#THE TOWN YOU HAD SHOWN ME‚ IT SEEMS SO LONELY | Asriel x Ralsei { legendcrown }

[ahrencmeptn-aa]

@legendcrown​ sent:   the creak of an old door, a quick turn of the head, ralsei stands at his altar with ritual knife in hand, a little bird sprawled out, belly-up, it's chest peeled open.  there's a bit of shadowy spatter on his cheek, and his gaze is rather intense while the two princes simply stare at each other for a few, silent moments. 

 then, suddenly, a little bowl is offered up, containing the animal's freshly plucked heart, and all at once, ralsei's usual bright smile blooms, all that darkness gone. 

 " perfect timing, my dear! this is for you, actually. get it? because it's a heart? hehe... do you like it? " he bats his eyes, oh-so-innocently.  

Silence. Silence that seemed to gnaw at the very air itself as Asriel walked into the room. Staring at the scene before him. He had not expected this, of course, having walked into the usually so bright and chipper Prince’s abode. He had felt compelled, on some level, to come check on him. As gaze found the properly prepared offering, then to the bowl being presented to him. 

An offering. 

He did not lose the intensity of his gaze, no, staring at the still warm heart for a beat. Then another. Was that heart beating? It should have stilled by now, surely. It had been stilled, until Asriel’s gaze became fixated on it. At least, that’s the name that whatever this entity was using, currently. Though that wasn’t what was standing there. 

An offering, to something dead.

Smile finally came, stretching.. cracking, at the edges. Growing wider still, as features tightened. As if skin and fur were becoming afterthoughts. Features sharper, more angular. Horns lengthened, curving. Already hollow eyes more pronounced, pinpricks of light receding.. until something sprouted in either socket. Golden flowers, akin to gazing at the setting sun, filling the holes made for them in long forgotten head comfortably. Petals furling and unfurling, as if mimicking an attempt to blink. Sitting comfortably in a skull, cracked and broken, arrow and part of spear protruding into it. Something that didn’t belong on this plane anymore. 

Yet, it clung still.

Vines seemed to sprout, fur sloughing away. Muscles and tendons, dried as if from the sun’s rays, giving way to vine. Bone wrapped again and again until nothing remained but thick, tree-trunk like vines, sharp alien red thorns as large as the goat had once been. The only reason they looked like hands is because it wanted them to be. It curled vines just so, letting them twist just right as further thorn became sharp claw. Sounded against floor with metallic tang, as the rest of the form shifted to adjust. 

This wasn’t a monster.

Chest grew tight, the cracking like bones amidst a great fire as torso stretched. Cavity gaped. All leathery flesh, vines dancing along the great maw of ribs. Flowers, oh so many, danced along those vines. Blossomed from life lost to life anew. Made a bed of sorts, in the body of this not-alive thing. This thing that seemed to stretch tall, accommodated only by the castle’s own. Neck lengthened, in that lying soft of way. Just more vine, tinged, allowing skull to lull this way and that as if muscles still existed.

It hadn’t truly been anything in a long while.

Legs were the final thing to, at last, give purchase. Spindly, long, just mere elongated cracked bone. Yet still they seemed so grand, for no, it was not bone. It didn’t have the right make. Bark. Trees, with roots scraping gently to the floor beneath in a place they did not belong. Trees that had absorbed the bones of some long-forgotten thing and decided to grace it with following along like some plan. Allowing something lost to live on in its essence. 

Towersome, this beast that had been mistaken for a dead prince was. It could peer over many abodes, tens of feet over the goat beneath. No, this was not a prince. This was not a monster, either. There was not even a soul, to illuminate that dark cavity that could so comfortably house the dead. Like a pre-dug grave just awaiting the next that needed to lie amongst the flowers to rest.

It was a thing of death, of endless endings and countless beginnings. Was it a god? Such things were hard to say, but it certainly acted as such now. 

A god that was given an offering to its tastes.

An exhale, like the final rattle of breath leaving lungs, as immense appendages reached; plucking heart from bowl oh-so-delicately for how grand and monstrous those claws appeared to be. Up it was raised, over marred skull. How jaw grew slack, supported by long-atrophied muscle, before suddenly vine allowed it to snap shut as comparatively miniscule thing is turned into what all things must one day become.

Nourishment for some other life.

