Valley of Kings

Call me Asp. I've been online since the mid 90s, despite my father's attempts to woo me into B.B.S. fan spaces much earlier. USENET, mIRC, AOL, Yahoo Groups… and then there was Livejournal. Some of you I've known since Livejournal. I still have one friend I'm in contact with from the USENET days. Strongaxe, oceanfilly, merfilly - all me back in the day. The last one stuck, and I will still answer to Filly.

I had, at some point, decided to distance myself from my writing name. It was sharpest_asp for a bit, and now it's senmut. It's been BowWeaver elsewhere but I tired of that in most places. I've come back around to my writer name on all the archives just to keep my identity straight (since I am not).

So my DW winds up being mostly fic, some memes, occasional life updates. Everything goes access-only at the end of each month. My original fiction is supposed to all be access-locked but sometimes I forget and catch it later. All of my archives are locked to their site. I grant access pretty much always, save a few exceptions for very ME reasons.

Oh, right, fascists can fuck off. I'm queer in a few ways with minor disabilities, queer kids, a lovely queer wife, and I think existing as a human is something society should support.

Where can you find me?

( the rest is under cut because LONG )

AO3 Link | To Heal With Trust (200 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Birds of Prey, Outsiders
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Roy Harper & Dinah Lance
Characters: Roy Harper, Dinah Lance
Additional Tags: Double Drabble, +Modern Age (1986-Present), Post-Crisis
Summary:

Dinah came to manage his recovery from the gunshots.

To Heal With Trust

"Slow and easy, yes, just like that. I have your head, just let your body float," Dinah said, confident and reassuring all in one.

Roy closed his eyes, his body already feeling less sore as he followed her instructions. When she'd shown up, thrown Ollie out, and told him to stay clear, Roy hadn't known what to expect. Now, living with her, Lian occupied by Oracle and Dinah's teammates, he knew he was in the best possible hands to recover.

The hot tub was set just warm enough to pull his muscles loose, salt-tanged for buoyancy, and she had him. She'd never let him fall under, while his body just floated, easing the stress of his physical therapy away. She pushed when they did it, but not so hard as to build injuries, and then… she always took care of him after.

He wasn't going to fail her, or his baby girl, by wallowing in the fear of the near-fatal shots. He would trust her, as he always had, letting her guide him. When he went back out there, he'd be as strong as he'd ever been.

It was just like when she put him back together from the drugs.

На крыльях соблазна (154 words) by WTF Furry Anthro and Xeno 2026
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Gargoyles (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Goliath/Elisa Maza
Characters: Goliath (Gargoyles), Elisa Maza
Additional Tags: Translation, Перевод на русский | Translation in Russian, Fandom Kombat, Winter Temporary Fandom Kombat 2026, Don’t copy to another site, Slice of Life, This Work Is Stolen If Not On AO3, Работа Украдена Если Не На АО3
Summary:

Элиза пользуется тем, что Голиаф слишком много думает.

AO3 Link | Shelter in Danger (500 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: DC Comics (General), Marvel Comics (General)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Dinah Lance/Erik Lensherr
Characters: Dinah Lance, Erik Lehnsherr
Additional Tags: Crossover, +Modern Age (1986-Present)
Summary:

While trapped in a different universe, Dinah falls for another older man

Shelter in Danger

When Dinah Lance found herself catapulted into another dimension, it wasn't all that shocking. She's been tossed through time, sent to other worlds, and even touched alternate versions of her own world. To wake up in a world that was completely unlike her own as far as people and problems went, but still an Earth wasn't that hard to come to terms with.

No, the thing that shocked her was finding an older white-haired man with a harder sense of justice than she usually took for herself that stirred her emotions so strongly. Similarities to another man of her own world may have set the stage for growing closer, but it was Erik's ability to debate with her, to see her as a capable fighter in her own right, and his old-fashioned manners that sealed her doom.

There was just something irresistible in a man that opened doors for her but didn't think she needed to be in the kitchen for Dinah Lance.

---

She'd given her word that she would help defend this small island refuge. She wanted no part of his retaliatory strikes, but the people who were just trying to live their lives were under her protection. As Erik — Magneto currently — was deflecting the heavy artillery back into the attackers, Black Canary was ably working defense against the ground assault with his other combatants.

She had no idea how many amphibious vehicles she grounded permanently, how many people in deep-water gear were shoved back off the beach, but eventually Magneto gathered up all of the remaining debris from the assault and threw it out to join the artificial reef off his coastline. While he did that, she acquired one of her protein-gels, slaking a need for energy and liquid at once before seeing if she needed to help with injured.

