wide eyes as River licked his lips, the half-elf’s eyes darkening ever so slightly. Their nervous laughter turned a bit more uncontrollable, slipping against the glass as the distance was once again closed between their final barrier and River. “The jacket and boots were ugly anyway, I’ve been meaning to replace them! S-so no hard feelings, aye?”

Their eyes flickered down to his lips again, their mind racing with the amount of times they had now seen the inside of his mouth. The darkness at the back of the throat, the wetness of the tongue that was bigger and more powerful than they now were, those slightly pointed canines.

As the mouth itself split open wide in front of him and they resisted the urge to shriek again, instead clamping their hands against their mouth.

However they couldn’t help the gasp that slipped out through gaps in their fingers as River tilted the glass enough to force them to press up against the side of the wall where his tongue was also actively pressed up against the outside. With a shriek and a scramble, they tried to right themselves again but were struck with a nauseating sense of vertigo.

Their hands were flat against the glass where they could see directly down into the throat that eagerly awaited them. They hadn’t missed the telltale sounds of a stomach growling, they knew that feeling and that sensation all too well.

“No! No, no!” They couldn’t go anywhere and they watched helplessly as the tongue itself advanced further and further up the glass right until the mouth was an open cavern at the top of the glass once more. “Please, don’t!”

But River didn’t acknowledge them with a response. Seemed they were past the point of discussion and there was one destination left for them.

The glass began to tilt enough to send the human into an uncontrollable slide against their own volition, until they slipped out of the glass entirely and into those awaiting jaws. With a wet splat, they landed hard on the base of the tongue and before they had a chance to react the lips sealed behind them and they were thrown into pitch darkness.

Though they’d seen enough of his mouth to know exactly what it looked like.

What they weren’t prepared for was to immediately be pushed to the side and shoved right up into a cheek, held there by the tongue as saliva began to raise around their person. They tried to shove their hands into the soft flesh, but found that it had too much give to put much distance between them and some breathing room.

A low hum began to emanate from the back of that throat and the human was swished back out from their space in the cheek, only to then be squished up against the roof of the mouth, and then sloshed carelessly side to side.

River had even managed to catch their wrist between two of his teeth and they’d frozen, waiting in that dark silence for him to bite down and snap it off. Just to be released, swished around again and they spluttered. The saliva was sticky and the mouth was uncomfortably hot and enclosed, and it was obvious that River didn’t care.

That they had become nothing but an unfortunate afterthought.

Setting the now empty glass to the small round table that was sat beside him, River sunk a little further back onto the bench he was sitting on. His arms propped up against the back of the seat.

Sloshing the person idly around his mouth, getting as much of their flavour as possible. It had a little bit of a kick to it and it took him a moment to recognize the flavour, but it was cinnamon. A long press up against the hard palate of his mouth and River was sure it was cinnamon.

When he’d been drinking the ale, that flavour itself had changed a little bit to incorporate what the human tasted like. The harvest ale with a hint of cinnamon hadn’t been a bad mix and there was a part of him that regretted not saving at least a little bit of the drink. But he could always go in and get another.

Actually, he mused quietly, tilting his head to the side to help move the person into another cheek.

Pushing up from the bench he’d just gotten comfortable on, he pushed open the door back into the tavern and returned to the bar.

It didn’t really take a game of charades, easily talking around the human in his mouth.

After ordering another harvest ale, River was once again settled back in his seat outside where it was noiseless save for the odd time the door opened and he heard someone shouting drunkenly from inside. The scent of the tavern that was filled with unwashed men was the fastest way to help him lose his appetite. At least what little of one he usually had.

The human inside was still trying to scramble for purchase, but with his new drink in hand and wanting to get started on that, River gave them one last long swipe up the front and back of the person, which left them gagging and spluttering in response.

After he was satisfied that it would be a smooth trip down the gullet, he swiftly tipped his head back and the human screamed as they realized what had changed.

A loud swallow echoed around them as their hands and head were sucked down into the tight, compact space. One final deafening swallow was what sent them fully on their way down.

River ran his tongue around his now empty mouth as his passenger made their way down to the stomach and cleared out the rest of the cinnamon flavour that lingered. A familiar and comfortable weight dropped into his gut and get let out a satisfied noise in response to it.

Kicking his feet back up onto the spare chair across from him, he lifted the new mug of ale to his mouth and drained a few mouthfuls of if. The faint shouts from inside and the fluttering of tiny hands and feet against the walls of his stomach made him chuckle lowly.

Resting a hand over his midsection as if to try and settle the rumbling, River would let them struggle and beg and scream as much as they wanted.

The human was gone to the world and was already quickly being forgotten by the man that had doomed them to that fate, where his newfound interest had been diverted to the harvest ale he now got to enjoy fully.