open post: Empress Liu Mingyan

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan has a lot on her mind.

In the three months since Luo Binghe vanished into thin air, Xin Mo abandoned at the foot of his throne, his Empire—her Empire—has... changed. The throne remains empty, of course—to have anyone else claim it, even temporarily, would be conceding that his absence is unintentional, either accidental or, more likely, a malicious coup. Whoever did the claiming would be the prime suspect for mal intent, including Mingyan herself. So it sits, empty, at the center of his great hall, Mobei-Jun standing sentinel beside it, never to be looked at directly by any visiting dignitary or sniveling demonic petitioner.

She's been redirecting all audiences to her wing of the palace instead. Her hall is not quite so grand, but it is nearly as imposing, and her own throne no less terrible and beautiful. When Luo Binghe is in residence, she primarily uses this hall for meetings with her network of all-female spies—not because Luo Binghe doesn't know about them, in his vague and uninterested way, but because Liu Mingyan has learned from experience that if they encounter him they turn very quickly from useful and competent agents to fawning and lovestruck young maidens, and then it's only a matter of time before they join the ranks of the harem. Liu Mingyan does not resent this; there would be no point. But she prefers to conduct her business in private nonetheless.

Now, of course, even from her own throne many of her edicts must be delivered as if they're orders that Luo Binghe left for her to give. Ning Yingying has been surprisingly useful on this front; despite Liu Mingyan's disdain for what she believed a naive and trusting heart who had given up her sect loyalty to marry for love, Ning Yinging does know Luo Binghe, perhaps better even than Liu Mingyan does, offering insight into what Luo Binghe would have said, if he had in fact instructed Mingyan on how to handle this matter. Liu Mingyan does not always take this advice—she does not always want to do what Luo Binghe would have done, especially as his absence stretches from days into weeks into months, but she does not resent it, either.

In truth, what Liu Mingyan resents is the idea that Luo Binghe will return, and she will be expected to relinquish rule back to him, and everything she has built—the tenuous and confusing peace between herself and Sha Hualing, and thus the quelling of the constant threat of southern rebellion; the ease with which she receives the other wives and soothes their fears, rather than holding herself above them;¹ the shifted tenor of court itself, with fewer public displays of violence²—all of it will go back to normal, and Liu Mingyan finds she has less taste for normal every day. It's not that she doesn't want Luo Binghe to return—of course she does—but she wishes that somehow he might return different. It's a futile thought, and a disloyal one to think about a man who created this life for her, a man she cares deeply about, but she cannot deny that she thinks it.

So when she steps down a secret stairway into a corridor that should lead to her chambers and ends up in an unfamiliar hallway instead—the light entirely wrong, the architecture unfamiliar—her first thoughts are uncharitable. It seems obvious that this is the same trap that ensnared Luo Binghe. It also seems unfair to make her the one to bring him home, and be the agent of her own undoing. She'll do it—he is her husband, and while that doesn't mean the same thing to her as it does many of his wives, it does mean something significant, as undeniable as it is ill-defined—and her Emperor. But—

She sets her jaw behind her veil and wraps her fingers around Cheng Luan's hilt, proceeding silently down the hallway.

[NSFW: Susan's thread, Janet's thread]

¹ Well, sometimes she's still above them. If you know what I mean.
² Not that there has been no violence—it's just generally conducted elsewhere. Her floors are harder to clean than Luo Binghe's.

Comments

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan kisses her slowly, thoroughly. It's been a long time since she's done this with anyone she didn't already know, who didn't come to her for this purpose. Who was not, to some degree, awed by her, as Empress and Luo Binghe's most favored. (Or, in Sha Hualing's case, resentful of her, which was its own kind of fun.)

It sparks an old hunger in her, the hunger to know and be known, as women and equals. She wraps a hand around the back of Susan's head and draws her deeper into the kiss.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

