#this is Very Good. thank u for this blessing
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hinamie · 10 months ago
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playing around w slightly different hair renders
#my art#jujutsu kaisen#jjk#jjk fanart#jujutsu kaisen fanart#jjk art#yuji itadori#megumi fushiguro#itafushi#fushiita#yuuji#megumi#cries megumi fought tooth n nail..... i refused 2 flip the canvas tho >:(#i vastly prefer drawing him facing right bc fr some reason it makes his hair look better silhouette-wise#so having him face left is alr a Challenge#but also having him slightly look down (difficult angle + changes the silhouette) had me bashing my head in2 th TABLE#same thing happened earlier this month w gardening megu middle pose . i did not learn my lesson#but even worse w this one yuuji's head is blocking th main pointy part tht basically carries the entirety of the shape language#u can imagine my distress i am sure#anyway th render made me a lot happier with it thank god. colours hard carry bless <3333#i didn't plan on making it a full sheet but i needed 2 remind myself that im good at drawing megumi#so i threw in solos of each of them n tried slightly different render flavours#idk how Different all of them look visually but th process fr each ws Very different so i am satisfied#fight aside this ws useful i think! got 2 break out some Clunkier chalks n dust off a few of my smoother blended brushes#think i picked up some things i can keep also !! which ws. u kno. the Goal#tbh every time i do art studies i feel like i am kirby#one time i got called an art ditto by one of my fav artist mutuals when i did a style challenge#SUCH high praise from her it lives in my mind i take it out on days when i feel like trash#it doesnt Sound good when u say u r good at copying but real talk it is such a good skill i am very happy 2 have it in my arsenal
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calmparticles · 1 year ago
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batsplat · 9 months ago
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maybe you know that before pecco first met casey, he said the thing he wanted to know most was how casey felt about vale! do you think they actually talked about it, and how do you think they discussed it with each other?
https://www.motogp.com/en/videos/2021/11/04/bagnaia-keen-to-pick-stoners-brain-on-rossi-rivalry/29836
(link)
I didn't have the possibility already to meet Casey, but I know he was in my garage speaking with [Pecco's current and Casey's former crew chief] Gabarrini, but I think I will meet him after the conference. And I will ask him many things because when I was young - it's the first time that I meet him, and when I was young I was looking, him and Vale fighting. And I would like to know what he's thinking about Vale.
well, pecco. probably not anything particularly polite at any given moment, but it's worth a shot
so I did see this at the time but it had completely slipped my mind, cheers anon!! very endearing, pecco truly living my dream (not the being a motorcycle racer bit or winning championships bit, but hunting down gossip on rivalries straight from the source). wants to ask casey MANY THINGS, this man is prepared. a true scholar!! it does make it even funnier how this was their first meeting... pecco really was already fantasising about asking casey about his number one feud before even saying hello. he's just like me fr. I support him in his fact-finding quest
anyhow - yeah it is fun because pecco ofc was enough of a ducati fan that he was supporting BOTH valentino and casey as a kid, which is like... extremely valid of him, he's so me... also, as has been previously discussed on this blog, he does have some credentials in zeroing in on the most interesting bits of his mentor's career, cf him making the enlightened choice at valencia 2021 to pay tribute to valentino with a 'che spettacolo' helmet. just unambiguously the most compelling choice he specifically could have made, I want to sit him down and have him walk me through his thinking (chronic overthinker so you know he did put in the mental miles) AND how he feels about that specific season. this is a man with a healthy interest in feuds I reckon. bringing this up mainly just as an excuse to revisit the photo with his cute sister
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helmet only somewhat ruined by those ugly ass logos
some more key pecco background info is that he wants to visit some famous circuits motogp no longer visits one day, including suzuka AND - crucially - laguna seca. he also says he likes reading sports autobiographies... which, apart from the one from his literal mentor, you kinda have to assume the casey one would be basically at the top of the list? so I'm just gonna go ahead and assume pecco has read that thing. basically all of this is to say that if you gave pecco a free run at this, you can trust him to know his lore pretty well I reckon. he'd have some decent questions to ask
so we've established motive and ability, let's move on to opportunity. do I think they did actually talk about it... maybe! the way pecco talks about it in the presser, it kinda sounds like he wants to have a proper sit down with casey at the very first time of asking to grill him about the valentino feud, which to me sounds like quite a ballsy approach... but you never know, maybe he did manage to have a proper conversation with casey about it in the middle of a race weekend. (incidentally, pecco won that race, so he did manage to take the spoils on both his 'meeting casey' weekend and 'valentino retiring' weekend, fair play.) in the following year casey clearly did take on a reasonably active role in the team, so they had a decent amount of contact race weekend to race weekend. to quickly go through the archives:
from portimao 2021 (suggesting a PAY CUT to get casey lol)
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silverstone 2022 (really is co-parenting, very sweet)
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austria 2022 (poor fabio)
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and phillip island 2022 (feat. the track walk)
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given all that... I mean, idk, you have to hope that pecco with his obvious interest took his shot when he had it. like,, this was a bit of a one and done type deal, pecco had a year to properly exploit this situation... you've got to take that chance, right? I'm not sure I entirely trust pecco to work this organically into a conversation, but you don't have to let that stop you. you gotta get casey's thoughts on... riding a ducati... while fighting other riders wheel-to-wheel... when you're title rivals... and then hope casey doesn't try to start talking about the two times him and jorge overtook each other in the 2011 season, yeah
the way pecco makes it sound in the presser, maybe he did just flat out ask casey about the feud lol. like a real go-getter. I hope he phrased his opening question in the exact same way as he did in the presser quote, like yes please do ask casey what he's "thinking about vale". as for casey's response... my guess is that he probably keeps it cute, stays reasonably professional. there's a few general themes that tend to crop up pretty frequently when casey discusses fighting valentino, but he does mix it up depending on the occasion and the audience - he's capable of modulating the tone. you'll note that around the time of valentino's retirement, casey is considerably more polite about valentino while he's actually attending the race at portimao (where he also first met pecco, yes) than a few weeks later when he's shit talking on his own time. contrary to popular belief, casey can do diplomacy - he just often doesn't want to. in this particular situation, casey would probably opt to start out with all the diplomatic stuff he was actually saying in portimao anyway: about what a strong opponent valentino was, about how his career achievements had been validated through fighting valentino, about how there were some good points and some bad points but casey learned a heck of a lot etc etc etc
once you get that stuff out of the way... as discussed in more depth in this post, when casey's not outright insulting valentino, he does tend to focus on valentino's intelligence as an opponent - clever, cunning savvy, all that - which, yes, was often about all the off-track media shit, but also described valentino's on-track approach. depending on how casey frames it, there may obviously be more negative connotations to valentino's 'cunning', suggestions of the dirty and the untoward and the downright unfair - and there's typically something quite loaded about how casey talks about everything he learned from valentino. but emphasising valentino's cleverness is still probably the most likely starting point for casey when describing that rivalry to one of valentino's direct disciples - it's the compliment casey has long been the most prepared to pay valentino. beyond that... I tend to think that casey wouldn't be inclined to go into massive amounts of detail about the ins and outs of that rivalry with pecco. maybe if pecco catches him on the right day, he can get a little more - it's not out of the question for casey to delve somewhat into how tricky it is to fight against an evil lunatic quite an aggressive rider who is willing to make your life hell out on the track. maybe some talk about the actual nitty-gritty of fighting valentino that I do not have the technical expertise to imagine in any more detail. or maybe give pecco a spiel about how important it is to focus on yourself, just ignore what the other guy is doing, and so on - that'd probably strike a chord with pecco given the similarities between the pair of them in that regard. one of the reasons why casey was such a tricky opponent for valentino at the beginning of their rivalry was how immune casey was to the typical valentino tactic of just harassing rivals from behind. you'd probably want to focus on that aspect if you're casey, something about how it's important not to let your rivals get in your head. casey did say in early 2023 that pecco had needed to "calm a couple of things down" lol, so maybe he feels that's some advice that needs giving
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what I will say is that I reckon casey would probably confine his anecdotes mostly to what valentino was up to on the track. at most a teensy bit about how tricky it can be to face an opponent skilled at putting pressure on you by using the media, but no lengthy diatribes about how valentino wasn't as nice to him anymore when they became rivals or any of that. in general, yeah, hard to see him being all that interested in giving pecco much to work with. casey's mellowed somewhat since retiring, but you probably don't want to push it too much. he's there to give riding advice, after all - not to satisfy the personal curiosity of valentino's prized protege. still, hopefully pecco got something fun out of him. I have to believe he's at least grilled valentino about his side of the rivalry at some point over the years... like I said, living the dream
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thatswhatsushesaid · 1 year ago
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the fool 🤝 jin guangyao being easily the most dynamic and compelling characters in their respective canons, likely for reasons that were substantially if not entirely unintentional on the part of their respective authors
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blorbosinmyheadcentral · 2 years ago
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OH GOD OF FUCK YOU'VE SEEN MY SHOWTIME ART OH GOD I'M OH GEEZ OH SHIT IM SOS OSRRY I JUST RELALY LIKE YOUR ART STYLE AND IVE SEEN YOU BEFORE I EVEN POSTED SHOWTIME- IM SO SORRY IM JUST REALLY HONORED- HKJSHGAKSJHAK
I HAVE AT LEAST 4 OTHER DRAWINGS FROM YOU IN QUEUE YOU'RE AN INCREDIBLE ARTIST THANK SO MUCH
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wicabels · 1 year ago
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thinking 'when will it be my turn' when it very literally quite recently was my turn... even tho ive already been blessed to have ppl in my life who treated me (ME!!) kindly i still have the audacity to yearn... idk if i'd ever be satisfied
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jaw-bones · 2 years ago
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✨🌿 top of the month mention of my patreon! 🌿✨
🖤 — you can get access to high res versions of my work, receive monthly postcard print(s), discord benefits, 18+ content, monthly suggestions, early notice of comms, and a peek at the worldbuilding behind The Hive~
— & I do have an open discord for my art, peeks of what i'm working on, and Hive worldbuilding~
🔗 to both patreon & my discord server can be found at my carrd ! ✨
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teamcavota · 11 months ago
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just finished and got a A in my not math class for this semester...going to complete the review for my math exam tonight and then tomorrow is the day...
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pekodayz · 2 years ago
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i wanna draw oso but splatoween drawing is calling out to me
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lowkeyren · 1 month ago
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thinking about praying to this
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I RLLY FW HOW THE PERFORMER X NARRATOR METAPHOR RUNS THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE FIC AUREWHUGIHEWUGH
anaxa, who might reject intimacy, accepts the idea of being "observed" which imo suits someone detached from humanity like him, because it suggests a love that should not be, cannot be conventional, and yet still unfolds like a performance one (reader) cannot look away from. that’s also precisely why the “performance” part fits so well: it's how he can love without sacrificing what defines him. anaxa's isolation (??) feels quite self-inflicted, perhaps even necessary for the kind of genius or perspective he holds. that’s what makes his gradual openness to the reader so beautiful in this fic!! ps. anaxa's characterization here is so peak ily op.
adore this unhinged fella (reminds me of another feeble scholar COUGH COUGH)
your love is the greatest sin.
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summary: As a humble librarian, you're only interested in stories. Anaxa promises to give you the grandest story of them all.
notes: 8.9k words, author's notes, spoilers for 3.2, chest cavity and organ touching, ambiguous relationships
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You were eighteen the first time you heard about Anaxa, though you didn’t think much of him at first.
“Watch out for that mad alchemist. If you’re going to survive here, then avoid Anaxagoras,” someone joked to you, and you nodded numbly.
Back then, in those first few days of your arrival at the Grove of Epiphany, you had little time for anything outside of survival. You had nothing save the clothes on your back and the torn edges of a few slim books you managed to save before the black tide swallowed your home and your family.
If you weren’t staying up late each night reading the books your father cherished, then you were disoriented by the swaying whispers of divine branches that woke you every morning, the eternal night that shadowed your window, the internal politics of a people entrenched deeply in academia. 
