𝙢𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙪𝙨𝙚.

roman: the stairs

There’s something eerie about this house, something wholly unfamiliar in the familiar. You’ve always been aware of it, of everything just a little too much. You’ve seen how this house sinks its teeth into whatever passes through it because you are the passage that connects one to the other. So you know how this ends — when someone believes they can tame a predator, and now you must sit back in and watch as they become the newest prey. You have a good heart, or what is left of it, but you learned the hard way to put yourself first in a place like this. So make no mistake, when the third step from the top creaks it is not without purpose. You are a bridge, at the end of the day, the intermediate between the familiar and then unknown. A staircase goes both up and down, after all.

( updated 24th october '23. )

black sails

anne bonny

the old guard

nicolò di genova

red dead redemption

bessie matthews daisy beauford

succession

- update carrd to include izzy as a 'request' muse. verna as a mag.nus arc.hives character - idk really know how to categorise her as she's not an oc, but i don't want to list her as an usher's house canon since... i won't really be writing her as such. hm.

- actually i think i need to have a general cull of muses i'm no longer interested in writing - most have been inactive for a while or were never active on the blog in the first place.

- bios for primary muses (captain, kieren, whoever else i feel like writing about. both will have verses - ma.gnus arc.hives, cap in of.md, they'd both lend themselves well to the o.ld gu.ard since both their canons are technically post-being alive. i've had a couple more ideas for verses for roman too which i should figure out and write up. much to think about.)

- tentatively thinking about bringing mil.lie gun.ning back but not touching the 'old age' era stuff with a barge pole. either she'll be written before her illness sets in, or as a post-canon divergence thing with no reference to it beyond the vaguest allusions to her being ill. not really sure what i'd do with her though.

- have a ruthless clear out of my likes/inbox, maybe drafts too.

𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗼𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗳𝘂𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻' 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱?

Roman flushes, full-body and sudden, like a match struck, or sudden sunburn but without the rawness. He feels his cheeks warm, the back of his neck, all the way down his chest. Even his fingertips and toes feel flushed.

It's the polar opposite of the chill he feels when Dad turns his full attention to him. For one, it's pleasant.

"Yeah?" he asks, soft and hesitant, so unmasculine and needy that he should be embarrassed. ( He isn't; all he's thinking about is earning another sweet little compliment from Stewy. )

"It's new." He even manages a little smile, bashful and even hopeful. "The shirt, I mean." Powder blue, it looks like it could've come from Logan's wardrobe, if one of his wouldn't be several sizes too big. This one fits nicely, hugging Roman's shoulders and tucking in at the waist as if to emphasise how slim he is. ( And that was a consideration, although not necessarily a conscious one. )

storm writer.

Writers of the storm, the rain, and the snow. Angst is your element. You mastered the art of making it hurt, in every way. That quiet hurt of a smile on a crying face. Your words whisper to the lonely ones that they’re not alone. You are able to show your readers a universe where everything’s okay, and even if it hurts it’s okay, because being sad is a feeling that deserves to be felt. Yells against the dark of the night. Screams of rage and hurt, tears running down soft cheeks and white knuckles. You are there, screaming with them. Angry at the unfairness, and fighting it, in the first place it attacks you. In the heart. And you’re the hand, offered to the hopeless. With a delicate smile on your lips, you help people stand up again. The storm writer, the one who knows how it feels, to be screaming in the void, and doesn’t want anyone else to live it too. You are the storm writer, but you’re able to build beautiful reigns of ice and snow, and offer comfort to the ones who seek it.

she's old - her first deal was for her own life, with an avatar like her. she was granted eternal life but the cost was that she must continue to spread fear of the end, terminus, whatever you want to call it.

she does this by making deals. she offers what - on the surface - looks like a good deal: you will live as long as you would have done, you will be successful and untouchable, but when you die, you will take your entire bloodline with you. or: you will be happy, content, with a huge circle of people that love you. you will die peacefully. but every night when you dream, you will see the grief you will leave behind.

she never makes people take her deals, it's freely offered and freely taken. if you refuse, there will be no repercussions - you won't die early, verna won't interfere in your life, but you will be mediocre. she targets people disgusted by the idea of mediocrity - ceos, ambitious politicians, artists, even people driven by family - and it's easy to convince them to agree to her terms. most of the time, they don't even need convincing.