INFINITE / VOID.

↬   THE  LANGUAGE  OF  THORNS,  midnight  tales  and  dangerous  magic.   (  2017  )  by  leigh  bardugo.

sentences  taken  from  or  inspired  by  the  collection’s  dialogue  &  narration.

+   feel  free  to  change  pronouns  !

i.    AYAMA  AND  THE  THORN  WOOD.

‘  love  speaks  in  flowers.  truth  requires  thorns.  ’

‘  we  all  know  the  story  of  how  the  queen  becomes  a  queen.  ’

‘  we  should  leave  this  place.  ’

‘  no  doubt  it  will  come  and  devour  us  all.  ’

‘  the  beast  will  laugh  you  right  out  of  the  wild  lands.  ’

‘  you  know  how  the  stories  go.  interesting  things  happen  only  to  pretty  girls.  ’

‘  is  the  wood  much  worse  than  a  garden  overgrown  with  pricklers  ?  ’

‘  stupid  girl  !  do  you  wish  to  become  a  monster  ?  ’

‘  strike  me.  cleave  me  in  two.  ’

‘  you’re  as  thorny  as  the  wood.  ’  

‘  there  is  but  one  rule  in  my  wood.  speak  truth.  ’

‘  perhaps  you  might  show  mercy  freely.  ’

‘  just  eat  a  bit  of  the  sun  to  fill  the  sky,  and  you  will  feel  empty  no  longer.  ’

‘  what  nonsense  !  of  course  that’s  not  how  the  story  ends.  ’

‘  some  people  are  born  with  a  piece  of  night  inside,  and  that  hollow  place  can  never  be  filled.  ’

‘  what  do  i  care  for  winter  ?  no  season  touches  this  wood.  ’

‘  you  know  the  only  bargain  i  will  make.  ’

‘  sometimes  the  unseen  is  not  to  be  feared  and  those  that  are  meant  to  love  us  most  are  not  always  the  ones  that  do.  ’

‘  bad  fates  do  not  always  follow  those  that  deserve  them.  ’

‘  no  prince  is  worth  your  life.  ’

‘  are  you  so  eager  to  be  eaten  ?  ’

‘  they  have  told  me  to  return  with  your  heart.  ’

‘  you  think  to  love  a  monster  ?  ’

‘  a  man  like  you  is  owed  no  words.  ’

ii.    THE  TOO  CLEVER  FOX.

‘  you  are  doomed  to  a  miserable  life.  ’

‘  better  to  be  hungry  now  than  to  be  sorry  later.  ’

‘  what  will  everyone  say  when  they  see  such  a  face  ?  ’

‘  we  have  not  gone  so  soft  as  that.  ’

‘  you  think  that  we  will  let  you  live  on  foolish  promises  ?  ’

‘  you  have  bested  me.  that  much  is  clear.  ’

‘  will  you  not  free  me  ?  ’

‘  you  will  have  a  fine  time  of  it,  i  can  tell  you.  ’

‘  i  can  bear  ugliness.  i  find  the  one  thing  i  cannot  live  with  is  death.  ’

‘  if  you  will  only  cease  your  talking,  i  will  gladly  go.  ’

‘  where  he  went,  he  bled  the  woods  dry.  ’

‘  what’s  a  bit  more  blood  ?  ’

‘  you  should  leave  this  place.  you  are  not  safe  here.  ’

‘  with  such  big  eyes,  i  think  you  see  too  much.  ’

‘  will  you  not  tell  me  what  troubles  you  ?  ’

‘  why  do  you  stay  with  him  ?  you’re  pretty  enough  to  catch  a  husband.  ’

‘  just  because  you  escape  one  trap,  doesn’t  mean  you  will  escape  the  next.  ’

‘  first  i  must  find  my  courage.  ’

‘  few  can  resist  the  sight  of  a  pretty  girl  crying.  ’

‘  the  trap  is  loneliness,  and  no  one  escapes  it.  not  even  me.  ’

‘  in  the  wood,  even  songbirds  must  be  survivors.  ’

iii.    THE  WITCH  OF  DUVA.

