The stage is set. The Actor is in his place.
Normally, the manor would be lively on Christmas Eve. Decorations, lights, guests singing and dancing as music filtered through the halls. It is a stark contrast to its current state: dark, quiet, empty.
Mark plans on retiring to his room early. No use in drowning in long distant memories, or even in drink, for that matter. Not tonight. The few staff members he still has are under strict instructions to not disturb him for the remainder of the holiday.
He's alone, as much as he ever is with the Entity that hovers over him. He's sure he's alone.
…Except.
Except it doesn't feel quite as empty as it should. He has a strange, creeping feeling that won’t leave him be. Anticipation, in a way. It isn't a good sense of anticipation, nor can he pinpoint what he thinks is about to happen.
Mark searches the manor for a long time. For what? There doesn’t seem to be an intruder. No more moving shadows than there usually are.
"Is this you?" he asks, issuing the question to the Entity.
A low hum. No other response. Trying not to shiver, he turns on his heel to return to his room.
The telephone mocks him as he passes by. Taunting. Offering. He has paused with his hand outstretched towards it, before he remembers why he can't call any of them. Why he doesn't want to! He doesn't.
The two of them have plans for them. All in good time.
A book is picked up on the way to his chair, now settled in his bedroom. All he wants is a quiet evening with no one to remind him what day it is.
The strange feeling doesn't leave him. He keeps glancing up at the door, uneasy. The clock tick, tick, ticks with a steady heartbeat. Caught in a state between half-sleep and half-alertness, Mark finds his glances lingering on the door in longer stretches.
They weren't dead to begin with. Not in this universe. But time bends and warps and tugs in strange ways, drawing on the future, drawing on alternate paths. Parallel lines beginning to cross.
Anything could happen. Anyone could happen.
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“The building caught fire?…Why the hell did you run in after me, you idiot!”
⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ Because you’re a friend I have yet to meet.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ A desire that manifested within every simplicity of life. When on some days, they’d enter the same buildings, when at times, pass by each other in the halls, when they’d shared a class together. Oh, how overly lucky Tadashi felt that day when he learned about it (even if it was just one class). He believed they’d never speak because of how demanding assignments were in such a prestigious institution. Tadashi would satisfy his curiosity by taking peeks and be content with them ... take peeks at such a stranger, and find him so interesting because he’d simultaneously held a beautiful face and gentle soul.
Makani James Kapule, was a friend Tadashi has yet to meet. But right now, in this moment in time, this desire felt more like a childish dream.
And the more Makani stretched out his feelings, the further away the dreamed seemed. ( But dreams were always just that, a dream, right? ) Tadashi wasn’t usually spoken to in such a tone --save for Aunt Cass at times-- and that’s because he would always do his absolute best to please. He is SFIT’s brightest, he is a disciplined child, he is a wise brother; praise came by so easily. To be yelled at, scorned, and criticized all in one bout, why, he wasn’t used to this.
It’s embarrassing ( and terrifying ) that he feels like he is about to cry; his eyes are overtaken by a brief moist layer, but the shadow his loyal cap would cast over the top portion of his face spares him from being caught in such a state.
However, he wasn’t going to just stand there and act like he didn’t deserve this. To some, he was regarded as a hero, to others, he was reckless; it was just the former that spoke louder, or ever spoke up for that matter- Though, it’s undeniable that those around Tadashi wasn’t used to the sight of him getting yelled at, especially about the incident everyone seemed to sworn to not speak of. It comes to no surprise that this garnered the attention of some. Tadashi felt the swarm of onlookers, but it was light pelts of rain compared to the storm that was in Makani’s eyes.
In a weird way, Tadashi was wanting to hear more from him in this form because at the end of it all, Makani was expressing concern in a raw form.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ “I wasn’t going to just ... stand by idly while there were people in there.”
Candidly and weakly, Tadashi was testing the sound of his voice in this introduction, pushing out the quivers that hid in every other word ever so subtly in one big breath. He inhales, he exhales, he sounds like he is about to prepare for a speech but no. He is embarrassed as he overthinks that this must sound like the most pathetic excuse to someone who is seeing red. Tadashi sighs disappointingly, knowing --or rather, believing-- that his elaboration wasn’t going to be the pillow that soothes Makani’s heavy head.
⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ “I heard Professor Callaghan was in there, I ... I heard you were in there. And- and, I thought that maybe I could have done something ... Do you ... want to talk about it?”
He proposed, meekly, but willingly. Do you want to talk about it? How stupid. His mind mocks him.
Oh Tadashi, you really are an idiot, aren’t you?
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i love you. thorns and all.
PROMPTS FROM A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES
Aoife panted as they thrashed in the grip of the fae above them, a whirlwind of fangs and claws as they tried and failed to escape Samhradh's grip. They weren't thinking rationally, rage and hurt reducing their mind to instinct alone. "She... She turned them against me!" they hissed, claws digging into the frost-hardened earth beneath them as they threw their head back against the ground hard enough to make their ears ring."'I'll kill her! You cannot deny me this!"
