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beautifulterriblequeen · 1 month ago

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War is Easy, Peace is Hard

ᵗʰᶦˢ ʷᵃˢ ˢᵘᵖᵖᵒˢᵉᵈ ᵗᵒ ᵇᵉ ˢʰᵒʳᵗ ᵇᵘᵗ ᶦᵗ ᵍᵒᵗ ᵃʷᵃʸ ᶠʳᵒᵐ ᵐᵉ

Please enjoy the Gren ficlet I busted out this morning! Rating it T for uh, bad feelings.

tags/warnings: betrayal, PTSD, imprisonment, emotional manipulation

"Please," Rayla begged, "I can't leave him there alone. Not after what happened last time!" Her hands shook around the small glass jar, and the light from the sentinel bonfires across the Banther Lodge grounds danced along its smooth curves.

But Corvus only repeated his earlier gesture, a firm shake of his head. "Soren just arrested him, Rayla. I can't be involved in anything like this right now. And he did kill King Harrow. It's what I hunted you for, remember? Your leader’s actions are how you and I met."

Rayla's face dropped into a glower. "Yeah. Be glad I'm not dragging you off another cliff for not believing me this time either."

"I do believe you," Corvus said earnestly. "But I can't be the person to help you. I'm sorry. But I can't."

His teacup empty, Gren finally decided to stop accidentally lurking behind a nearby tree and stepped out into the firelight. "Is... there a problem?" he asked, heading toward the two. They flinched slightly in that way Gren had come to understand meant they were trying to hold a private conversation in public and had failed.

"No," said Corvus at the same time Rayla growled, "Yes."

Gren shot Corvus a sympathetic look. "Let me see what I can do. If something needs Queen Amaya's attention, I'll make sure she's aware. You should go be with Soren. He's had a... rough day."

Corvus' brows bent up, and he looked aside. "Rougher than most.” His eyes drifted westward toward the fresh ruins of Katolis Castle, though its distant smoke couldn’t be seen at night. “And that's saying something." He sighed and nodded, but he added one more thought before he left. "Commander, if anything goes... awry tonight, come to me first." He glanced meaningfully at Rayla and nodded again. "I do believe you." But she only offered him a flat stare.

Gren nodded and waited for Corvus to walk out of earshot. But Rayla was less patient.

She grabbed his wrist in a vice grip and looked him in the eye. "I need your help."

Gren did his best not to flinch. "What can I do?" he asked warmly.

Rayla held up the small glass jar. "Just... Get this to him. It's berry juice. Last time..." She paused and gulped. "Last time, he stopped eating. He thought he was going to die alone, that that was a better option than anything else. Better than Viren's torture, better than that awful coin prison... Better than facing those he loves after what he's done."

Gren was surprised to see tears forming in the corners of her eyes, but she brushed them aside and pressed on. "He'll know it's from me, and he won't feel alone. Please. I don't want to break in there and give it to him myself, but I will if I have to. I'm not leaving him to suffer alone this time. I won’t!"

Alarmed, Gren pressed a worried hand to Rayla's shoulder. "Take a breath, Rayla. I'll help you. Both of you. It might be the only way I can help, all things considered, but... I don't want him to suffer alone again either. "

Rayla's brows lowered as she studied him, a silent question on her lips.

Gren shivered. Runaan's dying scream was etched in his memory forever. He still didn't fully understand what Lord Viren had done to the prisoner down the hall from him, but he knew it had destroyed the man utterly. He'd gone into the room to check after the guards had freed him, but nothing remained. Not even a body.

He licked his lips. "I heard it," he said quietly. "When Lord Viren..."

Rayla's eyes widened as she realized he couldn't even finish his sentence. Her shoulder tensed under Gren's hand. "We can't leave him in there alone! We can't!'

"It's not a cell, here," Gren began. "It's just... the basement. And no one is going to hurt him. Not here. King Ezran wouldn't do that."

But Rayla's glower told him that didn't matter. "Runaan doesn't know that, Gren. I'm afraid that all he can think about is the last time humans locked him up. And that didn't end well! Viren killed him!"

Very aware of where they were both standing, Gren put a finger to his lips and widened his eyes.

