#can everyone please watch knightriders

[talesfromthecrypts]

tagged again by @mike-mills (<3) so look at it again!

✨ 9 favorite films that i watched (for the first time) in 2023 ✨ 

tagged by: @animusrox

Only did movies that didn't come out this year because I make an end of the year post for this year's. Knightriders and Fascination my most beloved beloveds.

Tagging @hellboys, @mysteriums, @mycupofstars, @meduseld, @andstarry, @anthonysperkins

[tillman]

making literally everyone i know watch knightriders and every single time getting the reaction “i thought this was gonna be a tilly movie. like your weird fucked up arthouse films” makes me so

[ren-c-leyn]

Yet another fusion story! Finally working up the motivation to clear out my drafts by actually writing some more tumblr short stories. XD This one was done using this prompt by @scrawl-your-heart-out, these 1,2,3,4,5 by the amazing @thependragonwritersguild, this prompt by @oopsprompts, this prompt by @unpromptly, these 1,2,3,4,5,6 prompts by the lovely @givethispromptatry, and last, but most certainly not least, this prompt by @scandy-inspo.

It mentions a few deaths in passing, but there’s no gore or real detail associated with it.

 I stared up at the tops of the dull grey walls, listening to the flags flapping with crisp snaps in the chilled autumn air.

 I didn’t want to be here. Why did I have to be here? Oh, that’s right, I remember....

 “I have a letter for you,” he had said with a strained smile.

 “Who’s it from?”

 “You know who it’s from.”

 “Throw it away,” I had said, burying my nose back into the journal.

 “It’s not an option this time,” he had told me plainly.

 I looked back at him.

 “Any why not?”

 “The royal messenger brought it personally, they know you’re here.”

 My blood had felt just as frozen in that comfy little fire-warmed cabin as it did here in this moment.

 “You have got to be kidding me.”

 “I mean, not really?”

 “Please be kidding me?” I had replied, my voice sounding so terribly pitiful, particularly for a former noble.

 “Doesn’t work like that. Sorry.”

 He truly did look apologetic as he handed me the letter, but not half as much as he did beside me right now. We both winced at the large gates creaked and moaned as they opened.

 Part of me wondered why I hadn’t listened to him when he offered to smuggle me out of the kingdom. Stubborn pride? Hope for the truth to come to light? Something else? I didn’t know. I just know that it was too late to run now.

  “I fully expect to have lost all respect I have for myself by the end of this. Let’s go.”

 That was what I had told my dearest friend this morning, and now I had something even harder to tell him. I leaned closer to him, practically breathing into his ear.

 “Listen,” I whispered. “I just want you to realize that if this doesn’t work I will die and you will be left to deal with the fall out. Can you do that?”

 He leaned a little closer to me as we watched the doors open to what would quite likely be my doom.

 “I have to, don’t I?”

 Honestly, I wished he didn’t. I wished neither of us did. But the time for regrets was well behind us now.

 We were marched through the familiar grounds of the palace before we had been separated. I was left in a grand waiting room while he was ushered deeper through the maze of halls. They could have at least let him stay....

My shoes made a clicking rhythm as I paced across the marble floor. I found that the sound did something to calm the storm in my head. I had to do something. I had to think of a plan.

I had to calm down. Panicking wasn’t going to help... neither was thinking about the grim implications and possibilities. I just... I just needed to figure out what to do, what to say. But the deciding moment came far too quickly. The guards were herding me down the terribly familiar halls to the doors I recognized just a little too much.

 They swung them open and gestured for me to enter. I didn’t even realize it when I took the first step forward, or the next. My mind couldn’t comprehend that I was moving at all until it registered the shocked gasps of voices I knew.

 The table had fallen to a hush as I made my way into the room. I silently sat in the last free chair and pointedly ignored the horrified stares directed at me.

 “I thank you for the invitation, my Lord. I do apologize for my lateness.”

 The king stared back at me from the opposite side of the table, his eyes as clear and calm as they ever were.

 “I’m grateful that you’re here,” he spoke, his voice resonating through the small chamber.

 “I’m… already regretting this,” I mumbled to myself, trying desperately not to look down at my hands or the table.

 Lord Knightridge slammed his hands down on the table to my left, glaring accusingly at me.

 “What are you doing here?”

 “Someone has to take the blame, right? Well sign me up.”

 The words shocked everyone, me most of all. I let out a heavy sigh, forcing my back to straighten and my shoulders to level. My eyes met the king’s and held his heavy gaze.

