InfernalMachinae
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Summary
“It scares me, a little,” Naim said suddenly, soft as a confession.
Ryan frowned. Cigarettes forgotten, he shifted onto his side so he could look at Naim properly, but he didn’t speak. Not yet—he knew from the way Naim was frowning that he was trying to untangle the chaos in his brain.
“Now that we’ve gotten this far, it makes me… Hope.”
“... For more?”
Naim couldn’t meet his eyes, but Ryan didn’t push it.
“... Yeah.”
He didn’t think he could handle it if he met Naim’s eyes right now, either.
(A long conversation after sex, four years after the boys left that shithole of a town behind.)
Series
- Part 2 of gardenias on the tile
Bookmarked by InfernalMachinae
12 Sep 2026
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Summary
If the Kremnoans truly decided to settle somewhere else, within the high clouds like the Skyfolk, an island in the distant sea, the mountain of legend that the city had first risen from, then Mydei wouldn’t object. Even if it took him far from Okhema’s high walls where so many of his friends still resided.
There was no reason for Mydei to stay. Not if his responsibilities led him elsewhere. Out of the many things that had once restrained him—a cursed prophecy, a burden of responsibility, a bloodstained crown, and a radiant Coreflame that bestowed upon him the name of Strife—Phainon refused to be another.
Life goes on within the Eternal Pages, including Castrum Kremnos’ mess of internal politics. Where the fortress will settle, now that disaster has been averted and peace restored, is yet undecided but up for debate among Kremnos’ citizens.
To Phainon the mere possibility of the final verdict is daunting enough.
Bookmarked by InfernalMachinae
16 Jul 2026
Bookmarker's Notes
“I’m here,” Phainon said into the crown of his head.
Mydei’s hum rumbled from his chest and into Phainon’s own, sinking beneath the skin and reverberating off his bones to echo alongside his heartbeat. “I know.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Phainon said. Promised. His word didn’t mean much, just another thing he had forsaken, no honour, no glory, no love left when his heart had been scraped out so nothing remained but a burning fury set to scorch everything, everyone, in his path. But they hung in the still, silent air, and he knew they were true. He would make them come true—a wish only he could deliver. “Unless I wear down your patience and you chase me off with your spear.”
Mydei’s arms tightened around him, as though he would truly slip away, but he huffed a quiet laugh. “Don’t give yourself so much credit. This patience of mine will hold until long after both our hair has greyed.”
So it hadn’t been just an offhand statement. A slip of the tongue that issued another of their feckless challenges, thoughtless and then forgotten. Mydei really wanted that. To remain by each other’s side until their broad shoulders and golden glow, of strength, heroism, leadership, were abandoned to their youth left behind in the ripples of the past. Their likenesses would be engraved in stone, captured in paint, recorded in ink but the two of them would be withered grey—old when they had always died young.
The thought of it prickled Phainon’s eyes and clogged his throat. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried to clear the knot in his throat but the sound awkwardly warbled and the wobble carried into his trembling voice, “Sounds like a challenge.”
The back of Mydei’s head leaned against Phainon’s palm in a silent demand to let him go. His head tipped backwards to prop his chin against Phainon’s clavicle and reveal his gaze made tender by so much affection it was almost sickening, churning Phainon’s stomach. But he could never be without it either.
…
But, now, all Mydei’s losses had been returned to him whole. Other people that weren’t Phainon and understood Mydei just as well, perhaps better after growing up alongside and raising a version of Mydei that Phainon had seldom seen. Only when he felt like torturing himself as a mere shadow of his former self, cast in dark corners and nightmares, did he steal a glimpse of the young prince yet to grow into the ferocious lion he would put down by his blade. Not only did they understand the Mydei that had come before but they could see for themselves the person he had become and work, in the present, united behind the future that Mydei wished to welcome.“Maybe our paths have diverged since then,” Phainon quietly mused.
He was thankful his voice had remained steadfast because any crack would have hung in the suffocatingly stagnant air on the cusp of something, like the moments before the sky unleashed a howling storm. Phainon kept his eyes low, on the sparkling jewel that sat heavy around Mydei’s neck, before he could be blinded by a strike of raging lightning.
“It was easy to fall in love with you,” Mydei said mildly. As casual as the rest of his heartstopping declarations that came so naturally to someone as honest as him. “But you’re mistaken if you think it was convenient to be in love with you. The animosity between our cities, the scrutiny of the councils, our reputations that needed to be preserved—our circumstances never made it simple to want more than your camaraderie.”
An awkward laugh fell from Phainon’s lips. Right. That made sense. Even back then, when Phainon was tainted by hatred but not yet consumed by it, before he was stained with sin, he had been well-liked but difficult to love. To everyone he had kept at arms-length, a safe distance to view a piece of pottery without noticing the faults, and Mydei who had been allowed that much closer.
“Despite the obstacles, our… inevitable end, I decided to nurture those emotions that would have been better smothered out. Phainon, I chose you. Over and over again—” he chuckled, a small smile lifting the corner of his lip and the rest of his expression with it, “—without even knowing it. And that won’t change even if we must go through billions of more cycles or overcome powers from beyond the stars.”
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be my baby by amongtheshadows
Fandoms: Heated Rivalry (TV), Game Changers Series - Rachel Reid
07 Jun 2026
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Summary
it's game day in new york and shane is the only person in the universe that can wrangle the absolute menace that is ilya rozanov
Series
- Part 9 of shane and ilya are (not) co-dependent
Bookmarked by InfernalMachinae
08 Jun 2026
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Vegas Canon Divergence AU by Water_Nix
Fandom Game Changers Series - Rachel Reid, Heated Rivalry (TV)
29 Jul 2026
- Words:
- 37,876
- Works:
- 5
- Bookmarks:
- 1,320
Bookmarked by InfernalMachinae
26 May 2026
Bookmarker's Notes
Shane’s hearing is muffled, sound bubbling in and out like he’s swimming through the lake, dipping under the surface and back into the air. He can make out a word here and there, enough to know that Rozanov is trying to get him to breathe with him. He can feel the expansion of Rozanov’s lungs against his hands as he takes deep breaths in and lets them out. Shane tries to copy him, he does, but every inhale carries the scent of him, his cologne, his skin, his hair products. The scents are so familiar to him, and he wants more than anything for them to calm him, make him feel safe, but they are doing the opposite. Why are they still so familiar to him after not being anywhere near Rozanov for half a year? Why does he still want to shove his face against Rozanov’s throat and suck in every last last hint he can get?
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Ilya takes longer to arrive in the bathroom after they present the award together, leaving Shane time to sink into a full-blown panic attack. This leads to a very different night in Vegas and an earlier beginning to Shane and Ilya’s relationship
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Summary
very secret clickable link please ignore
Bookmarked by InfernalMachinae
23 May 2026
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Bookmarker's Notes
Ilya Rozanov fined $5000 for flipping a camera the bird from the New York Admiral’s press box