Still, you couldn’t escape Anaxa even then, infamy blooming with his every odd experiment and reckless movement. His name was always on the tips of everyone’s tongues, accompanied by admiration or reprobation. 
He was mad, people said. A heretic, using the intelligence Ceres blessed him with for all the wrong reasons. The sages should kick him out for the ideas he held, ones that seemed more intended to outrage than to produce any meaningful discourse.
“It’s better to stay out of his way,” one of your gossipy classmates advised you. You had decent enough relationships with your peers, but you primarily kept to yourself and took internal notes of the various topics that fascinated them. “He’s so rude, and he doesn’t care about anything but his experiments!”
“He’s very smart, though,” someone else chimed in. “If you can stomach the way he talks, you can ask him for his notes. Best ones I’ve ever seen.”
Anaxagoras, Anaxa, the Great Performer. What an odd man. You kept his name tucked away in the corner of your mind to turn over like a golden coin, spied his fluttering hair out of the corner of your eye, saw the sheen of black fabric covering his eye, and heard the echo of his brisk steps passing you in the halls. 
He was an oddity that sparked your interest, even if he never seemed to notice you. That was fair enough; you were only another pair of eyes in a crowd of them, and he must have grown used to the attention by the time you arrived.
Still, you had little time to worry over Anaxa outside of those stray moments when your paths collided, heretic or not. You had fled to the Grove of Epiphany for a particular reason, out of all the other city-states you could have taken refuge in.
You were here for the library, which housed the largest collection of stories Amphoreus had ever seen. Its wealth of knowledge would have fed a starving man for centuries, and you were a supplicant begging for even a morsel.
You were weaned on stories from your very first memories. Your father read you books from his private collection, and your mother spun stories from her own imagination or that she remembered from the words of others. Even your older brother took you out to see travelling storytellers or the nearby temple to hear about the myths of gods.
“Stories are the most beautiful things in the world,” your father told you. “They can house a world’s memories, a culture’s legacy.”
Stories were the only ways for things to survive, and it was how people could outlive their limited lifespans. After all, if you didn’t tell your family’s story to yourself, then you would have killed them twice. You poured over your memories, even when it was a story that could only end in the same way every time: your mother, pushing you out the backdoor and telling you to run as she gripped a rusty knife in hand. You father, handing you a few cherished books from his private collection, your only inheritance. Your older brother, biding you to hide with shaking hands as he ran out to distract the monsters.
People were finite. Stories were not
In a few more months at the Grove, you wormed your way into an assistant librarian position, content for now with the jobs of shelving books and organizing the catalogue, cocooned in your world of ink and paper, getting to touch the face of every new scroll or book that passed its way into the archives.
For all intended purposes, your life was going according to plan. You were surrounded by stories, and you were certain that after studying library sciences and dedicating all your time here, you could take the role of head librarian one day. Yet, why did it feel like you were still missing something?
That was when you first met Anaxa as he glided into the library with a relaxed arrogance that drew ire and admiration from all of your classmates, robes fluttering behind him.
“I need these books,” he told you curtly, without looking at your face. He slid a sheet of parchment across your desk, scrawled with the names of tedious-sounding titles. His handwriting, you were surprised to find, was an elegant, looping scrawl.
“Some of these books have restricted access,” you said, scanning the list. He was a man you had heard so much about, and yet, he was still just that: a man. Still, there was a gravitas to his bearing. This was someone who would truly do something remarkable in his lifetime. “You need permission from a professor or a librarian before you can check them out. Some of these books are quite controversial.”
“Controversial only because people were unwilling to acknowledge anything that didn’t reinforce their limited worldview,” Anaxa said. 
“Well, in a world ruled by the Titans, it’s controversial to posit that they could ever be similar to us.”
“The boundary between divinity and humanity is a false one,” he said. “But you can’t access these books?”
“It’s not within my authority,” you acknowledged. “These books are especially rare because their production was stopped early, or people burned so many copies we only have these few left. So they’re kept under tight supervision.”
Anaxa turned, his interest in you gone now that you couldn’t give him what he wanted.
Your heartbeat quickened at the loss of attention, of how easily this strange man was going to slip through your fingers. Maybe that was why you couldn’t stop yourself from saying, “But I could, technically, find a way. If you made it worth my time.”
Anaxa turned back around, finally looking you in the eyes, observing you in the same way he looked at a lab specimen on a dissecting table, keen gaze intent on flaying you open. “What do you mean by that?” 
“Nothing that would inconvenience you much, really. Something simple. You’re an alchemist, right? Consider it an act of equivalent exchange.” The idea spun itself into existence as you voiced it, an answer to your tedium you hadn’t realized you were considering until now. “I want to witness your story.”
“A story? You’re surrounded by books.”
“I’m curious,” you said, “about a story only you can tell me. They call you a heretic, you know. The things you’ve told me are things most people wouldn’t even dare voice. So I want to see where your path leads.”
Anaxa still watched you, as if the dissection he thought would be simple had suddenly unearthed a new complication. “If you’re going to bring up an equivalent exchange, what am I getting out of this? You’re the only one who benefits from such an arrangement.”
“I know this place better than anyone else. It’s easier to get your hands on something when you have someone on the inside, don’t you think? There’s a chance if you ask for permission from someone else, they’ll refuse your request.”
“And if someone catches and punishes you for misconduct? You would risk your position for a story?”
“Not just any story,” you corrected. “Your story. This is beneficial for both of us. Besides, you’re a performer, right? Don’t you want an audience who’s going to watch you attentively until the very end?”
“That’s a bold proposition, librarian,” he said. 
“Are you going to refuse?”
“No. I think it’s an interesting idea. I’ll agree to your terms.”
“It’ll be a pleasure to work with you,” you said. 
You held out your hand, and after a beat, Anaxa slid his into your grip. His hand was papery soft and cool, thin, elegant fingers wrapping around yours. They didn’t seem like the hands of a heretic.
“Now. My books?” Anaxa prompted, withdrawing his hand immediately. 
“I’ll get them for you.”
Basking in the afterglow of your unexpected meeting and his ready agreement, you relished in the chance to observe him up close. Anaxa was a bizarre character who challenged everything that was determined as an immutable fact, and he would change the Grove.
You would watch him until he didn’t find you useful, or you grew bored. Fate might spin its wheels, and tangle you helplessly in its threads as it wrenched you along, but this relationship, at least, was clear.
In a matter of weeks, you came to recognize Anaxa’s presence in the library by the sound of his light and decisive footsteps and the scent of ink, chemicals, and paper that trailed him wherever he went. He showed up at a similar time every day, and his appearance became so embedded in your routine you didn’t even have to raise your head to acknowledge his presence; he only announced himself by sliding a paper of all his various requested books across your desk. 
“I need these books,” he said.
You scanned the list. “This one hasn’t been mentioned in our records in several decades. I’d have to dig through our archives to find it.”
“Well? Is it too hard for you, then?” Anaxa raised an eyebrow in silent challenge. 
Asshole. You stood with a clatter of your chair. “Not at all.”
He was one of your most frequent patrons, and easily the most annoying. Every day it seemed he came with new demands and a list of obscure books that you had to dig through the shelves to find. As soon as you brought out his staggering collections of tomes, he perched on the edge of your desk, flipping through them and remarking on their contents.
It didn’t bother you too much as you were always flitting between shelving new returns, sorting through the catalogues, and helping students with their various requests. But no matter how long it took you to accomplish all of your tasks, Anaxa was always waiting when you came back, posture still neat and legs crossed, one over the other. Privately, you’d begun to think of him as the library’s resident cat in the way he lounged in places that most inconvenienced you.
“It took you twenty minutes to assist the student this time, librarian,” he said, without looking up from his book. “Perhaps you aren’t as familiar with the library’s layouts as you claim.”
“It’s still faster than you would be. There are centuries of books to sort through, and sometimes these students only have a general idea of what they want and not a specific title,” you replied. “Wouldn’t it be more comfortable for you to sit in my chair or find somewhere else to read?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Anaxa said. “What do you think about the soul?”
“Immaterial, difficult to work with, and the basis of an overwhelming amount of philosophy books in the library.”
“And the gods?”
“I don’t care much for them, though I am familiar with all of their stories. They only matter to me insofar as they relate to the books housed here.”
Anaxa laughed. “Why, that sounds borderline blasphemous.”
You sighed, slouching back in your chair. Your desk was a curve of polished wood located near the center of the room, in perfect view of every student who wandered the library so they knew exactly where to go for help. Though with Anaxa’s presence, they only approached you when you wandered the stacks, or he was absent for the day.
There were already rumors springing up about your relationship and how much time the two of you spent together. You warded off your classmates’ inquiries with a practiced smile, as you were the more approachable of the two. Even if you wanted to answer them, there wasn’t one you could give. You barely knew what to call the two of you yourself.
Were you close to him? You wouldn’t say that. You hadn’t really let yourself grow close to anyone here on principle. What word described the two of you best? Friend felt too kind of a word. Lover was irrefutably wrong. Partner was at least somewhat correct, but lacked context. If nothing else, then the best explanation was that Anaxa was a planet and you were a moon, drawn into his orbit for no other reason than the natural rules of gravity. 
“I believe your only god is memory,” Anaxa said.
You didn’t spare him a glance as you idly picked at the supplies lining your desk, lining the stacks of papers and colorful pots of ink in neat formation. “Then your god is truth, though I’d like to say your god is also yourself.”
“Then we’re not so different.”
“Are you going to keep needling at me, or are you going to fulfill your end of the bargain?”
Anaxa tilted his head. With his hands braced on the edge of the desk, he leaned closer to you, an insufferable smile playing on his lips. “I already am, librarian. A story can only be defined in the retrospective, once it comes to an end. Right now, you’re in the process of witnessing mine, aren’t you?”
“I just hope for more from the person they call the great performer,” you said evenly. 
“And what are you hoping for, precisely?”
“A good story.”
Anaxa placed a hand on his chest in mock sincerity. “Then you won’t be disappointed. Have some patience! Good stories require proper build-up.”
He was an infuriating man, through and through. But he was an infuriating man you had decided to tie yourself to, and you would see where his road would lead him in the end.
In the next several years that passed, Anaxa devoted himself to the pursuit of higher knowledge, working as the assistant of professors and pursuing his doctorate, and you pulled yourself up one tedious position at a time until you were working full-time at the library, losing yourself in documentation and categorization. There were always new books being brought in that had to be labeled, sorted, and registered in the library’s catalogue, more stories for you to devour.
No one had a complaint about you as you cared for nothing but your stories, it seemed Anaxa always found a way to needle those in charge, and he never tired of their outrage and indignation. His dreams were lofty, his inspirations grander than anyone could understand. And through it all, you watched him, taking note of all his movements: how he slept little and mumbled to himself, scribbled alchemical equations on any available surface, and the way manic light suffused his eyes when he came to a supposed breakthrough.
Anaxa slid into the framework of your life without any preamble or fuss, as natural as the air you breathed or the blood in your veins. His presence by your side was natural, and you only paused to acknowledge him when someone brought him to your attention. Your strange little relationship eventually expanded beyond the confines of the library. Anaxa still visited you there, but now, the two of you were prone to meeting in courtyards or various classrooms, wherever it was convenient to steal a moment to converse.
Your classmates no longer commented on your relationship, though you did still get the odd stare here and there. The two of you existed in your own little bubble, uninterested in other people outside of what they could offer you.
“Is it true that the two of you are dating?” New students were prone to asking you that question, with all the boldness and innocence that youth commanded. This one was no different, and she watched you with curious eyes.
“I can’t date Anaxa because he’s already in a committed relationship with his research. I can’t ask him to cheat,” you replied dryly.
“I didn’t give you permission to call me Anaxa,” he sniped.
“That’s because I gave myself permission.”
However, the closeness you semi-enjoyed with Anaxa came with one major detriment: a lack of respect for your personal space. 
“Librarian, wake up.”
You grumbled, emerging from your fragmented sleep, the cobweb of dreams still clinging to your mind. With sunlight warming your face and a nest of blankets wrapped around your body, you were loath to wake. And yet you did to Anaxa staring unsmiling down at you, arms crossed.
