#nimue v

[bushelofmuses]

He didn't flinch when her grip tightened around his hand, letting her squeeze as much as she needed in order to find some semblance of comfort. The boats unnerved him some as well, but only because he wasn't like the Caretaker. He couldn't just float around like he could when he didn't have a body...it's been years now.

He waited until the boat started moving to respond. "You did that...brought them together, made them bond so they would on their own without prompting. They're trying."

The South was fighting tooth and nail for every inch they could get to stop the mutated, Blighted monsters that were popping up everywhere. Even after this was over, Cole imagined that it would take years to clean it up, decades. It wouldn't be fixed over night, unfortunately. The amount of help people would need was...daunting, painful almost. He couldn't do much to help more than a handful at a time. Nim might be able to use her sway to do more though...he hoped people listened if she tried.

Another wave of pleased warmth washed over him. Trust. It felt...good to be trusted. Varric had too, but this felt...different. A different kind of trust between two people, and that feeling fluttered inside in chest happily and freely. He wished Varric were here so he could tell him about it later...Varric would probably laugh and tell him it was normal, so Cole didn't worry about the newness of it.

The rumbling was amusing though, a sound that delighted him to hear when it wasn't from anger or fear. It was just pleased or content, perhaps? He hoped to hear it more often.

Having their fingers laced together felt strange, however. He wasn't used to his fingers being almost splayed out to accommodate another's and Cole almost fidgeted with the sensation, but he stilled so she wouldn't pull away. He didn't dislike it; it was new to him.

He gestured for her to lead the way and trailed after her towards one of the docks. The Caretaker was a calm spirit, one that radiated peace and soft silence. Cole waved at them cheerfully, and then helped her into the boat.

"You said Morgana showed you? The place or the way there?"

[bushelofmuses]

@dcvium asked: PINNED! for Cole in a protective way

Send Pinned!

For someone so small, she had a lot of strength hidden away.

One moment he was fighting, and the next he was torn away from the Venatori he'd just killed and shoved against a wall. A soft huff of air escaped him as he hit it, and he started to lash out at the attacker only to see it was Nimue, with a blast of magic whizzing by behind her.

He lowered the dagger he'd raised against her throat, expression shifting from startled anger to relief. She'd protected him from the magic, and he was grateful, but he could thank her properly once that mage was down.

Tapping her shoulder as a temporary thanks, he dropped backward into their shadows and popped up behind the mage, stabbing them in the temple to quickly kill them. The last one, thankfully.

"Thank you."

[rooksgambits]

@fereldensheroes (nimue) — starter call / accepting!

        “what is this place exactly, besides a health hazard?”

[sleetkissed]

@aetherose sent

To say Nimue was shaken would perhaps be an understatement. No, horrified would possibly be a better word, as bile threatened to arise from her throat as she isolated herself from the rest of camp come nightfall under the excuse of just wanting some fresh air. However, in reality, her thoughts were racing about what happened with that squirrel she’d momentarily blanked and kicked without at all intending to, as if something had possessed her. Thankfully, it’d seemed no one had given her little… accident with the squirrel any further thought. Whether it was thanks to her quickly telling them to proceed or them merely not caring much for it, she did not care and was grateful they moved on so fast. She didn’t want to talk to them about this. About these… urges of hers. Urges that were quickly becoming apparent to sometimes manifest as compulsions, based on the events of today. And she was terrified. Terrified that she may lose control of herself again. What if it was for longer next time, what if she hurt one of her companions next time, what if, what if, what if- So many possibilities consumed her mind, although, from an outside view, she appeared still as a statue, eyes blankly staring out towards the nearby river as she sat on a log. She did not blink, she did not move an inch; she merely kept staring. It was frankly unsettling, but it also meant she wasn’t paying attention to the world around her… and therefore, not to her sister’s approach, either.

