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best-yandere-tournament · 6 months

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Already got a list of the ships for the ULTIMATE fucked up ship tournament done. Hopefully will start it in two weeks or so. This is a list of the ships:

1. The Darkling and Alina, The Grisha Trilogy

2. Batman and The Riddler, The Batman 2022

3. stu and billy from scream

4. Vriska and Terezifrom homestuck

5. light and l from death note

6. Dirk Strider and Jake English from Homestuck,

7. Vio and Shadow Link from the Four Swords manga

8. Emilio Murkmere x Tobias Schenien from Ghost Eyes

9. Oswald x Ed from Gotham

10. Anna Croft/ Yu Junghyeok (orv)

11. Dimitri/Edelgard - Fire Emblem Three Houses

12. Will Graham and Hannibal, Hannibal

13. yoonbum x sangwoo, killing stalking

14. Starscream and Megatron, from the Transformers franchise

15. Mukuro Ikusaba/Junko Enoshima from Dangan Ronpa

16. Ladd Russo and Lua Klein from Baccano!

17. Daida and Miranjo from Ousama Ranking

18. Shizuo and Izaya from Durarara!!

19. theresa x otto, honkai impact

20. dorian x fem! inquisitor, dragon age

21. renee x huey from baccano

22. nanami x touga, revolutionary girl Utena

23. madoka and homura, puella magi madoka magica

24. (Ronan Lynch x Joseph Kavinksy) - The Raven Cycle

25. Seishirou and Subaru from Tokyo Babylon/X

26. Misaki/Satou, Welcome to the NHK

27. Bakugou and Deku (My Hero Academia)

28. Akito and Shigure, Fruits Basket

29. House and Wilson, House MD

30. Scarlet and Chase, I’m the Grim Reaper

31. Jong-woo and Moon-jo, Strangers from Hell

32. Moon-young and Gang-tae, It’s Okay to Not Be Okay

33. Medea and Helio, Your Throne

34. Celty and Shinra, Durarara

35. Akira and Ryo, Devilman

36. Yoshino and Kirishima, Raise wa Tanin Ga ii

37. Chateau and Ryang-ha, Love of Kill

38. Satoko and Shinpei, Hotaru no Yomeiri

39. Clarice and Hannibal, Silence of the Lambs

40. He Yan and Fu Shenxing, Who is the Prey

41. Cain/Owen from Promise of Wizard / Mahoyaku

42. Texas/Lappland from Arknights.

43. Jeongmin and Siyun, Dreaming Freedom

44. Han Chae-ah and Park Yunsu, Trapped

45. akane kurashiki/junpei tenmyouji from zero escape

46. Juri/Shiori (from Revolutionary Girl Utena)

47. Jackie/Shauna, Yellowjackets)

48. Cassandra/Rapunzel from the Tangled series

49. Damien and Elena from vampire diaries

50. Kristoph/Phoenix, Ace Attorney

51. Juice and Chibs, Sons of Anarchy

52. Utena/Anthy from the anime Revolutionary Girl Utena.

53. Cutthroat x Swindler, from Akudama Drive.

54. Yuno Gasai x Yukkiteru Amano from Mirai Nikki

55. Sal/Syakesan x Wadanohara from Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea.

56. Jeremy and the SQUIP, Be More Chill

57. Ian Grimm and Poppy Li, Mythic Quest

58. Lestat de Lioncourt and Louis De Pointe du Lac, Interview with the Vampire

59. fuuma and kamui from clamp's x/1999

60. Victor and Eli, Vicious

61. Elisabeth and Der Tod, Elisabeth

62. Rudolf and Der Tod, Elisabeth

63. Veronica Sawyer and J.D, Heathers

64. Akechi Goro × Persona 5 protagonist (Akira Kurusu/Ren Amamiya)

65. Hondomachi and Fukuda, ID: Invaded

66. Harley Quinn and the Joker, DC

67. Christine and Erik, Phantom of the Opera

68. Lisa Reisert and Jackson Rippner, Red Eye

69. Valeta and Reinhart, I Failed to Oust the Villain

70. Light Yagami and Misa Amane, Death Note

71. Sumire and Hakubo, Toilet Bound Hanako Kun

72. Mika Harima and Seiji Yagiri, Durarara!!

73. Emma Wilson and Yohan Lee, My Deepest Secret

74. Sarah and Jareth, Labyrinth

75. Addie LaRue and Luc, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

76. Ja Yoon and The Nobleman, The Witch, Part One: Subversion

77. Makima and Denji, Chainsaw Man

78. Kyoko and Katsuya, Fruits Basket

79. Mrs. De Winter and Maxim, Rebecca

80. Mutsuki Tooru and Urie Kuku, Tokyo Ghoul

81. Victor and Elizabeth, The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein

82. Constanta, Magdalena, and Alexei and Dracula, A Dowry of Blood

83. Ha-im and Geunhu, Never Ending Darling

84. Frank Cotton & Julia Cotton - Hellraiser (1987)

85. Yuki Cross & Kaname Kuran, Vampire Knight

86. Johann and Sasha, The Double Agent

87. Sian and Yul, Secret Alliance

88. Charlize and Dylan, The Taming of the Tyrant

89. Lin and Dosung, 340 Days

90. Makishima Shougo & Shinya Kougami from PSYCHOPASS.

91. Charlotte Willmore x Lizzie Wells, from The Perfection (2018).

92. “Hikaru”/Yoshiki from The Summer hikaru Died,

93. Dolph Laserhawk x Alex Taylor from Captain Laserhawk

94. Dolph Laserhawk x Rayman from Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix

95. Yuuji Itadori x Mahito from Jujitsu Kaisen

96. (luo binghe x shen qingqiu) from scum villain's self saving system.

