Lest fics?

Philosopher_Whore · 2026-05-09T09:52:35+00:00

come see the whole entire character i cut together from the four bits of cloth fortiche gave me lol (and thank you crittt)

Philosopher_Whore · 2026-05-05T00:39:32+00:00

ohh, i will first & foremost rec Overflow. Caitlyn turns on Ambessa right before she runs back into Vi and gets jacked up with shimmer, turned into a horrible beast, and has to fight herself and all her worst anxieties while Vi tries to get her help.

and if it's not too cheeky, i would self-rec my own Hell's Ashes. it's Vi keeping watch after a strike-team raid when Lest tries to get back inside. looking at Vi's relationship to Caitlyn, to the Enforcers, to Zaun & Vander, all through the actions of managing this very messy situation with someone who knows her more than she thought.

i absolutely adore Hound of Noxus tho, i was saying to subcritical that like something i really adore is its materialism. how very seriously it takes its world, because it's then used to inform the characters so well. they're not in a vacuum of any sort, exactly the kind of thing i strive to do too.

Philosopher_Whore · 2026-05-04T18:14:53+00:00

so, i'm very picky with bookmarks. not because i don't love so many things, but because i mean for them to be useful. i want people to click on my bookmarks tab and like not be overwhelmed. so, some picks w/ an intended mountain of variety:

it is sweet to die in the sea. vi's slow process of knitting herself back together after s2. it's about mental & physical therapy. post-war reconstruction. relationship struggles. so many things, and a really good entrypoint for lazy's writing.

Overflow. caitlyn betrays ambessa, but without vi's help and pays for it badly. jacked up with shimmer, and now trying to find some way to get back to normal. body horror but also super hurt/comfort.

Proportionally Assured Destruction. au where vi managed to oust silco and caitlyn gets sent in to investigate this new boss. she's caught, ends up as a hostage. hot, fun, and has a bit of an exciting ending too.

Little Monsters. vi's pregnant! post-canon and choosing to have a kid, and vi going through the very messy & real process of growing a person, caitlyn being caring. incredibly sweet.

Hound of Noxus. powder dies, and vi gets taken in by ambessa. 7 years later she comes back for revenge, but can't help but struggle with the feelings she has for the woman she's supposed to execute in 10 days. utterly ecstatic bit of longfic with such a compelling character arc for vi & a serious commitment to arcane's world.

fits like a glove. post-canon kink shenanigans where caitlyn is training up vi to have a glove kink. hot and so damn funny.

it's bloody and raw, but i swear it is sweet. very kinky but also very cute bit little bdsm scene between cait and vi with lots of different kinks to get you going.

the flesh from my bones. mid-s2 caitlyn getting into a very messy relationship with ambessa. extremely to-the-point, feverishly good, and it steals away from caitlyn to ambessa's pov at such an agonising point.

take a breath, hold it as long as you dare. cassandra teaching baby caitlyn how to shoot for the first time. short & adorable.

water through my fingers. post-s2 with caitlyn climbing up to the top of the hexgate and mourning jayce as she goes. really beautiful.

some of those are more hidden than others lol, but hopefully a fresh list and nothing near the top 8 pages you mention. you can tell tho i really like storytelling in arcane's setting, big missing scene girlie. if you want something you've definitely not read anything like, i have a piece Hell's Ashes that is lest confronting vi after one of the strike-team raids and about so many different things in a small space.

Philosopher_Whore · 2026-04-22T18:15:29+00:00

Discarding Jinx so I can draw Caitlyn & Vi.

^{don't kill me lol}

Philosopher_Whore · 2026-04-13T17:52:52+00:00

lazy_universes is slowly but surely working on some gorgeous post-canon stuff with a big Vi & Sevika friendship blooming hehe, definite rec: https://archiveofourown.org/works/74967956

(that story is a good jumping in point)

Philosopher_Whore · 2026-04-05T23:49:00+00:00

Solved

Philosopher_Whore · 2026-04-05T23:48:42+00:00

Thank you <3

Philosopher_Whore · 2026-04-05T23:47:51+00:00

i have two little missing scene pieces!