Frustrated but wary, Rayla shook off her tension and let out a sharp breath. "You said you'd help. Just get him to take the jar. Then he'll know I'm still here. That I didn't... run away. That I didn't abandon him."

"I can do that." With a nod, Gren began to head toward the lodge doors.

Rayla caught his shoulder. "Oh, but... Don't linger. He's not very big on eating around strangers. Security conscious at all times, that's my dad." She let out a soft, uncertain chuckle.

Gren's eyes bugged. "Runaan is your father?" He couldn’t imagine how she was staying so calm. He must've trained her very well.

Rayla met his eyes and nodded. In a low but firm voice, she said, "In all the ways that matter. Thank you for this, Gren. I won't forget it."

She pressed the cool glass into his palm. Gren took it and glanced down, seeing the liquid slosh inside, red as blood. Cautious and curious, he pulled out the stopper and took a sniff, and the rich aroma of ripe berries filled his nose.

"Gotta work on those trust issues, Gren," Rayla chided lightly.

"Sorry."

"Don't be. Now you can say you've checked it yourself."

He nodded. It's what Amaya would've done. The juice sloshed in the firelight again. "I think certain allegations could've been avoided if you guys had picked a different-colored berry-" he began, but when he looked up, Rayla had already vanished.

He shook his head. Moonshadows.

Alone, Gren made his way through the Banther Lodge, careful to avoid sight of Corvus, the Sunfire Queens, King Ezran, or anyone else who might wonder what he was up to or try to distract him.

This mission, Gren was taking to heart. This time, he wouldn’t fail.

Every step closer to the basement flooded his memory with more details of those horrible days in Viren's dungeon. He himself had barely been mistreated, but the real horror lay in the chasm between his experience and that of the prisoner down the hall.

The real horror was the guilt he carried, knowing he'd been whistling contentedly while another man was fighting for his life and losing. That he hadn't known anything about how Runaan had been treated until it was too late. The man had killed King Harrow, it was true. But he was still a person, just like Gren.

Gren paused on the stairs to the basement and swallowed hard, getting his face under control. He'd served under King Harrow's rule for years. And this prisoner was one of those responsible for ending that era, and everything that had followed.

He remembered some of Amaya's earliest advice: "War is easy. Peace is hard. Do your best."

Commander Gren straightened his shoulders and headed down.

At the bottom, he found a room lit with an excess of torches and packed with heavily armed human troops. Through all the soldiers, he couldn't see Runaan anywhere.

"What's going on here?" he blurted. Had they done something to the elven prisoner? He knew how they talked about elven assassins in the barracks...

"Oh, Commander Gren." Marcos' black shock of hair turned in his direction, and Gren nodded to him. The soldier approached. "Can I help you, Commander?"

"I'm here to see, er... Where is the prisoner?"

"Right where we can see him, sir." Marcos nodded aside.

One of the basement’s central wooden pillars bore a sturdy wrap of rope around it. Gren squinted in confusion for a moment, seeing no one tied to it, but then he looked lower.

A pair of dirty elven knees peeked out on either side of the post, and a few fingers and a solitary horn showed around one of its edges.

Gren's heart rate rose. He took a step to the side and looked again. Down on the floor, Runaan had twisted around to face the pillar and tucked his knees against its sides, hugging it. His forehead pressed against the wood, his arms were knotted in the ropes over his head, and he was shaking.

Runaan was not alone this time. But his situation seemed to be its own flavor of hell. In that moment, Gren decided to lie.

Gren was not very practiced at lying. His mouth went dry at the very thought. "I need the room," he blurted.

"What?"

"Uh, General- uh, Queen Amaya was very specific, and she asked me to uh, in-interrogate the prisoner immediately, but it's confidential, my questions are confidential, so- so you all have to leave. And take these torches with you."

Marcos looked at him dubiously. "Take the torches?"

"No, of course, you're right. Leave one - no, two, two is good."

"Sir. He's a Moonshadow elf. They like the dark."

"Yes, they do. And I, well, I like answers. Which I'm more likely to get if he's comfortable. Does he look comfortable to you?"

Marcos glanced at Runaan. "Five minutes. And we'll be right upstairs."