‘  there  was  a  time  when  the  wood  ate  girls.  ’

‘  be  back  before  dark.  the  trees  are  hungry  tonight.  ’

‘  who  can  say  what  shapes  an  appetite  ?  ’

‘  this  is  my  home,  you  can’t  just  send  me  away.  ’ 

‘  don’t  be  foolish.  there’s  plenty  of  light.  ’

‘  well  then,  come  help  me  stir  the  pot.  ’

‘  i  will  warn  you  just  this  once.  go.  ’ 

‘  you  cannot  come  and  go  from  this  place  like  you’re  fetching  water  from  a  well.  ’  

‘  hope  made  me  stubborn.  ’

‘  stay  there  and  keep  quiet.  i  don’t  need  rumors  that  i’ve  been  taking  girls.  ’

‘  i  will  not  have  you  bring  a  monster  to  my  door.  ’

‘  you  know  that  you  are  welcome  to  remain  here  with  me.  ’

‘  i  will  follow  her.  i  will  peck  out  her  eyes.  ’

‘  believe  me.  say  you  believe  me.  ’

‘  dark  things  have  a  way  of  slipping  through  narrow  spaces.  ’

iv.    LITTLE  KNIFE.

‘  it  is  dangerous  to  travel  the  northern  road  with  a  troubled  heart.  ’

‘  if  you  are  lost  in  your  own  thoughts,  you  may  find  yourself  stepping  off  the  path  and  into  the  dark  woods.  ’

‘  she  was  beautiful  from  the  moment  of  her  birth.  ’

‘  why  must  i  be  the  one  to  hide  ?  ’

‘  do  you  think  i  am  so  foolish  or  so  cruel  ?  ’

‘  water  only  wants  direction.  it  wants  to  be  told  what  to  do.  ’

‘  always  you  have  done  my  bidding,  but  what  good  are  you  to  me  now  ?  ’

‘  soon  i  will  be  very  rich,  but  will  i  have  a  good  man  ?  ’

‘  that  is  a  question  for  the  river.  ’

‘  your  tongue  is  not  fit  for  my  true  name.  ’

‘  will  you  come  with  me,  and  be  bride  to  nothing  but  the  shore  ?  ’

‘  she  was  terrifying  in  her  beauty,  bright  like  a  devouring  star.  ’

‘  remember  that  to  use  a  thing  is  not  to  own  it.  ’

‘  should  you  ever  take  a  bride,  listen  closely  to  her  questions.  ’

v.    THE  SOLDIER  PRINCE.

‘  this  is  the  problem  with  even  lesser  demons.  they  come  to  your  door  in  velvet  coats  and  polished  shoes.  ’

‘  you  will  find  great  love  and  more  gold  than  you  could  wish  for.  ’

‘  he’s  a  charming  fellow,  but  most  unusual,  and  peculiarities  seem  to  follow  him.  ’  

’  it  seemed  harmless  at  the  time.  ’

‘  he  needed  a  girl,  still  malleable,  one  that  he  could  make  admire  him.  ’

‘  this  is  pleasant.  this  is  enough.  ’

‘  are  you  my  soldier  ?  are  you  my  prince  ?  ’

‘  i  have  not  come  to  fight,  only  to  talk.  ’

‘  wanting  is  why  people  get  up  in  the  morning.  it  gives  them  something  to  dream  of  at  night.  ’

‘  i  am  perfectly  real.  ’

‘  she  loves  you,  though,  and  that  will  make  it  harder.  ’

‘  best  not  to  ask.  i  think  the  answer  would  please  no  one.  ’

‘  we  can  stay  forever  in  the  land  of  dreams.  ’

‘  kiss  me.  take  me  from  this  place.  ’

‘  i  sent  you  to  die  a  hundred  times.  ’

‘  i  eat  the  wonder  in  their  eyes.  ’

‘  you  were  an  idea  in  my  head.  you  were  nothing,  and  to  nothing  you  will  return  when  i  think  of  you  no  more.  ’

‘  you  wanted  only  that  i  might  live.  you  would  sacrifice  your  own  life  to  make  it  so.  ’

‘  are  you  my  darling  ?  are  you  mine  ?  ’

vi.    WHEN  WATER  SANG  FIRE.

