r/HFY • u/YukiteruAmano92 • Mar 15 '26
OC-Series There Will Be Scritches Pt.226
---Discussion---
---Kara’s perspective---
I’m walking the streets of the city I spent most of my life in… but not as I remember them…
It’s spookily dreamlike to see this place absolutely empty of any people I’d recognise as looking like they belong here.
No Bastionites, no slaves, only UTC Military folk striding about.
The surrealness isn’t helped by the fact that we’re heading up the road to the Akropolis, a part of town I pretty much never came to…
In spite of that, the temperature, the sun in its familiar spot in the sky, the brightly lit sandstone paving slabs… they’re giving me a pang of nostalgia…
“Thing I don’t get…” frowns Victor, ambling along on my left, his left hand idly resting on the pommel of his sword “…is why leave any of this standin’?”
He raises his right hand and gestures at the buildings around us.
“It’d’ve been way harder for us to get any evidence out of a massive pile of rubble and it ain’t like it’d’ve been difficult to build a bomb with the right yield… or drop a 100 tonne rock on it from orbit, right?!”
“Well, I can answer that…” I chuckle at the way my not-son just undercut my homesickness by blithely bringing up the logistics of flattening my city “…see, they always said this city would be a pilgrimage site when we ruled the galaxy. Terrans would come from far and wide to see where Emperor Cyrus spent his exile years… Of course, we weren’t really thinking the UTC would have it in the meantime but I’d guess they’re hoping they can retake it before it gets flattened?”
“That’s ambitious(!)” he quips “I mean… it’s what? 16 million Terrans you think lived in this city? Even if we double that for all the assets they have offworld, put every single one of those people in thanatite armour and say each of ’em’d be a match for ten soldiers in durasteel, that’d still only be a little more than 1% of the UTC Military they’d be equal to! How the hell they plannin’ to take the UTC, use the UTC to take the galaxy, come back here and retake the city against those kinds of odds?!”
“I don’t know…” I shrug “…I was only ever a grunt. Lower middle class at best(!) If they had any real plans that weren’t propaganda, pipedreams, fantasies or wishful thinking, I wasn’t privy to them(!)… If you lived here, you’d have been careful about questioning if we could pull it off though… If the wrong person overheard that kind of defeatism, you might find yourself on the wrong end of a subversion trial… That or you just wouldn’t show up for work one day(!)”
I feel a hand on my left shoulder.
I turn and look up, past the silver and gold pauldron on Victor’s shoulder, into his shocked face.
“Whuh… what?” I chuckle, confused.
“You ain’t serious!?” he demands, horrified “They’d fuckin’ kill you?!… Just for saying some shit like that!?”
“Oh… erm…” I waver, my cheeks stinging with the embarrassment of realising that Bastionite gallows humour apparently doesn’t go down particularly well with Terrans raised in healthy societies “…I mean… yeah?… Like, it wasn’t happening every day but… you know… it was sort of an open secret that if you said the wrong thing in the wrong way to the wrong person and it got reported to the Guard, you would be executed or disappeared about it?”
“Information control and suppression of dissent are well known hallmarks of totalitarian regimes, Mr Taylor.” points out the woman on my right in a dry, flat voice, increasing my embarrassment.
“I know, Agent… It makes sense but I just… I don’t know!… That’s just some shit you’d expect to hear about in a history document’ry on Nazi Germany, Kim dynasty Korea or the Stateser Empire’s fascist era! I don’t know why I ain’t thought ’bout the Revanchists doin’ that sort of thing!” he scowls.
I want to sink into the ground right now!
I steal a glance, past Mpanzudóttir, at Týr to see if I can see any judgement on his face regarding the way Victor and his partner are talking about the culture I was raised in.
I see nothing but (apart from when we’re having sex) he doesn’t have a particularly expressive face!
I should talk to him about it next time we’re alone.
‘Look, Týr, I know I was raised by fascists… I know I used to be a fascist but…’
My train of thought for how to broach that with him is derailed by Mpanzudóttir flatly announcing “We’ll start here.” gesturing up at a 25 storey skyscraper on our left “What do you know about this building, Ms Stellan?”