97. Heaven Official's Blessing. Ships He Xuan and Shi Qingxuan.

98. Ives and Boyd from Ravenous 1999

99. Eve and Vilanelle, Killing Eve

100. Sephiroth/Cloud (FF7 Compilation)

101. Clary and Jace from the Mortal Instruments

102. Rika Sasaki/Yoshiyuki Terada, Cardcaptor Sakura,

103. Veralidaine Sarrasri/Numair Salmalín, from the Immortals Quartet

104. Eli/Oskar, Let the Right One In (2008).

105. Lavan Firestorm/Kalira, Brightly Burning

106. Lapis/Jasper (Steven Universe

107. PearlescentMoon/SMajor, the Life Series

108. Christine/Erik (Phantom Takarazuka)

109. The Brain/Julia (Animaniacs 2020)

110. Sterek, Teen Wolf

111. Jonathan Sims/Elias Bouchard, The Magnus Archives

112. Fyodor and Nikolai, Bungo Stray Dogs

113. Beatrice and Battler, Beabato, from "Umineko”

114. Father Paul/Riley Flynn; Midnight Mass

115. Edward Teach/Izzy Hands; Our Flag Means Death;

116. Batman/Joker

117. Cesare Borgia/Lucrezia Borgia - The Borgias

118. Dean/Sam Winchester from Supernatural

119. Vegas/Pete (Kinnporsche: The Series)

120. Hitori Uzune and Nanaki Kazuaki from Hatoful Boyfriends.

121. Lanze/Bluepool and Anan from Beauty and the Beasts

122. Blade and Dan Heng from Honkai Star Rail

123. Spike and Buffy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

124. Isaac and Finn, I’m Dating a Psychopath

125. Lenore and Annabelle, Nevermore

126. Estelle and Khalid, From a Knight to a Lady

127. Layla and Matthias, Cry or Better Yet Beg

128. Hyuna and Luka, Alien Stage

129. Karuto and Lily, Dear my Living Dead

130. Andrew and Ashley Graves, Coffin of Andy and Leyley

131. Lydia Deetz/Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice

132. Harrow and gideon from gideon the ninth/Locked Tomb

133. Cathy x Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights)

134. Felix x Ollie (Saltburn)

135. Grace Chastity x Max Jaegerman, Nerdy Prudes Must Die

136. Mikoto and Haijin, Tsuiraku JK to Haijin Kyoushi

137. Eucenielle and Tes, I Hold the Tyrant’s Heart

138. Claire and Balt, The East Wind of the Altas

139. Usui and Misaki, Maid Sama

140. Sebastian Michaelis and Ciel Phantomhive, Black Butler

141. Dabi x Hawks from My Hero Academia

142. Alice “Daisy” Tonner/Basira Hussain, The Magnus Archives

143. Naruto and Sasuke, from Naruto

144. Byleth Eisner / Jeritza von Hrym from fire emblem three houses

145. Akira x keisuke from togainu no chi (nitro+chiral game)

146. Lucy Gray Baird and Coriolanus Snow, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

147. Elias and Chise, The Ancient Magus Bride

148. Gendo and Yui Ikari, Neon Genesis Evangelion

149. Punpun and Aiko, Goodnight Punpun

150. Sang-hyun and Tae-ju, Thirst

151. Hawa and Adam, The Guy Upstairs

152. Satoru Fujnuma and Gaku Yashiro, Erased

153. Root and Sameen Shaw, Person of Interest

154. The Doctor and the master, Doctor Who

155. Juliette and Warner, Shatter Me

156. Ich and Mrs Danvers, Rebecca das Musical

157. Kokichi Ouma and Shuichi Saihara, Danganronpa V3

158. Roxy and Velma, Chicago

159. Griffith and Guts, Berserk

160. Creed and Train, Black Cat

161. Torso and Mutsuki, Tokyo ghoul

162. Vash and Knives, Trigun

163. Sweeney Tod and Mrs Lovett, Sweeney Tod

164. Kuroi and Mashiro, Thou Dhall Not Die

165. Amy and Nick, Gone Girl

166. India and Charlie Stoker, Stoker

167. Pig and Runt, Disco Pigs

168. Anakin and Padme, Star Wars

169. Chloe and Kairos, I Shall Kill That Sweet Devil

170. Jung and Seol, Cheese in the Trap

171. Anthy and Akio Ohtori, Revolutionary Girl Utena

172. Feyre and Rhysand, A Court of Thrones and Roses

173. Lelouch and Suzaku, Code Geass

174. Mikiya and Shiki, Garden of Sinners

175. Gatsby and Daisy, The Great Gatsby

176. Ivan and Till, Alien Stage

177. Sylar and Elle Bishop, Heroes

178. Helena and Demetrius, A Midsummer Night’s Dream

179. V and Rika, Mystic Messenger

180. Yukari and George, Paradise Kiss

#polls #most fucked up ship tournament #most fucked up ships

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fiora-miriel · 1 year

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The problem with Nikolai

If you think about it... Nikolai Lantsov (with that weird plot twist that he is behind the almost kidnapping), is indirectly responsible for both Alexei's and Marie's death on the show.

And for what? He wanted to kidnap Alina from the LP, from Os Alta to do what? She was already serving in the Second Army, indirectly working for the Lantsov monarchy. So what did Nikolai want with her?

Was it his plan to overthrow his father and brother with her? There is no other explanation for this, am I right?

And Alina never really questions that? She is like totally fine with the almost kidnapping, she never asks about Marie with whom she seemed to have a good relationship with. (pretty heartless?)

#grishaverse rant #grishanalyticritical #anti shadow and bone #anti s&b writers #dude they fucked up with this #sab 2 #shadow and bone season 2

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mariacallous · 6 months

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In the crowded labyrinth of the open market in downtown Chisinau, the capital city of Moldova, a babble of languages ripples through the throngs of traders hawking a bewildering array of fresh produce, cheap textiles, electronic wares, and much more. A customer may broach the terms of a deal in, say, Ukrainian, and get an answer in Romanian, or propose a price in Romanian and be answered in Russian. Among themselves, the traders from across this diminutive country of 2.5 million, wedged precariously between its outsized neighbors Romania and Ukraine, communicate in other tongues, too.

Moldova is a multiethnic country that wears its patchwork diversity on its sleeve. Particularly in urban centers, the majority Romanians live very much together with Ukrainians, Russians, and the Turkic Gagauz. But the war in Ukraine has completely upended the tenuous status quo that existed before February 2022. The war’s outcome, whether in Ukraine’s or Russia’s favor, has existential consequences for the tiny country nursing aspirations of joining the European Union.

Political convictions in Moldova have long spanned the gamut from aspirations of greater Romanian nationalism to Soviet nostalgia, from pro-Russia patriotism to civic pride in an independent, EU-embedded Moldova. This fractured landscape is also reflected in the country’s geography. Since the first days of its independence in 1991—when the Soviet Republic of Moldova jettisoned Soviet authority and declared statehood, basically for the first time ever—the Republic of Moldova itself has been fractured.

