#once upon a time i could format images in tumblr posts well
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â ď¸ TRIGGER WARNING: Mentions of abuse and self-neglect â ď¸
I haven't posted in a while despite REALLY liking the posting format for Tumblr so. HI GUYS!! Have Kyle Daniels (my OC) as an Identity V Survivor.
Given that Kyle is from 1845 â 1873 in the Identity V universe, I have kept it in its original butler uniform. For those who have seen art of Kyle before â yes, this is its official uniform, the other suit you've seen me draw it in is for simplicity and ease when doing doodles or less serious drawings.
I'm pretty sure the suit that I used as a reference (seen below) is more from the early 1900s, however it looks relatively similar to the late 1800s suits that I saw â and is also the clearest image that I could find.
I've decided on making its buttons have a slightly more original look for its eyes, in comparison to (most of) the other Survivors. Upon recommendation from a friend of mine, I have decided to go with simplistic but slightly worn down buttons, as this fits Kyle's character and background nicely (example shown below). However, its buttons would be a dull green colour, to match its eye colour while maintaining the idea of its eyes being 'worn down' due to both the abuse that it has endured and the way it has continuously overworked itself â wearing itself down.
I aim to see if I can achieve a simple yet worn down look for its green button eyes, while also making the eyes look polished â even with its past and troubles, Kyle maintains a good image for itself (and its master), and is also never seen untidy (with the only exception being its Worn Clothes). It keeps itself polished and clean even as it's worn down.
On the topic of its stitches and rips, it was decided to give it very few rips â of which would not damage the suit it is wearing â to maintain a professional look. The rips were limited to 2 on the neck, which can be seen more clearly in my first progress shot (seen below). This place was chosen for the rips as I did not want them to interfere with its face or suit, as well as it being an element of foreshadowing.
Its stitches, however, are plentiful â being more common and noticeable in comparison to those of other characters (see first image for all, see below for suit only). This was to create another element that related to its abuse, in a way that hid it in plain sight. The amount of stitches symbolises the way that it is so worn down and broken by its abuser â and even its neglect for its needs, however holds itself together, akin to my design choice for its button eyes.
Its stitches can be found: down its left cheek, starting from its eye; across its nose; at the shoulders of its suit, connecting them to its torso; halfway down its upper right arm; at the end of its right blazer sleeve; halfway down its left forearm; â
of the way down its left index finger; halfway down its right thumb; and across its left side.
In the above list I have excluded the stitches at the corners of its mouth, and the stitch on its chin. This is due to the fact that its mouth stitches are more symbolic, showing that it has become so accustomed to its stone cold glare that its frown is practically a permanent part of its face. The chin stitch is representative of its cleft chin, as seen with existing Survivors Embalmer and Cowboy.
#art#identity v#traditional art#idv#oc#oc art#oc artwork#identity v oc#idv oc#artwork#oc drawing#my art#my oc art#my oc character
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Even when YGO was first airing in the US, once I got internet like a year into it, I remember "Puppyshipping" being THE most popular ship. Certainly was at least one of the biggest.
The discourse was about whether it was abusive, but it was all incoherent nonsense on both sides, with varying degrees of seriousness. I might've posted 1 time on the kaiba corporation forum my own opinion: in-world, yes abusive. in-fics, usually abusive. does this mean ppl shouldn't do it? nah, whatever. I understand why the dynamic interests people. Ship and let ship. Not my ship, though. Could never be.
...cuz...
See, my brother & I -unused to anime aside from Pokemon- thought we should root for only Main Character TM, but soon after jumped on our faves. Mai & Kaiba for me. He stuck with Yugi more to annoy me, & Joey as the blonde underdog in green (like himself; & this smelly green soccer jersey he never changed or washed cuz it was his "Joey shirt" đ¤Ž).
So for me, it personally always felt skeevy to ship my faves with my brother's faves.
I started getting over it once Joey became obsessed with Mai in Waking the Dragons, but the little-brother-protector thing id with Kaiba was still stronger. Plus my brother spent the season annoyed with Joey's pining & hating Mai for her betrayal, so that helped disconnect them there.
I didn't really get into it the slightest bit til I came to tumblr, & I was part of the convo to rename it "violetshipping" to address the unwelcome default feeling of an abuse undertone & instead focusing on their complementary parallels & contrasts (which we all casually agreed was ok, canon, ic, but shouldn't be assumed within the very ship name), around the same time my relationship with my brother began deteriorating. So even though I got him into one last hurrah with DSOD, he's basically been lost to the right.
Tumblr's format also makes it a lot easier to stumble upon lots of things that just go by on your dash. I don't even remember seeing any puppyshipping fanart in the old forums & webrings of geocities & DeviantArt & AOL image searches, cuz I never searched for it. Read a couple fics trying to give it a chance, but they always ended up grossing me out with characterizations alone.
.
But ya know what I never did? Never actually called it incest, even though that's what it felt like to me in my own unique experience. & I never said *anything* to people online who shipped it. I did talk about it with friends in school, where you would've seen my full body language reaction for "I don't wanna be rude - I'm just reeeally not into it - cuz my brother - so I don't wanna talk about it." Which was perfectly fine & accepted!
Who *did* I ship Kaiba with? Well, most in-character? No one. As in he would actively choose no one. As sexy as he was, I didn't see him being interested in pursuing any kind of relationship or sex. (It would take another several years before I ever saw the term "asexual," to which my first reaction was, Oh! Like Kaiba!
I've used the joke of shipping him with money.
But once I found Silentshipping, I was hooked. They had interacted ONCE when Serenity yelled at him, & he was just like "Uhh..." where if it were a Disney movie, that'd be where he fell in love but hadn't realized it yet. Then they NEVER interacted again. Serenity hardly had much of a personality beyond "nice." It was a perfect blank slate to make anything up! & she was perfectly generic for girls to project onto, without fear of being called a self-insert or Mary Sue -the biggest worries of the time.
But I also loved how it connected Joey & Kaiba as, usually, either eventually or at least effectively, brothers-in-law, still pitted against each other. To me, it was sooo much better than actually putting them together.
.
It is sooo easy to not call everything "incest" that merely feels like brothers to you. It is sooo easy to not harass others for what they create, especially when they purposely help keep away anything you may not wanna see.
#re: the aita post#on my rocking chair again#incest mention#puppyshipping#violetshipping#polarshipping#silentshipping#storytime
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4 songs
I was tagged about a million years ago by the lovely bulb (@flashbulb-memoryâ) to list 4 songs Iâve been listening to recently.Â
Iâm sort of the opposite of a music connoisseur and my tastes are eclectic but Iâll pick out a few songs that I either keep coming back to recently or which are playing in the back of my head more than usual.
1. Keep Me, by Khalid
A sort of upbeat melancholy piece about parting ways but keeping each other in oneâs heart, in oneâs thoughts, in oneâs conversations. It reminds me of young love and summerâs end, and the vibe pulls at my heartstrings even if thereâs this sense that the singer is trying to hold on to something thatâs already passed by and canât be kept.
2. White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane
Iâve always been pretty bad at remembering song names and artists and all of it. White Rabbit is an incredibly famous song, but about six months ago if youâd asked me if Iâd ever heard it before, Iâd have said I have no recollection of it. Despite that -- I wrote it into Desiderata.Â
I like to texture my writing with little character details as much as I can in a way that wonât distract from the narrative. I was writing about Sam picking up on Deanâs tension and stress, and figured that music would be one of the cues Sam knows like a second language, different songs with different meanings for Deanâs moods. I didnât want Zepp or Metallica or ACDC so looked into Blue Oyster Cult and then Jefferson Airplane, and some googling told me White Rabbit was a popular song with a unique sort of beat that Dean could be tapping, and that was that.
And then the song was used in the new Matrix trailer several months ago and I was like âoooooh I love this what is it?â and lmao, oh. Itâs a song Iâve literally read the wikipedia article for but somehow neglected to actually listen to. Derp.
Anyway so now Iâm obsessed.
3. Blood in the Cut by K. Flay
A friend introduced me to K. Flayâs music back in 2015 and the refrain of needing noise has been somewhat relatable to me as I try to use music more to stimulate my brain and find more optimal levels of stimulation to help me focus. When Iâm tense and vibrating out of my skin, I too need the bass of a subwoofer to chill out.
4. Rodeo by Lil Nas X featuring Cardi B.
Other than just an absolute banger, this has the line âRather see you in a hearse than see you with some other bitchâ and honestly it makes me crazy. The blatant unrepentant possessive violence of it is excellent writing fodder.
Bonus:
Iâve also been into emo recently to help get the tone right for WIPs Iâm working on, both Desiderata and others in the background, including Folded at the Edges.Â
So go listen to American Football or Car Seat Headrest
Tagging (zero pressure and also encourage anyone else who wants to do it to go for it!):
@peach-cokeâ @wincest-endgameâ @brotherwivesâ @fallcolorspringrapidâ
#once upon a time i could format images in tumblr posts well#that ability died a sad death several updates ago so here we are#anyway can you tell i mostly listen to music for writing? and not just for listening#music is a means to an ends for me idk i get that most people listen just to listen#i am not one of those people#music#about the blogger
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Hayloft- Ezra x Reader
AN: hahahahahahah hello.....So I know that have have shit I was supposed to write but life has taken every bit of creativity from me so Iâm not sure if Iâll ever actually write those. So I am sorry if you have been waiting forever for me to post a story. Iâve also made the decision to close my requests indefinitely unless I change my mind because I just donât do well with them, sorry. BUT, I struck gold and got the idea for this fic and before I lost the inspo I wrote like a mad man all yesterday! So I do hope you enjoy! And yes, I did get the idea while listening to Hayloft by Mother Mother
Also this is going to be a two part story, I am currently working on the second part and it should be posted tomorrow morning most likely. And I made a playlist, if youâd like to listen to it (I am open to song suggestions to be added!)
Ao3 Link
Masterlist
Words: 3.1k (this a beast for me lol)
Warnings?: not really, AFAB reader, mentions of a stroke, Ezraâs charm (that needs a warning), bad poetry formatting (sorry tumblr destroyed how I had it in my Doc)
The itchy scratchy feeling of the hay digging through my nightwear was worth every uncomfortable second if it meant I could continue to sit here and listen to the man across from me, with his eyes that held galaxies and voice the carried the lilt of the most wonderful song, with that unplaceable accent. He was worth being tired in the morning from staying up all night up here in the loft of my familyâs small barn. He was worth all the sneaking around and small meaningful glances sent each otherâs way when no one else was paying attention, the brushing of hands when handing something to the other. I wouldnât change anything about this unless it meant the small glances or the gentle brushing against each other didnât have to be hidden from the others, if it meant that I could just be with the hypnotic man across from me with his hair as dark as the freshly tilled ground at the being of a harvest minus that one soft looking patch as white as a newly hatched chickâs down and a smile so crooked and white that it felt almost as if he was casting a spell over my very heart and soul. He was worth the pain of picking hay from my hair and clothes in the morning when I have to sneak back into the farmhouse, while already missing the touch of his rough and calloused but gentle hand. It was all worth every bit as long as he helped me forget everything just for the time being.
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Living on K-5 was rather simple. The planet was neither big nor small and it was known for its fertile soil that could grow just about any plant whether it was native to the world or not and once one harvest season had finished the other started as the weather always was spring-like with perfect growing conditions. Not many came to stay and those who did worked their entire life in planets many fields of harvest. To the few that actually knew the name of the forgettable planet called it the bread box of the known universe. Though the planet was known to very few people throughout space, the planetâs harvests could be found on just about any other planet or moon feeding just about everyone.Â
The farmers of K-5 were known to have bigger families on the premise of needing hands to work the land for food of their own and for money. The farmers also knew that most of their children would leave the planet and look for better elsewhere, and would hope beyond hope that at least one of their children would settle on the sad planet and continue working their farm. Though if luck would have it there might come a ship every so often with people willing to lend hands and work the land if they were compensated well enough. Most that came were floaters looking for something to do in between prospecting jobs, others were looking for a quiet place to finally settle after a long life.Â
My father had been one of 12 brothers and he was the only one to stay and take over the meager farmer his father and his fatherâs father had set up on a small corner of the planet. My father never really talked about his siblings, only ever calling them stupid for leaving the haven that was K-5 for a world they had no place to be in. My mother had been brought here by her mother, who had been a floater. They had made acquaintances with a farmer a town or so over and had lived there as farmhands as that familyâs children started dwindling as they left. I have been told that my mother had a fire to her that no other on the planet had, that she was a woman of grace and humility, which is rare in space these days, something I was told I inherited though Iâm not so sure I believe. We were a small family, I had two older brothers, twins identical in only their looks. Joshua, a dreamer as my father put it spitefully saying he inherited that from our mother, while his brother Anthony took after our father with his pessimistic view of everything including the world outside of our farm and K-5. I always counted Joshua lucky, he was able to sneak out of our small farmhouse late one night only leaving a note on my bedside table saying goodbye as he left one of the few ships to land on our soil. Father always resented me much like he did Joshua for multiple reasons, one of them being that it was the reason mother had passed, as Anthony informed me one night when asked, another reason being that I supposedly looked like a carbon copy of her, as I was told by the few farmers that remembered her, and lastly and most importantly was my fascination with the outside world. He hated that âJoshua did nothing but fill your head with fantasies.â He hated that because of our small family we needed all the farmhands we could get and that I would always sit with them listening to anything they would tell me, though few would say much as the floaters tended to be a quiet breed, preferring to keep to themselves.Â
In our town, the floaters and drifters were usually pointed to our farm when looking for work and usually met with my father before I ever had a chance to meet them, most ignoring me throughout their short stay, anyway. If we were lucky we would get one or two by the time harvesting or planting time had come around and they were always roomed in Joshuaâs old room, now cramped from shoving multiple cots into the room rather than one small bed. The room was furthest from mine, which made it hard to sneak into to and talk with those who were willing to feed my curiosities. Having been caught and reprimanded enough times by both father and Anthony I had to learn how to be light-footed and sneak around unseen, though I believe that after awhile Anthony has given up on trying to âknock some senseâ into me and just doesnât try anymore.Â
Life was the same for me day in and day out nothing much changing other than the faces and names of the floaters staying on our humble farm. Excitement in our corner of space was far and few between, leading me to seek it out through any means possible, and more often than not it was the few books I was able to get my hands on them being rare as they were, were exceptionally hard to find new stories. Though luck would have it, I was able to get my hands on three battered books whose covers were so worn and dirtied over the years that any image or words depicted were hardly seen. Of everything on my solemn planet, these were what kept me sane, even if I had read and reread each dozens of times. Though their covers were faded, the titles were imprinted in my mind. I treasured my well-loved copies of Pride and Prejudice, The Hobbit, and Frankenstein and kept them close to my heart while also hiding them from my father for fear of how heâd react to them. Though I love every book I owned, it was the newest in my collection that meant the most to me, for it was the first thing that brought the man I long for and I together, a rather small but thick copy of a collection of poems and stories written by Edgar Allen Poe.Â
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Waking up on Saturdays were the only time when I didnât mind having to roll out of bed and deal with the early hour chill. Saturdays were the days that I got sent to town to collect groceries and odds and ends for the farm from the weekend markets. Father learned early on that I had the same touch as my mother when I came to finding the best bargains and deals, so he began sending me in his stead while he and Anthony ran other errands or helped the current farmhands do morning chores.Â
This Saturday wasnât much different, upon waking and changing into the dayâs clothes, I pulled my hair out of my face before stepping out of my room to head to the kitchen to find the list of what was needed on the counter along with the money needed. As usual, I went through my Saturday routine of making a thermos of coffee before pocketing the money and grabbing my bag. I slip my thermos into the side pocket of the bag as I slip the strap over my shoulder, before grabbing the list and scanning the contents as I walked to where my boots were stored next to the door. While glancing through the list, I started to slide my boots on before stopping. In a small section at the bottom were a few items that were reserved only for the few saturdays that the supply ship stopped in our area of the planet, which was very rare if ever. The supply ships were sent to the planet every couple of months with limited supplies and it landed in certain areas to sell what ever cargo it had brought, only to leave when empty. Only the ships usually were emptied after the first two or three stops and this area was usually one of the last stops, making the ships rare and highly sought after in the area. So the fact that our area was finally getting a ship after almost a year and a half without one was a huge deal. A rather large part of me hoped that there would be floaters on the ship willing to be hired out for farm work, especially since the lack of a ship has made my small family have to tend our meager fame with only the three of us because of the lack of farmhands.Â
Upon arrival, the town was already bustling with life. Quickening my pace, I went to the center of the town where the new supplies always were held, and upon arriving I made quick work of crossing off everything on the list in hopes of having time to browse for myself. Luck seemed to have shown mercy down on me today as everyone I talked to was fair in prices and after crossing the last item off the long list I still had enough money to buy something for myself and give father change without him being any wiser. Smiling I chatted with a few townspeople and other farmers as I browsed the market, and as I came to the last stall I had yet to look in the market. Having near given up and about to turn from the stall, my eye caught something that had fallen from the makeshift table. Upon picking it up I nearly cried with joy having found what I could only hope to be the next tattered book to add to my collection. Flipping the book over in my hands and flipping through the pages my smile grew as I called the seller over. We haggled the price for a couple of minutes before he accepted my offer with a murmur and taking the money and while turning to begin my journey back to the farm I heard my name being called a couple of stalls over. Looking up, I smiled politely when I noticed it was Mrs.Robertson, taking a deep breath and sighing it back out before making my way slowly over to where she stood.
Mrs.Robertson was a stout woman that had a smile that never seemed to leave her face. She was a lovely woman whose lemon pound cake was well-known amongst the areaâs farmers and always had a warm cup of tea and an open ear for whoever walked through her kitchen door, even after her stroke that took all mobility in her left arm. While I have always enjoyed her company, especially as a child when I was longing for a mother figure, recently talking with her always ended with her trying to push her oldest son and I together. Her oldest and youngest sons were the only two of her five children to stay on the planet, and while her youngest had already married and had a couple of children, her oldest didnât seem to have interest in doing the same, even if she swears that he infatuated with me. Father continuously tells me that he thinks the marriage would be a good idea, even as I tell him it wouldnât work between the two of us.Â
So as I walk over to her and give her a hug in greeting I prepare myself for another attempt at matchmaking. Instead after parting from the one-handed hug, she had given me she motioned over her shoulder to a man who was standing there with a crooked smile that seemed to hold every last bit of charm left in the universe, and Mrs. Robertson, without missing a beat spoke up, âI was just explaining to this lovely newcomer that your father is always looking for new people to help with the farm and was just about to point him in your farmâs direction when I noticed you,â as Mrs.Robertson continued to rattle on I took the chance to glance back to the man behind her, only to find that his woefully dark eyes were still watching me with more mirth than I had seen in years. Looking back to Mrs.Robertson quickly hoping that no redness would grace my cheeks, though I knew it was there anyway. She quickly stepped aside and motioned to me introducing me before the man, if at all possible, smiled wider and stuck out his hand introducing himself as Ezra. As I stuck out my hand to shake his I opened my mouth to give him a polite reply only to be shocked into silence when instead of shaking my offered hand he raised it to his shining smile and graced the back of my hand with a kiss. Now I was absolutely certain that there was red dancing across my cheeks, if not my ears as well. Not able to take returning the gaze the man, I know knew to be Ezra, seemed to be piercing my very soul with I turned to Mrs.Robertson, thanking her and wishing her well before turning to Ezra who was still watching me and giving him a shy smile and tilting my head in a motion as to say âfollow meâ.Â
Ezra seemed to be quiet as we walked throughout the town head back towards the farm, though that might have been because the small talk and greetings that were being thrown my way from those from the area that I was friendly with. When we finally broke from the town and the only sound was the dwindling chatter of the market and buzzing of the local wildlife. Though I was startled to a stop from the previous silence by the man as he spoke melodically and seemingly wit purpose,Â
âIn visions of the dark night I have dreamed of joy departed; But a waking dream of life and light Hath left me broken-hearted.
Ah! what is not a dream by day To him whose eyes are cast On things around him, with a ray Turned back upon the past?
That holy dream, that holy dream, While all the world was chiding, Hath cheered me as a lovely beam A lonely spirit guiding.
What though that light, throâ storm and night, So trembled from afarâ What could there be more purely bright In Truthâs day-star?â
Having turned to face the man confused, but noticing he was looking towards the sky with a smile, though one smaller than the one he was sporting when you both had made your introductions with each other, this one seeming more blissful rather than purposefully charming. It was only now though that I noticed the absence of his right arm as his left was moved to his face to shield his eyes from the ever glowing sun. Turning his head back to look at me, his smiled widened again before noticing my slight confusion.
âSorry flower but I couldnât help but to notice the collection of stories and poems in your hand there, and thought to quote a poem by our dear morose friend Poe. I find his works to be a tad too depressing for my likes but somethings just stick with your very person,â Ezra drawled before sticking his hand out, âMay I?â
Unable to really respond as I was still in slight shock I was only able to nod and pass the book over. Where upon gracing his fingers Ezra was able to skillfully thrumb through the book, mumbling quietly to himself with a smile, âIt has been quite sometime since I have been able to visit our friend Poe here or any of my other long dead friends Iâm afraid,â he paused for only a moment sticking the tip of his tongue between his lips before giving a small quiet winning cry, â Ah hah! Here you go, âA Dreamâ by the one and only Edgar Allan Poe.â
Handing the book back with it open on a specific page and there it was, the poem in which he had just quoted in full. Smiling down at the page, before looking back at him with a somewhat astonished look I dog eared the page before sliding it into the bottom of my bag, âNo one else around here really reads anymore. At this point I thought I was the last one in the universe to do so. ItâŚ.it would be nice to actually talk about reading with someone, though regretfully I just met Poe today so we are not quite as well acquainted as you two seem to be,â looking back up with a smirk and remembering my thermos I grab it out of my bag before lifting it up in offering. âCoffee? Its not quite hot anymore but it is probably still warm.â
With his ever wide smile, Ezra stepped up next to me as I slid my bag back into place and gave a small polite nod, âI would love to do nothing more than share what I am sure is the perfect brew with you, darling flower.â
(If you want to be tagged in part two, let me know in my inbox! Also if enough people are interested I am thinking about opening my inbox to talk and expand on this world Iâve created? Anyways I hope you enjoyed! Likes, Reblogs, and Comments are always appreciated!! Much love and Happy 2021!)
(Also if you figured out what I based the planet I created off of please tell me, Iâd like to see obvious I made it lol. And if youâd like a hint itâs in the USA)
#ezra (prospect)#ezra x reader#ezra prospect#ezra prospect x reader#ezra (prospect) x reader#ezra prospect x you#ezra (prospect) x you#Pedro Pascal#Prospect#ezra x female reader#the second part may have a little spice#considering the song i based this off of#but not alot bc i have found I suck at smut#but it might be hinted at or briefly described?#anyway i am kinda happy to be back writing wise#ive missed this
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Devotions - WWDITS Fanfic - Nandor x Guillermo
Sequel to: Maybe One Day, My Love
WWDITS Masterlist
 A/N: Quick note to let you guys know that I have been writing up a storm, but Iâve posted many fics exclusively to AO3. It is just so much work to format every story for Tumblr. AO3 is such a superior place to read and write. So, check that out to see what youâve missed. Thanks to @sinaestheteâ for beta reading this fic for me!
Summary:Â Following a death in the family, Guillermo goes to the park for his weekly "visit" with his ex-master. After two decades of distance and one-sided conversation, Nandor finally steps out of the shadows.
Warnings: Smut, Religious References, Parent Death
---
âYou do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.â -Mary Oliver, Wild Geese
Itâs nightfall once again.
    Guillermo de la Cruz clutches a prayer card in his fist as he strides down the familiar path for the appointment he never misses. Not even tonight.Â
    Puddles dot the paved lane; he carefully avoids them, not wishing to ruin his patent leather shoes. Heâs still dressed in the clothes he wore to the funeral: a dark suit and tie that make him look somehow older and younger at the same time. Like a little boy dressed up in his fatherâs clothes. His rigid soles scuff against the cement. The scraping sound grounds him in time and place, pulling him back from the vision of the gleaming white casket heaped with flowers.Â
    Itâs early spring. The night is still chilly, but the park has begun to transform with the new season. Green shoots of grass peek out between moldy fallen leaves. Crocuses emerge in the flower beds that line the walk. The branches hanging overhead are heavy with verdant leaves whispering in the light breeze. Guillermo breathes in the damp, mildewy scent of new growth. Idly, he wonders if the funeral arrangements have started to wilt.
    He rounds the well-known turn in the path, finally arriving at his forgotten little alcove with its dilapidated bench. The wooden slats of the seat give way to his weight as he sits; the wood is soft and worn. He recalls the hard, polished church pews and decides that this is a much more suitable place for worship. The laminated prayer card bites into the tender flesh of his palm and he releases it, taking his hands from his pockets and letting them rest on the well-loved bench.
    Night sounds fill his ears: crickets murmuring in the grass, distant traffic rushing on the highway, gentle wind blowing through the trees. No matter how carefully he listens, holding his breath and keeping perfectly still, Guillermo will never hear his masterâs approach until Nandor wishes it. Instead he begins his vigil, communing with the night, with this place, the setting for his devotions.
 âLet us pray...
I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever live and believe in me shall never die.â
    The priestâs words float back to him as if conjured by the night wind. Guillermoâs thoughts fix upon his lord. The one heâs worshiped since he was nineteen-years-old. He calls up Nandorâs image with ease, despite the years that have passed since actually seeing the vampire. Dark eyes ringed in fire, bottomless pits into which Guillermo has been falling for the last thirty-seven years. A body as cold and lethal as a winterâs night. Fangs that reap bloody sacrifices from his victims. Guillermo closes his eyes and Nandor is there before him--skin warm in the candlelight, lips relaxed in a rare smile, holding out his hand and beckoning Guillermo to come forward. In his vision, Nandor places his palm on the crest of Guillermoâs head in a blessing.Â
 âBlessed are those who mourn,
For they will be comforted.â
    The snap of a twig announces him. Guillermo eyes snap open; he stares straight ahead into the trees on the other side of the nook. He senses Nandor in the darkness behind him, a guardian or a devil. Both. But he doesnât turn to look, though every fiber of his being is attuned to his masterâs cold presence; though he longs to lunge at him and hold him and never let him leave this place. That is not their arrangement.Â
    Just this once, though, he wishes it could be different.
    Guillermo tries to speak; tries to perform their ritual as usual. But the words stick in his throat, congealing into a heavy lump that suffocates him. A shaky breath passes through his parted lips and becomes a sob. Suddenly there are tears spilling down his cheeks. He reaches into his pocket, removes the prayer card with Silvia de la Cruzâs beautiful portrait on it, and sets it on the seat beside him.Â
    âShe⌠died,â he explains in a shattered whisper, scrubbing furiously at his eyes with his fists. âMi mam ĂĄ . Sheâs gone, Nandor.âÂ
    For an instant the rest of the words stick in his throat: Guillermoâs not supposed to address him directly. Thatâs not part of their ritual. Now Nandor will leave; now heâll never come back. But the grief soon scours away the fear of breaking their rules and Guillermo collapses down to his elbows, hanging his head and sobbing out his heartache and pain.Â
    âIt happened so s-suddenly, Nandor. I didnât get to say good-bye or tell her Iâm sorry.â
    Guillermo crosses his arms over his chest, hugging and rocking himself in a pitiful attempt to self-soothe. His sinuses are blocked; his face is flushed; his mouth tastes like bile and communion wafers and his t Ă aâs buĂąuelos. Heâs desperate to get a hold himself, to salvage this evening somehow, but every time he nearly has the crying controlled his mind supplies him with a new torture. The stricken look on his amĂĄâs face when he left home to work for Nandor. The smell of eggs and fresh tortillas in the morning. The sound of her clambering in the kitchen, cursing under breath. Her smile. Her hugs. The way she took him in, without questions, when he came back home covered in blood and hysterical after a decade of being a bad son.Â
    Guillermo is so lost in memories, he almost misses the soft, hesitant touch on his shoulder. A hand--solid, strong, cold--closes around his shoulder and squeezes gently. Their first touch in twenty-six years. Guillermoâs breath stutters from his lungs. He freezes, terrified of breaking the fragile sanctity of this moment. He wavers on the threshold of action. Before he can summon the courage to cross it himself , Nandor does so for him. The vampireâs hands are suddenly clutching, pawing at his shoulders and chest; clawed fingers dig into the expensive fabric of his suit jacket and haul him over the bench. Heâs dragged through the spider-riddled bush and then all at once heâs in his masterâs embrace. As if it hasnât been decades since the last and first time they held each other. As if a whole lifetime of experience--sadness, joy, yearning, hope--hasnât slipped through Guillermoâs mortal fingers.Â
   Nandor wraps Guillermo up in his cape, the rich fabric and gold embroidery are clean and well-maintained. Guillermo finds himself wondering if Nandor has himself a new familiar, quickly deciding he doesnât want to know. He buries his face in Nandorâs strong, broad chest and breathes him in. He smells like rose water, argan oil, and Tide To-Go Pens. He smells like warm candle wax and brassy, spilled blood. He smells like dust and animal pelts and frozen decay. He smells like home.Â
 âAnd I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.â
    Guillermo never really left him, did he? Two decades spent building a human life, and with one simple embrace he is back on Staten Island, a nineteen-year-old boy knocking on a pagan godâs front door and offering himself in sacrifice.
   âNandor,â he cries. Itâs a plea, a demand, a tribute, a prayer. Once the name falls from his lips he canât stop. âNandor. Nandor. Nandor. Nandor. Nandor. Nan--â
    The vampire shushes him, bringing his hand up to cradle Guillermoâs head against his chest. That voice, rich and deep, rumbles through the fabric of the leather vest and into Guillermoâs tear-streaked cheek. âI am sorry, my Guillermo. Your mama⌠she was a good lady. She took care of you, kept you safe and happy afterâŚâ he trails off, clearing his throat uncomfortably. His arms tighten around Guillermo. âI am so very sorry.â
    Guillermo clings to him, hands fisting in the cape, tugging at the material until Nandor is forced to stoop down. Guillermo closes his eyes, terrified of opening them to find that this is all a dream. Some kind of religious vision that will dissipate in a cloud of smoke if he breaks the spell. Nandorâs face is so close, he can feel the vampireâs cool breath on his cheeks. Guillermo presses forward, nuzzling his face into the whiskers of Nandorâs beard, gasping at the soft caress of long hair against his face.
    âIs this real?â Guillermo whispers; his words are fragile, like mothâs wings fluttering through the air between them. âMaster, is it really you?â
    âWho else would it be, Guillermo?â Nandor chides in the same old amused tone that Guillermo has preserved in his heart like dried flower petals between the pages of the family bible. âWho else but me? Itâs always me, Guillermo.â
    Thumbs wipe away the salty, stinging tears from Guillermoâs cheeks and the human huffs out a sound thatâs a laugh, a sob and a cry of joy all at once.
    âItâs always you, master,â he agrees and seconds later he feels the cool, miraculous brush of Nandorâs lips on his.