‘  you  wish  to  strike  a  bargain.  ’

‘  make  me  someone  new.  ’

‘  this  is  the  problem  with  making  a  thing  forbidden.  it  does  nothing  but  build  an  ache  in  the  heart.  ’

‘  easy  magic  is  pretty.  great  magic  requires  that  you  trouble  the  waters.  ’

‘  no  one  expects  me  to  accomplish  anything.  ’

‘  i  can  smell  your  ambition  like  blood  in  the  water.’  

‘  i  know  that  you  should  keep  it  like  a  secret,  not  shout  it  like  a  curse.  ’

‘  yes.  i  can  imagine  it  all.  ’

‘  you  are  worth  more  than  that.  you  should  not  have  to  earn  him.  ’

‘  hope  rises  like  water  trapped  beneath  a  dam,  higher  and  higher,  in  increments  that  mean  nothing  until  you  face  the  flood.  ’

‘  there  is  no  pain  like  the  pain  of  transformation.  ’

‘  take  your  pleasures  as  you  will.  ’

‘  come,  and  i’ll  tell  you  all  you  wish  to  know.  ’

‘  he  made  me  dream  of  things  i  cannot  have.  ’

‘  i  do  not  care  for  dancing.  ’

‘  look  into  the  mirror,  and  try  to  deny  it.  ’

‘  you  have  never  been  like  the  others,  and  you  never  will  be.  ’

‘  we  were  not  made  to  please  princes.  ’

‘  i  am  not  quite  mortal  either,  and  i  have  many  lives  to  live.  ’

‘  i  wouldn’t  care  if  you  were  part  human  or  part  frog.  ’

‘  my  voice  is  not  enough.  ’

Send me a random number for a starter/drabble with our characters in the setting of a liminal space #1-104 (some repeats, mostly taken from this list)

a playground at night

rest stops on highways

deep in the mountains

churches at night

abandoned 7/11’s

your bedroom at 5 am

hospitals at midnight

warehouses that smell like dust

lighthouses with lights that don’t work anymore

empty parking lots

ponds and lakes in suburban neighborhoods

rooftops in the early morning

inside a dark cabinet

A pond on a roof

early in the morning wherever it’s just snowed
trails by the highway just out of earshot of traffic
schools during breaks

those little beaches right next to ferry docks

bowling alleys

a cornfield next to a country road

your friends living room once everybody but you is asleep
laundromats at midnight

hospital waiting rooms 


airports from midnight to 7am

cemeteries 


abandoned penitentiaries 


hilltops at night in full moonlight 


empty barns 


marshes 


really anywhere quiet at midnight, the air vibrates 


old stones and henge 


the ocean when it’s still quiet with fog over it


train tracks that go through the middle of the woods 


bridges 


ancient places 


stands of old growth forest 
rabbit paths off hiking tails 


trails between the main ski hills 


winter twilight


back allies between houses


logging roads


dirt roads on fall evenings with leaves falling off the trees 


libraries before closing


anyplace where it’s snowing before sunrise 


the woods during a rainstorm

roads covered with snow with trees on the sideways while snowflakes are falling out of the sky


train stations after 10 PM


outside, right before a massive storm


the woods just after twilight


the beach in winter


the bottom of swimming pools 


empty beaches when its snowing

back part of a library 


late night empty streets 


highways late at night 


windy roads 


windy roads at night when you can only see the immediate road 


abandoned parking lots (office buildings, homes) 


anywhere immediately after a really bad fight 


little towns late at night when no ones awake and the only lights on are the street posts

the lakeside anytime between 2 and 6 am

firework shows when you’re sitting on the grass

House on a lake

being the only one downstairs on christmas  

stepping outside in the early morning when it has just snowed

when its dark and you see snowflakes falling down in the light of a lamppost on the lonely road