A breakaway, Russia-kowtowing enclave called Transnistria established itself east of the Dniester River—complete with about 1,500 Russian troops that remain there today—while the Gagauz minority, courted by Moscow and Ankara, staked out broad autonomy in the south.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s first priority is to stop Moldova from joining the EU and integrating with the West, especially since the EU boosted Moldova to candidate status shortly after the onset of the Russia-Ukraine war. But his aspirations may be far wider. Last week, Russia drew the ire of Moldovan authorities by setting up polling stations in Transnistria for its roughly 200,000 residents to vote in the Russian presidential elections held from March 15 to 17. It was a move that harks back to the initial steps taken to absorb occupied territories in Crimea and elsewhere in eastern Ukraine into Russia itself.

“Everything is at stake for Moldova now,” said Alexei Tulbure, the director of the Moldovan Oral History Institute.

If there’s one thing that just about all of Moldova’s peoples agree upon, regardless of political ideology, it is that they have next to no agency to affect the fate of their country—and ultimately, the fate of their own futures. “Moldovans breathe quietly,” according to a Ukrainian saying, mocking the country’s helplessness.

“It’s in the back of our minds,” said Alina Radu, the founder of the independent weekly Ziarul de Garda, of the possibility of the country losing its territory, or autonomy, to Russia. She compared the threat that the country now faces to the first months of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022, when the Russian military seemed to be on the doorstep of the nearby Ukrainian city of Odesa. Transnistria’s armies seemed to be preparing to lend Russia a hand there. Had they been successful, all of Moldova could have come under Russian domination.

The staging ground for any future assault on Moldova is still likely to be Ukraine. Putin regularly confirms that Odesa is a military priority and has recently stepped up missile attacks there. It is a development that Moldovans are watching with trepidation. It’s one that Moldova’s allies in the West should be watching, too.

Even over its grinding first decades—marred by civil war, raging corruption, abject poverty, and mass emigration—Moldova’s prospects weren’t as starkly imperiled as they are today. Unlike most Ukrainians—who declare that victory over Russia is the only possible outcome—Moldovans have thought through worst-case scenarios.

“If Ukraine is defeated and Russia carves out a land corridor to Transnistria, Moldova will effectively cease to exist as an independent county,” Radu explained. “If they cross the Dniester River to occupy Moldova proper, then most of the population could well flee to Romania and points in Europe.” Her entire editorial staff has fixed plans to relocate to offices in the Romanian cities of Iasi and Bucharest, she said.

This certainly, at the very least, would put an abrupt end to Moldova’s EU and NATO aspirations, which is Washington’s primary concern. Upon signing a security cooperation deal with France on March 7, Moldovan President Maia Sandu—a 51-year-old Romanian-speaking graduate of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government—told French President Emmanuel Macron that “our shared security is at stake. If the aggressor is not stopped, he will keep going, and the front line will keep moving closer. Closer to us, closer to you.”

Were Russia to take Moldova, it would open a second frontier with direct access to an EU member state. The United States is obviously aware of this threat and upped its defense assistance to Moldova from $3 million in 2022 to more than $30 million today. The United States and France also provided the country with hundreds of millions to shift its energy supply westward.

Ukraine, according to many Moldovans, including Sandu, is fighting for Moldova’s independence, too. “We’re very grateful to Ukraine,” said Ludmila D. Cojocaru, a historian at the National Museum of History of Moldova in Chisinau. “At the moment, it is the guarantor of our freedom.”

On the other hand, “if Ukraine pushes Russia back,” said Radu, the editor, “the Russian troops will have to leave separatist Transnistria, and it will dissolve.” As far as she is concerned, the peoples of Transnistria—hostages, she called them, to the criminal clique controlling the territory—would be more than welcome to join the Moldovan state in full. As for the alleged gangsters who have lorded over the region for 30 years, they will face justice—if they’re naïve enough to hang around, she said.

Until Russia launched its full-scale attack on Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Moldova’s overwhelming geopolitical preoccupation was with the self-styled Transnistrian Moldovan Republic (PMR)—recognized as a state by no country in the world, not even Russia. Since a brief but bloody civil war in the region that took an estimated 700 lives in 1992, a hard-nosed, Russian-backed mafioso cartel named Sheriff Holding Co. has turned the vertical sliver of land into an entirely captured, one-party authoritarian state that conducts lucrative black-market business from the eastern bank of the Dniester.

The 90-minute minibus trip from Chisinau to PMR’s capital city, Tiraspol, passes a steady flow of traffic in the opposite direction: This workforce, which possesses Moldovan passports, can no longer find employment in Transnistria since its business to the east was cut off abruptly when Ukraine slammed shut the border last year, a body blow to the Sheriff cartel. At the Dniester, a solitary, AK-wielding Russian Army soldier stands in front of a makeshift border, not unlike Checkpoint Charlie in the divided Berlin.

Two flags fly from the checkpoint: the Russian flag and a green-and-red PMR flag that sometimes—but not all the time—sports a hammer and sickle in the upper right-hand corner just as had the flag of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. In the empty, deafeningly quiet streets of Tiraspol, the only image more prevalent than the bust of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin is the Sheriff logo with its Wild West-inspired star. (“Sheriff” was the nickname of Moldovan police officer Viktor Gushan, who is one of the former Soviet sphere’s wealthiest oligarchs.)

The conflict between Transnistria and the Moldovan state, which never ceded sovereignty over the eastern bank territory, remained largely frozen for years despite international diplomacy to initiate a thawing. As long as the matter remained unsolved, Sheriff’s honchos padded their coffers and Moscow maintained a forward pawn that kept Moldova off balance; through propaganda and puppets, Russia influenced Moldova’s internal politics to the extent that until 2021, all but one Moldovan government reflected positions largely in line with Moscow, much as did in Ukraine until 2014. Interestingly, until the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, Ukraine had sided largely with the Transnistrian ruling clique, business and Russian reinforcements flowing over the Ukraine border while Moldova remained tightly in check.

But now it is the Transnistrians who are on the back foot—and not sure how to play it. The narrow lick of land suddenly finds its greatest ally far away, and its residents are well aware that Ukraine could occupy it within a week, Anatolii Dirun, a former Transnistrian politician, told me. Resupply from Russia is blocked by Ukraine. The PMR made a feeble cry to Moscow for help on Feb. 28, but stopped short of calling for it to intervene.

In fact, the gangsters of Transnistria are petrified and thus playing both ends against the middle: Russia and Moldova proper. All of the region’s trade now runs through Moldova proper—and most of that carries on to the EU through Romania. More Transnistrians than ever before work, study, and learn Romanian in Moldova proper, part of a deft strategy by Sandu to integrate Transnistria back into Moldova.

