Art, story and OC by @seokanori. Check out her art on her website Seokanori.com.
Many thanks to @ainzaphir for beta-ing.
Splintered Minds - Chapter 31 / 39
“We need to talk,” Carlyle said.
T’Perro looked up from her scans of Ryder. The room was empty save for the three of them. She nodded, seemingly knowing what he was about to say.
“I can’t be her primary care doctor anymore.” The words fell out of his mouth in a lump. It lay at his feet like a dead thing.
T'Perro looked at him, the implication was clear. Harry wouldn’t allow anyone else to take over Ryder’s care. T'Perro knew what happened, there was no need to gain security clearance for someone new. She knew all the sordid little details. And despite the differences between Ryder and T'Perro, Carlyle trusted her.
He grimaced. The admission tasted sour. He had always prided himself on his logical and decisive decisions. But after two heart stopping events, it was like his world tilted to the side by half a degree and nothing was where they should be, but he couldn’t quite put a finger on what had gone wrong.
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She turned her back to Carlyle, a position she had taken so many other times, usually bent over a table. Almost achingly slow, she pulled the g-string on. “Some help?” she asked as winced.
Bending was a little beyond her at the moment. Carlyle sighed and pulled the thin fabric up her legs. The contact between skin was electric. And it went straight to her core.
Oh fuck, this is teasing me as much as it is teasing him.
Usually this motion was done in reverse and definitely never done in such a tentative manner. Her underwear never survive their encounter with Carlyle’s hands, teeth or whatever he used. The strap settled carefully on her hips, Carlyle took care to avoid her wound.
“Thank you.” She could afford some gratitude, after all he stuffed her insides back inside of her.
The jacket was slightly easier. He held it out for her as she threaded her arms into the sleeves. Her jaw tightening as she needed to twist her abdomen for it to work. His hand trailed up her back as he slid the jacket up her arms. It was subtle and it was unlike him.
She turned and looked at the doctor. A question rested on her eyes. His reply was a glare, not at her but at everyone else. “Mine, all mine,” it said, it was wild, feral and primal.
Ryder shivered, heat pooling where she liked it. His eyes flicked over to her. “Cold?”
(c) ‘Deadly Star’
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____________________________________
[ OC @mellowcornryder | @harrycarlyle | story by @natsora ]
[ this story is the part of the ‘Elements of Ryder’ series ]
OC and plot belongs to the multi-talented Seo Kanori / MellowCorn. Cover art as always by the awesome @seokanori. Check out her Tumblr, website, Instagram, Patreon, and Fiverr.
My thanks to @ainzaphir for taking on beta duties! Check out her writing at her AO3 and Tumblr.
Splintered Minds - Chapter 26
Ryder looked at Carlyle. She couldn’t really put a name on what emotion she was feeling. It wasn’t anger, it wasn’t disappointment, it wasn’t fear. His eyes studied her face, holding her gaze. He was looking for something, probably for any telltale sign of madness again.
No, I’m not mad. Someone was messing with my head.
But that thought just would’t stick. It felt like a lie. She had spent months living with the nightmares that eventually manifested in her waking world. Just because Carlyle came with this revelation, as much as she wanted to believe it, didn’t mean she could accept it as the truth just like that.
“Is that it?” she asked simply, her voice flat and emotionless.
Maybe this is a dream and I’ve not woken up.
Everything was too hard to comprehend let alone process. She wasn’t going mad, she was made to hallucinate on purpose. She wasn’t the Cutter, she hadn’t been murdering people during her missing time. But it didn't feel real.
Carlyle took a deep breath. “You’re tired, the sedatives is still lingering in your body. You should try taking some food.”
Before she could stop him, he left. It wasn’t merely Carlyle being a doctor and doing his duties, it looked like he fled. She did notice that he hadn't answered her. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Exhaustion weighed against her chest like an anvil.
OC and plot belongs to the multi-talented Seo Kanori / MellowCorn. Cover art as always by the awesome @seokanori . Check out her Tumblr, website, Instagram, Patreon, and Fiverr.