"Ten."

Marcos gave Gren a long look. "Right upstairs. Sir."

"Understood."

Gren very carefully studied the floor so his eyes didn't give away his nervousness as the soldiers collected their extra torches and thumped up the stairs. He could get into so much trouble for doing this - but it felt like the right thing for him to do, and he wouldn't be sorry if he got caught.

He only hoped Queen Amaya would forgive him for using her name as his shield.

When the room was dim and quiet, Gren walked closer to the huddled elf and dropped to one knee. He took a moment to focus before he spoke. "Excuse me. Your name is Runaan, right?" he began gently. "I've brought you something. It's from Rayla. She says it's berry juice."

The shadowed figure raised its head, and two luminous blue eyes flared out of the dark before hiding behind the pillar again.

"Rayla?"

Gren's chest tightened at the breathless shake in the prisoner's voice. He sounded like he was about to shiver into pieces. "Yes," he said. "She gave me this little bottle and wouldn't take no for an answer. Not that I refused her… She was trying to ask someone else, and I... Well, I offered. You... might not remember me, from... before... But I remember you. And how I couldn't help then. I didn't know, I didn't understand, and I wasn't..." Gren got his tongue under control and tried again. "I can help now. So I'm helping. If you'll let me."

"I-I don't..." Runaan's gaze scoured him.

"I told you about my cats growing up?" Gren prompted. "How little Mittens always slept on my hands at night when it was cold, and her sister Scarf would half smother me with her fur?"

"Scarf. Your... cat. I do remember." The trembling in the prisoner's voice eased. Then Runaan's breathing hitched, and he pressed his forehead back against the rough wood grain of the post he was tied to. "I just want to go home. I made a promise. It's all I care about now. It's going to kill him to see my lotus sink twice. I can't bear the thought." He began to repeat a shaky refrain of I'm sorry that whispered out of him with every shallow breath.

Aghast, Gren had to stop himself from reaching out. He wasn't at all sure the elven man was in any state to handle being touched. "I... I don't know what punishment King Ezran will decide on," he began carefully, "but I will speak on your behalf, if he'll allow it."

A single blue eye blazed at him, unblinking. "Why?"

"I witnessed your, er... death. I don't think it's fair to make you die again."

Both eyes opened at that, and blinked in confusion. When Gren added nothing further, Runaan slowly admitted, "I am... unaccustomed to mercy."

Gren decided he didn't need to say anything to that.

Runaan was silent for a while longer, as if chewing over what else to say. Finally, he settled on a simple, "Thank you."

Something loosened in Gren's chest then, a tension he'd been carrying for years. He offered a genuine smile. "You're welcome."

"Rayla sent you with berry juice?" Runaan asked.

"Here." Gren held it out. Its contents sloshed scarlet in the dimness.

The juice seemed to captivate Runaan. He stared closely, as if reading its blank bottle. "A trick," he murmured.

"What?"

Runaan blinked and focused on Gren. "Drink some yourself, so I know you're not tricking me with poison."

"Oh. Of course. I smelled it earlier - it smells delicious - and Rayla said it was good that I did it, so I could say I'd checked its contents, in case anyone-"

"Drink." Runaan sounded exasperated.

"Right. Sorry." Gren tipped the bottle and gulped a nervous mouthful. "There, see? It's just berry-"

"-juice," he finished.

"Yeah, we know it was the juice!" Soren yelled. He seemed taller than usual somehow.

"Laced with sedative," Corvus deduced, eyeing the sticky red residue in the bottle as he held it up in the torchlight.

Nearby, Marcos paced back and forth around two of the basement pillars, and Gren realized he’d fallen to the floor. "This is bad, this is bad, this is bad," the guard repeated.

Gren tried to sit up, but his head swam. "Um... What's going on?"

"Runaan is gone," Corvus said, offering him an arm to steady himself.

Gren took it, and then nearly let go in shock. “He’s what?”

Soren stomped by, looking harrowed. "I just arrested him, and now he's escaped! This is not great! Ezran is gonna send me after him! After Rayla!"

"Rayla's gone too?" Gren blurted.

Corvus set a hand on his shoulder. "She gave you the juice, my man. This was her plan all along."