“Transnistria’s leaders are trying to be prudent—as they don’t have much of a choice,” Oazu Nantoi, a member of the Moldovan Parliament who belongs to Sandu’s party, told Foreign Policy.

And yet, the Transnistrian government, in league with the Gagauz and pro-Russian forces in Moldova proper, remains beholden to Moscow and gladly lends it a hand in chipping away at the Moldovan government’s sovereignty.

The fact is, said Alexei Tulbure, an ethnic Ukrainian and the director of the Moldovan Historical Institute, Moldova is an easy target. It remains a very weak state, he noted, and thus wide open to tampering. “We had hoped that the war would consolidate Moldova the way it did Ukraine’s population, bring us all onto the same page. But this didn’t happen,” he said. Polls show that about a quarter of the country is still pro-Russian.

Russia’s chief means to destabilize its targets are bought votes, propaganda, cyberwarfare, and political parties. There are a handful of Russia-friendly (some also Russian-financed) parties that toe Putin’s line to one degree or another. For most of Moldova’s recent history, a combination of these parties had held power. The propaganda is “very strong and very toxic, and it rings like it’s straight from Moscow,” said Mariana Aricova of the Institute of War and Peace Reporting office in Chisinau, whose job is to monitor and counter the Kremlin’s disinformation campaigns.

The Russian campaigns to topple the Sandu government have picked up pace as the Moldovan presidential election, scheduled to take place in autumn along with a referendum on EU membership, grows nearer. And the Sandu government has responded as if its life depends on it, even by banning one of the pro-Russian parties and shutting down six television channels for alleged misinformation.

But “it didn’t really change much because the banned party has regrouped under a new party, and the Russian message gets out through other channels, like the Internet,” Aricova said.

Above all, Moldovans fear being squashed in a power struggle in which they have no say. Many observers see a slow, gentle reintegration of Transnistria into a federally structured Moldova as a first step in the right direction—Sandu’s chosen path. The Sandu government is seizing the moment as a unique opportunity to reconnect with Transnistria—and from there, to bring the entire country, as one, into the EU. The carrots of cross-border employment prospects, full Schengen Area travel rights, European structural and investment funds, minority rights guarantees, and higher wages could be enticing to everyone—save, of course, Transnistria’s criminals.

In terms of a proven mentor, there’s none better than Romania, which has surged to become Eastern Europe’s second-largest economy after Poland. The question is whether Sandu can pull this off without shattering the fragile country in the process. But then, the war raging next door might just take care of that for her.

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whatisinfinite · 1 year

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around the two of you

for @bearholdingashark as part of the Grishaverse Rarepair Exchange! I’d never considered this as a trio before I got the prompts, but once I started writing, I fell in love with them INSTANTLY. Happy reading 😌.

Ship: Alexei/Alina/The Darkling 💕

The Darkling thinks his favorite Heartrender will make a good distraction for Alina’s homesickness. The Darkling’s heart has other plans.

“The whelp had taken a liking to Alina.

It was as if Alexei and his skittish limbs and stuttering tongue had been entirely overtaken. His thoughts rushed to the girl in every spare moment Aleksander didn’t fill: perhaps the Sun Summoner would appreciate this, perhaps we could make her feel more at home with that.

Heartrenders had little occasion to follow Etheralki home like trained puppies from their lessons with Baghra, but Alexei trailed her daily, a stalwart flash of red beside her blue––ugh––kefta. The Darkling observed the scene with growing amusement from his window, face half-hidden in his black velvet curtains, so as not to be seen.”

💋 Read on AO3

Yes, there will be more 🤭

#grishapairexchange #darklina #alexei/alina #shadow and bone #alina starkov #alexei stepanov #aleksander morozova #the darkling #darklinalexei #is that their portmanteau? it should be #shipper on board #(matchmaker in denial)

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midwinterspringwrites · 9 months

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for a further union

Rated T

Alexei / Aleksander / Alina

Duke Alexei, Aleksander's partner, visits the cartographers in Kribirsk and finds something unexpected. Or more precisely, someone.

(An Alexei/Aleksander/Alina marriage of convenience A/B/O fic)

Written for @jammerific for the @darklinaserver Secret Sankta Exchange.

Moodboard by me.

Read on AO3.

#shadow and bone #my fic #a/b/o #a/b/o dynamics #polyamory #alexei x aleksander x alina #alina starkov #aleksander morozova #alexei stepanov #alexei/aleksander/alina #shadow and bone fanfic #marriage of convenience

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lilisouless · 1 year

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Okay, a little register on the shadow and bone deseased characters

character not listed is because the show hasn't gotten to the events their death develops

Spoilers from both the books and the show

Died in the same (or a similar) way than in the books

-Liliyanna and Lada Garin (implied, we never see them on the show) , killed indirectly by Aleksander Morozova

-Mikhael and Dubrov (implied, we never see them die on the books) killed by fjerdan soldiers

-Vasily Lantsov, killed by a Nichevo´ya (therefore, Aleksander Morozova ,indirectly)

-Aditi Hilli (died saving Leoni Hilli´s life on the books. the show version has yet to have Leoni appearing and comfirming it was her)

-Jordie Rietveld (killed by the plague on both the show and book version)

-The morozova stag (killed by Aleksander Morozova)

-Rulsaye (killed by Alina Starkov)

-Ilya Morozova (not shown but told, killed by angry villagers)

Dies diferently than in the books

-Alexei (killed by the volkras, therefore indirectly by Aleksander Morozova on the books. Killed a little latter by Dreesen on the show)

-Marie (killed by a Nichevo´ya ,therefore indirectly by Aleksander Morozova on the books. Killed earlier on the show by Arken)

-Dominik (killed by a random soldier on the books , killed way much later on the show by Fruzsi)

-Baghra Morozova (killed by herself on the books, on she show: killed accidentally either by a nychevo´ya , therefore indirectly by Aleksander Morozova or by an accident caused by herself)

Died on the show, still alive on the books

-Tantee Helen (killed by Pekka Rollins on the show)

-Pavel (killed by Inej Ghafa, the books never mention Pavel´s demise among the grisha army)

-Alexxander Lantsov: (killed by a Nichevo´ya, therefore indirectly by Aleksander Morozova, never said to die on the books; when it happens the credit goes to Genya Safin)

Died on the books , still alive on the show

-Sankta Neyar (possibly died of natural causes)

