❴ ⟢˚ ˒ 𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐘 𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋.

[ BANDAGE ] : sender bandages a wound on receiver.

[ GUIDE ] : sender puts a hand on he receiver's back to guide them somewhere.

[ WAVE ]: sender waves down receiver to get their attention.

[ SIGN ]: sender raises their hand to sign to receiver. what follows can be anything the sender desires.

[ LIFT ]: sender lifts receiver's chin to look at them.

[ LIGHT ]: sender lights receiver's cigarette/candle/etc.

[ FIND ] : sender finds receiver beaten and/or bloodied.

[ PIN ]: sender pins receiver against the wall during combat/sparring.

[ GET DOWN ]: sender tackles receiver out of the way of danger.

[ TAKE ]: sender takes a hit meant for receiver.

[ CAUGHT ]: sender finds receiver somewhere they aren't supposed to be.

[ TRAP ]: sender traps the receiver somewhere they don't want to be.

[ DARLING ]: sender touches receiver's cheek.

[ SNATCH ]: sender snatches receiver's wrist as they turn to go.

[ STAB ]: sender stabs receiver.

[ DRAG ]: sender drags receiver from point a to point b.

[ SIT ]: sender sits on receiver's lap.

[ EN GARDE ]: sender and receiver get into some kind of fight.

[ DRUNK ]: sender finds receiver drunk.

[ BLOOD ]: sender walks into receiver's room covered in blood.

[ FLOWER ]: sender offers a flower to receiver.

[ HOLD ]: sender reaches to hold receiver's hand.

[ BRUSH ]: sender brushes a strand of hair out of receiver's face.

[ NOTE: ] sender writes a note for receiver. the contents are whatever the sender decides.

[ EYES ]: sender notices receiver looking at them.

[ STOP ]: sender raises hand to signal the receiver to stop in place.

[ TAP ]: sender taps receiver on the shoulder to get their attention.

[ WAKE ]: sender gently wakes receiver from a nap or otherwise.

[ MORNING AFTER ]: sender and receiver wake up together for the first time after a night of passion.

[ BLANKET ]: sender drapes a blanket over receiver's shoulders.

[ HUDDLE ]: sender and receiver huddle together in an effort to stay warm.

[ TUG ]: sender pulls receiver away from them.

[ PUSH ]: sender pushes receiver away from them.

❛ I’m very pleased you’ve come with me. ❜

❛ If there’s anyone I wish to stun at dinner, I’ll hit them in the face. ❜

❛ When a monster stops behaving like a monster, does it stop being a monster? Does it become something else? ❜

❛ How absurd it is that the weakest and most vulnerable of people - girls, women - go unarmed and are taught nothing of fighting, while the strong are trained to the highest reaches of their skill. ❜

❛ What are you grinning at? ❜

❛ Is the ceiling about to cave in on my head or something? You look like we’re both on the verge of an enormous joke. ❜

❛ Only you would consider the collapse of the ceiling a good joke. ❜

❛ I’m afraid to tell you what I wish for, for fear you’ll… oh, I don’t know, throw me into the fire. ❜

❛ You’re more dear to my heart than I ever knew anyone could be. ❜

❛ I’ll teach you how to defend yourself, how to maim a man. ❜

❛ Wonderful — It’s quite boring really, the way you beat me to death with your hands and feet. It’ll be refreshing to have you come at me with a knife. ❜

❛ Forgive me, I was only trying to get your attention. ❜

❛ I suppose it never occurs to you to start small. If I told you my roof needed rebuilding, you’d start by knocking down the house. ❜

❛ Almost as beautiful as you are conceited. ❜

❛ You saved my life. I’m going to name my firstborn child after you. ❜

❛ I’ve heard you can kill a man with the nail of your smallest finger. ❜

❛ Does it make it easier? To have beautiful eyes? Does it lighten the burden of your Grace, to know you have beautiful eyes? ❜

❛ It seems better to me for a child to have these skills and never use them, than not have them and one day need them. ❜

❛ I wouldn’t marry him to save my life. Not even to save yours. ❜

❛ I know you’re teasing me. And you should know I’m not easily humiliated. ❜

❛ I should have stuck to my lies. It was the truth that almost had me killed, after all. ❜

❛ When you’re a monster, you are thanked and praised for not behaving like a monster. ❜

❛ I would like to restrain from cruelty and receive no admiration for it. ❜

❛ Mercy is more frightening than murder, because it is harder. ❜

❛ Your brand of comfort bears some similarity to your tactical offence. ❜

❛ The only way for you to keep your mind straight is to run from those who would confuse you. ❜

❛ How long will you be? I’d like to show you a couple of my new discoveries. ❜

❛ I thought it was supposed to be impossible to sneak up on you. Eyes of a hawk and ears of a wolf and all. ❜