Magneto landed beside her moments later, his hand going to the small of her back. She wasn't thinking about the likely human cost of the assault; mutants were feared and hunted here, and that force had come with the intent to kill or enslave from all she had managed to dig up.

"Your voice, my dear, is devastating. And yet you espouse more peaceful notions than I," he said with grim satisfaction over the results she'd gotten.

"I learned to modulate it over the years, so I get the effect I want," she said, shifting just slightly closer, her voice dipping into flirting tones.

"Hmm, and what effect do you wish now?" he asked, matching her tone, as that strong hand on her lower back shifted more to her hip and upper ass.

"The ability to be somewhere private and less clothed, of course," she told him.

He laughed, deep and throaty. "Oh, I like that direct approach." He guided her toward his own room, leaving the aftermath to his lieutenants. Dinah was more than happy with that choice, hoping if she distracted him long enough, he'd choose some other way than direct assault on the attacking nation.

Their Holidays [Podfic] (44 words) by blackglass
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Leverage (US TV 2008)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Alec Hardison/Parker/Eliot Spencer
Characters: Eliot Spencer (Leverage), Parker (Leverage), Alec Hardison
Additional Tags: Drabble, Podfic, Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes, Audio Format: MP3, Audio Format: Streaming
Summary:

A podfic of Their Holidays by Merfilly.

"They each have their own."

Family for Parker [Podfic] (44 words) by blackglass
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Leverage
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Alec Hardison/Parker/Eliot Spencer
Characters: Parker (Leverage)
Additional Tags: Introspection, Triple Drabble, Podfic, Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes, Audio Format: MP3, Audio Format: Streaming
Summary:

A podfic of Family for Parker by Merfilly.

In the Tides of Their Thoughts [Podfic] (44 words) by blackglass
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: CC-5052 | Bly/Kit Fisto/Aayla Secura
Characters: Aayla Secura, Kit Fisto
Additional Tags: bly is not appearing, but he's talked about, stable threesome, Double Drabble, Podfic, Podfic Length: 0-10 Minutes, Audio Format: MP3, Audio Format: Streaming
Summary:

A podfic of In the Tides of Their Thoughts by Merfilly.

"Bly is away, but not far from their hearts at all."

sweettartheart your gift arrived on Yena's birthday and we are both so excited! Thank you!

jenab, thank you for the card. It got here a few days back but I kept forgetting to post.

AO3 Link | Unfinished Citadel AU (510 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars: The Clone Wars [2008] - All Media Types
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: CT-7567 | Rex, CT-27-5555 | ARC-5555 | Fives, CT-21-0408 | CT-1409 | Echo
Additional Tags: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued
Summary:

I had intended to write something for Rex/Fives/Echo. I got sideswiped by a set-up beginning at the Citadel. There is a character death mentioned, though it was going to prove not to have been one. However, the muses turned virulently against the entire concept. As always, feel free to run with it if you want.

Unfinished Citadel AU

"Promise me to get them out," she had said. "Something smells like a three day old rancor corpse."

What had his Commander seen? Rex nor his men had been able to recall anything that tripped their training, but General Kenobi had been caught unaware too.

Would he have pushed them to keep moving if General Skywalker hadn't been injured and unconscious from trying to save Ahsoka? It still felt wrong, no matter what the mission had been to not confirm the death. Echo still refused to talk about it, given he had nearly fallen with her.

"Should have been me, not the Jedi," Echo had said, once, on retrieval.

They all felt it. They were one of millions of clones and she had been who they were meant to protect.

Skywalker still wasn't talking to Kenobi. Rex didn't know how the Naboo Senator had headed off an outright mutiny. Fives thought she had promised to use her resources.

Rex still saw the flickers of destruction in his general's eyes, after, when he'd told the man.

"She commanded me to get you, all of us, out, minutes before we lost her and Tarkin."

If there was one fact of Rex's new life he hated, it was knowing that his general was barely holding onto sanity.

---

"What difference did the mission make? Dead brothers, both objectives dead, our Commander dead," Fives asked or maybe just rattled off to get it out of his head.

"Seppies didn't get the intel from either objective," Echo answered, weakly and by rote, as he'd been telling himself since they were retrieved.

Fives scowled. "Wish I knew what made her fall back."

Echo did too -- when he wasn't wondering why it had been her, not him, that fell.

