#torin * / starters.

[booksofadventures-archived]

{ I wanna do some more things with certain characters so this is a little starter call for them, please like or reply to this if you would like a starter from one of the following! You can message me a specific one otherwise i will chuck at random }

Sora Ryuu - Fandomless OC ; may chuck them as the new swapped roles verse but can be versatile into where they get put as i am always writing and thinking up new verses for them!

Leon Farore - Legend of Zelda OC

Torin Nayru - Legend of Zelda OC

Emery Din - Legend of Zelda OC

Percy Parker - Fandomless / Spiderman OC ; She's still being rewritten but I have some ideas to making her the 'Spider person' of my little world I am creating!

[carrionss]

blurred lines between reality and virtual nightmares. moral ambiguity. bioterror infections spreading through the veins. a study of godhood through creation.

POV: elegant  ballrooms  and  luxurious  settings  overrun  by  mutated  horrors.  shelves  and  display  cases  housing  various  specimen  jars,  biological  samples,  organs  or  other  parts  of  the  body.  mind  games  involving  physical  and  psychological  threats.  you  can  only  try  to  focus  on  the   white  noise  as  it  drives  you  mad.  a  mass  of  flesh,  eyes,  and  a  mouth  coming  towards  you.

// indie oc mumu . 21+ . rules in pinned . sideblog to @ / duck-writesfm .

pinterest: here

character influences: Heavy inspiration from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Serial Experiments Lain ( &  Masami Eiri ) & Resident Evil, Shuu Tsukiyama, Dorian Gray from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde & Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs

𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐒 for this muse may include: horror, sexual content, body horror, religion, gore, blood, graphic violence, phsycological horror, cannibalism, existentialism, distorted realities, loss of autonomy.

[ellaxmcretti]

closed starter for @griffinxgallo location: outside ny supreme court

Ella had promised Torin they'll get candy from his favourite shop, but only if he was a good boy and behaved while she was delivering some last minute papers in the court. It was supposed to be her day off, but she'd learnt pretty quickly that the career path she'd chosen came with zero tolerance when it came to such things.

Growing impatient, the little boy ran down the stairs in front of the building, Ella almost losing him amidst the crowd. Unlike his sister, Torin was growing more and more independent with each day. Following him close by, Ella was finally able to catch up to him at the bottom of the stairs and only then did she realize the reason was because he'd almost ran into a passersby. Not just any passersby, though. Out of all the scenarios she'd imagined of father meeting son for the first time, this one was the least expected one but fate seemed to have a certain sense of humor when it came to her and Griffin.

"Baby, give me your hand," Ella said to her son before softly scolding him. "And don't do that again or we won't go to your favourite shop again, okay?" Only then her attention shifted to Griffin. "Hey."

[tailoringtay]

For whatever reason I want to do some strip poker threads. I don’t even know how to play poker! But send in 🃏or “cards” (and if you’d like, a specific character of mine from the list below) and I’ll make a strip poker starter~ (could also be like. tetramaster or something too xD or some other card game)

Here’s the available characters from across all my blogs, and how challenging they are to best. They are listed in order from easiest to hardest

Torin: he has more tells than you’d think, and isn’t very good at poker in general. Very easy to beat

Magnus: learned the general rules, but has a terrible poker face. easy to beat

Ton: few tells and knows how to play, but absolutely atrocious luck. easy to beat

Tor: powerful pokerface and possessed of skill, but has bad enough luck that he has difficulty winning

Guy: she has decent luck and skill, but her competitive streak can get in the way of her better judgment

Raine: very skilled but has bad luck. She may lose some, but she’s excellent at minimizing risk

Cai: zero tells and quite skilled, but doesn’t have the best luck. He is somewhat challenging to defeat

Dirk: skilled, hard to read, but it’s not impossible to defeat him

Tay: difficult to beat. your best bet is figuring out some of his more subtle tells, in combo with managing to outskill and/or outluck him

Dan: - danger!! - challenge at your own risk : )

[dreamingonthedaily]

@ofthornsandfury​ starter for Lyra from Torin

Well shit... he didnt mean for this to happen the way that it did. Well no, thats not true, he hoped it would happen like this, but he didnt mean to be the one to supervise its happening. In fact, he didnt think it would actually work! Well... it did.