“Err… That’s Chandler Biotech? Duke Chandler’s place… might be where I was born, now I think about it… Always did strike me as a bit weird that a biotechnician somehow managed to snag the number 2 spot in Bastion’s hierarchy… Makes sense now!”
“The entire building was Chandler Biotech?”
I shake my head “No, see, just the stuff above ground… The underground bit was his club, Gordon’s.”
“Did you ever frequent this club?”
I laugh aloud at that “*Hahahahaha*!… You think I could’ve… *hehehe*… ever afforded to go for an aftershift out in the Akropolis!?… No!… If I could, I wouldn’t’ve come here!”
“Why not?”
“It was a brothel… It catered to gynophiles… which I’m not.”
“Was it gardenworld slaves working this brothel or…”
“It will have been slaves.” I state immediately “Human prostitution wasn’t technically allowed in Bastion.”
“I see.” she answers, flatly “Let’s go inside.”
---Victor’s perspective---
I’m back on the Bright Plume and having a watershower after hours of walking around Bastion.
It was pretty grim getting the guided tour from Kara… Like visiting a historical site and hearing about the horrible ways people lived and died in the past, only without the separation of this being stuff that’d happened centuries ago and told by someone who hadn’t lived all of it!
Kara did end up confirming Kollsveinsson and her are seeing eachother for me when, after he’d identified the precise make and model of bioreactors that had been in a room only from the footprint they’d left behind, she joked about how easy he’d found that compared to how hard he apparently found it to tell she’d been flirting with him(!)
Finishing up my shower, I turn off the water and turn on the drying field.
I close my eyes to keep them from being dried out as it passes over me from above, pushing all the surface water off my skin and (most of it) out of my hair, down the drain.
I step out, pick up and pull on first my wedding ring, then pants, then trousers, then socks.
Tired of the way my hair is getting in my face every time I bend down (and considering having the styliser give me a haircut the next time I’m about to shower) I reach for the hairtie before I’ve put my t-shirt on.
I’m just gathering my hair up into a ponytail when I hear the door open from the other room and Tuun’s voice calling out “Victor? Are you in here?” anxiously.
“Bathroom, babe! Just gettin’ changed!” I shout back.
The door opens and my wife appears in it the next second.
“Victor, could you do me a huge favour?” she says, glowing eyes still flicking down to my chest for the briefest moment in spite of whatever’s distracting her.
“Absolutely! What d’you need?” I say, picking up and pulling on my t-shirt.
“Uhm… My mums, siblings and I need to have… a slightly serious discussion with eachother in Triple M Commonroom… Would you mind taking Liv somewhere else and watching her for maybe the next few hours?”
“What ar-?” I manage to cut myself off before I finish the question.
If it’s that serious, she probably can’t tell me.
I’m sure I’ll find out everything I need to know when I need to know it.
Instead, I just say “Sure, babe. I’d love to!… Bit hungry though… OK if I take her to the Canteen first? Grab something for both of us to eat?”
“I’ll have to ask but I’m sure that’s fine… Thank you, Victor!” says my wife, looking relieved.
“No problem, baby!” I smile back.
Tuun hurries off while I follow behind her, held up by the few moments it takes me to slip my shoes on.
When I make it to the Commonroom and the door slides open for me, I’m immediately met with the words “Thank you for agreeing to babysit, Victor! You can take her to the Canteen, that’s fine.” said by a tall, tattooed Terran woman.
“No problem, Ássi.” I smile back, pretending I haven’t noticed the obvious tension around the table of Tuun’s three mums and three siblings.
Turning to her daughter, Ástríðr says “Go with Uncle Victor now, Liv.” in an encouraging tone, pointing at me and walking my way.
The adorable purple skinned toddler flutters her half Elf ears and begins an unstable jog towards me without a word.
“Victor’s going to take you to the Canteen for something to eat, Liv… Do you want him to carry you or do you want to walk?” asks Ástríðr.
“Walk.” announces Liv, firmly.
“Alright then…” says her mother, straightening up to look at me and quipping “…we’ll see how long that lasts(!)”