"You need to worry about the General. Captain can't do it all, and he seems to like you."

Fives didn't answer that, because he was watching for Anakin Skywalker to lose his control, and hoping he was wrong.

---

Rex looked at Fives, then to Echo. "You both see it."

"Yes, we do," Echo answered for them.

"What do we do about it?" Fives asked.

"You stick to his six. He's taken to you well. Echo, I want you training with the slicers, give your brain a chance to do real intel."

"Seems odd, Captain, when we're talking about our General, sir," Echo told him.

Rex met his eyes. "Our unit keeps winding up in the deepest messes. That's half of why he's so volatile. You need to figure out the pattern, if there is one, so maybe we jump ahead of it."

"What's the other half?" Fives asked.

"If I knew, I might be the one who could actually head off the explosion," Rex admitted. "He came to us like that."

"Then maybe that's what I need to learn," Fives said softly.

"I think… I'm going to try and find what the Commander saw, that made her take Tarkin over the edge when she killed the Warden," Echo told them, and Rex nodded, thinking that was a good start.

AO3 link | Improv for a Rainy Day (100 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dragonriders of Pern
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Robinton [Dragonriders of Pern]
Additional Tags: Drabble, More Joy Day
Summary:

Prompt: Pern/Robinton/Hey kids, let's put on a show!

Improv for a Rainy Day

The rain was unending, it seemed to Robinton. Tempers were fraying, there were apprentices in mischief, and worst… the wine delivery was delayed.

Robinton looked over the packed hall, thinking of future assignments. That did not alleviate this.

"Gentlemen and ladies," he said as he rose. "I propose a challenge, for all ranks, by table! Improvisational skills on display, one and all! A demonstration of pantomime and lyrics, displaying an historic event! To be presented tomorrow at this very same time."

He saw the challenge take hold, the spark of creativity even in those who groaned, and sat back down.

---

AO3 link | Doctor Care (100 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Elim Garak/Julian Bashir
Characters: Julian Bashir, Elim Garak
Additional Tags: Drabble
Summary:

Prompt: DS9, Garak + Bashir (friendship or (pre)slash, you decide!), respite

Doctor Care

"How many different ways do I need to inform you that you must rest, Doctor!" Garak finally snapped, after losing count of how many times the man had gotten up to prowl for something to do.

"But — "

"No." Garak went and took him by his arm, one of his own going behind Julian's waist to escort him firmly back to the chaise lounge Garak had installed for this. "Superior or not, you need to let your body rest while the fever runs its course."

Julian sighed, settling, and Garak sat beside him, keeping close contact.

"Tell me a story?"

"Yes."

AO3 Link | In the Demon's Claws (2219 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Forgotten Realms, The Legend of Drizzt Series - R. A. Salvatore
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Drizzt Do'Urden & Vierna Do'Urden
Characters: Drizzt Do'Urden, Vierna Do'Urden
Additional Tags: Ensemble Cast, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Typical Violence, Resurrection
Summary:

Things in the Hall went slightly different, but still Drizzt chooses the road, and learns of one more quest.

In the Demon's Claws

Drizzt Do'Urden gazed out over the lands, thinking about everything endured. If Regis had not escaped sooner — no, it didn't bear thinking about. What he knew had let them disarm the trap, though not without personal cost for Drizzt himself. He had caused his father's death, brought about the deaths of his House from afar, and now… personally slain his sister, both by dam and sire.

His only consolation had been seeing her less a zealot, more sane in her eyes even, as the light faded, letting him cast true blame upon Lloth once more. It had been Catti-brie who supposed the entire raid had been concocted as but one thread of a web, given how near it had been to losing Wulfgar to the yochlol, how strange that they had chosen to come for Drizzt inside the dwarven stronghold rather than upon the road some night when he would be alone.

Bruenor had thundered, and Wulfgar had pledged support, with Regis managing advice based on his studying Artemis Entreri while the human consorted with drow. Aid had come from the region, and it would be a long time before Menzoberranzan could stir from its cesspool of hate and anger.

Catti and Wulfgar needed to work upon their relationship. Regis still had much recovery to make from his ordeal. Bruenor had a much expanded clan to lead to prominence.

Drizzt?

He looked back to the road for salvation from that which ate at his soul. A passing remark from one of the Harpells had reminded him of unfinished business concerning a crystal… and a demon that had been defeated once.

