#﹙ ғᴏʀ ᴡʜᴏᴍ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴇʟʟ ᴛᴏʟʟs. ﹚ battle for azeroth.

[acherys]

     There’s this dream she has, sometimes.

     Summer in Lordaeron, a picnic at the lake. The sun warms her skin, warms her heart, and she glides across the grass softly, the sword in her hand a paperweight. It strikes another in a caress before swirling away, partners in a dance… She laughs, and there is its echo, rich and warm as the deep dark earth. 

     Amidst the green paradise, laid upon her square of white. A woman: gold as the sun on waves, of gilt glowing soft in treasure chests. She speaks sweetly, calls her dear heart and my girl, and her insides melt into the river of veins that sing old shanties long-stitched to her heart. 

      A man: gold as leaves at autumn, as the fire in a hearth. He wears her old eyes. She doesn’t know his voice alone, but it’s so familiar, like an instrument devoid its accompaniment. It speaks things she has never heard before, and hears not still; but this is a dream, and she thus knows the silent words are said kindly. 

     A ( twist ) slant of the wrist and her sword arcs in rainbow glory towards the diamond pile of the lake --- and her father’s sword ( stabs ) caresses her throat with satin comfort --- 

     Zoey, says this voice she has never heard alone, you did so well, I love 

     The Deathlord jolts awake. 

     Her retinue of banshees frets in response. Acherus greets her flitting eyes, beloved and home, but there was someplace before, someplace else --- and the Wraith --- the Princess ---

     --- Zoey ---

     “My Lord?”

     “Get out.”

     They comply instantly, shuffling so much as a pack of ethereal floating ghosts are capable of. Her hand twitches of some unthinking instinct, something wholly undreamlike --- something born of this birthless existence --- 

      “Wait.” 

     The banshee nearest --- Anarial, she knows ( remembers ) --- pauses when she feels her lord’s hand brush the scraggly end of her roughshod braid. 

      “Who did this.” 

      “... Myself, my lord.” 

     “Pathetic.” Zoen lurches to a sitting position, and Anarial happily slots herself in place. “What were you aiming at? Fishtail? Here… this is how you start…” 

     She works through the mess of hair. The banshee’s sisters gladly pass brushes and clips into the gray scarred hands of their lord… and when Anarial is less a disgrace to the honor of Acherus, another takes her place, whose work is admittedly exceptional, but --- 

     Zoen weaves the hair of her banshees and tells them the operations of styles they are doubtless master, and in the rasp of hair and skin, the click of fingernails and pins, it drips away from her, that dream. That ( wanting ) weakness. 

      And she forgets, eventually. 

      And sometimes --- 

      And there’s this dream she has, sometimes ---

[acherys]

what's with you and that waycrest girl?

    NOT FOR STEALTH SHE EARNED HER TITLE, Lord Wraith of the clattering armor and snarling tones, always spotlit, always seen. Nothing like old Byrne hiding like a rat ---

     “ What Waycrest girl? ”

     She pitches her voice easy, inquiry veiling the razor edge of her consideration in satin. Lichfire eyes roam the spines of dusty tomes, and never once twitch in direction of the knight lingering behind her right shoulder, only thirty paces distant.

     Eternal traitor of the body, the heart.

     Shoulda put some continents between them, if you were gonna ask her these kinda questions.

[acherys]

Send my muse “👀 + a question” and they’ll have to answer with 100% honesty.  --- accepting @ilianchant​ said:  👀 + “What is your opinion of me, Mylady?” (guess who.)

     “ My Lord. Lady is my mother. ”

     How nice it feels to slip into this role for which she was born twice over, royalty slipping across her shoulders like a cloak mantled in wolf’s fur, wolf’s fangs. The little Embers lurk in other halls, leaving their young Lady Waycrest alone in the dark.

          ... With the dark, she should say.

     “ You’re pretty, for which I can appreciate, and you’ve got more bite to you than most of your station. It‘s cute, even if you’re still dead weight dragging. Pity that iron knight of yours fell so fast --- who will keep you safe from the beasts at the door? ”

     And the ones beyond, she says with bright gleaming teeth and a rictus grin inherited from a death god. 

