Longing for a simple life

“i missed you every hour. and you know what the worst part was? it caught me completely by surprise.”

“the problem with wanting is that it makes us weak.”

“i don’t care if you danced naked on the roof of the palace with him.”

“fine. make me your villain.”

“i’m sorry it took so long for me to see you. but i see you now.”

“i never really belonged anywhere.”

“i’m hilarious.”

“there’s nothing wrong with being a lizard. unless you were born to be a hawk.”

“i’ve been waiting for you a long time. you and i are going to change the world.”

“i’m not used to people trying to kill me.”

“it’s always just you and me.”

“what is infinite? the universe and the greed of men.”

“well, if it gets too bad, give me a signal, and i’ll get up on the banquet table, toss my skirt over my head, and do a little dance. that way no one will be looking at you.”

“do you blame me for every mistake i made? for every girl i tumbled? for every dumb thing i’ve said? because if we start running tallies on stupid, you know who’s going to come out ahead.”

“did you tell him what i showed you in the dark?”

“people, particularly big men carrying big rifles, don’t expect lip from a scrawny thing like me. they always look a bit dazed when they get it.”

“there’s no such thing as too much champagne. though your head will try to tell you otherwise tomorrow.”

“i hope you don’t expect fairness from me. it isn’t one of my specialties.”

“i was thinking something quieter, like maybe a nice poison.”

“everything she said was perfectly nice, but the whole time she was looking at me as if i were something her dog spit up.”

“like calls to like.”

“it’s a great honor to save a life. you saved many.”

“well, if i plan on doing anything exciting i promise to give fair warning so just… take a nap or something.”

“i doubt you have any idea what you are.”

“my secrets of seduction do not come cheap.”

“of course i make mistakes. just not often.”

“only you could contemplate imminent death and just say ‘alright’.”

“it was like standing at the end of everything.”

“you’re the first glimmer of hope i’ve had in a long time.”

“i don’t do tricks, you know.”

“we all have our secrets.”

“why don’t you just admit that you wanted to belong to him? why don’t you admit that part of you still does?”

“when people say impossible, they usually mean improbable.”

“the less you say, the more weight your words will carry.”

“princes bleed just like other men.”

“anything worth doing always starts as a bad idea.”

“i’ve seen what you truly are and i’ve never turned away. i never will.”

“why won’t you leave me alone?”

“then i’d be alone too.”

“i’ve also been known to answer to ‘sweetheart’ or ‘handsome’.”

“i have loved you all my life. there is no end to our story.”

“oh, and the easiest way to make someone furious is to tell her to calm down.”

“i like to have powerful enemies. makes me feel important.”

“i can’t decide if you’re crazy or stupid.”

“i have so many good qualities, it’s hard to choose.”

“i want to kiss you. but i won’t. not until you’re thinking of me instead of trying to forget him.”

“weakness is a guise. wear it when they need to know you’re human, but never when you feel it.”

“you know the problem with heroes and saints? they always end up dead.”

“i’m perfectly capable of being stupid on my own.”

“i wanted you to ask me to stay.”

“we are alike. as no one else is, as no one else will ever be.”

“you’re my flag. you’re my nation.”

“i’ve had a lot of nicknames, but that one is easily the most accurate.”

“i can’t decide if you’re an idiot or an idiot.”

“you two have a bad habit of acting like fools and calling it heroic.”

“the ox feels the yoke, but does the bird feel the weight of its wings?“

“my power is yours. and yours is mine.”

“promise not to kick me again, and i’ll promise not to kiss you again.”

“scars made good reminders.”

“you? less than truthful? i’m shocked. shocked and horrified.”

“of course i’m jealous. i thought i was going to punch him. that isn’t the point.”

“you were like a stranger. beautiful. terrible.”

“all men can be made fools.”

“i’m already insufferable.”

“next time, bring a flask. every time he changes his mind, take a sip.”

“do they like eunuchs too? because i can arrange that.”

“the deal was only for kicking. it did not prohibit slapping, punching, biting or cutting you in half.”

“i like weeds. they’re survivors.”

“i am not ruined. i am ruination.”

“i will strip away all that you know, all that you love, until you have no shelter but mine.”

“beauty was your armor. fragile stuff, all show. but what’s inside you? that’s steel. it’s brave and unbreakable. and it doesn’t need fixing.”

“you might make me a better man.”

“you might make me a monster.”

“why waste my anger on you when the fault is mine? i should have anticipated another betrayal from you.”

“i wanted to see you.”

“there are two thrones on that dais. you could see me any time you liked.”

“i hope you weren’t looking to me to be the voice of reason. i keep to a strict diet of ill-advised enthusiasm and heartfelt regret.”

“not bad looking? he’s damnably handsome.”

“i thought your hobby was preening.”

“don’t let me be alone.”

“despise your heart.”

“i have no heart.”

“in the end, maybe love just meant longing for something impossibly bright and forever out of reach.“

“it’s true. you are stronger, wiser, infinite in experience… but i am an apt pupil.”

“it’s a vow that if i can’t be anything else to you, at least i can be a weapon in your hand.”

“you’re all i’ve ever wanted. you are the whole of my heart.”

“are you going to make a habit of winning arguments? it’s very unbecoming.”

“i had a taste for you, once.”

“you were meant for more than me, and i’ll die fighting to give it to you. but please don’t ask me to pretend it’s easy.”

