#cvfb

Well, it’s Wednesday still somewhere in the world. Tagged by @tunnelsnke thank you :)

Here’s a small blurb from an original project

Thank you @tunnelsnke and @twosides--samecoin for the tags :))

Some more of the first chapter to my original perfect

“Someone strong, stronger than you anyway. Stronger than anyone, hopefully. A knight who knows his vows but isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. Someone who will be loyal.”

The words of my father echo in my mind as the knights line up before me. Clad in the shiniest, sturdiest armor and each carrying an air of competency the likes that I’ve seen few have. About a dozen men, hand picked by the Duke to compete to be my personal knight. My guards were good at their jobs, but a position like this was much more intimate - and meant that the one who had it was superbly skilled.

“A coming of age gift,” he had said. I scoffed, thinking back to the hollow words. A day ago, I turned 18. Marrying age. My most fertile age. A number that meant my value as a woman had gone up significantly. There would be many more attempts at my life and at my virtue now that I had left girlhood behind. This… “gift” was just a way for the Duke to keep his possessions to himself. He couldn’t care less about me, but his own blood could serve to be a valuable pawn. I wish I could just run somewhere far from his gaze - far from my responsibility as the Duke’s only healthy child.

But there was really nothing I could do about it.

My aide - Riella - clears her throat. I sigh and unfold my arms. She’s right, I can’t stall this forever.

I walk back and forth, studying each candidate. They keep their eyes straight ahead, more statue than human. I am to appraise them like I would an art piece, or at least, that’s what my father tells me. Their ages vary - some as old as my father and some as young as me. They all look extremely talented; however, it’s hard to tell without seeing them in action.

A young man with golden curls catches my eye and I stop in front of him. He has an excellent poker face, but I can tell by the slight furrow of his brow that he’s annoyed to be here. How amusing. Most knights would kill for this position.

I smile. “What’s your name, Ser?”

“Micah, my lady,” he replies, acting the proper knight.

“Well, Ser Micah, what do you think about your competition?” I throw out my arms, gesturing towards the rest of the men.

His eyebrow twitches and a smile barely tugs at the corners of his mouth. He locks eyes with me for the first time and I feel my face warm. How peculiar. “I don’t think they stand a chance.” A beat passes. “My lady.” The last part is added as an afterthought.

Protests immediately erupt throughout the rest of the knights - all of them insulted. But they are all silenced a moment later when my laughter cuts through the yelling. I pretend to not notice Riella with her head in her hands.

I wipe the tears from my eyes and address them all, “All jests aside, I hope each and every one of you does your absolute best in the tourney. Remember, you do not have to win for me to pick you - you simply have to display the qualities I’m looking for.”

An older man pipes up, “And what exactly is that, my lady?”

You're a saint for adding the question lol. I need to start doing that more when send people these asks oof

🌸 ~ Something that would make Marabell feel better is anything positive coming from her little brother. She goes to great lengths to make sure he has a better childhood than she did and seeing that come to life whenever he talks about his day is always so special to her

Something that would make her laugh are really lame puns. Micah told them so often, his terrible sense of humor rubbed off on her. Her personal favorite is "How does an evil cow laugh? Moo-Ha-Ha" it's so bad, it's good

A sentence that would make her day worse is "*so and so* is dead" because in her line of work, none of her friends are safe

3. Are there any two characters who are keeping secrets from each other? What are these secrets? How would they both feel if they found out the other's secrets?

The mentor guy that Micah finds when he leaves is actually an ex government dude. Micah does not care for the government. This would and does result in a huge blowout where he gets all mad and pissy. Mentor dude just didn't want this sweet kid to hate him.

Marabell's father is keeping it a secret from her that most of the work his gang does is hired by the government. That also does not go well for him. He didn't want to tell her until he could talk it over when she had less hatred for them but oh well....

8. Which two characters have known each other the longest? What is their relationship like?

Excluding parents, Marabell and Damien. Even if they didn't interact after the age of 10, they still knew each other longer than even her and her bodyguard knew each other. Their relationship..........isn't good when she realizes he's working for the government. To say the least. Plus he does something that OFFICIALLY puts him on her shit list so woops I guess

7. Are there any two characters who used to be close, but now hold bitter sentiments toward each other? What caused this?

When Marabell (this is her fixed name. Probably. I like it) was a kid. 6-10 or something like that. She was friends with the main bad guy later on. He's the son of some government bigwigs and ends up working for them in the future. When his parents move, they don't see each other until they're adults and she's trying to take him down. Except now she can see that he sucks so. And he doesn't like that she's working with a neighborhood """hero""" like Micah. Or that she's trying to get in his way

To a lesser extent, Bell and Micah kinda hold bitterness towards each other, but it's mostly on her side so not really. And it doesn't last the whole time cause it would make me sad for them to stay apart lol