My thanks to @ainzaphir for taking on beta duties! Check out her writing at her AO3 and Tumblr.
Splintered Minds - Chapter 24
Carlyle checked the status of the transfer. 78.3% and rising. He rubbed his hand over his face, his mind recoiling at the reconstructed images forced into Ryder’s mind. An exhale carried the weight of his exhaustion. The horrors she was forced to live through over and over again made his chest ached, to think even himself was featured some of it.
Fuck.
He recognised the exchange they had just before she was arrested. He assumed she calmed at his presence, but really all she saw was the Archon. He wore the Archon’s fucking face, waving a syringe in her face. He had read the reports, this was exactly what had happened to her on the Archon’s ship. To live through it twice was unimaginable. She was nothing but scared motionless, cornered and trapped by her worst enemy.
It seemed all the answers were laid open. The only question remaining was who. Who was messing with Ryder and possibly framing her at the same time? But that wasn’t the main priority. He had to figure out a way to cut the access the real Cutter had to Ryder’s implant for good.
“SAM, do you know who has access to the master control?”
OC and plot belongs to the multi-talented Seo Kanori / MellowCorn. Cover art as always by the awesome @seokanori. Check out her Tumblr, website, Instagram, Patreon, and Fiverr.
My thanks to @ainzaphir for taking on beta duties! Check out her writing at her AO3 and Tumblr.
Splintered Mind - Chapter 25
Bright again. It ebbed and flowed. Lapping against her consciousness and then receding before she could grasp at it. Each wave reaching a little more, bringing muted sensations and muffled sounds.
She shuffled backwards, scooting on her bum and hands. Gone were the desolate wastelands, gone were the harpy and adrenaline of battle. She sat alone on an empty beach. The sun was barely rising above the horizon. The sand fine and soft under her skin. A gentle breeze caressed her bare skin.
It was peaceful.
She blinked. Her heart clenched in an odd way. It wasn’t pain in the physical sense, but it still hurt. She realised she could breathe, properly breathe for the first time in a long time. There was an unbearable need to laugh. It started low in her belly, a soft chuckle that erupted into a shoulder shaking, belly aching howl.
It was pure.
Eventually, she subsided into soft huffs. She stood, shoulder squared, back straight. A tentative toe dipped into the waves. It was cold, almost bone-achingly so. A wind swept through the beach, carrying sounds to her. Voices murmuring, tiny spikes of irritation and pain rippling across her awareness. She retreated, her smile gone. One last glance at the empty beach, she savoured the peace and quiet before sighing. “I’d be bored here anyway.”
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OC and plot belongs to the multi-talented Seo Kanori / MellowCorn. Cover art as always by the awesome @seokanori.
Check out her Tumblr, website, Patreon, Instagram and Fiverr.
My thanks to @ainzaphir for taking on beta duties! Check out her writing at her AO3 and Tumblr.
----
Heed the new tag for this chapter.
“Go away,” Ryder growled.
The gnawing in her guts had taken a new turn. They churned, they roiled. Acid sloshed around an empty cave, burning everything in its path. Biting, searing and eating itself. There was nothing left to devour but herself.
She was the Oroborous, slowly swallowing herself until nothing else was left. Sara Ryder would cease to exist and finally the world would right itself.
“I won’t,” Not-Scott replied. His voice was even and calm.
She blinked. No longer dressed in that black suit but the Initiative white and blue, Not-Scott stood with a frown across his face, arms wrapped around himself as if holding himself back.
“I’ll cut you if you come any closer,” she growled, her grip tight on the blade, sharp end protruding.
He didn’t even bother to heed her warning, stepping closer without pause, but the orange barrier shimmered between them. What ghost feared walls and barriers?
She surged to her feet and paced. “Why won’t you leave me alone?”
“Because you deserve this,” he replied. “This is all your fault. You’re the Cutter.”
OC and plot belongs to the multi-talented @seokanori. Cover art as always by the awesome Seo Kanori. Check out her Tumblr, website and Patreon.