   𝙻𝙴𝚃𝚃𝙴𝚁𝚂 .   plotted interactions ────────────────────────

      Serenity embraced this night's stage.      Esteri was quick to notice someone missing from camp   —   companions who were not already resting occupied themselves with the last minor tasks before heading to their bedrolls. Her keen eyes, however, did not spot her dear sister amongst them.

The day's events have been entertaining for once. All this play, all this acting as heroes rubbed Esteri the wrong way, but dismissively agreeing most of the time (not always without arguments). The pale woman had little to say against their plan. After all, every one of their merry group somehow ended up with a visitor in their head, which she was dying to know how to get it out of there.

But oh, what an interesting show she witnessed earlier. That rodent being kicked against its own presumable tree, rich brown bark painted in glimmering, wet red. How intriguing. How fascinating. And all that caused by Nimue   —   That goody two shoes with an arsenal of decisions Esteri could at best scoff at. Maybe they were more alike than the bhaalspawn thought   ?

Silent steps led her towards the riverbank   —   her little search coming out as fruitful as she saw Nimue sitting there, in thought. A subtle smirk seemed to tug at Esteri's lips for a fleeting second when making her way to closing up on her, standing behind her sibling  &  sharing the wistful gaze towards the water.

      ❝ It appears I underestimated you. I was close to thinking you would pet that thing, instead of making it fly against the local flora. ❞     A sharp comment which was laced with amusement. A glance flicked down to the sitting figure before resuming the stare far away.

     ❝ That look in your eyes back there   —   glorious. Utterly fascinating. You must felt it too, am I mistaken  ?   That . . . satisfaction. That feeling of hunger, sated for the time being. ❞     Esteri was not familiar with these strong, carnage-infused emotions. Her brain had as many holes as a waterdavian cheese wheel. Yet, the sorceress was sure she picked up the right assumptions. Nimue must share these urges. These waves of bloodlust.

     ❝ Don't tell me you are brooding  &  mourning after that fuzzy thing. Killing these goblins didn't seem to bother you as much. Why sulk about it   ? ❞

[heartsdefine]

↪ memes / accepting!

@fereldensheroes said: "You're with me on this one, right?" Nimue for Katniss?

        “to be clear,” katniss replies evenly, “i'm only working with you because haymitch vouched for you before.” and she's not entirely certain she believes a tribute from a career district can be trusted, but here they are. there's really only one person katniss cares about getting through all of this. her eyes level on the blond-haired boy sifting through the sand down by the water, and she sighs. “i'll do...whatever it takes to keep peeta alive. if that means we're allies, then fine. we're allies.” 

[f4rgd]

@fereldensheroes : starter for nimue.

“  Nimue?  ”    He’d  been  calling  her  name  for  thirty  seconds  or  more  by  now,  at  first  he’d  whispered  it  but  when  no  response  had  come  he’d  raised  his  voice  little  by  little.  It  wasn’t  just  him  who  was  staring  at  her,  he’d  just  been  the  one  to  approach  from  behind,  fingers  reaching  out  to  give  her  shoulder  the  smallest  of  taps  in  hopes  that  that  would  be  enough  to  gain  her  attention.  

The  journey  had  been  long  so  far  and  yet  they  found  themselves  going  around  in  circles  in  the  wilderness  until  they’d  settled  on  a  spot  to  make  camp.  It  wasn’t  far  from  a  goblin  camp,  but  far  enough  not  to  draw  any  trouble  in  their  direction.  He’d  been  busy  fixing  up  his  tent  when  he’d  seen  Nimue  sitting  by  the  water  looking  as  if  she  was  as  still  as  a  rock  from  where  he  watched.  For  a  moment  he’d  debated  approaching  her  but  when  ten  or  so  minutes  passed  and  no  movement  had  come  from  her  he  finally  approached  slowly  -  though  not  quietly  because  he  was  incapable  of  such  stealth.  