❛ I’ll protect you. You’ll be safe with me. ❜

❛ Let me explain what will happen the instant one of your men makes a move toward me. I’ll get out of the room alive, but most of the rest of you will be dead. ❜

❛ I didn’t know you were capable of such bad temper. ❜

❛ You’re afraid of your own anger. ❜

❛ What have you done to yourself? Your hair is positively blue. ❜

❛ There’s no shame in crawling when one can’t walk. ❜

❛ Don’t be ashamed. Your sadness is dear to me. ❜

❛ Don’t be frightened. I won’t die. I won’t die, and we’ll meet again. ❜

❛ The colour of sunrise? It’s the colour of blood. I am not going to wear a red dress. ❜

❛ Everyone has some kind of power to hurt people. ❜

❛ Please, at least talk to me. ❜

❛ And how I feel? Doesn’t it matter? ❜

❛ I can’t know your feelings if you don’t know them yourself. ❜

❛ I will have a life, even though I carry this burden. ❜

❛ If I’d been trying to kill him, he’d be dead. ❜

❛ I told you before, I won’t fight when you’re angry. I won’t solve a disagreement between us with blows. ❜

and yet here they both are, playing roles this entire country needs them to play, and busily setting the stage for their next acts. one may say many things about the younger lantsov, but he's always been a formidable actor, a showman bar none, and a gifted liar for good measure. " can't think of any reason you wouldn't indulge. my brother loves hearing himself talk so much, you could set his coat on fire and he'd forget it's happening until he's already burning up to the sleeves, " nikolai muses, a hyperbolic outlook but not a far-fetched one. even if he is a prince, she has met him as a privateer first, and he was a soldier before that. the depths of his distance to the palace is well-hidden within the inner workings of his mind, not a shred to be seen of it on his face when he watches alina studying him, and leans back in his chair as she does so. " the fresh sea air rejuvenates even the most troubled mind. it helps you to forget about a place like this - and the people in it, which is more important. maybe. who am i to say? "

❛❛ ARE YOU SPEAKING FROM EXPERIENCE? it wouldn't surprise me if you had actually tried to set him on fire, seems like the kind of thing a younger brother of your nature would do. ❜❜ she doesn’t actually mean it, and its existence at all is proof of her weary mind, but the thought that what a pity it was that he didn’t go up in flames crosses her mind. then both she and nikolai would have been spared the majority of the evening’s discomfort. alina allows herself this spoiled sense of selfishness for one night only, a brief interlude from her usual attempt to remain as firmly rooted in the earth as possible.

❛❛ no, I could tell. ❜❜ she allows him this much; a confirmation that she doesn’t just see him for the regalia he wears, that what she recognizes in him is much more than just a polished & proper prince. ❛❛ and it's not that I can't stand to see your face every day. it's more of a quantity problem, honestly. I see your face enough, and I need a full day to recover. maybe even two, if you walk around smirking too much. ❜❜ a telltale sign of her lack of eagerness to delve into his proposal, what that truly means, and what she actually feels about it, are the teasing words which spill from her mouth. it had been fun once, this game of refuting and joking, but she grows weary of it fast now, chafing under the tight mask of the unaffected saint. her acquiescence comes at the tail end of this pondering. ❛❛ makes sense on paper, ❜❜ she agrees with a miniscule nod. but as alina speaks her gaze remains firmly planted in the embers of the fireplace, not quite enthusiastic to compliment his plan to his face just yet. give her a few more days in his company, perhaps even a decanter of kvas, and she might warm up to the idea of praising him. ❛❛ but I'd make a lousy queen. I have no manners, can't even sit through a semi-formal dinner── ❜❜

on the precipice of asking if there isn’t someone else he would want to marry or if love doesn’t matter to him at all, alina has the wherewithal to stop herself before the inquiry spills from her lips; if her desires are of no consequence to her, a low-born orphan from nothing who only happened to spill light from her fingertips, then surely his would be of even less consequence for @disvelocitys, burdened by the title he wears. what he wants must likely have rarely played a role. no longer does it surprise her that he sought out the sea & finds that even after only one momentary brush with the salty sea air she finds herself missing the freedom of its vastness. something akin to a much fonder version of pity awakes in her, usually dormant in the presence of men of his class. so she does not hate the privateer princeling, in fact is forced to at last accept that they have something in common, and that his presence offers some embalming, nearly comforting effect to the irateness of her recent moods. what a way of complicating things further. a dull headache threatens its arrival.

the following prompts were taken from the novel deathless by catherynne m. valente, an american novelist & poet. the novel was loosely based on the tale of koschei the deathless, incorporating other elements of russian mythology, & setting it against the backdrop of the russian revolution. feel free to change the pronouns / prompts as you see fit, but be warned – below the cut, it’s quite long !