---

There had never been any chance of an ending that led anywhere but to the Demonweb Pits, Vierna had known. Either she would arrive in favor, and become one of Lloth's own servitors in some form —

— or she would arrive in full disfavor to be tortured.

She had learned three things as she endured the torture, and then the bartering deal with the balor.

Her father was not in the Demonweb Pits. This had been clear while she was still tortured under the servants of Lolth. He would have been an instrument in those tortures, as she had, again, fallen into that strange emotion surrounding Zaknafein, on seeing how true to himself her brother had remained.

There was the fact that Lloth had never been worth her devotion. This point — she'd had sight of it in the fall of her House — had clarified when the religious madness fell from her eyes even as her brother was lowering her body to the floor. If she had only managed to learn it earlier, and used her power to protect the two males she'd felt strong emotions over!

And, somehow, this balor intended to use her against her brother. Errtu could not keep himself from alternately salivating over his plans against Drizzt Do'Urden or raging in a froth of madness over what the impertinent drow had done to him.

She would just have to help her brother beat the demon at his own game. Vierna was looking forward to his death at Drizzt's hands.

---

Drizzt's concerns about the demon had proven too correct. He finished cleaning Icingdeath, his mind turning over the words spit at him by the fiend before its death. The gloating, brash taunts of what Errtu meant to do with him — after Errtu finished rending the soul of one that Drizzt cared for — had been too in line with what he knew of the balors. They were incapable of getting over a defeat that had been meted out to them.

Only? Errtu had an advantage over him. The only person's soul that could possibly be at risk to the demon was his own father. Drizzt would no more leave the soul in peril than he ever would have risked the man in life, had he but been a little wiser.

He didn't dare not follow up on this, no matter the source. Since Drizzt had left Mithral Hall, burdened by the suffering, deaths, and his own actions, he'd been seeking a purpose. He would recover the damnable crystal, and trek to a land known to hold the knowledge of the ages. Surely he could learn what was needed to save his father and destroy both threats if he but tried hard enough.

With resolve etched in every line of his body and soul, Drizzt plunged into the frozen north once more, intent on his goals.

---

The Crystal Shard couldn't be tricked by Drizzt. Nor could it offer him what he wanted, not in a way that ever tempted the drow. The psychic effect of merely carrying it in a quiescent state was enough to make Drizzt constantly question his own mind as he traveled. Guen, on her visits to the Material Plane, also kept a watchful eye on him.

It was a necessary evil, bait for the demon that was seeking vengeance. After the not-so-minor trouble of getting back to it, finding it, Drizzt was just as relieved to find his next destination after a stop in Longsaddle. He'd kept the artifact's presence carefully hidden, indulged Harpell curiosity as some were in residence now that he had not met before.

"If you're dead set against leaning into the alliances you've made in Silverymoon," Bella began, the brighter eye rolling with what she thought of that and the dull one fixed on him, "you need to head for Tethyr, a small kingdom down there with a cathedral being built.

"The priest of Deneir, Chosen they say, will point you to the knowledge you need to deal with this demon you need to be rid of."

"It seems I should see if Captain Deudermont will aid me in my journeys, then," Drizzt said, not keen on going so far south once again, but he was no priest nor wizard, to be able to banish the demon for good… and with luck, this cleric might well know how to rid the realms of the Crystal Shard.

With the right tools, Drizzt Do'Urden would be willing to wager against the evil ones, and try to reclaim his father's soul from the Abyss.

---

"You could become a cleric of sufficient rank in the decades you have left. Or a wizard of strength," Cadderly mused at Drizzt, even as the wizened Chosen walked beside Drizzt in the garden, aware that Pikel and Ivan both were still keeping an eye on the solitary drow.

"They say time stretches in the Abyss, and I feel that taking the time to do so would further torment the one I seek to rescue. Likewise, I will make no bargain with a Power to become a warlock."

Cadderly looked at Drizzt then, leaning on his staff as they paused. "And yet you refuse your goddess Her offer?"

Drizzt flushed, looking down, and Cadderly knew the ranger had not expected that to be known. When he looked up, it was with an expression of sadness. "She has been good to me, and I will serve Her so long as She walks the path I view as right.

"But I do not trust myself with a spark of who She is."

"Which is of course why She would most want it to be you, for that very distrust, but. You have closed that door — for now — and having a pressing need to save one you care for. The vile artifact's destruction is what you seek, but not before you are able to barter with and defeat the balor.

"A complicated task you have set yourself, but I will set people to the research of it."

"Thank you; it is all I can ask."