 âAlmighty God, cleanse my heart and my lips that I may worthily proclaim your Gospel.â
    Guillermoâs eyes fly open. Dark hair and pale, luminous skin fill his vision. Arms--powerful, undeniable--wrap around his soft little human form. He melts into Nandor, all the strength in his limbs bleeding away until the vampireâs strong grip is the only thing keeping him from falling to his knees. Heâs resplendent, overjoyed to give himself up to the predatory angel before him.Â
   The grief--a hollow, aching hole in his chest--is still there. But with it is a new sensation, at once well-known and utterly novel: ecstasy, fulfillment, completion. To be united with Nandor finally, after decades of pining, feels unreal and yet meant to be. Itâs everything heâs dreamed of and denied dreaming of for so long.Â
    Nandorâs lips slide against his own, cool to the touch yet soft and welcoming. Nothing like the hard and forbidding marble heâd always imagined. Nandorâs mouth is pliant and giving; itâs not unlike kissing a mortal man⌠as if Nandor isnât the untouchable celestial being of his dark dreams, but flesh and--yes--blood. Guillermo flicks out his tongue and traces his masterâs full, pouting lower lip. Nandor opens his mouth at once, granting him the entry he seeks. How can this be happening? After a lifetime of longing and supplication?
    âGuillermo,â Nandor says his name like a plea, his lips brushing, the syllables melting into their kiss. âMy Guillermo. Youâre mine, still, arenât you? Will you be mine?â
    Guillermo mouth molds to his masterâs. Nandorâs beard drags against the soft skin of his chin and cheeks. He pulls himself away long enough to answer. âYes, Nandor. Iâm still yours. If youâll still be mine. Oh, God , please tell me youâre mine, Nandor!â
    God. For the first time in eight centuries, Nandor feels no pain at the holy word. Instead it dribbles from Guillermoâs lips, melting into their kiss and tasting like sweet honey. Yes, he thinks, finally allowing his hands to roam down his human supplicantâs body. Yes, I am your god, little mortal. And you are mine.
    The words spark in the night air, a spell that will keep them safe so long as they donât stop touching. âIâm yours, Guillermo. Forever.â
    They tumble to the earth, a tangle of grasping limbs, rolling hips and desperate, longing kisses. Nandor breaks their fall, landing in the dewy grass with a soft grunt and clutching Guillermo to his chest with reverent care. Guillermo is alight with sensation. Prayers fall from his lips, holy words that once would have sent his master hissing and flinching, but which now seem to feed him.Â
    âNandor, my god!â He pulses his pelvis with every repetition of the name. âGod, I love you. Iâve always loved you.â
    Love . A word that should bring Nandor as much pain as the other and yet⌠Guillermoâs heartache, his abandon, his devotion have unlocked something inside of him. He lets himself free. His hands clench Guillermoâs backside and squeeze; he grinds their pelvises together in fervent desperation. Guillermo settles heavily on his chest, sinking his fingers into the vampireâs soft hair and raining kisses on his face.Â
    âYou will give yourself to me, wonât you?â Nandor whispers, an edge of uncertainty in his voice. âFinally?â
    The weight of ecstasy and sorrow on Guillermoâs soul leaves no room for the exasperation that he should rightfully feel at those words. As if Guillermo has not given himself to Nandor every day for his entire adult life. As if he wouldnât have gladly killed to be in this position decades before. But here, in this holy place, in the communion of their bodies and souls, Guillermo doesnât scoff. He presses a gentle, wet, lingering kiss to Nandorâs lips before answering.Â
    âYou already have me, Master.â
â Take this... and eat of it, for this is my Body, which will be given up for you.â
    They lay Nandorâs cape out on the grass like a blanket. Itâs almost completely dark in the shadowy undergrowth, but Guillermo still blushes as he shrugs off his suit coat and begins unbuttoning his shirt, aware of the vampireâs heightened senses. The darkness presses up against Guillermoâs eyeballs; he strains to see merely the faintest outline of Nandorâs powerful frame. His face is a dark blur except for his eyes. Nandorâs predator eyes drink in every bit of ambient light and reflect it back at Guillermo. They glow. Hallowed, fiery rings in the night.
    Guillermo is no longer a virgin. He feels a small, pitiful pang at the knowledge that he canât give Nandor that part of himself. Heâs slept with a few men over the years. But heâs never truly offered himself to any of them like heâs doing now. Guillermo takes off his shirt, his undershirt. He toes off his shoes and socks and undoes his belt. Itâs cold and the cape is starting to absorb the dew and chill from the solid earth beneath, but he doesnât shiver as he removes his pants and underwear. He lays on his back, nude, flushed, panting and achingly hard. He doesnât feel the icy wind that raises goosebumps on his arms and hardens the pink tips of his nipples to little nubs. He is a sacrifice; an offering; a tribute. The cold canât touch him now. Not with the fire of his lordâs eyes keeping him warm.
    Nandorâs hands paint ribbons of freezing flame on his skin. They brush lightly, teasingly across his belly, his chest, his thighs. The vampire drapes himself over Guillermo and the human realizes that heâs also undressed. They both gasp as their rigid, leaking erections bump against each other. Guillermo bucks his hips in uncontrolled desire and he feels Nandor sink his fingers into the ample flesh of his thighs to hold him still. A huff of breathy amusement falls from the vampireâs lips. He grabs Guillermo up in another passionate kiss, nipping and licking his lips. A keening, vulnerable moan bubbles up from the vampireâs throat. He clutches Guillermoâs tender body against his cold,, cadaverous frame. Tears--frigid and laced with blood-- fall down his cheeks and mingle with Guillermoâs.Â
    âGuillermo!â Nandor gasps, pulling back. His hands trace patterns on the pulsing hot skin of Guillermoâs neck. The human waits and listens to his masterâs labored breathing. A plea hangs in the air between them. âWill you give me this as well, Guillermo? Your blood?â
 âWith faith in your love and mercy I eat your Body and drink your Blood.â
    For the first time, Guillermo wonders if Nandor comes here every week with the intention of offering worship just as he does.
    âTake it, Nandor,â he commands. His voice is strong, unwavering, loud in the solitude of their secluded grove. He reaches up blindly and takes Nandorâs face between his hands, guiding him down to the cradle of his neck until the vampireâs cool lips press against his skin. âDrink.â
    Nandor whispers something against Guillermoâs neck before biting down. The words are an unintelligible susurrous. He recognizes them as Al Quolanudarese. And though heâs incapable of parsing them, they feel like secret magic words. Words that finally pulverize the last brick in the wall between them. Guillermo knows their meaning in his bones, in his heart, in his soul.
    Nandorâs fangs pierce and bruise. His bite is brutal and honest. This is Nandor; no hiding, no subterfuge. He is violence and blood and frozen kisses. He is also the tender stroking of fingers along Guillermoâs tear-stained cheeks and the broken sob he makes an instant before the blood begins to flow. Guillermoâs eyes flutter shut and he fists his hands in the cape beneath him. Take me, take me, take me , he begs.
    Blood and body.
    He buries his hands in Nandorâs hair, cupping the crown of his head as nonsense prayers fall from his lips. He invokes every sacred symbol he knows. Nandorâs mouth; his tongue; his hands; his cock. The bedroom under the stairs. The candlelit crypt. The parking lot at the immigration office. The blood-stained robe from Celesteâs orgy. The ancestry reports. Wooden stakes and crucifixes. The claw-foot bathtub. Nandorâs hair oils. His coffin. Bubble gum and mason jars and flashcards and feather dusters and boot polish and ice chips and a portrait made from glitter: two men, impossibly hopeful, naive and in love.
    When Nandor finally retracts his fangs from Guillermoâs neck, he laps at the spilled blood, kissing the soft, torn skin with a grateful, remorseful, worshipful reverence.Â
    âMy Guillermo,â he cries over and over again, rocking his hips subconsciously and panting as their cocks slide against one another. When he draws up on his elbows Guillermo can see his blood marring those perfectly cruel lips and staining his full beard. His voice is thick with tears. âYour blood, Guillermo. ItâsâŚâ
    Guillermo nods, wiping Nandorâs cheeks even as his own tears fall into his hairline. âI know, Nandor. Youâre mine now. Always.â
    The vampire bows his head, pressing his lips to Guillermoâs soft chest directly over his rapidly beating heart. âYour blood is rushing, Guillermo. So eager to give me your life.â
    Guillermo sighs, running his hands down the length of Nandorâs sides, squeezing his soft flanks and raising his hips to grind against him.Â
    âAnd what are you eager to give me, Nandor?â
    Nandor brings his hand up to Guillermoâs neck and catches the blood that still flows there. He hovers over Guillermo, balancing on one elbow as he moves his other hand between them and slides his wet, bloody fingers into the cleft of Guillermoâs backside. Guillermo feels the slick of his lifeblood against his sensitive skin as Nandorâs fingers probe and press into his entrance. A shiver wracks his frame at the utter indecency, the absolute sacrilege.Â
    âFuck,â Guillermo hisses as the first finger breaches the tight ring of muscle and enters him. âGod! Nandor, yes.â
    Nandor whimpers in gratitude at his humanâs praise. He speaks absently, in the grips of religious ecstasy, âLet me show you, Guillermo. Please, let me show you.â
    Guillermo writhes and nods his head, arching his back as another finger joins the first. âShow me you love me, Nandor. Show me you fucking worship me.â
    A strangled growl fills the little grove and Nandor picks up the pace of his thrusting fingers, subtly rocking his erection against the tender skin of Guillermoâs thigh as he goes. His breath mingles with Guillermoâs as he leans in and presses their lips together in a slow, aching kiss. He inserts a third finger, stretching Guillermo out and swallowing the manâs groan.
    âNow, Nandor,â an echo of desperation and sorrow tinges his voice. Nandor scrambles to comply. He removes his fingers, kneeling between Guillermoâs spread legs and placing shaking hands on the insides of his generous thighs, steadying himself. Â
    Nandor doesnât speak, but the sound of his breathing might as well be a love letter. Heâs panting, thereâs a hitch in his breath, a tremor in his fingers. Guillermo feels the tip of him against his hole and he nearly sobs with relief and joy and loss and guilt and exasperation. Why now? After all these years? Why on the night of his motherâs funeral when he is ragged and raw? Why couldnât they have had this when Guillermo was still young and so pitifully in love with Nandor that he was willing to tarnish his soul for the vampireâs convenience? He thinks these things with regret, with melancholy longing and wistfulness; but never with anger.Â
    This is his Nandor and Guillermo will take him and cherish him until he is buried in the ground. Nandor presses forward, entering him inch by inch. Stars burst in Guillermoâs eyes and amidst the furious physical sensations, a feverish thought flits through his head. When Guillermo is dead he wants to be buried in this very spot, in the soil beneath their naked bodies, on the site of their long-delayed consummation. The idea should repulse him, or sadden him, but instead it just feels right. He pictures Nandor visiting his grave every Sunday for the rest of the time and cants his hips, taking the vampire deeper as the blood trickles from his neck and his cock smears precum onto his belly.Â
    Their bodies move together in a rhythm thatâs both familiar and wonderfully new. They cling, claw, grab and stroke. Nandorâs length fills Guillermo; the vampireâs fingers wrap around Guillermoâs rigid cock and pump him as he thrusts. The words that fall from their lips are a heady, nonsensical, sacred blend of Spanish, Al Quolanudarese and English. Love is only the beginning. This is yearning, devotion, allegiance, becoming, undoing, transforming. Nandor is god is Guillermo is Nandor. They are whole for the first time in their lives.Â
    The climax takes them both at the same time. Guillermo sobs, fat tears rolling down his cheeks as Nandor roars above him. Nandor spills his plentiful vampiric seed inside of him as Guillermoâs cum shoots out in hot ropes that paint his and Nandorâs bellies. He lets his softening cock fall from Guillermoâs body as he collapses down, pillowing his head on Guillermoâs chest and gasping for air that he doesnât need. Guillermo cards his fingers through his hair and weeps.Â
    Heâs crying for the boy he once was. The one who loved his amĂĄ and wanted to make her proud. The boy who fell in love with a demon. The boy who dreamed and hoped and prayed and was disappointed. Heâs crying for Nandor, too, who has lived for centuries without ever allowing himself to acknowledge the soft animal of his own emotions. And heâs crying for his amĂĄ, whose heart he broke for a decade and who never, ever stopped believing in him even when he came home at the age of 30, jobless, soulless, and ruined.
    Nandor nuzzles his cheek against Guillermoâs sparsely-haired chest, pressing kisses into his sweat-slick skin and tracing patterns over his stomach with long, elegant fingers.Â
    âI can hear your heartbeat, Guillermo,â he whispers. âDid you know I could always hear your heartbeat? Itâs not usual. I mean, yes, of course vampires have super hearing, but we learn to tune all that out, you know? But never with you, my Guillermo. I listened to every beat of your little heart for eleven years. I was so afraid one day it would stopâŚâ
    In the soft, sacred dark Guillermo can finally ask the question, âThen why didnât you ever turn me? You couldâve had me forever, immortal. Why, Nandor?â
    Nandor sits up and his eyes glow as he looks down at Guillermo, a frown in his voice, âI didnât want it to stop, Guillermo. I didnât want to be the one to...make it stop.â
    Guillermo shuts his eyes and they are quiet for a long, long time. He holds Nandor in his arms. The chill of the night air finally affects him and he shivers once. Nandor grabs the edge of the cape and pulls it over Guillermo to shield him. They lay beside each other, touching, breathing, listening. Guillermo traces the outline of Nandorâs lips, letting his finger dip inside his mouth and feeling the sharp edge of his fangs. Nandor allows it. Of course he does. He could not deny Guillermo anything. Not in this place. Not anywhere else, either. The knowledge settles in his veins, flows through him like Guillermoâs blood.
    âGuillermo,â Nandor begins, drawing out the last syllable like he used to. âIt is not too lateâŚâ
    Itâs a statement and a question. Guillermo holds his breath, waiting for the vampire to elaborate, but Nandor remains silent. A moment later he feels Nandorâs cold skin pressed to his lips. Thereâs warmth there, too, borrowed from his body. He tastes blood as Nandor presses his wrist firmly to Guillermoâs mouth.
    âItâs not too late,â he repeats.Â
âMay this mingling of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, bring eternal life to us who receive it.â
#wwdits fanfic#nandor x guillermo#nandermo#guillermo x nandor#guillermo de la cruz#nandor the relentless#smut#what we do in the shadows#what we do in the shadows fanfic
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(original image credit to @/theyshane on unsplash)
a month or so ago the wonderful and very sharp-fanged @yvesdot said i should make a post about the process of Working On A Podcast - what, exactly, does that entail? and so today i set down upon your table a long post about the process of this podcast, its unique struggles, and What Comes Next!
for those of you who are new here: a modern tragedy is my podcast-in-progress, a loose retelling of three of shakespeareâs plays (romeo&juliet, hamlet, and macbeth) set in a modern-day high school. or, alternatively, âso so much drama localized inside a few overlapping friend groups of gay* peopleâ
post under the cut!
tag list (ask me to be added/removed): @piyawrites @harehearts @bisexualorlando @guulabjamuns
*well. gay people and indrajit âmacbitchâ chopra. never let it be said i donât have cishet rep đ¤
what i mean when i say âpodcastâ
sometimes when i say, âiâm writing a podcast,â people get the wrong idea - they think iâm going to sit down, maybe with some friends as guest stars, and talk into a microphone for an hour. what i really mean is that iâm writing a fiction podcast - something like an audio drama, if you will.
iâve had this story concept for a long time (since i realized i was gay, actually. sometime around my coming out i was like â...sapphic romeo and juliet. oh iâm a geniusâ), but it never really worked as a novel. my inspiration for making it a podcast was the penumbra podcast! which i am not caught up on but which dragged me shirt-collar-first into the world of podcasts. [blowing a kiss to mars] for juno steel.
i will admit that i actually... havenât listened to a ton of podcasts. mostly because my incredibly helpful attention-deficit brain said listening to things is impossible forever. but let me tell you that starting to write AMT in script format worked immediately. and in hindsight? it makes sense. i mean, i am retelling some of the most famous plays of all time... why not get a little theatrical with it?
the process so far
the podcast is drafted! all 16 episodes of it. all... 176k words of it... only took me a year and a half...
i have my main cast together! AMT has a lot of side characters, not all of whom are cast yet, but my main recurring squad is gathered and i love them all VERY dearly. (also, the population of people i know irl is 75% theater kid. so i think i will be able to figure out the side character thing.)
within the group of voice actors, i also have three assistant directors, a term i use loosely because mostly i just mean⌠those are my right hand men. the main folks i bounce ideas off of and the main folks i have helping me organize all of this. iâve said multiple times that iâm just the keyboard monkey and would be hopelessly out of my depth without my beloved assdirectors. (shoutout to @asimpleram, the only one who uses tumblr, you are my best friend and i love you oh so much)
i also have two âbootydirectorsâ who gave themselves that name and thatâs just the people who know the most about recording technology and acting. thanks kings
right now the scripts have been sent out to some sensitivity readers and i am currently editing! (both with regards to sensitivity reader feedback, and also just editing the plot and character arcs in general.) (if you want me to send you AMT and youâre willing to give me your thoughts i will straight-up send it to you honestly just know itâs LONG)
i actually did not consider that writing this might be uniquely hard before i started
fun max tip: if you look too far ahead down the road and realize the breadth of the project youâre taking on youâll freak yourself out so just dive into things headfirst without checking both ways or considering your actions!!! [i am giving you a double thumbs up from behind my monitor]
i have never written anything like AMT before! it has been an experience! there have been some unique struggles!
working with other people is harder than i expected! which is not about my group, all of whom are lovely people. it is about me and my little OCD rat brain that hates letting go of control. even though... an inherent part of writing a script... is that at some point other people will be involved... wild, i know.
9 main characters! AMT has 9 main characters. this is somewhat excusable because the whole thing is episodic and more like a season of a tv show than a novel. but still. 9 main characters. why did i do that
iâve never written episodically before, so iâve had to figure out how to fit the plot into appropriately spaced intervals. there are three running plotlines (one for each play), and theyâre all parallel and eventually convergent. so everythingâs happening at once and itâs⌠hard to make episodes that arenât just âmax threw a bunch of scenes together because they were happening at the same time.â (i will admit iâve defaulted to chronological order when spacing episodes, so the timeline doesnât get confusing. but i hope each episode is cohesive on its own.)
balancing the tragedy and comedy in tragicomedy has been⌠interesting. i do to some degree feel like AMTâs gone darker than i initially imagined it; while itâs a high school retelling of these plays (and thus thereâs no. thereâs no murder. the only person who dies is isaacâs dad and thatâs six years precanon), all three plays deal to differing degrees with suicide, among other things, and it felt⌠disingenuous not to write about that from a modern high schoolerâs perspective.
i can guarantee a long-term happy ending for AMT! i cannot guarantee much about whatâs in the middle. (there are sixteen episodes; one of my directors likened episode 7 to a five-act playâs third act, when things really start to⌠hit the fan. heâs right and iâm obsessed with thinking about it that way)
the massive amount of time i have been working on the thing: i started writing this podcast in january 2019. i finished writing it this past summer (2020). thatâs two summers that have passed without my recording it (which is obviously easier to organize in the summer⌠or it was before covid but you get my point). this is⌠a little disheartening? i donât know; oftentimes i underestimate how long writing projects will take me. what it comes down to is my urge to put out content vs. my urge to make it perfectâŚ
âŚespecially since iâm technically competing with one william f. shakespeare. (the f is for fucking.) i mean, dear old billy shakes DID write the plot out for me ahead of time, which i appreciate, but stillâŚ
AMT is absolutely consumable if you donât know the first goddamn thing about shakespeareâs works. that said. i assume some of the people who will listen to it are shakespeare enthusiasts, casual or otherwise, and thatâs a little terrifying! AMT is a shakespeare retelling, but iâve made these characters very much my own, and i suppose i worry about how others will approach that, and whether they will disagree with my interpretations, or the way iâve adapted the plots, and so on and so forth... i just have to live with this one, honestly. i think i could edit AMT for a thousand years and probably still find something to change about it, so i will simply have to get over myself.
that said, i donât regret the amount of time iâve spent on it! i think the time iâve taken to draft and edit these episodes has been well worth the wait; iâm genuinely very happy with what iâve created, and whether or not you agree with, say, my interpretation of a modern hamlet family dynamic, i hope itâll still be enjoyable!
so whatâs next?
as i said earlier, the scripts are currently in the hands of sensitivity readers, and iâm editing!
over the summer, the cast met on zoom frequently to read through and rehearse scenes. and i will not lie it was the most fucking fun iâve had this entire wretched interminable year. i am constantly charmed and befuddled by the feeling of Listening To My Words Read Out Loud By A Human Voice and also i love my friends so very much
we have a tentative plan to gather the cast (socially distanced and responsibly, of course) over thanksgiving break to make some actual stabs at recording! i am too afraid to concretely promise AMT Episode 1: Fortuneâs Fool by the end of 2020 but like⌠iâm not NOT promising it! send me your finest vibes. weâre close.
#max.txt#amt tag#the amt cast has a blursed discord server which i have not posted a link to publicly because itâs mostly people i know irl#but if you're one of the folks who's read all of amt which is... a few of you... and you want into the server... dm me#we used to use it to organize rehearsals but now that school's started it's mostly just been me complaining about editing i won't lie#max shouts into the void in his personal liveblog channel while 90% of the cast is offline#anyway i reread this post like three times to make sure it makes sense because i'm illiterate <3
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Melted Down by an Extreme Love // Count
beh, the count card is a ranking prize so I canât use a nice rip of it as the header until after the event so... this will have to do. idk i guess i could use the faust one but thatâs false advertisingÂ
Honestly, I probably couldâve gotten that all-chara card in that set and itâs more worth it than having to try to rank but⌠I just canât spend 8.5k dia on an expiring set of event points it just sounds especially wasteful. Man, if youâre going to do that just bundle it with stamina items instead. Though I guess that would be too good of a deal
I just want the Count card bro. smh. I think Charles might even shape up to be more popular than he is, so why is his card the lower tier one⌠yea Iâm salty but as youâll see in this event route easily salty people are attracted to other saltines
Spoilers under the cut. Please credit if you take any of it, thenk u (シĎシ*) image heavy!! bc i decided to use screencaps to break down this post. tumblr formatting ehuehhh???
âIt was a still night in a single room, when a deep voice sweetly rang. [Count]: âSo, it is time to administer your punishment.â He pulled my arm with great strength and my body sank into the bed. [Kara]: âA-ahâŚ!â The Count, slowly⌠as if to steal away the possibility of escape, hung over my body, the bedsprings thickly creaking under the added weight. [Count]: âDid you not expect me to do this to you tonight? Not even a little bit?â [Kara]: ââHn-â (âExpectââŚI couldnât have expected anything like this, at all.) (I hadnât realized it at that time...)
...
âIt had all started today, early in the afternoon.
[Kara]: âLeonardo, are you in? I brought your things, butâŚâ I had received a parcel during work and was thus summoned to Leonardoâs room. I called out from outside the door, and there was a reply after a moment. [Leonardo]: âCome in. Just - tread lightly, all right?â (Tread lightlyâŚ?) Tilting my head, I opened the door the way I usually do when⌠[Leonardo]: âWh- Watch outâŚ!â
The moment I opened the doorâ
With a rustling sound, a tall pile of books came tumbling down like an avalanche.
[Kara]: âWaahâŚ?!â (Thereâs no way I can avoid thatâŚ!)
The very moment I had thought that, I was struck by the drifting scent of sweet tobacco. Returning to my senses, I found myself collapsed over the floor - with Leonardo hanging over me as cover.
[Leonardo]: ââŚSorry about that, sweetheart. Youâre not hurt?â [Kara]: âI-Iâm all rightâŚâ (That surprised me a bit, butââŚ) [Leonardo]: âNice. Well⌠I knew it was gonna fall over one of these days, but I didnât think that would be now.â
â i was about to say, wow my hero we stan etc. but yea this was kind of your own doing huh
Looking over at the mess of books on the floor, he chuckled. But then⌠[Count]: âLeonardo, I heard a loud noise, butâŚâ Those words were coupled with the sound of footsteps coming through the open door. My eyes widened and turned to face that direction⌠(Th-The Count!) [Count]: ââŚKara, what on earth are you doing?â When I had turned my gaze, I was met with my favorite golden eyes looking down at me scattered across the floor.
[Kara]: âUmm, thatâsââ [Leonardo]: âAs you can see, Iâve pinned her down here.â [Kara]: âWhaâ! Hold on, Leonardo, what are you saying?!â [Count]: ââŚâ I hurriedly rose from the floor to look up at the Count, who had fallen silent. [Kara]: âCount, thatâs not true. IâŚâ [Count]: âAh, Kara, I know.â The Count replied with an apparent smile, before shifting his eyes back⌠[Count]: âLeonardo. It would be well to tidy your room a bit more already.â With only those words, he left the room.
[Kara]: âAh⌠CountâŚâ [Leonardo]: ââŚHeh.â
Leonardo let out an amused snort, and I naturally puffed my cheeks at him. [Kara]: âJeez... Leonardo, why would you say something like that?â [Leonardo]: âYeesh, donât get too mad. From time to time, itâs a bit fun to tear off our beloved Countâs mask of complacency, eh?â [Leonardo]: âHeâs the type of guy who hides his passion and other troubling emotions behind a mask, you know.â [Leonardo]: âSo itâs amusing to get to that point where his true thoughts come out.â [Kara]: ââAmusingââŚâ I could only sigh at Leonardoâs typical devilishly-smirking self. (The Count said that he knew the situation, but⌠I should make sure that there isnât a misunderstanding.)
...
That evening after work, my thoughts were naturally occupied with the Count. (Even if what happened earlier was just an accident, I want to discuss it properly this time.)
I peek into the dining room looking for him, and there sat the man himself. With lowered eyes and a teacup on hand, he appeared to be deep in thought about something.
[Kara]: âCountâŚ?â [Count]: ââŚKara. Is something the matter?â He wore the same smile as he always did; but for some reason, I couldnât shake off this awkward feeling. [Kara]: âUmâŚâ (I really want to explain the situation from earlier, but⌠something about it is hard to put into words.) While I was searching for the right words to say, the Countâs eyes narrowed⌠[Count]: âIf this is about what had happened with Leonardo earlier, I already understand.â [Count]: âLeonardo had protected you from some falling books, correct?â [Count]: âAnd about that claim of having âpinned you downâ - he was only playing around too much.â
My heart finally relaxed at his gentle tone. (I wouldnât expect anything less from the Count.) (Well, if I think about it⌠Since theyâve lived together for a long time, itâs not a surprise that they would know each otherâs ways quite well.) (With that, he would never make that big of a misunderstanding.)
[Kara]: âHehe, Iâm glad that there wasnât a misunderstanding. Since Leonardoâs always purposefully messing around, I was restless about it.â
[Kara]: âBut, I really was worried. I thought you would care about that sort of thingââ [Count]: â⌠âThat sort of thingâ, huh.â [Kara]: âEh?â Turning my eyes at the sound of a low mutter, I see him get up from his chair.
[Count]: ââFrom my angle,â [Count]: âI had said that I understood the situation, but I do not recall saying that I do not care about it.â (HuhâŚ?) [Kara]: ââŚCount?â He had swiftly rose from his seat and was slowly making his way towards me. (The Count, he⌠the air around him is different.) It was... the mood that surrounded him when it was only the two of us.
[Count]: âOf course, I understand that he intentionally instigated the matters of the situation.â [Count]: âBut, even thenâŚâ The crisp clicks of his footsteps approached, step by step, before promptly stopping right in front of my eyes.
[Count]: âThat the sight of you, before my very own eyes, pinned down by another man, would not incite jealousy⌠Is that what you are thinking of me?â
[Count]: âIf soââ [Kara]: ââŚ!â
He captured my chin into his long fingers, turning it upwards. His focused golden irises were filled with so much emotion that a single glance could not capture its entirety. My heart leapt a beat.
[Count]:Â âKara, you do not yet understand me.â
The moment my eyes widen, with my chin in his graspâ He stole my lips.[Kara]: âNn⌠uh-â His wet lips joined mine over and over, and a sweet sensation kindled in the air.
[Kara]: âCount, someone might come-⌠ah, mm-â [Count]: âDo not get distracted, Kara.â
When I protested between kissesâ He immediately grabbed my jaw, sealing my lips to swallow my words. (Even though itâs still bright outâŚ) The fear of potentially being seen by someone melded with the aggressive heat, and it heightened this strange sense of immorality.
[Count]: ââŚHahâŚHh,â Our lips separated for a moment and his breath mingled with mine. At that moment, my mind suddenly recalled somethingâŚ
[Leonardo]: âYeesh, donât get too mad. From time to time, itâs a bit fun to tear off our beloved Countâs mask of complacency, eh?â [Leonardo]: âHeâs the type of guy who hides his passion and other troubling emotions behind a mask, you know.â
(Could it be that⌠Just now, the CountâŚ) With his face right by mine, I could see his hidden passion, now unmasked of the veneer of placidity. When I had realized this, there came the sound of footsteps in the hallway and the Countâs hands promptly released me. Instead, his lips approached the shell of my earâ
[Count]: ââLetâs continue this tonight, shall we?â
[Kara]: â⌠Mn.â His voice, tinged with heat, made my cheeks burn... and I inadvertently detached further away from him when I heard the door open.
[Leonardo]: âOh. Did I intrude on something here?â (âŚThe footsteps from before must have been Leonardoâs.) [Kara]: âAh, no, youâre fine. Iâm done here,â Shaking my head in a fluster, I briskly slipped past Leonardo to leave the dining room.
...
(That moment from before⌠was that really the Countâs jealousy?) (I know it would be in poor taste to make him jealous on purpose. ButâŚ) There lied a part of me that wanted to, once again, touch upon the heat that I had witnessed behind the mask.
[Count]: ââLetâs continue this tonight, shall we?â (The Countâs feelings⌠I want to feel them more.) Pondering his whispers in my ear, my heartbeat quickened⌠and I felt my face burn up to my ears.
...
Watching Kara leave, Leonardo gave a small chuckle towards the Count. [Leonardo]: âThat face on the little sweetheart⌠I reckon youâre guilty of that? And to think you ragged on me earlier.â [Count]: âA certain someone had riled me up to begin with, so I merely went along with it. BesidesâŚâ [Count]: âEven if you didnât ask about me that, on purposeâ I would think that you of all people would know whatâs going on in my head?â The face he gave Leonardo was a composed one, but the heat from just a moment ago still lingered within it.
[Leonardo]: âWell, whatever. Our beloved Count has finally realized how unbearably adorable the sweetheart in his arms is, butâŚâ [Leonardo]: ââŚDonât go overboard, all right?â [Count]: ââŚâ The Count simply smiled. Leonardo shrugged his shoulders at his masked old friend before lighting a cigarette.
â The Count simply smiled, knowing that because Leonardo had been a punkass beech to him today he was going to ignore his advice. both of u deserve each other ( ´_ăď˝)
...
That nightâ
Surprised by the knock at the door, I slowly opened it to find⌠[Kara]: âThe CountâŚâ [Count]: âKara, may I come in?â I nodded, and the Count slipped into the room before shutting the door behind him. As if that sound was a signal (for something)â I was suddenly aware of the distance between the two of us and my heart noisily thumped, quickening in pace.
[Count]: âCould it be that you were obediently waiting for me?â (âŚguh. Appearing as if I had waited for him to âcontinueâ is pretty embarrassing, butâŚ) [Kara]: ââŚYes.â He smiled at my straightforward answer. It was a gentle expression, but there was visibly some sort of implication behind it. [Count]: ââŚâ
â i like to imagine that he was just standing there like ( ďžâďž)⦅ďžď˝°ď˝Ż for like 5 minutes. sir youâre scaring me
While calming my rising heartbeat, I stared at him smiling right before me. (First, I need to properly apologize for what had happened earlier today.)
