gilded hearts

🔥 FIRE - do they have any self destructive tendencies? what habits do they have that hinder them from becoming their best self?

augustine is the mvp of self destruvtive tendencies. she's mean and she's cruel and she pushes away people who care about her. she gets drunk and ignores her feelings. she tries to live so hard in the moment that she can't imagine a real future, can only focus on putting one foot in front of the other.

🖍️ CRAYON - what advice would you give to them?

it's not really advice but i would want augustine to know it's not her fault her parents disowned her. she didn't do anything, couldn't do anything to avoid it really.

🎁 PRESENT - what types of presents would they be most happy to receive? are they good at gift giving?

🚆 TRAIN - what is their answer to the trolley problem?

she’d pull the lever to kill one. augustine already feels a lot guilt about who her family is, for all the damage that’s been done at the behest of lestranges. there was nothing for her to do to stop what they did—first she wasn’t alive, then she was a kid, and then she was the sort of person in danger because of the very rhetoric her family’s spread. it’s been a lot for her to deal with but she’s ultimately come to the conclusion that Reducing Harm is the best she fo to make up for that. it’s failed logic. but it’s her’s.

Damien Graves fucking hates the winter. Which is odd, since he does love the holidays ( he’ll never admit it despite anyone’s best attempt. ) He slipped on ice one too many times for his patience ( so, one time ) and now he has a vendetta against the whole season. The poor man is bundled up in a comically thick amount of scarfs and layers underneath his coat. 

“This country’s weather is fucking ridiculous.” He mutters to nobody in particular, not even really paying attention as he lights up a cigarette. It’s a recent development, one he isn’t thrilled with. “All the spells in the world and we can’t think of one that makes heat?”

— ★

augustine’d gotten through her entire life without any magic of her own and her most of her adult life without magic around, almost entirely in the muggle word until a few years ago now. she listened to the complaint of the wix, a sense of annoyance growing within her and pushed down below it, bitterness. “do you not have more scarves to wear? throw a hat on maybe?” in truth, she couldn’t imagine he was anything other than far too hot under all those layers. her own winter attire was wool layers under the clothes she would normally wore anyway, gloves and scarves and hats replacing the accessories and throwing in the occasional jacket if it got too far under freezing. “tough it out the muggle way. it’s not that hard.”

𝙻𝙾𝙲𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽  :  malfoy manor, wiltshire  !

“listen, i’m not really meant to give my opinion, but between you and me…” and the rest of the malfoy’s guests, though no one was really paying them much attention ; luca had dropped her voice a couple of octaves, but she needn’t have bothered. everyone was so caught up in their inane conversations ( or just plain giddy off of scoring an invitation to the event of the year ) that they weren’t exactly taking mind of a lowly serving girl taking time out of her busy schedule to impart some simple wisdom, “i’d go with the moon glow cocktail over the others. the rocket fuel is all spirits, and if you want to be able to remember your night at all, you don’t wanna be downing any of those.” 

“i’m actually not sure,” he responded, his eyebrows furrowing, “maybe a swimming pool?” clearly he hadn’t put any thought into the suggestion beyond the initial idea. “i’m afraid you might be right,” he admitted with a sigh. 

the people that bustled along living their own lives bothered her, but really, it was keira’s anger at herself that was the issue. she’d done this before, but never usually so catastrophically, and always with the thought, after the fact, that it would be the very last time. obviously that was NOT the case and that was more frustrating than anything else ever would be, and though she had at least some measure of self awareness, it wasn’t enough. “do you think i’d be cutting off my circulation if i had a spare key?” she snaps, and even if her remorse was immediate & absolute, it still happened, all the same, “sorry. i left my key and my wand inside. i was only putting the rubbish out, and now…”

location:     ministry of magic,     /     anywhere else with a lift. 

brown baggie of pastries are swapped with swiftness from left hand to right.     george darts his arm out,     and the closing lift’s doors again wrench open.     “you can get this one,     —     i’m going up,     too.”

the more they discussed the hospitals scent - the more benedict seemed to notice it. what he’d previously considered slightly annoying, was quickly becoming rather unpleasant. he looked forward to getting a bit of fresh air. “those nose plugs, then? the ones muggles wear when they go swimming? they’d keep the smell out.”