Stumbling from the catacombs, a long gash along his left arm from shoulder to elbow, Torin ran like hell, almost knocking over a familiar face. 

Straightening himself, a coy smile on his lips, he looked over the female. “Hey you - you may not want to go down there - I didnt....” was all he could get out before he collapsed on the floor in front of her.

[goldenthreadstories]

@patetpluvia liked the starter call!

"Rinku wait up!"

Here comes the blonde that fades to green haired exorcist running up after the white and red wolf that was running on ahead of him. He had the control most of the time and usually kept him or the bird Ravi he had on look out by him in case.

However something had caught Rinku's attention. A certain smell that the wolf has picked up on subtly on Leon's older brother. He was going to led Leon to it, however in Rinku's excitement - he's running right at the person.

"MISS WATCH OUT! RINKU STOP!!"

In a tumble as Rinku actually stopped hearing Leon shout to stop and listened, that the male tripped over his own familiar and right into said person, landing them so he took the brunt of the ground, laying on his back now.

"Ow...I'm so sorry...are you alright?"

Leon she's the smell from Torin!

[torinoconnor]

open starter - the morning after the vigil - outside the library.

LET THE CURSE END.  the words that he had been staring at for at least the last fifteen minutes.  he’d hoped that the third murder would have been the last of them, but of course he knew better. he knew that until they’d caught whoever was behind this that things would continue to go from bad to worse.  however, now torin was thinking this was a what more than a who.   “let the curse end.” he mumbles the words as an hand comes up to rub over the scratchy stubble on his chin. “didn’t expect this to be easy but this just got a helluva lot more complicated.” torin grumbles, permanent frown etched across tired features.

[odisn]

Thor's many ,  many faces

[immoralraigan]

@silverymusings​ || one-liner starter for Torin 

“No, that is NOT a salad!”

[acourtcfmuses]

@dreamingonthedaily​ asked: 🤣 - tickles my muse Gael for Neve

Send one of the following symbols for a starter from my muse where your muse:

Ordinarily she would be in a fit of hysterics with her sister tickling her, but Neve just wasn’t feeling it. Ever since her argument with Torin, she had been struggling to laugh. Gael was trying to cheer her up, but all Neve could think about was the words she’d heard the male tell the Master of the Court of Nightmares - Keir.

Realistically, she realised she was likely the one overreacting. She had heard Torin’s words, yet she still felt like her heart was cracked in two. She couldn’t hear the words he spoke after, all she could hear in her mind were his words to Keir. “I think I really like him Gael and I might have blown it by getting upset.”

[lizmisfitmuses]