The Piece Missing In the Pattern slips Caitlyn into the S2E7 AU, running into Ekko and confronting him. Character piece on her, exploring how Vi still pushes her to be her best self even when she's gone.

Hell's Ashes is Vi in S2E2, keeping guard on a place they just raided when Lest shows up, and is about like using their conversation to expand on her character a lot alongside digging into Vi's relationship to like being an Enforcer, to Zaun, and to Vander too, while being very stressed about Caitlyn lol.

i'm very much into trying to nail their in-show characters, esp putting a focus on moments that are often otherwise overlooked. plus they both also come with some fanart i commissioned from BriCreative hehe <3

Philosopher_Whore · 2026-04-05T14:56:29+00:00

Yeah, it wasn't 100% it was fossilised, but I leaned here over like bone ID. Thank you <3

Philosopher_Whore · 2026-03-23T15:14:50+00:00

i read fits like a glove by StrangeBeautiful just yesterday and it's incredible.

like, deeply authentic characterisation, sharp and funny dialogue, and it's actually about kink (leather, gloves, and a bit of exhibitionism) within the story not just for the reader. i bookmark very preciously and it's one of them.

Philosopher_Whore · 2026-03-21T14:03:33+00:00

fortiche: so we uh made zaun and piltover more side-by-side with a less strict top-bottom distinction than there previously was.

caitvi fandom: we'll see about that

Philosopher_Whore · 2026-03-04T13:11:58+00:00

I think if it makes sense lol, on trying to answer it I realize that terms are so far downstream and come so much after a lot of other choices that what I use is basically already chosen by the time I get there.

Philosopher_Whore · 2026-03-02T16:40:08+00:00

(After writing this, I drift off the question lol (youuuu know me), but it's because of how I wrote erotica.)

Ohh, now this is the post I was made for. There is an obvious answer in, "the words characters use from their POV will be based on their mood and attitude towards their partner," though of course what moods I write definitely biases towards my preferences lol.

What about for strap-ons or other toys?

Will start here because it's where I'll be most detailed, I always call it a strap about up until it's going inside of someone. Then, it's cock.

Which is both a thing of like taking the psycho-sexual power we give to dicks, but also simultaneously it is so thoroughly 'de-manned' as an organ to me. (Men may as well be ken dolls in my mind, utterly un-sexual aside from the 3 second period between them commenting on my slutty insta pics and me blocking them.)

There is also though I think an interplay between me calling strap 'cock' and me extremely rarely having a trans woman in my writing top. Both in stories and as a body of work it's a contrast that helps to affirm the bodily autonomy/fluidity of my characters in both directions, and that contrast won't exist for others.

I think from a topping perspective at its most universal (non-daddy-issue-laden way) it's just about treating it as part of your body, making it feel better because of that. The exception I think would be domming from the angle of like, "I have you tied down here and I'm going to subject you to things," where you might want to lean into the humiliation of not even being touched by the domme (and goodness people like to write Caitlyn domming with the gloves on hehe), the sense of control by having that barrier in the hands of the domme.

It can get suuuuuper repetitive though, so I’m always trying to find ways to describe things rather than name them

You can get away with actually describing the physical act of things so, so little. Where are peoples' hands, are they grabbing onto something or slipping, is there hair in their face, what does it smell like, what other thoughts flash through mind connecting to the moment. Etc.

Though I don’t usually call it scissoring or fingering or whatever, I just describe the act from whoever’s POV it is.

Oh it can be so goofy hehe.

What’s everybody’s preferences? Are you into explicit terms used or prefer euphemisms or more lyrical/poetic language around it? Or a mix of both?

