Shards of Humanity

"Ah, good morning, Schatzi." He smiles, leans over, and gives her a kiss. "Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag. Did you dream sweet?"

Sat at the end of the bed, beside the flopped form of Kiki (Rolf, of course, preferring to sleep between them like an overgrown baby, whilst Melodie stands guard at the window sill) is a small wrapped gift.

Within the parcel lies a ring; dainty and rose gold, to match her wedding and engagement band. Covered in small diamonds, soon to sparkle in the morning sun, it is an eternity band, and on the inside in the thinnest of writing is the word 'immer'; always, in Roderich's looping script.

Roderich will give it to her soon, of course. Yet for now, he is content for her to wake slowly and peacefully, beside him.

Birthdays had long since lost their meaning for the Luxembourger, aging was not something Emma was concerned with any longer. However, it was no less cause for celebration; it was a joy of existing that really made another loop around the Sun something to cherish. When she was a young lady, the 23rd of June was spent enveloped in the festivities of her nationhood; parades and fancy dinners and the like. These days, her second full day of summer was spent doing whatever it was she desired with those she desired to spend it with. Today so far, it was spent resting in bed with her sweetheart. "Mm." A sleepy set of eyes squinting against the sun, Emma's fingers curling in a soft bed shirt belonging to one Austrian, who was very much awake. Something that even her barely conscious mind registered as shocking. "Gudde Moien meng Léift." A phrase so often uttered by the groggy blonde that saying it was second nature to her when greeted by a familiar lavender gaze in the morning. The sweetest of birthday wishes made her smile, her dainty hand sliding up from where it had gripped Roderich's shirt to his face, thumb smoothing over his cheekbone. "I did. It is hard to have anything but when you are visiting." Sappy, she knows, but it is true.

     Careful is as careful does. Emma knows the value of a sharp blade, knows that to heal is often to hurt first, be that in life or the operating room. She knows the warmth of blood and the chill of it’s loss, replacing the flush of life with the cold grey of death.

     Lucky for them, they’re a bit harder to kill. This does not ever tamp down that fight or flight response when injuries happen, though, especially to ones closest to the heart. It as if the witness has been wounded themselves, a phantom pain of the heart.       Fencing was supposed to be safe, much safer than it had been once upon a time when it was a military game, a sport played by soldiers at the enjoyment of their companions. Most injuries in the sport these days came from overuse; aching muscles and pulled tendons. Things that were tended to with rest and ice, and perhaps tender loving care.

     “Ach, liebe-- Let me see.” Her voice was gentle, far gentler that it would be had this been something acute, something bloody or broken. When it would have called for a doctor, not a nurse. “What hurts, can you show me?” 

the monstrous bride

“Just as the ultimate goal of Arthurian quest finally defines itself as the Holy Grail, the object that can never be assimilated into the real world, so the ultimate woman of romance is a fairy mistress, or fairy queen.” — Helen Cooper The monstrous bride is not necessarily monstrous, but she is, by definition, inhuman, which is part of her je ne sais quoi. Her happiness often depends on whether her groom knows her inhuman. If he does not, he is bound to find out before the story concludes, at which point he will either be repulsed by his wife's deceit and leave her, or attempt to make the relationship work, but fail, because he is operating under a misinterpretation of her nature. If he is aware of her inhuman identity, it will often be one of the factors leading to his attraction to her, and he will be rewarded with her love – but often at the cost of abandoning his previous life completely.

tagged by: @jokulmacr

meme || accepting