that one clear spot in the forest with trees surrounding it

a parked car in a snow/thunderstorm

corn fields with the wind blowing over them

malls when they’re about to close for the night

woods at twilight/dawn

being on a train after midnight

theme parks at night

winding back roads with rolling fog


seeing “open” signs when its really foggy and cloudy


being in a train that was crowded when you got in and now its quiet, looking at the seats knowing that there were people sitting there moments ago and now they’re gone


hiking trails that have nobody on them 


being alone in an elevator for a few minutes 


looking down at the forest when you’re standing somewhere high and seeing the top of the trees with fog lingering over them


the ferry about to take off in the middle of the night 


tree houses


empty seats on the late night train


4-6 am on a winter morning

Feeling chased

the clouds/damp coming out of your mouth when its really cold in the morning 


stepping out on an unfamiliar metro/train stop


greenhouses that have been left to grow alone


cemeteries in the middle of fields


biking/walking on the main road when its dark without cars


swamps with fog 


hotel corridors in the middle of the night


anywhere where you can hear a train whistle in the distance but you can’t see it or know just how far away it is


foggy mornings in a meadow 


that flickering streetlight


working offices at midnight

long, dark hallways

the middle of a park when its snowing

being in a forest where there are train tracks not knowing if the train may even ever approach

bonfires

a little lake in the middle of the forest

lonely swings

overgrow field/yard

the woods on a night with a full moon

empty stables

rest stops

empty metro stations that are usually crowded

gas stations on long mountain roads

((Feel free to add your own. Have fun~ ))

trigger warnings: none.

❛ You can’t ask why about love. ❜

❛ I am not ashamed of who I am or what I’ve done. ❜

❛ Are you ashamed for me? ❜

❛ Oh, God! Oh, forgive me! It’s the end of everything. ❜

❛ I’ve got nothing left except you, remember that. ❜

❛ I consider jealousy to be insulting to you and degrading to me. ❜

❛ I have no right to inquire into your feelings. They concern only your conscience. ❜

❛ I’ve never been in Moscow society, really. ❜

❛ But I’d rather end up wishing I hadn’t than end up wishing I had — wouldn’t you? ❜

❛ How long are you staying? ❜

❛ I don’t know. It depends on you. ❜

❛ You love him, and he loves you, but you can’t forgive, so your lives must continue like this forever, with both of you wretched. ❜

❛ Dance with me. ❜

❛ I dare say, but if I’m not to dance with you, I’m getting out of this operetta and going home. ❜

❛ What else can I do? I have to be where you are. ❜

❛ You must forget me, if you are a good man you’ll forget everything

❛ And you, will you forget? ❜

❛ And we all love you for your contrary opinions ❜

❛ Were you glad to see me or not? ❜

❛ This must stop. You make me feel as if I were guilty of something. ❜

❛ What do you want me to do? ❜

❛ I can change my mind, and you’ll never see me again. ❜

❛ If you have any thought for me, you will give me back my peace. ❜

❛ I have no peace to give. ❜

❛ There can be no peace for us— only misery or the greatest happiness. ❜

❛ I stayed up to talk to you. ❜

❛ I must warn you of something. ❜

❛ I have nothing to say to you. ❜

❛ If I am wrong, I ask your pardon. ❜

❛ You should care. ❜

❛ You love me. ❜

Send ‘drunk’ to receive a drunk text from my muse. Send ‘sad’ to receive a sad/down text from my muse. Send ‘mad’ to receive a mad/angry text from my muse. Send ‘happy’ to receive a happy/excited text from my muse. Send ‘tired’ to receive a slow/sleepy text from my muse. Send ‘busy’ to receive slow texts from my muse. Send ‘bored’ to receive a disinterested text from my muse.