As Liu Mingyan deepens the kiss, Susan feels a brief, fierce flush of triumph. That this mouth is only meant for women? A gift indeed! Liu Mingyan seems deliberate with her movements, like this is a familiar dance for her, and so Susan lets herself descend into the rhythm of it. She lets her eyes drift closed, rising on her tiptoes so she can curve closer to Liu Mingyan, moving her hand from Liu Mingyan's face and instead draping her arm around her back, hooked over her shoulders.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan smiles against her mouth and drops her own hands to Susan's waist, lifting her easily off her feet. She curls one arm under her ass for stability and slides the other hand along Susan's thigh, encouraging her to wrap her legs around Liu Mingyan's waist, as well as just to feel—Susan's legs are very well-formed, and she is wearing something, a smooth and skin-tight mesh over her skin, that is very pleasing to touch. She hums at the feeling, kissing her again.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan goes smoothly where she's guided: Liu Mingyan seems like she can bear her weight easily, and her hands feel positively luscious over Susan's nylons. Liu Mingyan's clothes are exotic and sumptuous to the touch. She almost - almost! - feels bad mussing them as she runs the fingers of her freer hand down the neckline of her clothes, but then her fingertips brush skin and she doesn't feel bad anymore.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan's robes easily slip from her shoulders,¹ baring her breasts to Susan's gaze and touch. She nips lightly at Susan's throat, encouraging, and takes a step forward so she can brace her back against the door of her chambers, freeing up both of Liu Mingyan's hands to explore her legs. She runs her palms up and down her thighs, over and over, teasing further and further under the hem of her dress.

¹ Benefits to being a woman from porn farce world.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan has gone from seeing one set of bare breasts (besides her own) in months to two in the span of mere days. Perhaps there is something to this queer little place! Liu Mingyan's are gorgeous, and Susan presses herself back against the door, legs firmly latched around Liu Mingyan's waist so that she can give herself the leverage to frame one with her hand, her thumb and forefinger stretching underneath it, cupping it, just to get a feel for it. Then she brings her hand up so that she can tweak Liu Mingyan's nipple. It's an exploratory pinch, neither as hard as Susan would prefer, nor as soft as someone else might like.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan's mouth falls open against Susan's jaw in a gasp. She is so delightfully bold, this woman from another world, and for a moment Liu Mingyan is caught in indecision about how she would like to have her. She had intended to lift her further and pin her to the door with her tongue, once she'd discovered the secrets of her clothing enough to get it out of her way, but Susan's wandering hands and almost scientific exploration make her wonder what she would do with Liu Mingyan if she were to cede control.

Her hands trace the place where her leg-coverings end and find something else—straps, of some kind, and strange little clasps. She plucks at one like the string of a qin, snapping it against Susan's skin. "Weapons?" she asks, intrigued.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan shudders at the feeling of her garter belt suspenders snapping against her thigh; warmth floods through her in the wake of that sting. "In a manner of speaking," she says, instead of 'no.' "In that they have defeated men in the past."

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan huffs a laugh into her throat, an absent part of her mind noting the shudder and filing it away to follow up on. "I do not doubt it. I intend to admit no defeat today, however."

She changes course, pulling Susan away from the wall and depositing her--gently but urgently--onto the bed. She steps back momentarily, undoing her belt and allowing her robes to finish the fall they had already started, leaving her only in her trousers and boots.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I doubt you'll have to," says Susan; Liu Mingyan seems like an intelligent and capable woman. She unbuttons the front of her dress swiftly, eyes running feverishly over Liu Mingyan's increasingly-revealed body as she does so.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan allows herself to bask, just for a moment, in the attention, her own gaze fixed on the skin Susan reveals with every undone button, and then she swings herself gracefully astride her on the bed, bending to capture her mouth again.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan presses up into the kiss, bringing a hand around the back of Liu Mingyan's head. There, she spreads her fingers, slipping them through the strands of Liu Mingyan's fancy updo. She runs her other hand down Liu Mingyan's side, slipping her fingers down the waistband of her trousers.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan--working from that little shudder, earlier--bites Susan's lip, none too gently, as she breaks the kiss to mouth hotly down Susan's throat and chest. Her hand finds Susan's bra before her mouth does, and she hums. "This, too, to defeat men?" she asks, slightly breathless, cupping one of her breasts through the cloth and squeezing.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Or enthrall them, as need be," says Susan. Liu Mingyan's hair is working easily free from her updo without much effort on Susan's part; she tugs it, lightly. Her mouth is hot from Liu Mingyan's bite. She wants more. "There's a - hook, in the back, that releases it."

