#this isbad

- Mod Whisper

There was a certain hesitance to the footsteps that made their way down the expansive hall, a sort of familiarity in the metallic echo elicited by the armor against the stone floor. These footsteps soon wouldn’t be accompanied by this echo – after all, King Edward had fallen ill, and once he became too unfit to rule, his right hand man – which was Manny, would become king. Only one miniscule issue in this – no one had seen the knight with his helmet off, and therefore nobody knew that he belonged to a certain race of creatures that was found to be a bit – unfavorable amongst humans. To out it plainly, Manny was a goblin, a nasty thing according to the citizens of Daventry, who’d only had those unpleasant interactions with the rock goblins up north. Of course, he was nothing like those, different in appearance and otherwise. He’d taught himself to be more civilized than most of his race, much to the disdain of his entire clan – hell, when he went off to compete against the other aspiring knights he had been physically disowned. It hurt, but he tried to make the best of it – he’d be surrounded by actual intellectuals from here on out; and he was.

All the knights he’d gone up against had been some level of smart, thought there were only two of them that Manny felt were on the same level as him as far as intelligence; Graham and Achaka ; also both of whom he promised to bring up to the king if he made it. However, Achaka had unfortunately passed away before the competition could even start, and this was … was partially the fault of the goblin. He had brought up the dragon and the well in passing conversation during the chivalry test, perfectly intent on giving the foreign knight hopeful one of the eyes he’d preordered – but before he could even offer, Achaka had gone to the well. When he found out that Achaka had died, and the emotional repercussions it wrought upon Graham – well; he felt personally responsible. He’d never tell Graham that it was his fault, of course, scared of pushing the younger away. Oh, enough dwelling on the past, there were more important manners at hand, still relating to Graham, but not necessarily as solemn. Going back to the fact no one in Daventry had seen his face, Manny was planning to reveal himself to the person he trusted the most in the castle, and that was the aforementioned male ( whom was also a knight, because Manny had stuck to his word [ why wouldn’t he ? ] and had brought the young man up in conversation with the king. ) He knew he could trust Graham to react rationally – after all, he was one of the sweetest men Manny had met in his life, he’d be able to tolerate the goblin, at the very least.

So this brings us, full circle, back to the short knight walking down the hall. What hadn’t been mentioned prior, however, was that there was a second pair of footsteps along with his – and those were Graham’s. The boy seemed more or less confused as he followed the smaller, asking multiple variations of the phrase ‘what are we doing?’

Manny didn’t answer, of course, too busy running possible scenarios through his head. Though he knew Graham to be an overall kind person, he couldn’t help but wonder how he would react. Would he be met with anger, hatred, even? Would he elicit violence? Would Graham lash out? Manny usually wasn’t one to overthink things, he was an INTELLECTUAL, after all. He almost always had some bit of rational thinking about him, but at this – he was just different. Anxiety, an emotion he’d never really experienced before, had a firm grip at his chest, and he almost felt as if he was being suffocated. He had to calm himself down as his eyes darted along the walls, trying to find a hopefully vacant room to tug the taller into – and he finally settled on a closet nearby, and gripped the other’s cape without warning to enter said room, eliciting a shout of annoyance. After closing the door behind them, he was met with a glare from Graham, who was probably about to say something about how ‘his mother made him this cape!’ when he noticed the fidgeting from the smaller knight. Manny had always been fidgety, unable to sit still; but this was… this was different. It was anxious, and it honestly caught Graham off guard. “Manny?” The question only seemed to echo off of the walls of the closet, left unanswered other than by the faint shift and the soft clang of metal against metal, Manny’s gauntlets against the smooth metal of his helmet. Another questioning uttering of the knight’s name left Graham’s lips, again left unanswered, and then Manny fully removed his helmet.

The most prominent feature of Manny was, well – he was green. And not in some metaphorical, disgusted or otherwise nauseous sense, his skin pigmentation was literally green, a nice olive green color, though his face was now progressively darkening into a forest shade. The goblin’s hair was a decent length, black or dark brown ( Graham couldn’t tell in the dim light ) and had been brushed behind large, pointed ears that  were currently folded flat against the smaller man’s head in a show of anxiety. The few strands that refused to stay behind those massive ears hung in front of small, beady eyes that darted about the room. The anxiousness that was coming off of Manny in waves was only further made obvious by his nervous grin, revealing small, sharp teeth. Graham wouldn’t lie, he was extremely caught off guard at this new revelation, but never once did it cross his mind that just because Manny was a goblin, that he had ill intentions. And he sure as hell wasn’t planning to cause any physical harm to the other, god no! But no matter, when Graham reached out a curious hand to touch one of those long ears, Manny cringed and even went as far as taking a step back; and this made Graham’s chest ache. Had the goblin honestly been treated so poorly that he just assumed any action towards him would be violent?

For the third time, Graham said the smaller male’s name, but this time it wasn’t questioning, it was just soft and gentle as he could make it, his actions slower this time as he tried once again to touch the goblin’s ear. Aside from the smallest of cringes, Manny allowed him to do so, and ended up leaning into the touch with a relieved sigh.