You swore viciously, scrambling upright and drawing your blankets closer to yourself. You launched a pillow at him, which Anaxa promptly side-stepped.
“Good morning,” he said.
“How did you get in here?”
“You left your door unlocked.”
“And you didn’t knock?”
“You didn’t answer, and I needed your assistance. I’ll give you ten minutes to get ready.”
“Make it thirty! And get out of here!” You threw another pillow at his retreating back. 
It really was like you had become close to a cat. Without a care in the world, he flounced into your life and took your lack of rejection as an invitation to make himself comfortable. It was simply more effort to chase him away than to let him in.
After making yourself as presentable as you could, you were out the door five minutes earlier than expected. Anaxa waited just outside, and the two of you took off side by side at a leisurely pace.
“So? What do you want?” you prompted.
“I have an invitation from Okhema. One of the Chrysos Heirs came directly to speak with me.”
“And…?”
“They were extending me an invitation to become a Chrysos Heir and join them on their journey.”
It was impossible to exist anywhere in Amphoreus and not hear of the Chrysos Heirs. They always felt more like distant legends than anything tangible, but it was a story you had some vested interest in. “You? A Chrysos Heir? What did you say?”
“Of course, I rejected their offer,” he said. “I have no interest in the Flame-Chase Journey, or going to Okhema for some grand destiny laid out for me by the gods.”
“But once you’re chosen, even if you don’t go to Okhema and you reject their path, you’re a Chrysos Heir for good.”
“So what? Other people can call me whatever title they like, but it has no influence on who I am or what I intend to accomplish,” Anaxa said.
“And what is it that you intend to do?”
“I plan to start my own school of knowledge here, and then I will become one of the seven sages.”
You couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out of your throat. “Arrogant as always, but I expect no less.”
The two of you had been winding through the various gardens and courtyards that interspersed the Grove. Soft light filtered playfully through the grove, branches and plants twining around marble patios and columns. It was beautiful, and this was the closest place you could call home.
“And you?” Anaxa said. “What do you plan to do?”
“Stay here and work in the library,” you said. “Someone has to manage it. You should know this.”
“And the Chrysos Heirs?”
“They only interest me insofar as they relate to you and whatever you plan to do,” you said. You skim a hand along one of the branches closest to you, an outshooting of the Sacred Tree, the manifestation of Ceres, the Titan of Reason. The wood is full of delicate whorls like the tight folds of a brain, emanating its own heat and humming under your touch.
“You have the capacity to be one yourself. The messenger they sent hinted as much. If you were interested, you could talk to them.”
You laughed again. “Well, I only have the capacity to be one, right? I wasn’t chosen, not like you, and that’s for good reason. I have no interest in being a saviour for other people.”
The two of you come to a stop in a secluded garden. Everywhere you gazed, you saw the soft, verdant green that announced Ceres’s continued presence and blessing. There must have been irony somewhere that Ceres accepted everyone in the pursuit of knowledge, even those who didn’t believe in them, or loathed them.
“You really don’t believe in the gods,” Anaxa mused.
“I don’t believe in anything but my stories,” you said. You couldn’t stop the bitterness that creeps into your voice. “If the gods were truly omnipotent and omnipresent, they would have stopped the black tide.”
A breeze rustled Anaxa’s hair. He watched you in silent contemplation. “You’re angry.”
“Isn’t everyone? I’ve lost my family, Anaxa. They sacrificed themselves so I could escape, but for what? There’s no safety. There’s not even a guaranteed future I can look forward to.”
“You doubt humanity’s ability to succeed, librarian, even after all the stories you’ve read.” There’s a rare note of intense emotion in Anaxa’s voice, like you’re a stubborn student in one of the classes he assisted in. “You should understand more than anyone else humanity’s potential. If the gods can fail, then that means they are no different from us, and we can succeed where they can’t.”
Despite what everyone thought of Anaxa, his mania and arrogance, what you couldn’t stand the most was his unrelenting faith in humanity’s future. It was a clear belief, one you didn’t understand. You strode closer to him until you were only a breath apart. His single eye stared down impassively at you, a brilliant, jeweled shard that you could cut yourself on. “Then show me something I can believe in.”
Before you could pull away, Anaxa gripped your wrist, using your momentary shock to guide your hand to his eyepatch. Your fingers rested gingerly on the fabric, though you had an inkling that if you were to slide them under, Anaxa would let you. It was a dangerous sort of permission, a line crossed in your relationship that hadn’t been breached before.
Neither of you moved. In a conversational tone, as if this was another one of your light-hearted spats, Anaxa said, “I lost this eye when I tried to bring my sister back from death. Like a fool, I had failed to consider that an eye was not an equivalent enough sacrifice for one life.”
“Your sister?”
“Lost to the black tide, like your family.”
You brushed a finger down the fabric covering his lost eye, as gentle as a butterfly’s kiss. “So we’ve both lost people we loved. How do you find it to keep going?”
“Simple. The gods are false shackles, binding us to our uncertainty and passivity. I intend to break those shackles. Isn’t it the same for how you live for your stories? Because you want something more than the pitiful narrative that’s been penned for humanity?”
“So I live for my stories, and you live for your goals. But that does make me wonder. What else would you sacrifice, Anaxa?”
He burned with an unnatural fervor, a pale flame that would never extinguish. “Everything. So if you can’t believe in anything, believe in me. Don’t look away. Watch me.”
His hand on your wrist seared into your skin, the proximity to his body too intense, too much. You wrenched your hand back, rubbing your wrist, and Anaxa let you go.
“I can’t believe someone like you is a Chrysos Heir. Maybe they’ve finally lost their minds,” you muttered. “Either way, you don’t need to tell me to watch you. I couldn’t look away, even if I wanted to.”
You could never let your past go. It was a simple truth you were forced to acknowledge. Anger and pain rotted in your soul, carving out a home in the same way termites burrowed into healthy wood, destroying it from the inside out. It was easier to cling to apathy, to watch people from afar rather than risk destruction from attachment. 
You still dreamed of your family, though their faces were starting to fade from your memory. Even your father’s tomes were beginning to disintegrate, no matter how careful you were when handling them. The gods could save nothing, not your family, not your people, not this world, so how could you believe in them?
You were set on being alone, on burying yourself alive in your library. Not much moved you.
That was why it was frightening that Anaxa stirred your heart in ways you dared not dwell on for too long, like the ripples from a stone thrown into a placid pond, spreading farther and farther still.
It didn’t take more than a few years after that for Anaxa to achieve the lofty goals he had presented to you, though you suspected he laid the groundwork for his plans much earlier than he admitted and was simply watching them come to fruition. Despite the opposition, he established his own burgeoning school, and students flocked from afar to study concepts of the soul. He was one of the youngest people to become a professor and a sage, an impressive achievement. 
You became the head of the library, and when you weren’t buried among mountains of books and tomes retrieved from the farthest corner of Amphoreus, you still made time to watch Anaxa. You visited his classrooms, shepherded his confused students to the correct materials he required, and chased him down when he returned rare books far past the due date. 
Research was always his first priority. You never doubted that he would choose his alchemical experiments over you. It never bothered you, because if you had to choose between the library and Anaxa, you would have sacrificed him in a heartbeat. The way he threw himself into his research with a vicious mania wasn’t new or unexpected.
But the way his clothes hung so much more loosely on him, the sharp bones jutting beneath his waxy skin like outcroppings of rocks in a murky sea, his drawn, pale face: that was all new. His body couldn’t keep up with the strain of what he was doing. 
He had told you as much, that he would sacrifice anything for his goals, but it disconcerted you to watch it happen in person. Nothing was sacred, not even his body or his soul.
You knew Anaxa’s schedule as well as your own. When his final class of the day ended, you made your way to his office, where the occasional student milled about in the hallway, chatting with their friends or grumbling about course assignments. It was a familiar sight from your own student days.
“Professor,” you greeted, shutting the door behind you when you entered his office.
“Librarian,” he said. Anaxa flipped through his notes, frowning. He was leaning against his desk, as if the mere act of sitting properly on his chair pained him. “What is it?”
“You’ve been using your body as materials for your alchemy experiments,” you said. Blunt and straight to the point, just as he enjoyed.
“Is that all you came here to say?”
“If you push yourself too much, you’ll die. You’re still only human.”
“I know my limits. There can’t be advancements made without sacrifices.”
“What have you used so far? Your blood? Your organs? Are you going to rip pieces of your soul apart next?”
You’re close to him now, close enough to pin him against the desk, your arms placed on either side of him like bars. Though it didn’t seem as if Anaxa had any intention to; he only watched you with that same curious stare he leveled everyone. It was always a chess game with him, the way he sizes up your next movement, readying his pieces in hand.
“I don’t want a premature end to your story,” you said, “I want to see what you’ll do next. How far you go. You still haven’t given me an impressive performance yet.”
“Oh, librarian,” Anaxa said. “It seems as if you’ve grown soft. Why do you sound so worried? Would you like to check for yourself how I’m doing?”
Coyly, he grasped one of your hands, bringing them to rest against his chest, right above his heart. Your fingers curled over the fabric separating you from him. You laid your hand flat enough against him, and felt the slow, steady pace of his heart, like a story marching toward an inevitable end.
Anaxa barely gave you enough time to settle into the soothing rhythm before he brought your hand to the center of his chest. Instead of solid flesh, there was nothing there but empty space, barely covered by his flimsy robes; you bit back a sharp gasp, driving your teeth hard into your lip.
“Well?” he said. The word fell like a taunt. 
This was an invitation, a provocation, really. Anaxa let you go as you pulled back the buttons of his shirt, almost ripping it in your haste. You were met with a milky galaxy, swirls of blue-green and bright stars, the infinite cosmos unfurling in his chest. His skin broke into a jagged scar shaped like a star, all sharp angles made from soft flesh.
“That was quite bold of you,” Anaxa mused. “We’re still in public, you know.”
“No one is going to come in,” you snapped. “And I locked the door.”
“Were you planning on jumping on me?”
“Were you planning on letting me?” You could do nothing but breathe in tandem to the rise and fall of his chest, to the ripple of the galaxy held within him. This foolish, infuriating man. “How did this happen?”
“Consequences from an experiment,” Anaxa said cryptically. You weren’t going to get any more out of him, if the stubborn silence he fell into was any indication. 
Instead, you brought one hand to the cracks, feeling the edges of skin. Warm, and smooth. It still felt like his human body, and you let one finger drag along his flesh, tracing the outline of the cracks.
You glanced at him, and met an eye that was watching you with palatable intensity, like you were another equation he was trying to solve. There was nothing else for you to do except gently dip your fingers into the hollow of his chest. It was a warm, smooth liquid consistency, like ocean waters from a sun-warmed beach, inviting you to draw your hand further in. 
You noted the way Anaxa tried to hold back a shudder at the first contact. This was affecting him more than he wanted to let on, and you wanted to see his insufferable composure break. He was always so poised, so above everything. You dipped your hand further in, up to your wrist, to your elbow, further than you should have been able to touch. 
Perhaps you could fit your entire body in here. It was a strange thought, unbidden, the idea of letting yourself be swallowed up by him forever, nestled close to his heart, so every time it beat he would be reminded of your presence. 
“Librarian,” Anaxa said in a strained voice. His eye was unfocused now, his breathing shallow. 
“If you’re going to give pieces of yourself away,” you said, swirling your fingers in absent loops in the space inside him. Every part of you felt weightless, like you weren’t really there. “Why not give something to me?”
“And what would you do with it?”
“What do you think?” 
Anaxa’s head dipped slightly. “Something untoward.”
“I think you would like it, though. Is your heart still here?”
“Yes,” he said.
“Can I touch it?”
“Only if I let you.”
“Will you?”
You were met with silence, so you spread your arm through the hollow space, bracing your other hand on the desk behind Anaxa. Everything was disorientingly expansive, like the hole in his chest has pushed the pieces of his body apart, a trick room where the space inside was larger than the space outside. You angled your hand sideways experimentally, towards where his heart should be, and brushed the edge of his rib. Clean, hard bone that you held tenderly, gliding your fingers along the length of it. 