[Count]: âThat the sight of you, before my very own eyes, pinned down by another man would not incite jealousy⌠is that what you are thinking of me?â
Though I am a bit happy about his jealousy, having made him feel that way had been on my chest for a long time. When I had opened my mouth to speak these thoughtsâ
[Count]: âSo, it is time to administer your punishment.â
â ctrl c + ctrl v haha aw ye
He pulled my arm with great strength and my body sank onto the bed. [Kara]: âA-ahâŚ!â The Count, slowly⌠as if to steal away the possibility of escape, hung over my body, the bedsprings thickly creaking under the added weight. [Count]: âDid you not expect me to do this to you tonight? Not even a little bit?â [Kara]: ââHn-â
Looking down at me from above, a smile began to slowly spread over his face. [Count]: âSo that from now on, you will no longer carelessly enter menâs rooms and get pinned downâŚâ [Count]: âIâve been thinking that tonight, I shall violate even that easy nature of yours.â
â or âtrample onâ, if you want something a little more visceral
I was left speechless by his extreme words, unfitting for the soft smile on his lips. [Kara]: âAh- Please, waitâŚâ Placing a hand to his chest, I tried to resist, but⌠these hands were easily pinned to the sheets. [Count]: âDo you honestly think⌠that I will grant that wish of yours tonight?â
Premium Ending
â the Sweet Ending tl;dr pretty much lets her explain her thoughts but they reach the same boning conclusion because she wants to be punished anyway. wowee
[Kara]: ââŚkgh.â
My body instinctively trembled with a jump, and without an answer to give him⌠his finger suddenly traced along the vein of my neck.
[Kara]:Â âMn, Count..?â [Count]:Â âFirst, letâs help you to properly understand just who you belong to, shall we?â
The next moment, he buried his face into my neckâ and sharply sucking the skin, a sweet pain ran down my body.
[Kara]: âAhâŚâ The Count lifted his body slightly, dropping his gaze to my throat. [Count]: âWhen I leave a mark, it looks just as if I had bitten you.â [Kara]: âCou-⌠AhâŚâ Speaking in a seemingly-amused tone, he buried his face once more. Trailing down, his lips⌠on the collarbone, on the chest⌠teasingly left traces of both pain and pleasure. Every time a red mark was left, this heat rose like a flame. (My skin⌠little by little, itâs like itâs being dyed by the Count.) (Dyed only in... his color.) [Count]: âThe only person who can push you down like this should be me. Isnât that right?â
[Count]: âNextââŚâ Smiling, his finger touched my lipsâ While pushing my gently-shut lips open with his thumb, he continued to speak.
[Count]: âIâll help you to properly understand my thoughtsâ My bare jealousy and desire to keep you all to myself.â [Kara]: âEhââŚMn, ah-â With a kiss that swallowed my voice, he teased my mouth with his tongue. (NnâŚThis kiss, is more intense than usualâŚ) Our tongues tangled with a wet sound, our sighs mingling. In his kiss that seemed to devour everything, both my breath and mind gradually muddled. (The inside of his mouth⌠itâs hot enough to burn.) (Is this, the Countâs thoughtsâŚ?) Finally, my lips were released⌠and my vision was blurred from my teary eyes, having been enraptured by the kiss. Wiping the corners of my eyes, the Count gave a bewitching smile. [Count]: ââŚDo you understand now?â [Kara]: âY-YesâŚâ
â (made her cry) expectation: âoh fuc im sorry childâ reality: âlmao (more turned on)â
(That passion⌠to the point where it makes my head all dizzyâŚ) (Ah⌠I canât even think about anything but him.) When I nodded obediently, his eyes narrowed before his lips took on a dubious curve⌠[Count]: âBut⌠it doesnât end here.â The fingertips that were stroking the corner of my eyes began to move down along the contour of my body.
[Count]: âKara. I am not saying that I do not want you going into any other manâs room.â [Count]: âEveryone in this mansion is, indeed, like family. I would like you to deepen those bonds as you wish. It is just thatâŚâ [Count]: âEven if they are family, I am not taken with you showing your vulnerabilities to others.â [Count]: ââMuch less something like getting pinned down.â
As his words trailed, a long finger slid down the line of my neckâŚ. down my chest⌠[Kara]: âMnâŚâ
I subconsciously teared up once more, as there lied the sensation of my body being traced over the surface of my blouse - to tease me. His gold irises locked with mine, as if aiming, shooting for prey.
[Count]: âKara. The ones allowed to your heart and body⌠you know who they are, donât you?â
(AhâŚ) Even my very thoughts were stolen away under those firm eyes. A small, bleary voice came outâ but it gave a definite answer.
[Kara]: âOnly to the Count⌠Theyâre only, for Abel.â
[Count]: ââŚCorrect, Kara.â [Count]: âI wonât allow you to accept any man besides myself into your heart and body.â
A large hand snuck under the hem of my blouse, gently caressing the skin. [Kara]: âHn⌠Abel-âŚâ [Count]: ââŚThe one who may reveal every part of you, is only myself.â He tore off my blouse, dropping kisses all over my exposed skin. Pecking here and there, it gave only this frustrating sensation. Heat slowly rose from the core of my body.
[Kara]: ââŚMm, hahâŚâ [Count]: âWhatâs the matterâŚ? You look unsatisfied.â [Kara]: ââŚMh, itâs notâŚâ âlike that,â is what I had meant to say, but my words had faltered into nothingness. [Count]: âTruly, you are so lovely with your open heart... it is wicked.â
â versus [Count]: âYou are, truly, so lovely with your openness/honest nature⌠it is an ill-natured trait (to have).â when he means by her âopennessâ, âeasinessâ, etc. heâs saying that mc is very frank with her feelings. the sort of person where itâs really ez to tell wat theyâre feeling and/or thinking abt, u know
[Kara]: âAhâŚâ With a smile, he dropped a sigh on my skin.
On one side, my body desired more of him, while the other was that in my heart, a different emotion was welling within. (This is âpunishmentâ⌠but even thenâŚ) (His words are cruel, his touches are meant to tease⌠and yet, Iâm somehow completely happy... Itâs strange.)
The kisses suddenly stopped, and pulling my arm, he set me upright on the bed. [Kara]: ââŚ?â Foggily looking back at him, I saw him guiding my hands to his clothesâŚ
[Count]: âNow, you try and reveal me too.â [Kara]: âEh- But.â [Count]: âI know you can do it?â (kgh- Itâs embarrassing, butâŚ) Simply nodding as his words had no room for objections, I slowly moved my fingers to loosen his clothes.
(âŚAh, just doing this is making my heart beat like crazy.) His shirt finally fell with a light thud, and when I touched his bare shoulder⌠His skin was carrying a heat that was hot enough to melt. (Itâs so hotâŚ) (Could this be, the passion⌠that heâs always hiding behind a mask?) In that moment, that heat⌠I was touching that very heat born from his heart.
The intimate touching became unbearableâ and as if that heat from inside (of him) was then released, I let out a sigh. [Count]: âIs something wrong?â [Kara]: âYouâre being meaner than usual⌠so my heart feels like itâs about to burst.â Saying this, Abelâs smile deepened. It was not the usual smile of a composed adult, but of a man. [Count]: âWell, thatâs quite the problem.â [Count]: ââBecause the show starts from here.â
FIN
As usual, thereâs an Epilogue with these routes. The Count one is pretty good (*´â˝`*)b dunno abt the others but theyâre⌠probably good? idk. they canât skimp out on Arthur stuff, his JPN stans could probably single-handedly fund the game. and theyâre already being spicy with the new guys already for some reason. ( ´_ăď˝) gotta do that now to prevent audience disinterest amirite
ok sorry about the inconsistent screenshots but i want to buy my cosmic brownies now. ty for reading (*´â˝`)
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rules: code of conduct.
BEGIN.
Before we start, I would like you to have certain things in mind when approaching me ooc. I am very shy and quite awkward, which results in me not being much of a talker; however, I will always try my best to be friendly to whoever wants to approach. I dislike pet names so please do not use them with me unless we are very close. There will be times when I'm just exhausted, so my wording could sound rude/aggressive, to which I apologize in advance -I never mean to hurt peopleâs feelings. I also reserve the right to interact with WHOEVER I want, and pestering me about it will only get you blocked.
Updates will be made as required.
I. BASIC.
A. This blog is: Selective / Independent / Canon Divergent / NSFW / Mutuals only / Singleship / Mostly iconless / Multiverse / AU, Crossover, OC, and Multimuse friendly / Vaguely affiliated with the OP RP fandom.
B. I am a very slow rper for many reasons âschool, family, my ever-fluctuating mood âand I would appreciate it if you refrained from pestering me for replies. In return I offer as much patience as necessary. Think of this blog as low activity please.
C. English is not my mother language so I apologize in advance for any mistakes made.
D. I track the tag #iinfortunii, although mentioning me works just as fine.
E. Constructive criticism is always welcome but anon hate will be immediately deleted. I have no problems if you disagree with my portrayal, but it doesn't give you the right to harass me.
F. Mun and muse are both over 18, so there are chances that heavy content will be present; however I won't be writing smut. I can roleplay anything before or after the act if requested, but the moment things get far too explicit, I'll do a fade-to-black. I ask of you to not lie about your age or else youâll be blocked indefinitely.
G. This is a heavily headcanon-based blog, and changes are likely to be made as more information is revealed about him, though I reserve the right to adjust the new information according to my interpretation of Deuce or simply ignore it, which is why Iâm canon divergent.
H. If you'd like to turn an ask into a thread, you can turn it into a new post, or reblog from me, as I won't be using the Tumblr asks anymore due to the problems that come with formatting and such.
I. Ask box is open for everyone ic or ooc, but you aren't allowed to turn it into a thread and nor I will reply to it if weâre not mutuals. Please don't push me, because I won't hesitate to block.
J. No godmoding âonly a minor is allowed if it moves a thread forward âor metagaming, please. Don't kill Deuce either, unless plotted beforehand, and most importantly, don't hold your muse back.
K. Discord is available for mutuals upon request.
L. Just because I write something it does not mean I condone it. Please have this in mind and again, do not pester me about it. Any and all nsfw matters will be tagged accordingly. There will be triggering topics present, and you can know more about this on the section below.
M. DO NOT involve me in drama or call-out posts. Iâm heavily against both things. On this note, youâll never see me rebloging a call-out post. This culture is so damaging and toxic, and I firmly believe no one should play the role of the judge for the good of the community just because you had issues with someone or donât agree with the things they roleplay. Talk things privately, be mature about it, hard-block the person and move on. I am also very aware that a lot of people have done things that canât be excused, but I like to believe that people can change for the better. If you try to drag me into it, I'll hard block any and all people involved indefinitely.
II. TRIGGERS.
A. They will be tagged as trigger tw, trigger / and trigger cw.
B. I do my best to stay up to date with my mutuals triggers. Your comfort is way more important to me than you might think, so never be hesitant to approach me via IM, (anonymous) ask or stop following me.
C. Triggers that are likely to appear, although some more than others: violence || blood || death || drugs || abuse || knives || body image || medical equipment || suggestive content || etc
D. I have no triggers, so you are free to go wild with your content. I only ask you remember to tag your nsfw (both written and visual), please.
III. INTERACTIONS.
A. Deuce won't like everyone. He might/will make wrong assumptions about your character. He will insult and bite back. He won't always be nice to those he likes. He does many things that serve his interests. You, as the mun, have no reason to take it personal, because I'm won't follow someone I don't like; if you DO take it personal however, and decide to rouse drama, then I'll be hard-blocking you. Goes for me as well âI have no reason to get angry for any of the things noted above.
B. My bonds page displays the relationships that have been built over time, not necessarily through interaction alone but over plotting as well. Refer to it for more information.
C. Interactions with OCs related to canon characters will only take place as long as said OCs have a detailed about page. Personally, I'm not interested in the idea of an OC being blood-related to my portrayal, so I apologize in advance.
D. Formatting isnât a big thing across my blogs, save for the small text. Please donât mix either sup/sub with small text when writing with me, as I have eyesight problems. Donât use colored text either.
E. Non-romantic pre-established relationships are allowed! Just make sure to talk it out with me first, yeah?
01. Spade / Whitebeard pirates (canon and original characters alike that i am MUTUALS with) will have a pre-established relationship as long as the other mun is comfortable with such idea, though that relationship will be limited to merely crewmates, unless discussed otherwise.
F. You donât need to match my writing length as long as Iâm given enough to work with. If something about my reply bothers or doesnât work with you, let me know and Iâll re-work it.
G. I really enjoy plotting scenarios or talking out about the relationships my muse could have with other muses, so hit me up if youâve got any ideas! Iâll try to do the same!
H. Mun does not equal muse, so donât go assuming Iâm a jerk simply because Deuce is an asshole from time to time. Iâm set on the idea that Iâll give people the same treatment they give me âwhich is always nice and kind. Kudos to everyone for this âĄ
I. I donât use a threadtracker because I rely on my memory (terrible mistake, I know), but I try to draft peopleâs replies as soon as I see them. If by any reason it seems like I lost it, then please let me know / send me a link with it and Iâll be deeply grateful.
J. I donât do nor reply to greetings starters for matters of my own comfort, so I ask of you to never expect a starter or a reply from them.
IV. SHIPPING.
A. Singleship, with the spot taken by daadzi, which means Deuce is no longer open for romantic relationships.
01. Under no circumstances, I will accept more romantic relationships once the spot is taken. That being said, I wonât discourage your muse from falling for / hitting on him, although I ask you to understand he will never respond with the same interest or will never react gently if heâs pushed too far.
02. If my shipping partner is comfortable enough, I'll interact with duplicates with the condition that the relationship is strictly platonic.
B. Constant interaction, mutual interest, and chemistry are a must for the sake of better communication (both ic and ooc, preferably).
C. Please do not approach me if you wish our characters to have either a: one night stand or friends with benefits type of relationships. It wonât work out due to the nature of Deuceâs personality, and for that I apologize.
E. My ship has its own tag so you're free to block it if you don't want to see it on your dashboard. In addition, I'll also tag those posts with only the ship name for this very purpose.
F. Please do not force ships on me.
V. CELEBRATIONS.
A. First off, I am absolutely terrible at keeping up with dates, and to be frank, I am not the biggest fan of celebrating, which is why I think itâs necessary to say I wonât be partaking in any holidays, not even Deuceâs birthday (not that he has one, to begin with). Obviously I will still reply to any gifts received, and will send out things in return âyou know, common courtesy.
B. I won't be sending out birthday gifts every year, and I might write drabbles for people once in a blue moon; it doesnât mean they will be done for the specific date though, so please be patient.
VI. REASONS TO NOT FOLLOW BACK / UNFOLLOW.
A. Too much drama / call-outs / vague posts / sexual content.
B. Content makes me uncomfortable.
C. You are a personal blog without a visible rp sideblog. Please make sure it's easy to find.
D. You do not have a proper tag system.
E. Your blog doesnât have a rules and about pages.
F. You lack the manners to deal with people respectfully.
G. I have no interest / lost interest.
H. I'm constantly / only used as a meme archive.
I. Other reasons may apply. I will soft block so we can both cease following each other and avoid any potential awkward situations. I wonât make a fuss if you decide to unfollow so I expect the same courtesy.
VII. ABOUT BEATRICE.
She is not a real person. Her concept as Deuceâs (toxic) pseudolover is my creation and was somewhat inspired from the real life Beatrice Portinari. Do have in mind that Deuce doesnât talk about her so your muse canât simply approach him and ask about her unless they can go through his memories / read his mind / any capability alike or he speaks about her, though it won't take a genius to figure out that she's a product of his imagination.
You can read about her by clicking here -link to be added.
She serves as a lie to shield himself from the internalized homophobia he deals with up until meeting Ace.
NOTE: As stated previously, Mun =/= muse, but I too have been dealing with compulsory heterosexuality for far too long, so I'd like to apologize in advance for projecting a bit of that into my portrayal. I'll work so that this part makes sense with what we've been given from Ace's novel.
VIII. MISCELLANEOUS.
A. I will never force people to follow me, so if by any reason you have to unfollow/block me, please go ahead. Your comfort matters and have every right to do what you must to ensure your wellbeing. With that said, I will not tolerate and will immediately hard block if you try to police my content.
B. I do not follow back immediately, and it can take me from a few hours to several days to follow back. Do not take it personally if I choose not to.
C. If I follow itâs because I am interested in interacting. I only ask you to be patient because it might take me a while to gather the courage to send something to your inbox or talk to you.
D. I have. ZERO knowledge about medicine. Donât expect me to go full force and try to be 100% accurate, because I wonât.
E. I practice reblog karma (send a meme to someone if Iâm rebloging it from them). If you see something youâd like to reblog but have no intention in sending something yourself, then please reblog from the source.
IX. FINISH.
Thank you for taking the time to read this! As you might have noticed, thereâs no password to send. Make sure to check the psa tag for any updates, or donât hesitate to send an ask if thereâs anything unclear! I do my best so as not to post too much OOC posts, but sometimes it just happens. If it's nothing important, then I'll erase it whenever I have the chance/remember.
Keanu Reeves vc: Youâre all breathtaking!
#pinned post.#long post#â âtalking nonsense ; ooc#â âoff to new adventures ; queue#ooc.#queue.#[ this is a very long post btw ]
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Update: Greater Than Gold
AN:Â Whoop whoop; hereâs part 3.
IDK who is still out here and reading this but I hope you enjoy!!
Also, the formatting keeps getting messed up when I try to post it on Tumblr so itâs probably better to actually read on FF.net or AO3. One day Iâll get it figured out.
Warnings:Â Some swearing, shoddy depictions of violence because thatâs what Iâm garbage at writing.
Also on FF.net and AO3
Chapter 27: Eighty-Three and Seventy-Seven - Part 3
Word Count (chapter): 9368
Thorin shifts farther back into his cell, intent on ignoring Balinâs lecture. He settles into the back wall, into the shadows, letting the din from the idotic elvish party reverberate around the stone to drown out his cousinâs rough whispering.
He knew what he was doing. At least, he thought he knew. Bilbo would come through; he was so sure of it, more sure than most anything else in his life these days. The hobbit owed him no loyalty, could have left a dozen times at least, but he never had. He had stuck with them through all of this mess - had stuck with him . Bilbo had won Thorinâs trust, and had shown the depths of his loyalty. He would wait a hundred years for Bilbo before he bent to trust Thranduil.
He could not say as much to Balin. Not here; not now. So he would let Balin rant himself out instead, here in these damp cells.
He picks a piece of dried mud from his boots, his ire renewing as he recalls how Thranduilâs guard had stripped them of all their belongings, down to their shirts and trousers, and locked them away like criminals. Angrily, he flicks the mud to the ground, then squashes it with the toe of his boot. They were so close . If only they hadnât lost the road.
He sighs, Balinâs incessant whispering still reaching his ears, though it has become too jumbled for him to make out the words. He hoped the rest of the company fared well enough. FĂli sounded as though he had recovered from the spiderâs  venom, and he could breathe easier knowing KĂli had returned from Thranduilâs interrogation unscathed.
The fire of his anger grew. How dare Thranduil? How dare he attempt to weasle a deal out of him by having his own son hold a knife to KĂliâs throat? Truly, he lacked all honor.
He releases a shuddering breath. For a moment, he was afraid that Thranduil would issue the order, that he would spill KĂliâs blood on his throne room floor. But, dishonorable as he was, Thranduil was not stupid. Lestwise, he was not stupid enough to kill an unarmed dwarf and incur the wrath of the Iron Hills in retalliation. Dain and Thranduil had a long-standing cease order between their two kingdoms - Dain would harm no elf and Thranduil would harm no dwarf - to violate it would wound Dainâs pride and invoke his wrath.
But still, heâd seen the glimmer of panic in KĂliâs eyes. And Thorin had felt it, too - the fear that he would be wrong . Though he was a king, Thranduil was still unpredictable. Heâd been foolish to hedge his bets on the elven king fearing retaliation from Dain.
Once, when KĂli was still a tiny dwarfling, heâd had a horrifying night terror in which heâd gambled with KĂliâs life and lost . It had plagued him since, popping up in quiet moments, surprising him by squeezing the breath out of his lungs in unprecedented panic. The same image always leapt to his mind, of KĂli, pale as snow, his blood poured out around him. Like Frerin. Just like Frerin .
Heâs found his thoughts drifting to his brother quite frequently on this journey. He wishes, beyond anything else in this world, that Frerin were at his side. He was so much better with Frerin. Would his brotherâs presence have calmed him enough to negotiate a deal with Thranduil? Would his gentle, loving demeanor have tempered his ire?
But no, he had let Frein down ages ago. Let his blood spill on unholy dirt, until the light faded from his eyes.
He thinks of DĂs, her sharp mind and quick wit. Had she been with him, she would have surely performed some sort of verbal gymnastics on Thranduil and charmed them out of their cells. She had always been so eloquent, so thoughtful. As children he had often envied her way with words; while he and Frerin stumbled over theirs, she had always sounded like a queen.
And he had let her down, too. Promised to care for her boys but led them on this damn quest, to these gods-forsaken cells.
He swallows thickly. He could not dwell on the past, or on horrors seen only in dreams that he would fight with every breath in his being to keep from coming to pass.
When they were free of this wretched place, he would explain it all to KĂli, explain why he had taken such an unfathomable risk, see to it that he understood that Thorin knew in his bones that Thranduil would not harm him. He would remind him that there was no treasure, no honor, nothing in this world that was worth more to him than FĂli and KĂli. Nothing .
He can only hope that Bilbo will be swift.
-----
He fiddles with his shirt hem, idly fingering along a tear, flicking the flap of it up and down as the sounds of the elven party drift through the corridor. It sounds downright raucous, much more so than the parties that Lord Elrond had hosted. KĂli admittedly didnât know much about the different families of elves (which made him strangely grateful for the cells that separated them - Balin would chastise his ear off is he knew KĂli had forgotten his lessons), but he had to imagine that the Mirkwood elves were the most...un-elf-like of them all. Perhaps like how KĂli himself was decidedly un-dwarf-like.
He sighs, once again considering trying to fall asleep. He can hear snoring from somewhere, and he wonders who has already nodded off. Not FĂli, at least; he can hear his brother humming quietly. He wishes it were easier to talk with him, but he didnât dare speak too loud and the music and laughter from the party would probably drown him out anyway.
The redheaded elf patrols by again, glancing into each of their cells as she walks by with quick, light steps. She had been the one who spared him from the spiders in the wood. It was probably proper to thank her, but that seemed senseless now that she was ensuring they stayed locked in their cells.
He also thought she looked quite sad, and he found himself wondering why. Perhaps because she was on patrol while the rest of the elves were celebrating. He tried not to dwell on it too much; for the moment, she was their enemy - an obstacle. Dwalin had warned him that his soft heart would be his undoing one day.
He pulls his knees up to his chest, resting his chin on them as he scans the hallway once more. Candlelight flickers off the walls, casting strange shadows. He focuses on FĂliâs soft humming, and closes his eyes.
FĂliâs humming stops. âYou still awake, nadadith?â he asks, and though his voice is quiet somehow KĂli manages to hear it clear as day.
âYea,â he murmurs in reply, scooting closer to the door of his cell. âDonât think I could sleep with all this anyhow.â
âSuch a light sleeper,â FĂli comments, and he can hear the smile in his voice. âOne positive of the spiders was that Oinâs drought knocked me right out for a while.â
KĂli snorts. âI know. Youâre heavy.â FĂli chuckles outright, and they lapse back into silence.
âIâve been thinking a lot,â FĂli says after a while, his tone wistful. âDo you remember that autumn in Ered Luin when we snuck off from Dwalin? And built the fort?â
KĂli smiled. He did remember. They were young, much younger then, and theyâd fancied themselves as fine explorers so theyâd âsnuckâ away (Dwalin had told him later that heâd known exactly where the lads were - they werenât particularly stealthy in their youth), venturing to an outcropping of rocks with a large slate overhang, gathering sticks and stones to fashion their fire and other comforts, pretending they were regal princes of Ered Luin, sword fighting with the largest sticks they could find. They had played for hours, until the sun had begun to dip below the horizon, and Dwalin had come and feigned ire at their escape.
It was a good memory. He hadnât thought on it in a long while.
âI came upon it on a patrol once,â FĂli says. âI went to look inside but there was a fox and her cubs. âBout near scared me out of my skin.â
âI guess sheâs the Lord of Ered Luin now,â KĂli says with a small laugh.
FĂli hums in agreement. Were they in different circumstances, heâd imagine his brother would be packing his pipe and settling in for the evening. KĂli finds himself longing for those simpler times, longing for the only home theyâd ever known, wondering if he will ever be that content again. He tries instead to conjure up other happy memories of his childhood with his brother, willing away the loneliness he feels.
FĂli must sense his distress. Even though it was through a stone wall, he could still read KĂli like one of Balinâs books. âAfter this is all over, I want to go back some day,â he says, quietly. âAnd I suspect you do, too.â
KĂli swallows the lump in his throat. âAye,â he manages. âI think Iâd like that.â
His gaze focuses again on the flickering light of the hall, trying to make out shapes in the shadows that skirt along the wall. It must be his imagination, because the shadows suddenly move as if blown by the wind, a too-uniform wave passing through their movements. KĂli narrows his eyes, leaning forward to focus, wondering if there is some form of elvish magic at work, but the shadows resume their random dance as though nothing odd happened.
He relaxes, leaning back against the wall with a sigh.Thereâs the sound of a stone being kicked farther down the hall.
âDid you hear that?â FĂli asks, his voice a sharp whisper, and KĂliâs body snaps to alertness again.
âI thought I saw something move a second ago,â he confirms, hauling himself up to his knees and watching out his cell gate. He can make out voices down the hall, but nothing else.
â Bilbo !â someone halfway shouts from down the hall, and he hears the sounds of a key opening a lock.
-----
âCome on, this way,â Bilbo whispers, sneaking down the corridor, looking around every corner to ensure they are unseen.
The dwarves follow, boots scraping along the stone floor. Since theyâd been divested of their weapons and most of their affects they were much quieter than normal. Fortunate, that was.
âHeâs leading us to the cellars!â Dwalin hisses, accusatory.
âYouâre supposed to be leading us out, not farther down!â Bofur nearly shouts.
Bilbo whirls to face them. âShh! I know what Iâm doing. Trust me .â He leads them around a corner, where a number of large barrels sit empty. âWell?â Bilbo says, gesturing to the barrels. âGet in!â
âAre you mad?â Gloin replies. âTheyâll find us!â
âNo, they wonât. I promise ,â Bilbo assures them, turning pleading eyes to Thorin.
FĂli looks to his uncle, then to KĂli who stands uncertainly at his side. Bilbo has proven his worth many times over, and had already broken them free from their cells. What reason did they have not to trust him? Yet still...hiding in barrels in the elven wine cellar didnât seem like the best of plans.
Thorin turns to the rest of the company. âDo as he says!â
At his command, they clamber into the barrels, the wound in his side stinging uncomfortably. KĂli casts him a worried glance. âIâm fine,â he assures him. Then, almost as an afterthought, he reaches forward, grasps the back of KĂliâs neck and presses their foreheads together. âI promise.â
âWhat do we do now?â Bofur asks, as all the dwarves turn to look at Bilbo.
The hobbit looks uncertain for a scant second. âUh, hold your breath.â
The floor beneath them begins to creak, and suddenly their barrels are rolling, then falling, then splashing violently into the stream below. The shock of hitting water instead of solid ground forces the breath from his lungs and he sputters, trying to find balance as he bobs in the stream. Once he has his bearings he searches for his brother - frowning at the wide, terrified look in his brotherâs eyes as he coughs some of the splashed water out of his lungs. After a deep, shuddering breath, KĂliâs face clears, and he catches FĂliâs gaze and gives him a reassuring nod.
Thereâs no shortage of shouting and coughing as the dwarves regain their composure. Ori and Bifur, caught off guard in their fall, had fallen out of their barrels, and it was no simple task to get them back inside as they bob about. From behind him, FĂli can hear Dwalin muttering something about useless hobbits and being drowned like criminals.
âHold on!â Thorin shouts, reaching his arm out to grab FĂliâs barrel. âWe must wait for Bilbo.â Taking his uncleâs cue, he reaches for the nearest barrel (Bofurâs, who for his part looks a bit like a drowned rat) and grasps it tightly. The dwarves work quickly to form a chain with their barrels, blocking the path forward in a makeshift dam, when the hobbit suddenly falls from the ceiling, plopping into the water, barrelless.
Once he comes up, sputtering for air, he swims to the nearest barrel, Noriâs, and hangs on for dear life.
âWell done Master Baggins,â Thorin laughs, sounding almost mirthful at this turn of events.
Bilbo waves them on, spitting water as he does. âTheyâre coming. Go .â
With that, they release their barrels and start paddling to gain speed. They careen down a waterfall, each of the dwarves (and poor Bilbo) clinging to their barrels, and they rise from the water to see that theyâre now bathed in bright daylight. Itâs a sharp contrast from the dark cells theyâd resided in for who knows how long, and it takes FĂliâs eyes a moment to focus. He can see shapes rushing through the woods, when suddenly the elf-guard that had captured them in the woods springs forth, shouting something in elvish just before a horn sounds.
âNo!â Thorin shouts from ahead, and he turns to see a gated bridge across the stream, and an elf standing atop it near a lever as a sluice begins to close.
Well, shit . He thinks. Theyâre weapons-less and, quite literally, sitting ducks. He desperately tries to form a plan, to come up with some way that they do not wind up back in the cells or dead . Thranduil didnât strike him as a particularly merciful king.
âWatch out!â Bofur shouts, and he turns to see the elf that had stood atop the bridge falling into the water just in front of him, a jagged arrow lodged in his back.
Orcs . Of course the orcs have come.
Now that they have nowhere to go, the dwarves are seemingly forgotten by the elves as they shift their focus onto the orcs. The orcs, however, remain fixed on getting to Thorin, lunging onto their barrels with blades drawn. Fortunately, Bilbo produces a sword from somewhere , stabbing one, and Dwalin, brawny as ever, elbows another in the face, stealing itâs sword before it plops gracelessly into the water. FĂli manages to subdue another, grabbing its dagger.
He catches movement from the corner of his eye, and turns to see KĂli rushing up the ramp, completely unarmed, eyes fixed on the lever the elf had pulled before. Orcs rush toward him, and FĂliâs breath catches in his throat.
âKĂli!â Dwalin calls, lobbing the sword heâd snagged up to his brother. KĂli catches it easily, swinging it down to take out the orc in front of him, sending it splashing into the water below as Bofur reaches over to snag itâs weapon.
His brother continues up the stairs and across the bridge, slashing his way through. Another orc comes up behind him, spear poised to strike KĂli in the back, and FĂli hurls the dagger forward, sighing with relief when his aim rings true and the dagger lodges itself in the filthâs temple. The way is clear now, and FĂli feels a surge of adrenaline as KĂli nears the lever. Theyâre going to make it ; KĂli is going to open the gate and theyâre going to get away -
Suddenly, KĂli lets out a strangled cry of pain and collapses to the ground, grasp coming just short of the lever, sword falling from his fingers and clattering to the ground beside him.. âKĂli!â he hears himself shout, fear welling up within him. From under the bridge, Thorin calls out his brotherâs name as well, blind to the situation.
