OneWhoTurns

A/N Nov 2018: A heads up for some self-blame and anxiety this chapter. Just a content warning.
A/N Oct 2018: So many tropes that I adore. People being decent to others who are under the influence is one of them. If you want to read some of my actual posted stuff: AO3, FFnet, and if you’re curious about a ko-fi preview of 4-2.

Story Title: Iron & Gold
Chapter Title: Flight
Chapter Part: 1/3
Story Part: 12/?
Pairing: Emily/Outsider (emsider)
Word count: 1750
Rating: T maybe M
Summary: Ever since she was a child Emily had been cautioned: beware the fae. She’d heard the typical warnings – faerie rings, wishing wells, mysterious lights in the darkness. But they were just cautionary tales... [A Dishonored fae AU]
start here (prelude), previously (3-3), next part (4-2)

She was hungry. She felt so empty without the taste of sunshine that had filled her with such joy, such warmth - such complete delirious contentment. She’d tried to clean it all off of her, slurping at the fabric of her dress, licking her fingers raw, but there was nothing left. But she’d been told to wait. That if she waited there would be more. So she did.

A/N Oct 2018: The continuation of the faeU! In which we meet Delilah. Elsewhere: my AO3, FFnet, ko-fi preview for 3-3.

Story Title: Iron & Gold
Chapter Title: The Usurper
Chapter Part: 2/3
Story Part: 10/?
Pairing: Emily/Outsider (emsider)
Word count: 2333
Rating: T maybe M
Summary: Ever since she was a child Emily had been cautioned: beware the fae. She’d heard the typical warnings – faerie rings, wishing wells, mysterious lights in the darkness. But they were just cautionary tales... [A Dishonored fae AU]
start here (prelude), previously (3-1), next part (3-3)

Emily felt her head pounding and breath shallow even as she held her head high, irritated but not altogether ungrateful for the unyielding holds of the women who guided her back to the royal palace. Her legs were trembling. Had she been asked to walk on her own, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to stay as composed.

A/N Oct 2018: Elsewhere: AO3, FFnet, and the preview on ko-fi for the next section. It seems that the “2″ section of the fae au is a bit more segmented than 1. But - of course - I’m a sucker for drawing out anything before a kiss. Speaking of kisses...

Story Title: Iron & Gold
Chapter Title: An Offer
Chapter Part: 4/4
Story Part: 8/?
Pairing: Emily/Outsider (emsider)
Word count: 1673
Rating: T
Summary: Ever since she was a child Emily had been cautioned: beware the fae. She’d heard the typical warnings – faerie rings, wishing wells, mysterious lights in the darkness. But they were just cautionary tales... [A Dishonored fae AU]
start here (prelude), previously (2-3), next part (3-1)

Emily didn’t notice it at first. She assumed the leaves that brushed her slippered feet were just more of the forest floor, overgrown with roots and weeds as it was. It was only when she tried to move toward him that she realized her feet were tangled in ivy. She blinked at them in confusion, and saw them continuing a slow weaving pattern, trapping her there. Startled, she looked to the faerie. “Did you-” She fell silent as he rested his finger on her lips. Not a single word came to her tongue as she watched in dawning awe at the subtle changes taking place.

A/N Oct 2018: Here comes some more of the fae au! My AO3 and FFnet and a preview on ko-fi for 2-3. Comments, likes, and reblogs are all massively appreciated!

Story Title: Iron & Gold
Chapter Title: An Offer
Chapter Part: 2/4
Story Part: 6/?
Pairing: Emily/Outsider (emsider)
Word count: 1491
Rating: PG (higher rating later chapters)
Summary: Ever since she was a child Emily had been cautioned: beware the fae. She’d heard the typical warnings – faerie rings, wishing wells, mysterious lights in the darkness. But they were just cautionary tales... [A Dishonored fae AU]
start here (prelude), previously (2-1), next part (2-3)

He never spoke, she observed distantly as they walked just slightly faster than meandering, her escort seeming to know exactly where he was going. His face was expressive, smile small and disconcertingly polite, but he made no attempt to speak a word. She couldn’t drag her eyes away from him. The moon turned his hair a rich blue black even as it bleached every creamy fold and glittering flower of her dress white. Her breath was calmer than it probably should have been, watching how his fingers just barely supported her hand, a delicate whisper of skin on skin that felt effervescent.

Story Title: Iron & Gold
Chapter Title: The Queen
Chapter Part: 3/3
Story Part: 4/?
Pairing: Emily/Outsider (emsider)
Word count: 965
Rating: PG (higher rating later chapters)
Summary: Ever since she was a child Emily had been cautioned: beware the fae. She’d heard the typical warnings – faerie rings, wishing wells, mysterious lights in the darkness. But they were just cautionary tales... [A Dishonored fae AU]
start here (prelude), previously (1-2), next part (2-1)

“If I may?”

Before she could protest, the young lord stepped away. Emily’s eyes narrowed at the man who took his place, though she accepted his hand on her back without comment. He said not a word, and his silence was intriguing. She studied him carefully as they danced.