It was this provocation that proved too much for Anaxa. His head fell on your shoulder, and his hands moved to grip your waist, as if he would fall apart without you to anchor. His hands were still slender and elegant, the sort of beautiful hands built for creation.
This sight, the great Anaxa brought so low at your touch, was reserved just for you. As was his body, the tender caverns of it. You took your time to ghost along his bones, relishing in every shudder that wracked his body, and then you found it. A wet muscle, pulsing ever so gently, the center of Anaxa’s body.
You caressed his heart, squeezing it slightly, feeling it contract in your hands. Anaxa’s hands tightened around your waist, his nails digging into clothed flesh. Still, you did nothing more but hold it gently, feeling it quicken alongside Anaxa’s shallow breathing. Soft, warm, inviting. You stroked a thumb along the tender muscle.
“If you want it, you’ll need to give something else to me,” Anaxa said, his voice a low, hot murmur in your ear. “As is the manner of equivalent exchange.”
Before you could respond, a knock resounded on the door. “Professor? I had some questions about the material covered in the lecture today.”
At the sound, you jerked your hand back, your arm emerging pristine and untouched. It felt heavy, gravity weighing you down, unlike the inviting, weightless expanse within Anaxa. In a few seconds, you straightened your clothing as Anaxa buttoned his shirt back and smoothed his robes, leaning heavily against the desk, hand curled around his mouth. You were across the room and pushing open the door, revealing a surprised student, curled fist raised mid-knock.
You schooled your face into a neutral expression, and threw a quick shout over your shoulder. “You aren’t excluded from the rules of the library just because you’re a sage now, professor! Turn your books in on time.”
And then you hurried on, keeping your eyes straight ahead, flexing and unflexing your hand as you walked. The two of you would never speak of that moment again, though you noticed Anaxa looking unbearably smug in the weeks that followed, and you found a new habit of touching his shoulder when you talked.
In the following years that passed, more Chrysos Heirs came to study at the Grove, working under Anaxa’s strict tutelage and wandering the rows of your library. Your favorite was Castorice, who kept a respectful distance back and asked you numerous questions about the books in your archives. Your least favorite was Phainon, who had a habit of being a little more clumsy with the books than you liked.
“Do you enjoy teaching them?” you asked, hand cupped in your cheek. Anaxa retained the habit of perching on your desk, still preferring to claim your space as his rather than find one of his own.
In turn, however, you had grown bolder with his body. If he wasn’t going to take care of it, you might as well put it to use. His arm lay stretched across your desk, and you scribbled notes on the creamy, smooth skin of his inner arm: alchemical equations he taught you, or reminders of what books he had to return, or doodles of dromases. 
“If they’re going to embark on the Flame-Chase Journey, it’s prudent for them to find their own path, instead of blindly believing what they’re told,” he remarked. You put down your pen, and Anaxa glanced at the fresh ink still shining on his skin. “Librarian, what is this?”
“A dromas,” you said.
He examined the inked doodle, eye borrowed. “The proportions of its facial features are off and too close together.”
“How picky, professor. I’ll draw a better one next time.”
It was easy, so easy being with Anaxa that it frightened you. New students of Anaxa’s assumed the two of you were “together,” and it wasn’t right, but it wasn’t wrong, either. The two of you were a pair, and it felt wrong to be away from him, like you were being denied part of who you were.
Did you love him? Did you need him? Your desire took on confusing forms, eluding categorization and convention. Maybe you were simply greedy: like the day he let you touch the galaxy in his chest, you wanted more of Anaxa, to shelter within him forever.
How to understand this? Was there even a way to understand it, or were you helpless to desire’s whims? It was an unsolvable equation. 
The years could have passed so sweetly and comfortably, until you heard news of Titankin flooding Okhema and strange new warriors appearing. As Hyacine made to venture into the holy city to treat the wounded, Anaxa approached you one evening while you were in your bedroom, flinging it open without a knock, another habit he retained.
“Go with Hyacine to Okhema,” Anaxa said.
“Excuse me?”
“You’re curious about the new strangers in the city, and what happened with Strife, aren’t you? Go with her and learn.”
“Are you kicking me out of the Grove, professor?” you asked.
“I’m telling you to seek new knowledge, and see the center of a new, great story. Or have you grown complacent here, tending to your dusty scrolls?”
“Aren’t you going to miss me?”
Anaxa leaned against the door of your bedroom. “Why should I?”
“You want to know about those strangers and the status of Okhema,” you guessed. “Don’t you?”
“If that’s how you chose to see my words, I don’t see any need to refute you.”
“You’re as frustrating as ever, professor,” you said. You stood, making your way over to him. Idly, you started playing with the hair that fell over his shoulders, silky strands slipping through your fingers. “Why don’t you say you’re also worried about me? Shuffling me, a poor librarian off to the holy city, when there’s so much turbulence in Amphoreus right now… It doesn’t feel coincidental.”
Anaxa dipped his head, chin lowered to his chest. “Will you admit that that sort of concern makes you happy, then?”
“Do you have any evidence to support that?”
“Do you?” he challenged.
“Well, since my expertise doesn’t lie in debating, so I’ll refrain from answering.” You withdrew your hand, reached down, and pulled Anaxa’s hand up by the wrist, placing it over your heart. His fingers rested lightly against your chest, as if he could cage your heartbeat. “I’ll see you in a few weeks, then. Goodbye for now, professor.”
“Goodbye, librarian.”
The road to Okhema was relatively pleasant. Hyacine was cheerful and made for good company, perceptive enough to know when you tired of talking. Still, you couldn’t help but feel a little disoriented. You weren’t attached at the hip to Anaxa, as your duties took up most of your time, and he had his spells where he forgot the rest of the world existed when he was buried in research. But you weren’t used to being far enough away where if you called his name, he wouldn’t be able to hear.
Okhema was still vibrant and bustling when you and your retinue of exhausted scholars approached, shining with a ferocity that denied any rumors of defeat and downfall. Kephale rose grandly above the city in the distance, arms outstretched as if ready to take on your burdens. 
“I need to go look at some of the soldiers now,” Hyacine said. “Why don’t you go greet Lady Aglaea first? I’ll follow you as soon as you can!”
It was as solid a plan as any. You trudged through the city, making your way to where Aglaea waited. As you walked through sunlight and vapor from the local baths, through laughter and the splash of carefree citizens: it seemed humanity would prevail no matter what.
When you found Aglaea, she was waiting, patient as ever, an enigmatic smile on her lips and hands folded in front of her, as pristine and flawless as a god carved from marble.
“Hello, librarian.”
“Hello, Lady Aglaea. I’m here from the Grove of Epiphany along with a few of my companions. Hyacine will likely come greet you soon,” you said. There was no need to go through any formalities with her; her golden threads had likely picked up on the vibration of your conversation with Hyacine. It cut down on any need for pleasantries and explanations.
“And I’m sure you’ll be reporting everything we say back to that man?” Her smile was still cool, unruffled; you admired her composure. You had no quarrel with Aglaea, and you could not grudge her need for control and protection of all her citizens. Still, it was a daunting task to stand in front of someone like her.
“Reporting is a strong word,” you said. “I would prefer something more like observation. I’m not here to make trouble, only to note what I see.”
“They say you’re a recluse, a librarian who’s only fond of stories and barely has the time to give to anyone outside of a certain professor,” Aglaea said. “You would have made a good candidate for the Coreflame of Time.”
“Ah, but I’m too selfish to sacrifice myself for humanity,” you said, filling in the gaps of her words. “I know my flaws.”
“Indeed. You’re too caught up in your own stories, narrating everything you see as if it has nothing to do with you.”
“And is that so wrong? It’s simply the most interesting thing for me to do,” you said. 
“You and that man are alike in that way,” Aglaea mused. “Caught up in your respective research and acts. You’re a narrator and a performer on the same stage together, though I wonder. It seems as if that man is eager to perform great feats for the distant narrator to watch, so they won’t turn their attention away from him.”
You settled your gaze somewhere over her shoulder, your hands grasped tightly in the folds of your clothing. “Lady Aglaea, I apologize for my bluntness, but I daresay you’re wrong. We both know Anaxa is the sort of man who would only stir to action for the sake of his own goals. Anything else that happens is incidental to what he achieves.”
“Do we both know that?”
“You’ve seen how he acts.”
“Regardless, I only wanted to extend a word of caution to you, librarian. You’ve long refused the invitation to step on the stage, and so your chance to take the spotlight has passed. Are you truly prepared to witness the story playing out in front of you without being able to raise a hand to stop a single event from transpiring?”
“Is this advice from you personally, Lady Aglaea, or is it advice from a demigod?”
She smiled. “What do you think? I’m sure you’ll come to a conclusion all on your own. I only find it a shame we couldn’t work together more.”
That was the end of your conversation with her. But throughout your stay in Okhema, Aglaea’s words rang in your head, like a burr stuck to the folds of your thoughts, even as you found yourself preoccupied by greater worries. The Grove being overtaken by the black tide. Political unrest in Okhema. And Anaxa, who, from all accounts, had seemingly escaped the fate that befell your coworkers and peers.
Once more, your home was lost, but this time, at least one person had survived. Yet, to your growing ire and confusion, Anaxa did not approach you once when he came to the city. You only received reports from Hyacine in the temporary room you took refuge in, provided by Aglaea. 
You thought nothing of it at first, certain he would seek you out on his own time. It wasn’t uncommon for Anaxa to rush headlong into whatever project or scheme caught his attention. He would make his way back to you eventually.
As the hours passed, malaise and discontent settled on you like a heavy veil. You were not a Chrysos Heir, so you were not privy to the inner politics of their number. You were nothing more than a civilian. But this was the first time you had to hear about Anaxa’s movements from other people instead of relaying them to others. 
His silence was a purposeful message: Anaxa was not going to involve you in whatever he had planned. You were to sit and wait and watch on the sidelines, as you always had.
You could guess at his motivations: he was playing risky games, getting involved with the Council of Elders. He had done something outrageous, brushed right up against the divine, and had to undertake his trials alone. You were not useful to him in these games, and it would be dangerous for him to openly associate with you and alert people of your presence in his life.
People were lost so easily, but stories lived forever. You had believed this all your life, and yet, as you melted in your chaise, stacks of half-finished books piling around you, all your beloved stories felt stale and tasteless. 
Someone flung open your door, and you jerked upright as Anaxa strode into the room with the same arrogance as if this was your home back in the Grove. You barely had time to smooth your rumpled clothing and pull your legs to the side before Anaxa was settling at the end of your seat, legs folded.
“Where have you been, you ass?” you snapped, kicking him with your foot.
He didn’t move, taking your kick with stoicism. “I’ve been researching,” he said.
“Well? Are you going to tell me what you’ve been working on?”
“These theories are still being worked on.”
“That hasn’t stopped you from telling me before. Honestly, what have you been doing? The Chrysos Heirs are all over the place, and there’s been talk that you’ve joined the Council of Elders. Not to mention what happened with the Grove. How did you get out? What happened? Why–” You choked on your words, all your nameless frustration and fear surging out. “Why couldn’t I be there with you?”
Anaxa’s eye was focused on you, but his gaze was distant and foggy. His lips moved, as if he was speaking to himself, and you could only wait in impatient silence before he said, “I’m dead, librarian.”
With a furious burst of energy, you lunged at Anaxa, pinning him down to the chaise. His green hair fanned across the cushions, as your hands shook.
“Anaxa, I don’t have time for your games. For once in your life, just tell me the truth.”
“I haven’t lied to you.”
“You’re still here,” you pressed. “If you were truly dead, you wouldn’t be moving like this.”
“That’s simply because I bound my soul to a Titan. I don’t have that much time left.”
“Titan…? You can’t mean… You bound yourself to a god? Are you mad?”
“Only in the eyes of fools,” he said. 
“Anaxa. How long do you have left?”
He called your name, said in such a soft tone, as if you were still teenagers in the Grove of Epiphany, still young and foolish with your entire lives in front of you. “Only until the end of today. You know the black tide takes all, and you know the principles of equivalent exchange. A life for a life. It’s fitting.”