“  Nimue?  ”  He  tried  again  as  he  lowered  himself  down  to  the  ground  to  sit  by  her.  “  Are  you  okay?  Tell  me  to  leave  if  I  am  interrupting  your  peace,  but  I  thought  I  should  check  on  you.  ”

[avilionea]

@messanique (LANCELOT)

"Well, you aren't listening!" it was Elaine's face that stares back at him. It was some distorted version of his own voice that shouts. "I'm walking around!"

She had known about Mark's death long before anyone else. She'd talked about it with such carelessness in the same manner that good mornings were said. She had added his name to one of her logs. She had shown galahad first. He'd held her hand so she could pull the old thing from the moat and not worry about falling in. She had held the log up and said, quite plainly, " the poor man's been killed."

it was not long after that that Cornwall fell. The journey from Camelot to Tintagel was one that was meant to ease the Lady Igraine into her new home. To do that properly, Nimue needed to get there and pick up the pieces Mark's wife had left behind. From what Nimue had gathered, the Irish Queen had, at her husband's request, worked towards a cure for Duchess' madness.

it seemed a shame Isolde would never get to finish her work... but that death was a different story.

"I can't just magick a bridge back together!" she had though. In her fit of screaming at him, the bridge had begun to be rebuilt and fall back apart all at her unknowing whim. This was the kind of thing Merlin had wanted to teach her. This was the kind of thing she had begun to learn on the Isle, but in both cases, she preferred to run.

That future seemed to scare her most.

"I'm. Not. Going. In. I. Will. Drown." She said finally. "There has to be shallow water. Or no water. I'm not going."

[qverdia]

@dcvium's song starter !

abilene shrugged , arms crossed over her chest as she regarded the other woman . it was difficult to trust district two and one of abilene's hands moved to rub the back of her neck . she could still feel his hands wrapped around it , and she looked away from nimue . it was a hard habit to break , always wondering when someone from two was going to decide to turn on you .

then again , what would nimue get out of all of this ? abilene had to trust her for this whole plot to work . . . even if her heart didn't quite fall in line with that thought yet . she shrugged again and chewed on the inside of her cheek . ❛ you're better than your father was . . . and where he came from , too . ❜

[bushelofmuses]

"The people scream from within the wood..." They hadn't died, just changed. Cutting them down like a tree would do nothing to undo the problem or alleviate the pain they were in. He didn't know how to help or fix it. They couldn't be killed in that state, not really; their souls would always be trapped there.

An ancient device or ritual might undo it, but he didn't know enough about that to say for certain that it was the solution.

"The sickness spreads like ivy, creeping and consuming all in its path. The curse won't lift without...I don't know..." It was distressing, not knowing how to fix something. He leaned more into the hold around his arm on impulse.

"Maybe one day."

She could feel his arm tense and relax. It was a familiar feeling, trying to figure out how one felt about a touch and ultimately accepting it. Good. Nimue would have hated to make him uncomfortable with it. Truthfully, she hadn't really thought before doing. She rarely every did.

It was true, it wasn't always smiles, but he didn't need to always be comfort. Spirits could be one thing and stay one thing--- humans, people, they were more complex, difficult, feeling too much and not enough all at once. Cole smiled, though, and squeezed her arm, a soft rumbling forming in her chest for a moment, likely felt against the arm she held. It wasn't consistent and long like the purr of a cat, but it was a sort of contented sound and feeling.

There was a nod to his words. "Some people have a... streak of darkness in them." Like herself, her violence and bloodlust. "But we can choose who we are and what we do, right? She chose wrong. She let it consume her." Nimue had the feeling she'd once let it all consume herself, too.

"It feels wrong in Arlathan. There are people made of wood, turned to wood. There are legs on the trees... it feels angry and sick and carnivorous."

[bushelofmuses]

@dcvium asked: 🌼 Nim for Cole

Give My Muse a Flower

He was surprised. Neither of them were great at receiving gifts, but giving them was always nice. They both tried their best at least. The giving and receiving of gifts was a hard lesson to learn, he was finding. There was a happy medium he had yet to discover; he hoped he would soon for her sake. Always improving, always trying. He needed to.