An orc leaps onto the bridge, sword drawn and prepared to bare down on KĂli, but an arrow abruptly skewers its head as more elves arrive. Distracted, the orcs switch their focus to the ambush, and KĂli manages to crawl up to his knees, gasping for breath. With a groan of pain, he throws his weight onto the level, pushing it down and opening the sluice, before collapsing once more.
âKĂli!â he shouts again, grabbing his brotherâs empty barrel with one hand and trying to find purchase on the slippery rocks with the other. âKĂli, come on!â he calls again, voice breaking. âPlease!â His hands are slipping on the rocks, his barrel is being pulled under the bridge by the rushing current, The other dwarves slip one by one down the small waterfall, into the rapids below.
Just as heâs certain heâs going to lose his grip on the rocks (and by extension, KĂli, because he knows without a doubt in his mind that if heâs left behind heâll be captured and worse ), KĂliâs body falls from the bridge, landing roughly on top of his barrel, halfway into the water. He looks positively ashen, and FĂliâs heart sinks as he prays to any diety that will listen that the arrow wasnât poisoned, that his brother will be okay .
âHold on!â is all FĂli can say as his hand loses its grip on the rocks. KĂli manages to hoist himself back into his barrel, a rough shout of pain bursting from him, and theyâre swept along the current with the rest of the dwarves, the orcs still in pursuit.
-----
âMahal, KĂli,â FĂli breathes as he examines the wound, pulling the torn pieces of his trousers to get a better look. It was already so inflamed, and he couldnât tell if the arrowhead was still inside or not. âOin needs to take a look at this,â he says, immediately searching for their healer. âIf it was poisoned, then -â
âJust bind it,â KĂli hisses, brow furrowed in pain. âWe have to keep moving. You heard Thorinâ
FĂli frowns at him, shaking his head. He cannot be serious ; thereâs no way he would make it far with his leg wounded so badly.
âIâll be fine,â KĂli says, looking him straight in the eye, which manages to reassure him, however smally. âWeâre not safe here.â FĂli still hesitates, and his brother reaches for his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. FĂli tries to ignore how badly KĂliâs hand is shaking. âI promise to have Oin tend to it as soon as we can spare,â he adds.
Finally, FĂli nods and unceremoniously rips fabric from the hem of his shirt, dunking it into the river in a feeble attempt to clean it, before setting about tightly wrapping KĂliâs wound. His brother winces and grits his teeth as he works, driving FĂliâs own anxiety higher. He knows he will feel much better once Oin has a chance to properly tend to him. He can only hope, as he finishes up, that KĂli will be able to make it to safety. Frowning, he looks at his work. Itâs a poor excuse for a bandage, even for a field dressing, but it will have to do. He doesnât have another option.
âCome on,â he says, helping KĂli back to his feet. For the first few steps, his brother leans heavily on him, but after a moment he regains his footing well enough to walk on his own across the slippery rocks, with hardly a limp in his step as he goes to rejoin the others. FĂli frowns again; he knows how good KĂli is at hiding his hurts and knows that his brother is going to overdo it and wind up being in more agony farther down the line if he canât get a proper dressing soon.
Thereâs a commotion from behind him, and FĂli whirls around to see a man, bow drawn and aimed at Ori and Dwalin, the latter brandishing a tree branch as a weapon.
Dwalin raises the branch, ready to fight, and an arrow strikes directly into it, right between his hands, in warning. âDo it again and youâre dead,â the man snaps, another arrow already drawn.
âExcuse me,â Balin calls, using his âdiplomatic voiceâ that FĂli has heard countless times before. He approaches the man with his arms raised. âYouâre, uh, from Laketown, if Iâm not mistaken?â
The man lowers his blow, casting a sidelong glance at Balin.
âThat barge over there,â he continues, gesturing behind the man, where FĂli now sees the very tip of a boat, mostly hidden from their sight by the thick underbrush that lines the river. âIt wouldnât be available for hire , by any chance?â
-----
Dwalin keeps his eyes on the lads as they sail.
FĂli and KĂli are pressed shoulder to shoulder, their backs against the damaged barrels. Heâd been worried about the lad since he saw the arrow pierce his leg - orc arrows were rarely free of poisons or filth that could take even the hardiest dwarf down in a matter of hours. Once theyâd safely boarded the barge, Oin had tended to the wound and gave it a proper dressing. The arrowhead had still been lodged in his leg, but with steady hands and a sharp knife borrowed from the bowman, Oin had been able to remove it. The old healer had stated that heâd need a poultice to draw out any infection and to help with the pain, but the man - Bard , he remembers from Bilboâs chastising - had none, so KĂli would have to make due until they were smuggled into Laketown.
KĂli was too pale, so much so that the darkness of his hair and the red smear of blood on his lip (heâd bitten it so hard to keep himself from screaming as Oin had removed the arrow) stood out in stark contrast. It made the dark circles under his eyes look worse. It made it look like he could slip from this world at any moment, despite Oinâs assurances that he would make it to Laketown.
Itâs the cold, Dwalin tells himself, itâs just the cold that makes him look so pale.
The small blessing was that KĂli was asleep, that he was able to take this brief respite while his brother watched over him.
Theyâd come too close to losing him too many times on this quest. Dwalin had sworn to protect him, knew without a doubt that he would gladly die if it kept either of the lads safe, but every time he had been too far away or otherwise unable to help, unable to do anything other than watch . He wouldnât be able to bear it if they lost one of them and Dwalin had done nothing .
He chews the inside of his cheek, keeping the lads in his periphery as he watches the lakeman. He doesn't trust him, doesnât like that theyâre stuck on a boat in the middle of frigid, foggy waters with him, doesnât like that their survival may very well depend on him being true to his word. Something sits ill within him, like theyâre walking into a trap, but with the other option being trying to beat orcs on the road, unarmed and without supplies, he knows they had no other choice.
Someone comes to his side, shoulder brushing his as they lean along the railing beside him. He doesnât have to look to know that it is Thorin.
âHow is he?â he asks, barely concealed concern in his voice.
Dwalin shrugs. âNot well, by any means,â he says, gaze shifting back to KĂli. âBut, not getting worse.â
Thorin makes a small noise in the back of his throat in acknowledgement. âDo you think it knew?â
He does look at him then, eyebrow raised in confusion.
âAzogâs spawn,â Thorin clarifies. âDo you think it knew who he was? That he was my kin?â he adds in a whisper.
Dwalin shakes his head. âThink he was just trying to take out anyone that wouldâve helped us escape,â he says. âWouldnâta mattered who it was.â He knows this fear, this old, horrible fear that Thorin had carried with him ever since Frerin had died. He couldnât bear to lose anyone else for being associated with his line. It would almost certainly spiral Thorin into madness, and if it were Azogâs own spawn (for how else could the other pale orc have come to be?) that ended one of the lads...he could not fathom how Thorin would go on.
With a sigh, he looks for his brother, catches him with a gaggle of the company, counting coins to pay their way as Bard navigates them through the waters.
âHow do we know he wonât betray us?â he finds himself asking, putting words to his fears in the confidence of his best friend.
Thorin frowns, a misted look in his eyes. âWe donât.â
Dwalin settles back with a huff, hating the answer but knowing Thorin is right all the same. Thereâs some squabbling between Gloin and his brother that he considers intervening on, but the fog thins ahead, and he finds himself awestruck instead. âLook,â he says softly, nudging Thorinâs arm. His eyes water on their own accord.
The Lonely Mountain sits on the horizon, closer than heâs seen it in an age.
-----
âYou look like shit,â he says fondly as he tucks KĂliâs hair behind his ear.
KĂli scoffs in indignation at him, but he doesnât argue. âI feel like shit.â
FĂli just smiles and wraps a blanket around his brotherâs shoulders, sitting beside him on the settee, eyes fixed on the Lonely Mountain out the window. KĂli leans back into the plush cushion, turning himself the tiniest bit into his brother, just a tiny bit too close, as always. His leg is propped up on a footstool, at Oinâs request. FĂli lets his cheek rest on the top of his brotherâs head, content.
Theyâd been welcomed into the home of the Master of Laketown (who, in FĂliâs humble opinion, looked more like a louse than the lord of a town, but men were much different than dwarves), and while the man had thrown them a rather uproarious party, FĂli and KĂli had taken their leave to rest. Oin had instructed KĂli to do so (and Thorin, too, though he need not say the words aloud) to give the poultice heâd packed the arrow wound with time to work. Heâd worried that theyâd perhaps taken too long, and that after being doused with river water, covered in fish guts, and crawling through a toilet the wound had likely become infected. So off heâd sent them, just after the party started, with a plate full of food and a mug of ale ( for FĂli only he had stressed) - and FĂli had felt Thorinâs eyes on them the entire time heâd helped his brother up the stairs to the rooms theyâd been lent.
When KĂli had fallen in the armory, FĂliâs heart had stopped. He knew , the second heâd heard the loud clattering of weapons that it had been KĂli, the ache in his leg finally overcoming him. He had pushed it too far, given too much without resting, just as FĂli knew he would. He loops his arm around his brotherâs shoulders, tugging him a bit closer still.
âHowâs your side?â KĂli asks softly, sleepiness evident in his voice. He turns to press a kiss against his brotherâs hair. Of course KĂli was still worried about him. Even with everything that had happened, even with the wound that FĂli knew was causing him pain. KĂliâs kindness never wavered
âBetter,â he says, and KĂli hums in acknowledgement. His head seems to sink further into FĂliâs shoulder, blessedly cool forehead pressed against his neck.
From below, he can hear music, shouts and cheers. The merriment at the return of the Lord of Silver Fountains seems as though it will last long through the night, though Thorin had told the company that they would be leaving at first light.
âTomorrow, weâll be there,â FĂli murmurs softly as he gazes at the mountain, but KĂli doesnât reply. He listens for a moment, pleased to hear his brotherâs breathing deep and even with sleep. He presses another kiss to the crown of KĂliâs head. âTomorrow we will finally see Erebor, nadadith.â
From his right, the door to the guest room theyâd been lent for the night creaks open, sounds of the party spilling in, causing KĂli to stir slightly. He cranes his neck around to see Thorin sheepishly enter, closing the door behind himself with a quiet snick . He walks over to them, sitting gingerly on the edge of the settee before reaching out to card his hand through KĂliâs hair.
FĂli sees the fondness there, the raw emotion. It warms his heart - Thorin had been so focused on the quest, so in control for fear that their enemies would discover them as his heirs - he cannot remember the last time he had seen such tenderness from their uncle. Heâd known to expect distance; Thorin had warned them that it was important to keep their relation to him a secret. He just hadnât expected it to bother him as much as it did. Hadnât expected it to hurt .
âHow is he?â Thorin asks, his thumb tracing reverently over KĂliâs high cheekbone, as if committing his face to memory. FĂli frowns; what does Thorin know that he isnât saying?
âHe seems better,â FĂli admits. âI think the medicine is starting to take.â
Thorin smiles at him before reaching over to cup FĂliâs cheek, before dropping his hand to squeeze the nape of his neck.
âTalk to me, Uncle,â FĂli says quietly. âWhat troubles you?â
Thorin sighs, drawing away from the lads to stand by the window, eyes on the mountain. FĂli hates it a little because he can no longer see Thorinâs face, but he knows good and well that thatâs probably the reason he stood in the first place. He almost wants to join him, just so he can see his face and read him better, but he doesnât dare leave from where KĂli is tucked safely into his side.
âIâve not been this close since...since we fled,â he says softly. âItâs made me sentimental, I suppose.â Thorin runs a hand through his beard. âI fear what we will encounter when we reach the mountain. I fear what will happen if we awaken Smaug. I fear...everything all at once, I suppose.â
FĂli can hear the barely restrained emotion in his voice. âSo do I,â he admits just as quietly. âBut Iâm alsoâŚâ he frowns, trying to decide on the right word. âExcited? Anxious? I donât know. Youâve told us about Erebor our whole lives. It feels surreal that tomorrow...that weâll be there.â
Thorin stiffins, almost imperceptibly, but he catches it nonetheless. âI hope it does not disappoint you,â he says after a long stretch of silence.
âI doubt it could,â FĂli says quietly. âEven after years of Smaugâs squatting, Iâm certain it will be grander than anything weâve seen before.â
Thorin turns back to him and smiles softly. âI cannot wait to show it to you.â He hears so much in his voice - pride, worry, fear, love - and it fills FĂli with an emotion he cannot quite identify. âBut you should rest,â he says as he comes back toward him, bending down to press their foreheads together.
FĂli nods. âYou should, too,â he says, an amused smile coming to his lips. âCanât stay up partying all night.â
âKnow that I love you,â Thorin says softly, not playing into his joke. âThe both of you. More than anything in this world.â There are tears in his eyes when he pulls away, and FĂli has to swallow the lump in his throat, blinking back his own tears.
âWe know, Uncle,â he asserts with a shaking voice. âKĂli adores you. I love you. Always.â
The corner of Thorinâs mouth quirps upward, in the barest hint of a smile. âIt is more than I deserve.â
-----
Heâs wrestled with this decision for days, though it felt like years.
Ever since his youngest nephew had been struck by the orc filthâs arrow, heâs wondered if he should send him home, or have him wait here, with these wretched men in Laketown. He doesnât want to. KĂli is, for all intents and purposes and lineage aside, his son . They both are. Heâs been with them since they were babes, heâs promised them Erebor since before they even knew what it meant.
They still didnât know what it meant.
It meant no more rumbling stomachs, no more scrimping and saving, no more threadbare clothes, no more disdain from elves and men. It meant the end of the suffering of their people, the dawn of a new age. It meant peace and happiness in their lives for all the rest of their days. It meant everything to him because it meant he could finally, finally give everything to them . Everything theyâd craved, everything theyâd deservedâŚeverything .
And theyâve come so far, theyâve conquered so much, and it seems such a shame to send him away when they are but in the shadow of the mountain.
But time is not on his side. If he is to give them all he desires, he must be swift.
And when KĂli makes to step onto the boat, horrible limp still evident in his step, his decision is made. He had hoped Oinâs cures would have had more of an effect, that the solid nightâs rest would somehow make him strong enough to complete this last, precious leg of the journey.
But it hadnât, in his heart heâd always known it wouldnât. It had been a foolish hope.
âNot you,â he murmurs as he reaches out an arm to stop him. KĂliâs face twists into something that is a terrible cross of hurt and shame and fear, and Thorin knows he must school his features and stay impassive. He cannot let these men see him break. He cannot let them know what his nephews mean to him. They could use it as a weapon against him, and he will not have it.
âWe must travel at speed,â he elaborates when he feels many eyes fall to him. âYou will slow us down.â
KĂli looks up at him, disbelief clouding his face as he tries to manage a smile, to pretend that this is just a joke.. âWhat?â he murmurs, gaze flickering just quickly to where FĂli stands behind his uncle. âWhat are you talking about? IâmâŚIâm coming with you.â
Thorin can see the pallor in his face, the dark circles under his eyes. KĂli is still clearly not well. It would be reckless to bring him, he reasons with himself.
Thorin gives the barest shake of his head and resolutely ignores the tiny whimper of desperation that escapes KĂliâs throat. He has to do this. He has to keep him safe and win back the mountain. He has to do this. For them .
âIâm going to be there when that door is opened, when we first look upon the halls of our fathers,â he implores. âThorinâŚâ
He knows KĂli cannot possibly understand why he is doing this, knows he should have done this earlier, should have prepared him, should have explained . But he didnât. He was a coward, had seen KĂli asleep the night before when he went to speak his mind, and had lost his nerve. With a sigh, he reaches to cup the back of KĂliâs head, pulling their foreheads as close as he dares.
He cannot let them know how much KĂli means to him.
âKĂli,â he murmurs, fixing him with a gaze that he hopes will explain everything. âStay here. Rest . Join us when you are healed.â KĂli has always been better at reading him than anyone.
KĂliâs eyes search him again, desperate. Thorinâs heart breaks; he doesnât understand.
KĂli shakes his head, breath coming out in a staggering huff, and a barely whispered âUncleâŚâ reaches his ears. For a moment heâs terrified that heâll cave, that he wonât let KĂli go , but Ăin comes to his rescue, saying that heâll stay with the lad. It eases his heart greatly to know that KĂli will not be alone here, that he will be in good hands between Ăin and Bofur, if he ever chooses to come round again. He watches as his cousin leads his nephew away, heart feeling leaden in his chest.
When he turns back to the company, heâs met with FĂliâs furious face, nearly cringes when he sees the betrayal shining in the depths of his cerulean eyes. âUncle,â he murmurs the damning word, but thankfully none of the men seem to hear it. âWe grew up on tales of the mountain. Tales you told us. You cannot take that away from him!â
He is hurt, his tone accusing, and Thorin has to focus to keep his face neutral and impassive. âFĂli,â he starts, trying to find the right words to explain himself, but his nephew doesnât give him the chance.
âI will carry him if I must!â he declares, and in it Thorin hears the silent âUncle, please!â , but he resolutely ignores it. Theyâll be angry at him now, hurt because of him now, but heâll make it up to them. Heâll win back the mountain. Heâll give them everything that he couldnât for the entirety of their lives.
âOne day you will be King and you will understand,â he says.
You will understand why I have to do this. Itâs for both you , he means.
âI cannot risk the fate of this quest for the sake of one dwarf â not even my own kin,â he explains, in nothing more than a hushed whisper.
I cannot risk losing him, losing the mountain, not when Iâve come this far to reclaim it for youâŚfor all of us , he means.
FĂliâs face is filled with disbelief and fierce determination, and Thorin knows what he means to do before he even moves his feet. He reaches out quickly, grabs his arm.
âFĂli, donât be a fool,â he half-begs. âYou belong with the company.â
You belong with me. I am doing this for you . I need you by my side , he means.
âI belong with my brother ,â his heir all but snarls as he wrenches his arm free.
With a heavy sigh, Thorin watches him leave the boat. He cannot blame him. He wants FĂli to stay with him, knows that he will feel better and stronger if he has at least one of them by his side, but he canât stop him. He wonât stop him.
He turns back to the company, desperately ignores with worried glances, particularly the one Dwalin aims at him, and gives the nod for them to depart. He doesnât look back, cannot look back, because if he does he will break. Time is not on their side, and if he is to do this, if he is to do this for them , then he must be swift.
Dwalin slides close enough to him so that their shoulders are pressed closely together to give him strength. He knows he needs it. He has to see this through, and when he does everything will be alright in the end. He will be able to give them everything.
He can do this.
Heâll do it for them.
-----
This is how it ends for him, he thinks. He cannot see a way that his brother survives this day.
They are back at Bardâs home, having been turned away everywhere else when KĂli took a turn for the worse. Heâd practically fainted, then spiked a deliriously high temperature that had startled even Oin. When heâd peeled away the bandage the healer hadnât been able to hide his gasp of surprise. In a matter of hours the wound had festered, turning black around the edges.
âIt was poison,â Oin had hissed under his breath as Bofur and FĂli had supported KĂliâs deadweight. âSlow acting, very deadly... damn those creatures.â
Deadly . When Oin had uttered that word FĂli felt as if part of his soul had left his body. It took every ounce of his strength to remain calm ( for KĂli , he would constantly remind himself - in his fleeting moments of lucidity he was completely terrified, and FĂli vowed that he would not make his terror worse). It helps that Oin has taken control, that he is barking orders at him, giving him something to do , a task to focus on.
âGet him up on the table,â Oin commands. Bard makes a sound as if to protest, but he clears the table nonetheless, sending dishes and bowls clattering to the floor, making space for KĂli. FĂli stays by his head, knelt on the ground, trying to talk his brother through what is happening, though he has no idea if KĂli can hear him or not. One of Bardâs girls brings in a cloth and a basin of cool water.
âCan you not do something?â FĂli asks frantically as KĂliâs form seizes once again. He is burning hot; even pressing the cool rag to his forehead seems to do nothing.
âI need something to bring down his fever,â Oin calls over his shoulder, to Bard, as he cuts KĂliâs pant leg off and removes the latest bandage, face stricken. FĂli canât make out what the bowman says in reply. âNo, no; those are no use to me. They wonât stop the poison. Do you have any kingsfoil?â
âNo; itâs a weed,â Bard says as he presents Oin with his own bowl of hot water and some cloths. The healer immediately starts clearing out the wound, Â causing KĂli to groan in agony once more. âWe feed it to the pigs.â
âPigs?â Bofur says, jumping up from KĂliâs other side. âIâll find it,â he says. He fixes FĂli with a comforting look. âIâll find it, laddie.â He reaches for KĂliâs hand and squeezes it. âHold on for me, yea?â
Bardâs daughter comes to kneel beside him, placing another basin of cool water beside him, then wetting her own rag and wiping it along KĂliâs face. Sigrid , her name pops into his mind again. He nods at her in gratitude. Sigrid gives him a soft, small smile, and reaches out to squeeze his arm.
KĂli lets out a pitiful, gasping wail as he arches his back against the pain. FĂli canât take it; the tears spill freely from his eyes now as he presses his forehead to KĂliâs too-hot temple. âHold on, nadadith,â he whispers, voice tight. âJust hold on for me, yea? Bofur will be back. Weâre going to fix this. I just need you to hold on. Please,â he adds, his voice breaking on the last word as he hopes beyond hope that KĂli can hear him.
Suddenly, the ground around them shakes violently. FĂliâs stomach sinks into his boots.
âItâs coming from the mountain,â Bardâs son says, just as the room rumbles once more.
FĂliâs eyes find Bardâs. âYou should leave us. Take your children and go; get out of here!â
âAnd go where?â Bard says, clearly distraught as he takes in each of his children.
âAre we going to die, Da?â the littlest one asks, and FĂli fears that they will . âIs the dragon going to kill us?â
âNo darling,â Bard says, quickly striding over to their kitchen and yanking something free from a hanging rack. FĂli bites back a gasp of surprise; a black arrow. Ammunition for a wind-lance. âIâm going to kill it first.â
-----
âWhat about Bilbo?â Ori asks, a slightly panicked tone in his voice. It seemed like everything was going well enough, but then the ground had trembled beneath them.
Smaug was awake. There was no denying it. Any hope that Thorin had held that the blasted worm had perished and died within the mountain wafted away like smoke.
âGive him more time,â he says finally, eyes anxiously watching the door. He trusted Bilbo; he knew the hobbit would not let him down, knew that he would find the Arkenstone and return it to him.
âTime for what?â Balin scoffs. âTo be killed?â
âYouâre afraid,â Thorin acuses, crossing his arms over his chest and staring his old friend down. They need the Arkenstone; Balin needs to trust him.
âYes, Iâm afraid,â Balin retorts. âIâm afraid for you .â
Thorin takes a step back, leveling Balin with a glare.
âA sickness lies upon that treasure horde, Thorin,â he needlessly reminds him. âA sickness that drove your grandfather mad .â
âI am not my grandfather,â Thorin hisses, ire rising up within him. He knows , he knows the tragedy that had befallen his grandfather because he had watched it happen, helplessly on the sidelines. Stuck to do nothing while Thror withered into a shell of himself. He would not go down the same path. He would fight, tooth and nail, to keep that from happening.
âYou are not yourself!â Balin continues. âThe Thorin I know would not hesitate to go in there and -â
âI cannot risk the fate of this quest for one burgular,â Thorin interrupts, hoping that he sounds practical.
â Bilbo ,â Balin hisses. âHis name is Bilbo. Or have you forgotten?â
Thorin frowns, eyes drifting to Laketown, to FĂli and KĂli. The ground rumbles lightly beneath them once more. âWhat would you have me do?â he says quietly. âWhat would you have me do to stand against this worm who has taken everything from me.? I cannot hope to triumph against Smaug.â
Balinâs face softens. âIt seems that you are also afraid, my dear friend.â
Thorin says nothing, but his gaze shifts back to the stone door. He knows that Balin is right , he cannot leave Bilbo to fend for himself. But still, he cannot make himself move to venture into the halls. He cannot face Smaug again, not without a plan to defeat him. But if Bilbo can get the Arkenstone, he can rally the dwarf kingdoms, they could form an army and stand a chance at killing that beastâŚ
âWe have to do something , Thorin,â Balin says again. âWe would not have made it this far without him. We cannot leave him to face the dragon alone.â
It shakes him to his core, but Thorin nods.
-----
KĂli has gone positively ashen. His cries have weakened; he has started murmuring nonsense. FĂli can do little more than stroke his brotherâs hair from his sweaty face, than whisper empty reassurances. Thereâs nothing they can do unless Bofur can find the kingsfoil. Nothing.
KĂli will die here, and he probably will too, judging by the ever increasing rumbles coming from the mountain.
A cold resignation settles over him. He presses a kiss to his brotherâs sweaty temple, suddenly grateful for the evening theyâd had the night prior, when everything had seemed so simple, so much like when they were children. Heâd felt safe. Happy. Heâd felt like they were going to make it to Erebor, to live out their destiny, but it had all gone wrong.
How had it all gone so wrong so quickly?
Thereâs a clunk on the roof, drawing Sigridâs attention. âDa?â she calls, peeking out the door. When she receives no response, she shrugs and turns back into the house, when an orc suddenly lands on the balcony behind her. With a scream, she tries to slam the door shut, but the orc stops the door with his sword.
Sigridâs scream snaps them all to attention, even KĂli, who struggles to get to his feet, bleary eyes trying to focus on the situation at hand. âKĂli, get down ,â he hisses, pushing his brother behind him onto a nearby settee as the orc forces its way in.
A second orc crashes through the ceiling. Oin is grabbing anything within reach and chucking them at the orcs  - starting with the plates. Bain gets his sisters under the table, blocking them from the orcs with the bench as FĂli grabs the pike hook Bard had fashioned for them and throws it with a snarl, finding a sick sort of satisfaction as it finds its mark in the orcâs throat.
More orcs crash through the ceiling, and he hears KĂli cry out in pain behind him. One of the orcs has him by his wounded leg, dragging him off of the settee, and FĂli sees red. He spies a knife on the floor and grabs it, hurling it with deadly accuracy, freeing his brother, who crashes to the ground with a whimper. FĂli has enough sense about him to grab the sword from the creature before turning to face the onslaught.
Just as suddenly, two elves come crashing through the roof, quickly getting to work on the orcs. He recognizes them from Thraduilâs halls - the blond he thinks was the elven kingâs son, and the redhead had been the one patrolling the hall with their cells. The orcs must have continued following them, seeking Thorin, and the elves were clearly still hunting the orcs.
FĂli grabs Bain, shoving him down as another one of the orcs rushes at him, giving him space to slay the beast. It only takes a few moments for them to dispel the orcs - the elves are deadly accurate with their blows. Thereâs shouting in black speech from outside, and the remaining orcs flee from the house, leaving it a chaotic wreck. FĂli pants heavily, eyes scanning the small abode once again to make sure they are safe.
âAre you alright?â the redheaded elf asks the children as she helps them to their feet.
âYou killed them all,â Bain murmurs in amazement.
Oin pushes past him, rushing back to KĂliâs side. His brother is struggling to breathe, his whole body hitching as he tries to take in air. âWeâre losing him!â the healer shouts.
âWhat happened?â he hears the elf ask from behind him, but he can barely make it out over the blood rushing in his ears. Theyâre losing him.
âPlease, Kee,â he begs, sinking to his knees beside his brother, a sob forming in his throat. âPlease donât leave me here alone. Please .â
âI found it!â Bofur shouts, bursting back into the home. âWhat in the blazes happened here?â
FĂli turns to look at him, tears streaking his face. âYou found it?â he asks, numbly. Bofur holds up his hand, the plant clutched in it.
âHeâs too far gone,â Oin says sadly. âI donât know what to do.â FĂli chokes on a sob.
âI do,â the redheaded elf says, eyes switching between KĂli and the kingsfoil in Bofurâs hand.
âTauriel,â the prince says. âWe must go. Weâre losing the pack.â
She shakes her head. âIâm going to save him,â she says. âGet him up on the table. I need hot water,â she says, looking at Sigrid and Tilda.
FĂli feels something akin to hope blossoming in his chest as they gather KĂliâs limp form and settle him back onto the table. He has heard the stories of elvish healing magic; he prays to Mahal that it will be enough to save KĂli. His brother is mumbling deliriously again, skin so pale that, were he not drawing in breath, FĂli would think he was dead.
He watches as the elf washes the herbs, hands deftly shredding the leaves and creating a poultice. âHold him down,â she says, eyes fixing onto FĂli with something akin to sympathy. FĂli grabs his brotherâs shoulders and Bofur takes his ankles, pressing them to the table as he tries to ignore the whimper of protest that slips past his brotherâs lips.
The elf begins chanting in a language he does not recognize, before she presses the poultice into the wound, and KĂli screams. FĂli struggles to keep him still, even as Oin and Bardâs children come to help. KĂli thrashes, but the elf holds steady, keeping the poultice pressed to his wound as she recites the healing magic. After a moment, KĂli takes a heaving breath and his thrashing calms, glassy eyes staring sightlessly at the roof.
âKĂli,â he murmurs, relinquishing his hold on his brotherâs shoulders and pushing his sweaty hair from his face.
The elfâs chanting ceases, and she pulls the poultice away from the wound. FĂli gasps aloud - the festering blackness of the wound has vanished, and it looks tremendously better already. He can hardly believe it.
âIâve heard tell of the wonders of elvish medicine,â Oin says, sounding just as awed as FĂli feels. âThat was a privilege to witness.â
âBurn this,â the elf says as she hands the poultice to Bofur, who obediently tosses it into the fire. âHe needs rest, though I fear it will be a while before he can have it,â she says softly as she sets about binding KĂliâs leg with a clean bandage. âThe poison is gone, but his body is weak.â
FĂli can hardly find the words to speak. He presses his forehead to KĂliâs temple, breathing a deep sigh of relief. âThank you,â he manages finally.
âHe is precious to you,â the elf observes, a small smile on her face as she finishes KĂliâs binding.
âHeâs my brother,â FĂli whispers. âMy only family.â
She squeezes his shoulder as she stands. âI thought as much,â she admits. âYou looked after one another in Mirkwood. With the spiders.â
The ground rumbles around them. FĂli closes his eyes. Have they saved him only to perish in dragonfire?
âYou have to leave,â she says, speaking to all of them now. âThere is no time!â
Bain hesitates. âWe cannot leave without our Da,â he says, but even as he speaks the ground rumbles again, shaking debris loose from their damaged roof.
Tauriel frowns. âIf you stay here, you and your sister will die. Is that what your father would want?â Bain blinks quickly, eyes shining when he finally shakes his head, looking to his sisters sadly.
FĂli and Bofur work to get KĂli to his feet. His brother is slowly coming back to himself, his eyes clearing, but heâs far too weak to walk on his own. âFee,â he mumbles softly, his head lolling onto FĂliâs shoulder as they right him.
âDonât worry; Iâve got you.â he promises, pressing a kiss to KĂliâs temple. Bofur helps FĂli get his brother onto his back, keeping the weight off of his leg.
Oin and Bardâs children gather some provisions as FĂli and Bofur make their way down the stairs to the dock. It is slow work; FĂli is careful not to jostle his brother and Bofur works to ensure he maintains his balance as they navigate the steps. He is just getting KĂli situated at the back of the boat, propping his wounded leg up on the side, when the others rejoin them.