“But it wasn’t supposed to be like this,” you whispered. “You were going to show me a grand story. Things I haven’t seen before. A brilliant conclusion.”
“I will.” Anaxa brought his hand to the back of your head, pulling you down to rest on his chest. You closed your eyes, burying your face in the fabric of his clothing. You sought desperately for his heartbeat, but it wasn’t there. “But all performers must leave the stage eventually.”
“I don’t want you to,” you said. It was a childish, petulant protest, the likes of which you hadn’t made in years, not after your family died. “You’re supposed to live forever, Anaxa.”
“I will. I will live forever in your stories, librarian. You should understand this.”
“You infuriating man.”
“You meddlesome librarian.”
“Are you telling me goodbye? Is this what this is?”
“It doesn’t have to be something permanent,” he said cryptically.
“And I’m sure you won’t explain what that means, either, will you?”
“All will be revealed in due time. Have patience, librarian. That’s one of your strong suits.”
“Anaxa!” Your shout came out to a strangled whisper as you fisted your hands in his robes as if in some vain attempt, you could bind him to this earth forever, as if he wasn’t already lost to you. “You’re a wretched, blasphemous fool. But you’ve forgotten something.”
“And what have I forgotten? Enlighten me, dear librarian.”
“You let me touch your heart,” you murmured into the hollow of his chest. “Remember? That day in the classroom?”
“Well, it’s difficult to forget the liberties you took with my body. What about it?”
“You asked me what I would give in exchange for your heart. I never answered you, and as per the laws of equivalent exchange, as you so like to espouse, I’d like to give you something now,” you persisted. 
“Oh? And what are you planning on offering?”
“My heart,” you persisted. “If you give me a part of you, then I’ll give you a part of me.”
“Do you plan on ripping your heart out for me?”
“If you asked, then it’s yours, to do with as you please.”
Anaxa did not speak. He only stroked the back of your head, as if he was tracing alchemical equations. “What an audacious claim.”
“You don’t dislike it, though.”
“I told you I don’t lie, librarian.”
“Then you need to understand this,” you confessed, a supplicant before a god, the words tumbling out in a way they never have before. Your heartache, laid raw and bare, the weave of your soul exposed. “I’ve kept myself distance from everything. The Grove. The other scholars. Even Amphoreus itself. But you, Anaxa. You make me act so foolishly, want irrational and unattainable things. I can’t keep myself apart from you.”
“Well, well,” Anaxa said. “The reclusive librarian has finally shown me a bit of what lies in their heart.”
You hit him lightly with your fist, the action carrying no anger or weight to it. “Come on. Is that all you have to say to me?”
“I don’t need to say anything. All you need to do is to keep watching me, like we once promised,” he said. “Come, librarian. If you’ve laid claim to my heart, you should understand it by now. What I do, I do while thinking of you and of the best way to keep you entertained.”
You wrapped your arms around Anaxa. He was still touching you ever so gently, stroking your back in a way that belied the harshness of his words. Neither of you spoke. You closed your eyes, imagining what it would be like to fall asleep in his arms. 
“I’ll see you again,” you mumbled. “If not in this life, then in the next. Don’t think you can get away from me so easily.”
You thought you could feel him smile. “I’ll be waiting for you.”
This was the last time you ever saw him. When you did drift off to sleep, you awoke on your chaise, a blanket pulled up to your shoulders, with nothing left of Anaxa but the cooling spot he once occupied.
After his death, you dream of him. His body cracking, flaking away to reveal a cosmos birthed beneath his skin. His smile and unfocused eyes, looking at some grand scheme beyond you. The hard, red crystal of heart, the white lines of his ribs.
One day, you will return to your library in the Grove, to your archives and books and your catalogues. But for now, you reside in the holy city, recording what you see, marking history in your own words. The narrator to a play you could not change, as Aglaea called you, in love with a performer who left the stage of his own accord.
Anaxa does not lie, so you know his theories to be true, even if others decry them as blasphemy. You will find him again, in the next life, in the next world. You will find a way to keep his memory alive, weave it into the fabric of the universe itself, so not even the gods could rip him from you even if Amphoreus as you knew it fell to pieces. 
You imagine what it would be like, in the next world. You would pull him close, your dear professor, and tell him every story that happened in his absence. This time, you would not let him go.
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drewswife · 1 month ago
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summary — spencer left his lunch at home and u bring it to the bau and meet the team (not really..)
pairings — s2!spencer x gf!reader
warnings — fluff, teasing from morgan and gracia,
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You sigh, looking at the neatly packed lunch sitting on the kitchen counter. Spencer, bless his brilliant but sometimes absentminded heart, had done it again. He’d rushed out the door for a BAU case, leaving his carefully prepared meal behind.
"Looks like someone's going to be very hungry later," you mumble to yourself, grabbing the lunch bag. You know how focused he gets when he’s on a case, and a growling stomach is the last thing he needs.
A quick drive later, you're navigating the familiar halls of the FBI headquarters. You push open the door to the BAU bullpen, and sure enough, the team is huddled around a whiteboard, a flurry of papers and profiles spread out.
"Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in," Morgan's voice booms, a smirk already forming on his face as he spots you. "Bringing Dr. Reid his daily sustenance, I see."
Gracia, ever the tech wizard, spins in her chair, a playful glint in her eyes. "Oh, is it lunch delivery time for our boy wonder? Did he forget his blankie too?"
You roll your eyes, but a smile plays on your lips. "He forgot his lunch, you two goons. And he's going to be starving if he doesn't eat." You walk over to Spencer, who is deeply engrossed in a file, his brow furrowed in concentration.
"Spencer," you say softly, placing the lunch bag on his desk.
He jumps slightly, looking up with wide, slightly unfocused eyes. "Oh! hi! What are you doing here?" Then his gaze falls on the bag. His face lights up, a genuinely delighted smile spreading across it. "My lunch! Oh, thank you, I completely forgot it. I was so wrapped up in…" He trails off, gesturing vaguely at the case files.
"I figured," you say, reaching over to gently brush a strand of hair from his forehead. "Eat something, okay? You're going to burn yourself out."
He nods, already reaching for the bag. Morgan whistles from across the room. "Look at that, Reid. Getting special treatment. Some of us have to buy our own food."
"Don't worry, Morgan," Gracia pipes in, "I'm sure if you were as cute and helpless as Reid, someone would bring you lunch too."
Spencer flushes a little, but he's already unwrapping his sandwich, a contented hum escaping him. You just shake your head, a warmth spreading through you. Fluff, indeed. But you wouldn't have it any other way. Watching him eat, you know this small act of bringing him his lunch means more to him than any grand gesture. And that's all you need.
You watch Spencer take a bite of his sandwich, a small, pleased sigh escaping him. Morgan and Gracia's teasing continues good-naturedly in the background.
"I should probably get going," you say, starting to turn.
Spencer looks up looking like a kicked puppy, a bit of food still in his cheek. "Already? Thanks again for this, angel. You really saved me."
You smile. "Anytime, Spencer. Just try to remember your head next time." You lean in, quick and light, and press a soft kiss to his cheek.
He freezes for a split second, a faint blush rising on his pale skin. Morgan and Gracia, surprisingly, fall silent. Then Spencer grins, a genuine, unburdened smile that reaches his eyes. "I'll try," he promises.
You give a small wave to the team and head out, leaving Spencer to his lunch knowing that morgan and Garcia is going to tease the mess out of him poor boy.
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🏷,: @sleepysongbirdsings @spencerreid66 @khxna @raysmayhem-72 @multiversefanfics @starrii-sturns
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tarotbyjam24 · 3 months ago
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Pick a card : Lemme describe your bf\gf\fs\lover\crush :
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pile 1 pile 2 pile 3 pile 4
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Likes , reblogs and feedbacks are very much appreciated 💗 Thankyou for stopping by let's dive in ☄️ Choose the pile you feel most drawn to 🧸
Masterlist \ pick a piles feedback
Disclaimer: this is general reading . It may or may not resonate . If reading doesn't resonate let it fly and choose another pile or simply there were no messages for you through this reading 😊 Take the reading lightly as nothing's set in stone until you believe so 🕊️
Exchanges : open , collabs for paps : open
I also offer paid readings you can book one as it'll help me a lot and don't forget to check the free readings offer ✨
Pile एक
funny without trying
doesn't hide you from their friends
sometimes boastful
extremely popular
knows everything about you
extremely smart
sometimes sassy
loves to look after you
usually hungry
sometimes rude without knowing it
loves listening to rap
never at home
doesn't realise they're very hardworking
sometimes feels underrated
remembers everything about you
sometimes pessimistic
get your personalised readings
Pile दो
18+ read at your own consent
Reckless
very indecisive
always eating
a bit of a fattie :D
party boy
gives the best advice
yolo mindset
best outfit/music taste
Doesn't care what other think
JEALOUS AF
Loud af
Dom
"ooh, sexy"
"Babe"
"How do you feel?"
*SPANKS*
Horny 24/7
Your friends like his look but hates his personality
"Send Nu*es"
"Nice Ass"
BUYS EXPENSIVE SHITS TO EXPRESS HIS LOVE OR APOLOGIZE
LOYAL BUT HARDLY SAY NO FOR A GOOD ASS
huge book reader
obsessed with one girl
quiet but loud
comfort > style
with the right people
best secret keeper
get your personalised readings
Pile तीन
ALWAYS looking at you
acts goofier around you
warm hugs
sends "this reminded me of you" texts
remembers every single word you've ever said
princess gf - bf who does anything to see her happy "baby"
"that's cute"
"hmmm?"
falling asleep on call
You've good taste in music
gm and gn texts
holds hands with you
"i can't wait for our future together"
big hands
"doll"
"go ahead... what "speak up. "were you saying?"
"don't be shy"
-grabs inner thigh-
holds your chin up w/Index finger and rubs lower lip w/thumb while making eye contact
"when they smirk and lick their lips"
"eye contact"
madly needs your attention
always ready to fight for you
impulsive and stubborn
seems terrifying but he's a warm bean
"duuude"
doesn't like horror movies
gives and wants kissies all the time
moms love him
high pitched scream
always fails when he tries to intimidate you
does everything to make you feel safe
"yooo"
enjoys causing chaos
pretty good at video game
feels a lil insecure sometimes
has some chad energy
can be hella sassy
afraid of being put aside
get your personalised readings
Pile चार
super clingy
wants forehead kisses
loves to sit on ur lap
spoiled brat
cuddles
short
"call me your angel, anon!"
caring & sweet
veryyy emotional
always sleepy
"yes please"
will cry if yelled at
sub
"i love you, anon :("
apologizes 24/7
tall straight ADHD bf who loves games - 5'3 mentally ill gf who loves astrology
actually a huge nerd
protective af
secretly gay
super duper nice
very pretty eyes
insecure
music
lowkey clingy
og sk8r boy
loves 2 cuddle
likes plants a lot
old soul
probably the coolest person u will ever meet
loves cartoons
handsome af but also pretty af
baggy clothes
get your personalised readings
I hope you liked the reading . Thank you so much for letting me read for you . Wishing you best ahead . 🎀Bless you and have a nice day🌸🐰 I'd love to hear which pile you chose
Loads of love , jam🩷
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nightshadeblooming · 5 months ago
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hyune GET FUCKEDDDDD
bf! skz x fem! reader: he ditches you for his girl best friend (changbin + hyunjin ver.) PART 2!!
genre: ANGST but also fluff in a way kinda sorta warnings: break-up talk, suggestive in hyunjin's, pregnancy talk in changbin's A/N: hyunjin's smau is so long it fucked up my post format so here we are....once again this is an skz post but it's like 60% wooyoung by volume so just be aware 🫡 also i don't actually use snap or insta so like forgive me if these captions are giving old lady lol
hyung line part 1 | minho + chan version
changbin:
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hyunjin:
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snapscube · 11 months ago
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immediately knew i had to draw her ,, very cute design !! ^^
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AHHHHHH???????? THIS IS SO FUCKING GOOD I'M SCREAMING 😭😭😭 THE FULL COLOR PIECE IS GORGEOUS AND THE SKETCHES!! AHH!! THANK U SO MUCH YOU BLESS ME
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azzifuddfanpage · 5 months ago
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Paige catching Azzi masturbating and she doesn’t let it go but instead tease her and join her in helping her cum
Caught
———— thank you for the prompt!!!🫶
ALSO PLEASE GIVE ME UR FEEDBACK AND COMMENTS OR IM NOT DOING ANOTHER PROMPT TN THANK YEW
———-
3.1k words tw: smut
themes: smut like all smut good luck 👍 (hope u sluts are happy 🤷‍♀️)
———— Paige and Azzi had spent the majority of the year attached at the hip. 