---

Vierna felt something change in her captor. He was eager, close to success of some kind? She felt weaker than she had even in the moments after Lloth forsook the House. How could she aid her brother like this?

When the demon back-handed her for daring to spit in his direction, she lolled in her bonds, feigning unconsciousness and made the choice to reach out to a different power. Never again would she submit to the divine… but bargain with one? That she could — and would! — manage.

~Vhaeraun son of Araushnee and Corellon, god of drow,~ she prayed, all of her singular focus on inviting the Named One to take notice of her. Even now, out of favor and having renounced her former goddess, the names burned in her mind, invoking pain.

Pain that she further used to fuel her call to the one that could make her plans work — she would not fail! Her brother, the boy she had taught and raised, needed her, and this time, she was embracing that.

Little did she know that her very need to aid a male sibling was the right spark to bring the god's attention to her.

---

"As long as your darkness holds," Danica coached, "the thing will be destroyed."

Drizzt looked past her to the rather unassuming man with them, very little giving away his draconic nature.

"And Icingdeath will guard me from the flames," he reminded himself.

"Yes, a superb frostbrand," Vaeros said, having inspected the magic on the blade to be certain.

"The breach of magic has made it possible for the balor to come to a simple summoning," Drizzt recited. "I will offer the artifact, and then we will be 'attacked', at which point the crystal will burn while I hold darkness — and evade the enraged demon while protecting my father."

"Presuming that the captive is brought, and that it is your father," Danica agreed. "Should be simple for the drow that decimated Menzoberranzan's might."

Drizzt stared at her, then saw the twitch of her lips, and gave into the laughter at that outrageous elaboration of his part in the war of Mithral Hall.

"We will do this, Ranger, on our shared love of the Wilds," Vaeros said, once the laughter had worn off, with the effect of living Drizzt lighter in spirit.

"So we shall."

---

It was not Zaknafein.

That small fact half-broke Drizzt's willpower at first. He wanted to angrily decry that he didn't care about Vierna.

His heart knew that for a lie.

She looked mangled in the grasp of the demon, and trickles of blood had formed where the clawed hand pierced flesh.

She was conscious, and her eyes locked on his.

Distantly, he could remember the plan even as the sealed case with Crenshinibon hung from an outstretched hand, the demon gloating within the summoning circle.

His mind toured over early, harsh lessons. He recalled the gentle touches that had been rare and treasured. He remembered that someone had to have told Zaknafein of his speed and skill with both hands. He recalled the look of sanity in her eyes, at the end of her life, blood spilling from a wound he'd made in her.

Something in her eyes told him she trusted him, and that she was ready for whatever came next.

"Let her go, and you can have what you want."

"You think I am unaware of the treachery lurking in your soul, drow?" Errtu demanded, hand closing more —

— and Vierna uttered a quick phrase in formal drow, one that called upon Vhaeraun, god of the male drow. The next moment, she was small, transformed into a bat that eluded the demon's grasp, fluttering valiantly into the hood of the cloak Drizzt wore.

He prayed that was enough to protect her, as he gave himself over to the Hunter, Icingdeath more than eager to drink the blood of this balor once more. Errtu had no chance to evade, or even dispel the darkness, as Drizzt furiously fought for his life, the crystal's end, and for the daughter of his father.

---

Vierna awakened at the feeling of healing being pushed into her, the kind that traced fire in her veins, counter to her very nature but helping abate the last tortures' marks upon her.

She found herself looking into the purple eyes that had entranced her since his birth.

"We're in a small cave. I didn't want to impose on my allies," he told her softly. "You turned back to drow after the fight ended."

"I did not ask for it to be a permanent change," Vierna said, but she reached for his hand on her shoulder. "You can heal?"

"If my patron agrees, yes," he said, taking her hand and shifting so he could sit more comfortably and hold it. "Vhaeraun?"

"I promised Him I would become a potent cleric for Him, if He let me aid my troublesome little brother against the balor."

Her smile on those words provoked one from him.

"I thought it was my — our father."

"And yet, you still pushed through with the plan you had made." She squeezed his hand. "We will have peace, Drizzt. I swear it on my continued life."

He contemplated her words a long moment, then laid down on the bedroll, sliding an arm under her neck, tucking close to give her the warmth he had.

"Good. There's been enough strife for us both, I think."

She closed her eyes, shifting a little to be comfortable, and decided that he was still strange to her.

But she had become something different and wanted to embrace the strangeness with him.