1 - 20 of 36 Works by Rococospade
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Pretend for a moment you’re Juzō. Or don’t; he barely wants to be him, some days. But suppose you do: you're going through puberty as a child soldier in your shitty hometown and trying to make yourself something you’re not, because you can just see the shape of it: the kind of shinobi that people respect, a member of the Seven, someone with a future. Focus on that. Really focus, because you want it, if you’re Juzō. You want it so bad it aches. And try not to think too long or too hard about your teammate (and his teeth, the way he snaps them when you’re irritating), or why you did anything you did on that last mission (that dumbstruck look when your gazes locked, the way the blood striped his skin. Because you can forget that, surely) or the way his cheek dimples when he smiles. Yes. That's manageable, isn’t it? Juzō told himself so, and all he had to do to get there was shut down his mind and shut up the overthinking and move like a shinobi was supposed to. Really. For sure.
He told himself all that, and he still ended up going. He was doing it for the squad. He was doing it to shut up the voices in his head. He was doing it to shove away the memory of blood on Jun’s mouth. Whatever he needed to sell himself on things. -
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A few streets away from the temple (derelict since the regime change), cramped between buildings old enough to predate his grandfather, there was a shopfront with Apothecary writ on the sign in faded paint. The pharmacist in residence: a nominal shinobi, inactive duty, and a local curiosity for the simple fact of having survived so long. Kisame might have gone on ignoring that curiosity, if personal circumstance hadn’t shifted enough to make poison a necessity.
Series
- Part 1 of Out of context
- Part 1 of Civic Duty AU
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Trying to figure out what Ascelin was doing at any given time was more work than his teammates were really equipped for. So mostly they just wait, and let him tell them when he’s ready.
Unfortunately that sometimes means things like sitting in a restaurant and having him blurt out wildly inappropriate questions over lunch.Or, a Choir Scholar, a Church Prospector, and a Hunter walk into a bar... and get into an argument about sex. The argument is resolved in a brothel, because of course it is.
A sidestory from before Choral starts, starring Vasilissa, Drogomir and Ascelin when the city isn't in an unusual level of crisis.Series
- Part 9 of Before the nightmare
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Yharnam was never a friendly place, but it seemed to get worse every year, even for the people living in it. Another outbreak of the blood plague had the Healing Church occupied, and anyone who could not hunt kept their head down. You could maybe venture out, in the daylight - but not after dark, and not on the days of the hunt.
In the middle of all of this is Anastas, sixteen, sickly, and not especially talented. His older sister and only family, a Hunter for the church, has gone missing.
… So against all advice Anastas is talking to strange hunters and considering going out of doors, of course. If his sister wanted him safe, she should have been around to keep him so.
(Updates when life allows, at this point :’D)
Series
- Part 1 of Before the nightmare
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Yari gets a pleasant surprise while transitioning back to active duty. Actually, that's a lie, everything about it is objectively bad news for his continued survival, but he'd never let a little thing like that get in the way of enjoying opportunities when life dumped them in his lap. 'Teach Hoshigaki some intel tricks' was objectively the biggest opportunity he'd had dangled in front of him in years, and hell if he was letting anyone take it from him. Even - no, especially - Hoshigaki himself.
Series
- Part 2 of Out of context
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Letho needed a wardrobe to match his change of vocation. Laurence recommended him a tailor in the midtown, which saved a bit of hassle. Letho just needed to follow the directions and... let the guy pick whatever was appropriate for his station. Right, that seemed sensible. Couldn't be too much of a hassle. He'd had to have his Confessor's kit tailored, and surely that much couldn't be different between Caelid and Leyndell.
He thought that, and then he got to the tailor's shop.
[Mare's nest side story. Slice of life, not particularly plotty. Letho tries to exist in the face of adversity (judgmental craftsmen, Laurence.)]Major spoilers for Mare's Nest up to chapter 18
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Of course, the law did not make exceptions for good intentions... Letho was aware his choices could lead to trouble. Really! Not the least of which being that he couldn’t keep a child secreted inside the cabin forever, and living just outside of Leyndell made it... extremely likely that the royal guard might one day come knocking. He knew that. Honest. He'd just... decided to deal with things as they came.
It wasn't like the kid had asked for any of this, after all.Series
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A few moments of peace, a little dream before reality catches up.
Before they return to the surface, Anastas follows Ascelin to a different pocket of the tomb. He's confronted with a new facet of the Choir Hunter for the trouble, and echoes of his own past. There's something uneasy in seeing them side by side, loving memory and dangerous present. He should make himself step back, turn away his eyes. (He knows he won't step away. He cannot avert his eyes.)
(Anastas continues to have atrocious taste, in company and hobbies and decisions. Singing is one thing. Following Ascelin's theories about singing as a mode of spellwork is entirely another.)