     “ Easy to get lost in those woods of yours. Easier still to want it. Little candlewick like yourself, I’ve gotta wonder what’ll get you first, the hunger or the yearning. There’s a difference, you’ll find out. Once it’s too late to go back. ”

[acherys]

destiny item & quest description sentence meme --- accepting @astralnox​​ said: are you the dream of a sleeping god? or the nightmare of a dead one? / from lilian (:

     “ Yanno, cadaver, most folk say things like ‘ did you fall from the heavens ’ or ‘ were you Lightforged ‘cause you brighten my world. ’ Terrible things like that.

     “ So you wanna try again proper, or bring some elucidation to the table before I decide to feel slighted? ”

[acherys]

Send (▰˘◡˘▰) for a kiss drabble about our muses — accepting! @embercrested​ said: (▰˘◡˘▰) sisterzone eh?

keep the WOLVES from the door.         i hear them scratching like i don’t know better.

     “ This is the Lady Lucille Waycrest, ” introduces a man whose voice stutters not at all, eyes unwavering as he stares down the Death which glances right past him to his Lady. She might have been impressed by that, were she a little less hungry and a little more inclined to think favorably of these salt-soaked nobodies, but alas. 

     Hasn’t put its best foot forward, Kul Tiras. What a shame. 

     ( “ Behave, ” Jaina had plead on the way to these stormy unfriendly shores, right before they’d been clapped in irons and left to fester underground with rats and worse. She could laugh at the irony if it weren’t so very enraging. )

     But far be it from her to stoop as low as the adversary. Thus as she stops before this pretty little waif of a noble, she does not grasp that long expanse of throat as she so ardently desires, nor does she rip the soul from the resultant corpse before turning upon the impotent bodyguard, and the squealing townsfolk, and every other pestilent stain of a so-called human life festering on this soggy waste of soil before bashing Katherine Proudmoore’s head upon the ground with a melon burst.

     Behave, Jaina had plead. And thus.

          She stops before the Lady.

     Haunting courts for half a decade or more has left a certain polish upon even her rough butcher’s manner; Deathlord is all crooked grins and arching spines as she sweeps down upon the proffered hand to cradle it between those black clawed gauntlets that would like to crush bone, with all the care of a crocolisk scooping a hatchling into her jaws.

     If the curtain of her lips should unfurl to flash wrought ivory upon the soft warm skin of the dear delicious Lady Waycrest.... well.

          She did mention she was hungry, earlier.

     “ Lord Zoen Mith. ” No herald nor bodyguard to announce the royal dead, save the black beast loyal at her side. Her grin crooks higher as she meets the Lady’s dark brown eyes, scars crinkling in a way that looks as ugly as it feels. “ Charmed. ” 

     And you could almost believe she means it, had it been anyone else that said it.

                                                                     won’t you k e e p the wolves from the d o o r ?                                                      it won’t be long before i CAVE IN and open up the —  

[acherys]

@ilianchant​ said: a shaky hand holds the blunderbuss, and while obvious fear seems to betray the lady waycrest, her eyes seem determined. "i am not a liability - i can handle them as well!"

     Cute, isn’t she? Little cloth doll with her long metal stick. Place a tin pot upon her head and she might be a proper soldier toy after all. Appropriate adversary for their kindling foes, ya?

     “ That so. ”

     The Lord Wraith would reach out to tap the edge of the blunderbuss, and send hoarfrost skittering across its gray maw.

     “ By all means, my Lady Ember. Sally forth and slay your enemies. I won’t bemoan the break. ”

[acherys]

@shxwmaster​

    “ Could say the same for you, Deathlord. ” He spares her a glance of acknowledgement, but keeps his attention to the whole of his surroundings. “ ... Not often you and I get to converse directly. Did something out here catch your interest, or did you need me specifically? ”

     It’s so nice to see friends.