When the espys rolled around and Paige had to fly out to Los Angeles, Azzi couldn’t help herself but miss her after spending almost every waking minute together.
“U really have to go?” Azzi asked, her arms connected tightly against Paige's waist, and her face nuzzled into the crook of her neck. 
Paige took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of Azzi’s coconut lavender shampoo. 
“I know baby, I have to go, but it’s only for a few days, and I’ll FaceTime you every night.” 
“Better be everyday too.” Azzi pouted. 
Paige's heart warmed seeing her girl all clingy to her, and she tightened her grip around her.
As happy and blessed she was to be given this opportunity, she was sad she couldn’t have her best friend/ girlfriend beside her.
———
Seeing Paige in the suit, her hair pulled back into the low messy bun, her eyes sparkling under the spotlight. Azzi couldn’t hide the nagging heat between her thighs that was desperate to be settled.
Paige was originally supposed to come home 2 days after the espys.
The first day after was filled with parties, and then the second day she had to meet with someone to work on her nil deal with her shoes. 
What Azzi didn’t know was that Paige had changed her flight, and instead of flying out that next morning, she would fly out that afternoon. 
———
Azzi on the other hand had more important things to worry about, more specifically, the evolving heat in her core that had been growing since the day Paige left.
She tried to ignore it, she tried to distract herself by watching frozen (5 times), working on extra skills in the gym (even though there was only so much she could do since her last injury), or even learning how to make baked Mac and cheese from scratch (one of paige’s favorites), but none of it seemed to scratch the itch that was so badly limiting her.
She knew she wouldn’t be able to skip out on watching the espys that night.
So when she clicked on the tv and saw the way Paige's fingers wrapped around the mic, she was already very fragile.
Somehow she managed to hold off that entire night and into the next day.
She continued to keep herself busy like she had done before, going to rehab, focusing on the summer classes she had taken to work through her masters, but by the time that evening rolled around and she opened TikTok she knew she was screwed.
The first video on her for you page was an edit of Paige in her espys fit.
Azzi’s eyes glazed over as she saw the way Paige's nimble fingers grasped the microphone, the level of confidence seeping out of her as she spoke. But what did it for her most was the way her veins popped in her arms the same way they did when her fingers were thrusting in and out of Azzi’s lower stomach, desperate to please her.
Azzi looked at her phone, the ache in her stomach too strong to ignore, she moved her fingers down to her waist band and slipped them into her panties, her clit already sensitive  to the touch as she rubbed against it, collecting her stick from the entrance of her hole.
She moaned at the contact, her eyes focusing on the video of Paige, her Paige, she imagined her fingers were Paige's needy long fingers that could never stay off Azzi.
Azzi didn’t even feel embarrassed at this point, it wasn’t like she had never done it before, when they had been long distance before they had to use similar methods, but now, she wasn’t used to this.
The feeling of her own fingers against her skin, would never match Paige's.
Paige knew her body better then she did, knew what made her whimper, what made her legs shake, what made her white syrup spill as Paige thrusted against her g spot.
As Azzi slugged off her shorts and began to lazily fuck her fingers into herself, she could already feel a release brewing, but it wasn’t the same. She felt as though the release she had was bottled up for so long that it was stuck. 
Azzi fucked herself, transitioning between thrusts in and out of herself, to soft rubs and aggressive rubs on her clit, she went back and forth with this for a while, her orgasim remaining close but still so far.
Azzi let out a frustrated moan, her focus going back to the video, pretending her fingers were Paige's, persistent and begging to be swallowed by Azzi’s needy pussy.
Azzi threw her head back moaning Paige's name.
——-
Paige was honestly tired from her long day of flying, but after 3 days without seeing Azzi, she too not only missed her emotionally, but she also had an ache between her legs that only a curly haired brunette guard from UConn could cure.
Paige walked into the suite and was met with an overwhelming layer of silence. 
She wanted to surprise Azzi. 
When Paige finally pushed open the door, she saw Azzi’s legs spread open, her fingers desperately against herself.
Paige felt her knees buckle at the sight.
The way Azzi was folded over, her body spread out on the bed, a bead of sweat running down her forehead. 
She watched as Azzi’s fingers dip lazily into her hole. 
Paige continued standing there, her eyes unable to leave her girlfriend's vulnerable frame. 
Azzi threw her head back- eyes still shut- as she moaned.
“Paige.” Azzi whimpered, her phone still lying forgotten in front of her. 
Paige smirked hearing Azzi’s breathy whimper of her name.
“Not even locking the door first damn az.” Paige finally spoke, breaking the silence.
Azzi let out a yelp, jumping at the sudden unexpected presence in her room.
Pulling out her fingers she threw the blanket over her.
“JESUS PAIGE WHAT THE FUCK” Azzi said a little out of breath from how startled she was.
“you actually just scared the living fuck out of me.” Azzi continued rubbing her face with her hand (not the one that was just inside of her) 
“Ya literally” Paige snorted, walking closer to her and pulling down the sheets exposing Azzi’s naked frame.
Her nipples were hard from the cold air, and Paige could see how wet she was under the light.
“Really couldn’t wait for me, could you baby?” Paige said, running her finger along Azzi’s abs.
Azzi shuddered under her contact, shaking her head embarrassed.
“I tried- just missed you badly.” Azzi said ashamed, her eyes subconsciously darting to her phone.
Paige looked at Azzi’s phone and then back at her. Both their eyes darted back and forth.
Paige lunged for the phone at the same time as Azzi, beating her there.
Flipping it over she unlocked it and smirked when she saw the edit of her playing on the screen.
Azzi threw a hand to cover her face.
“I’m never gonna hear the end of this am I?” Azzi asked, burying her face in the pillow. 
“Not if you want me to help you baby.” Paige says, putting down her phone with a smirk. 
She pulled Azzi's hand away from her face, using her fingers to tilt her chin towards her. 
“Missed this pretty face so much.” Paige whispered, leaning forward and climbing onto the bed so she was now hovering over Azzi. 
Paige ran her hand along Azzi’s neck, moving it up and tracing along her jaw.
She leaned forward and placed a soft open mouth kiss on the soft skin under her ear.
Azzi let out a whimper, her hips wiggling as Paige adjusted her position, her legs straddling either side of her. 
“So needy baby.” Paige whispered as she sucked a little on Azzi’s skin, releasing it and licking over the reddened skin with her tongue. 
“Please.” Azzi moaned as Paige's tongue licked at her lip, dipping inside.
Paige pulled her tongue away, sitting up slightly so she could look at Azzi’s desperate state underneath her.
“Tell me how much better I am at fucking you.” Paige whispered, as she watched Azzi’s lips pucker in the air, reaching out for Paige's. 
Azzi’s eyes opened as she pouted.
Paige laughed, her finger tugging at her puffy bottom lip. 
“Do u want me to help you finish or should I just let you finish yourself off.” Paige said simply, her finger running back down and connecting with her neck as Paige's lips connected back to Azzi’s.
As their tongues massaged against each other, Paige smirked against her.
Paige softly bit against Azzi’s lip, tugging at it and listening to the soft sigh that left her.
When she finally sat up, Azzi whined. 
“Paigeee.” She whined.
“Fine if your gonna be difficult, you’re gonna keep fucking your sled and we’ll see how far you get.” Paige decided, sliding backwards off Azzi’s bed, and facing her.
Azzi’s face turned red as she watched Paige needily stare at her throbbing pussy. 
“Don’t be shy now baby- all u have to tell me is how much better I am at making you finish.” Paige said with a smirk, her eyes running over her folds. 
Azzi, being the stubborn person she was, refused to let Paige win this.
She rolled her eyes and moved her fingers back down to her pussy, running them through the wetness that had collected near her hole.
She moaned at the much needed contact, and began to rub her fingers in small circles over her clit.
“Look at me while you do it.” Paige said her voice was soft but firm.
Azzi looked up at her slowly, her breath shakily.
When her eyes met Paige's, and she saw how dilated they were-drunk on the sight of her pussy, she almost came right from that.
“You know if I was touching you right now, I would have had you cum by now.” She said confidently, smirking as she watched Azzi crumble under her eye contact.
Azzi blushed even more, looking away from Paige and focusing back on pleasing herself.
Her fingers moved away from her clit, traveling down and dipping into her entrance. 
She inserted two of them gently, thrusting and curling them against herself.
She let out a seductive moan that sent shivers down Paige's spine.
Paige wanted nothing more than to shove Azzi’s hand aside and take her right there, but she was also stubborn.
She watched helplessly as Azzi’s fingers curled into her pussy, thrusting them in and out, speeding up.
Azzi moaned, sitting up on her elbow to give herself a better angle.
As much as Azzi didn’t want to give in, she knew she wouldn’t even have to. She knew paige. 
If Paige wanted to eat, she would eat.
Azzi looked up at her, “Paige.” She moaned, staring at her intently until Paige's eyes- that were entranced by her fingers- found hers.
“Fuck it.” Paige said practically jumping on her, ripping her hand away from herself and diving her mouth into Azzi’s pussy. 
Azzi let out a laugh as Paige tongue tickled her inner thigh.
“Fucking always get ur way don’t u princess.” Paige said as her tongue ran against Azzi’s wetness, spreading it across her pussy.
Azzi moaned loudly, her hand coming and wrapping in Paige's hair tugging her closer to her core.
Paige dipped her tongue into her whole, thrusting it in a couple times as her finger played with her clit.
Azzi let out a whine, needing more stimulation.
Paige brought her tongue up to her clit, exchanging the pressure of her tongue, for her pressure of her fingers, now filling her.
As Paige sucked and pulled on Azzi’s clit, her 3 fingers went to work, thrusting in and out.
Azzi, who had already gotten herself very close before, was now gripping at Paige's scalp, Paige's fingers slamming against her walls.
“Fuck P.” She moaned as paige lapped at her clit. 
Azzi adjusted her position, sitting up on her elbows to watch her as her fingers stilled inside her.
Feeling Azzi’s eyes on her, Paige looked up, still pulling on her clit. 
The sight of Paige's big blue eyes completely drunk off her pussy, the feeling of her fingers thrusting back into her, and her tongue flicking at her clit, was all too much for her.
“Fuck paige I’m gonna cum.” 
Paige smirked as she could feel Azzi’s legs shake.
Her fingers stilted inside her, and she lifted her head to her ear, letting her lips tickle it.
“Tell me how good I am to you.” She paused, pressing her lips to Azzi’s ear. Azzi moaned, the throbbing between her legs, too much for her to take.
“Fuck need you to fuck me paige please.” She whined, giving in as Paige sucked at her neck. 
“Tell me how much better I am at fucking you.” She whispered, her tongue soothing the now purple skin.
Paige moaned into her ear and Azzi caved, “fuck you know my body so well baby. You’re so good, please continue.” Azzi whispered, her hips thrusting up to get some type of friction.
“If you insist.” Paige winked, her three fingers diving back down and fucking into her. 
Azzi moaned, her abs flexing as she hunched over from the pressure of Paige's fingers hitting at her walls.
Azzi moaned, and Paige's fingers dove deeper inside.
Paige’s other hand grabbed Azzi’s stomach, pressing on it to stabilize herself.
Azzi felt her finger brush her g spot, and the band in her stomach snap.
Paige lowered herself down so she was angled at her pussy as she could hear her fingers squelching as Azzi released.
She drank up every bit of liquid that spilled from Azzi’s cunt.
“tastes so good, baby.” “Missed her so bad.” She said as she pulled out her fingers, letting more of Azzi’s cum spill out of her.