Series
- Part 8 of Before the nightmare
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Ludwig leaned out to look at them. His brow furrowed. “You want me to stop them from cuddling?” His voice seemed to imply that this was a bit silly, as requests went.
“Yes.” Gehrman hissed. Why was this so hard! “They’re destroying the sanctity of this apartment, Ludwig!"
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Various episodes set in a modern AU. When you put a pre-med, an engineering student, a future barrister and a Cainhurst in the same room…(A college AU that is more or less crack fic. Littered with oddly specific headcanons, shiptease, and unnecessary cursing)
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- Part 2 of After Dark
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Extraordinary beings call Yharnam home. A great nest of them reside at the College of Byrgenwerth, mostly unseen by the scholars in attendance. One of Byrgenwerth's demons takes an interest in the scholars, or... one particular scholar, actually. And the scholar takes an interest back. The demon wants a soul. The scholar wants a lot more than that.
One might end up being the death of the other. A soul for power was a tempting promise; surely the payoff would be worth any pitfalls... -
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Anor Londo had no more knights. What she had instead was Smough: a blasphemous, bullheaded, lowborn cur, who staunchly refused to be outdone by a city of ghosts or the illusion of his erstwhile superior. So long as the Dark Sun wanted him, or even tolerated him, Smough would not leave his post.
Series
- Part 2 of Desiderata
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There were two infants dropped in the shunning grounds, who grew up reliant on one another more than anything else, and the only rule which they had to obey was stay below the surface… Not that they followed it with any especial care. And now, they were set loose on the world that rejected them.
Or,
Mohg and his brother were living in the capital, but that had not always been the case. Mohg compares then to now while trying to navigate the intricacies of court life. Miquella is unusually helpful, to that end. -
Amateur Night by Rococospade
Fandoms: Elden Ring (Video Game), Bloodborne (Video Game), Dark Souls (Video Games)
08 Apr 2023
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In the lower end of the Cathedral Ward, if you know which door to knock on and how much cash to pass between hands, there's a cozy little pit with ringside seats. Letho was down there doing a bit of extracurricular work when he saw the guy the first time. Margit the Fell had come out of nowhere with a chip on his shoulder and blood on his knuckles, and Letho was way further into it than he should've been. Hadn't he agreed to leave this life behind him?
Series
- Part 1 of After Dark
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Equilibrium by Rococospade
Fandoms: Dark Souls (Video Games), Dark Souls III, Bloodborne (Video Game), Dark Souls I
03 Apr 2023
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Smough was out of jail, starting the rest of his life, and... very nearly out of options. But that had been the state of things for a long time. ‘Free’ was a funny thing to call a man in his position. Ornstein didn't seem to find the humour in it, but then, Ornstein never did.
Series
- Part 3 of After Dark
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It wasn't like they could go hunting with the snow coming down so thick. Or, Ludwig and Laurence have a break on the feast-day whether they want one or not. They mostly spend it on depressing conversations and sitting closer than is polite, and even almost address subjects of import. It's something like progress.
[Falls somewhere nebulous in the Choral Composition timeline. Laurence and Ludwig can have a break from the angst mines, as a treat.]
Series
- Part 7 of Before the nightmare
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She's not what anyone wants, but that's no matter as long as they don't look below the surface, and as long as she's getting something in the bargain of pretending.
The Tarnished considers Hyetta's offer. Melina convinces them to reconsider. -
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A series of drabbles and shorts describing the dream as various characters perceive it. The moon hides a great many things.
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There was something wrong with him.
Letho lived in a cabin with a garden on the Weeping Peninsula. He had no recollection of how he'd come to be there, only glimpses of who he'd been. The Herbalist, owner of the cabin and Letho's only company, offered little in the way of answers. The trouble with his memory was manageable, until the appearance of a Confessor on horseback mucked it all up.
[Complete] -
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Ludwig attends the prestigious University of Byrgenwerth, and meets a variety of interesting people there. He might like it better if the place seemed a little less haunted and the students were a little friendlier, but that was Yharnam for you.
(Mostly he would like it if the scarier students would stop deciding he looked like a fun diversion. Was that an option? Could he just get his degree and practice sword work in peace? Probably not, but what a dream…)
[Pre-canon setting, not an AU.]Series
- Part 1 of Vicar’s Knight
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If you didn't kill the both of them in one go, Ornstein and Smough would both be up and waiting for you when you got back. There was a reason for that. There was, also, a perfectly good reason they always put the other one's soul back when they were finished dealing with undead. But neither of them had ever brought it up in conversation.
(Or, a look into the disconcerting intimacy of holding the soul of someone who hates you and seeing inside their head for a few minutes).Series
- Part 1 of Desiderata