They wanted to. In that moment, they wanted it more than anything. Their sister - the changeling who had stolen their family - had bargained away their freedom for her own, like they were nothing. Their family had not even recognized them. They were oblivious to the fact that the changeling was not their child, happy to accept the glamour that had been placed over their minds. Aoife had been dismayed to learn of the spell their sister had laid upon them, but had not let it deter them. While it was bittersweet that their parents might never know them as their child, they rationalized that they could still get to know their parents.
But that was before their sister had caught wind of their visit. She had filled their parents' minds with hate and their cottage with iron, making sure Aoife could never, ever come back. Their sister had taken their freedom without even bothering to learn their name. 'Revenge must be had,' their blood sang. 'For every price paid, an equal reward. But where is ours? Is it our lot to be outcast no matter where we go?'
The faeries did not want them. The humans apparently didn't either. Their sister had traded their freedom like it was nothing, thinking only of herself. Aoife could not cope with the anguish, so they turned it into rage. Their fury blinded them, making them momentarily forget the love they'd been shown by wolf and mage alike. Years of loneliness rose up within them, exacerbated by long, knowing stares and snickers behind clawed hands.
They wouldn't stand for it. They couldn't. Aoife was beyond rational thought. They would transform into a creature big enough to hold all their anger and betrayal and hurt, and they'd ransack that stupid cottage and show them all what fear really was. When they'd finished grinding their infuriating sister's bones into dust, maybe then this bubbling, burning hurt inside them would simmer down and abate.
They snarled, trying to shift once more, letting that raging thing beneath their skin loose. But their power was beyond them, denied by the heavy tang of the Summer King's magic as it wrapped around them and kept them pinned beneath strong arms and an even, calm lavender gaze. They thrashed again, harder, legs kicking and arms yanking at Samhradh's grip, but the King was immovable. Aoife didn't stand a chance against that kind of power, and that just pissed them off more. They slammed their magic against Samhradh's, but the king's power was impenetrable. Aoife's magic slammed into theirs and sputtered, like a candle snuffed out.
Their blood boiled. "Let me go!" they commanded, baring their teeth at their mate king. "You are not my keeper! If they want to treat me like some kind of monster, I'll show them what a monster is!" Another thrash, as useless as the last. Samhradh's eyes gleamed as they bared their teeth at Aoife and snarled. Though the king was in their fae form, the sound carried the same timbre as it did in their lupine one. Aoife swallowed tightly, their rage stuttering as a new emotion overtook them: fear. The king had rarely had reason to display their power when it came to the little hulder, but Aoife was well-aware of what they were capable of. Samhradh would not hurt them, they knew this, but what they didn't know was what Samhradh intended to do next.
Thinking the king would return their fury with a display of equal strength, they were taken by surprise when Samhradh's eyes gleamed not with anger, but admiration and... arousal? Samhradh lowered their head, nuzzling against Aoife's throat softly before opening their mouth to graze the changeling's skin with their fangs. Aoife's breaths stuttered immediately, eyes widening. It hurt, but only just enough to serve as a warning. And it worked. The changeling stilled beneath them, the message clear: 'Cease.'
"Your fury is not unwarranted, little cat," Samhradh rumbled down their bond, their voice poking at the shields around Aoife's mind as they lazily laved their tongue across the mark they had just left. Aoife whimpered quietly, their attention wavering between the rage boiling beneath their skin and the new heat Samhradh was quickly kindling between their thighs. They tried to shove back at them mentally, but it was too late.
The king was determined to keep them distracted. Before Aoife could process this new development, Samhradh shifted atop them, slipping a thigh between theirs and pressing it against the core of them. Aoife's breath hitched as their teeth grazed against their throat once more, biting down just enough to leave a mark. Aoife shuddered, anger swept aside by desire as they fell for Samhradh's distraction hook, line, and sinker.
"As much as I admire your resolve, I am afraid I cannot let you act on it. You will regret the bloodshed you intend to seek come the morrow. Remember: the humans' opinions matter little, my darling," Samhradh purred, pleased amusement coloring their voice as they finally swept past Aoife's mental shields entirely. "They do not recognize your strengths as I do... But that's alright. I would rather keep you to myself." Another stroke of their tongue, drawing Aoife's breath out in a shuddering, staccato beat. Samhradh hummed as they settled their soul against Aoife's own, their weight pinning the small changeling beneath them now without the help of their magic. "My lovely little winter rose... Do not ever forget that no matter what anyone may say, I love you - thorns and all."
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Anonymous asked:
For Tenebrosity, how about drink for the hc meme?
[Send me hc + a word of your choosing and I’ll write a headcanon relating to that word! | Accepting!]
Iiiiiiiiiiiiimpossible to intoxicate via regular means. It would take an entire temple of Chaos mages days of casting the same 'drunk stupor' spell over Ten before it would actually work- and even then it'd only work slightly. And since Ten has no clue about actual society, she...doesn't really get why everyone's constantly surprised by how much she can drink. If shown what being 'drunk' is like, and asked to, she could fake it- but she wouldn't be too happy with the result.
Overall: she has no drinking moderation, but thanks to being a goddess,...she doesn't really need moderation in that regard, either.
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