Story Title: Iron & Gold
Chapter Title: The Queen
Chapter Part: 1/3
Story Part: 2/?
Pairing: eventual Emily/Outsider (emsider)
Word count: 1530
Rating: PG (higher rating later chapters)
Summary: Ever since she was a child Emily had been cautioned: beware the fae. She’d heard the typical warnings – faerie rings, wishing wells, mysterious lights in the darkness. But they were just cautionary tales... [A Dishonored fae AU]
start here (prelude), next part (1-2)

Ever since she was a child Emily had been cautioned: beware the fae. She’d heard the typical warnings -- faerie rings, wishing wells, mysterious lights in the darkness. But they were just cautionary tales, names of people she’d never met, stories about a land where things were so beautiful they would drive men mad. She’d never known a family that thought itself to have a changeling. She’d never spotted a brownie dusting up the corners of the castle. No faerie-gifted musicians or craftsmen had ever taken work in the royal palace.

When she was ten - when her mother was murdered - things changed. Years later Emily struggled to remember that day-- those months. People grabbing her, pulling her away as she screamed for her mother, watching glassy eyes that stared unblinkingly to the sky, fingers digging into her shoulders as she shrieked and wailed. Some time - days? weeks? - locked up in a room with only masked jailers to bring her sustenance. Losing herself in daydreams of how her mother was fine, and how she’d have every guard and soldier and knight in the kingdom looking for her daughter, how Corvo would come for her. Every time she heard swords clashing she’d imagine it was him, on the warpath to come rescue her. But it never was. Then she’d been moved.

A/N Sept 2018: So I wrote this a while back, and intended it to be part of a longer fic, with this as the ‘jumping right into the deep end’ nightmare prologue, but it works well enough as a standalone ficlet. I may end up posting on AO3/FFnet, I may not. For more of my work - AO3, FFnet, ko-fi. This one is... dark. Gory. Perhaps depressing. But, as I said, it’s a nightmare.

Title: beastly
Chapter: 1/1
Characters: Emily Kaldwin
Word count: 2289
Rating: T/M for canon-typical gore
Summary: Emily has a nightmare?

Emily felt the sting and burn of the blade cutting into her flesh even as she ducked and dodged, but, true to her training, she didn’t falter. A flash of steel and one attacker fell, grabbing at his sliced tendon, a thud and he was out cold thanks to a heavy blow to the temple. She tried not to kill them. She’d been trying. But her non-lethal ammo ran out after the first ten or twenty and they seemed to keep coming.

Her Void-given abilities had helped take them down efficiently at first, but she only had so much energy. The bodies had begun to pile up. For a fairly large room, there wasn’t much space to maneuver around the unconscious bodies that littered the floor.

How long had she been fighting? It felt like ages, though she knew it couldn’t have been that long -- time seemed to slow in a fight, but it couldn’t have been more than eight minutes. Still, eight minutes was an eternity. Most fights were over in one, maybe two. But - seven strictures - they kept coming.

A/N Aug 2018: So I kept writing. And I’m still working on it, on page 13 now... It’s devolved. Gotten a bit... smutty. As expected, I suppose. Regardless, here’s some more. Feel free to find me on AO3, FFnet, or buy me a ko-fi.

Title: The Rhyme of the Rosewater Hag
Chapter: 2/3
Pairing: Emily/Outsider (emsider)
Word count: 2743
Rating: T bordering on M
Summary: “That’s a lie.” // “May the Outsider claim my lying tongue if it is.”
start here (1/3), next part (3/3)

“Your little friend was right, you know;”

She gasped in surprise, and immediately cursed herself, expecting to choke on icy water, but whatever she was breathing-

“The Hag isn’t someone to trifle with.”

A/N Apr 2018: Eh, it’s not much, but here’s a little bebe scene. Grumpy Emily took a tumble. 

Word count: 485
Rating: PG

“This is beyond unnecessary.” She shot him a sidelong skeptical glance but he paid no attention, a pair of tweezers in one his hands as he examined one of hers under lamplight. “…Really, I’ve had much worse,” she added, clenching her jaw briefly as he plucked free a particularly nasty sliver of glass.

Title: Roving Feet
Chapter: 2/2
Pairing: Emily/Outsider (emsider)
Word count: 3143
Rating: T, bordering on M -- fade to black
Summary: “Come on in, Empress.” His voice was even, relaxed, and when she blinked into dark vision she saw him around the corner of the window, facing inward, as though waiting for her to appear. So she did.
start here (1/2)

She didn’t visit him for a long time after that. She covered her fear with anger. He was manipulating her. She shouldn’t feel bad for the man, he didn’t want her pity -- but maybe he wanted her anger. Was that what he wanted? For her to be mad at him? He seemed to teem with some surging writhing something and parsing out just what that was was beyond her. She didn’t have the energy to invest.

The Outsider became just another subject she was briefed on. How his health was, plans for integrating him into society. He would need a name.

“Will we give him a title?”

Corvo seemed surprised at her question. “I… hadn’t considered it.”

She avoided her father’s eyes, keeping her tone blasé and her eyes glued to the papers she perused. “It seems he would be useful to have on hand in case of any… Void-related occurrences.”

Her father’s body stilled and his eyes narrowed. Maybe she was a little too eager. “...Void-related occurrences,” he repeated, just barely holding back his incredulity.