 “I am done running. Done hiding. If you wish to execute me after this, so be it, but I would at least like the chance to speak before you do so, My Lord.”

 Silence filled the chamber before he gave a curt nod.

 “That is why you were summoned. I wish to know the truth, the full truth, as to what became of my brother and those around him. As you are the only known survivor, I have spent quite some time having you tracked. However, before you start your tale, there are formalities to be observed.”

 I gave a nod.

 “I understand.”

 “I object!” Lord Knightride cut in again. “You shouldn’t trust them!”

 “I don’t have a choice,” the king replied. “They were the only witness.”

 “That is my point, your majesty,” he pressed, “there must be a reason they are the last one standing when many finer warriors were slaughtered, butchered like animals. They likely had something to do with it and may be here as a part of a ploy to deceive us.”

 “Do I have any reason to lie?” I asked Lord Knightride calmly.

 “Do you have any reason to tell the truth?” he replied, voice nearly snarling.

  “Lies have made more slaves than chains ever could, and I have no intentions of being bound by another person’s deceptions. Use magic to determine the truth of my tale, of that is what you must, but I assure you I will speak no falsehoods, and I would never be sorry for what I did that day. Not even if it ends in my execution.”

 Lord Knightridge stared me down for a moment before leaning back in his seat, either intimidated or satisfied with my show of nerve. The knight, however, decided to end any further arguments by calling for magics, as I had suggested.

 He had the mages bring in the knife, and they went into the long-winded lecture as to it’s history and use and so forth. Honestly, they could have saved us all about fifteen minutes of nerve-wracking, mind-numbing boredom if they would have just walked it out on it’s velvet pillow and simply said: This knife only holds its edge in the presence of a lie. Done. But no, the formalities had to be observed.

 “Do you understand?” the head mage asked me once the explanations were over.

 Part of me was tempted to ask him to repeat it all again so I could put off this conversation a little longer, but the rest of me really didn’t want to hear the speech ever again.

 “Yes, I understand.”

 “Then you may begin,” the king cut in, impatience creeping into the fringe of his voice.

 I cleared my throat as I searched for where to begin.

 “Shards of darkness flashed midair, half-way through the strategy meeting on how to finish beating back the orcs. At first... I thought it was the storm but then they just... they burst. They shattered and embedded themselves into everyone in the room. Had I not grabbed someone else and drug them under the table, we surely would have been just as doomed as the rest.”

 The king was almost absently running the knife over a length of thick rope, testing the truth of my story thus far.

 “So there was another survivor?”

 “Not that I’m aware of.”

 He paused, looking up from the unharmed rope to me.

 “And why not?”

 “The orcs came, sir. It was a planned attack, I think. But I don’t know of an orcs that could have used magic like that.”

 “A traitor, then?”

 I nodded.

 “I believe so, sir....”

 He tested the knife again.

 “Do you have a theory as to whom?”

 “None.”

 Another swipe of the knife.

 “How did you escape?”

 “My companion, the one that entered the castle with me and who sheltered me all this time. He found me on my flight from the orcs and was able to help me escape.”

 “I see.... So it was not you.”

 “No.”

 “Then why did you hide?”

 “I... I couldn’t return,” I said, shaking my head, “not knowing that I had failed so miserably. I could not gather the identity of the traitor, or even ascertain if there was one, As it was, I was terrified that one day my dear friend would tell me: “My one regret was saving your life.” ... What could I tell you? What could I say to my people? That I lived through cowardice alone? That I could not even save myself little alone one of their heroes?” I shook my head. “No. No, I couldn’t bring myself to face this shame before, My Lord, and I’ll beg you to hand my lands and title to another better suited to it, for this time away from the court has opened my eyes to many things.”

 Another test of the knife was the only noise in the silent chamber.

 He drew in a deep breath, then released it.

 “Is there anything more you wish to say?”

 “No. There is nothing more I know about the attack, nor wish to say.”

 With the final swipe of the knife, I was released, both from the castle and from the weight of my former title. I was allowed to return to the comfortable, fire-warmed cabin with my friend, whom had turned down five different job offers for the royal court himself.

 “I can’t believe they couldn’t even tempt you into becoming a spy master,” I mused.

 He laughed.

 “Considering they already figured most of what you told them ahead of time, I doubt they need to replace their current one.”

 And I chuckled, glad to have it all behind me, once and for all.