Not book characters

-Arken (killed by Aleksander Morozova, on a non book existent storyline)

-Polina (killed by Inej Ghafa, imposible in the book since Inej wasn't present by that time on the books, aslo Pavel is not mentioned to have a sister)

-Vatra (killed by Wylan Van eck, while tecnically Vatra could have existed on the books as a random grisha inferni, the killed would be someone else given that wylan was absent from those events and not even created by then)

-Nisho (killed by Tamar Kir Bataar, tecnically possible on the book since he could be as well be a random squaller and Tamar was present fo the battle)

-Fruzsi (killed by Nikolai Lantsov. Unlikely on the books since there is no register on a tidemaker that close to the darkling and Nikolai was undispossed on the final battle)

-Ahlgren (not mentioned to exist on the books, killed on the show by Pekka Rollins, while there is the possibility of a guy on prision named Ahlgre, the killer is impossible since Pekka Rollins is not a prissioner by that point or at all)

-Mogens (killed by Inej Ghafa, not mentioned on the books or implied to exist)

Implied to be dead

Mr Rietveld: (killed on a farm accident on the books, the show doesn't mention him but his absence implies he dies there as well)

Implied to be alive due to absence

Ana Kuya (killed by Aleksander Morozova on the books, implied to be alive on the show since the book events never got to her and she is shown to exist)

Status or existense unknown

Harshaw: (dead on the book, killed on the final battle. Unknown on the show due to absence, could be alive or unexistent)

Pekka Rollin´s fake son: (dead on the book, killed by Kaz Brekker. Unknown on the show since he doesn't appear, could be dead or unexistent)

Paja: (killed on the books on an accident provoked by Aleksander Morozova, never shows up on the show therefore she is never comfirmed to be alive, dead or non existent)

Sergei Beznikov (Killed on the books by Aleksander Morozova. the show status has two alternatives since there is a character with his first name (but not last name mentioned)

The character is supposed to be him , so he is still alive on the show

The character only has the same name. therefore Sergei Beznikov´s fate is left to be unknown if alive,dead or non existent. If dead, then a diferent dead than in the book)

Milo ( implied to be killed on the books by Kaz Brekker. The dregs that attack Kaz Brekker remain unnamed on the show and none of them are shown to have died, therefore Milo´s fate on the show remains either Alive or non existent.. Unlike Sergei, the character on the show with his name is not supposed to be him)

Unkown fate on the show, implied to be dead , on a diferent way than on the book

-Ivan (dead on the book,killed by Tolya Yul Bataar) (uncomfirmed yet on the show, if dead, killed by Jesper Fahey , indirectly, also killed earlier than the book events)

-Fedyor Kaminsky (dead on the book,killed by an accident caused by Aleksander Morozova. Unknown on the show but wasn't around to die like on the book events)

-David Kostyk (dead on the books, by the fjerdan army , therefore indirectly killed by Jarl Brum; but chronologically alive by the show events. If dead, killed much early and by a nichevo´ya)

-Botkin Yul Erdene (dead on the books, killed by Aleksander Morozova. Show version is never told to be dead, but like Fedyor he doesn't appear along with the surviving grisha and is not mentioned at all)

Brought back to life

-Malyen Oretsev (both show and book gets revived, killed by Alina starkov on both but book version gets revived by Tolya and Tamar, show version gets revived by Alina herself)

-Aleksander Morozova (gets killed and revived on the books, show version has yet to revive him. Both version gets killed by Alina Starkov. Book version gets revived by Sankta Lizaveta, show version implies the same thing will happen)

-Baghra´s sister (killed by Baghra Morozova and revived by Ilya Morozova in both versions. Her resurection doesn't stick since she is told to by killed again by angry villagers)

#also i don't remember if ruby was on the show #i remember a blonde girl on alina and mal´s camp but don't remember if it was her #netflix shadow and bone #grishaverse #leigh bardugo #shadow and bone spoilers #shadow and bone #also i don't remember everything so feel free to point out a mistake

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viduificcl · 8 months

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ABOUT THE MUSE.

General Information

Legal Name: Natalia Alianovna Romanova (Russian: Наталья Альяновна Романова)

Nicknames: Nat, Natasha, "Tasha", "Talia", Tsarina, Red

Aliases: Black Widow (Russian: черная вдова) / Natalia Shostakova (Russian: Наталья Шостакова) / Natalie Grey / Nadine Roman / Nancy Rushman / Natasha Romanoff

Date of Birth: Unknown, 1928

Age: 28 (physically) / 95 (chronologically)

Place of Birth: Stalingrad, Russia, USSR

Gender: Cis woman (she/her/hers)

Hair Color: Red

Eye Color: Blue

Height: 5'7

Weight: 131 lbs

Current Location: San Francisco, California / Little Ukraine, New York City, New York

Citizenship: Russian, Soviet (defected)

Education: Degree from Moscow University / various others / school-issued Certificate of Completion of Secondary Education

Affliction: The Avengers / SHIELD / KGB (formerly; 1962-1991) / Red Room Academy (formerly; 1956-1962) / Red Army (enlisted; 1943-1945)

Faceclaim(s): Alina Kovalenko (primary) / Rebecca Ferguson (secondary)

Family

Siblings: Unknown

Parents: Father (deceased) / Mother (deceased) / Ivan Petrovich Bezukhov (adoptive father, deceased)

Children: Rose (daughter, deceased [stillborn])

Extended family: Unknown

Pets: Black cat named Liho

Relationship Information

Relationship Status: Divorced

Spouse(s): Nikolai (deceased) / Alexei Shostakov (divorced)

#━━ ❛ raised by wolves ❜ ◤ about ◢

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edgesystem · 1 year

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Bone Velvet

My very first Big Bang! And my first grishaverse fic. And my first real use of this tumblr account. Lots of firsts, really. Thank you @grishaversebigbang for existing so I can make random stories and get awesome art out of it.

Materialki: @ferrisraccoon Link

@polekands Link

Summary:

Mal has spent his entire life in the shadow of his popular and competent childhood friend, Alina Starkov. But when a terrible accident exposes his ability to summon light, he is torn from everything he knows and taken to the little palace for training. Given true power for the first time in his life, Mal finds himself in a position where his choices will affect all of Ravka.

A role reversal AU where Mal is the sun summoner instead of Alina.