     He’s not wrong, Anduin’s little spy --- sunlight really didn’t suit either of them, though the dark clouds rolling in off the horizon promised this a situation not long to last. A breeze carries the sent of salt and storm to their bright corner of the earth, and drags a smile from her ruined mouth.

     Rare days, that she could enjoy Stormwind. 

     “ Need is a real strong word there; and you’re pointin’ the blade of interest the wrong way.

     “ Suppose, if you will, that I should hear in the hollow beneath the Tram, that I should hear some particular grumblings from certain dark corners... with some words I remember best from the tongues of Twilight’s Hammer...

     “ Well. You got a better person I ought to share this? ”

     Truly a shame she left Tiris in the Keep with the King; he’d like this view as well.

[acherys]

❛ personally ? i kinda want them dead . ❜

❥   𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐬  𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦  𝐭𝐡𝐞  𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐞  𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐫 . --- accepting @gilneans

     “ We both know I’m just gonna tell you to kill them. Ya didn’t spend all those years skulking sewers with the Shadow for nothing, did you, Princess? ”

     It could just be girlish mischief that draws the grin across her face, just two childhood friends swapping secrets beneath slumber party blankets, had they been anyone else but who they were.

     “ You have a knife, you have strength, you have the will --- so go right ahead. What’s stopping you from killin’ them that didn’t stop you from confessing to me of all folk? ”

[acherys]

     While I think she would eventually come around to admiring Kul Tiras and wanting to connect more with this aspect of her heritage, it takes Zoen a long time to acknowledge or pursue that desire. Seeing her mother carted off to potential execution while she herself is also thrown in jail ( it was so tempting to just kill them all and give Jaina the crown and be done with it, she was ready to go Full Darth “We Can Rule Together” Vader on Boralus and damn the consequences ) gave her a grudge to nurse all the way through the main storyline, and that’s before we add in the moodiness that the strong Old God presence on the Isles was having on her Scourge-y self.

[acherys]

"What side are YOU on?"

@embercrested

keep the WOLVES from the door.           I hear them scratching like I don’t know  B E T T E R !

     “ Oh, certainly not yours. ”

     What a quaint idea. Here are the sides: Alliance, Horde, Legion, Scourge. Living, Dead. Pick one, none the others, and live well within these borders evermore. Or die to gain an inch, steal a centimeter from the others.

     Lord what fools these mortals be.

     ( At the edge of her skull, like the distant rumble of thunder: laughter not her own. )

     Or maybe it’s just her, bound in the barbed wire of a dozen thrones, for whom the concept of lines in the sand is too difficult to understand.

     “ Eventually Proudmoore’s gonna tire of you. Or I’ll tire of playing sweet for her. ” She licks at her teeth, tastes all those crevices blood likes to clot in when she’s at feast. They’re so empty. “ You’re more a lamb than my usual fare, but… heh. Fool’s the beast that leaves a meal for the crows, ya? ”

                                                                          won’t you  k e e p  the wolves from the  d o o r ?                                                           it won’t be long before I CAVE IN and open up the —

[acherys]

[ refill ]  

NON - SEXUAL   ACTS   OF   DOMINANCE . --- accepting[ refill ]  your muse refilling mine’s glass for them .@vojvode

keep the WOLVES from the door.       I hear them scratching like I don’t know  B E T T E R !

     Alone one moment, company the next, can you truly blame her for the bristle of icicles that shoot from the ground in a circle around her, an honor guard to supplement the wolf which barks in belated warning? Her fingers clench around the cup, hairline fractures spider-webbing their way across the glass. Next time she’ll just drink from the bottle.

          Wouldn’t her mother be so proud of her manners, that she scrounges up the effort to speak rather than unsheathe Lament and start attacking.

    “ Reckon we’re not so well acquainted that lurkin’ in like that is anything other than rude as hell. ” Or perhaps they were — there’d been an ax buried in her skull a couple weeks past, and while the physical could be healed easy as Thorval desired, she wouldn’t be surprised to discover some recollections had dripped out onto the bloody floor. “ Deathlord Zoen Mith. You are…? ”

     Not what you seem. Something vibrated down her spine the longer she looked at him, set her teeth to aching and her muscles jumping. His arms were too long. Brought wights to mind, the way their bodies almost looked like a person ‘til you stared a bit too long.