Starter for @charmingarmor

~~~~~

Iclyn was not happy about this. She had spent the last two days annoyed and considering stabbing someone.

She had gotten a letter from her best friend who said that because she was the daughter of an archmage she had to go to some school called Ever After High. Lyra was anxious about it, even more so that she was going to be alone. She had begged Iclyn to come with her and help her since the poor elf was mute and didnt know if anyone would be able to or willing to translate for her.

Iclyn, rightfully, was pissed at the whole situation but agreed because she knew Lyra needed someone to back her up. Especially with her father being one of the most powerful magic users in history and rumors were not kind, and since they would have to stay in the dorms so Iclyn and her being roommates would save the elf alot of anxiety.

Her sister and sibling had been helping her pack up a enchanted trunk for a few days. The trunk a gift from Lyras father to let her pack as much as she wanted into it. Packing up most of her clothes, one of her sets of armor, her weighted blanket and fidgets, some of her weapons including one of her spears and her swords and her throwing knives as well as some books Rowan had gifted her she was almost ready to go.

When Lyra arrived in her fathers carriage. Torin and her dad helped her get her things loaded. Vega was curled up in the short elf's lap when Iclyn climbed in beside her. Lyra was signing excitedly and Iclyn got confortable for the long trip.

The next morning the girls made it to campus and Lyra cast a levitation spell and helped them get to their dorm. Lyra and Iclyn spent a few hours unpacking, Vega jumping around and trying to "help" but causing more chaos. After a while Iclyn looked over at Lyra.

"I am getting a little hungry. You want anything from the....whatever these weirdos called it. The place with the food i dont know!"

Lyra laughed quietly and signed "Castle-teria?"

Iclyn gave her the most frustrated and offended look. "Why must /everything/ be named weird?"

Lyra snorted. "No I am good Icy, we can hit that cafe in Bookend later tonight?"

Iclyn nodded to her, heading out of their room down several flights of stairs. The castle was so weird her her, having grown up by the lake and visiting lyra and her family in their cottage outside of their village.

She shoved her hands in the pockets of her coat which was a gift from her older brother, frost cropping up in her wake, the temperature dropped noticeably around her and her breathing steamed as she tried to follow the scent of food and ending up completely lost. She looked around irritated and cursed under her breath in tidebound.

(The Comerdes who are Iclyns adopted family belong to my friend @musesofolive )

[booksofadventures-archived]

{ starter call for torin nayru }

[adhonoremrp]

we thought it would be fun to spice things up a little and give you all a reason to have some unlikely characters interact, even some that haven’t even crossed paths yet!

note: this is completely optional. we understand completely that some people are on hiatus, some are busy, so don’t feel bad if you don’t want to participate! (if you want your characters removed, too, or even just a few, message kels on discord and she’ll remove them!)

the following groups have been paired together randomly, you can pick one, more, or all of your characters to interact with others in the same groups!

group 1

Cristine, Kit, Andromeda, Sirius, Edgar, Octavian, Maisie, Amabella, Lorenzo, Lorcan, Jackson, Isabella, Edith, Danielle, Antigone, Fenrir, Gladys, Daisy, Spencer, Orson, Penny, Pandora, Mary, Lucius, Dorcas, Marlene, Sera, James, Molly, Juliette, Victoria, Paloma, Markus, Rita, Carolina, Ted, Emmeline, Arthur, Charlie, Torin, Samara

group 2

Paris, Yasiel, Bellatrix, Birdie, Simon, Stubby, Ambrose, Reginald, Apolline, Antonin, Maxine, Patrick, Genevieve, Enes, Archie, Rosalyn, Sloane, Mafalda, Tyson, Gwenog, Sebastian, Xeno, Arden, Henry, Alastor, Estrella, Peter, Piper, Doris, Tristan, Auden, Thorfinn, Kingsley, Soleil, Lucinda, Tilden, Emma, Bilius, Maeve, Alexander, Anna

group 3

Ludo, Damcoles, Narcissa, Bonnie, Adelaide, Cooper, George, Sterling, Amos, Lily, Alexi, Mundungus, Stanley, Savio, Ajax, Cordelia, Beatrice, Hayden, Ezrael, Lorelei, Gilderoy, Mara, Walden, Armani, Sylvie, Luca, Valerie, Fabian, Nimue, Elena, Damien, June, Dani, Severus, Wendy, Petra, Beverly, Declan, Niamh, Theodora, Laure

group 4

Tabitha, Brielle, Regulus, Amelia, Pina, Ethan, Lawrence, Beryl, Barty, Benjy, Keanu, Alice, Ezra, Quinn, Harriet, Malcolm, Virgil, Leo, Leilani, Brenna, Frank, Remus, Iris, Mason, Ramona, Olivia, Annie, Gideon, Diedra, Winnie, Sorina, Rosalie, Hana, Nico, Calista, Araminta, Damon, Zara, Myra, Charity, Adan, Sophie

and please make sure to get permission from the other person involved when posting a starter! slide into those dms and get plotting! we’ve also added channels in the discord to chat which may be easier for you all!