His hands won’t stop shaking, no matter how much he tries to clench his fists and keeping them firmly pressed against his legs. It’s been chaos since he arrived, hours and hours passed by before he was allowed a break. The hospital has been in constant disarray since the attack first happened, no amount of water and lavender infused anything can calm him down. But he slumps against the first chair in the lobby he can find. The lounge is too quiet for his liking, but the hallways are too full of grieving and worried families and friends. 

“Our apologies.” He really tries to make it sound very sincere. “I’ll spell up some floral scents, or tropical, whatever you like. Perhaps I’ll plug in an air freshener if that’ll do?”

— ⋆

there’d been a reason that augustine had ended up working with the dead. autopsies were different sort of thing from the rest of the medical field. she was hidden away. there were no patients or families to comfort with a soft voice and a gentle smile. it needled at her. “you’re gonna apologize for that weird hospital smell?” she asked. “also an air freshener? i don’t think some artificial lavender is gonna cover it.”

benedict had never been a fan of hospitals, then again who was? apart from healers, he really couldn’t think of anyone. though he knew he should switch his train of thought before he found himself falling down a rabbit hole. “it is rather odd,” he remarked, as he cast a brief glance at augustine. he realized she probably wasn’t supposed to be out of bed, but he also knew it wasn’t his place to argue. “then again i’ve never been to a normal hospital,” he laughed, “would you like me to fetch a candle? or some air freshener?”

𝙻𝙾𝙲𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽  :  commoratio alley, london  !

she’s not actually going to be able to unlock her front door. even if her arm was long enough to reach the deadlatch, the thin slot her mail gets pushed through doesn’t provide nearly enough give for her to grab the little handle and pull it down, and she knows she’s nowhere close even as she desperately pushes herself against the wood and tries. she’ll be lucky if she doesn’t get STUCK there, but she can’t do nothing when her cat sits on the bottom step inside and yowls as if his life depends on it, surely playing up his hunger but with such conviction she half believes him. she cuts a rather pathetic picture to passersby, and the keen awareness of that - and the sinking, hopeless feeling the more she struggles - combines unpleasantly as she begins venting that on them, muttering beneath her breath as she continues to try reach her lock, “just keep walking- totally fine, here- it’s not as if it’s life or death or anything- you bastards-” 

when     an     emergency     staff     meeting     had     been     ordered     ,     they     can’t     feign     shock     .          (          welcome     efforts     doubled     ,     came     the     missive          ;          extra     flowers     in     rooms     ,     smile     harder     ,     when     you     feel     like     your     cheeks     are     going     to     split     in     two     ,     𝚔𝚎𝚎𝚙     𝚜𝚖𝚒𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐     .          )          HERCULEAN     doesn’t     describe     the     nature     of     the     task     at     hand     ,          &          astoria’s     grateful     for     whatever     moments     they     can     steal          /          a     minute     or     two     whisked     away     to     𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚     ,     simply     to     chart     the     rise          &          fall     of     their     own     chest          &          find     themselves     utterly     thankful     for     the     space     to     do     so     .     they’re     in     the     midst     of     one     such     cloistered     moment     when     augustine     catches     their     attention          ──          the     only     reason     they’re     even     vaguely     cognisant     of     the     voice     that     calls     out     is     because     they’re     sure     they     changed     the     flowers     in     her     room     .     peonies     ,     all     in     BURSTING     pastels     .          ❛          i’ve     never     been     to     a     muggle     hospital     ,     actually     .     never     allowed     to     .          ❜          (          &          what     would     the     medical     profession     do     with     them     ,     anyway          ?          how     would     ordinary     doctors     react     when     presented     a     time     -     bomb     of     a     human     being     ,     ready     to     detonate     at     any     given     moment          ?          )          ❛          hospitals     are     hospitals     ,     though     .     we     do     our     best     .          ❜          slender     shoulders     knit     together     in     a     slight     shrug     that     betrays     an     unspoken     tedium     .               ❛          i’d     offer     to     enchant     your     room     to     smell     like     lavender     fields          &          have     the     clock     sing     a     lullaby     to     you     every     night     ,     but     i     don’t     𝙰𝙲𝚃𝚄𝙰𝙻𝙻𝚈     want     to     get     fired     .          ❜