      ��                                                               won’t you  k e e p  the wolves from the  d o o r ?                                                      it won’t be long before I CAVE IN and open up the —

[acherys]

hello.....................

Send me a HELLO and i’ll answer… — accepting

@embercrested

If we kissed:

[ X ] This wouldn’t happen.

[ X ] Oh disgusting.

[] Again, again.

[] Kiss you back.

[] Let’s take this to the bedroom.

[] Slap/Push you away.

[ X ] Be confused

[] Be delighted

[] Smile and laugh

[] Stiffen, and feel uncomfortable

[ X ] Be shocked

     “ Aren’t you sick of pining for ghosts, yet? I’m not your jolly boy, Lady. You’ll find no memories of softness for you in my actions. ” 

If you asked me out I’d say:

[] Um no.

[] I’m taken-

[ X ] Sure.

[] HOLY ASDFGHJK YESSSSS.

     “ Drustvar really is something, isn’t it? And you always find the best parts of it to become distressed in. ”

Can we cuddle?:

[ X ] No.

[] Ew.

[] Sure.

[] YES.

     “ I’m hungry enough without you waltzing cheerful right into the bear trap of my arms. Remember you’re preferred prey to these toothy stick figures, and don’t let either of us forget it. I’m inclined to let that sort of information fall to the wayside, in lean times. ”

Sex?:

[] Let’s do it.

[] No. You can’t handle my d.

[] Yeah, sure.

[] FRICK YES.

[ X ] No.

    “ Let’s not complicate this arrangement with accusations of frostbite and bloody lips, Waycrest. It’d make things so terribly awkward at the next Great Houses meeting. ”

If you snuck into my room I would:

[] Go back to sleep

[ X ] Kick you out

[] Ask to cuddle with you

[ X ] Be like “How in the world?”

[ X ] Let you sleep on the floor

[] Become angry

     “ Depends on why you’ve decided to take the risk, ya? Arrive as a light-bringer and a host of embers and you might enrage me, but come to hide from the witches and ghouls clawing at your door — well. I’m not heartless yet. ”

You are:

[ X ] Cute

[ X ] Adorable

[ X ] Attractive

[] Beautiful

[] Okay

[] Ugly

[ X ] Am not going to grace this with an answer

     “ Later, I’ll tell you the story of what happens when little sun-specks go around begging shadows for validation. Grow the spine to look yourself in the eyes in the mirror before you go inviting me to give an opinion. ” 

You are to me a:

[] Stranger

[ X ] Acquaintance

[ X ] Ally

[] Friend

[] Love

[] Rival

[ X? ] Enemy

     “ Remember me as the proxy of Jaina that I am, and we’ll both be perfectly clear on our standing with one another. I won’t suffer an obstacle to her goals in this campaign, but neither will I leave a worthy ally to flounder in the woods all alone. ”

I find you to be:

[] Pathetic

[ X ] Of no consequence

[ X ] Intriguing

[] Frightening

[] Unsettling

[] Annoying

[ X ] Infuriating

[] Pleasant company

[] Comforting

[]  Unable to be lived without

[] Trustworthy

     “ Those morals of yours are really exhausting on the worst of days, Waycrest. But I have this bad habit of gravitating towards sputtering candlewicks like yourself, so don’t take it too personally. Keep your shoulders back and that chin up, and there might come a day I hesitate before thinking what it’d be like to fit my teeth over your throat. ”

Should you reblog this?:

[ X ] Yes! I want to send you one!

[] Yes.

[] No.

