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like…like snoring, for god’s sake!” “Nobody dies because you snore at them.”
One is objectively harmless, Piper, but sure. 🙈
“You’re not afraid of me.” His breath was warm on Piper’s fingers. “No,” said Piper, which was mostly true, although the look in the other man’s eyes was waking something that felt a little like fear and a lot like lust. “No, I’m not.” The paladin moved. He was impossibly fast, catching Piper’s arms and pinning him up against the wall. Piper swallowed hard, stunned by the speed and by the sensation of Galen’s body pressed full-length against his. “You should be,” said Galen, and kissed him.
And now I’m slurping down that juice box again
The hardness of the muscles he’d been trying to ignore, just a few minutes ago, the hardness of…well, other things that weren’t technically muscle, actually they were spongiform erectile tissue comparable to…dear sweet Rat, why am I thinking about spongiform erectile tissue right now…okay, well, obviously that’s why I’m thinking about it, but…
I love you, Piper.
“I find myself behaving very badly around you. I’m sorry.” “I rather enjoyed it,” said Piper, which was possibly the understatement of the century. Hmm, that’s a funny way of saying ‘take me, take me now, right here, let’s go.’ He told himself to shut up. His inner voice laughed at him.
A++ Piper you repressed gay disaster
He wasn’t even sure why he had. Galen never kissed. He preferred encounters where both parties walked away—occasionally a little stiffly, depending on what exactly had occurred—and went on about their day with the warm glow of lust satisfied and nothing else. Kissing felt like intimacy, not lust, and intimacy with someone like Galen was far too dangerous.
👀
Most of the paladins he knew were the same way. Hell, compared to half of the Dreaming God’s people, Galen was practically celibate.
Dreaming God’s paladins are randy. Probably so they’re less tempted by demons
He’d seen the devastation that Marcus had been through, leaving his wife for her own safety after the death of the god.
Aww 🥺 I wonder if Marcus’s book will address this. Either he’ll get back together with his wife or find closure with her
Piper was a doctor and probably had some misguided notion that he could cure what was wrong with Galen,
This is such a loaded statement. Like, yeah, it’s very disabled person with an abled loved one who is desperate to cure them while the disabled person just wants to live their life. Not pine for a cure that doesn’t exist right now
“Spongiform erectile tissue!”
SHKWEKWJJEJE Piper you wild, repressed little doctor. I was wondering what he’d blurt out
“It’s…it’s what your cock is made out of. Not just yours. Mine. Everybody’s.” He made a helpless gesture toward his crotch, where Galen noted that there was indeed a definite bulge, apparently caused by the tissue in question. “I see,” said Galen. He knew that he should still be wallowing in shame, and he absolutely was, but there was a tiny part of him that was feeling ungodly smug that his kiss had gotten that kind of reaction. Yup. Still got it.
They’re so stupid, I love them
“And also if I keep talking about this, maybe you won’t get all tragic and paladinly and swear that you’ll never kiss me again. And I would very much like it if you did. Err, not be tragic and paladinly. The kissing part.”
😂🥲
“A gnole promises not to shout suggestions.”
Earstripe!!!
Galen ate the intact apple thoughtfully, trying to time the motions.
😂
Quit fretting like Stephen and get your hands on that man’s cock.
Yes, Galen. I’m sure a quick lay is the only thing Piper, who worries about how you feel about yourself, wants
His own spongiform erectile tissue started to respond,
Ghggfhfgfg
dammit, now he’s got me doing it. I’m never going to get hard again without thinking about what the tissue inside my nose is doing.
Ugly laughing 🤣
It’s not a trap or a torture chamber or a religious thing! I know what it is!” Piper waved his hands, apparently trying to pull his thoughts back in order. “It’s an obstacle course.”
👀 go on…
“Only this is an obstacle course for the ancient’s machines. Like the clocktaurs, only smaller. Humans were probably never meant to be here. It was all for the machines that we saw broken apart in the pit.”
😯
“The clocktaurs we saw couldn’t,” said Galen. “But those were controlled by demons, and most demons aren’t very smart. Word from the Dreaming God’s people is that they were meant to be controlled by human souls.”
WHAT! So like they’d make mini Clocktaurs and power them with human souls. Like a battle armor?
He tried to distract himself with more pleasant thoughts, like the bit where Galen had kissed him. Unfortunately, that led to the bit where he had blurted out, “Spongiform erectile tissue!” which was possibly the least suave thing he had ever said in his life.
😂
It had been two kisses. That was all. For all Piper knew, Galen wanted one of those quick encounters and then they would go back to the city and Galen would move on to the next encounter and Piper would…would… Throw myself into my work and feel sad, I suppose. He wouldn’t be the first attractive man looking for a notch on his bedpost and nothing more.
Oh, look, Galen. I was right
All I want in life is to have a sexy man make passionate love to me, eat a nice meal together, and then I’ll leave to go chop up corpses. Is that really so much to ask?
Same, my dude. Except the chopping corpses part. Substitute writing or playing video games
Galen was nibbling on the back of his neck again
Is in the middle of a death trap the time, Galen
“I might be able to fuck my way through an ancient death trap,” said Galen, “but I draw the line at doing so with gnole commentary.”