Azzi was a pile of moans, and Paige eventually pulled away from her cunt, climbing back up to connect with Azzi’s lips, letting her taste herself.
Paige swallowed Azzi’s moans as their tongues fought together.
After Azzi had caught her breath, she pulled Paige away from her.
“Hey just cuz I gave in and let you fuck me doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be able to do it on my own.” Azzi assured, her eyes finding Paige's. 
“Whatever you say baby.” Paige said, snuggling herself into the crook of Azzi’s  arm.
“Wait no.” Azzi said, pushing her off of her.
Paige's head fell onto the bed. 
“What are you talking about Azzi?” Paige sighed.
Azzi climbed on top of Paige so she was straddling her.
“Why don’t you think I could fuck myself as good as you do?” Azzi asked, holding Paige's arms down so she couldn't resist her.
“Nah I know u could, I’m just better.” She replied cheesing. 
Azzi teasingly shoved her face away. 
“Ya we’ll see about that.” Azzi said as Paige's face contorted into a confused look.
Azzi pulled up Paige's shirt, placing soft kisses above her sports bra. 
Paige moaned as her teeth nipped gently at her skin. 
Azzi pulled down her bra, exposing her hardened nipples.
Azzi looked up to find Paige already looking at her with big needy eyes.
Without looking away, Azzi leaned down and wrapped her mouth around Paige's nipple, pulling on it and releasing it with a pop.
She watched as Paige moaned, throwing her head back.
Azzi smirked as she left her bra up, keeping her tits out as she trailed down to Paige's waist band.
“Lift up for me baby.” Azzi said as she dipped her fingers into the band of her sweats.
Paige lifted her hips so Azzi could pull off her sweats.
Azzi threw them behind her, leaning down to level herself with Paige's pussy that was still covered by her boxers.
Azzi ran a finger over her clothes pussy feeling the slick through it. 
“God Azzi.” Paige whimpered as Azzi pulled down her boxers too.
“Need you so bad princess.” Paige said, tangling her fingers in Azzi’s curls pulling her mouth towards her slick.
“Oh is that right?” Azzi said, her breath hitting against Paige's wet clit, sending a shiver through her body.
Paige whined at the feeling against her slick. 
She nodded, but Azzi wasn’t satisfied.
“Well maybe u should just fuck yourself since you’re so much better than me.” Azzi teased, running her fingers on her inner thigh, dangerously close to her aching clit.
“Bruh come on you know I didn’t mean it baby.” Paige whimpered as Azzi’s fingers traced over the sensitive bundle of nerves.  
“Maybe but I want you to tell me.” She whispered seductively, triggering a submissive reaction in Paige's body.
“Need your pretty fingers so bad sweet girl.” Paige moaned.
Azzi could have cum again just from Paige's words, instead she licked a long stripe up her pussy, rewarding her for good behavior.
Paige moaned, shifting her body so her hips were elevated and pressing into Azzi’s mouth. 
Azzi switched to kitten licks against her clit, motivated by her words.
“Such a good girl- doing me so well.” Paige moaned, running her fingers through Azzi’s curls, pulling them back and away from her face.
Azzi sucked on her clit, and her fingers ran through her wetness, dipping into her hole.
“Please baby- need you so bad pretty.” Paige moaned as her fingers inched deeper into her slowly.
Azzi felt Paige's breath shift underneath her.
“Ya you like that don’t you. Just love fucking this pussy huh baby?” Paige growled.
Azzi didn’t answer, instead she responded by thrusting her fingers deeper into Paige's pussy, thrusting them in and out.
Paige groaned, her hand pushing Azzi’s head into her pussy so she was sucking on it harder.
“Right there fuck baby you’re so good.” Paige moaned as Azzi’s fingers pounded against her g spot.
Azzi smirked against her clit, Paige's hand directing her movements so her tongue was now rubbing up and down against it.
With her fingers still fucking deep inside her walls, and her tongue sucking and lapping at her clit, paige could feel the orgasm closing in on her. 
“Gonna cum baby…fuck.” Paige moaned, her legs shaking around Azzi's body.
Azzi wrapped her arms around Paige's thighs, pulling her so she was closer to her.
Azzi sat up a little, pulling paige into her lap to change her angle, fucking her fingers deeper inside her, letting paige’s moans fill the air. 
Paige moaned loudly as Azzi’s teeth grazed her sensitive clit.
Before she could even realize what was happening, her cum was pouring out of her and Azzi was greedily drinking it up.
Paige was still out of breath as Azzi rode out her high.
“You like the way I taste mama. you’re so perfect. Such a good girl eating me so well.” Paige says as she pulled a strand of Azzi’s curls out of her face and pulled it behind Azzi’s ear.
Azzi continued to fuck her through her high until paige was physically pushing her away and pulling her up so she was laying her on her stomach. 
“You did so good pretty.” Paige whispered again to Azzi's cheek as she rubbed small circles against her bare skin.
Azzi sighed contently as she nuzzled deeper into Paige's chest, letting the warmth of Paige's skin surround her.
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troublesomesnitch · 1 year ago
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The Novice
Aemond x Septa!Reader
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The one-eyed prince makes a late night confession.
Contents: Book!Aemond. Pure filth, extremely dubious consent/non-con. Confessional dirty talk, coercion, power imbalance.
Words: 4200
Mostly book!Aemond, but with some show elements added to make him a real piece of shit.
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CW: sexual assault!
Proof read, but I am not good at proof reading.
-
Twice a week, the grand sept receives fine visitors.
It is always something you look forward to, something special and exciting; hearing guards in the streets outside, and the swift feet of errand boys running to inform your superiors.
The queen will be arriving shortly. 
There is not much preparation that needs to be done, because you never tarry in your duties - there are always fresh matches laid out, candles ready to be lit, not a spec of dust on the altars. But for the queen, you go above and beyond. You fetch cushions for her dainty knees, you light incense in every corner, and you usher out any crowds that are not worthy of her presence. 
You greatly admire the queen. She is all that a lady should be, the very image of womanhood. Gracious, pious, beautifully but modestly dressed, and always kind and courteous to you. She says thank you, and blessed day, sweet Sister, and she asks about your training, your health and wellbeing, what charitable causes you wish to devote yourself to. 
The older septas say that the queen seems to have taken a liking to you, and that perhaps if you are lucky, she will request for you to join her household once you have taken your vows. To be a helper and companion to her daughter, and to teach the little prince and princess - her grandchildren, which is a strange thought, because the queen is so young and so beautiful to already be a grandmother. 
She is certainly much younger than her husband. The king is old and frail and rarely leaves his castle now, but even in his youth, he never came to the sept. At least that is what you are told. Septon Alester says he is an unworthy husband, and an unworthy ruler, too. A heretic, like all the rest of his Valyrian kin, who flout divine law and believe themselves above the gods. 
You would never dare to utter such a thing, but it seems at least partially true - in all the time you have served the sept, the king has never accompanied his queen to prayer. Not even once. She always comes alone, escorted by her guard and her maid. And sometimes by her son. 
The one-eyed prince. The one who rides the largest beast in the world. 
There are many rumours swirling about noble lords and ladies, but especially about him. In the taverns and winesinks people say he is of a sullen disposition, and that the loss of his eye at such a young age has left his face hideous and deformed - clearly they have never seen him, but you have, and you know it is nothing more than malicious slander. 
The prince is as beautiful as his mother. 
They look lovely when they kneel together by the altar, with their hands delicately folded and their heads respectfully bowed. Regal, godly. Like the Mother and the Warrior, you think. You often wonder about the contents of his prayers - what could a royal prince possibly wish for? Not as many things as a queen, it would seem, because he never kneels for as long, retreating after a minute or two to stand and wait for his mother. Watch over her; look at her with devotion and reverence. You cannot help but steal quick glances at him; at his graceful posture and his strong face, and you are always too slow to look away, so sometimes he catches you in it. Even when you stand on his blind side, he somehow knows to turn his head and meet your gaze. The little bow he gives you is courteous, but the taunting smile that follows is not, and you must always remind yourself that you have done nothing wrong. 
It is not a sin to be curious. 
When the evening bell tolls, and the city gates close, the High Septon calls to prayer. But one person must always stay behind to keep vigil until the morning, and the duty is shared between all servants of the Faith. Septons and septas, novices, even holy brothers and sisters, sometimes. Only the Most Devout are exempt from it, as well as those who are weakened by illness or old age.
You are neither, but you do not mind taking your turn. It is an easy task, as all of the city is asleep, and those who are not would much rather drink and carouse than come to a place of worship. Here, the night is quiet and calm, and you quite like these hours of solitude. Alone in the sept with only the statues, and maybe the gods, for company. 
On this day though, you are startled from your thoughts when the heavy doors are swung open. 
You have never before encountered guests at this hour, so your fearful imagination is quick to jump to conclusions - the man could be a thief, a common brute, a scoundrel hiding from a brawl, or - gods forbid - from the City Watch.
But when you peek out from your little corner, you are surprised to see that it is the prince. And that he is alone. 
He is dressed differently tonight, in dull colours and coarser fabrics, far simpler than what he usually wears. Perhaps in an attempt to go unnoticed among the common people - but if that was indeed his intention, he has very much failed. Everything about him is unusual, from his hair to his eye to the shining silver clasp at his neck; the immaculate tailoring of each of his garments. Even the way he carries himself makes it abundantly clear that this is no grocer or stonemason. 
You cast your eyes down as his steps echo through the sept, purposeful and determined.  Clearly heading towards you, but you would hate to be presumptuous, so it is only when he is right in front of you that you rise from your seat to curtsy. Reverently, so deep that your knee almost touches the floor. 
“Sister,” he nods. “I have sins I wish to confess - a troubled mind I wish to unburden.” 
You curtsy once more, though not as low this time.
“I am not ordained to hear confessions, but I should be happy to fetch a septon - “
“No,” the prince says. “I will speak to no one but you.” 
What he demands is a breach of the rules, and a cruel thing to ask of you, but there is not much to be done about it. You can hardly refuse a prince of the realm, and what if he tells his mother that you were unhelpful? After all, it is your sacred duty to comfort and guide the faithful. To lead them on the path to righteousness. 
So you nod, draping your veil over your head as you both sit down on your little bench. Right beside one another, so close that your legs almost touch. A proper septa would say confess, and may the Father judge you justly, but that is not appropriate for you, so you merely look down at your folded hands and wait for the prince to speak. 
“I am plagued by impure thoughts,” he begins. 
The colour drains from your face in an instant. Oh, not this. 
Anything else, you do believe you could handle. Envy, drunkenness, greed, gambling, even violent offences, perhaps. Anything but this. But you remain calm; force yourself to keep your composure as you speak. 
“All young men have impure thoughts. It is perfectly natural.”
From the corner of your eye, it looks as though the prince smiles ever so slightly. 
“Of course,” he nods. “But mine are by nature nefarious, because the lady I desire is a chaste and pious woman… a maiden, and justly proud of her innocence. She would be distraught if she knew the wickedness she inspires.”
You feel yourself blushing. Although you are sufficiently educated on the matter, speaking of such things makes you feel ashamed and uncomfortable. As it would most young women. Confession or not, nothing about this conversation is appropriate, and you want nothing more than to be done with it and return to quiet contemplation. You keep your eyes cast down, and you are as curt as you dare when you answer. 
“Then you should not sully her, My Prince, even in your thoughts. You should pray to the Smith for strength, or to the Warrior if you prefer, and occupy yourself with noble pursuits. Prayer, studies, and so forth.”
“Oh, but I do,” the prince says gravely. “I devote my every hour to noble pursuits. And yet time and time again I sully her, and my own hand too in the process -  yes, I must confess that I have sinned exceedingly, in both thought and deed. These urges of mine are so unbearable, I simply must relieve myself…” He pauses to look at you coolly, his brows drawn together in a disapproving frown. “You look quite pale, Septa, is my confession too scandalous for you? I should hope the Faith would not admit a novice so unfit for her position…”
“Of course not,” you quickly mutter, though in truth, you are mortified. This is far beyond your station and skill. Not only is the matter highly delicate, but you must also carefully choose your words so as to not offend a member of the royal family. And one with a - supposedly - unfortunate temper at that. 