Ao3 Link

Alexei

One marker in, Alexei decided he was finally going to confront Alina, and it only took until the third marker for him to actually do it. The boards of the sand skiff creaked slightly as he made his way to the strange blue light Alina sat directly underneath, sketching the beginnings of a new map.

She was stunning, as alway. There was a vibrancy to her, an inner glow that always took Alexei’s breath away. He was not alone of course. Her natural aura combined with her delicate shu features and made her widely popular. Alina had numerous suitors, both in and out of the cartography corps. Yet she never seemed particularly interested in any of them. Alexei himself had given up some time ago.

“What are you making? He asked her.

Alina smiled slightly and Alexei tried not to faint on the spot. “A map of the fold.”

He peered over at the piece of paper, trying to glimpse her work in the dim light. He could make out a few decrepit buildings, the markers for the skiff and even a volcra nest slightly ahead of them. Alexei could barely see an inch away from his own face, but he was certain the map was accurate. Alina had a knack, something no one could properly explain.

“Is that why you did it?” Alexei asked, “So you could map the fold?”

“Did what?” Alina laughed nervously. Her smile could melt all of the ice in Fjerda

“I saw you in the map room.”

Alina’s expression quickly transitioned into a distressed frown. “I didn’t mean for everyone to get transferred. It was only supposed to be me.”

“I’m not mad.” Alexei reassured her, “I just want to know why.”

There was a brief moment of silence when Alina’s eyes drifted over to the side of the sand skiff. Alexei was already fairly sure he knew what she was looking at, but he turned around anyway.

Sure enough, standing at the edge of the ship and glaring into darkness was a wiry scrap of a boy. He looked rather sickly, which made him seem even younger than he was. Malyen Oretsev, the unfortunate boy who won what the first army called the nightmare lottery. The only person Alina seemed to ever pay attention to.

“You should tell him how you feel.”

“What? No. We’re… we’re just friends.” Alexei couldn’t help but find the situation sadly ridiculous. Here he was, standing next to the girl he was in love with, encouraging her to be honest with her feelings. Perhaps he should take his own advice. As much as he felt like he’d given up any chance of the two of them being together, he was starting to think he would still cling to that hope until the words were actually spoken.

There was only one way to know.

“Alina?” he started, thankful that the dark hid his trembling hands.

“Yes?” she asked

There was a great jolt that sent the low-light lantern to the ground. It shattered, enveloping the skiff in darkness. Alexei didn’t think. He acted on a deep, irresistible instinct that sprung into motion before he could even process what he was doing.

He struck a match.

Witch an ear-piercing shriek, the volcra descended upon them in an instant, dozens of them swarming the ship with their sharp teeth and leathery wings. He felt a claw tear into his shoulder and the pain forced him to drop his match. He winced as the dark void lit up in flames, silhouetting the grim scene as volcra attacked first army and grisha alike.

There was a part of him that knew he was a coward. That part wanted to stay, to help the rest of the cartographers. But he was merely a mapmaker, no real help to anyone. And that deep instinct was beginning to take hold of him again. The pure cold need to survive overtook his body.

Alexei ran.

He was over the skiff and running through the thick dunes of the fold before he could properly think. Desperately, he tried to think of the brief look he caught of Alina’s map in order to gain his bearings. But it was difficult to find a cardinal direction in the pure darkness. For all he knew, he was merely running further into danger. Alexei turned back to the burning ship, attempting to use the light to find any possible landmark.

That was when the light started. It washed over Alexei like a wave, causing the volcra around him to scatter. Shielding his eyes with his hand from the brightness, he caught two figures in the center of the blast.

Hovering several feet above the skiff, dangling from a volcra’s talons, Alina Starkov hung limply. The only tension was in her hands, which were turning white from how firmly she was holding onto the person beneath her.

That person was Malyen Oretsev, the surly tracker boy, and he was shining like the sun.

#grishaverse #grishaverse fic #shadow and bone #big b #gang 28 #malyen oretsev #sun summoner au #the darkling #grishaverse big bang

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she-posts-nerdy-stuff · 2 months

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Portrait of a Dead Girl

Summary:

Alina Starkov was given to Duke Aleksander Morozova of Os Alta in marriage when she was fifteen years old. Within a year, she was dead. The official cause of Alina's death was marked as putrid fever, but many at the time believed, and many in the future will go on to believe, that she was poisoned by her husband.

This fic is completely inspired by The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrel, which is a work of historical fiction based on the real lives of Duchess Lucrezia d'Este (née de' Medici) and Duke Alfonso ii d'Este of Ferrara. You don't need any prior knowledge of The Marriage Portrait or history to read and enjoy this fic, but know that my writing is very much going to mimic that of O'Farrel in format and although I'm hoping to write the story in my personal usual writing style I will definitely be borrowing a lot of my descriptors, symbols, and so on and so forth from O'Farrel - there will be some of mine too though :)

Warnings for this chapter: Briefly mentioned violence and child abuse

If anyone would like to be tagged in future chapters let me know :)

AO3 link

Chapter 3 - A Peculiar Fancy

Os Kervo, nine years ago

The Starkov children did not have free run of their father’s dvorets but were, until they were grown, enclosed to their nursery chambers and the adjoining classrooms, the covered walkway where they could take air, and - very occasionally - the tall battlements that surrounded it like the brim of a hat. Ana Kuya, who claimed to have been all over the dvorets and to have seen every room, would tell them that there was an entire chamber just for weapons, filled with swords and suits of armour lined up like soldiers waiting along the walls, and another filled with books.

“Book after book after book,” she said, helping seven year old Alina with a tricky button on her smock, “on shelves that reach higher than your head, or mine,”

“Higher than your head?” asked Alina, in astonishment, because other than her father Ana was the tallest person that she knew, “Are they taller than Papa?”

“They are,” she said, nodding wisely, “They are even taller than your papa. It would take more than a whole lifetime to read them all,”

There was another salon that showed maps of every country in the world and of all the stars in the sky. There was a vault lined with iron and lead, with the heaviest door they could imagine and lined with more locks than they could picture, where their mama’s jewels - especially the ones she brought with her from Shu Han - were kept safe, although Ana had to admit that this one she had not seen with her own eyes. No-one had; no-one could unlock it but their papa.

“And there is a great long room,” Ana said, as she rubbed Alina’s cheeks with a damp cloth, “With the ceiling all so beautifully decorated,”

“Decorated with what?” Alina asked, trying and failing to lean away from the washcloth.