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan feels her hair come loose from its guan and spill over her shoulders, sudden cool silk that makes her shiver. She slips a hand under Susan, easily locating and unhooking the catch in question, and then tugs the bra down Susan's arms enough that she can get her mouth on her breasts, making liberal use of her teeth. She returns the other hand to the breast she'd been cupping before, rolling her nipple between her fingers. "I like it," she murmurs, between nips. "Your armor."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan, who has worn actual armor -- leather and mail, primarily -- likes very much the idea of her underwear also being armor. Or maybe she just likes Liu Mingyan's mouth at her tits. She also appreciates that Liu Mingyan isn't shy about being rough, and tugs harder at her hair. Her other hand she moves to cup Liu Mingyan's ass, feeling the shape of it through her thin trousers; from the (lack of) texture, she's pretty sure that Liu Mingyan isn't wearing any underwear, herself. She likes this discovery, too.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan groans encouragingly at the tug in her hair, pressing back into the hand on her ass, and runs her tongue across Susan's nipple, pinching and tugging at the other with her hand. She is keyed in to Susan's reactions, every catch of her breath and twitch of her body. She still can't decide where she is going: down, to see what other titillating defenses await her before she can get her mouth on Susan, or up, to straddle her face? She likes both options very much, which Susan will discover if she explores Liu Mingyan's lack of armor further.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan's dress, by this point, has fallen away save for one errant button on the skirt. All that's left is her underwear, garter belt, and nylons - plus her half-twisted bra, which digs into the meat of her belly and has her arms lightly constrained in a very interesting way. It's not something she's explored for herself before, and now she's idly wondering why. Not very deeply, of course; Susan has other, more pressing concerns. She pulls Liu Mingyan's hair more sharply, not enough to leverage her mouth away from Susan's chest but enough to show that she's listening, and works her hand fully under the waistband of Liu Mingyan's trousers. Yes, it's as she thought: just warm, soft skin.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan bites at Susan's nipple, once, to make her gasp, and then goes with the tugging of her hands, sitting up to stare down at her, drinking her in. The single button still buttoned on her dress obscures what appears to be the apparatus that the straps on her legs attach to; Liu Mingyan untwists it, deftly. The dark fabric is very pleasing against Susan's pale skin; like she has already trussed herself up, ready for Liu Mingyan before she ever arrived. Women in the world truly walk around with this under their clothing, just waiting to be discovered?

She makes her choice. "These stay on," she informs Susan, snapping one of her straps again, and stands up to step out of her boots and trousers.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan shivers, and then props herself up on her elbow, watching Liu Mingyan strip. It occurs to her to be productive with the time, so she works her bra off the rest of the way and pulls her dress off, casting it to the side, too. Then she settles back, adjusting her garter belt and its suspenders minutely where they've shifted to the side in the past few moments. Usually she's the one calling the shots, in moments like this, but this entire assignation feels pleasantly dreamlike and she's eager to see where it goes.

Also, Liu Mingyan is gorgeous. Susan runs her eyes feverishly up her lovely legs, lingering at the thatch of hair between them, before lifting her gaze up her torso to her pretty, bare face. Her hair is cascading down her shoulders, long and relatively un-mussed; Susan will have to work harder, then, to ensure that it is properly disheveled.

[empressliu]

Liu Mingyan finishes disrobing and settles back down, this time between Susan's thighs, a position she knows accentuates both the strength of her shoulders and curve of her breasts. She runs the knuckle of her index finger up and down the front of Susan's underwear, then leans forward to plant a kiss on her mound. "Sometimes," she says, "if I wish a lover to beg, I will leave my veil on for this, and tease her for hours through the cloth. It is a shame my time here is limited, or these could serve similar purpose."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"A pity indeed," says Susan, shifting into Liu Mingyan's touch. She spreads her legs wider, nudging Liu Mingyan's side with her knee, and reaches down to feel the muscles of her shoulders, which really, truly are impressive to behold. "I can see how that might drive a girl wild."

[empressliu]

It does not occur to Liu Mingyan to ask before she easily tears away Susan's underwear. In her world, she could offer Susan a thousand finer things, and would; in this one, it seems, all her needs are met. She just does it, baring Susan to her eyes. It is a hundred times more pleasing, immediately, that she is still wearing the belt and straps and mesh on her legs. She sinks her teeth into Susan's thigh, hard, where a square of it is framed by dark satin, and slides two fingers teasingly through the wetness between her legs.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

For a moment, the bite renders Susan useless, her mouth open and working against the air. And then she comes back to herself: a desperate, needy thing. Liu Mingyan is so decisive; Susan likes it very much.

"Like what you see?" she asks, aiming for teasing but sounding more hoarse than anything.

[empressliu]

"Mmh, more than you know," says Liu Mingyan. She digs her thumb into the spot she'd bitten, not letting the pain fade, and lowers her chin to fuck into Susan with her tongue.