A horrible tremor shakes the ground, sending waves sloshing through the lake. In the distance, they hear the shriek of a dragon. FĂli locks eyes with his brother.
Smaug is coming.
-----
No. No, no, no, no, no .
Bilbo stammers to his feet, chasing after where Smaug had fled, the other dwarves clambering behind him. He can hardly breathe. How had this happened? Thorinâs plan had been so good , he was so certain that it would work to subdue Smaug, but now ...now thousands of innocents were now in Smaugâs path. Because of them. Because of him .
They can do little more than watch when Smaug unleashes his flames upon Laketown.
-----
AN - So it looks like Iâll be rounding this bad boy out at 30 chapters. Next chapter will be pre-BOTFA focused, 29 will be BOTFA, and 30 will be the end. Iâm sad and anxious and excited all at the same time.
Anyway, as always thank you so much for reading this little story that has occupied so much of my life at this point. It means the world.
#greater than gold#durin family feelings#hahahahahaha i am just making myself sad about dwarves again#THANKS QUARANTINE
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All The Tattoos I Couldnât Really Afford
Hi to anyone whoâs reading!
I thought Iâd write about my tattoos a lil bit.
Partly because Iâd like to talk generally about tattoos and what they mean for people who have dealt with self-harm and poor body image and partly because I get questions now and again about the more practical side of things; who did them, how much did they hurt and probably the most frequent one, how much did they cost (I mean, only my entire livelihood and every last spare pound I had for about 2 years but nbd)? The point being that I can put all this information in one place, especially as I donât plan to get any more in the foreseeable future.Â
See, as much as I get tired of people I donât really know commenting on them, I suppose I did kind of bring it upon myself. Facially, I probably look about 15. I get told I'm exaggerating when I say that BUT I WAS STILL BUYING CHILDâS TICKETS ON THE BUS UP UNTIL LAST YEAR BC AINâT NOBODY GOT TIME FOR ÂŁ2.60 SINGLES. Where do you live for a bus single to cost ÂŁ2.60 I hear you ask? In a tory heartland, my friend.
Anyway, the point is that I look pretty young to have a sort-of sleeve and tbh, I am. Iâd say that for a lot of people, a sleeve is something you build on kinda throughout your life, not something you plan on getting pretty much the minute you turn 18. That isnât exactly how it was for me either. I was more like 20 when I started on my left arm, lol. I started on the rest when I was 18 and had known most of the tattoos I wanted to get since I was about 14/15, so for quite a while. I think I always associated a tattooed version of me with a version of myself I liked and respected a lot more than the girl I saw myself as at that age, Â but I didnât realise just how true that would be. The tattoos definitely arenât the reason Iâm so much more body confident than I was back then; Iâm at a weight I feel more comfortable in, Iâve learned how to do my makeup better and I think Iâve grown into myself more. Plus, I got my braces off, which helps. The constant fear of having food in my teeth hardly conjures up a sense of nostalgia, lol. On top of that, seeing a wider and more diverse range of faces and body types celebrated online and in the media has definitely helped me too.Â
But one thing that I noticed is how much more respect having tattoos gives me for my own body. When you have talented men and womenâs art all over you, it makes you feel like less of a body and more of a blank sheet. I think the attention moves away from the parts underneath that you might not like so much to something you donât necessarily associate with yourself. It helps me to notice myself more objectively, with appreciation taking the place of scrutiny. And with regards to self-harm, on a practical level, I donât want to damage somebody elseâs hard work.Â
The first tattoo I actually got, about a month or so after I turned 18 was pretty simple. I found the studio by way of recommendation from someone whoâs tattoo I liked, which imo is probably the best route to go down for your first one. Word of mouth is generally a pretty good indicator of what to expect.
The 5 planet formation on the back of my neck was based on a Tumblr photo Iâd saved on my phone, though in the original design I believe the planets were on the personâs chest.
PROTIP: If youâre getting a tattoo based on something you found on Pinterest, Google Images or Tumblr, the best thing to do is first to probably make a note of the artist and ideally ask them for their permission. This is something I wish Iâd done at the time; the majority of my tattoos are based on images I found on the sites I just mentioned and saved without thinking and I generally deleted the photos once I sent them to the tattoo artist. Understandably, artists see it as respect thing to credit them and if I do ever come across the designs some of my tattoos are based on, I will of course make sure to add their details to this post, BUT to be completely honest, nobody outside of the internet is that bothered if you copied a tattoo you saw on Pinterest one time.Â
I think the best thing to do is to ask your tattoo artist to put their own spin on a design and add to it, which is what Iâve generally done, and that way you should avoid anyone feeling like their work has been stolen. I like that approach anyway, especially if youâre going back to the same person for all your tattoos; it adds a consistency to them.Â
This being my first tattoo, there wasnât really much of a deeper meaning behind it. I liked the way it looked and wanted something simple that could easily be covered. I got this done by dclxvi.tattoo on Instagram, and it cost around ÂŁ40. In terms of pain, there wasnât much at all. I thought it was going to be a lot worse from what others had told me, and more than anything I could feel the vibration of the needle. Iâd give it a 1/10 on the pain threshold.Â
My second was the quote on my left side over my ribcage which reads âthink deeply, speak gently, give freely and be kindâ. This came from one of those cheesy typical middle class white people signs we usually put in our kitchens; we currently have about 6 and counting in ours. The full quote is âThink deeply, speak gently, love much, laugh a lot, work hard, give freely and be kindâ but I thought that was a bit long winded so I kept the parts I liked. I suppose the meaning meaning of this is pretty self-explanatory, lol! When I was younger and still even now with the people Iâm close to, I worry way too fucking much what people think of me. Itâs a very cliche saying but at some point, I learnt that what others say about you says more about them than it does about you. From then, I started realising that as long as I know I do my best to treat people well, thatâs the important thing and this tattoo is kind of just a reminder of that. IIRC, this one cost about ÂŁ60 and was with the same artist as my first. She was really lovely and made me feel very comfortable so I went back to her for this one, and my next couple too. Again, even though it was on my ribs, Iâd give it a 1/10 for pain.
I kinda lose track but Iâm pretty sure it was over the summer of my 18th that I got the 3 you can see in the photo above, all still by the same artist. The first on this area of my arm was the quote âlove yourself so no-one else has toâ inside the heart/feminine symbol hybrid. Similarly, itâs quite self-explanatory but if I had to expand on it, itâs just a reminder that itâs not about what other people think and that as long as Iâm happy in myself and BY myself, thatâs what matters. This was around the ÂŁ40 mark and I vaguely remember tattoos getting slightly more painful around this point as weâre getting into musclier territory. Not to make out I have guns or anything, lol, but Iâve always found that tattoos that are on top of muscle are the most difficult to sit through, still though Iâd give it a 2/10 for pain. Shortly after I got the crystal ball with the quote underneath. The crystal ball is pretty much a copy of a tattoo I found on Pinterest by the tattoo artist Emily Malice/@emilymalice on Instagram:
I then chose a quote to add underneath it to make it my own which was:Â âitâs not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselvesâ. Itâs the modernised version of a quote from the Shakespeare play Julius Caesar, and basically sums up the idea that if we want something, we have to go and get it ourselves. Iâm not really a believer in fate or destiny or the idea that the universe has a bigger plan for us and though that might sound really pessimistic, I find it empowering in that we can go out and make our lives into anything we want them to be. Of course there are things that are out of our hands but for the most part, itâs down to us; Iâm on that inner locus of control shit. And yes I remembered that from A-level psychology, lol. On the pain scale, also a 2/10.
Next was my Lana tattoo. Imagine copious amounts of the heart eyes emoji here. Itâs based on this drawing:
Which I cannot find the artist of fucking ANYWHERE. The image is all over the bloody internet and returned about 30 different results on TinEye but I canât for the life of me find the original version so if anybody knows, lmk!Â
Anyway, it was my first of 2 Lana tattoos and itâs probably my favourite of them all. Iâve been a hardcore stan of this woman since I was about 12 and Video Games went viral (yes, I was a very pretentious 12 year old/general human being) and her music has been my soundtrack to EVERYTHING for the last 7/8 years. Iâm a basic bitch and so Born to Die: Paradise Edition and Ultraviolence are still my favourite albums of hers but I wanted to pay tribute to the Lust for Life cover with the flowers in the hair because it represented her moving towards inner peace and contentment and I loved that.Â
COST: approx. ÂŁ70
PAIN: 2/10
That was my last tattoo for a while until about November 2018, from which point onwards I was getting them pretty much constantly up until a few months ago. I was no longer at uni, had a part time job and for the first time had proper disposable income, so I got my first proper âpieceâ tattoo:
This one I very shittily designed myself, though the lip part was based on this tattoo by Heidi Kaye/@heidikayetattoo on Instagram:
The lips were always going to be the centrepiece though it was originally a much bigger design. The idea was that it would be a piece based around the elements, water, earth, air and fire, with the things that represents each being something sentimental to me. Well, apart from the lips which would represent the passion of the fire signs; I just thought they looked cool, lol. On a less shallow note, the butterflies, which represent air (along with the moons), I associate with my mum as sheâs always wearing butterfly patterned outfits and jewellery. Yeah, I donât know how you can claim a whole ass insect either but apparently theyâre her thing! And similarly, the scorpion is for my sister; it represents water, scorpio being a water sign. She and I used to watch Orphan Black together and took to affectionately calling each other âsestraâ instead of sister like the Ukranian character Helena pronounces it in the show. At one point, I believe itâs season 3, her character hallucinates a scorpion (donât ask, that show was pretty wack at times), hence the scorpion tattoo. Lastly, the flowers and the agate rock represent earth, which is the home of my sun and moon sign. There were originally going to be a lot more details to the piece but I wanted to keep it on the back of my arm and when I showed it to my new tattoo artist, Matt Cassy (cassytattoo on Instagram), he simplified it for me so that it would fit. It cost around ÂŁ140 and took the longest time yet, but Iâd give it a 1/10 for pain and itâs my favourite tattoo after my Lana one, probably because itâs the most individual.
Next after this was my sunflower and it took me to one of kindest and most talented people Iâve ever met! Iâm pretty sure this was the first one she did for me and from this point onwards, I went back to Bianca Kidd (biancakiddtattoo on Instagram) for 90% of my tattoos. Itâs a pretty basic piece but I really wanted a tattoo on my shoulder and preferably something that will never really go âout of styleâ. Flower tattoos are so simple but the absolute prettiest imo and I donât think Iâll ever look back on this one and be like âwhat was I thinking?â I got Bianca to add the stars which were SUPPOSED to be in the form of the constellations of my sun, moon and rising signs, Capricorn, Virgo and what I thought was Scorpio but turns out is actually Cancer. Shoulda known considering how much of a needy, over-emotional twat I am, lol. On the one hand, it seems kinda contradictory to my crystal ball tattoo quote to believe in astrology but on the other, I think there might be something to the time of year a person is born and the environmental factors that come with that (climate, financial patterns etc.) affecting a personâs temperament slightly. It could all be a load of BS, considering the vagueness of most star signs and our tendency to want to agree with positive statements about ourselves, and I DEFINITELY donât believe in the stars having any impact on your future or fate but itâs still fun to read about either way. Would be even funner if I didnât have regrets about getting my natal chart wrong and being sure enough that Scorpio was my rising sign to get a tattoo referencing it every time I did, but there you go. If anyone asks, the placement of the stars is TOTALLY. RANDOM.
COST: approx. ÂŁ140
PAIN: I find that even if a tattoo isnât in a super painful position, your skin begins to get a little raw and thus more sensitive when itâs under a needle for a long period of time so 3/10
Next was the snakey boy on the inside of my right arm which I got just before Christmas, again by Bianca:
I donât have much to say about this one other than itâs pretty much a copy of one I saw on Pinterest that Iâd saved quite a while before (unfortunately I canât find it anywhere now but if anybody does know the source lmk!)Â because I fricken love snakes and think theyâre cute and misunderstood af. Not as cute as cats but definitely up there. Bianca changed it slightly by adding the dots around the rose and we went from there, and the main thing I remember is that this one actually hurt. Close to the armpit and on top of the muscle is a bad combination and Iâm totally in awe of the madmen that go right into the pit itself. It cost ÂŁ80 and for pain Iâd give it an 8/10.Â
Cop the exact same pose only with the other arm instead, but I also got my mermaid around this time:
She was done by Polly (biffinx on instagram) whoâs an apprentice tattoo artist. If you are looking for a slightly cheaper tattoo, apprentices are a good shout, as they usually charge slightly less, though in Pollyâs case are equally as skilled at what they do; youâre also helping them build their portfolio so itâs a win-win situation for both you and the tattoo artist. That being said, make sure you do your research and get someone whoâs good at the style youâre looking for before you commit. Instagram is often your best bet, and if not, tattoo shops often have websites with photo galleries showcasing each artistâs work. It might take you a while to find what youâre looking for but you really canât compromise when youâre talking about something thatâs probably going to be on your body forever. NBD. I got the mermaid as a nod to both growing up by the sea and how much I loved to swim when I was younger. I feel like Iâm going to end up saying this far too many times but sheâs one of my favourites.Â
COST: ÂŁ60
PAIN: 8/10
I also got the other 3 tattoos on my upper right arm during this time. Bianca did the satanic kitty (canât find the source of the tattoo it was based on! again, if anyone does lmk!), because of course I had to have a cat tattoo, and that was around ÂŁ50 and a 3/10 on the pain scale. The two shells, which again are a reminder of where I grew up, were done by Terry Weeks (terryweekstattoo on Instagram) and cost ÂŁ70 for both. Iâd give them a 2/10 for pain.
Next were my knee and calf tattoo in February of this year, for which I went back to Matt Cassy:
He did the two of them for ÂŁ140 and it took around 3 hours. Palm trees always remind me of California which I absolutely love, and the spiderâs web was kinda just because...spooky, ya know? Honestly, I hate spiders and I equally hate that it gave the old man on the bus the inspiration to make the joke (imagine this being said in a strong Dorset accent) âyouâve got ae spiderr on yerr legâ at me that one time on the bus. Plus, Iâd give my knee tattoo a strong 9/10 for pain. Realistically, it probably wasnât any more painful than the inner upper arm tattoos but you have the added burden of suppressing your reflexes; when somebody is carving into the skin on your leg, it really shouldnât come as a surprise that your knee jerk reaction is to...well, kick that person in the face. Or away from you at least. I also got the elbow pit tattoo on my left arm from Bianca around this time for ÂŁ160. 8/10 for pain on that one.
And then, there was the 10/10 in March. The things I do for Miss Lana Del fucking Rey.
Because the Just Ride tattoo above my knees HURT. I wasnât expecting it at all but BLOODY HELL. My tattoo artist actually had to get the numbing spray out for this one. It was, again, the combined effect of it being on top of muscle and the need to resist my reflexes so that I didnât flinch, which clearly I didnât do a very good job at, hence the spray. I think my reaction at the time was kind of, what the fuck, has this stuff always existed? But the more you can put off asking for the spray, the better, because used in large quantities it can be pretty dangerous. This was the only tattoo I felt I did need it for because I literally couldnât sit still and there was a risk of me jogging the tattoo artist, Megan, the amazing @bunnystattoos on Instagram. Her stuff is adorable and she has such a strong vision and brand and if I was going to get another, Iâd love to just give her a starting point and see where sheâd take it from there. Like, Iâm not a Star Wars fan but LOOK at this set she designed for someone else:
I also got my Dream On tattoo with her in the same session and in total she charged me ÂŁ110 for both which is pretty reasonable considering how in demand she is (and how much of a total baby I was about the Just Ride tattoo). I chose lyrics from Ride because lyrically, itâs probably one of my favourite songs of hers, plus the opening 30 seconds are pure magic.
Megan also did the linework orchid lady on the back of my arm around the same time:
I suppose you could say this is my most âmeaningfulâ tattoo, because it was inspired by something my care-coordinator said to me about my diagnosis of BPD. In amongst all the other less than complimentary comments, she told me that it just means we need a little more care and sensitivity than others, like orchids do in comparison to other flowers, but that that doesnât make us any less deserving of care or less beautiful. Basically, in the right circumstances, we can bloom too. And I liked that.Â
This one cost ÂŁ80 and was about a 3/10 for pain. I canât find any photos of the tattoo it was based on so for the millionth time, if you do know, hmu.
From April-May I got a shitload of tattoos and to be honest, I canât really remember what order it was in so Iâm going to group them into artists. First, the ones I got from Polly:
The anatomical heart I got in March and was based on this tattoo by Harry Plane (@harry.plane on Instagram):
COST: ÂŁ50
PAIN: 7/10
And the sun and moon kissing was also around ÂŁ50. 2/10 for pain.
Bianca did a few for me too, starting with the floral design on my lower left arm around March, which was probably my biggest piece yet:
The floral piece started off as a 4/10 though it creeped up to a 6 the closer it got to my wrist. Going over raised scars is also slightly more painful, something to bear in mind. Along with the Keep It Cute tattoo (6/10) on my wrist:
It came to ÂŁ180.Â
Bianca also did the linework of my favourite GIF, like, ever.
Yes, itâs Go Go Yubari from Kill Bill about to try and maim The Bride, who donât get me wrong I am perennially rooting for, but come on. Itâs an iconic moment in film history Once Upon a Time in Hollywood wishes it could replicate. 4/10 for pain due to it being over scarring, otherwise weâre talking about the kind of placement thatâs a reliable 2/10. I also got wrapped into the whole renaissance inspired trend and got Bianca to do me a little cherub gap filler based on this flash sheet I found on Google Images (link to the image found here https://creativemarket.com/Sonulkaster/280110-Angels-and-Cupids-collection.?utm_source=Pinterest&utm_medium=CM):
I suggested the cigarette as a cheeky little addition, lol! Iâd give it a 5/10 for pain, being close to the inside of my arm n all and it set me back around ÂŁ40. Unfortunately, I donât have any great quality photos of it that I havenât already used in the post but hereâs one where you can see it a little bit (idk why my hair looks so brown and basically my natural colour in this photo but I DO NOT APPROVE, it is not at all fitting with my wannabe mildly goth aesthetic):
Finally, we have my last 2 tattoos.
See, getting my finger tattoos done was an absolute necessity before I went inter-railing and not because Iâm an over-dramatic bitch who wanted a little something to make my multitude of me-holding-food photos more aesthetically pleasing (though of course it helped on that count), but because I made the fucking huge mistake of trying to stick and poke them myself. To be fair, they werenât THAT bad at first. Like I was pretty pleased with them. Buuuut they faded super quickly and I guess thatâs the issue with stick and pokes, especially on your fingers, where even professional tattoos are a bit of a flight risk anyway. So, after having to go over them a million times and spilling Indian ink all over my laptop keyboard, I decided to admit defeat and get Bianca to go over them for me. It cost ÂŁ30 and Iâd only give it a 4/10 on the pain scale. After months of having to explain my shitty faded finger tattoos to everyone and convince far too many customers at work that they werenât just drawn on with a sharpie, Iâm finally happy with them. Lesson learnt. Donât stick and poke kids, especially not near your laptop.
Lastly is my âWouldst Thou Like to Live Deliciously?â quote that Polly did for me:
The cost of this tattoo? ÂŁ30. Having to explain to every person who hasnât seen The VVitch what it actually says and then what it means too? Priceless. Hotel? Tri-
I joke. Itâs actually very annoying having to explain what it says and vague what it means, not because I donât EXACTLY know but also because I feel like a snobby film hoe (which is quite an accurate description of me) every time I do. The VVitch is super good, guys. Please watch if youâve got the patience, itâs a slow burn.Â
Anyways, I hope anybody who read to the end enjoyed the post and found it informative! If you have any other tattoo questions, shoot me a message and I will definitely respond. I think one of the most common things I get is people saying theyâre too indecisive to get a tattoo and that they want one, but are worried theyâll go off it. What I think is that once you get your first, getting a tattoo starts to feel like less of a momentous decision. Like there are tattoos I have that I probably wouldnât get now but that doesnât mean I regret them because, although it sounds cheesy, they sort of become a part of you and represent what you liked at the time. The more you have, the less significant one individual tattoo is. At the end of the day, are you ever going to regret getting a tiny rose? Worst case scenario, you can always get a cover up or if youâre brave and rich enough (lol), get laser removal. In terms of aftercare, Iâve always been kind of sloppy. Follow the instructions your tattoo artist gives you but also, if you donât get time to moisturise them, itâs not the end of the world. TRY not to itch them but one tiny scratch isnât going to permanently damage your tattoo.Â
One thing I will say, though, thatâs probably kind of obvious to everyone but me (being the dumbass I am) is that you should NOT go in the sea right after getting a tattoo. It is literally the equivalent of pouring salt in an open wound and whilst it didnât ruin my Lana, it really fucking stung for about 3 days afterwards. Iâm an endless treasure chest of protips, didnât you know?
Thank you for reading!
Lauren x
#tattoos#ink#lana del rey#lana#lana del rabies#inkaddict#tattoed girls#ewwhatacringeyhashtag#spooky#spoopy#personalstyle
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Bill Tavis:Â One of the originals
For some reason Bill Tavis never made it onto my radar despite being one of what I would call one of the original gif artists. He has made over 500 since 2010 and if you look at art on the internet for about 15 minutes you will probably see one of his trippy fractal gifs. I recently posted some of his new gifs on Cross Connect (his 3rd time being featured there) and he generously answered my questions and had especially thoughtful responses about gifs as art.
Where are you located? Â Where are you from?
I'm currently living in Austin, TX and grew up in Albuquerque, NM and moved around a few places in between
Do you have formal art training of any sort?
I got a Bachelor's Degree in Animation, and I have taken other classes in painting and programming. A lot of what I do is self-taught though. Also, I believe that you can learn techniques from others but that's only half of the puzzle. The other half is the inspiration and expression and those are things that just have to be felt.
What do you do for a living?
I self-publish fractal posters (www.mandelmap.com), I paint murals, and I sell fine art prints and do commissions
When did you start making gifs, and why?
I first started doing my halftone style back in 2005. It was all done by hand with ink on paper. Someone mentioned that it looked like a computer filter and so I thought I should actually make a filter, even though I didn't know how at the time, and I didn't think of animating it yet. At some point I saw a GIF of moving black and white lines, and I thought "what if those lines were changing thickness as well?" When I finally knew enough programming, right away I designed my halftone software to make looping animations, even though halftones are usually supposed to be for printing purposes. I didn't care because I was obsessed with the way the moving lines looked. I made my first halftone GIFs in 2010 but I didn't know where to upload them in that form, and so I converted them to video to share online. I also only made a few because my code was clunky and naive. In 2013 I improved my halftone software to the point where I could finally get really creative with it, and I also found Tumblr which seemed to be a great place for GIFs. Once I started it was like a faucet was opened, and I have made and uploaded more than 500 by this point.
What keeps you coming back?
I feel like this is my purpose and I think I have some interesting things to say, so I want to take an active part in culture and that requires constant work. My GIF output has slowed down in the last year but I haven't gone away, I'm just exploring new avenues of halftone expression! And there's now a backlog of GIFs wanting to get out of my brain so you can count on seeing more at some point!
What do you think about gifs as an Art Form?
GIFs are perfectly suited for looping animations, and I think loops are very artistic in nature because they don't have a beginning or an end. It's an infinitely suspended moving moment, rather than a finite linear progression like a movie. The lack of sound contributes to this quality. Also, GIF compression relies upon a limited color palette, so it is the perfect format for my halftone style because I am breaking things down into lines of just a few colors. GIFs are also cool because they are actually image files, not video. For those three reasons, I think the GIF format will continue to be relevant, and it has unique aesthetic characteristics that I've never seen in another medium.
Are you making money on your gif artwork?
I have had a couple commissions, but for the most part I haven't made money directly from my GIFs. It's so ephemeral that it's hard to monetize, and making money with the GIFs has never been my focus anyways, I always just wanted to put them all out there for free. I have paid my way with commercial art for a long time, so I saw just how much money can influence expression, and I wanted my halftone work to not have that influence. However I'm not against making money from it and I do make other things with my art that people can buy if they want to support me. Since my style is based on halftones, I have been able to turn some of my work into screenprints, as well as nicer engraved pieces, that you can find on my website https://billtavis.com
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[PruCan] Chapter 9: Soft-Spoken Calling, They Want Their Shyness Back
Ao3 Link:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/11159997/chapters/42689768
This Has been cross-posted onto FF & Ao3 under Aliases: BearBooper
You can read this Fic on Tumblr under âKeep Readingâ - Ao3 version is formatted, tumblr version is not. Ao3 is recommended.
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Fandom: Hetalia Axis Powers
Main Pairing: Gilbert Beilschmidt & Matthew Williams (Prussia & Canada)
AU: Â College AU - Art Student Matthew and Media/Film Student Gilbert
Age Rating/Mature: Â Teen And Up Audiences (12+ due to mentions of mature themes as well as swearing)
Trigger Warnings: Recreational Drugs & minor connotations of anxiety (Future addiction to mention themes such as addiction, rape etc.) WITHIN THIS CHAPTER - Mentions of Depression, Anxiety, Therapy, Counseling, and anti-depressants. (please note I am NOT anti-meds.) Family Issues are implied, Distance and abandonment suggested.
The world stiffened as strawberry blonde hair covered his tired eyes, Alfred had scooted much farther away as he let his brother gather himself. Racing, pulsing thoughts jumped in his head; everything felt slow and too fast at the same time and the unease of having someone else in this private session was more off-putting than he would have thought.
âIâŚ.I didnât finish the painting.â Ms Paisleyâs demure look did not falter, unsurprised but still polite, her scribbles of notes were no doubt some follow up questions about his inability to get something done- he felt foolish for bringing it up, his subconscious already tormenting him about his inadequacy to shush up. His brother, on the other hand, was lost; What does a painting have to do with Matthewâs health?
âWhat was it this time Matthew? ...noise? ⌠distractions?â her voice trailed on but Alfredâs mind was hooked on her reasoning-
âNot noise this time. I was quite...fine. I was fine- I just canât get it to look right and I feelâŚâ He mind was smoothened a little bit as he tried to articulate his thoughts. Fiddly hands kept tracing the hemming of his hoodie edges, eyes strictly avoiding his brotherâs questioning gaze.
âLost. I felt like I was detached again. I couldnât get it right and Itâs just so difficult to stay upâŚâ Closed eyes and uncertain breath faded into a hum, he almost forgot Alfred was there as he thought of the image of his childhood. Bright. Vibrant. Utterly simplistic in its approach.
âIâm on top of work. But that just means I sleep more... I'm tired. Very tired. I know I say that a lot but I am. Itâs just so-â his voice breaks off into a bit of a laugh as he grimaces at his repetitious mantra, âIâm exhausted, Paisley.â He bites his lips; heâs been trying to get out of the habit of saying tired. The word was so addictingly bittersweet and had glossed over his lips so often that the definition of such a word had practically been imprinted into his personality. Dr Paisley looked up as Alfred patted a hand onto his knee, the gesture making the male almost jump as his eyes popped finally realising his brother was still in the room.
âWell. Iâm sure the painting will turn out beautifully- Have you shown anyone your work, has Al-â
âItâs a surprise! Itâs...not ready and I donât want Alfred to be spoiltâ The interruption let out another hiccup as Matthew slid his back down the couch, his head almost lolling straight into the couchâs depths.
âOkay. I think you should have some downtime while I Just chat with your brother, would that be possible Matthew?â He slowly got up, feeling ashamed for his messy rambling and eager to leave the room. âJohn could get you some tea while you wait..â the remnants of that sentence was lost on Matthew as he had already made his way out back into the little room from before.
âHi Alfred, Long time no see, How have you been?â
âAlright, Uni is exciting as always...can we just get to the reason why Iâm here? Matthew-- My brother says you want him on more medication?â
âYes. He hasnât been on anything for a while, and heâs made a lot of progress but recently...Heâs been having trouble with our recent goals, and I donât want to worry any of you and your family. From a professional standpoint, I would recommend this as it would help him just balance out his anxiety. He hasnât been on much for a while now.â
âI trust you doc, but Iâm still worried. Heâs been kind of...really secretive I guess?
âHow so? Heâs told me heâs been chatting and unloading a lot on peop-â
âWell, obviously not me. Not..me. We donât go out anymore, he always liked to sleep in but some days I have to genuinely bash his door down to get him up. Itâs...a slump.â
Dr Paisley sighed, a knowing glint in her eye as she listened to the wistful way Alfred talk about his brother- knowing of what?
âLook. Mr Jones, I need to know if youâre planning on any big life changes.â Alfred seized up, caught off guard by the question, almost nervous of his own answer- âItâs just that Matthew right now needs some extra support, weâre assuming heâs just in a bit of a drop right now...he goes through it onceâŚâ her voice seemed to trail off as Alfred and his ever calculative brain were in the works of what to say: tell the truth or to wait for a better moment? Surely he could put off telling Matthew of his...no if he told the doctor now he could avoid a confrontation from his family later onâŚ
â-Would moving away count as something big?â the professional paused in her sentence, concern out and open.
âWho would be moving?â Alfred explained his new course offer from some prestigious lab in Japan, the willingness he had to go there and the excitement was clear but the more he explained he had begun thinking of howâll it affect his brother.
â...we spent enough time apart as kids. Last time really fucked him up and I just donât...he lost trust in me and thatâs okay I just... I- what if this is the thing that really...pushes it?â
The two stared at each other for a few seconds, both deep in thought before the doctor gave her insight: âYour brother will be fine. He wants you to live your life. He just needs time to know whatâs going on. He needs to talk more. Do you know anyone he could talk to while youâre away?â There was Tim, their childhood friend of whom Mattie had always been attached to; the Dutchman always came to Matthewâs heed and Mattie always complied with the scarf-wearing weirdo. Alfred drifted, he had that new German guy, right? He never really liked Gilbert, always saw him at some trashy party- he was so different from Matthew, it would be difficult for his brother to open up to someone like thatâŚ
âBesides Tim, thereâs this new guy. I think Matt would tell you about him. I donât really trust the guy.â before the doc could synthesise a plan Matthew had knocked on the door rather meekly, sticking that fluff of a hairdo through the door and asking if he could back in.
âOf course. Matthew, your brother and I are okay with our new goals, would you like to go through with it?â the young man barely nodded, still in the doorway, leaning a bit off the frame as his eyes wandered in Alfredâs direction as if still asking if he could come in. Alfred got up, shaking off imaginary dust and he made his way out, ruffling his twin brotherâs hair as they swapped places. Heâd have time to think about what he wanted to tell him while he waited.
âIâm really sorry we canât have our full 1 hour Matthew, Is there anything youâd like to talk about in particular today?â Matthew had cosied up on the chair, crossing his legs as he used to as a kid- Dr paisley had reassured him no harm would be done to her soft plush couch even if he brought his foot upon it.
âIâm just tired is all.â he had started picking at the seat fibres once more, his glasses sort of slipping off as he pressed the couch experimentally. âI understand, Alfred said you made a new friend? Wanna chat about that?â At first, Matthew was puzzled, confused as to who she had meant before realising that she probably referred to Gilbert.
âOh. Gilbert. Heâs...cool. I donât want to talk about him. Do I ha-â
âYou donât have to do anything Matthew. This is about you.â
Matthew relayed his story about going to see Tim (minus the weed of course), how he had overstepped Timâs boundaries once more by accident, ranting way too long and not getting anything done when he could have been doing something, anything, he never gets things done, why canât i get things done, itâs impossi-
âMatt- Matthew breathe. Hey, hey slow down. You were taking a break right?â Matthew gulped. He didnât realise he had been mumbling incessantly again. âI donât think you overstepped. Iâm sure Tim would have said something if you did. Heâs been your...friend for a long time.â the blonde nodded, awkward to where this was going.