“it gets dark when i say it does.”

“no matter who or what i was, i would’ve been yours.”

“we all die. not everyone dies for a reason.”

“want to know my secret? i have a lot of money.”

“i’ll be back to fetch you for dinner, but should you grow restless, do feel free to run screaming from the room or take a dagger to her. whatever seems most fitting at the time.”

“for all my talk of vows and honor, what i really want is to put you up against that wall and kiss you until you forget you ever knew another man’s name.”

“you live in a single moment. i live in a thousand.”

“he’s kind when he might have been cruel. it’s refreshing.”

“oh, a dark lake full of something shiny. let me put my hand into it.”

“that fact is well established and adds nothing to the plot.”

“i wanted him to be hard, to be strong. i taught him the lesson my mother and father taught me: to rely on no one. that love – fragile and fickle and raw – was nothing compared to power. he was a brilliant boy. he learned too well.”

“claimed me? like a peninsula?”

“let me. it isn’t real. let me.”

“i’m used to being the center of attention wherever i go. i’ve been told I could charm the shoes off a racehorse midstride, and yet you seem impervious.”

“i make it a policy to never seduce anyone prettier than i am.”

“i wasn’t afraid of you. i was afraid of losing you.”

“you move forward, and when you falter, you get up. and when you can’t, you let us carry you. you let me carry you.”

“you were supposed to be my balance.”

“i fell in love with you, smartass, because you were one of us.”

“when you spend so long trapped in the darkness, you find the darkness begins to stare back.”

“there are good days and hard days for me—even now. don’t let the hard days win.”

“if you were going to die, i was going to die with you.”

“you’re a real bastard, you know that?”

“there are different kinds of darkness. there is the darkness that frightens, the darkness that soothes, the darkness that is restful. there is the darkness of lovers, and the darkness of assassins. it becomes what the bearer wishes it to be, needs it to be. it is not wholly bad or good.”

“i’m thinking… i’m thinking i was a lonely, helpless person, and i might have fallen in love with the first thing to show me a hint of kindness and safety.”

“i am broken, and healing, but every piece of my heart belongs to you.”

“i would have torn apart the world to get you back.”

“i’m thinking that i look at you and feel like i’m dying. like i can’t breathe. i’m thinking that i want you so badly i can’t concentrate half the time i’m around you, and this room is too small for me to properly bed you.”

“i hope they all burn in hell.”

“the issue isn’t whether they loved you, it’s how much. too much. love can be a poison.”

“many atrocities have been done in the name of the greater good.”

“did you enjoy the sight of me kneeling before you?”

“you gave up on me. you were my friend.”

“life is better when you’re around. and look how lovely your handwriting is.”

“i know you—more than you realize, i think—and i don’t believe for one damn minute that you’re remotely fine with being a pretty trophy for someone who sat on their ass for nearly fifty years, then sat on their ass while you were shredded apart—”

“come on. we don’t bite. unless you ask us to.”

“but i couldn’t… i couldn’t stop being around you, and loving you, and wanting you. i still can’t stay away.”

“i’d much rather you licked my wounds for me.”

“you decide your fate—your choices. not me.”

“i’m surprised there aren’t more mirrors in this house, since you seem to love looking at yourself so much.”

“i heard you begging for someone, anyone, to get you out. i heard you say no.”

“don’t feel bad for one moment about doing what brings you joy.”

“be glad of your human heart. pity those who don’t feel anything at all.”

“i love you. thorns and all.”

“we need hope, or else we cannot endure.”

“you look… better than before. and your hair is… clean.”

“do you ever stop being so serious and dull?”

“do you ever stop being a prick?”

“you could have demanded every single week of the year. every single week, and i would’ve said yes.”

“he also said that you liked being brushed, and if i’m clever i might train you with treats.”

“everything i love always has the tendency to be taken away from me.”

“i would have been gentle with you, though.”

“i’m tired and lonely, and you’re the only person i can talk to without putting myself at risk.”

“because i wouldn’t want to die alone. because i’d want someone to hold my hand until the end, and awhile after that. that’s something everyone deserves.” 

“i didn’t want you to fight alone. or die alone.”

“has anyone ever taken care of you?”

“i’m drawn to it, even when i know i shouldn’t be, even when i try not to be.”

“beneath all your pride and stubbornness, i could have sworn i detected something that felt differently. interesting.”

“my priority would be to help my family—and i would have picked whatever side could keep them safest. i hadn’t thought of it as a weakness until now.”

“before you start yelling…”

“killing us is easier in pants.”

“all those years, what i did for them… and they didn’t try to stop you from taking me.”

“we’re too powerful, and too bored with immortality, to be checked by anything else.”

“we had contests to see who could write the dirtiest limericks while i was living with my father’s war-band by the border. i don’t particularly enjoy losing, so i took it upon myself to become good at them.”

“do you lie awake at night to come up with all your witty replies for the following day?”

“you don’t hold on to power by being everyone’s friend.”

“if it grieves you, then i don’t think it’s absurd at all.”

… and I’ll respond with  3  (or more)  interesting  plots / relationships / connections  I can think of for our muses!   There is  no pressure  for us to write any of them,   but it’s a great starting point for you to get a sense of how I think our muses might interact and what sorts of plots I’m most interested in happening between them  -  so don’t be shy!