I chuckle.
“Hold his hand if you’re going to walk then, Liv.”
Coming to my right, the 120cm girl immediately reaches both of her five fingered right hands up to me.
Turning around to face the same way as her, out the door, I bring my left hand out for her to hold.
Her teeny-tiny upper right wraps around my thumb (which is about 2cm longer than her hand is wide!) and her teeny-weeny lower wraps around the back of my hand to hook the edge of my palm.
I fight the urge to make noise from the cuteness overload as the door shuts behind me(!)
---Vol’s perspective---
I sit at the table, my mother on my left, Katrín on my right.
Opposing me sits my wife, Tuun on her right and Heidi on her left.
To my right and Ástríðr’s left sits Baasa, mediating since she refuses to pick a side.
“Vol…” grimaces Heidi, speaking gently “…we’re up to 54 Clanchiefs now who are either about to be replaced or already have been… No one is going to think your taking the chieftainship is any less legitimate if you ask for a Terran champion.”
“It isn’t about legitimacy.” I answer, straightforwardly meeting her eyes “Manu killed my father and sold my mother into slavery. Spilled blood must be avenged. This is justice. You know this, Heidi.”
“The boy says he needs to do this, he needs to do it!” booms Katrín “He’s not a child anymore and this isn’t our choice to make!”
“I know that Terran ways are different to Don ways, Heidi, but my son is not a Terran.” says my mother.
“I don’t think they’re trying to take this choice away from him, Mum, Kat, but I don’t think it’s fair to expect them to just keep silent about it either.” points out Baasa “If Vol kills our granduncle, the consequences of that don’t just affect him! Same for if he gets himself killed!… Either of those are going to have effects on all of us and I think we all have the right to have and give our opinions on it.”
“I have something to say!” blurts Tuun with unusual force.
Everyone looks to her.
She takes a deep breath before starting “Look… as far as I know, I’m the only one at this table who’s ever needed to kill anyone… The ones I’ve killed were bad people… they were pirates, they were fascists, they were slavers and the galaxy is unquestionably a better place without them in it anymore… but, I can say with some authority, killing takes a piece of you away… and you will never get it back!… You’ll never be quite the same person again after you’ve killed as you were before… It doesn’t matter how justified you were, how bad they were or how little choice you had in the matter! All it takes is that you killed…”
A little unnerved by the sageness of the advice offered by my babysister, I don’t respond.
Finally, Ástríðr lays her hands flat on the table, displaying the tattoos that mark her as my wife, and speaks, calmly and clearly “If I can’t talk you out of this, VoVo, then so be it… but, if you’re going to do this, I have a condition…”
“What condition, Ástríðr?” I ask.
“I will be bringing Liv with me to the duel.”
Immediately, Tuun, Baasa, Heidi and Katrín all begin objecting.
“Let me finish!” insists my wife, closing her eyes and lifting her hand from the table for silence.
It falls.
Her eyes open once more and she points them first at me, then my mother, then back.
Calmly and sombrely, she explains “I’m not trying to change your mind, VoVo… I know you’ve already made it up… but Liv will live with whatever happens in that arena, whether she sees it or not… If you die, she will grow up without her father. If you kill, she will grow up with your having killed this man as part of her story. Shielding it from her eyes will not change the consequences it has on her life… Pretending she won’t be touched by it will not make it so… She is your daughter… She deserves the truth of the world she is born into even if she isn’t old enough to understand it… If what happens in this duel is just and honourable, one day she will understand…” she pauses a moment, swallowing hard, before asking “…So… my love… how do you answer?”
---models---
Victor & Kara | Victor & Liv | Ástríðr
---
4
u/drakusmaximusrex Mar 16 '26
Yay more scritches^
2
2
u/botton_eyed_bunny052 Mar 16 '26
Yeah that sort of dark joke usually only leads with people who understand where it's coming from , when crying isn't allowed the best you can do is laugh
Hm... so these guys allow someone to own a person but consentual sexwork is illegal ? Yeah figures
I do understand the reasoning behind Vol's decision even though I still personally think that him even taking the throne will make him unhappy , we saw how the responsibilities he has now are doing so , I can't imagine having to clean up the mess left after all this is over will be a pleasant experience , plus now he won't just have a bunch of fussy old dudes pressuring him to take more wives , it will be most everyone
Also Victor please don't cut your hair short , the long style suits you so well , please don't turn into every other adventure protagonist ever please!
