#beetle king

Made some more icons for everyone to enjoy😋😋😋

Ahh but this time half of it is made up of characters that nobody rlly care abt except me😢

Anyways… feel free to use them!!😝😝

I am and always will be COMPLETELY NORMAL ABOUT @homunculus-argument's Beetle King prompt.

Since I've done more snippets since then, I figure I should update this. Everything in a (as I see it) chronological order.

Aftermath of an assassination Armor Chancellor Traytor Catching feelings Castle staff University lecture (new) Hobbies Perfume Foreign relations Negotiation New courtiers (new) Dresses Nephews Doubts Epidemic (new) Anti-Monarchist Revolutionaries (new)

Other people's snippets

@stele3's original Snippets Engagement Wedding First night Coronation Arrangement Love is strange Infodump House crest Daggers Murder plans Charity Borders Solutions Children

Other prompts I think go with this one

Here's an index of my snippets:

Aftermath of an assassination Armor Chancellor Traytor Catching feelings Castle staff Hobbies Perfume Foreign relations Negotiation Dresses Nephews Doubts

Other people's snippets

@stele3's original Snippets Engagement Wedding First night Coronation Arrangement Love is strange Infodump House crest Murder plans Charity Borders Solutions

Other prompts I think go with this one

Not helping things is how King is the youngest of his brothers, only ascending to the throne because a devastating civil war. Each of his three widowed sisters-in-law are well aware of what they and their children have lost. Both the King's allies and enemies understand special care will be required.

As letters from foreign courts and domestic vassals alike start pouring in, the King's sisters-in-law remind the King of his duty to guarantee the welfare of his young relatives (and potential heirs, though they wisely keep that part out of the conversation). A respectable marriage can be good for his own peace of mind, if nothing else.

The King listens to them, promises to do what he can...and then turns around asks each of the kids if they have anyone they want to be married to at the moment. All answer no, since they're all young teens. The King shrugs and declares that's that, come back when the kids want to get married.

The Queen heard the story of a Muryan prince who sold his tears for the chance to marry a Sylph queen and earn her love, only for her to be shallow, cruel, and self-absorbed, to the point she never appreciated him and the things he did for her. The Muryan prince never heard her say she loved him, yet he could not stop loving her. So he shed a tear and crumbled to dust, leaving behind a stone heart.

The King heard the story of a Sylph queen in love with a cursed prince who only met with her after sundown. She needed to free him by dripping blood on his stone heart every night, as many drops of blood as the tears he would have shed over her. She went through many trials and much suffering until she could be truly united with her lover.

It was a shame that her brilliant eyes were closed. But she couldn't help it, being asleep.

He wants to kiss her. But he won't. That would be creepy. She would be angry if she found out.

She's only in bed next to him because it's her job as his wife. She only married him because his parents talked to her parents and thought making their children marry each other would be profitable. He didn't know her and she didn't know him. Though she sent him her portrait, which he really liked, they actually met and talked to each other for the first time a day or two before their wedding.

He doesn't expect her to like him. He can't expect her to like him. He knows he's odd. He never talks about what people want to talk about and forgets to do what he's supposed to do.

And she's so perfect. She's pretty, yes, but she also talks about exactly what people want to talk about and always does what she's supposed to do, and sometimes she does more than that. She's too good for him, and everyone knows it. Though they think he doesn't know this, or that he doesn't know that they know this. It makes him angry, but he's learned not to argue with them, because arguing makes him look even weirder.

He likes her. He wishes she would like him. But he knows he can't make her happy. Not in the way she wants.

Maybe it's better to have a portrait instead of a wife. The portrait didn't look baffled when he rambled about his research to it. It didn't lean so close to him he could feel its body heat, silently taunting him to look and not touch. It didn't nag him to come to dinner when he wanted to shut himself in his study. It didn't do his job for him so well that he felt inadequate and wished he could he could do more to help. It didn't bother him with opinions on its appearance when he already said it looked fine and would always look fine no matter what it wore. It didn't make him feel he said something wrong when he couldn't say anymore. He was happy to look it and it was happy to look at him.

He's still happy to look at her. Especially when she's asleep, because it means she won't move away from him when he stares.

Maybe he should kiss her. He could never kiss her otherwise. It would be one quick kiss on the forehead, the way his mother kissed him. And then he would know what it was like to kiss someone so beautiful.

He leans over her, his hands pressed to either side of her pillow. Even as his shadow blocks out the moonlight, he can see all the perfect details of her face and head. He can smell the sweet scent of her hair oil. An errant hair that slipped over her face tickles his nose.

No!

He pulls back. He can't do it. He fights down tears as he realizes he's only thinking about himself. Even if he likes her, he needs to know she likes him before he tries to touch her. He knows himself -- he knows he won't be able to keep the kiss secret. And then she would never like him, because she would hate him.

He lies down and closes his eyes, trying to sleep before his guilt makes him feel sick. He feels the fur blanket shifting, and realizes in horror she's stirring. He keeps extra still. Maybe she won't wake up.

He hears her frustrated sigh. It's only with the greatest of concentration that he can keep pretending to sleep. Maybe she'll think that it was just a nightmare. Maybe she won't be angry.

And then a soft hand strokes his jaw, pausing over his chin with its unevenly sprouting stubble that he would need to take too long to shave off in the morning because a hairy chin wasn't presentable at his age. He lies still, not knowing what she's trying to do.

His wife kisses him on the mouth, long and deeply, in a way that takes his breath away. It's only with the greatest of concentration that he can keep pretending to sleep.

Then one day he heads on a campaign against a neighboring kingdom. He trusts it'll be easy. The king there is a pushover only interested in collecting beetles, who leaves all administration to his queen. He even jokes to his generals that by merely displaying the feathers of his crest, he would make this enemy queen will faint at the sight of his manly prowess. After all, what else can a woman do?

But something goes wrong. They lose the war. The King comes home poisoned. It's up to the Queen negotiate the peace treaty with this other queen.

As they communicate, she realizes the foreign queen is intelligent, confident, well-cultured. She grows to admire this other woman. Even after all the treaties are signed, she continues to communicate with that queen, discussing trade deals and cultural exchanges, and even sending each other presents.

A certain knight has held their silence faithfully for more than three years. Then one day, as they meditate in an isolated corner on the castle grounds, they overhear two voice plotting treachery against the king. One is Chancellor Traytor...and the other is the Meneur de Loups.