It was such a delicate little thing. A daisy. Innocent and cheerful; a little spot of sun in the palm of one's hand. The flower reminded him of Cole's sister, and he had to banish the memory before it soured the mood.

Smiling, he took his hat off and gently tucked it into the band above the brim before replacing it on his head. Leaning far, far down, he kissed her cheek with a soft thank you.

It was sweet of her to think of him.

[wulfbluds]

❛ okay , we have got to pull you together . ❜ @joyfulmagic ( 𝔯𝔢𝔩𝔱𝔞 ) ⋆｡˚꩜ still accepting .

a 𝐅𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐅𝐔𝐋 glance is thrown downwards at the 𝔣𝔬𝔯𝔪𝔞𝔩 garb relta works to ᵃʳʳᵃᶰᵍᵉ just so . nimue had been so quick to slip back within the keep's walls that she'd paid no mind to the brambles ᴛᴀɴɢʟᴇᴅ within her hair nor the greenery ᶜˡᶤᶰᵍᶤᶰᵍ to beryl skirts . ❛ ❛ i'm sorry , i must look a mess . i 𝐫𝐚𝐧 all the way from the river . ❜ ❜ [ feeble apologies won't save your skirts from the mud that has surely become a 𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚎𝚗𝚝 fixture upon the cotton ] . ❛ ❛ have i come too late ? ❜ ❜ eyes alight upon relta once more , just as the 𝔤𝔦𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯 - crowned princess ᵖˡᵘᶜᵏˢ a crisp brown leaf from nimue's tresses . time is fickle , & the fey girl often 𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐄𝐒 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐊 of it ( ... ) much to the ᵈᶤˢᵐᵃʸ of 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 . ❛ ❛ tell me i have not ruined this night 𝔟𝔢𝔣𝔬𝔯𝔢 it has even begun . ❜ ❜

[lordliing]

"It's easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend." (Nimue)

"Is it?" Gortash never found it so easy. Then again, he could count on one hand the number of times he had truly, honestly forgiven someone.

And this would not be one of these times, not from the way he stood straight, one hand clenched in front of him and head held high-- walled up, on the defense, and looking down at the other with a look that could only be described as fury.

"Perhaps if progress wasn't destroyed beyond repair, if this wasn't such a disasterous failure, I could agree. But it is, and the Black Hand will not be merciful for it. Fixing this may be beyond me, and someone will pay dearly for it."

[avilionea]

"Oh," She murmured in pity. It was Merlin, of course he could never let his Arthur go. Whether Arthur came into the world of his own volition or if Merlin pried his own rib from his chest to mix with clay to make him, there would always be Arthur, just as there would always be Merlin.

Maybe that was why she was never very far behind. " You once said prophecies are just holes worn down in the world with how many times they've been walked. Ancient things are the only ones old enough to remember them. They often live inside those holes. Trapped in a man made thing."

She might have reached for him then to embrace him and welcome him home, there was a path where they sat in the quiet between storms, as they were meant to do. She'd known Merlin once to strive for that...he almost gave up his Arthur then. But in how many infinitives did he always choose his Arthur? How many times would his Arthur fail? Merlin came into the world and millions would die for some future he could never quite grasp.

She couldn't trust herself not to let those hands crawl up his neck and strangle him instead. Maybe she was a ghost, only ever meant to haunt him.

"fate is a tangle...you could only ever follow one thread." Her head canted as if to ask if he ever found the right thread. She might not remember the future nor the past as well as he did, but moments always stood out. Always, always they were of him.

Her shoulders shrugged in a final response as her hands raised with the motion. " It came and went. Whether it was in good treatment, ah, who knows. I'm here now." She said before adding in an inevitable tone, " With you."