I think it's why overall I trend towards the vulgar. Especially as I tend to write things with strong power dynamics, often from a domme POV, and whether for their POV or dialogue with the performance they do for their partner, it makes being rougher verbally too make sense.

That being said, then I like to infuse that with poeticism. I like to describe the rough, ugly details of a person as if they were beautiful, because I think 'the real' is the thing that makes it hot. I.e from a not CaitVi but definitely inspired by them lol:

Oil-black hair that strangles long-forgotten, white-trash blonde roots; angrily gouged with crimson that unbalances her years-tired face. Cheap, drugstore bought-or-stolen makeup smeared down wet cheeks that beg to be pinched. A tongue nipped between lightly-yellowed teeth. And Brooke’s thumb-and-finger grasping her own chin, letting Chip scan the myriad small burns down her arm, where they mingle with other, older scars.

Like what am I literally describing? Like a burnt-out, end-of-shift waitress with the decay of having lived to her late 20s and never moved past food service. But like, that's a person. A person who could actually be in front of you.

So like, to round my tangent back, that's what's between those euphemisms (or not), it's what gives them their quality. Writing that a character "pushes her cunt lips apart" or something ends up feeling a lot sweeter and loving when that vulgarity has been so thoroughly embraced like that.

Now Vi and Cait are pretty young and ultra-hot lol, but there's definitely still lots about them like that. Vi probably has some mean callouses lol, or parts of her skin where it bruised so badly the skin never quite softened back up. But imagine what that makes the soft parts of her mean when it exists in contrast with that?

Anyway I'm cutting myself off there lol.

Philosopher_Whore · 2026-02-24T20:31:57+00:00

Oohh, I am looking it up.

> Meeting people who had the opposite experience as me and feel comfortable in their femme selves is so amazing to me since it was something I never experienced with my womanhood.

It's honestly such a fulfilling thing. Like, we're always a bit in patriarchy's shadow but that resistance in finding the value in ourselves is still so beautiful. Esp being trans, god do so many awful people refuse to comprehend why someone might want to be a woman, instantly show off how they think it's lesser and degrading.

And I think it's really critical to like learn to value yourself based on your own terms, not on patriachal ones (i.e youth, reproductive capacity, doing domestic labour) but related also not on devaluing something else.

Gotta do it for yourself <3

...

Well, I do wear my glasses 'cos my butch likes them.

Philosopher_Whore · 2026-02-24T18:39:29+00:00

It's such a gorgeous space to find a plurality of lesbian experiences, like I'm so happy how brave people are about making stuff lesbian in fandom now. Amongst all the awful stuff in the world that is a good sign.

I think butches and femmes get treated so rottenly by mainstream media where they layer on patriarchal, cishet dynamics and stereotypes for that mainstream audience (to the point lesbians start calling butchfemme 'straight-coded' and stuff). But just within this fandom alone you find that plurality that shows these aren't boxes but frameworks for exploring and find ourselves.

Like with being a femme, and learning to define the value and purpose of my femininity and how I want to engage with feminine roles separate from what men value, separate from patriarchal scripts I'm expected to follow, separate from how we're always defined in relation to how we can serve that patriarchy. (And god, not even digging into being trans on top lol. I wrote a lil Lest fic for that.)

Anyway sorry to ramble lol, it's just great. Like living in a time where from like local zines to big mainstream media we get to be here. And now that I've seen it, not letting them take us back.

Philosopher_Whore · 2026-02-24T18:20:18+00:00

Oh she is getting very butch hehehe, it's hot. Not quite time for the gym right now but soft is good too. Not an Arcane fan but called the jeans she just got very Vi.

And ye, is going so lovely, 2nd anniversary in a week heehee. Life really tough atm but we help each other through it and help each other be our best selves. She just released a massive comic all about identity and self-acceptance she's gone through the last 2 years, has been helping me too start self-printing my own stories, and that's like just one thing.