❛ We all wear masks. Everyone, everyday. Sometimes we wear them so much we forget who we really are. ❜

❛ And sometimes, if we’re lucky, someone comes along and shows us who we really wanna be, who we should be. ❜

❛ Fighting this war on your own must be exhausting. ❜

❛ Are you going to let me go? ❜

❛ Before you pull the trigger, you should know my name. ❜

❛ A killer with a conscious; it’s no wonder they cut you loose. ❜

❛ The real gift isn’t freedom. It’s what we get to do with it. ❜

❛ Brute force will never be as powerful as deception. ❜

❛ I’m not a monster. I just wanted you to think I was. ❜

❛ I have nothing left. If you die, I die. ❜

❛ I was the first recruit to get out. I’m going to make certain I’m not the last. ❜

❛ Your life is over, _____. I’m here to offer you a new one. But you have to be willing to earn it. ❜

❛ She had a good run. Won’t be another one like her. ❜

❛ Did she say who she was working for? ❜

❛ Everything to make me the best killer I could be… till I broke one of their rules. ❜

❛ I thought I heard my name. ❜

❛ I want you to know I can get to you, and hit you where it hurts the most. ❜

❛ Just like old times, huh? ❜

❛ You were free. You had gotten out, you were gone. What the hell are you doing back here? ❜

❛ I know you’re in this for revenge.  ❜

❛ You know firsthand what it feels like. Have the thing you love most in life taken away from you. ❜

❛ It wasn’t your life. It was your cover. I warned you not to get emotionally attached. ❜

❛ I’ll give you a head start. ❜

❛ If we meet again I can’t promise what will happen. ❜

❛ I can only promise you one thing… It’s going to get worse before it gets better. ❜

❛ The last word they breathe before the end, will be my name. ❜

❛ Did you ever have feelings for her? ❜

❛ You put him in danger, _____. That’s not like you. ❜

❛ Pretty cool how you can hack into all these servers. ❜

❛ You said you didn’t want forgiveness, but you deserve it, _____. ❜

❛ What have you got behind your back? ❜

❛ I can’t believe I ever thought you were cute. ❜

❛ You’d follow him over a cliff, wouldn’t you? Just like that. ❜

❛ You don’t have a choice. ❜

❛ What do I want? What I want is to empty a clip into your face. ❜

❛ That’s the difference between you and me, _____. You’ll kill anyone, I don’t waste life. ❜

❛ The man could not keep it in his pants if it was tied to his zipper, you know what I’m saying? ❜

❛ I told myself if I could just find you and see if you were OK, that I would have done one good thing in my life. ❜

❛ I made the same mistake you did. The best mistake of my life. ❜

❛ I’ve got a plan. ❜

❛ Why don’t you just let me go? ❜

❛ I’m not gonna let them do anything to you. I’m not gonna let anything happen to you. I’m not gonna lose you too. ❜

❛ The truth is what we choose to believe. ❜

❛ Making friends isn’t hard. Losing them will be. Trust me. ❜

❛ Not everything has to be a video game. ❜

❛ You know what you’re going to do? You’re going to kill, and you’re going to kill, you’re going to kill some more. And one day, if you’re very lucky, you’re gonna remember what it was like to be a human being. ❜

❛ I don’t want you to go through what I did, _____. Wouldn’t wish that on anyone. ❜

❛ Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself. ❜

❛ Thanks, my flight was lovely. How about yours? ❜

❛ I’m pretty sure that taxi driver ripped me off. ❜

❛ You picked the wrong mission to mess with. ❜

❛ Relax. I’m not here to stop you. ❜

❛ You may not believe this, but I’m glad you found me. I’ve often wondered how you fared. You probably don’t realize, but you changed my life as much as I changed yours. ❜

❛ Who would have thought you would have been the voice of reason? ❜

❛ Revenge is not the answer. ❜

❛ I’m not a spice girl, and I was never ever obscure. I was elusive, and a little dangerous. I was a legend. ❜

❛ I’m new at this hero stuff, you’ve been doing it a lot longer. ❜

❛ You make it sound like you’re my guardian angel. ❜

❛ It’s a kill job. I kill, or be killed, everyone knows that. ❜

❛ I like the sapphire dress too. ❜

❛ That would be very dangerous. ❜

❛ No risk, no reward. Isn’t that what you taught me? ❜

❛ She thinks you and I are, you know… Together. ❜