âDo you...pardon me if this seems inconceivable or rude...do you have feelings for Tim?â Matthew looked at her as if she had slapped him in the face-
ânO! OH Nonono- Timâs my⌠heâs just a really...good friend, I couldnât...I like someone else... I think?â his mind drifted to a pearly white smile and red eyes that really should be more intimidating than attractive. God. Gilbertâs got him good and itâs hardly been a day. He needs to stop. Paisley just smiled that ever kind smile, and it kinda sickened Matthew knowing at the end of the day she was paid to smile like that regardless of what he said to her. The rationale in his head reminded him she was genuine and that this was a good experience- counselling was better than hiding in a room getting high off his rock...that sounds more enjoyable at this point. The two chatted, Matthew once more relearning his breathing, noting to himself to write in his personal log once he gets home to keep the doc and himself on check.
âIâll see you next Saturday? Afternoon at 1pm. 1 hour for sure Matthew.â with that the two parted, Matthew, worming his way out of the office and straight to the registering counter, prescription form in hand. Alfred had signed it. So had he. Heâd have to pick them up tomorrow. Fuck me.
The two twins waddled back out, getting into their car and driving to their little detour: the diner just off campus. âAhh loving the shoddy lights as usual,â Alfred commented as they got out the car and saw the overdone and tacky 60s light decor falter. Sliding into the opposite sides of a booth, the two sat in silence, obviously avoiding conversing about what was talked about during Matthewâs appointment. Or so Matthew hoped.
âSo doc tells me âbout a painting.â Liar. Matthew knows Paisley wouldnât have told him jack shit about that painting. âItâs nothing. Itâs a surprise, Al, donât go sticking your nose into my art and I won't question your phall-â Alfred burst out laughing before Matthew could finish his joke, he supposed seeing his brother laugh did brighten his moods. The waiter, dressed in a stereotypical apron, brought over some coffee (âitâs not Tim Hortons, but itâll doâ) and Alfred waved her off to get some burgers with a âthank you dollâ that only resulted in a tut. They talked about Alfredâs course and how his lab work was going, Matthew, in turn, talked about the next hockey season and howâd he hope he would get back on the team after his hiatus. Parents. They talked about their parents- neither of whom had called. Their father, ever the distant soul, last they heard, was back in London sorting out some legal case and hadnât even texted Alfred the usual monthly check-in text. Matthew grimaced. If he didnât even text Alfred...then he must still be mad about the two of them going to see mother last summer. The coffee was burnt and bitter, and this dinner was as rugged and worn out as Matthewâs weary soul, yet he couldnât help feel comforted by the fact his brother was still here and not painstakingly somewhere ignoring him. Matthew hated being ignored.
*DING*
T @ 7:34 [Are you at the Diner? I see an oddly familiar car out here.]
Of course, Tim was here.
M @ 7:34 [Yeah Alâs here though. Just came back from Dr.Pâs. Wanna join dinner time?]
T @ 7:36 [Iâve got Laura and Luca with me, Iâm sure theyâd love to catch up with your bro. Though you wanna chat out back for a bit?]
Matthew paused. Looked away from his phone to see Alfred once more chatting with a waitress, idly stacking up some creamer cups.
M @ 7:38 [Your sister would smell the shit on us. Tell the L duo to come in and Iâll come out.]
T @ 7:39 [Iâve got deo and we can blame it on smokers outside. Theyâre going.]
âThe Van-de-bergs are here. Iâm gonna go out just to chat with Tim for a bit. Please donât hit on Laura again- Tim will murder you and Iâll tell Kiku.â Matthew got up quickly, making his way very quickly as his brother tried responding with a resounding âIâm not that big of a flirt-â Laura and little brother Luca in tow came bursting in, gladly waving at Matt as they made their way to the table.
âTim says you two need to chat so heâs-â
âOutside.â Matthew pushed his way past them out the door. Heâs not usually so dismissive of the kind girl but he wanted to get away from some of the noise for a bit. A smoke really sounded good right then. The air seemed nippy as he stumbled into the evening light. The fuzzy streetlights illuminated the tall figure that was Tim leaning on his car. With a head flick and a motion, the two moved, trekking to a dodgy avoided spot right behind the diner; smoker paradise as cigarette buds were littered across the gravelled area.
â..Iâm assuming shit didnât go well.â Matthew denied answering because he himself didnât really know. Today went well. He just didnât feel it.
âWell. Letâs chat then schatje.â
Gilbert had enjoyed Matthewâs empty bedroom for a while. But he found, no matter how charming the walls were and the strewn pieces of art- as captivating as they were, felt strange without Matthew actually being there. He had gotten out, leaving the room as immaculate as it did when he had first gotten in and wondered where the North American brothers had gone. Oh well. His work had occupied him for as long as he needed, and by dinner time he was truly starving. With his, worn out jeans and leather jacket snugly on, and his motorbike keys pocketed he decided heâd go off campus and get some takeaway. The food hall seemed a bit too dull for a Saturday night lunch right? And nothing was better than hunkering down on some takeaway and calling it a night early. With a resounding roar, his bike came to life, driving him down the quiet nighttime roads, running away from the campus that seemed to be riddled with late-night students wandering all over the place.
Unlike Alfred, Gilbert unironically liked the 60s vibe that the diner had possessed. It reminded him of his Grandfather who always liked the middle of nowhere businesses and of Ludwig and his avoidance of less than stellar looking establishments. The food was fantastic too and always made good 24/7 pancakes. Gilbert wouldnât mind pancakes for dinner, he could get them half price if he sweetened that lady over the counter again. Just as he pulled up, and was busy stowing his helmet away he saw a familiar person walking behind the restaurant- Matthew. Matthew with someone most definitely wasnât Alfred. I thought he said he was with his brother. Gilbert scolded himself...itâs none of his business. For all he knew Alfred was there too...behind the diner...where cute Matthew was walking with a shady looking tall dude. Yeah, not awesome. Gilbert began walking.
Heâs just making sure his new friend Matt was safe. A good samaritan keeping someone safe. Gilbert's inner voice was spouting bullshit.
#prucan#APH Canada#APH Prussia#SoftSpokenCalling#prussia x canada#hetalia#hetalia axis powers#Axis Powers Hetalia#Hetalia Fanfiction#hetalia fanfics#hetalia fandom#fanfiction#fanfic#Multichapter
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Finished the project Iâve been working on for the past month! Itâs kind of a hybrid of a visdev portfolio and a self indulgent story guide. Due to tumblrâs photo limit, I only shared about half of the pages here, but if youâre interested in reading the whole thing, you can find it here.Â
I have a lot to reflect upon, but the text is very long (and basically a creative biography ;;;), so Iâll put it under the cut.Â
(Iâm taking advantage of the fact that tumblr is supposed to be a blogging platform and actually writing a blog for once LOL)
As I said in the introduction page, Red Scherzo is a story Iâve been musing over for several years, and itâs not possible to truly understand the project without understanding its history. As most other creatives will relate, writing is Hard. Creating worlds is Hard. And even more so, creating people is Hard.Â
The inkling for this story began in 2014 after I decided that I wanted to write something good. Something cool, something grand. And like most clueless 15 year olds with too much time on their hands, I began to daydream. I reasoned that the best way to make something really cool would be to list out everything that I ever wanted to see in film, in text, in anime, and to somehow mash it into one story. Here are some of the things I demanded from it: nonlinear storytelling, genius foreshadowing, heavy symbolism, characters who are the perfect balance of tragic and relatable, a powerful message, and the list goes on and on. I collected images of beautiful places and beautiful people that I wanted to write stories about and decided that I would incorporate them somehow.
As you can see, these are all very vague, ambiguous elements of storytelling. And so, with only the notion of wanting to make greatness, I began to write. I wrote and plotted and drew iteration after iteration, and I was never satisfied, because how could I be? There was no way that I could have satisfied the guidelines I set for myself.Â
A few years in, about 200,000 words of plotting and 2 or 3 Nanowrimoâs later, Iâd decided to make the story (it was not called Red Scherzo back then) a webcomic. I was starry-eyed and determined. This would be the project I worked on for the foreseeable rest of my life. Iâd calculated that if I posted an update a week, it would take until my mid 30â˛s to complete.Â
Saying that now feels so incomprehensible and hilarious. Very little planning went into how the story was going to look, and I had little to no experience storyboarding, panelling, scripting, and so much more. I jumped straight in with a script that was maybe 1/1000 complete, and let my whims drive the visual direction. I got 4 decently sized updates in until I realized I couldnât keep doing this.
After one last Nanowrimo I did for this story in my first year of college, I decided that I needed to trash the whole thing. Just forget the entire past four years happened, and release myself. It had become a burden, trying to perfect the story, trying to make it something bigger than what I currently had the capacity for. And so I did. I closed all the Google Drive tabs, closed all the Photoshop files, and just stopped thinking about it.
It was a very strange 6 months. I hadnât known what it was like to not have story in my head for many many years. To not have some scene playing out in my head as I went to sleep, to not see something quirky happen and think about how my characters would react, to not see a beautiful setting and want to inject my story into it. Because my head was clear now, empty and free of any sort of expectations. Of course, in this time, I tried to carefully and slowly plan other stories, and to find some sort of spark that would bring me back into the story realm. I wonât say those were all failures, but just that they need some time to brew, just like Red Scherzo did.
In those 6 empty months, I paid more attention to living. I paid attention to people, ideas, and truths that were important to me. I was struggling with academics for the first time in my life, and learning what it meant to make sacrifices and live in a fulfilling and exciting way. I reread my old old stories that I believed held some capacity of beauty and authenticity and began to illustrate them. I decided what kind of art I wanted to make and what kind of things I wanted to say with it.
And then I returned to Red Scherzo. My mistakes were glaringly obvious now. This story was written during high school, during a time where I was not challenged, not exploring, and not genuine. I used the excuse of plotting to have something to be working on, always, and to be able to show off how much work I was putting into an arbitrary project. It was written during a time when I was feeling bored and suffocated, and used the story as a lifeline to entertain myself. I had goals and things I wanted to say with my writing, but it was all artificial, because I didnât know it felt like to live like I wanted to. Â
Youâve probably grasped by now that the morale of what Iâve just written is that you need to live in order to create. (And that this blog has gotten horribly off topic). You canât know what kinds of characters you want to write if you donât go out there and meet characters. You canât know what kinds of worlds you want to build if youâve never experienced yours.Â
Okay, so trying to loop all this back around to the actual portfolio.Â
Well, obviously, Iâve never been a schizophrenic rich boy living in the 1950â˛s who writes symphonies and chases murderers. But I think that now, Iâm able to understand and respect the people that guide my stories a bit better. Iâm less impatient and less worried about making something perfect, which this portfolio is definitely not.
I have a good number of gripes over how this project ended up, but Iâm not going to try to add to it or fix it because I want to keep it as a marker in time. This right here is the current maximum of my creative efforts. There are many things in it that Iâd never drawn, much less designed before in my life. Cars, knives, buildings, interiors. I discovered that I enjoyed drawing many of these things. I also did the entire thing in a style that Iâd hardly used before, just to challenge myself. (I took a lot of inspiration from the way kenesuâs was formatted, and the style that Renareve and Sophie Liâs was done in).Â
By the time I hit the midway point, I already knew that I was capable of far more than the project was offering me, but I stuck it through because I needed to finish something solid.Â
Iâm excited to let this project go into the wild and begin to plan what my next one will be like. There are so many styles and genres I want to try. I feel like Iâve only just discovered the tip of the iceberg of my creative potential.
If you made it, thank you for reading until the end. I hope at least some of this blog made sense or resonated with you!
#visdev#visual development#original character#character design#yeah i wrote a lot#I don't mind if no one reads it#I just needed to record it for myself lol#reblogs are still appreciated tho LOL#this is all oversharing but I do think someone out there might be able to gain something from it#this might as well be a biography ;;;
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Archanea Week Day 3: Loyal/Heart
Characters: Ogma, Caeda, some Samuel Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence, torture Word count: ~15K
Ogma is more than willing to put his life on the line for Princess Caeda; she did save him from a terrible fate, after all. But Caeda doesnât want anyoneâs life to be on the line; thatâs why she saved his in the first place.
Notes: Due to Tumblr's ridiculous refusal to show posts with links in them in search results, Iâm going to paste the whole thing here. Due to Tumblrâs inability to keep my formatting, italics and bold wonât be preserved, and, due to Tumblr mobiles disregard of read mores, mobile users are in for lots of scrolling. Iâm sorry for the inconvenience. Iâll put the AO3 link in the notes for those who want to see the fic in its intended format.
Loyal
Ogma wasnât a reckless fighter by any means. He wasnât quite so cautious and guarded as many of the younger soldiers, either, but that was only because he had years of experience behind him and could usually judge danger very accurately. Besides, with his skill level, he could afford to throw some caution to the wind now and again. He rarely did, for fear of incurring Princess Caedaâs wrathâbut he could, theoretically, afford to.
When he spotted the archer nocking an arrow towards the sky, though, he didnât stop to think about it. The fear of his ladyâs anger; his own instincts heâd honed over the years; the swarms of Macedonian soldiers around himânone of it even registered. Ogma moved. He plowed through their ranks, weaving between hulking suits of ebon armor and flashing lances that nipped at his heels, and the lucky few enemies who reacted quickly enough to step in front of him were only met with the edge of his sword.
By the time the archer heard his fellowsâ screams and glanced away from the pegasus heâd been about to shoot down, his head was already toppling off his shoulders.
There. One less archer; one less potential threat.
Only then did Ogma stop to consider the situation. And he quickly came to the conclusion that, having accomplished his goal, he was now essentially trapped behind enemy lines, completely surrounded, and still riding a wave of adrenaline that made his hands shake and his vision go dark around the edges.
âPrincess Caeda is going to kill me,â he found himself thinking as the Macedonians broke out of their stupor and turned their weapons towards him. âOr,â he amended after a moment, âsheâll kill my ghost.â
Physically impossible, but she would find a way.
Then the soldiers fell upon him in a confused flurry of steel, and Ogma could do nothing but drop flat to the ground. One weapon whistled over his headâhe couldnât see it, but it sounded like an axeâand he sent it flying with a deft twist of his sword, clearing up just enough space to get his feet back underneath him.
Seeing little choice, he took three haphazard stabs at the soldiers nearest to him in quick succession, still crouching under the wild singing of various weapons overhead. All three men hit the ground, and he heard a fourth man scream asâOgma risked a glance to checkâthe pinwheeling axe from earlier caught him in the shoulder, sending him stumbling into the mage behind him. Ah: a rare stroke of luck. Taking advantage of the brief confusion, Ogma rolled forward, barely evading what wouldâve been a fatal stab to the neck, and skewered both the grunt and mage at once.
He allowed himself exactly half a second to marvel at the quality of his newest sword. Not many blades could pierce two bodies in one go, even with Ogmaâs considerable strength behind them. Then he sprung back onto his feet, knocking aside a clumsy sword slash, and the fight began in earnest.
After that, he didnât bother keeping tabs on each individual attack. The way he moved was mostly instinct, combined with some simple on-the-fly assessmentsâthose halberdiers are a real problem; I should take care of those next. This swordmaster has no idea what heâs doing, so itâs probably safe to leave him alive for now. That archer might decide to go after Princess Caedaâthere we go. Not anymore, he wonât. It was a tried and tested formula that heâd developed back in the gladiator days, and it had yet to fail him.
(But there was, of course, a first time for everything.)
Ogma couldnât identify the attack which finally broke through his defenses. That was the nature of being attacked from behind: you either noticed it beforehand or you just wondered where that sudden stabbing pain had come from.
Whatever kind of wound it was, it hurt, and Ogma faltered, letting out a sort of choked growl that fell just short of a shout. Then something jostled inside of his newly-injured shoulderâthe weapon hadnât yet been removed, he supposedâsword? Axe? Too shallow to be a lance; too much movement to be an arrowâ
He barely even realized that his own legs had buckled underneath him (the traitors), but that was definitely dirt beneath his knees. And a quick, bleary-eyed glance proved that, as heâd suspected, he was still completely surrounded. A dozen soldiers on their feet versus a wounded mercenary on his knees. It was a foolâs wager.
With one last burst of adrenaline, Ogma buried his sword up to the hilt in the closest targetâsome poor chumpâs thighâand then the weapon in his back twisted very deliberately and Ogma lost his grip, both palms hitting the ground.
Belatedly, he snarled in pain, fingers gouging into the dirt. The Macedonians tightened around him as if he wasnât already hemmed in, hastily dragging away the swordsman heâd injuredâand, with him, Ogmaâs sword, still embedded in his leg. Even if heâd managed to keep his grip on the damn thing, he still would have been done for, but the added helplessness of being disarmed was enough to make his throat constrict in an uncharacteristic moment of panic.
âPrincess Caeda is going to turn to the dark arts,â he found himself thinking nigh hysterically (and rather incongruously, given the circumstances). âPrincess Caeda is going to defect, and have Gharnef teach her forbidden magic, and bring me back to life, solely for the purpose of killing me again, but slower.â
Then, as he began to lose coherence, his muddled brain added, somewhat more rationally and much more distressingly:
âCaedaâs gonna cry.â
The weapon in his shoulder drove down until his vision went white and his ears rang, Â and Ogma screamed, slamming against the ground as his limbs crumpled uselessly underneath him. Blade scraped bone, pushing through flesh long since torn asunder, and a jolt of white-hot agony vibrated through his entire being, tearing another choked gasp from his lips.
He was dead. He was a corpse. His mind was already severed from his body, hovering on a separate plane of existence as he waited for his chance to pass into the afterlife. Waiting to see whether he would be admitted into paradise or consigned to a much less pleasant fate.
Perhaps, he thought, the gods would judge him kindly for his meager years of service to Princess Caeda. Surely, if they even spared a glance at his soul, they would find it sorely wanting for virtue. But perhaps the Princessâ overabundance of virtue would reflect well on him. She may yet manage to save him a third time.
Agonyâa sudden burst of it, centered around his shoulderâand Ogmaâs mind writhed even as his body remained inert and lifeless. No such luck, thenâheâd already been found lacking. Understandably so, perhaps. Caedaâs command had been the best part of his life but, ultimately, the shortest part as well. It wouldnât hold much weight in the value of his soul, even though it felt as if his life hadnât truly begun until heâd looked up through bloodied eyelashes and seen a puny girl with deep blue hair standing over him.
Another jolt of pain, followed by the strange sensation of being moved. Ogma wondered why he could still feel his body if his soul had already abandoned ship. An incomprehensible cacophony of unintelligible noises wormed its way into his ears, overpowering the shrill ring that hadnât yet faded, and he surprised himself by physically squirming. Was this Hell? Did the damned have bodies that they could move? Perhaps his corpse was simply still twitching.
He didnât notice that the pain in his shoulder had receded somewhat until it came back again full-force. A sharp jab against his chest was all it took to jostle the wound, and he surprised himself again by groaning out loud. If this was Hell, then it wasnât as bad as heâd expectedâyetâbut even this was probably enough to merit the title of âdamnationâ.
Another jab, another groan, and another squirm. Ogma wasnât sure whether he wanted to know what was prodding him or not. It was too blunt to be a trident like the ones that demons traditionally carried, and, other than that, he didnât have even a guess. But, when it pressed insistently into his chest, he decided that he probably had no choiceâthis would continue until he relented and looked.
With monumental effort, Ogma managed to pry his eyes open. He could barely see anyway, the light nearly blinding him, his vision blurry and unstable, but something about the few vague, pulsing colors he could make out gave him pause.
Finally, the world came into a shaky sort of focus. The colors solidified into something more tangibleâshapes; figures; wings?âand Ogma wondered if this was an angel coming to spirit him away. Then the image sharpenedâblue hair; red clothing; white wingsânot on her, but a pegasusâand Ogma thought, âOh, I was half right.â
Princess Caedaâit could be no otherâwas hovering over him, mounted atop Tempest, but they werenât airborne. The butt of her wing spear was pressed lightly against his chest, pushing his wound into the ground, which explained why it hurt like hellfire. In her other hand was a blood-crusted axe.
Briefly, Ogma entertained the idea that Caeda had, in fact, resurrected him so that she could kill him herself. Then she tossed the axe aside, urged Tempest into a sharp turn, and thrust out her hand in a desperate grab for his arm. Ogma couldnât really hear what she was saying, but he definitely saw his name cross her lips as she leaned further out of the saddle, still too far off the ground to reach him.
He wasnât sure whether to classify the feeling that overtook him as nostalgia or deja vu, but, either way, it was intense enough to drive some of the cotton from his skull. Staring up at Princess Caeda, gritting his teeth against wave after wave of pain, trying to piece together the fact that he wasnât yet dead as she stretched a hand towards himâit was all very familiar.
Well, his soul might still be forfeit, he mused to himself as comprehension finally dawned on him, but Caeda would get the chance to save him a third time, anyway.
Ogma forced a bit of feeling back into his numb extremities. He wished for all the world that he could just lay there until his shoulder stopped screaming for mercy, but that was no longer an option.
He was still alive.
Caeda had passed her judgment.
Clawing into the deepest chasms of his body, Ogma managed to scrounge up one last scrap of adrenaline. It was just enough for him to stifle the pain and throw out his arm in an inelegant grab for Caedaâs. Luckily, at the same time, Caeda lunged towards him, nearly unseating herself in the process, and they each managed to clumsily wrap a hand around the otherâs forearm.
The Princessâ grip was bruising, and Ogmaâs shoulder strained when she rocked back into the saddle, tugging him halfway off the ground. Tempest rearedâhe noticed, only now, that they were still encircled by Macedonian soldiers, albeit far fewer than beforeâand then Caeda jerked his arm with all the force of a killing blow, pulling his limp body off of the ground entirely.
For a split second, he was airborne. He spent most of that split-second on a strangled but vehement curse that he hoped wasnât loud enough to sully the Princessâ ears. Despite his pained shout and Tempestâs distressed whinnies, though, the nauseating sound of his shoulder popping out of socket was still audible.
His forehead ricocheted off of Caedaâs pauldron with a clang that sent his head spinning, and the rest of his body made contact an instant later, his torso colliding with hers and his legs ramming up against Tempestâs side. All three yelped on impact, and the two humans immediately clung to each other as the pegasus underneath them reared once again. Ogma thoughtlessly scrambled for a foothold, boots scraping against Tempestâs hide, which only exacerbated the situation.
Caeda didnât give them time to get situated. As soon as her grip on Ogma was secure enough that she could be reasonably sure he wouldnât fall, she spurred her panicked pegasus off of the ground, and they took off. The Macedonians shouted, but Tempest was too fast for them to catch, even when she was throwing a fit.
Half-delirious with pain and panic, Ogma clawed for purchase against both Caedaâs armor and Tempestâs side. Already, he was beginning to slide dangerously downward, gravity doing its damnedest to pull him back to the ground, and Tempestâs desperate thrashing wasnât exactly helping matters.
Before he could fall, Caeda tightened her grasp on his torsoâhe hissed in pain, but she wisely didnât relentâand heaved him up, both of them teetering precariously. Through mostly dumb luck, Ogmaâs kicking legs hooked over the side of the saddle, and, with a bit of flailing and a few near deaths, Caeda managed to settle him behind her on Tempestâs back.
Without his feet in the stirrups, and with Tempest still bucking and neighing, Ogma had no choice but cling to the Princess for dear life, stifling an agonized cry into her shoulder for lack of anywhere else to stifle it. For a moment, her hand alighted on his, and she turned to say something over her shoulderâOgma thought he might have heard his name, and perhaps a âhang on tightââbefore she leaned forward to take Tempestâs reigns in both hands.
A sharp yank had the pegasus whirling around, and Ogma seized the leather strap of Caedaâs breastplate between his teeth rather than letting himself scream. The wind was whistling past them, now, as Tempest picked up speed, and he was becoming progressively surer that Caeda had, in fact, warned him to hang on. It seemed to be sage advice.
The thought of tightening his gripâand therefore pulling at the wound on his backâwas enough to make him flinch in breathless anticipation. Neither of his shoulders was in particularly good condition right nowâone bleeding profusely, the other dislocatedâand trying to âhold onâ with his arms injured like this would be... perilous, to say the least.
This was going to hurt, he acknowledged numbly. It was going to hurt far more than that petty little wound heâd gotten earlier. And he was fresh out of adrenaline to drown it out.
âRise, Sir Ogma of Talys. From this day forward, you will serve as my personal retainer.â
âAs you wish, Princess Caeda. This body is yours until it breaks.â
With the last of his strength, Ogma clung to Caeda as tightly as he could, instinctively taking two fistfuls of her shirt as his arms locked around her torso. As heâd expected, the motion made his back and shoulder scream like the souls of the damned, and he squeezed his eyes shut with a choked gasp. The more it hurt, the tighter he held. The tighter he held, the more it hurt. If he was even somewhat aware right now, he might worry that his grip would suffocate her.
But he was not, so he just held on, his eyes still tightly screwed shut, his entire body taut and trembling, his breaths coming fast and unsteady.
He maintained his tenuous grasp on consciousness just long enough for Tempest to land. Then, his duty completed, Ogma let his head loll forward against his liege lady's back and surrendered to the encroaching darkness.
Samuel had concocted the plan.
For all the kidâs faults, it was a pretty ingenious idea, and heâd already gathered all the information they would need before he made his proposal. They would slip out after tomorrowâs tournament ended; Samuel would lift the keys from one of the guards after his bout, which would be second-to-last. Once heâd been escorted back to his cell, he would free himself and the others. As always, Ogma would be given the last and toughest opponent; when the guards led him back to his cell, the other gladiators would ambush them and get Ogma unshackled. They would fight their way out to the back entrance, where they would close the gate and sever the ropes used to open it, effectively locking it shut. Once it was âlockedâ, they were home freeâtheyâd simply split into small groups and vanish into the city.
Other than the obvious, unavoidable issues, such as the high likelihood that theyâd stand out from the crowd here in Knorda and quickly be recaptured, it was a very solid plan. Samuel had taken almost everything into account, from the length of the patrol routes to the number of men who could feasibly go unnoticed in a crowd. Heâd even managed to pilfer a weapon from the arena: a single iron sword, which, by unanimous vote, would be given to Ogma.
There was only one problem.
Not everyone could make it out.
No one else seemed to notice the fatal flaw in their little schemeâor, if they did, they didnât point it out. Ogma, however, saw it immediately.
The plan called for Samuel himself to hold back any remaining guards while the others escaped, then quickly slide under the gate just before it could close. And, gods, the kid was good with a sword, but not that good. He was underestimating how quickly the guards would mobilize. One man couldnât hold the lines on his own; he would be overcome quickly, and then the entire thing would fall apart. But they couldnât afford for more than one person to stay inside; their plan revolved around as many men as possible making it into the trees before the gate was even shut.
The idea was good on paper, but putting it into practice would probably meet with failure. Sure, one or two people might escape, but the rest would be captured and punished severely for their rebellionâtortured, probably, and then executed for good measure.
But this was the best chance they were ever going to get.
So, as he and his co-conspirators sat in a tight circle, whispering amongst each other as they laid out each and every second of the escape in excruciating detail, Ogma placed a hand on Samuelâs shoulder and muttered, âYou should stay with the rest and make sure everything goes smoothly. Iâll hold off the guards.â
He was fully aware that he was unlikely to survive that encounterâand, if he did, he would just find himself in the gallowsâbut it wasnât as if he was likely to survive if someone else took up the job, anyway.
Besides, Ogma had only ever been good at one thingâfightingâand his years of nearly non-stop combat in the colosseum had destroyed what little conversational skill heâd had before. Even if he did make it out, he wasnât sure what he would do with his newfound freedom. Probably just go looking for a fight. Samuel and the others were... different. Most of them were very youngâteenagers, evenâwith some real talents and dreams. They had a whole lifeâs worth of possibilities ahead of them.
That was something worth dying for, he supposed.
To Samuelâs credit, up until the guards started pouring in, the plan went off without a hitch. After his unsurprising victory in the arena, Ogma allowed himself to be led back to his cell, only for Samuel to leap out from a dark corner and knock the guard out cold. Ogmaâs wrists were freed and he took the proffered sword, and then they were off, their fellow gladiators quietly slipping out of their unlocked cells to join them. They encountered only the two patrols theyâd expected to encounter, both of whom they dispatched of with ease, and, soon enough, they were working together to hastily raise the back gate. Freedom was just a short sprint away.
Then the first wave of guards surged around the corner.
Samuel cursedâhe hadnât expected anyone to realize they were goneâbut Ogma just drew his sword and lunged, lopping off the first guardâs head before he could even raise his lance. âHurry!â he snarledâas if that wasnât a givenâand the other gladiators frantically cranked the gate further up.
The first group of guards was small and unprepared, and Ogma cut them down effortlessly, like wheat at the harvest, though he quickly realized that the sword heâd been granted was incredibly dull and far too light. That would have been a problem, he suspected, if he was planning on surviving this battle. For his purposes, though, it would do just fine. Even a rusty old iron sword like this could at least last long enough for the others to escape, and, once the gate was jammed shut, Ogma couldnât care less what became of the sword. He wouldnât need it where he was going.
As the second wave poured in, followed closely by the third, the gate finally rose far enough for everyone to duck underneath, and Ogma shoved Samuel away when he stepped forward as if to help fend off the guards. âGo,â he urged, his voice deathly calm. Knowing with some certainty that you were about to die was strangely soothing. âLead the others to safety. Youâre the one with the plan.â
Samuel, for some gods-forsaken reason, actually hesitated. âButâbut there are so many of them,â he stammered, gesturing to the guards who were almost upon them. âYou canât take them all on at onceâyouâll die!â
A sweet sentiment, but ultimately meaningless; Ogma had already concluded that he was only leaving this room in chains or a coffin. Not that a rebel gladiator would be afforded a proper burial. âGo,â he repeated firmly, kicking Samuel one of the dead soldiersâ swords. âIâll be alright.â A blatant lie. The kid would have to forgive him.
One more moment of hesitation; then, with a resolute nod, Samuel turned and released the mechanism holding the gate up, ducking through the door before it could fall down on his head. Just cut the ropes, Ogma wanted to say, but he doubted the fool would listen; he was still convinced that Ogma would be escaping with the rest. The gravity of the situation hadnât quite hit him yet.
Ogma just hoped that, when he did figure it out, he wouldnât make a scene. He preferred to die with as little pointless fanfare as possible.
Then the guards were upon him, and he couldnât afford to watch any longer. He would just have to hope that Samuel would realize what was happening and cut the cables before he left. Ogma had his own things to cutâmainly throats and tendonsâand he couldnât waste time on the gate.
To their credit, the soldiers that patrolled this place werenât exactly half-rate. More like... three-quarter-rate. Sure, Ogma sliced through their ranks easily enough, dodging clumsy thrusts of various weapons and aiming for the parts of the body which they foolishly left unprotected, but it wasnât as effortless as it couldâve been. As the last of the second wave fell at his feet and the third wave crested over them, Ogma even found himself thinking that, under different circumstances, he might be proud to serve alongside men like these.
Circumstance was everything, though, so he still cut them down without hesitation.