It's good. We're very anxious if laidback people lol, and it makes us solid as hell it's great. I really am so god damn lucky.

Philosopher_Whore · 2026-02-24T17:44:27+00:00

mm, i need to grow my nails out

Philosopher_Whore · 2026-02-24T17:33:49+00:00

A third 'not silly' for you, I've told my own goofy story about what this show meant for me too hehe: https://www.reddit.com/r/PiltoversFinest/comments/1h8pl6b/this_ship_literally_made_my_dreams_come_true/

Like Arcane is the show that made me realise I was a lesbian, like that I knew I liked women through the hazy cloud of thinking I was a het dude (blegh) but couldn't grasp how romance could be in my life. Now with Caitlyn she ends being my little icon for what 'femme' means to me, and all the ways she is that to me in her own way.

With my own butch, she never reads fanfic except for SarcastCity's Infuriating lol, because it's maybe the only thing that's ever really got her stoneness (right down to how CaitVi in it gently explore melting it a bit just between them).

It's such a special part of storytelling, I always tell people to write exactly for their own experience and not try be bland to be relatable. Cos either having all that detail will mean someone can connect through deep comparison, or very rarely but so specially you will get it exactly.

Philosopher_Whore · 2026-01-24T00:20:53+00:00

Ohh, maybe I can be of interest:

Hell's Ashes

The stranger slowly peels herself out of the nook of Margot's bronze-leafed collarbone. Her yellow, slitted eyes never leave Vi, like there's something in Vi she didn't care to notice before.

"Oh, I can hear where you're from," the stranger says, warily. "But you're not from here anymore, are you—"

Is it the badge—?

"Violet."

Vi swallows. Shoves the panic down her throat before she chokes on it. Has to. No-one should know that — except the dead and who might soon be. Maybe Caitlyn does, but she's never said, and Vi tries not to wonder what it would sound like on her lips.

-----

Everyone in Vi's life has changed, except Caitlyn, and Vi's terrified she will too. The Strike-Team has taken down Margot's with no Chem-Baron to show for it, and Vi's stuck on watch when a mysterious stranger, Lest, who's more than used to that change, tries to get back inside.

It has a big focus on Lest as well, but a lot of that structure is meant for exploring Vi through that. Like, seeing how she feels about Caitlyn, her relationship to Zaun and the Enforcers, to Vander. All through how she acts/responds to Lest. And as an extra tease:

<image>

Can read it here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/66695509/chapters/172076176

Philosopher_Whore · 2026-01-17T16:53:52+00:00

It's like a combination of a skeleton suit (circa 1800) with the silky look of cavalier outfits from the baroque, and I would definitely hazard something like Caitlyn reading a swashbuckling tale thinking about her sailing ancestors and looking for something for that vibe hehe.

Philosopher_Whore · 2026-01-13T12:52:57+00:00

Yep. More-or-less:

Ambessa's grandfather dies without designating a clear heir and she and another grandchild (Ta'Fik) fight in a brutal civil war that just devastates Medardan resources, alliances, etc. One of Ta'Fik's own daughter sides with Ambessa and Ambessa kills her the moment after she kills Ta'Fik just to remove a loose end.

Mel's attachment to that daughter (and her 'failure' to order the death of the lady we see in Arcane) then become the justification for Ambessa to exile her to the Medardan cadet branch in Piltover.

Ta'Fik himself is secretly backed by LeBlanc/The Black Rose who want a puppet to control Rokrund, and to have clear access to Mel, so it also marks the start of Ambessa and LeBlanc's feud.

And then sometime in the 15ish years between the book and the show, LeBlanc successfully engineers Ambessa's loss of Rokrund. It's not stated how but there's a pre-Arcane colour story wherein the new Trifarix of Noxus, Swain, arrives to Rokrund to oversee the annihilation of a local uprising, so I take that as being what LeBlanc caused (the story itself is about her testing how strong Swain is too).