[ellaxmcretti]

closed starter for @mirayaslan location: a random playground

Despite her fear of running into Griffin, it was unfair to keep Torin locked up inside. He missed the playgrounds, missed his friends even if due to his age his memory wasn't very long. There was a playground she'd seen a couple blocks down the street and since the weather was nice and they were both in desperate need for a distraction and some fresh air, she considered it was safe enough to make the walk. She let him play in the sand, taking a seat a nearby bench. Catching a glimpse at her phone, her thoughts went straight to Briella. She'd asked Griffin to keep her updated, but she had serious doubts he'll do it. Sensing a movement to her right, her eyes shifted first to Torin then to the woman. For some reason, her presence put her at unease.

[princessselene126]

Human

I DID IT. I promised it, and I did it and I’m actually proud of how it turned out. I needed this yall. This fic could technically take place before Wedding of the Era, but I’m too lazy to go back, link and re-number chapters in order to put this in there. It could also just be read as a stand alone. 3339 words Kaider angst where he realizes just how shitty Adri was to Cinder. Warnings: mentions of past emotional abuse and neglect.

masterlist

Cinder took a deep breath of humid air as she stepped out onto the balcony attached to Kai’s suite. The view was exquisite. She could perfectly see the city below, buildings upon buildings cramped together. There was something so beautiful about the chaos of New Beijing.

But it was strange, Cinder thought, that she now lived in the palace on the cliff she used to pass every day. Sometimes she even wondered what was happening inside the walls. Her life before the Lunar Revolution felt like it was decades ago instead of a couple years. She used to be lonely--Peony and Iko as her only friends. But now she had so many friends, so many people who loved and cared for her. The differences between her past and her present were like night and day.

The doors opened behind her and familiar footsteps approached. Seconds later, Kai’s arms wrapped around her waist. He rested his chin on her shoulder, letting out a content sigh. “Welcome back home,” he whispered.

“It feels like home more than it ever did before.” Cinder leaned into his touch, still looking out to the city.

“What do you mean?”

She shrugged. Cinder learned that it was best not to dwell on the past too much. When she thought too much about her life in Phoenix Tower, she grew sad. There were some good times, sure. Peony and Iko always managed to make her smile. But there were far more bad times. Far too many memories of Adri telling her she was worthless. Far too many times she went to bed hungry. Far too many nights with not enough sleep so she could work for too many hours in her little booth the next day.

“This is the happiest and most comfortable I think I’ve ever been,” she said simply. She didn’t elaborate, and she hoped Kai wouldn’t press for more.

Much to her relief, he didn’t.

Holding each other close, they watched the sun set on the horizon.

Kai had always known that Cinder was more affected by her time living with Adri than she cared to admit, but now that he’d been living under the same roof with her for a few months, he was beginning to realize just how deep her emotional wounds ran.

Even though they had separate suites she would always stay in his. He loved it. He loved holding her in his arms and running his fingers through her mousey locks as she fell asleep. But every once in a while he would wake up to her missing.

The first time it happened, he panicked. Kai searched the entire suite before he tracked Iko down and asked if she knew where Cinder was. She did, of course. Iko wouldn’t tell him why exactly Cinder was up in the middle of the night, but she did agree to take him to her.

Iko led Kai across the palace to the garage where Cinder was tinkering with a palace android. It broke his heart to see the blank expression in her eyes when she finally lifted her head to look at him.

“Cinder,” he said softly as he walked over. Kneeling down in front of her, he carefully pried the screwdriver from her hands and set it on the bench. “Cinder, darling, let’s go back to bed.”

“I can’t sleep,” she mumbled, looking away from him.

He noticed her eyes settle on something behind him, and he turned around to see what it was. Or rather who.

Iko was still standing there, a sympathetic smile on her face. She nodded as if to reassure Cinder that everything was okay, that Cinder was safe.

Kai turned to look back at his exhausted fiancee. “Will you at least come back upstairs with me? You don’t have to sleep if you don’t want to.” He wished she would sleep, but something in the back of his head warned him not to push his luck right now, not to push her too hard.