My thanks to @ainzaphir for taking on beta duties! Check out her writing at her AO3 and Tumblr.
“Look at you,” Not-Scott said. He hovered over her head, his shadow dimming the light. “Utterly useless.”
Ryder groaned, turning her head away, squeezing her eyes shut. She couldn’t help the uncontrollable tremble that ran through her body.
“What good are you?” he went on, “tell me, please enlighten me.”
She clapped her hands over ears.
“What are you, five?” he sneered as he circled her.
Ryder could bear a lot. Physical pain was a sensation she could endure, it was no different from the physical discomfort that she experienced during training and her short career with the Alliance. Rumours of her apparent disregard of lives, the Nexus Leadership picking on everything single decision she made were mere gnats buzzing just beyond her reach. The voices in her head weren’t saying things that she hadn’t already heard from an actual person, they weren’t things she hadn’t thought of herself. But she was always able to compartmentalise and lock the door on those thoughts and irritations.
A @badthingshappenbingo prompt fill for “Caught in an Explosion”
Fandom: Mass Effect / Mass Effect Andromeda
Also a birthday gift fic for my partner in crime @seokanori. Happy Birthday woman! I hope you enjoy your birthday.
Sara Ryder is young, impulsive and completely reckless, or so Harry Carlyle thought. When a party is crashed by the Roekaar, Sara Ryder morphs right before his eyes, forcing him to reevaluate everything he knew.
Maybe Harry Carlyle never truly knew Sara Ryder after all?
It’s suggested you read Deadly Star for context.
READ IT ON AO3
“You remember the party is in two days right?” Kesh asked.
Ryder sighed. Tann wanted to throw a party, and as the human Pathfinder, she would have to attend. Well, she had intended to ignore the party invite until Kesh called. She transferred the call from her omni-tool to the terminal in her quarters so that she could strip off her armour as she talked. “Tann has refused to let me forget about it. He’s been sending me email after email about it.”
Kesh nodded. “You’re coming right?”
She popped the buckles from her armour and the pieces fell onto the floor in a messy pile. Kesh was looking up into the cam in between reading reports arrayed across her desk. “No,” she replied, shrugging. “Why the fuck do I have to be there? I have a lot of work to do.”
There was the telltale sound of datapads being dropped onto the desk and Kesh’s face came into view. “You can’t do this to me, Ryder.”
She ignored Kesh as she reached towards her back to get at the zip of her undersuit there. It was tantalisingly out of reach and it was pissing her off even more. Her fingers scrapped at the edges of the zipper only to fail to get a good grip on it.
She slammed her palms against the edge of the desk before straightening and held out a fist at Kesh. “I have kett bases to clear, missing colonists to find, and assholes to shake sense into all over the fucking cluster,” she listed out on her fingers before making another attempt on that fucking zipper. “Tell me why do you think attending is a fucking party is more important?”
Kesh sighed. “It’s not, but for my sake, for my fucking sanity, please.”
Ryder didn’t speak, she had finally gotten a good grip on the zip and managed to yank it down. She tugged her arms out of the sleeves, ignoring the horrible squeaking sounds they made as she worked them left and right to pull them loose.
“Come on, Ryder.”
One of the sleeves came loose with a pop.
“Ryder.”
The other sleeve too.
“Ryder!”
Kesh sighed and cleared her throat roughly. “You know that shipment you’re waiting for?”
That made Ryder stop. Her undersuit gathered around her waist as she braced her hands against the table to lean closer to the terminal. Interest lit her eyes up.
“I have it with me now,” Kesh went on.
“Great! I’ll swing by the Nexus once I have—”
“So…” Kesh interjected. “When are you coming by?”
“Not in two days…” Ryder raised a brow.
“Those bottles of ryncol might find their way to a certain party if you’re not around to keep them safe,” Kesh pointed out innocently.
Ryder met Kesh’s eyes and held her gaze. Neither spoke. In the end Ryder sighed and Kesh’s smile curved sharp, just showing her teeth slightly. Victory, quite obviously, tasted sweet on Kesh’s tongue.
