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leave that vision of hell to the dying by wytch-lyghts (flight_on_broken_wings)
Fandoms: The Sandman (TV 2022)
28 Sep 2025
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Summary
Hob Gadling was celebrating beating Death herself at a game of dice (he only cheated a little) when he loudly declared to his compatriots that he is never going to die. It's what prompts his beautiful Stranger to materialize over his shoulder, proposing... a wager, of sorts. They'll just have to keep meeting century after century if his Stranger is ever going to collect.
Hob supposes they've both lost after he's left drinking alone in 1989. So thirty-some years later, when his Stranger rematerializes with an apology and little explanation, there's hardly pretense to resume where they left off. There just remains the task of figuring out the rules of whatever game they're playing now.
Or: the Vampire AU in which Hob learns that Dream is exactly the supernatural creature he suspects, fairy tales are exactly as bloody as their origins suggest, and Twilight is never, not ever, to be cited as an authoritive source on things tall, goth, and brooding.
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Summary
Unwelcome guests occupy the Heart of the Dreaming, all vying for the burden that the Morningstar has left in Dream's care. Unsettled by their last conversation and in search of his friend, Hob Gadling chooses this moment to learn how to lucid dream and unknowingly puts himself in the middle of it.
Series
- Part 1 of season 2 dreamling vignettes
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walking around with this bullet inside me by wytch-lyghts (flight_on_broken_wings)
Fandoms: The Sandman (TV 2022)
29 Jun 2025
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Summary
There are two people in the entire world who have the number of the prepaid burner phone that’s been burning a hole through Hob’s pocket for far longer than it ought to. That's going on four years now. Four years, two people in the world, and it’s never once rung. Until it does.
Hob gets a long awaited phone call signaling that his oldest friend is alive, and he's back, and he's carving a bloody path through London’s underbelly as he takes his revenge. The transatlantic flight home gives him plenty of time to replay what memories he has of his stranger before he up and vanished. What he finds is a violent terf war, his stranger a bit more feral, maybe, but it's familiar enough to ache.
Series
- Part 1 of hungry and hollow
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Butcher, Grave Digger, Ghost by wytch-lyghts (flight_on_broken_wings)
Fandoms: Baldur's Gate (Video Games)
06 May 2025
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Summary
Before Lord Gortash ever ascends as Archduke, before the Absolute plot's execution, before even a champion of Myrkul joins their ranks, there is Enver and there is Vesmyr, and many moments of undeniable gravity between the two.
In which Enver thinks he is being quite obvious and admirably patient in his efforts to court the scion of Bhaal, but it goes about as well as domesticating feral cats.
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the work of words that hands and mouths will do by wytch-lyghts (flight_on_broken_wings)
Fandoms: The Sandman (TV 2022)
23 Sep 2024
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Summary
Dream--or, Morpheus technically now, as it seems everyone except Hob is required to call him--newly human and newly showing any sort of interest in what being human has to offer (so Hob thought), makes an earnest attempt, which Hob regrets ever suggesting, to meet new people. It goes slightly too well. And there's far too many of them for Hob's liking.
Caught between a few centuries of yearning and the risk hanging over Hob's head like a noose that his dearest friend will decide to call upon his former sister after all, and that it'll all be Hob's fault for upsetting the delicate balance they'd struck since Dream's retirement, tensions comes to a tipping point when Dream presses the issue.
Series
- Part 1 of Retired!Dream AU
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turn your face toward the sun by wytch-lyghts (flight_on_broken_wings)
Fandoms: The Sandman (TV 2022)
07 Aug 2023
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Summary
“I bought you quite more than your drink, in 1689,” Dream countered, the turn of his lips and pinched brow suggesting he hadn't yet decided whether to be offended.
“And I’ll never forget it,” softer, real, Hob promises, until overtaken by a shit-eating grin. “Which sufficiently made up for the time before that when I barely got three words in before you walked out on me altogether to go make a decent playwright out of Will fucking Shaxberd.”
And there was the preening, subtle though it was. An elegant eyebrow twitched upward as at some amusement. “You would fashion me in your debt, Hob Gadling?”
“Nah. I’d see you Tuesday.”
A beat passed filled with genuine consideration, enough to make Hob’s heart leap, his weight shifting forward in his seat. “Tuesday, then.”
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I'll be your slaughterhouse, your killing floor by wytch-lyghts (flight_on_broken_wings)
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
17 Jan 2023
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Summary
It was dangerous, that feeling Essek was beginning to grow comfortable with, no longer a fledgling thing, and more dangerous the more comfortably it nestled inside his chest. He was well past denying the existence of the thing, but even named phenomena with a proclivity to kill were no less dangerous for being known.
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Felderwin took them all by surprise; an Empire alchemist languishes in Rosohna's dungeon. An unknown element, but not an unuseful one, oversees his interrogation. There is an opportunity to be had here, and many eyes on Rosohna of late. Perhaps on their enemies also.