“Okay,” Cinder whispered.

Kai stood back up, Taking her hands in his, he pulled her off the stool and wrapped an arm around her waist. It took them a while to get back to their room since it was on almost the exact opposite end of the palace, but they made it. Iko followed as well, and Kai invited her in. He hoped that she could bring Cinder whatever comfort he couldn’t.

The three of them laid down on the large bed, Cinder protectively, but comfortably, squished between Kai and Iko.

When Cinder fell asleep just as the sun was beginning to rise, he turned his attention to Iko once again.

“Has she always done this?” he whispered. “Woken up in the middle of the night and wandered?”

Iko nodded. “Ever since the revolution ended.”

“Why?”

Even though she didn’t have lungs, she let out a deep sigh. “Adri made her wake up an hour before dawn so that she could get to the market right as it was opening. Even though she doesn’t have to do that anymore, it still happens every once in a while.”

“She does it a lot?”

“More often than she’ll ever admit. I always try to get her to go back to sleep, but she never has until now.”

Kai’s frown deepened as he looked down at the wonderful woman between them. How had he not noticed this before? All their vid calls when he asked if she was okay and getting enough sleep because she looked so tired…

“Has it been getting better?”

Iko nodded. “It has. First few months on Luna it happened a few times a week, now it’s usually only once every few months.”

“So you don’t think I should be worried?”

“Not unless it starts happening more than that.”

Kai pushed a strand of hair off Cinder’s forehead and stroked her cheek with his thumb. He would trust that Iko was right. Iko knew Cinder longer than anyone else and she knew Cinder’s limits. “Okay,” he said.

The next thing Kai noticed was that Cinder had a hard time accepting compliments that she didn’t feel she earned. Every time he would tell her she looked beautiful or pretty or even nice, she would brush him off. That or she would get uncomfortable, like she wasn’t used to someone saying nice things about her.

What he found more alarming than her inability to take a compliment based on her physical appearance was that she couldn’t take a compliment based on her personality or actions either.

Any time he said something about how kind or caring or courageous or intelligent she was, Cinder would wave him off. It was like she didn’t believe that she was those things. Worse, she didn’t believe there was even a possibility she could ever be those things.

When he said she did an amazing job holding her ground on something she believed the Eastern Commonwealth and the world desperately after a meeting with world leaders, she would say that it was nothing.

On a day they had time to relax and not worry about any government duties, he decided to ask her about it.

“Cinder?” He said from where he sat lounging on one side of the couch.

Her eyes were closed, head resting on the cushions. “Hm?”

“Why don’t you like it when I compliment you?” he asked.

Cinder lifted her head and opened her eyes, staring at him. Long moments dragged on. She opened and closed her mouth a few times before shutting it for another minute more.

Kai patiently waited for her to speak.

“I don’t know,” she admitted after a while. “It’s not that I don’t think it’s nice of you to say. It’s just…”

“Just?”

“I guess I’m not used to it.”

“Iko compliments you all the time.”

“Yeah, but Iko is Iko. As human as she acts, she’ll never be fully human. And neither will I. It’s easier to take a compliment from someone who really, truly gets me.” Her eyes widened and she quickly amended, “Not to say that you don’t get me--”

Kai cut her off with a reassuring smile. “Cinder, I know. I didn’t take any offense.”

“Oh… Okay. Good.”

He reached out, taking both of her hands in his own. One of his fingers brushed over the engagement ring on her titanium hand. He loved how the metal of her hand and the metal of the band sparkled together. “Cinder,” Kai said, “you are human though. No matter what anyone tells you.”

She didn’t meet his eyes. “Technically I’m lunar.”

“Which is still human.”

“And a cyborg.”

“Still human,” he insisted.

Cinder met his eyes and he realized there was something hidden there, something dark that was eating her up inside. He wondered how long it’d been there.

Before he could ask more about what happened to make her averse to compliments, his portscreen pinged with an urgent comm from Torin.

Kai also began to realize that Cinder was terrified to ask for help with something even when she was desperate for it. There were times when he caught her scouring for information on legislation that he knew by heart. And every once in a while she would wander into a part of the palace that wasn’t on her blueprints. When that happened she’d just wander around until she found a place that was.