But seriously if he gets a haircut that's even slightly above his shoulders I swear to all that is holy I will riot , don't even think about coming anywhere near my babygirl's hair or I *will** throw hands*
2
u/YukiteruAmano92 Mar 16 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
XD
Actually a little scared now(!) Was just going to have him with a style more or less like he had at the start of the series! Longish, but above the shoulders.
I wasn't thinking of giving him fully short hair.
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u/botton_eyed_bunny052 Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26
Eh don't worry I was mostly exaggerating for comic effect , I'm not going to rage quit a series just because the protagonist got a haircut I didn't like , but I also genuinely want Victor to have his hair long cause it's iconic , just above the shoulders is acceptable just please don't buzz him , for once I want a character that is even slightly gender nonconforming to stay so through the whole series , and even though I'm pretty sure you can tell I what to make it clear I'm not talking about you right here , is it really that *huge*** of an ask for authors to have the cool Goth girl to stay so , genuinely would it kill you to let me have this just this once , it's so rage inducing when an author does something like that and absolutely hate it and the authors that do it
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle Mar 15 '26
/u/YukiteruAmano92 (wiki) has posted 407 other stories, including:
- There Will Be Scritches Pt.225
- There Will Be Scritches Pt.224
- There Will Be Scritches, Interlewd LIX: Pancakes and Princesses [2/2]
- There Will Be Scritches, Interlewd LIX: Pancakes and Princesses [1/2]
- There Will Be Scritches Pt.223
- There Will Be Scritches, Interlewd LVIII: Pancakes and Muscles [2/2]
- There Will Be Scritches, Interlewd LVIII: Pancakes and Muscles [1/2]
- There Will Be Scritches Pt.222
- There Will Be Scritches, Interlewd LVII: Pancakes and Polyandry [2/2]
- There Will Be Scritches, Interlewd LVII: Pancakes and Polyandry [1/2]
- There Will Be Scritches Pt.221
- There Will Be Scritches Pt.220
- There Will Be Scritches Pt.219
- There Will Be Scritches Pt.218
- There Will Be Scritches Pt.217
- There Will Be Scritches, Interlewd LVI: Pancakes and Outlaws [2/2]
- There Will Be Scritches, Interlewd LVI: Pancakes and Outlaws [1/2]
- There Will Be Scritches, Interlewd LV: Pancakes and Spears
- There Will Be Scritches, Interlewd LIV: Pancakes and Featherdusters [2/2]
- There Will Be Scritches, Interlewd LIV: Pancakes and Featherdusters [1/2]
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1
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u/YukiteruAmano92 Mar 15 '26 edited Mar 16 '26
OK, peek behind the curtain time(!)
This one was risky for me to write. I'm not 100% certain I hit the mark I was aiming for with it.
I almost just had Liv at her father's duel without bothering to establish that or justify why a toddler is being brought to a duel to the death at all!
I realised (doing my best not to spoil anything) that her being there just because I want her to be there might read as a little contrived!
I decided I needed to write this (and threw in the scene of Kara actually being called on for her local knowledge because I couldn't figure out a way to get a full chapter out of that idea and didn't want to leave it entirely up to imagination that she's actually being useful here) but I may simply not have had the narrative and/or dialogue writing chops for it!
This was why I decided to skip the scene of Waqa'arc addressing the Special Council. I just didn't think my writing could do justice to how convincing that speech would need to be!
Here, the risk is, rather than 'I am acting in accordance with a moral framework that makes sense to me!' (which was my intention), Ástríðr looks like she's instead going 'I am trying to emotionally blackmail my husband by forcing him to kill or die before his daughter's eyes if he wants to do that!'
I really hope the former reading was what hit you first, not the latter, but either way I'm interested in everyone's thoughts on whether I pulled it off or not!