Series
- Part 7 of ties that bind
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ebb and flow, love's sweet metronome by wytch-lyghts (flight_on_broken_wings)
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
22 Jul 2022
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Summary
Essek’s fingers stilled heavily on his tongue, pressed deep enough to make him swallow desperately against his gag reflex, while Essek’s free hand played idly across his chest, brushing maddeningly lightly across oversensitive skin. “Do you want to fuck him?”
The soft groan he heard slip from Fjord’s chest was low, was wanting, and it made Caleb’s blood sing. “If that’s on the table,” he agreed, quietly strained.
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the eyrie where you perch by wytch-lyghts (flight_on_broken_wings)
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
03 Jun 2022
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Summary
He hadn’t a hope of it actually succeeding. Either the amulet around Bren’s neck or one around the necks of his compatriots or torturers or masters would most certainly shunt the scry sensor away, or wards around wherever he was being kept would accomplish the same, and Essek would snap back to himself with nothing to show for it but the wasted spell. But he was going to try, possibly twice, because Essek Thelyss did not abide helplessness, even if it was fruitless.
He hadn’t a hope in any of the nine hells of it actually succeeding. And so the floor dropped out from under him when it actually did.
Series
- Part 6 of ties that bind
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latent echoes by wytch-lyghts (flight_on_broken_wings)
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
09 May 2022
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Summary
He watched a resonant echo split from itself, the two walking diverging paths. Where the one ended, Caleb already saw. The thread unfolded before it—a short path with an abrupt end—glimmering like starlight, like the end of a noose.
He drew air into his lungs, held it until he couldn’t stop the words from tumbling forth. “At least one of these versions of myself killed Trent Ikithon in the Blooming Grove,” he breathed shakily, the relief not in finally voicing that unutterable truth, but in how easily it came. Here. With Essek.
“Do you think he regretted it, that variant?” Essek asked, just as quietly, in that precious little space between their lips where neither kings nor gods were privy to their words.
“I don’t know…” Then, because it did not settle easy, lying to Essek, Caleb cleared his throat. “I cannot imagine that he did.”
***
The trial of Trent Ikithon is underway. Caleb thought this was what he wanted. He’d agreed. He was sure. Until he wasn’t.
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indelible friend by wytch-lyghts (flight_on_broken_wings)
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
07 Feb 2022
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Summary
The heavy silence that followed rang loudly in Essek’s ears. Sending spell dissipating, Essek hurried through the verbal component, hands moving through the gestures without their usual grace but with all the necessary precision to draw his own gossamer thread between them, reverberating with each breath. "But you need not explain, of course, if it is beyond you tonight or would invite suspicion.” The next breath steadied him. “In which case, goodnight, Bren. Rest well.”
There passed a long enough moment of silence that Essek wondered if Bren might let the spell abate altogether without reply. Finally, though, the thread drawn between them plucked and rippled with a quiet hum.
“I couldn’t stay… but, I could come.”
Series
- Part 5 of ties that bind
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a little while in silence by wytch-lyghts (flight_on_broken_wings)
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
08 Nov 2021
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Summary
“What are you waiting for, Herr Thelyss?” Bren rasped thickly, his eyes hooded, head tipped back invitingly. “You seem to know what you’re after.”
A light huff of breath tickled his throat, a smile teasing over his pulse, tongue flashing out to taste and setting off sparks at the base of his skull. Essek's lips pulled into a smirk, and Bren felt more than heard a short phrase murmured against his skin, his stomach flipping as gravity suddenly, predictably, upended itself.
Series
- Part 4 of ties that bind
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your smiles, nothing but teeth by wytch-lyghts (flight_on_broken_wings)
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
25 Sep 2021
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Summary
His stomach swooped low like gravity had been upended as Essek’s soft voice crept in between his ears.
“I apologize, I know this… isn’t how this is done,” Essek’s words faded out for a breath, and it wasn’t. For all they circled, hearing Essek’s lilting accent in his head, in Rexxentrum, slipping too easily behind all the walls and rituals and pretense, it felt intimate. Felt damning. Despite himself, Bren glanced furtively past the open archway of his secluded alcove toward the library beyond, as if anyone were at risk of overhearing the words whispered inside his skull. “I hope you’re well,” Essek continued, words uncharacteristically blunt and few but such was the limitation of the spell. There was close to a question in his tone, but not one he’d dare ask. “We need to speak.” Bren’s heart tripped over itself in its haste. “You know where to find me.”
He exhaled slowly, silently, the trailing end of the spell awaiting his reply settling around him like a noose. Bren drew in a short breath to formulate a reply.
Series
- Part 3 of ties that bind
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let not light see by wytch-lyghts (flight_on_broken_wings)
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
03 Sep 2021
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Summary
Bren heaved in another breath. He shrugged his good shoulder again as best he was able, a smear of red on the wall behind him. Red everywhere; soaking his clothing, painting his hands, matted in his hair where he tried again to push it out of his face, red on everything he’d ever touched. He let his head drop back against the wall. Gave up on trying to watch Essek make sense of him through heavy eyelids that grew too difficult to keep open.
