#The dress posts? Yeah. This au baybeee

[nonuggetshere]

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER UR COMIC I NEED TO KNOW

OK OK SO,

Honestly, if he tried That he'd be immediately gutpunched by Herrah who was standing Right There. It's not like he was the only one that saw this happen.

Immediately after grabbing the blade, there's a moment of horrible silence where everybody's still, and then a second later PV gets up, turns on their heel and runs out of the throne room. Everybody's standing there in complete shock of what just happened, before the entire room erupts into a basically a giant screaming match.

Pale King is frozen on the spot up until Herrah grabs him by the collar and demands answers from him. The only reason they agreed to this was because he reassured them the vessel was hollow. Did he know of this? Was he tricking them all this time?

This snaps him out of it and he of course immediately defends himself and then tries to calm the room down by reassuring them that it was just a little...hiccup. The vessel was taught and ordered to protect themself, they must have seen the blade as dangerous and reacted as ordered, that's all! He'll just send the guards to find them and the ceremony can continue without a hitch. Everything was fine.

It was a lie. Of course, it was a lie. He knew that, everybody knew that. They were alive and everybody saw it, but they were also their only hope. And he would much rather not have to deal with a panicking, rioting crowd when his entire world was just shattered into little pieces in the span of a few seconds and he's this 👌 close to having a complete mental breakdown.

While nobody's looking, Hornet sneaks out and brings her sibling back, comforting them and reassuring them. She convinces them to return and come clean, to drop this entire charade.

So, they do. They step back into the throne room, their sister by their side, and it's eerily quiet. Finally, after what feels like forever, Pale King orders them to come up to the throne.

They didn't budge. He orders them again. After a moment of hesitation, they shake their head and step back.

Maybe he actually deluded himself into believing the lie he told previously, just to keep it together. Just to not break down. And now, the truth once again slaps him right in the face and all these emotions he can no longer keep down bubble up to the surface and before he can stop himself or rationalise them, he directs them at the nearest most convenient target; PV.

He storms up to them, yelling at them, and they get so scared they fall back in their attempt to backtrack. He calls them a traitor and a deceiver, says he hopes they're happy and tells them to get out of his face.

They don't need to be told twice and immediately run off again, and the moment they're gone the throne room erupts into screaming and loud chatter again. Eventually, after hours, everybody slowly filters out and it's just him, his queen, his knights and the dreamers. He wants to discuss the next course of action, but before he can speak Hornet storms over and slaps him so hard he falls over and her claws cut his cheek open. He's never seen hatred and anger so vicious in a child'a eyes before as she glares at him right before storming off.

He naturally feels crushing and immediate guilt and regret for his actions and for what he said, especially when PV doesn't return to their bedroom that night. Or the next.

He cries that night like he's never cried before. Cries so hard he pukes and can barely keep himself together.

They return after two weeks. Just show up back at the palace, and...things just go back to semi-normal. Except everybody's weird around them now. The knights feel extremely guilty and can't even look them in the eyes. Their parents avoid them completely. Some other members of the court and the staff members that were in the known keep giving them nasty looks.

They keep to themself now, it's easier that way. They keep acting...well, not fully hollow, they no longer blindly follow orders and clearly make choices for themself, but... They act emotionless. Almost as if they were hollow. Because acting this way feels familiar, it feels safe. And when their entire world was just spun upside down familiar and safe is all they want to feel.

Their father, naturally, immediately cancelled the vessel plan and dove straight into finding other solutions, working himself to the bone just like he did before the vessel plan. Meanwhile, he put them on guard duty indefinitely. While keeping them as close as before was too painful, even looking at them was too painful, he didn't want to throw them aside. He wanted to know that they were home and they were safe. So, he gave them a job and started paying them like any other staff member, though as degrading as that job felt.

As a side note, I need y'all to know that PK and WL here were good...ish parents. As good as the circumstances allowed them to be. Because despite everything, they loved them, and even though they shouldn't have they had a soft spot for that kinda-their-child-but-not-really-but-actually-yes-really.

White Lady would brush and braid their hair and play dress up with them, even when they were an adult (and they loved spending time with her as she picked pretty outfits for them to wear). Pale King would carry them as a child and gently pet their head, and spend lazy quiet mornings with them, chatting to them about all kinds of stuff over his morning cup of coffee. And on the day of their sealing, he held them in his arms and cried, mourning the baby he thought dead all over again, wishing things could have been different.

And what's funny, he didn't even want to have children at first. Like, ever. But when he laid his eyes on that kid on the platform and took their little hand into his own for the first time...the only other time that he felt that much love for somebody was when he held Hornet for the first time.

Because, one, PV deserves to be loved and all the good things. And two, I am a very big fan of the idea that they were loved. They were somebody who shouldn't have been loved, but despite everything people still loved them so deeply, and the state of their ruined kingdom is the tangible proof of that. I just love this sort of soft tragedy.