     “ Since we’re in a SHARING mood today… ”     

[acherys]

‘ feel the swamp. smell the swamp. be the swamp. ’ ( WoW!Anita :P )

destiny item & quest description sentence meme - accepting

     “ THE SWAMP CAN GO TO THE VOID. ”

     There are no words to convey the depth of her hatred, the sheer bottomless nature of the tar pit roiling in the shreds of her soul, dug and filled by the very EXISTENCE of the Swamp of Sorrows and its gleeful sticky muck. As with everywhere else, her presence has brought along a touch of Winter to the land upon which she walks --- but while such a situation warranted not a single thought on her part anywhere else, here it left her floundering like a fool, half ready to take a sword ( or a knife --- or her own teeth ) to her legs rather than suffer this constant insult of being FROZEN within a disgusting clog of mud and Void knew what else.

     “ And you can go with it too if you say one more BLEEDING WORD about how I just need to channel my inner swamp or whatever stupid worthless druid bullshHIIAAAHH!! ”

     Her words cut off with a shriek of rage as one leg pops free from the murk, unbalancing her and sending the dread master of Acherus careening into a tree trunk head-first.

[acherys]

    Frostmourne digs into the hollow of her throat, runes blazing, blade stained red.

    "Did I not warn you,“ he is pure void, blank shadow, a singularity of darkness but for the twin lichlights burning into her own, "to pay attention?”

    Careful fingers reach up, skating across the foible. Lament lay halfway across the room, bearing a new welt across its face from his disarmament of her. “Answering your own inquiry here, I’d think.”

    He burrows the sword forward in response, piercing skin, drawing blood - Dark’s sake, the cold of it. Ice pours through her veins. Her bones crack with the bloom of frost. She was an icicle caught under the weight of an avalanche, a single snowflake bearing the full weight of Winter himself. So much time she’s spent in his company and how it still hurts.

     “Deathlord.”

    "Yea- yes.“ It’s hard, so very hard, to raise her head above the avalanche and keep from disappearing under the crushing current of ice. Subsumption would be a blessing; let the frost consume her, grind her back to crystal and snow and become with the avalanche once more, end the agony of seclusion at last, but to fall - to relent -

    ( Should you fail to survive, know that I shall claim Acherus for my own.)

   - is unacceptable.

    "I’m listening.”

    He wears the helm. But she does not need to see the white knife of his smile to hear it in his voice.

[acherys]

i'm just here to pet the doggo - don't judge me.

@gilneans

   keep the WOLVES from the door.                   I hear them scratching like I don’t know  b e t t e r !

     “ Cause THAT’S gonna stop me. ”

       S T I L L ,  her Highness would face no opposition to her goal - indeed, as soon as recognition sparked across that canine brain, Tiris happily crosses the last of the distance between them, determinedly shoving his head beneath her questing fingers in search of the scritches he ever hungers for. Jaws part in a pretense of a smile, exposing gleaming fangs, a lolling red tongue.

     “ When he bites your arm off, I’ll laugh. ” 

       The rapid swish of his tail spoke against such a fate, however.

                                                                                                 won’t you  k e e p  the wolves from the  d o o r ?                                                                      it won’t be long before I CAVE IN and open up the —

[acherys]

‘ the light shines the brightest in those it consumes. ’

destiny item & quest description sentence meme - accepting@holyforged

     “ That’s not… incorrect, I suppose. ”

     HOW FAR SHE’S COME that their induction provoked no worthwhile protest from her Lordship, merely the slightest nod and swaggering retreat from the room where it happened. There was practical worth in securing so worthy an asset as the soldiers of the Vindicaar onto the side of the lion, even if she personally would prefer that they all remain… so very far away from absolutely anywhere she might find herself. But her avoidance of them was less personal distaste than spiritual discomfort, the emanation of their power just this side of too warm for her, not unlike standing too close to a great roaring hearth - and surely hers must have been just as unpleasant, a chill one could never bundle enough against - and that, surely, must have counted for something in terms of personal growth. 

     “ Still seems a bit… much. I want to say cult-y, but that would be lobbing stone from one glass castle to another. ” 

     Acherus lacked for a literal crucible, but she supposed her knights were no less forged than all those burning Draenei Lord Turalyon loved to skip around with.