He cleared his throat gently. Rasped, dangerously honest in a way that only occurred to him after the words left his mouth, “I didn’t know where else to go. I—”
And grimaced, swallowing his words and choking on them.
Series
- Part 2 of ties that bind
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these violent delights by wytch-lyghts (flight_on_broken_wings)
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
10 Aug 2021
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Summary
He had planned meticulously every detail of the theft of the beacons. He had arranged so carefully his exchange with the Assembly, their resources and the research he could not perform for his access. But the Scourger they sent to keep him in line, making subtle demands and subtler promises, he was not part of Essek's plan. He threatened to drag him in deeper than Essek had ever intended to go. He just has yet to decide whether he'll regret it.
Series
- Part 1 of ties that bind
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take the heart you thought you had by wytch-lyghts (flight_on_broken_wings)
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
09 Aug 2021
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Summary
Archmage, Warmage, Firebringer, Dark Hand of the Cerberus Assembly: Caleb Widogast was not ignorant of his role in all this.
The Empire is nearly ten years deep into a seemingly endless Xhorhasian war, each lull in the violence leading to greater and deadlier escalation. So when the Empire initiated negotiations with the Revelry - a quiet endeavour designed the starve Xhorhas into submission, but an unlikely scheme in Caleb’s eyes - it was perhaps justifiable wartime desperation, he reasoned. Unjustifiable however was Caleb’s assignment to lead these negotiations, distracting from his work rooting out more dire threats to peace, perhaps from within the Empire’s own ranks. And this Captain sent to represent the Revelry, Fjord? He was one particular distraction that Caleb could not afford.
An Archmage, a Cobalt Expositor, a spy, three pirates and their Captain with a demigod patron that has plans for all of them find themselves in Zadash to end a war. And Caleb can’t be sure which side he’s on in more than one game of cat and mouse.
Series
- Part 1 of take the heart
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Research Log: Aeor, 837 P.D. by wytch-lyghts (flight_on_broken_wings)
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
03 Aug 2021
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Summary
“You and I may both be adrift in that account, mein Freund,” Caleb admitted quietly, pushing himself upright again with a sigh. “Perhaps neither of us are prepared to answer questions quite so new. With time, though,” he allowed. “With time.”
It sounded shallow even in his own ears. Time alone could hardly decide for them, ‘What next?’ ‘What now?’ ‘What about you and I?’ A few such questions came to mind.
“No,” Essek agreed, the corner of his lips twitching at a wry smile. He turned to look at Caleb properly, in a way that was beginning to grow familiar. “It’s just the millennium-old questions you’re interested in answering,” he chuckled, closer to admiration than a critique.
“If we’re able,” Caleb agreed readily. “If you’d help me. Yes.”
* * *
A series of shadowgast (not-) dates in Aeor, to feature a great many firsts.
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dinner & diatribes by wytch-lyghts (flight_on_broken_wings)
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
02 Jun 2021
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Summary
The music swelled, elegantly matched pairs spinning past each other across the floor where the dance carried them. Weaving behind the pillars and braziers of glowing coals lining the hall, Caleb scanned over the shifting sea of guests for his husband. His husband. Oh gods.
It still sounded strange. His husband. Good, decidedly good, but strange, making his heart stumble over itself dangerously. The thought put the most fragile, fluttering sensation in his chest that he had yet to put words to and a stupid grin on his face when he wasn’t being careful. And he was presently being exceptionally careful. These nations were allies, technically, but their elite—his guests—bared their teeth at one another more than they did smile. If they made it through the night without any bloodshed at this anniversary of the peace, that alone would be worth celebrating.
Series
- Part 1 of post-campaign shadowgast
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no second wasted (on you) by wytch-lyghts (flight_on_broken_wings) for saturdaysky
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
26 May 2021
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Summary
Six seconds. Less than that. Caleb has seconds to take stock as another of Lucien’s eyes turns its gaze on Essek, seconds to consider the consequences, seconds to react.
It’s instinct, not reason, not schooling, that has him spending that precious time returning their friend to his senses.
Series
- Part 2 of shadowgast, as it could have been
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between dusk and daybreak, I find you here by wytch-lyghts (flight_on_broken_wings)
Fandoms: Critical Role (Web Series)
22 Mar 2021
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Summary
Essek couldn’t help the impossibly fond smile that turned the corners of his lips, pausing to commit everything to memory. The gentle flick of Frumpkin’s tail. Essek’s own worn, oversized sweater Caleb had liberated from his wardrobe. The way those stray locks of auburn hair tumbled over his face and moved on each breath. The soft, barely there part of his lips. The swoop of his eyelashes over the dusting of freckles across his cheeks. All of it.
It knocked the breath out of Essek’s lungs, the physical ache in his chest as the reminder of how much he loved this foolishly predictable man slammed into him. Caleb, who tried to busy himself until far too late an hour, waiting for him to come home.
Series
- Part 2 of post-campaign shadowgast