“It’s a noble sentiment, but you can’t ask people to pour themselves out for something that doesn’t care and can’t be fixed and at the end they’re empty and nothing changes.”
“But if nobody tries to change things, they don’t get changed. How else can we change it?”
The spirit was willing, but the spongiform erectile tissue was weak.
Hahaha, this has been a pretty good running gag
Lady of Grass, who was well-known as a healer.
“A gnole slept well too,” said Earstripe sardonically, “eventually.”
😂
He cleared his throat and very carefully pushed all those feelings away,
I do like how this ties into Piper denying his feelings, like their an imposition because he’s burned out. I don’t think this sets it up as well as it could have. But the way it’s written feels confident and it conveys enough. And has shown enough that it’s believable.
He’d asked earlier why she hadn’t run, and she’d lifted her skirt to show him two heavy shackles around her legs, the skin rough and red and scaly around them. She could shuffle along, but she could not run. Thomas had made sure of that.
Oh shit
It was a brutally long trip, to be sure, but he’d done worse at forced march, and that had only been…what, eighteen years ago? Surely he was just as fit as he had been at nineteen. Yes. Definitely. And absolutely just as capable of going without sleep.
It didn’t help that Jorge was a paladin of the Dreaming God and thus incredibly handsome. Shane was close, although he tried to hide it under a regrettable beard, and Marcus, the most normal-looking of the bunch, was still as broad as a barrel and muscled like a bear.
Jorge: big and pretty. Shane: pretty but for his beard. Marcus: big and muscley
“Brave as well as beautiful,” said Jorge. Hardy had to clear her throat several times.
After everything she’s gone through, Missus Hardy deserves to be fussed over by handsome paladins
Galen knew, if Jorge didn’t, that Marcus had been married before the god died. His wife thought he was dead, but so far as Galen knew, the other paladin had remained faithful in the four years since.
Second chance romance for Marcus and his wife? 👀
He offered Piper a hand, and between him pulling and Galen pushing, they got the doctor settled behind Marcus. Galen felt a flash of envy. He’d never liked horses, but having Piper pressed up against his back, being pushed against him with every stride…the image had a lot to recommend it. And Marcus is only interested in women and celibate besides. What a waste.
Hah
The back scabbard wasn’t the only thing Shane had taken away from the Dreaming God’s temple. Most paladins could do the voice to a certain degree, but the Dreaming God’s people had refined it to a high art.
Ohhh, Shane was once a paladin of the dreaming god? 👀 Also The Voice!!!
He is a good man, thought Galen, almost wonderingly. A good man who is good at what he does. He wants nothing more than to help people, and when it began to hurt him too badly, he found another way to help.
But the doctor had come through his kinder and fiercer in defense of the living. Galen had only come out older and more broken. As exhausted as we are, his first thought was to ask if the gnoles could help him to save more lives. That’s what he does. And I think I’m in love with him.
Not quite sure the book sets Galen up for this all the way. We don’t get to see him be cynical enough. But I can accept it
I’m truly no different than that scorpion thing I bashed to death. He needs to be with someone else entirely. Someone whose only purpose isn’t putting more bodies on the slab in front of him.
This is good
“My god, man, great love poems aren’t written about how lovers get eight hours of sleep a night and no one steals the covers. So maybe we fuck and then go to separate beds. So what?”
“You are literally a paladin sworn to defend the innocent and downtrodden,” said Marcus.
I know this is very sad and tragic and Galen has a good counter argument in the next line but 😂 “You are literally a paladin. Literally one of the goodest boys”
That’s what I’ll end up doing to anyone who cares about me. Marcus is as tough as an old boot and I still hurt him. Piper’s got no defenses against someone like me. He was right. He was most definitely right. So why did he feel as if he’d made a terrible mistake?
Because you made a terrible mistake, you little fool. You are capable of growth and healing and change
“I shouldn’t have said that,” Galen said. “I didn’t mean to throw that in your face. It’s just that you know, and no one else does. No one else was at Hallowbind.” “I know,” said Marcus. He was staring into the distance. Galen wondered what he was seeing. His wife? Or what scraps were left of the dead at Hallowbind when we were done with them? “I think about her every day,” said Marcus finally. “She’s the first thing I think about when I wake up. I can’t let it go.” “But she’s safe,” said Galen. “I hope she is,” said Marcus. He focused on Galen finally, and his deep brown eyes were bleak. “I
...more
Already in my feelings over Marcus and his wife
“Sweet boy. Strong stomach.”
😂 Not guard mom trying to set Piper up with her nephew
“You had the look. We all know the look.”
😔
The war with Anuket City had been over a decade ago,
“I knew men who could stand toe-to-toe with a clocktaur and not turn a hair, who’d lose their damn minds if they were locked in your morgue overnight. Brains don’t care about bad enough.”
“Don’t have to be sorry,” said Kaylin. “Just saying. Wherever you’ve been for the last week, that was bad enough. If it’s coming back once, it’ll come back again. Just breathe.”
Very well, he was reaping what he’d sown.
Sure are, bud