It was only part-way through the third wave that Ogma felt himself begin to tire. He hadnât taken any direct blows, but there had been several scrapes and brushes with various blades and spearheads, and his lungs were beginning to beg for air. It wouldnât be long before he was overwhelmed and either killed or captured.
Numbly, as he ducked under a clumsy sword swing, Ogma decided that he should double-check to make sure that Samuel had cut the cables before he left. If he ended up pinned and the guards opened up the gates, then this would all be for naught; the others couldnât outrun an entire arena of soldiers with only a minute-long head start. He would just have to wait for a good opportunity to turn around.
The choice was taken away from him almost immediately. âOgma!â Samuel cried, way too close to be anywhere near the treeline, and, against his better judgment, Ogma risked a brief glance over his shoulder. Simultaneous waves of fondness and irritation crashed over him when he caught sight of the kid kneeling on the cobblestone, his shoulder braced against the underside of the gate, fists white-knuckled on the bars. He was holding the heavy cast-iron up on his ownâkeeping it propped open just enough for Ogma to, theoretically, take a running start and slide to freedom.
Of course, theory wasnât always reality, and, in reality, several soldiers swerved around Ogma, using his distraction to their advantage, and made a beeline for Samuel with lances drawn. The kid hastily let go of the gate with one handâthe extra weight visibly bore down on his shoulder, and he grunted in painâand unsheathed the sword that Ogma had tossed him. Any fool could see that the sword was useless, though. Half-a-dozen soldiers on their feet versus a burdened gladiator on his knees.
A foolâs wager.
Without pausing to think about it, Ogma knocked a man silly with the hilt of his sword, swept several off of their feet with a swing of his leg, then completely disregarded every ounce of combat instinct ingrained into his mind and threw his sword across the room. It pinwheeled clumsily through the air, not properly weighted as a throwing weapon, but his aim was true enough; the blade hit one of the soldiers across his shoulders, and he stumbled with a pained yelp, his comrades pausing and whirling around to face this new threat.
Ogma met Samuelâs wide, surprised eyes and bellowed, âDrop it!â
Naga be praised, the kid didnât stop to argue; he let go of the bars and managed to get out just in time, the gate hitting the ground with a clang right as the first soldierâs lance pierced the space where his head had been seconds earlier.
Relief flooded Ogma, and he allowed himself a fleeting moment to be grateful to the gods for letting this crazy, harebrained scheme actually work. Everyone who had intended to escape had already escaped. The gate was closed. In a moment, it would be closed for good. Theyâd done it. Samuel had seen the plan through.
They were home free.
Then several guards piled on top of him, grabbing him around the neck and under the arms, hands twisting in his ragged clothesâboots kicking at his knees, fingers scrabbling at his throatâand Ogma could do very little but snarl like a caged animal as he was wrestled onto the ground.
Unfortunately, as intelligent as he was, Samuel apparently hadnât foreseen this, because he gasped, lunging forward and wrapping both hands around the iron bars between them. âOgmaâ!â
Gritting his teeth, Ogma braced himself against the floor and managed to throw one of the soldiers off of him, startling the kid into scrambling back. The guardsâ lances slipped through the bars, and Samuel danced out of the way, but he didnât run. Idiotâidiot, idiot, idiotâ âGo!â Ogma snapped, even as two more soldiers took the last oneâs place, weighing down on him as he struggled to get his feet underneath him.
Samuel, damn him, still hadnât caught on. âWh-whatâ?!â he spluttered, eyes wide and almost affronted; as if Ogma had just asked him to slaughter an infant in the cradle.
âGo!â he repeated without hesitation as another soldier jumped on top of him. Even his strength faltered under that much weight, and his knees banged painfully against the ground. The real agony, however, was watching two more guards rush towards the levers to reopen the gate while Samuel just stood there, staring like an idiot, mouth agape and sword limp at his side.
âBut youââ the kid started.
Ogma didnât give him a chance. âGo without me, you fool!â he practically screamed.
By now, the guards had managed to get him on his stomach, his cheek pressed flat against the cobblestone, but he could still see the shock and denial play across Samuelâs face. Damn it. âThis was the plan!â he yelled, hoping that the admission would jar him into action. âI knew I wouldnât make it out! I never planned to make it out! So stop playing the martyr and go!â
And, yes, Ogma did see the hypocrisy in that statement, but he was already functionally dead, and Samuel still had a fighting chanceâa fighting chance that Ogma had essentially died to win for himâa fighting chance that dwindled with each passing secondâ
âHurry!â
This damn kid and his bleeding heartâright at the verge of being home-free, yet he hesitated, eying the swarm of guards warily, as if he was sizing them upâas if he had any chance against themâas if saving Ogma was worth forfeiting all of their lives. One guard was working each crank, the ropes straining as the gate began to inch up again, and Ogmaâs heart pounded. âGo, damn you!â he bellowed one last time, a rare note of desperation coloring his voice.
(Get out of here, you stupid kid, or else Iâll have died for nothing.)
For a moment, Ogma feared that his words, spoken and unspoken, would fall on deaf ears. Then, in one quick, fluid motion, Samuel unsheathed his sword, slashed the wrists grabbing at him through the gate, and severed both cables, sending the gate crashing back to the groundâthis time, for good.
Ogma could just barely hear a quiet âIâm sorry,â over the clang of cast-iron bars hitting cobblestone and the myriad of curses as the wounded guards stumbled back. When the soldiers bent to the ground and frantically tried to lift the gate back up, Samuel was nowhere to be found.
âDumb kid,â Ogma thought privately to himself, even as his shoulders slumped in both relief and resignation. âSay âthank youâ, not âsorryâ.â
Of course, the guards were trained well enoughâtheyâd managed to overpower Ogma, which was impressive even given their vastly superior numbersâbut they were no Samuel. They hadnât been forced to fight for their lives nearly every day for years, and manually lifting the gate off of the ground was much more difficult than stopping it from closing, anyway. After a few minutes of futile heaving, they gave up.
âNo use,â one of them grunted, letting go and clambering back his feet. âThat thingâs right stuck.â
His fellows quickly followed his example, wiping the sweat from their foreheads. âDamn lowlives did well to jam it like that,â another admitted begrudgingly. âWeâll have to send scouts to sniff âem out.â
The first man snorted derisively. âGimme a breakâthose mutts donât stand a chance out there. Stick out like sore thumbs, they will. And no way theyâve got a plan on what theyâre gonna do now. Bet theyâll come crawling right back here once they realize they got no place else to go.â
Ogma had stayed silent until then, but, at that, he couldnât quite stifle a snort of his own. âYeah, sure,â he rasped as the guards turned to scowl at him, âI bet theyâll give up a life of freedom and come back here to be beaten, imprisoned, and killed. Thatâd make sense, wouldnât it?â
One of the guards gave him a warning kick with a newly-polished boot. âYouâd be smart to shut your mouth, prisoner.â
Ogma shot the lot of them his most smug, condescending smirkâhe was dead anyway; might as well raise their hackles for the hell of it. âWell,â he drawled, âI never was the brightestââ
âClearly,â a deep voice cut in, and the soldiers snapped to attention.
Ogma refused to react on principle, but he couldnât quite help the slight twinge of dread in his gut as the guards scrambled into some semblance of order. Only two stayed down to keep him pinned. It didnât much matter to Ogma, but he was a bit insulted that they thought two men were enough to hold himâthough he wasnât exactly planning on proving them wrong. No point, really.
Heavy footsteps echoed through the now-silent corridor, and Ogma grit his teeth to keep from growling. âWhat happened here?â the voice continued in a heavy accent, and the soldiers visibly shrunk back.
After a moment of silence, one of them cleared his throat. âThe prisoners mounted an escape attempt, sir!â he said with false certainty, despite the nearly imperceptible quiver in his voice. âThey jammed the gate and ran into the forest! Sir!â
âEscape attempt?â The anger dripping from his voice was enough to make even the guards on top of Ogma squirm. âI think you mean âsuccessful escapeâ. Unless youâve already got them all back in their cells.â
There was a collective cringe from the room as a whole. âS-sir!â one of the guards cried after a moment, snapping to a sharp salute. âMost of the prisoners escaped, but we managed to catch this one, sir!â
At those words, the grunts whoâd tackled him each grabbed an arm and hauled him to his feet, eager to prove that they hadnât failed completely. Ogma grunted quietly, but didnât bother struggling as they dragged him across the room; he could probably wrench himself free, but it wouldnât last long. He would just end up on the floor again, this time with even more guards on top of him. Anyway, heâd known that he would lose; might as well take it gracefully.
With a well-placed kick, the guards forced Ogma onto his knees, though they didnât release their grip on his arms. A boot landed between his jutting shoulder blades, pushing him into a deep bow, and his shoulders strained. Nevertheless, he craned his head back as far as it would go, meeting his captorâs eyes with fierce defiance.
âOh,â the colosseumâs owner growled from above him. âItâs you.â He drew his thick eyebrows down in a glare, which only made his bulbous eyes seem to pop even further out of his head. âI should have known.â
Ogma grinned up at him like a wild dog and congratulated himself when the craven dastard cringed away, taking a reflexive step back. âYeah,â he mumbled, âyou shouldâve known. But you didnât, didja?â He tilted his head to the side, grin not wavering. âYou got any idea how long Iâve been planning this? Months. Months, and you didnât even notice.â Less than a week, actually, and Ogma had only been let in on the plan maybe thirty hours ago. But the enraged, humiliated look blooming across the ownerâs puce-colored face was way too satisfying to pass up.
âYouââ His word devolved into a growl, and Ogma had a moment to brace himself before a boot landed directly in his face. His head tried to snap back, but it was already craned as far as it could go, so it just fell forward; his pained grunt sprayed red-tinted saliva onto the ground. Quickly probing around with his tongue, he determined that the worst of the damage was his split lip and the small cut where his teeth had snapped shut around his cheek.
Before he could lift his head again, his ownerâs foot pressed down on the back of his skull, pushing down until his already-aching neck strained. âDonât pretend that you won,â the owner spat, grinding his foot down. âIf your plan was so foolproof, then why are you here?â
It was hard to say whether he gave the guards a silent gesture or they were just following his lead, but, either way, a flurry of kicks suddenly rained down on Ogma from both sides, and he locked an elongated snarl behind his teeth. Nonetheless, he couldnât stop his body from jerking in the soldiersâ hold, and his owner laughed at him, loud and mocking. âNot so clever now, are you?â he gloated, the tread of his boots rough as he leaned a little harder on Ogmaâs head. âWe foiled your little escape plan, prisoner.â
Ogma managed to crane his neck back just enough to grin at the bastard, blood dribbling sluggishly through his teeth. âYes, good job,â he slurred; âYou captured the decoy.â
A scowl crossed the corpulent manâs face, and he kicked Ogma hard enough that the guards holding him almost lost their grip. Another few seconds of pregnant silence followed as all the soldiers held their breath. Thenâ âWell, what are you waiting for?! Youâalert the other guards! The rest of you, out through the front entrance and after them! Every prisoner that escapes, one of you idiots takes his place in the gallows!â
Immediately, there was a mad scramble to follow his order, the guards pouring out of the room at top speed. Some bent over to scoop up the discarded weapons that their friends had left behind; others just clutched their own weapons to their chests and ran. Within maybe ten or twenty seconds, only the owner, Ogma, and the two guards restraining him remained.
âSir, what about him?â one of those guards asked tentatively, nudging Ogma with his foot as if it was unclear who he was referring to.
The owner looked down his long nose, curling his lip as if Ogma was something unpleasant on the bottom of his shoe. âCall up a crowd and have him flogged out front,â he said simply after a moment of deliberation. âHang him when youâre done.â
âHow many lashes?â
âAs many as it takes.â Neither Ogma nor his owner broke eye contact. âDonât grant him death until he begs for it.â
To his credit, the guard cringed sympathetically. âAnd if he doesnât?â
The owner grinned sickeningly down at Ogma, eyes sharp and borderline gleeful.
âKeep going,â he drawled, âuntil he does.â
Ogma just smiled grimly, having anticipated such a fate. âYour threats canât touch me,â he rasped.
His ownerâwhose name Ogma had never bothered to learnâscowled. âWeâll see about that.â He huffed harshly through his nose, then snapped his fingers and waved the guards away. âTake this maggot out of my sight. I donât want to see him again until heâs dying or dead.â
âYes, sir!â the soldiers replied, and they immediately tugged Ogma off of his knees, though not quite all the way onto his feet. As his bare feet scrambled for purchase on the blood-splattered cobblestone floor, his arms were jerkily maneuvered in front of him, one guard holding him still while the other removed a set of iron manacles from his belt.
Cold metal closed around his arms with a clang and a click, and Ogma wasnât sure whether the sinking feeling in his gut was dread of his impending death or just resigned acceptance at the familiar weight of shackles on his wrists.
Either way, he didnât put up a struggle as they dragged him away. Might as well face death with what little dignity he had left.
The plan had worked; the others were safe. That was all that mattered.
Neither of the guards spoke a word as they led him through the winding corridors, still full of panicking soldiers trying to get ready for a manhunt. Ogma didnât really mind. Nothing they could say would change the situation at all, so he was glad to be spared any further mockeryâor, worse, meaningless sympathy.
Being dragged outside, however, was... strange. In a way, it was a good feelingâhe imagined that, after years spent in dingy cells and death matches, anyone would be relieved to feel the open air on their face again. He was almost tempted to rip himself out of the guardsâ hold just so that he could properly enjoy the grass beneath his feet and the wind in his hair, but... well, to be frank, he didnât want to run and, therefore, seem afraid. No; he wouldnât give his owner the satisfaction.
Still, Ogma decided as the sun warmed his face, this wasnât a bad way to g0 at all. Out here, he could die with a lungful of fresh air, and his body would be quickly discarded, rather than being left to decay until the guards couldnât stand the smell anymore. He had no intention of begging, so he would be whipped until his body gave out, which was significantly less pleasant, but it was better than bleeding to death in the colosseum or rotting alive in his cell.
He had a lot to thank Samuel for, he supposed, even if their plan hadnât exactly proceeded flawlessly like heâd promised.
A crowd was already gathered around the raised platform used for public beatings and executions, and Ogma marveled at the speed with which they congregated when they were promised something juicy like a flogging. He wondered if any of them cared who he was and what heâd done to warrant this, or if theyâd just come running at the word âscourgedâ. Probably the latter.
Then he was lifted onto the platform, his already tattered shirt roughly torn off of him, knees forced to the floor for the hundredth time today, and Ogma barely even registered the painful scrape of splintered wood against his chest as he was slung over an old, blood-stained block. Rusty chains were hastily hooked to his bound hands, stretching them out before him, and his legs were similarly shackled to the ground, keeping him pressed firmly against the block with his bare back fully exposed.
âThis prisoner,â one of the guards announced to the restless crowd, âincited a riot that killed and injured dozens of innocent guards! In retribution, he shall be lashed until he repents for his crimes!â
An excited murmur rippled through the crowdâeveryone knew that âlashed until he repentsâ really just meant âlashed to deathââand, for the first time in this whole ordeal, Ogma felt his stomach turn. At the very least, some of the people watching seemed uncomfortableâhe even saw a few leave, curiosity satedâbut the majority were visibly enthusiastic.
This was just a show to them. Their weekly entertainment. A bit rarer than fights in the colosseum, and therefore significantly more exciting.
He wondered if any of them recognized him from the tournament that had just ended, less than an hour ago.
He wondered if such recognition would make them more or less excited to witness his last few agonized hours on this miserable earth.
Cold fingers clamped around his face, tugging it up until he was staring directly into the face of his executioner. The man already had a long, nasty-looking whip in one hand, though Ogma was at least relieved to notice that it was not the cat oâ nine tails. He still had some time to prepare himself for that particular torture.
âAny last words, cur?â the executioner asked, sounding distressingly sadistic and almost bored at the same time. As if this was an exciting but utterly mundane occurrence. Yes, a flogging: how fun, yet how truly unspectacular.
Ogma spat out a mouthful of blood. âMy life is well-spent,â he croaked, âbuying the freedom of my comrades-in-arms.â Then, eyes flickering down to the crowd, he added, âAnd this was no riot. It was a daring escape. If you plan to kill me, at least do so for the right reasons.â
The executioner released his chin, and his head flopped back down to hang between his bound arms. âThe prisoner refuses to repent!â he shouted, and the crowd cheered. âHe must be shown the error of his ways!â
Ogma closed his eyes and breathed deep. Heâd known that this would happen. Heâd chosen this. No sense struggling; these manacles offered very little slack. Besides, there was nothing to hold out forâno reinforcements were coming; no specific number of lashes would be deemed âenoughâ; there would certainly be no sudden mercy. The quicker he bled out, the better. Until then, he would just have to endure the pain to the best of his ability.
âEveryone else made it out,â he reminded himself as the executioner circled around him to loom over his vulnerable back. âThey have their whole lives ahead of them,â he reminded himself, even as his instincts bubbled up and his body jerked futilely against the chains keeping him laid out like an invitation.
âYou chose this,â he reminded himself as the executioner raised the whip over his head, but the words rang hollow.
Then the crack of the whip rang throughout the clearing and Ogmaâs body jolted.
âYou chose this.â
Through the first five lashes, each one its own distinct, sharp sting against his back, Ogma remained dead silent, his teeth clamping down tight on his lower lip. The sixth drew a low, stifled grunt from him before he quickly regained his composure and locked another noise deep in his throat.
âYou chose this.â
By the ninth, his silence ended for good; each subsequent lash dragged a sharp gasp from his lips. He grabbed onto his chains in an effort to ground himself, fingers white-knuckled against the cold, corroded metal, but his body still jerked every time the whip fell.
âYou chose this. You chose this. You chose this.â
He lost count at fifteen. They came so quickly and steadily that they were hard to distinguish from one another, each wound layering over the last, criss-crossing over his back from shoulder to shoulder, neck to hip. The endless firings of his nerve endings were beginning to lose coherence. The endless wave of blows was beginning to drown him.
âYou chose this you chose this you chose this you chose this you chose this youââ
He didnât start screaming until at least lash number thirty.
His body was on fire. His skin was melting away. The fractured bones beneath his skin were shifting; poking up through his flesh like jagged teeth emerging from a beastâs mouth. The boiling blood inside him was solidifying into a sea of tiny needles, pressing out against his veins insistently; trying to destroy him from the inside. His mouth tasted like rust. The chains got tighter every time he thrashed.
He could hear the crowd go wild.
âItâs almost over,â he thought to himself, half-delirious with pain. âYouâre almost dead. Youâre almost dead. You can rest soon.â
Or, he acknowledged numbly as another lash landed on his flaming back, perhaps not. After all, if the gods spared even a glance at his soul, surely they would find it sorely wanting for virtue. He couldnât possibly be worthy of paradise. Which meant he would be consigned to a much worse fate.
Or perhaps such a fate had already befallen him. Perhaps he was already dead and simply had yet to realize, because his eternal punishment would simply continue the punishment heâd been given in life. Whipped over and over, without rest, until he was blinded by the pain; until he couldnât remember how to do anything with his mouth besides scream.
It would certainly explain why his back was writhing in multiple different layers of agony, as if someone had peeled back his tattered skin to whip his bare tendons, and then peeled back his tendons to whip right down to his bones.
It didnât really matter, he supposed. If he was dead, then it made no difference. If he was alive, then he wouldnât be for long. Whether he was still breathing or not, this would be the rest of his pitiable existence. Thrashing in the shackles holding him down, screaming his throat raw, and waiting for an end that would never come.
âKid,â he found himself thinking in one last flicker of lucidity, âyouâd better be enjoying your freedom, you hear me?â
It took him a long moment to realize that heâd stopped screaming. Heâd long since stopped hearing his own voice, the ringing in his ears and the roaring of the crowd overwhelming all other sounds, so he only really noticed when he managed to suck in a deep breath without it hitching. Maybe ten seconds after thatâor one second, or three years; heâd lost all grip of time however-long agoâhe realized that the crowd wasnât cheering quite so loudly anymore, and the agony painted all over his back wasnât growing. There were no more cracks of the whip.
He felt fingers grab him by the hair, and he felt his head be yanked back, but he couldnât see anything. His eyes were still closed, he realized after a moment, and it took another moment to remember how to open them.
The executioner swam into view. Ogma was cognizant enough to see his lips move, but the sounds jumbled together in his brain until they were unrecognizable, and he just stared blankly. A sharp smack to the cheek jolted him back to relative awareness, and he blinked away stars.
âBeg,â the executioner said gruffly, voice distant and quiet despite the closeness of his face. âBeg, and Iâll give you a quick death.â
Ahâstill alive, then? Or just a ruse by the devil to lure him into a false sense of security before starting on another wave of torment?
Either way, his response was the same. Ogma licked his lips and, in absence of his trademark insolent grin, conjured up a pained grimace. âNo,â he croaked, lacking the spare breath or brainpower for anything cleverer than that.
His hair was released, and he allowed his head to fall back down, chin bouncing against the edge of the block. âThe prisoner refuses to repent!â the executioner said again, and the crowd cheered. Ogma blinked a few times in a futile effort to stabilize his vision, then just closed his eyes again. He could use this brief respite to collect his composure; steel himself for the next wave of lashes.
âYou chose this,â he reminded himself one last time, breathing slowly.
The whip fell upon his shoulder this time, curling down to stretch down his back, and Ogma grunted, but didnât scream. Another blow, on the other shoulder, earned a similar reaction. Ahâso his tormenter was switching it up a bit. Whipping him from the front, rather than the back. Flaying him alive vertically, rather than horizontally. Would the next blow land on his face?
The singing of the whip as it whistled through the air. The enthusiastic cheering of the crowd below. The loud clanking of Ogmaâs chains as he flinched. The crack of the lash meeting skin.
A soft cry of pain. Not his.
A chorus of gasps and screams.
Ogma barely realized, at first, that the blow had never connected. A minute ago, he wouldnât have noticed at all, but the brief lull had cleared his mind a bit; he could distinguish between each blow again, and there was no new pain this time. Just the throbbing welts on each shoulder and the absolute inferno that was his back.
Confused enough to be curious, Ogma sluggishly cleared the ringing out of his ears, trying to tune in to the sudden, strange silence around him. The crowd was no longer cheering; the whip was no longer singing; even Ogmaâs chains had gone quiet as he held still and tried to listen.
There was a thunk as something hit the floor, followed by a few faint murmurs that were far too quiet for Ogmaâs muddled brain to make out. He thought he heard the executioner stammer out, âMyâmy ladyââ
Then the cotton in his ears finally cleared enough for Ogma to make out the soft, trembling breaths, bordering on sobs, right in front of him.
Caught off-guard, Ogma pried his eyes open and tilted his head back, blearily blinking up at the blob of colors standing before him.
There was some deep blue, but it was mostly pink and peach and white, vaguely arranged in the silhouette of a person, and Ogma wondered if this was an angel coming to spirit him away. Then his vision cleared a bitâenough for him to realize that those werenât wings, merely a fluttery white gown of some sortâand he thought, âNo, just a noble.â
Of course, that elucidated very little, in the grand scheme of things, so Ogma wearily glanced around for any other clues as to what was happening. The executioner was standing a few feet away, stock-still, his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open; the whip was laying on the platform at his feet. Ogma couldnât really make out the crowd, but they seemed to be similarly frozen, still dead silent.
After a moment, a couple of armored figures shouldered through the crowd and clambered up onto the platform, their movement so jarring in the otherwise still tableau that Ogmaâs eyes snapped over to them immediately. âMy lady, get away from there!â one of them cried, hurrying towards Ogma, while the other rounded on the executioner with an enraged âHow dare you strike Her Highness?!â
The cogs in Ogmaâs head turned very slowly. The executioner had... attacked someone else? The noble girl standing in front of himâwas that who he had attacked? But why on Earth would heâ?
Wait.
Her Highness?
At that moment, the noble girl took a step back from the armored man, putting Ogmaâs face inches from her back, and shouted âNo!â with such vehemence that everyone froze in place.
Ogma tilted his head up so he could see over her shoulder, his confusion only growing by the second, as the armored guards sputtered, disregarding the executioner entirely. âM-milady,â the woman stammered, âplease, donât be recklessâI know itâs scary, but executions are a necessary part ofââ
âNo!â the noble girlâthe âhighnessââcried again, and Ogma only then noticed that her arms were extended to either side, as if to shield him from harm. âI wonât move!â
âPrincess Caedaââ one of the knights tried again, but the girlâthe Princess; Princess Caedaâdisregarded him completely, instead twisting around to meet Ogmaâs unfocused gaze. He startled, and some instinct urged him to bow his headânot because heâd overheard that she was royalty; there was just something about her demeanor that made him think âimportant personâ.
Naga only knew why; in that moment, she looked nothing like a princess and every bit a little girl. Her eyes were wide and misty, her lip quivering, and he even saw a bit of snot leaking from one nostril. Only her elegant pink and white clothing hinted towards her status.
It was then that Ogma saw the angry red welt that marred her otherwise pale skin, staring at her collarbone, slanting across her bare shoulder, and then curving around to trail down her back, where it vanished under her dress.
Finally, his mind pieced the puzzle together. Yet all that came out of his mouth was a faint, slurred, âYouâre bleeding.â
That startled a laugh out of the girlâthe PrincessâCaeda, though she remained teary-eyed. âYouâre bleeding more,â she whispered softly, as if it were some great secret.
Ogma stared for a moment, struggling to formulate his thoughts into words. âIâm supposed to bleed,â he eventually settled on.
At that, the PrincessâCaedaâscowled. âYouâre not,â she said fiercely. âNo one is supposed to be hurt. Not ever.â
A pause; then she quietly added, âMy blood, at least, is useful for one thing.â
With that, she turned back towards the executioner, her knights, and the crowd, and loudly announced, âI will not be moved until this man is freed!â
The executioner floundered. âWhaâbutâPrincess Caeda, you canâtâwe canât just... let him go!â
Princess Caeda glared at him until he shrunk back. âWill you disobey your Princess, then?â she demanded. âYou canât hurt him anymore! I wonât let you!â As if to prove her point, she spread her arms wider still, standing on her tiptoes to block his view of Ogma entirely. Their proximity was so close that her gauzy skirt draped across Ogmaâs chained arms like a bedsheet, the fabric no doubt soaking up more blood and sweat and grime the longer it touched his absolutely filthy skin.
For a moment, the entire world seemed dumbstruck. Then the guards and knights began to whisper furiously amongst themselves, shooting the Princess uncertain glances every few words. Ogma saw them gesture towards him, and the female knight kept making aborted grabs for her sword, but he couldnât make out a word they said over the persistent ringing in his ears and the low murmur of the crowd.
Princess Caeda, meanwhile, remained firmly planted before him, chin held high and arms still outstretched, even though he could see her teeter unsteadily on her toes as her wounded shoulder trembled with exertion.
Her dress was stained, now, he realized, and not just where it had come into contact with him; the welt on her collarbone was bleeding sluggishly, crimson trickling down her back to leave dark, ugly blots on her frilly silk collar, and, before he could stop himself, Ogma croaked out an incredulous âWhy?â
For all intents and purposes, the question was completely meaninglessâtoo vague to communicate much of anything other than general bafflement. Yet, somehow, Princess Caeda spared him the trouble of trying to articulate when she glanced down at him over her shoulder, her face not hesitant and helpless but sure and resolute.
âWhat am I supposed to do?â she asked, with the tone of a statement. âJust let you die?â
Ogma had no response.
Luckily, the Princess didnât prod him for one, and they both waited wordlessly for the guards and knights to come to an agreement, Caeda keeping rapt vigil over Ogma in case anyone worked up the nerve to attack him again. An eternity of heavy, pregnant silence seemed to pass before, at last, the executioner threw his hands in the air and gestured to the other soldiers, setting his weapon aside.
As the guards approached, the Princess moved with them, trying to keep her petite frame between them and Ogma. In the end, her knights ushered her aside, mollifying her with a whisper he couldnât hear, but the gesture was enough to make his throat thicken withâsomething. Gratitude, perhaps, for the girl whoâd tried to save his life. More than even that, respectâfor the girl whoâd faced down a squadron of trained soldiers unflinchingly, even after sheâd gotten her first taste of the whip.
âIt would take balls of titanium to disobey a Princess like that,â Ogma found himself thinking. Yet, somehow, he still managed to be surprised when the guards knelt, unhooked his arms from the block, cut his legs free, and heaved him to his feet.
The rough handling hurt like all hell, reigniting the agony etched into his back, and he let out a strangled cry without really meaning to. The reaction was immediate. âStop! Be careful, or youâll hurt him more!â the Princess snapped, and the guards hastened to comply, taking most of Ogmaâs weight without jostling his wounded back. âAnd unchain him at onceâall the way!â
Ohâhe hadnât even noticed that his wrists were still shackled before him, like usual. Clearly, this had been a conscious decision on the guardsâ part, because they sputtered once again under her demands. âB-butâYour Highness, we canâtââ
âYou can and will,â she interrupted before they could even try to make their case, a note of authority in her impossibly young voice. âI will hear no arguments. He has been pardoned, so he shall be freed.â
One of the knightsâa tall, well-built woman with a wicked-looking scimitar at her hipâplaced a cautious hand on Caedaâs shoulder. âMilady, itâs not that simple,â she said, not unkindly. âHe was already a gladiator before he did any crime. The pardon of every princess in Archanea wouldnât change that.â To the knightâs credit, Ogma detected a hint of righteous anger when she continued, âPardon him, and he goes back to being property. And you canât seize private property without a lawful reason.â
Ah. So that was the catch. He would return to the colosseum, the Princess would be appeased, and, in her absence, he would simply be dragged back to the block, once enough time had elapsed for this novel occurrence to fade from the public consciousness. As soon as heâd regained his relative anonymity, he would end up right back here again. Or, perhaps, he would simply be pitted up against opponents that he could not beat so that his death could be claimed âaccidentalâ. With his back injured so heavily, it wouldnât be difficult to find a foe who could best him.
âOr,â Ogma found himself thinking, âmaybe Iâll survive. Live to die another day. Help some more people escapeâmaybe even manage to escape, myself.â
It was one hell of a long shot, but something about the gutted, distressed look on Princess Caedaâs face made him want to believe that her fears were unfounded. More than anything else, he wanted to reassure her; at the very least, sheâd delayed his death significantlyâbut, somehow, he doubted sheâd be happy to hear as much. It felt... wrong, though, to not even attempt to console her, after sheâd given him some concrete hope to cling to in his dying breathsânot just hope for himself, but hope for the world to which Samuel and the others had escaped.
(Talys couldnât be too bad with an heir apparent like this.)