This time Kai didn’t ask her about it. He didn’t ask her why she didn’t like to ask for help. Instead one night when Cinder was tinkering in the garage, he sought Iko out and asked, “Why doesn’t Cinder ever ask for help?”

Iko looked up at him from where she was painting her synthetic fingernails. She wore a pained expression. “Because she wasn’t allowed to.”

His brow furrowed as he took a seat on the couch next to her. “She wasn’t allowed to ask for help?”

“No.” She shook her head. Twisting the cap onto the bottle of shimmery navy nail polish, she set it down on the coffee table in front of her. “When we lived with Adri, she’d get… punished if she asked for the smallest things or necessary things. It wasn’t explicitly expressed that they were punishments, but that’s what they were.”

“Things like what exactly?” He was afraid to know the answer, but he asked anyway.

“Her metal limbs for starters. The prosthetics she had before the titanium ones Dr. Erland gave her were years old. They were built for an eleven year old. Sure they were meant to extend and grow with her a little bit, but not as much as she needed.”

“So she asked for new ones.”

“Not even new ones, she asked for second hand ones when she was about 14. Adri said that if she wanted ‘new robot parts’ she’d have to make money and pay for them herself. So that’s what Cinder did. But once Adri realized she was making money, she had it all put into her account. Cinder couldn’t use it to buy what she needed.”

Kai’s heart ached to hear that. “What else did Adri do?”

“I don’t know if I should tell you more. Cinder doesn’t really like to talk about it…”

“Please Iko,” he begged.

She hesitated for a moment before continuing. “There were times when she’d lock Cinder in her room for a day or two because there was someone important over or because she didn’t want to look at her or because she thought Cinder asked for something irrational. She usually didn’t bring her food those days either. Peony or I would have to sneak it to her in the middle of the night.”

Kai swallowed the lump in his throat. How could someone be so cruel to a person? He knew Levana was evil, but he never imagined someone who wasn’t in a position of power could do such horrid things.

The few times he’d met Adri, he could tell she was a terrible person. The way she looked at Cinder and talked to Cinder never failed to make his blood boil. But he didn’t understand the true extent of how awful she was until now.

“Cinder didn’t have a real bed either,” Iko said quietly. “She just had a mattress on the floor with a thin sheet and a single pillow. And sometimes Adri would lock her out of the apartment if she was downstairs in the garage too late.”

“Where would she sleep?” Kai asked.

“Usually hunched over her workbench in the basement.”

Kai wasn’t sure if he wanted to throw up or if he wanted to find Adri and strangle her to death. He was not by any means a violent man--with the exception of the one time he tried to stab Levana with scissors--but hearing all this was pushing him into a mentality he never thought he’d reach again.

He ran a hand through his hair, tugging it lightly as he tried to think.

“Is there anything I can do to help her?” he whispered.

Iko put a hand on his knee. “Keep doing what you’re doing. Tell her you love her enough and she just might start to believe it.”

Cinder squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed her temples with her pointer fingers, doing her best to will away her headache. It was one of those headaches that reminded her she’d be crying if she had tear ducts. Those were the headaches she hated the most. They reminded her that she wasn’t whole. That she wasn’t human.

She wasn’t even sure why she felt like crying.

Her day had been fine. It was full of ambassador duties, and preparations for the wedding, and a few other miscellaneous things, but it wasn’t a bad day. It was just busy. And she was tired. She wanted to take a nap, but she didn’t have the time. There was another meeting she had to get to in 20 minutes.

There was a knock on the bathroom door and she startled.

“Cinder?” Kai called.

She forced her hands away from her temples. Taking a deep breath to calm herself down, Cinder stood up and walked over to open the door. She put on a neutral expression, hoping Kai wouldn’t see how tired and stressed she was.

But of course he saw through her the second he saw her face. His expression went from hopeful to concerned right away.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Kai asked. He took her hands in his own, pulling her out to the seating area in his--might as well be their--suite.

“Nothing’s wrong,” She lied.

“Iko said you hung up in the middle of a call with Bromstad and ran off. That doesn’t seem like nothing’s wrong to me.”

Cinder pulled her hands out of his. She opted to trace the scar tissue around her wrist where skin met metal.. “I’m just a little stressed, it’s nothing you have to worry about.”