“Oh, with angels, and Saints, and great warriors fighting battles,” Ana placed her hand on top of Alina’s head to hold her still, “That kind of thing,”

When Alina lay awake at night, trying to sleep, she would often think about these rooms, try to picture them and imagine walking amongst them all. Her sister Eva said her favourite to see would be the jewels; Zoya said she’d like to see the painted ceiling; Vadim, who would be Duke one day, told them all very loftily that he had actually already seen them all, some more than once. Alexei rolled his eyes at that, and Vadim kicked him in the shin. Nobody asked Alina which room she would like to see and she did not announce it, but if questioned she would have said the menagerie beneath the floors of the dvorets , where she’d heard their father kept two lions. The lions that he would show to honoured guests and would sometimes even pit against other animals for sport but that Alina and her siblings had never been permitted to see, she was sure, must be an incredible sight to behold. She was desperately excited to see them - though in the end it wasn’t the lions that ended up luring Alina downstairs like a siren call, but the new animal that arrived that year.

Some months ago, a foreign dignitary had arrived to present Gregor Starkov with a grand oil painting of a tiger, and though Alina had not seen the piece herself she had heard that it was bigger and taller than three men standing next to each other, and that it was most wonderfully beautiful.

“A DeKappel original,” the dignitary had said, with a hint of what was presumably pride but was difficult to discern beneath the Kerch accent that so thickly coated his words, “One of a kind,”

“And he has seen one of these creatures first hand?” asked Gregor, his mind already turning.

A tiger, he thought, would make an excellent addition to his collection.

“Of course, Your Grace,” the dignitary told him, “Such a piece could never have been completed without a study of the creature itself; he took a grand expedition through Shu Han to produce it,”

Yes, yes… he wanted one. He wanted one badly.

Keeping the heavy sigh he heaved at this announcement private, the Duke’s advisor - an unsmiling man whose surname was Perlich and whose first name Alina never learned, because everyone only ever called him Perlich - made the appropriate notes even as he desperately hoped that Gregor would be persuaded against the plan. Perhaps he would even forget that he had conceived of it in the first place, he was, after all, rather fickle and apt to many a sudden affectation that would dissipate just as quickly as it had arrived, and they were already occupied by public unrest near Novokribirsk. But the Grand Duke could not be convinced of anything, and even before Perlich had managed to make a start on the order the enclosure had been entirely prepared; the floors swept clean, the bars reinforced.

The peculiar fancy took a long time to travel in its course and a longer time to complete its execution, but eventually a tiger was captured in Southern Shu Han and dragged the long journey up to Western Ravka, and finally into Os Kervo itself. It was brought into the city overnight, caged and lashed to a cart to be pulled by six terrified mules, so that no-one would see its entry in daylight. No-one would see them, no-one hear them. No-one would ever find out.

No-one, that is, except for little Alina Starkov.

She lay on her back, tucked into a bed with her sisters and staring at the distant ceiling of the nursery in the dark. Alina always had trouble sleeping, not just because she was small for her age and Zoya, who always slept in the centre of the bed, had a habit of stretching out and almost shoving her right off the mattress, but because her mind whirred too quickly and she didn’t know how to slow it down, how to tell it that it was time to rest. It was Alina alone who lay awake in the nursery that night, Alina alone who heard a strange, distant cry as a cart trundled through the dvorets gates, Alina alone who slipped from the bed and tiptoed to the window to peer out and try to find a source of the sound. It was a low, hollow call that severed the night mournfully before dying away, and although Alina could see nothing in the impenetrable darkness beyond the glass and it would have been easy enough to convince herself that her imagination, which so often she was told was too wild, too much, too unruly, had played a trick on her, she knew that she had heard something. The dvorets was a place of strange acoustics; even at the age of seven Alina had noticed this, and she had found that if she pressed her ear against the right folds of a wall panelling, or the frame of a door, it was possible to discover all kinds of intriguing things. She had heard the ordinations of cardinals, the announcements of new siblings soon arriving, the rumoured warnings of an army gathering on the Eastern side of the Unsea, and even that there was a tiger coming from Shu Han, due to arrive any day. Conversations she wasn’t supposed to hear were always the most interesting ones, she had discovered.

The cry sounded again; a desperate yearning, a lonely sob. Alina would have expected a tiger to roar, but as soon as she’d made the connection between her eavesdropped conversation and this sound it made more than perfect sense to her. It was the sound of a creature captured against its will, a creature whose desires have all been disregarded.

Alina turned away from the window and studied the door on the other side of the nursery. She knew which floorboards creaked and which did not, which of her siblings were the lighter sleepers - though none quite so light as her - and for all the clumsiness she had so often been chastised for, particularly in the dance classes for which she had no real gift, she knew very easily how to glide noiselessly across this room, across the next, and out into the corridor. She crept away from her sisters, past her brothers heaped together in their bed, past the cot where baby Petro slept, past the two nurses sleeping near the door, and eased back the bolts. After a brief pause, to listen for Ana Kuya’s breathing past the next wall to be sure she was asleep, she ran her hand along the correct panel opposite the door to the nursery until she found the little brass catch. The panel swung inwards, and Alina vanished.

Ana Kuya and the other nurses were all from Keramzin on the other side of the Unsea, Ana claimed because the best nursemaids were found only here and refused to hire from anywhere else but Alina suspected that the real reason was so they could converse in the local dialect of Keramzin without the rest of the household knowing what they’d said. What Ana Kuya did not know, however, was that Alina had a very keen ear for figuring out a good portion of what they said, something she would only get better at, and only continue to keep secret, as she grew, and it was from the nurses’ conversations that she had learned about the warren of secret passageways within the dvorets , as well as their intended purpose - for the Duke and his family to escape if the palace were attacked.

Alina had found many of them, though she was sure not all. This particular passage was a shortcut that carried her down to the larger courtyard on a set of winding, narrow, spiral steps with no bannister, the stone cold and slick beneath her feet, the air around her impossibly dark, and Alina had to bunch the hem of her shift into one hand so she would not trip on it, her other she set flat against the wall for balance. How long would it take for someone to find her if she fell and injured herself here? Closeted between the very walls as she was, who would ever hear her shout or cry? She swallowed tightly. She was not afraid. Besides, the thought of the creature waiting for her below spurred her on. She would see the tiger. She had to.