Apparently, though, the heiress in question was perfectly capable of generating her own hope, because the despair in her eyes was short-lived. âLetâs say, then, that I donât pardon him,â she said, her voice beginning to wear thin, unused to maintaining an air of importance for so long. âInstead, I find him guilty and sentence him to a lifetime of community service. This would not be considered seizing property, just claiming my natural right to...â
She glanced at the other knightâa short, burly man in heavy armor wielding an imposing polearmâfor assistance, and he cleared his throat. âTo ârender the supreme judgment of the crownâ, my lady,â he tentatively filled in, âbut Iâm afraid that criminals charged with murder and violence cannot be given community service.â
âExactly!â the executioner cut in from the side, stepping forward with unwarranted confidence, only to immediately quail when both knights and their liege leveled him with icy glares. âI-itâs... that is to say... itâs just public safety, Your Highness. A mongrel like him could get somebody killedâsomebody innocent.â
It was a perfectly reasonable argument, and it would have been perfectly reasonable for Princess Caeda to subside and send Ogma away to whatever gruesome fate awaited himâto save herself the trouble, if nothing else. At this point, though, Ogma was hardly surprised when she stood her ground without ceding a single inch. âBut the... the reasoning is sound, yes?â she pressed, eyes darting back over to the burly knight. âI donât have to pardon him, I can just... change his sentence?â
The burly knight considered this. âThere is precedent for such a thing,â he said slowly, âbut, in extreme cases such as this, the only appropriate sentence would be jail time, and he would still be considered property of the colosseumâs owner upon release. Unless you gave him a life sentenceââ
Before he could finish that thought, the other knight pulled Princess Caeda a bit closer and stooped over, bending low to murmur in her ear, âDo you think life in prison would be a kindness, milady?â
The Princess visibly started, as if this question was a new and alarming thought that hadnât occurred to her, and her eyes flickered over to Ogma, who couldnât quite contain his own startled jolt. Watching the three interact, heâd almost forgotten that they were talking about him. Now, under the full weight of the Princessâ regard, he found himself wondering the same thingâwhich would be better: life as a gladiator with a probable execution incoming, or life as a prisoner with no end in sight until he eventually wasted away?
To her credit, Princess Caeda was only struck silent for the briefest of moments before she wiped the shock off of her face. âVery well,â she said, the slight tremor in her voice belying her stoic countenance. âWhat... what is your name, good sir?â
A strange question, if she was going to ask one, but he wasnât complaining. âOgma,â he answered simply, his voice rough with under- and overuse.
The Princess nodded her understanding. âAnd what are your charges, Ogma?â
Ahâa much more reasonable question. And, unfortunately, one with an answer that didnât paint him in the best of lights. The correct response was âInciting a riotâ, but Ogma threw caution to the wind and instead replied, âI helped my fellow gladiators escape the arena. I was a diversion.â Then, because he might as well be completely honest if he was going to tell the truth: âI killed the guards to keep them from recapturing everyone.â
One of the guards made a triumphant noise. âYou seeâhe admits it!â he tried, but immediately fell silent when the female knight shot him a warning look.
Princess Caeda didnât react to either Ogmaâs explanation or the soldierâs words; she just continued to stare at Ogma with such intense scrutiny that it was almost enough to make him squirm. After a long while that felt even longer, she nodded again, acknowledging his words as truth. âFor these charges,â she began, her voice tender in sharp contrast to the hardness of her eyes, âwhat do you feel to be a fitting sentence?â
Shouts of protest arose from the guards and crowd alike, but the Princess quelled them with a wave of her hand and a responding brandish of her knightsâ weapons. âI will hear his plea, then render my judgment,â she said firmly, leaving no room for complaint or compromise. With that, she returned her piercing gaze to Ogma. âWell?â
For a moment, he could summon no words. He had to remind himself to swallow, rather than letting the spit pool up in his mouth, and his stiff muscles strained against his throat.
Finally, he managed to string the syllables together as coherently as he could. âI had resigned myself to death when I decided to help the others escape,â he said simply. âAny other fate is preferable, but Iâm not scared to face the block. If you want me to die, then Iâll die now, without regrets.â
Surprise flickered across the Princessâ face for only a moment before she hastily swallowed it down. She searched his face again, and, whatever she was looking for, she must have found it.
âWhat if...â Her tongue swiped across her lip, and she began again, her voice steadier this time. âWhat if I want you to live?â
Sheâd struck him speechless before with such frequency and in such quick succession that, this time, Ogma wasnât even surprised so much as he was bemused. Still, he didnât speak for a good long moment, taking the opportunity to scan her face as thoroughly as sheâd scanned his.
Caedaâs eyes were fierce and unwavering, her posture impeccable and her shoulders thrown back, but there was a gentleness there; not naivete or clinical pity, but a genuine empathy that was rare to see in noblesâmuch less nobles with that kind of fire in their eyes.
He made his decision.
With some difficulty, Ogma wrested himself from the guardsâ grip. The crowd gasped, and the Princessâ knights drew their weapons, but he didnât lunge; he merely lowered himself slowly, his back screaming in protest, until one trembling, bruised knee was pressed against the floor. Then, breathing through the pain, he raised his head to meet Caedaâs wide eyes.
She looked even younger now, and Ogma allowed himself a moment to marvel at how strange it wasâthat this was the first person heâd willingly bent his knee to in years.
He swallowed a mouthful of dirt and blood and said, as clearly as he could, âThen Iâll live for as long as you want me to, if I can.â
(He was always thinking about how he needed a reason to liveâa reason to fightâmore than anything. And, well, sheâd spared his life, anywayâit practically belonged to her, now.)
This time, there was no sudden determination that broke across Caedaâs face to cover her surprise; she remained wide-eyed and open-mouthed, even as she gulped and shakily nodded her understanding. âI see,â she said faintly. Then her eyebrows drew down and her lips thinned, though the rest of her expression remained guileless and stricken.
âDame Aiveen.â Her voice no longer trembled. âYour sword, please.â
For all that heâd come to understand Caeda in the brief interactions theyâd shared, Ogma still considered for a moment that maybe sheâd decided to remove his head, after all. Then she accepted the sword her knight offered and nearly dropped it to the ground immediately, arms quivering under its weight as she struggled to lift it without losing her balance, and he felt like a fool for thinking, even for a moment, that she had a cruel bone in her body.
The sword wavered noticeably as Caeda raised it with both hands, shakily holding it before her, with the tip less than a foot from Ogmaâs face. âIn repentance for his crimes,â she declared, loud enough for all to hear, âOgma shall serve the Crown of Talys until his dying breath.â She met his eyes. Her confident stare, which he had already come to think of as her âtrueâ expression, was finally back. âHe shall swear his fealty as my vassal and pledge eternal loyalty to me and me only.â
Ah. So that was her game. Swearing himself as a vassal to the crown would rid him of his status as âprivate propertyâ permanently. Vassals, after all, could own land, and you couldnât own property if you, yourself, were âpropertyâ. What a simple solution. A truly elementary idea.
Ogma was certain that he was supposed to respond with some specific line, but he had no clue as to what such a line might entail, so he simply bowed his head and said, âYes.â
No one seemed particularly concerned with the informality of his wordsâor, at the very least, no one stopped her from leaning forward and touching the flat of the sword to Ogmaâs shoulder. It landed with a thunk as she failed to manage its weight, but he was able to completely smother his hiss of pain, so it was of no consequence. When it moved over to his opposite shoulder, though, it was much gentler, the bladeâs quivers intensifying as Caeda struggled not to put too much of its weight on him, so she must have noticed his pain, anyway. Naga only knew how.
The sword withdrew from his shoulder, and Ogma raised his head on instinct, meeting his new liegeâs eyes. Her expression was mostly blank, save for the certainty and confidence that she exuded as a default, but that was fine. Ogma couldnât even wager a guess as to what his own face looked like right now, anyway, so he was in no position to judge.
Caeda took a deep breath and lowered the sword to the ground, placing both hands atop its pommel. âRise, Sir Ogma of Talys.â Her voice rang loud and clear and certain, like a church bellâs toll. âFrom this day forward, you will serve as my personal retainer.â
Lacking the strength to stand on his own, Ogma just bowed again, even as the tattered skin on his back strained. âAs you wish, Princess Caeda,â he replied, dead serious despite the near-giddy glee welling up in his chest. âThis body is yours until it breaks.â
Without warning, her hand shot out and clamped down on his shoulder, nowhere near the welts but still tight enough to elicit a flinch. He looked up to find a teary glare bearing down on him.
âIt best not break any time soon,â Caeda said, her tone threatening despite the thick emotion dripping from each word, âbecause breaking my heart is against your vows. Understand?â
Despite himself, Ogma let a small, sincere smile slip onto his faceâand, against all odds, when he softly replied, âI understand,â he was telling the truth.
He awoke to a dry throat, a bone-deep grogginess that he couldnât quite shake off, a faint but insistent pain in his back, and the familiar sounds of soft humming and metal scraping against stone.
Over the years, heâd grown to recognize the medical tent almost immediately by scent alone, and, by the time heâd managed to pry open his eyes, he already had a decent idea of what was happening. The sensation of a wound completely healed by magic, leaving huge patches of too-new skin that twitched and tingled at the slightest touch, was easy to recognize when youâd had so many wounds fixed in such a manner. A thin sleeping pad, damp with sweat but much cleaner than his usual cot; light sheets draped across his body, and a thick duvet on top, rather than his thin woolen blanket; bandages squeezing his torso, but only his trousers covering him otherwise.
He must have been badly injured, and the clerics must have narrowly saved him.
Once he reached that conclusion, his memories came rushing back to him. The archer; the Macedonians; the unseen injury; Princess Caedaâs intervention; the perilous flight back through enemy lines; losing consciousness just as they arrived.
It appeared that Princess Caeda, as always, had gone for the most daring save imaginable, and, as always, her harebrained scheme had succeeded.
Torn between a fond smile and a pained grimace as his freshly-fixed injury tingled uncomfortably, Ogma settled for a soft groan, slowly blinking his eyes open. Sure enough, the tan canvas of the medical tent swam into view, although it was far less crowded than it tended to be directly after a battle. He mustâve been out for a while, then. It made sense, he supposed; his wound had been bad enough to temporarily convince him that he was dead, so it mustâve taken a while for his body to recover. In that time, the rest of the wounded had evidently healed and returned to their own tents, leaving him seemingly alone in the middle of the tent.
That also meant that heâd either suffered the most grievous injury out of the Archanean troops, or else those whoâd suffered worse injuries had passed away before he could wake. Given the sheer number of troops theyâd faced, the latter seemed more likely, but Lord Marth was a cautious commander and the thought of his allies dying because he hadnât been there to protect him made his stomach roll, so Ogma optimistically chose to believe the former.
Breathing out heavily through his nose, he experimentally rolled his shoulders, feeling his new scar tissue strain with the movement. Lena, Wrys, and/or Maria had done an admirable job; other than the obvious stiffness and aches, the pain was almost nonexistent. With a week or so of rest, it would likely fade entirely. He would have to remember to thank whoever had fixed him up at the first opportunity.
With that thought in mind, he breathed deep through his nose and slowly began to sit up, using his good arm to support himself and trying not to strain his injured back or shoulder too much.
âAhem.â
Ogma startled, accidentally jostling his wound, and whirled around. Sitting a few feet behind him, with her back against the canvas tent wall and her legs crossed daintily beneath her, was Princess Caeda, wearing only her undershirt and an old pair of trousers, yet somehow twice as intimidating as a Macedonian soldier in full armor.
As he stared, instinctively shifting his legs underneath him so that he didnât have to twist over his injured shoulder, she slowly looked up from the wing spear in her lap, which she appeared to be in the middle of sharpening. Or perhaps sheâd been sharpening her eyes, instead, because the cold look on her face pierced Ogma with the ease of a ballista shot and the force of a rampaging wyvern.
âYouâre awake,â she observed icily, and Ogma wondered how likely it was that sheâd gone to the trouble of saving his life a third time just so sheâd have the satisfaction of killing him herself.
That was a ridiculous thought only born of apprehension, though, so, rather than frantically try to explain himself, he just swallowed and warily responded, âSo I am.â
Caeda made a noise that acknowledged sheâd heard his words but imparted no other information about her thoughts or current level of anger. Slowly, she set her whetstone aside, though her grip on the wing spear didnât falter as she leaned forward.
âHow is your injury?â she asked, her voice still perfectly impassive, though the question seemed genuine, not just a way to fill time.
Ogma gratefully accepted the transition into a much easier conversational topic. âMuch better,â he said, turning to face her fully so he could demonstrate his improved range of motion without letting on how strange and tight his skin felt. âWhoever healed me did a daâa good job.â
Caeda caught his cut-off curse and rolled her eyes, but didnât comment. âLet me see,â she said instead, shuffling forward without waiting for a response. She sidled into his blind spot with complete nonchalance, and he allowed her to quickly and carefully unwind his bandages to get a better look at the afflicted area.
Of course, observant as Caeda was, there was no chance of her catching something that the healers had somehow missed, but he knew that it eased her fears to see the scar tissue with her own eyes, and who was he to deny her that paltry comfort?
After a brief moment, she hummed again and carefully redressed his wound, though Ogma seriously doubted that it was necessary at this point, since it was nearly completely healed. âLooks fine,â she said neutrally, without her usual relieved âIâm so glad youâre alrightâ or âWe should both count ourselves luckyâ.
Right. It was easy to forget that she wasnât pleased with him when he couldnât see the clear signs of thinly-veiled anger in her body language. Clearing his throat, Ogma turned himself around once again to face her. âYeah,â he began, âit doesnât hurt anyââ
Then he saw the bandages wrapped around her right shoulder, nearly blending in against her pale skin, and abruptly forgot what he was saying.
âPrincess,â he interrupted himself, the urgency in his voice enough to make her look up at him immediately, âyour armââ
Understanding crossed her face, and she raised a hand to silence himâit didnât escape his notice that she raised her left hand, rather than her dominant right, which stayed limp in her lap. âPeaceâitâs already mostly healed.â
âMostly?â With the extensive healing magic they had at their disposal, only grievous wounds like his would be only âmostlyâ healed this long after the factâand, even though she had to have used both hands to sharpen her spear or untie the bandages, Ogma couldnât help but think, irrationally, that he hadnât seen her right arm move yet.
Caeda simply shrugged, reaching up subconsciously to wrap her left hand around the bandaged area. âArrow wound,â she explained. âDidnât hit Tempest, thank the gods. Lena and Wrys got me patched up, but I wouldnât let them waste their magic on such a minor injuryâa vulnerary each morning for a week without strenuous activity, and Iâll be fine.â
Ogma had no good reason to feel like the breath had been knocked out of his lungs by those words, but, well. Here he was. âAn arrow wound.â Clearly, his efforts in clearing the battlefield of archers hadnât been enough. Of course they hadnâtâone man alone couldnât protect the Princess from harm when she often found herself on the front lines in the middle of a warâbut some irrational part of him was still shocked that something had slipped past him.
Caeda snapped her fingers, and he startled back to attention. She frowned at him. âWhatâs the matter?â
Ogma opened his mouth, then closed it with a snap. He didnât think it prudent to mention that the entire reason heâd nearly died in the first place was that heâd rushed into the middle of an enemy platoon just to take out a single archer. Nor had he ever admitted that he always targeted archers first, even when they werenât currently taking aim at her.
Unfortunately for him, Caeda seemed to glean all of these things without being told. âOgma,â she said dryly after a moment, her face frosting over again, âthis may surprise you, but you are not physically capable of incapacitating every archer in Macedonia, no matter how many times you charge into a huge group of enemies without backup. Actually, as your liege lady, Iâm afraid Iâll have to forbid you from doing so again, since this incident alone has already removed a good three years from my lifespan.â
Ogma winced. The rebuke hurt all the more for its accuracyâworrying aside, his recklessness had very nearly gotten his Princess killed. If Tempest had bucked just a bit harder while Caeda had both hands off of the reigns, busy trying to get Ogma situated, then they both wouldâve fallen. And, if the impact hadnât killed them, the Macedonians would have. Either way, these reckless charges had to stop.
âOf course, my lady,â was all he could say, bowing his head slightly, both in apology and recognition of her orders. âIâm sorry.â
For a moment, Caeda didnât reply. When she did, it was uncharacteristically softâa quiet, uncertain mutter of âAs long as you donât do it again.â
âI wonât,â Ogma responded immediately, less as a conscious thought and more because he couldnât stand to hear his liege sound like that. Raising his head, he tried to impart some of his sincerity through his eyes, but she wasnât looking at him.
He hesitated for a moment, then gestured to her bandaged shoulder. âMay I?â
She nodded her affirmative, brushing her hair back with her left hand, and he reached forward to undo the bandages as carefully as he could, just in case sheâd exaggerated how much sheâd already healed. Fortunately, that didnât seem to be the case: all that was left to indicate sheâd been wounded was a dark scab. It must not have been a very deep injury, he supposed.
âLike I said, it wasnât even worth the magic,â Caeda murmured after a moment, and Ogma quietly hummed his agreement, glancing over to see if she was still refusing to meet his gaze. Halfway there, though, his eyes caught on her collarbone, and his whole body stilled.
By this point, the scar had become faint with age, even harder to pick out against her naturally pale skin. It curved around from her collarbone to her back, thicker and bolder along the top of her shoulder where the whip had struck hardest, but thin enough in the back that it was almost difficult to see if you didnât know what you were looking for. Mainly, though, it wasnât the color that set it apart, but the slight puffiness of the scar tissue; the marks that the welt had left behind blatantly raised from the rest of her smooth skin.
Ogma swallowed thickly.
He still remembered how sheâd refused to allow the clerics to attend her first. âSir Ogma is hurt far worse,â sheâd said, stomping her feet petulantly even as she exerted her authority over the royal attendants with ease. âYou canât heal me until you heal him! Thatâs an order!â
Theyâd warned her, as they set to the nigh-impossible task of mending his back, that it was likely to scar quite noticeably if she didnât allow them to see it at once. If anything, though, sheâd taken that as a challenge. In the end, by the time she finally gave in and let the medics approach, at her knightsâ and Ogmaâs behest, it was too late to avert or even lessen the scarring.
Sheâd never seemed particularly ashamed of the scar, which Ogma was endlessly grateful forâit wasnât something she should be ashamed of, by any means. If anything, it was a badge of honor that displayed her courage and sense of justice for all to see, and she was right to wear it as proudly as she did. Naga knew he held more respect for anyone whoâd felt the whip before.
Still, every time he saw it, he couldnât help the vague guilt that collected at the back of his throat.
Without thinking, he reached forward and touched the scar with the tips of his fingers. Caeda didnât react, and he hastily yanked his hand back once he realized what heâd done, but there was no way she hadnât noticed, and he coughed awkwardly into his fist. âErm, sorry, Princess,â he muttered gruffly. âI wasnât thinking.â
No response. After a moment, Caeda reached up herself and wrapped her hand around the mark, rubbing it like an old wound that still ached. Like Ogma sometimes caught himself rubbing his own shoulders, because he couldnât reach far enough to rub his back in a useless attempt to sooth the scars that lay there, hidden under his shirt.
Ducking his head, Ogma deftly did up the Princessâ bandages again, carefully working around the slim fingers wrapped around her shoulder. When he moved to knot it off, though, Caedaâs hand suddenly slid down to cover his, grip tight enough to make him jump.
He glanced up, but she was still facing away from him, the small visible portion of her face unreadable. Shifting uneasily, he kept his hand carefully still underneath hers, even as he fumbled with the bandages. âPrincess Caeda?â
âDo you remember what I told you that day?â she asked suddenly, voice not betraying her emotions.
Ogma couldnât help but huff out a half-chuckle at that. âYouâll have to be a little more specific, Princess,â he replied, not unkindly, although he was reasonably certain that he remembered just about every sentence that left her mouth that fateful dayâif not by word, then certainly in spirit.
The silence was fleeting. âI told you not to break your body,â Caeda elaborated after a moment, âbecause that would break my heartââ
ââand breaking your heart meant breaking my vows,â Ogma finished for her, matching her quiet, solemn tone. His eyes flickered down for a moment, and he ran his tongue over his bottom lip. â...Yeah. I remember, Princess.â
Abruptly, Caeda twisted to look over her shoulder, her eyes meeting his with a vehemence that was, at once, startling in its ferocity, completely incongruous with the mood in the room, and so typical of her that it was hardly surprising at all.
âThen act like it,â she ordered, her voice firm despite the unmistakable quiver of thick emotion.
At that, despite himself, Ogma really did laugh, his eyes squeezing shut and his free hand automatically rising to cover his mouth. When he regained himself and looked back, Caedaâs gaze hadnât wavered, though her expression had softened considerably. She didnât relinquish her hold on his hand.
Well, what was there to say? He couldnât stay somber and downtrodden in the face of the girl heâd sworn his life to.
âAs my lady commands,â Ogma said with a grin, and carefully knotted the bandage into place without wresting his hand from Caedaâs grip.
#Fire Emblem#FE Ogma#FE Caeda#Shadow Dragon#archanea week#FE11#angst#hurt/comfort#Angst with a happy ending#but they have to earn their happy ending#oneshot#THE WORD COUNT GUYS#I DON'T KNOW HOW THIS HAPPENED#scene 2 somehow turned into 10k???#blood tw#violence tw#torture tw
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Back from pandemic pause...
After a long pandemic pause, I'm back to posting new stuff here on Tumblr (All Glitched Up) as well as on my Image Maya art blog (www-image-maya.org). You might ask what have I been doing? Actually, I've spent the time quite resourcefully pulling together a complete system to digitize all of my library of video tapes that have languished in a cupboard for way too long... My tape library starts back in the early 1980's with my first 1/2" Beta portable unit (from CTL Electronics in lower Manhattan (my old Tribeca loft neighborhood). After a handful of well-used Beta portables, I jumped in the Hi8 bandwagon - smaller, lighter weight, better quality (?). Then off to digital DV land when that format became available. Meanwhile, as a vidiot producing video art work in the 80's and early 90's, I did all my Master productions on an industrial A/B roll 3/4" U-matic system.
Needless to say, I faced hundreds of hours of video inventory from my travels around the world to digitize. On top of that, I had over 60 3/4" reels of image processed footage from my residencies at the Experimental Television Center (ETC). These are what I consider to be the 'crown jewels' from the days of analog video processing using tools such as the Jones Colorizer, the Paik-Abe Wobulator, and other signal processing and keying devices. At the time, the only digital device available at ETC was an one-of-a-kind Jones Frame Buffer (which did just that - buffered a set of video frames for looping, freeze framing, and delaying). Of course, key to the whole production process was using video cameras to rescan off of monitors which allowed for multiple levels of processing effects (way beyond simple feedback). In the case of the Wobulator, a raster distortion device manipulating H & V frequencies of a CRT display, the only way to actually make use of its range of processing effects was by rescan. (In any case, in hindsight there was a whole lot of glitchy / processed stuff one could easily do in the analog  realm that have no direct analog in digital software-based processing. Exhibit A: the Wobulator, which became my favorite tool.)
The process in the ETC studio for me involved selecting source footage from my video library and passing that thru the various hot-patched processing devices, and finally back to tape. Because of the analog nature of the controls, real time modifications and tweaking (playing around with settings and patches) was the norm. So typically once a record tape got rolling, a long 5-15 minute 'play' session would resulted. Fine. But of course, unlike many other video folks engaged in image processing triggered by music or electronic sounds (think of early Mudd Club visual music stuff), I was interested not in the durational / abstract / generational element of the process, but rather in generating 15-30 second, perhaps 2 minute long processed segments to incorporate into my video narratives.
With that as background, I decided the Covid shutdown provided me a window of time to digitize my source videos before the inevitable wear of time made the tapes unplayable physically, either due to tape decay or unavailability of obsolescent decks to play such. I calculated that I'd need around 6TB of storage for all of my material, stored at DV's equivalent to pre-HD analog resolution: 720x480. And lots of time - as digitizing tapes is by its very nature 'real time'. Plus, I wanted to create a tape index of locations, subjects, and scenes to make finding interesting material possible in the virtual haystack. (I have started by using EXCEL spreadsheets, with a goal of creating a true FM relational database... sooner than later...)
And of course, every video deck I owned needed repair servicing after being idle in the closet for 20+ years. Or I had to buy something used off EBAY...
So all of that has been taking time.
But that's not all - I've also been working on a series of digital glitch animations based upon my Tibetan Buddhist art. But more on that in later postings...
For now, I want to post several short video excepts from some of the ETC processed footage. (See next several posts above.)
#video#analog video#video tape#ETC#Experimental Television Center#signal processing#wobulator#art#art video#video synthesis#MG#markgee85
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It would be my honor
Summary: Feyre recieves news of being pregnant and tells Rhys about it Disclaimer: All characters belong to the genius Sarah J Maas. This is just a post acowar fanfic about Feyre telling Rhys that she's pregnant and I wanted to share it with you all. Also, this is my first time doing this so if the format for how fanfics are usually posted on tumblr is wrong, I apologize and please let me know. And I would also appreciate it if you gave me feedback on this and tell me what you thought, so without further ado: I already knew. I already knew deep in my gut, my bones about what was going to be confirmed by the court healer. Excitement bloomed in my gut as Madja opened her mouth and told me her findings. I quickly jumped up off the bed, hugged her, and ran off to find my mate. Walking through Velaris was a blur. I kept thinking about what's gonna come nine months from now and I imagined different reactions I would get from Rhys when I told him. Tears. A huge smile. Speechlessness. The images flicked through my mind as I walked up the hill to the town house where my mate and I lived. The town house where someone else will soon reside in as well. I listened to the heartbeat deep within me as I opened the door. "Rhys?" I called. "Up here," my mate called from our room. I walked up the steps, my heart thrumming powerful beats with each step leading up to the second floor. I passed a couple doors that led to empty rooms on my way to our own. The door was closed but I swore I could've looked through the door and see the glow of the somewhat gift I had made for Rhys and hidden inside. I opened the door and as I looked inside, I could almost see the decorations that would soon fill it for the arriving addition to our family. I closed the door once more and continued on my way I finally reached our room and looked inside to find the beautiful male standing before the window overlooking our home while flaring his wings. Wings I hoped would be passed on to our newcomer. I stalked up to him with near silent steps. I put my arms around his waist and hugged him tightly. "I have something to tell you." I said quietly, unable to stop the spreading smile on my face. My mate shifted in my arms to look at me with raised brows, "Oh really?" I nodded, biting on my smile. On the way here, I hadn't really decided on how I would tell him. Whether I should come right out or show him the moment of Madja telling me or by sending him an image of what the very near future would hold. I did know one thing though. It was that along with the announcement, he would also receive a painting I had made when I first suspected the news. All I had to decide was how to lead up to that moment. I looked into those brilliant violet eyes, my heart swelling with love and emotions I still am not sure how to convey with words, even after all these years we've been together. As I looked into my mates eyes, I let those feelings guide the words out of me instead of my brain. "Today I had an appointment with Madja. She told me something that I had known for a week or two, but I wanted to have it confirmed before I told you." Rhys' eyes filled with curiosity and interest. I smiled more at the look he gave me along with it. "I think it would be better if I showed you instead." I grabbed his hand and led him to the room I had just looked inside moments ago. Before opening the door I said to Rhysand, "Close your eyes." He obeyed, but I used my magic to create a makeshift blindfold just to make sure the little sneak didn't peek when I wasn't looking. Rhys felt the magic and chuckled, "Don't trust me Feyre darling?" "Not even a little bit you sly prick." He laughed a laugh that sounded like heaven on earth as I opened the door. The painting still sat on the easel it was painted on with a blanket thrown overtop it. I let go of Rhysand's hand and walked over to it to pull the sheet off. I looked back, making sure he still couldn't see and turned my head back around to observe the painting for a quick moment. It was a portrait of my mate and I holding something in between us. Our faces were the reflection of love and awe and pure happiness. Our eyes filled with wonder and affection and gentleness as we gazed down at what we held in both of our arms. Gazed down at the bundle of joy as he gazed back up at us with his violet eyes to match Rhys'. His face a perfect reflection of his fathers as his mouth curved into a smile that was identical to mine. Before I removed Rhysand's restrictions I sent a replay of my appointment with Madja down the mating bond. The bond that I cherished so much with everything inside of me. The bond I had come so close to losing forver, once upon a time. Soothing strokes against the wall of adamant built around my mind. I shook the memory from my head and watched the replay of my appointment along with Rhys so that I could know when to stop it. It went on for a couple moments longer and before he could hear the news, I removed the memory along with the magic blindfold. Rhys blinked his eyes open and they landed on me, eyes wide with anticipation. I met his stare and watched as his gaze roamed across the room until they at last landed on the painting I'd made to help me break the news. I watched as he studied the painting, eyes widening with shock, the intervals of the rising of his chest between breaths becoming shorter and shorter. My mates eyes darted back to me, then the painting and then darted to my stomach. I looked at him and didn't know what to say as he kept staring at my stomach for a long moment, as if he could see what was growing in there. When he finally met my stare again, his eyes were lined with silver. In two graceful strides Rhys closed the distance between us, grabbed my face with his hands and kissed me. Deeply, passionately. A kiss filled with love and happiness and a joy that couldn't be faltered by anything. My mate pulled back and I saw the most beautiful smile I have ever gazed upon in my long years of life spread across his face. A smile that words wouldn't be able to describe, for it would never do it's beauty justice. I saved the image in my mind and tucked it away to cherish forever and maybe to paint it one day if I was feeling up to the challenge of recreating the sheer beauty of it. Tears slid down his face, that beautiful smile unfaltering as he said, "We're gonna- We're having a baby?" I nodded. A smile forming on my mouth-our childs mouth- just as big as his. Rhys' breathing became shallow-uneven. His smile still stayed and his tears kept running down his face. "I just- I don't- I cant- I can't really... find the words to describe how happy and excited I am. How excited I am to add on to our family that we have and become a father to our child." I nodded again. The smile still on my lips and tears now sliding down my face. I took his hands in my own and said, "I know. I can't really find the words either." Instead of saying how he was feeling, my mate sent his feelings down the bond connecting our two minds. He was right. There really were no words to describe his feelings. It was like the perfect mixture of happiness, bliss, excitement, love... and a little bit of fear. This time my smile faltered, "Why are you scared?" Rhysand's face completely changed and his tears weren't those of joy, but of sadness as he said, "What if I'm not a good father? What if our son and the rest of our future children hate me? What if they see me as a monster like so many others did before the war with Hybern?" "My sweet High Lord. You don't have to put up that façade anymore, haven't had to for so many years. Why would they see you as a monster?" His mouth opened but I cut him off, "I have no doubt in my mind that you will be the best father our children could ever have. They'll see in you what our family, our court, and I all see in you. Your courage, and selflessness, and kindness. They'll see how big and unending your capacity to love is. How protective and funny and graceful you are. They'll see how you will let them make their own choices while also making sure that they have a long eternal life filled with happiness and peace and love. They will see all of that because that is the type of male that you are. Because that is the reason why I love you so fiercely, just like how our family loves you and how our son and future children will love you. They will love and cherish you and will never see you as a monster because that isn't who you are." The tears were steadily falling down his face now. He didn't bother to wipe them away as a small smile bloomed on his lips as he brought them down to mine. I pulled back and took my hands from his and wiped the tears off of his face as he had done so many times for me before. I looked into my mates eyes. The eyes of the person I love most in this world, the eyes of someone else who would no doubt have my heart as well. I smiled wide and cherished this moment that we were sharing. Rhys brought his eyes to my stomach and swallowed. He once again looked me in my eyes as he said, "It would be my greatest honor, Feyre darling, to have a child -and many more- with you, my mate." I took his hand once more and said, "It would be my honor to have children with you as well, Rhys." He grabbed me and our future son up in a hug and we held eachother there for what felt like hours. When we finally broke apart, my mate and I grabbed eachothers hand and walked out of the room. Walked out of the room and right into the next beautiful chapter in our story.
#acowar#acowar spoilers#a court of wings and ruin spoilers#a court of wings and ruin#acotar#acomaf#feysand#feyrhys#rhysand and feyre#feyre archeron#rhys#rhysand#fanfic#fanfiction#my fanfic#feyrhys fanfiction#feysand fanfiction#post acowar#post a court of wings and ruin
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