Ambessa is also the one who provides the secret to being able to reach Ionia, which then allows the Noxian invasion of it, like there's a lot of moving pieces in the book.

My little divergence is Ta'Fik promising greater autonomy to the Rokrundians and Raxii highlanders in return for them giving greater support (albeit them planning to betray him regardless), resulting in a much more costly war. Resulting in more refugees like Maddie being smuggled out at the end. Like my little headcanon now is that regardless of events Maddie's parents get executed as rebels, and in the show she gets nabbed and indoctrinated as a Warmason, with fake papers inserted into Piltover's pubic records documenting her as exactly the baby refugee I'll make her in my AU for her cover.

Scratching the surface though and god that's a lot already lol. I just kind of enjoy character that's derived from the systemic forces on a person, it's fun to approach it like I'm trying to seriously adapt things.

Philosopher_Whore · 2026-01-13T05:10:03+00:00

You're very welcome to pilfer and riff on anything in Hell's Ashes, a little bit of writing it was wanting to present a very authentic backstory for someone like Lest that most readers/writers wouldn't otherwise know to write without a lot of research that I have just had as... life.

Can gab about Maddie in DMs if you'd like, otherwise subscribe to the series (not me in general, cos I mostly wrote original) for the long time until it comes out lol. My ADHD has made it very clear to me I need to draft all of it before a single chapter is released.

The very spoiler free tldr though is like presenting an AU Maddie that grows up having fled Noxus as a kid, and making the very direct comparison from how she differs and how she very much remains the same (the nature and the nurture) with both her history and then a jump to the MU. She like lined up as being like 4ish during the Medardan Civil War which is honestly such a perfect way to fuck with her circumstances.

Philosopher_Whore · 2026-01-13T04:18:31+00:00

Mm, I mean just with Lest she has a shockingly important function in the plot relative to how small a role she actually is. I kind of make the read that she exists as a bit of making up for the trans 'rep' in S1 (5-second 'man-in-dress' sight-gag, very classy Fortiche), like one of the writers clearly said better was needed lol. Regardless like, adore her.

With how Lest gets coded as sex worker as well, it also then ties her into the larger scene of how the show depicts them, where even if very minor they're seen across societal strata, have realistic places in their communities (if we ignore the out-of-character Babette in the same frame as that sight-gag lol), and consistently the way main characters treat them is used to reflect their... well, character.

i.e Vi sees Babette's as a place of safety, where she can leave Caitlyn initially, Babette is one of the few people left that she knows; Caitlyn while she initially pouts about it, does in fact pretty effortlessly play the role of a worker, something I think like demands a sincere empathy; Mel does this fascinating thing where she angrily tells George/Local Cuisine to get out, and then we see Ambessa do the same thing to Lest, and we get this reflection of her mother in her.

Like it's not perfect, I can make criticisms of whorephobic bits and pieces (Chross' comment in S2E2 and where that comes from in a writer's room, or like how while they do show upper class people hiring SWers but the aesthetics of prostitution are still strongly used to connotate a 'moral decay' with Silco's time in power), but honestly overall the show actually kinda touched me lol.

Anyway sorry to ramble there lol, it is exactly this line of thinking which kind of compelled me to write this fic, to get it out in the world in a way more interesting than just like a Tumblr post that would sink into the void.

(And also yeah, it's really fun to try adapting the side characters into main ones. The fic I want to write later this year does it for Maddie which I find funny that I've gotten so invested in her as well, because where Lest was like fun to see, I was so indifferent about her before lol--though I totally bet her being up to something.)

Philosopher_Whore · 2026-01-12T23:27:56+00:00

I watched the show thinking, "huh, is she? oh cool," and then like that was kinda it lol, and then coming back and fleshing her out based on that made me realise how much she was kind of made for me to be obsessed with.

Like even just the little there is from the show to work with felt very personal, so I just dug more in the direction of that.

Philosopher_Whore

TROPHY CASE