The small space the stairs emptied out into led her on to another corridor that, in turn, gifted her with a window through which the courtyard was made visible. She checked more than twice even though she could see no-one, but the corridor was empty of guards or servants now, neatly tucked beneath the velvet blanket of black sky as the city was. Alina took a breath before she stepped out to enter it, like she was crossing a threshold, like this was a promise - though she did not know if she was making one, or breaking it. Her fingertips pressed against the cold sill as she leaned onto tiptoes to see out of the window, having to pause and wipe away a cloud that her breath formed across the glass.

She saw the mules and the cart, a crowd of her father’s men in golden crested livery, and then - just for the briefest, flashing second, she saw it. A lithe shape that did not so much pace as pour itself from place to another, as though its entire form was molten and simmering. It was difficult to distinguish the dark bars of the cage from the dark stripes patterning the tiger’s side; the creature carried the marks of her prison on her body, as though she had always been branded for exactly this purpose, as if captivity had been her destiny all along.

And then the mules jerked forwards, the cart disappeared through a stone archway with the men following after it, and Alina was left staring at the empty cobblestones beneath the flickering braziers of the courtyard. It was as if nothing had ever been there in the first place.

When Alina woke the morning after the tiger had arrived, it took her a moment to realise that the bedroom was quite so quiet because she was the last of her siblings to rise. Her face was buried deeply into her pillow and when she lifted her head she realised she was in the centre of the bed, she was alone, she was not entangled in Zoya’s arm or squished neatly between her and Eva like the filling of a sandwich. Usually Alina slept on the edge and usually the other two seemed to like it that way, but on the occasion that Alina might wake up from a nightmare and neither of them were in too sour a mood about it they would pull her in between them to be cocooned by the heat of the duvet and themselves. But they weren’t here now, and had been absent long enough for the sheets next to where Alina lay to feel cold. She peeled herself off the mattress and got to her feet, listening to the sounds of her siblings at breakfast through the open door. She stretched her arms and legs and wondered briefly if she should just flop back into the quilt until she remembered the image of the tiger and was possessed by one thought, one goal: she had to see that creature up close. She had to.

Could she sneak down to the menagerie? She knew of no passageway that would get her there and someone would surely apprehended her if she just wandered to it out in the open, so how… she would have to be smart about this. She dressed hastily and shoved her feet into her little shoes, then slipped through the door.

Along one side of the table sat her four elder siblings, a neat little cascade of height like a little staircase as they sat in age order. They were all exactly one year apart - Zoya was twelve, Vadim was eleven, Eva was ten, Alexei was nine. On the other side the three baby boys were sitting with their nurses and arranged in the same fashion; Artur was three, Ivo almost two, baby Petro not yet a year. There was a baffling vacancy around little Alina, a gap of more than two years wide either side of her. No children occupied those spaces, between her and Alexei or her and Artur. She’d once asked Ana why this was, why she had no siblings closer to her in age like all the rest.

“Maybe your poor mother needed a rest,” was all Ana had said, exasperatedly, because Alina had been particularly difficult that day.

Now she approached the table slowly, not sure where to go as her usual chair was currently occupied by the wetnurse and it seemed no other place had been set for her. She just stood there, between the wall and the table, watching her siblings take their meal like she was an interloper, like they were a scene that she was studying, or like she was a portrait on the wall behind them and none of them were interested enough to look back into her painted eyes. Then she stepped forwards, leant over the table, and snatched a hunk of bread from one of the centre plates to rip apart, still standing, with her teeth before she shoved it down her throat.

“Alina!” snapped Ana Kuya, releasing the wriggling Artur from her lap to stand up, “Where on earth are your manners?”

Alina looked up from the bread, almost surprised to have been noticed, and watched Artur run straight across the room to use his new found freedom for the grand purpose of playing with some wooden blocks. Ana Kuya was frowning as she marched across her, taking the bread straight from her hands and setting it onto a clean plate.

“What has happened to your hair? You look like you’ve been out in a storm - and why is your smock on backwards?”

Alina opened her mouth to reply, closed it again.

“This child,” Ana muttered, presumably to the other nurses or just herself, motioning for Alina to raise her arms so she could swiftly yank the smock up over her head and bring it back down again the right way, “will be the death of me,”

Alina stood very still and let Ana move around her, fixing her clothes and combing the knots out of her hair, as though she were simply a statue to be perfected before display. This was the only way to be; Ana Kuya did not truck with disobedience or fidgeting or wriggling. This was her nursery, she would remind them, and things would be done her way. Eva had once, shocking them all not only in her words but in how her punishment was carried out, earned herself a swift lashing with a switch and bed with no supper when she’d muttered it’s my mother’s nursery, you old cow. But Ana Kuya did not hold grudges - and neither, it seemed, did Eva.

Alina’s ear was burning hot under Ana’s grip, where she was holding her to keep her still as she brushed, and she tried not to wince as the comb caught a heavy knot in her hair. If you cried out Ana Kuya would probably take the brush out and wrap it against your legs before she continued. Alina closed her eyes and took herself away from the moment, picturing the menagerie far below her feet. She imagined pacing across the floor towards the bars of the tiger’s cage, hand held aloft for the creature to see as they approached each other. The tiger would not be afraid or angry, she would be calm and comforted, she would recognise something in Alina that she knew was in herself and -

“What are you doing ?”

Zoya’s voice brought her back to the nursery, as did a sharp tug on her ear from Ana Kuya. Eva was in fits of giggles, as were Vadim and Alexei, but Zoya looked downright disturbed as she surveyed Alina, as though simultaneously concerned for her sister and quite entirely put off by her presence.

“What?”

Eva covered her mouth, bent double with mirth, as Alexei pulled some stupid face to mock Alina.

“You-” Eva barely managed to say between her breathy laughs, “You were-”

“I was what ?” Alina cried, cheeks flooding with colour.

When all she got was further laughter, she turned and flung her arms around Ana Kuya, burying her face in her familiar middle. Ana stroked the back of her head, about the closest she was going to get to returning the hug.

“You were growling ,” Zoya’s icy voice cut through the laughter in a factual, disapproving tone.

That was how Zoya said most things, but Alina welcomed it - at least now, anyway. She wasn’t laughing at her.

“You are so funny, ‘Lina,” Eva continued, her voice still high and musical with laughter, “Do you think you are a bear?”

Ana’s hand moved down Alina’s back in repetitive, firm, slow movements between her shoulder blades as the girl burrowed closer to her, inhaling her familiar, comforting scent and refusing to peel herself out from the folds of her dress.

“Come along now,” Ana told her, gently but with insistence, “Let go. It’s time for lessons,”

Alina released her unhappily, and followed her still-giggling siblings into the classroom.

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