“It is not for me to command a prince,” you begin, “but it is my duty to remind you that the Faith condemns such practices - surely you know that by indulging your urges, you will only make them stronger.”
“I have tried to refrain from it,” the prince laments. “But even then, she haunts me…  at night, I dream that I lie on top of her - that I spread her thighs and press her body to my own. And these dreams are so vivid, so terribly arousing, they often cause me to - forgive me, Sister - emit my seed.” He sighs deeply, and turns his face away, his shoulders tense; his handsome features full of torment. “A rather shameful predicament, for a grown man - is it not?” 
Perhaps, you think, but a common one nonetheless, and not something he should be chastised for. You know perfectly well that there are some functions of a man’s body that are beyond his control, as do the gods who made it so. It is best not to dwell on it. 
“My Prince,” you say instead, with what little confidence you can muster, “ - with your permission, I would offer you this advice: if you cannot restrain yourself, and if you care for this lady, then you should court and wed her.” You fiddle nervously with your dress, lowering your voice to barely more than a whisper. “It is a wholesome thing, for spouses to give their bodies to each other - for a man to make love to his wife…”  
The prince hums, either in agreement or contemplation, you can’t tell. But you hope he will take your words to heart, and make this irresistible woman his wife. If the mere sight of her can stir such passion, then he would surely grow to love her deeply, and their union would be happy and prosperous. Blessed by the gods.
- Or maybe not.
“I am afraid that is not possible,” the prince says. Slowly, thoughtfully. “Because you see, my lady is a septa - a novice, as it were…” 
His words trail off, and his hand reaches to caress your face, right by the edge of your veil, where a strand of hair has loosened from its pin. 
You recoil at once, springing from your seat to look at him with shock and horror. 
“This is highly improper - “
“I have thought of nothing but you,” he exclaims, impassioned, rising quickly to reach for you once more, “ - since the day I saw you, I have wanted no one else - ”
Again you manage to evade his embrace, but the prince is tall, and his legs are long and agile. Each one of his strides is worth two of yours, and when you back away he follows, stepping ever closer until you are backed up against a pillar.
Oh how you wish that it had only been a thief come to rob the sept. You could have easily escaped out the little hidden door by the dias; let them take whatever riches they could carry.  There is only silver here, and the Faith has no shortage of that.
The prince is after something far more precious. 
“Don’t touch me - ” you plead, feeling your pulse quicken, the hair rise on the back of your neck. He is too near, moving to loom over you, intimidating and imposing, and so tall that he must bend to brush his nose against your hair. 
“It is a waste,” he murmurs. “That such beauty should only belong to the gods.”
You should flee. You should defend your virtue. Maids and ladies, harlots and tavern girls, all women know to protect themselves, to kick where a man is the weakest, to scratch, bite, shout, make a racket. There are guards patrolling the square outside, and septons sleeping nearby in their cells - if you were loud enough, someone would hear you and come to your aid. 
But at what cost, when your assailant is a prince? 
You dare not risk it, so you stand frozen in place, too frightened to push him away, too frightened to even look at him as he gropes your body, touching it in ways that it has never been, and should never be touched. One of his arms wraps around your waist, the other trails over your dress, feeling your shape underneath the fabric. Your stomach, your hips, your bottom, and especially your breasts. 
He cups them with both hands, kneading and massaging them hard, pressing his fingers into your flesh.
“I would take you right here,” he breathes. “Against this very pillar, for all your gods to see - ” 
The blasphemy, the shameless vulgarity - you gasp, and at the sound, the prince chuckles faintly. 
“You said yourself it is a wholesome thing…”
“For husbands and wives -” you squeak, “please, you mustn’t hurt me!“
“Never,” he says, bringing your hand to rest on his chest, over his heart, as if to reassure you. “If you would only oblige me, I swear I will be gentle…”
You shake your head, but it does not dissuade him. He kisses your hair, your cheeks, the shell of your ear, touching his lips to every little sliver of exposed skin. Not just your face and neck, but your forearms too, your wrists, the insides of your elbows. Anywhere that lets him truly feel you. Feel the rapid beat of your pulse; the warmth and softness of a woman’s body.
And as he touches you, you feel him. His manhood, stiff against your hip when he presses himself against you, moaning softly at the feeling. It is a most intimate sound, and you are ashamed to realise that your body instinctively responds to it; to the closeness, the touch of a man. You feel warm in your chest, and wet between your legs - unnerving, and so at odds with the panic that still grips you, with the tears that prickle in your eyes. 
“Please don’t - ” you whimper, just as his teeth graze your jaw, drawing a single, involuntary sigh from your lips. One that spurs him on to swiftly yank the veil off your head and discard it, fully exposing your hair and neck. 
He pulls back to look at you, your neatly pinned tresses, your smooth throat and collarbones. Your beauty that he has long wished to admire. 
“Like an angel,” he says softly, longingly, taking your face in his hands and stroking your cheeks with his thumbs. “A little angel - the Maiden in the flesh - “
“That is a blasphemous thing to say,” you sniffle. 
It only makes him laugh, and before you can say anything else, he tilts your face up so he can press his mouth to yours. 
No one has ever kissed you before. Many boys have wanted to, but none were ever allowed the privilege. You always knew you did not want to be a wife. That you had a different calling. 
It is a very strange sensation, this kiss. Hot, wet, and sticky. You do not return it, and yet the prince is undeterred, parting your lips softly but insistently, just enough to slip his tongue inside. It gives him pleasure, even when your mouth is slack and unresponsive - you can tell from his blissful sighs, and from the indecent way he moves his hips, rubbing the prominent bulge in his trousers against you. He is so entranced by your mouth and your body that you feel a treacherous sense of relief, thinking to yourself that if this is how he wants to gratify himself - by licking your tongue and humping against your hip - you will let him. No real harm has been done to your virtue, and the gods will understand you had no choice. Already you are silently saying your prayers, to the Warrior for courage, the Mother for compassion, the Father for leniency  -
But you are cruelly interrupted when the prince draws back and begins to loosen the closure of his breeches. 
“No - oh no, no - ,” you shriek, but as you try to wriggle from his grasp, his face hardens and his gentle touch becomes like a vice. Rough and unyielding, holding you in place. 
“You must forgive me,” he rasps, his gaze dark with lust, his nostrils flaring, “ - for I can no longer deprive myself of what I so desire...”
He is so much stronger than you. With an impeccably polished boot he shoves your feet apart, his one hand pinning your arms behind your back, the other hiking up your skirts, determined, deaf to your frantic pleas. 
“You don’t understand, I must remain chaste!”
“Don’t lie to me,” he hisses, “I know the workings of the Faith, you’ve taken no solemn vows yet - “
“No, I have, I have!” you cry. “I pledged myself to the Maiden when I was a girl!”
It is the truth, but the prince does not care. He silences you with another desperate kiss, crushing his face to yours, reaching to hook his hand under your knee and lift your leg. He has you trapped, pinned between his body and the stone column, and you can claw at him until your hands bleed, it makes no difference. Your dress is bunched up, your legs forcibly parted, your most intimate secrets laid bare to be violated. A great sin, made even greater by the circumstances, and yet the gods have abandoned you, left you here to suffer. 
They must be occupied elsewhere, and the statues too stand motionless on their plinths, with their tranquil faces, staring blankly into the distance as though deliberately blind to your tragedy. 
To the hand that worms its way underneath your smallclothes. The nails that dig into the back of your neck, holding your head in place. The mouth that swallows up your sobs until he is forced to break the kiss so he can reach between your bodies and finish unlacing his breeches. 
You gasp for breath, looking up and straight at him, your eyes wet and pleading, your lip trembling. 
“Don’t ruin me, please - I beg you, don’t take from me what can never be replaced - “
The prince’s hand hesitates on your thigh. His one eye flickers between your two, between the tears that flow uncontrollably down your cheeks; your little hands clenched into fists against his chest.
For a split second there’s a shadow of something softer on his face, a strange draw around his mouth, and then he curses and releases your leg. And you bolt, without thinking, ducking under his arm to sprint towards the door and safety. 
You manage all of two steps before the prince catches you and pins you to the pillar once more. 
“Not yet - ” he orders, slipping a hand down the front of his trousers to finally free his member from its confines. He cradles it at the base to proudly show it off before he begins to stroke himself, shamelessly and urgently, while you look on. At once frightened and sinfully curious. 
You have never seen it before. The masculine organ. Only in drawings, of which some were intended to educate young women, and others were of a much lewder nature. The prince’s manhood does look much like those anatomical illustrations, only it is bigger in person than you had imagined. Hard and swollen with need. It fits perfectly in his fist, and the skin glides back to reveal the head, which is thick and meaty, and a dark purple red. It almost looks as though it should be painful for him, having it filled and engorged in such a way. Having it stretched to be so big. But of course you know that is not the case. And even if you didn’t, his gasp of pleasure would have made it very clear. 
He reaches for your wrist, tugging it down between his legs, and you are quick to look away when he closes your fingers around it, with his own hand on top. Somehow, you reason that if you keep your eyes averted, it is not as sinful. Not as deserving of punishment. 
But you can still feel it. In your palm, against your clammy skin. Warm, and pulsing as he squeezes your fingers tight around the shaft, moving them from the base to the tip and back down again, using your hand to pleasure himself. Slowly at first, but as his arousal grows he quickens the pace, moving your hand only over the tip of his member, massaging the bulbous head with quick movements. All the while groping at your chest.
And you let him do it. All of it, resigning yourself to be used at his will and pleasure. It is the best and safest course of action now, and all you can do is bear it. You keep your sobs inside, and your eyes cast down, staring mindlessly at the patterns in the stone floor until the prince’s hand seizes your jaw. 
“Look at me,” he commands through gritted teeth, running his thumb over your mouth, pressing against your lips. “Open - suck, use your tongue - “
You do as he says, wanting so desperately to just be done with it - once he has finished he will surely let you go. The thought prompts you to suck on his fingers with increasing fervour, taking them deep into your mouth, running your tongue along the length of them, along his knuckles; making him gasp at the feeling.  
“Fuck, like that - gods yes,” he moans, letting go of your hand to lean against the pillar for support, his eye falling closed, his hips making shallow, instinctive thrusts.
You continue with the same movements, up and down over his manhood, trying to mimic exactly what he did before, whilst still sucking on his fingers, too. Letting him feel your soft mouth and your warm lips; your little wet tongue caressing his skin. You haven’t a clue as to what you are supposed to be doing, and there is no grace or skill to your licks, but each swirl of your tongue makes the prince moan regardless. He would probably much rather feel this attention somewhere else, but clearly he has the wits to know that shoving his member into an unwilling mouth is not a wise idea. So he contents himself with this. 
And thankfully, it does not take long before your efforts are rewarded.
When you choke back a mewl his hips jerk forward, and his hand flies down to close around yours again, guiding you to squeeze him harder and faster. His jaw goes slack, and his manhood stiffens even more, and even though you are inexperienced, you know what it means. You can feel it, feel his sac tighten, feel him twitch in your hand as semen travels up his shaft. He bends to lean his forehead against yours, and finally, finally, he spurts, moaning with pleasure as he empties himself onto your hand, his seed pulsing out in hot, wet squirts. Soiling not only your skin and your dress, but your conscience too; your virtue, honour and dignity.
And at last it is over. 
The prince slumps forwards against you, hiding his face in your neck. His body trembles with the final waves of his rapture, and he brushes his fingers over your hair in a strangely intimate way, a tender way. As though you were lovers. 
In a sense, now, you suppose you are. 
Before he leaves you he quickly tidies his clothes, throwing his cloak around his shoulders and tucking his shirt into his trousers. And once he has made himself presentable, he retrieves your veil too. Brushing it off with a gloved hand and draping it over your head once more. 
“Thank you, Sister,” he says sweetly, cradling your face to kiss your lips and then your forehead. “I feel much more at ease now.” 
No sooner have the doors closed behind him before you fall to your knees by the Maiden’s altar to beg for her forgiveness. 
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Part 2: The Devil You Know
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