Merlin nodded in acknowledgement to her. Yes, he remembered a time when he’d been all but swaying in the breeze. Sometimes he missed it, how simple things had been when time had moved on through him. Maybe that was a lot of why his magic was connected to the earth as it was. He wasn’t going to thank Nimue for that.

However, he’d been reborn, born as the boy Merlin to a mother who had no idea what to do with him. And somehow he’d found himself alongside Arthur, looking after him and letting him go all at once. Merlin ached for those times too. So much time had passed and ofttimes he found himself wondering what the point of it all had been.

“There is a prophecy that he will one day return,” Merlin replied in answer, knowing that would suffice some of it for her. He did not remember all of their past together, but he had brief glimpses now that the saw her again. Would they turn on each other once more? Would she bring him to his end? Merlin knew he was supposed to wait, but what for? Arthur had not returned. And Nimue was here. Should he take that as a sign?

“But we both know that a prophecy is but one path.” He folded his hands behind his back, watching her with ease and curiosity. She would not harm him, not here. At least, that’s as much as the old wizard suspected. “What of you then, My Lady? Has time been more kind to you?” He had a feeling that once they might have told each other everything. In another lifetime, he might have called her his. Merlin did not have such luxuries, not even in this lifetime. He knew that he was meant to walk his path alone, even if the thought of it often pained him.

[f4rgd]

@fereldensheroes : "It's possible. I've killed a lot of people." (Nimue, minorly edited for past tense)

" It is unnerving when you say it with such ease. " Maybe that's because he's not killed that many yet - a lifetime in the city being a smith will do that. But he's wanted to be out here doing this for years, ideally he wouldn't have a tadpole squirming around his brain but there's little he can do about that. He's an oathsman, but his ability to keep that is tested by the day - every swing of his sword feels like another vengeful way to remove the anger that's built inside him over the years.

His eyes narrow as he looks to Nimue curiously. " I suppose they are just goblins... " Renowned for being bad. He could take them down if they needed to. " Shall we sneak in and take them by surprise? I admit I am not the most stealthy. "

[avilionea]

𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕝𝕚𝕟 𝟙𝟡𝟡𝟠 𝕊𝕥𝕒𝕣𝕥𝕖𝕣s

@marinarius ASKED: Why didn’t you kill him? (THE MARINER)

"All things that live die in their own time." she spat the remaining chunk of skin she had bitten off into her hands before tossing it farther into the ocean. " Let him gargle for as long as he can, as I'm sure he had done to many before him." She let those hands shake with two hard thrusts in some half hearted attempt to clean them before standing back up, looking in the direction of where the last ship with said other was most likely sinking.

She had no intention for mercy. if he somehow managed to survive then something else would come to pick the bones in time. She doubted a man without a chunk of his neck couldn't manage a sail and a gaping hole. As she stood, her hands went to her hips. She spat red into the sea and moved further onto the ship. She didn't want to think about it.

" Don't touch me."

[bushelofmuses]

@dcvium asked: 🌿 my mission to have Nim send all mistletoe memes CONTINUES! Probs Cole since we haven't rped anyone else?

Mistletoe Meme

He vaguely remembered there was a tradition that people followed when under this plant. The mages used to do it, all shy smiles or playful dips over the knee to kiss the other as a joke. Some were sincere and others were merely an embarrassment and something to hurry up and get it over with.

And now Cole found himself with Nimue under it. He blamed...it might have been Harding that put it up.

Cole was no stranger to the action, or at least, to seeing it. He'd never been in a situation where he had to, or wanted to.

He leaned down and accidentally bumped her forehead with the brim of his hat. Cole jerked back with a grimace and pushed it up and out of the way before trying again, pressing a hesitant kiss to her cheek. He didn't want to take it too far without her permission.

There. That wasn't so bad. He could have done worse. His hat could have fallen off when he ran into her with it...or it could have poked her in the eye. If hitting her forehead was the worst part of it, then he could count it as a victory.