“Oh…” Gren's chest felt like it was crumpling. He'd only been trying to help her, to help them both. But she hadn't trusted him with the full truth. And now she'd broken an assassin - a kingkiller - out of lawful custody. And Gren had helped. "Oh no. Oh, this is bad."

"You think??" Soren cried. "Callum is not gonna be happy that I have to hunt down his girlfriend!"

"I'll go with you," Corvus offered. "It'll be a package deal. We can talk specifics later."

Soren's gaze clung to Corvus, and he seemed to read some extra assurance in his gaze, because he finally calmed and nodded. "Okay. Okay, yeah. Maybe that's good."

"And you just fell for a Moonshadow trick," Corvus told Gren. "You did nothing wrong."

"We were making progress, too," Gren bemoaned.

"He was really telling you things?" Marcos asked. "He refused to say a word to us."

Corvus gave Gren a steady look. "People tell Gren things. He has one of those faces."

"Maybe he should come too," Soren grumbled. "Then maybe Rayla will explain everything for once, and we can figure out how all of this went down, and what to even do about it."

“Not a bad idea,” Corvus agreed.

Hurt and angry and sad, Gren took a breath and let it out. War is easy. Peace is hard. Do your best. "If it'll help, I'll come too."

#tdp fanfic #my writing #gren #runaan #rayla #corvus #soren #marcos #they were doing so well too aaah #tdp spoilers

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supercalifragipopculturevomit · 10 months ago

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IN SEARCH OF DANIEL BRÜHL MOVIES? *UPDATED as of 23/05/24 with The Coming Days, King's Road, Un Poco de Chocolate, and Polizeiruf 110: Der Sohn der Kommissarin*

Uploaded a copy of Colonia onto my Mega account to share with a friend and I figured I might as well host other DB movies there—specifically those that are difficult to find—for others who might be looking for them.

This is inspired by these two incredible resource posts: Useful links for Daniel Brühl fans by @bruehl

Daniel Bruhl Movie Masterpost by @rachreads

These compilations have provided me with several DB movies I'd nearly given up on finding. So in the spirit of paying it forward, I'm here to share some of my own finds.

I tried not to overlap my files with the ones already shared by those two resources, but if they do, it's for those who prefer a lower file size for easy downloading or for those who can't be bothered to figure out how to upload subtitles onto YouTube.

Basically, most of these are shit copies but they come complete with English subtitles. So makes for easy watching but not for making quality GIFs. Also included content warnings for those who need them.... but know that they're based on my memory which is also shite. 1. No Regrets / Nichts Bereuen (2001) - 887MB

[CW: sex, partial nudity]

2. The White Sound (2001) - 800MB

[CW: nudity, mental illness]

3. Salvador (2006) - 992MB

[CW: sex, partial nudity, violence]

4. John Rabe (2009) - 1.21GB

[CW: nudity, rape, violence]

5. Me and Kaminski / Ich und Kaminski (2015) - 2.79GB

[CW: sex, partial nudity]

6. Colonia (2015) - 806MB

[CW: partial nudity, violence]

7. The Coming Days (2010) - 2.07GB [CW: violence, sex, nudity]

BONUS: thanks to @bruehl (whose account is currently inactive)

8. King's Road / Kóngavegur (2010) - 1.69GB

I could only open this file on the Google Drive it's in. The subtitle I was able to add via Substital extension. A guide on what it is, how to set it up, and use it on THIS POST.

9. Un Poco de Chocolate (2008) - 698MB Fun trivia: the subs were actually created by @bruehl!

But, wait, there's more...

10. Polizeiruf 110: Der Sohn der Kommissarin (1997) Also found a YouTube link to the episode Daniel is in! There are no subtitles but I'm a quarter of the way through it and it seems easy enough to follow.

Most of these are heavy but they are worth watching. Reviewed No Regrets, John Rabe, and Me and Kaminski on this post: The Best of Daniel Brühl. Hadn't seen The White Sound and Salvador at the time of posting, but Daniel is particularly proud of his work on those. p.s. feel free to message me for other DB films you can't find 😊 will be hosting for as long as I don't need the storage.

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