“I know I don’t have to worry about you, but that doesn’t mean I don’t sometimes.”

“Kai,” she sighed. “Really, I’m okay.”

She wasn’t and they both knew that, but she hoped that he would let it go. She didn’t want to bother him with her problems. He was just as busy as she was, if not more so. He didn’t have the time to run a country and make sure that she was constantly okay. She could take care of herself, she always had and she always would.

Cinder tried giving him a smile, but it fell flat.

He purposely reached out to take her hands again. “Why don’t we cancel that meeting you have soon and spend some time together?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea--”

“Then ask Iko to do it. It’s about the wedding, not diplomacy.”

That would make her feel a little better… “Okay,” she agreed. “Let me just send a comm to her quick.”

“She’s already on her way there.”

Cinder raised an eyebrow at him.

He shrugged. “When she said you dipped, I asked her to do it before finding you.”

She wasn’t expecting that. It was a sweet gesture, but how did he know she would even go along with it in the first place? Oh right. In the last few years they’d gotten to know each other almost as well as the backs of their own hands.

“Thank you. You didn’t have to do that.”

“I know. But I wanted to, and so did Iko.” He laughed. “Iko was actually a little too eager to do it. I think we might end up having pink table cloths at the reception.”

“Oh stars.”

He grinned, leaning forward to press a kiss to her forehead. “Now come on. I want to show you something.”

“You do?”

“Yup. It’s not much, but I think you’ll like it. Come on.” 

He led her through the palace and out to the gardens. It was a beautiful day. The sun shone high in the vibrant blue sky. A gentle breeze blew through the trees as they walked through rows of roses and azaleas and chrysanthemums. They walked over the bridge above the koi pond, nearing the back where the bench Kai and Cinder claimed as their own was nestled under a cherry blossom tree.

As they got closer, Cinder saw something new planted around the bench.

“Are those…?”

“Peonies.”

Her breath caught in her throat. Another crying induced headache made its way to the front of her head. She swallowed. Reaching out, she touched one of the pastel pink flowers with her flesh hand. It was soft and smelled wonderful.

“Do you like them?” Kai whispered. He sat on the stone bench, one hand on her shoulder as he patiently waited for a response.

Cinder sat next to him, wrapping her arms around his waist as she buried her face in his chest. “I love them. Thank you.”

“I’d do anything for you.” He held her close, rubbing her back slowly.

“What made you think of this?” she asked.

“I remembered you mentioning how sad you were that you didn’t have anything to remind you of her. Planting some peonies seemed like a good way to remember her.” He paused. “She would have wanted you to have something. I’m only sorry that I can’t do more.”

She shook her head. “Don’t be, it’s perfect.”

They were both silent for a few minutes, basking in each other’s embrace. Cinder felt her stress melting away the more time she spent with him, so she didn’t let go. This was exactly what she needed and she couldn’t have been more grateful to him.

“It’s not your fault, Cinder,” he whispered. “I know you still blame yourself for her death, but it’s not your fault.”

“Kai--”

“And it’s not your fault that Adri treated you so terribly either. You didn’t deserve that. You’re a wonderful person. So strong and brave and kind and smart. And I love you so much.”

Her fingers bunched up the silk material of his shirt, holding onto him as if her life depended on it. No one had ever told her that before. No one ever told her that it wasn’t her fault for all the things people did and said to her in the past.

For the first five years of her living memory she was told that she was worthless, that she wasn’t human because of things that were out of her control. Those words broke her down, shattered her heart into millions of little pieces.

Somehow Iko, Kai, and all their friends were putting the pieces back together these last couple years. Somehow she was becoming whole, becoming loved again. Hearing him say that was like he put in the last piece. Cinder was finally able to genuinely believe that nothing Adri, Pearl, or any ignorant person on the street once said to her was real or her fault.

She was blameless when it came to the actions of others against her.

“I love you, Kai,” she said.

“I love you.”

[dreamingonthedaily]

STARTER CALL!

Again, y’all know me by now, banners/tags are not my thing…

I have added new muses and would love to make some friends!

-Devrik

-Torin

-Nolla

-Aroon

-Roybin

-Gael

As well as any of the older friends we all know and love.

Let me know who you would like!