almakfi

[almakfi]

The Carrying, Ada Limón.

[almakfi]

something genuinely insane about going somewhere and getting to feel “i had some of the worst years of my life here” and “i was loved here, once” simultaneously.

[almakfi]

Grief is a house we build on the edge of darkness.

Kyo Lee, "Last Words as Vows" from i cut my tongue on a broken country

[almakfi]

Charles Wright, from "A Journal of the Year of the Ox", The World of Ten Thousand Things: Poems 1980-1990 [ID'd]

[almakfi]

(NAILS) for sender to drag their nails down receiver's back. (KNIFE) for sender to press the tip of a knife against someone's back. from maxima, that's just how they say hi it's been 50years so it's time to meet again as per tradition

he counts her steps by the width of the sound between one footfall and the next. after three, she is close enough to know that he could move aside and evade her, turn his back and face her, maybe even kill her. the hidden blade is always ready, safely clasped at the underside of his arm. it takes one flick of his wrist, and it will extend like his taloned will. basim knows the exact timing, the slight torsion, the battle response. yet he is methodical in his inaction. another footfall strikes the floor, the closeness suddenly turning warm and urgent, but he does not pull away. even when the blunt sting of maxima's nails is replaced with the sharp tip of a knife, poking through the layers of fabric at the center of his back.

‘ya habibti.’

the sting becomes firmer in response. playful. she detects the lulling irony of his voice before the smile in his words, barely murmured, may reach his face. they stand in the spot where the hot dry dark pools, away from the only ray of moonlight that cuts through the window. dim and yellowish like old parchment, the last of the season. on the desk, by the candlelight, sits a stack of documents—all unsealed, except one. the clench of maxima's fist around the hilt of the knife presses gently into him. urging him to drop the letter with the blue wax seal still intact. basim smiles now, even if she has no way of knowing.

‘did you know it was me before you stayed your hand?’

in response the blade prods him, threatening to break skin. only when the letter is laid flat on the desk she allows him to turn, and the white gleam of their eyes crosses in the dark. quietly, basim's gauntleted hand reaches out to hold hers. their blades joined.

prompt.

[almakfi]

who owns the grief of these wings? how does the sky mourn? in revenge, the crows peck holes in our rising prayers. in protest, the rain refuses. no, we killed the rain.  & the catfish. & the mussels. & the flying fox. the white of our palms a curse we pass by making, wanting. awful kings, everything we touch we bless out of existence.

- Danez Smith, Elegies for Our Fellow Animals.

[almakfi]

Assassin's Creed Mirage ↠ 5/∞

[almakfi]

basim picked bits of greek back in his childhood home from half-translated treatises on greco-roman architecture that his father committed to copying for the house of wisdom, and which he would read out loud for his son to repeat and memorize when basim expressed interest to assist him in the process, but also from fully translated texts stored in the library itself. what he learned was literary koinè, and had to adjust to the colorful latin influences accepted into byzantine vernacular as well as the varied pronunciation but all in all he was not at all unfamiliar with greek by the time he arrived in constantinople and could comfortably conduct a conversation in the language, although with marked accent

[almakfi]

endlessly disappointed in ubis0ft discarding basim's modern plotline but that can only mean it's free real estate, he is immortal and carrying the work of the hidden ones in the present hope this helps

[almakfi]

"it's all in your head" correct! unfortunately I am also in there

[almakfi]

“Suppose you woke & found your shadow replaced by a black wolf. The boy, beautiful and gone.”

— excerpt from a new poem in the latest issue of BODY Literature–a fairly new journal getting a lot of traction lately. (read it here )

[almakfi]

biggest basim skill is gaslighting and it's like half learned from roshan and half natural talent

[almakfi]

something about basim being utterly determined to avoid children and dogs (the former for personal reasons and the latter for reasons that are unknown to him for the most part, a blend of cultural+visceral loki-induced familiarity that he flees throughout his life), and yet both being so very mysteriously drawn to him—

[almakfi]

Maria Tatar's Off with Their Heads! Fairy Tales and the Culture of Childhood.

[almakfi]

eagle vision is a kind of magical/supernatural godly sixth sense, isu lore doesn't matter and it won't be linked to them by some pseudoscientific explanation. for basim it's like a hightened perception of his surroundings that allows him to see and feel things that are hidden, he cuts out his thoughts and focuses exclusively on his senses, the world becomes sharp, not necessarily colorful but more saturated as if the light hit differently—but because it's some supernatural hyperfocus that he just taps into like it's being shared with him but was not originally meant for him, he cannot do anything else while using this ability, he cannot focus enough to fight or climb or even read/write

[almakfi]

basim's kill animations are MY roman empire

[almakfi]

the sense of betrayal that basim experienced when his father gradually grew cold, resentful and violent in his pain can only be compared to the sense of betrayal he experienced when loki's consciousness began awakening in his mind and if you think the two aren't comparable or linked consider the impending feeling of unsafety you get from the inability to rely on someone/thing that should be on your side and is instead the greatest source of harm