Ichor, like liquid shadow, gushed down, bathing bed of flowers in its essence as it sank. Fed the life as stem and vine turned into inky darkness. Gaining nourishment from this fresh spill. How petals alit, shifting from their once dull to truly shining like the stars had remembered it was time to awaken. Gold shifting to blues and whites. Voices, whispers, cries, of long forgotten things. Long forgotten ones. Those that would not be remembered, save the echoes that were heard now. Countless years, countless lifetimes, all there and not there. Remembered and forgotten. Final goodbyes; final cries of agony; hushed whimpers of dying thing all alone.

It would be forgotten, but it would remember. 

It was not quite a growl, no, but not quite a laugh. As if a forest shook, branches connected, bristles swayed in a gust of wind. Just as abrupt, as the change occurred did it start to recede. Like watching life and death come in reverse all at once. Flowers sunk, flesh spilled. Bark sang as it returned to roots and the bone those roots had came from returned.

Voice still too heavy, like countless forgotten whispers were speaking all at once,

“Careful now, little moon.”

A forgotten prince, smiling warmly as if new life had been breathed into him. A smattering of blackness down his chin that was removed with paw’s thumb. Just that little reminder that whatever had been seen moments prior was, indeed, that same little dreamer standing before Ralsei now.

“It is unwise to offer life up to something you don’t know.”

[ahrencmeptn-aa]

“And there was still bloodshed after all.”

[ahrencmeptn-aa]

@legendcrown​ asked:  stood on a step stool, ralsei hums to himself while running his fingers across the spines of a handful of books. until finally, with a soft 'aha!', he finds the one he's looking for, the one he wanted to show asriel. it's thick, and seems to be a collection of old fairytales, particularly the darker versions.

" this was one of my favorites growing up! it has a special place in my heart, you know? i don't show it to just anyone! hehe. " 

ralsei settles in next to asriel, setting the book up across both of their laps. one side held by ralsei, and the other left for asriel to grab, assumingly.

" is this okay...? " 

Asriel watched the other prince scan across books from the floor, sitting against wall as he did. It was so confusing, how this one just kept being so excited at his mere presence. So much so that he seemed almost like he had planned for the next appearance.

He perked up at the little exclamation, looking at the book from afar and making a bit of a face as he realized what it was. Paws drum on his chest as Ralsei approached, blinking when, of all things, he sat down so comfortably beside him. Shoulders pressed together, as the prince looked down at the book spread over their laps. 

After several moments, he finally gently took ahold of his side, looking to the other with a bit of a wry laugh.

“You sure are trusting me with a lot, letting me touch it.” 

Nevertheless, he didn’t answer the actual question at hand. Instead, he turned his focus back to the book, doing his best to ignore the other’s presence against his side. After a spell, his head lulled to the side, absentmindedly resting on Ralsei’s shoulder as they read. If left alone too long, it’s likely the prince might even fall asleep.

[ahrencmeptn-aa]

@legendcrown​ | x

“Golly, I’m happy to have helped, miss! Have a good rest of your day, y’hear?” 

There’s a wave, after handing a Tasque back and watching the woman had back to the Cafe. He glances down to a clipboard, putting a little mark on the sheet of tasks he’d been doing around here. Settling disputes, helping find lost cats, and all of those menial tasks. Simple matters, really, and-- ah, just in time.

Gaze finds the other prince scampering out into town, turning with that same friendly smile he’s been wearing since arriving here and realizing the other wasn’t even awake yet. 

“And there’s the sleepyhead! Kept poor lil’ me having to do your job for ya! You’re lucky I’m a prince, too, or I’d ask for a raise!”

Yes, that’s a voice somehow devoid of the usual venom that was filled with. That sweet little prince that once was that Asriel was acting like while he was doing this song and dance.

[ahrencmeptn-aa]

“You’re supposed to be scared of me!”

[ahrencmeptn-aa]

WAIT. YOU WEREN’T STUPPOSED TO RECOVER THAT QUICK NO STOP AA--

[ahrencmeptn-aa]

anonymous sent: asriel, why don't you go kiss your weird fluffy boyfriend, maybe that'll make you less cranky. 🙄

“Joke’s on you! My boyfriend loves when I’m scary!”

[ahrencmeptn-aa]

“Counterpoint,

I want to cause problems. On purpose.”