❛ the service of your body is not yours to give as you please. ❜

❛ you probably won’t survive. ❜

❛ go. run. don’t look behind you. ❜

❛ i have come for the girl in the window. ❜

❛ i will never be without information. ❜

❛ i will see him with his skin off before i fall in love. ❜

❛ if the world is divided into seeing & not seeing, i will always choose to see. ❜

❛ secrets are jealous things, permitting no fraternization. ❜

❛ no, it’s not like that, when magic comes. ❜

❛ magic does that. it wastes you away. once it grips you by the ear, the world gets quieter & quieter until you can hardly hear it at all. ❜

❛ the sight of it bruised my heart so that i cannot think about anything else. ❜

❛ i’ll be so quiet, i’ll never talk again. ❜

❛ keep me & obey me, for i am your husband, & i can destroy you. ❜

❛ i shall be clever, & i shall not let him go. ❜

❛ it is a new world, & we do not wish to be left behind. ❜

❛❛   uh huh.   ❜❜ her smile grew, motivated by the shift in tone. that was something at least! ❛❛   you can find them in the lost and found, hermes cabin two doors down.   ❜❜ she winked, laughed carelessly, and crossed her arms over the picnic table they had set up for lunch. more amused than she should be, phira took notice of her flushed cheeks and mild embarrassment, and leaned back slightly to soften her smile.

❛❛ NICE. I'LL TRY TO REMEMBER TO STOP BY LATER, SEE IF I CAN FIND 'EM. ❜❜ not a promise by a long shot, but the teasing phira dealt her helps soften her up further, while the wink only serves to redden her cheeks even more. if this had happened in the outside world, the world that until not too long ago had been alina's, her veins would have been laced with distrust ─ it was unusual for kindness to be dealt so freely. now that the dust has settled and she knows that monsters roam the earth ( not just the kind ana kuya warned the girls at the group home about, but real monsters, genuine mythological, two-, three-, even four-headed beasts ) offering up a smile to the girl in front of her doesn’t seem so scary, even if she doesn’t know what her intentions are. but then, perhaps she’s only trying to be kind.

her gaze follows the motion of phira’s hand as she talks, attention catching on the three colorful beads adorning her neck ─ what follows the sight is an attempt to imagine herself three summers from now, boasting a matching necklace, but it fizzles out rather quickly. her entire life she’s been caught so firmly in the throes of here & now that the ability to fantasize about her future has slipped willingly from her grasp; the inability to envision a happy ending an easy antidote to the disappointment any foster kid expected to lurk around the corner.

❛❛ nice to meet you too, phira. ❜❜ she says in return, and while it’s a simple reflex to repeat the polite greeting, a trait instilled in her from all those years in the system where possible foster parents float by like luggage on a conveyor belt & the goal is to make not a good but an excellent first impression, alina finds she means it this time. a smile even peeks through, the corner of her mouth curling upwards as she speaks.

❛❛ if you mean it, you must say it with your chest. ❜❜ the time has come to move on, insomuch as it is the most misery-inducing truth. eivor’s people are just that, people … she, a god, and much like the saint before her ( who has been her confidante and companion for decades, now ), has begun to watch them all grow and age and progress without her. it’s a strange pain, swelling with pride and love, but— possibly one of the most isolating realities she’s ever had to endure : and truly, after all eivor has been through, that’s saying something.

❛❛ i change my mind every morn, and delay it another day— i do not think i can do it alone, alina : leave them. what if they still need me? what if-… ❜❜ they both know it is eivor who cannot let go. eivor, who has been the raven king for forty years ! with her talons sunken into the heartwood of the clan so deeply, she may as well be a part of that tree. she has done all she can for them … the time has come to let go. to fly the nest. to cut the cord that binds them. even a benevolent god will suffocate the natural order of humankind if they squeeze too tightly.

THE SAINT IS NO STRANGER TO THE SORROW OF FAREWELLS, NOR TO THE ACT OF WATCHING FRIENDS GROW OLD AND GREY, while she remains as a statue untouched by the passage of time though changed nonetheless. it is an isolating reality ; both the eternal abandonment and the lack of someone to understand, but by a stroke of luck or the coincidence of chance, the sun saint had been spared from further solitude of that kind in the arms of the raven king. burials upon burials of people once beloved by her continued to wound her still-aching heart, but the scars scabbed and healed faster when tended to by the touch of a lover frozen in time just like her. though this was not the same as the deaths and burials they had attended before. it was not a death to contend with at all, but an abandonment of sorts ─ a farewell, allowing her people to prosper and grow on their own without the godling to guide and protect, alina would argue in comforting tones though she understood the guilt and the fear which had settled so heavily upon eivor’s shoulders.

❛❛ of course they will still need you when we leave. they will need you until they learn not to. but until you go, they will never need to learn. ❜❜ from her relaxed perch on the edge of their bed, she watches as the raven king paces their chamber, worries and fears spilling from her lips like a waterfall, only there is no pond at the bottom to catch the onslaught ─ instead it is alina’s cupped hands which soften the crash landing of eivor’s grief-stricken wonderings.