MultiMuse

The annoyance in his voice caused her to somewhat pull back. She was pushing it, wasn't she? Not every conversation needed to be a lecture, she supposed. Nimue couldn't just not worry, however. Sebastian's safety and well-being did keep her fairly worried. She'd seen things go badly far too many times. Or, perhaps, many of those people always would have turned out badly to begin with. Perhaps it truly was best to just let Sebastian be, to trust he could pull himself back. She trusted him with plenty else, why not this?

"you said you were hungry, so i brought you something." from @thenightmareofyourdrems / jack

helping him out wasn't a good choice.  maeve was clever enough to know when her empathy was a failing rather than a gift - and yet it didn't stop her determination to do the right thing,  regardless of the complications to undercover work.  bar was much calmer after hours: without endless eyes, endless sounds,  all the things that kept her too busy to doubt herself.  (she could pretend - at least to herself - she was trying to avoid his ruining her cover.  but somehow she doubted he'd actually intentionally get her killed, it was hardly magician's style.)

[ 001 ] “I should kill you.” [ 002 ] “You talk too much.” [ 003 ] “I’ve imagined this moment. You begging.” [ 004 ] “Touch me again and see what happens.” [ 005 ] “Why do you keep showing up?” [ 006 ] “Don’t flatter yourself. I just needed a warm body.” [ 007 ] “Hate looks good on you.” [ 008 ] “Is that jealousy?” [ 009 ] “You’re lucky I need you.” [ 010 ] “You always taste like lies.” [ 011 ] “One day I’ll stop saving you.” [ 012 ] “Take your hands off me.” [ 013 ] “You’re bleeding.” [ 014 ] “I don’t care. I’m still coming with you.” [ 015 ] “That was a warning shot.” [ 016 ] “Say that again and I swear—” [ 017 ] “You want me to say it? Fine. I wanted you.” [ 018 ] “You should’ve stayed away.” [ 019 ] “Is this your plan? Seduce me into forgetting?” [ 020 ] “We both know you won’t pull the trigger.” [ 021 ] “Next time, aim for the heart.” [ 022 ] “I should let you die.” [ 023 ] “Try not to get yourself killed. I’m the only one allowed to do that.” [ 024 ] “I liked you better when you were silent.” [ 025 ] “Are you always this reckless or just around me?” [ 026 ] “Stop staring.” [ 027 ] “I didn’t ask for your help.” [ 028 ] “You were supposed to be the enemy.” [ 029 ] “Admit it. You missed me.” [ 030 ] “You’re hurt. Let me see.” [ 031 ] “You don’t get to touch me like that.” [ 032 ] “I said I hate you. I didn’t say I’d stop thinking about you.” [ 033 ] “You’re the last person I wanted to see.” [ 034 ] “You can’t keep running.” [ 035 ] “Funny how often I end up saving your life.” [ 036 ] “Shut up. You’re making this harder.” [ 037 ] “Keep your voice down. Do you want to die?” [ 038 ] “Did it mean nothing to you?” [ 039 ] “You think I don’t notice when you look at me like that?” [ 040 ] “You’re not what I expected. Worse, actually.”

"Well, mauled by spiders is a step above 'new student threw you off a dueling stage', so..." Nimue had come to learn quite quickly that, while she was good at dueling, it was entirely in the ferocity and strength of her attacks. She wasn't good for much else. Hit first, hit hard. Truthfully, she'd likely just had a bit of surprise on her side in their first class together.

At the smile and his words, she shifted some to bump her forehead against his leg. It was just a brief, comfortable motion, like a cat showing affection. "We'll figure it all out. Anne, Ranrok, Rookwood. All of it." Nimue would make sure of that. Whatever it took. "I know I'm not in this alone and I want to make sure that you know you aren't either."

At  her  next  words,  a  nod  was  all  that  he  offered.  He  still  wasn’t  sure  why  she  was  so  determined  to  help  him.  Maybe  the  world  had  been  unfair  to  him,  but  he  knew  he  was  acting  no  much  better  to  the  people  that  cared  either.  It  was  almost  as  if  his  whole  body was  constantly  on  fight  mode,  as  even  kind words were enough to set him on edge.

@thenightmareofyourdrems asked: ❝are you spying on me now?❞ tyler&wednesday

It was why she'd come to rely on wideye. There just weren't enough hours in the day to do everything she felt was necessary and expected of her. Especially not when she was expected to attend classes on top of it all. Merlin, if Professor Weasley knew what all she'd been up to, the poor woman might have had a heart attack. Nimue's head lolled to the side, having turned more Sebastian's way. Despite it all, there was a little smile.

"We were talking about you getting mauled by a spider, you know." She wasn't exactly keen on the subject shifting her way, but it was all out now. "You do help, Sebastian. Quite a bit, truthfully. Natty and Poppy have both caught little bits, given me heads up on things, but usually only when it aligned with what they were doing." Shifting a bit, she moved to look up at Sebastian properly. "You've actually helped me. More than once and right from the start. You're... also the only one who knows everything. The only one I haven't kept anything from..." He'd been the one to help her get the Keepers' book, after all. "I wouldn't say no to some help with magical theory, though." The last part came with a hint of a tease to her words. A lightheartedness.

❝ I really  don’t  think  there’s  much  to  talk  when it  comes  to  spiders  and  my  very  humiliating  duel  skills.  ❞  The  irony  was  not  lost  on  him. Sebastian Sallow,  supposedly one of  the  better duelists at Hogwarts, brought  low  by  a  swarm  of  oversized  spiders  and  one thoroughly  humiliating evening.   Still,  wounded  pride was  hardly  the  most  pressing  matter. For  Nimue’s self-destructive  tendencies  were  much  more  concerning. Still, a  small  smile  made  it  onto  his  lips  when  she  said  he  had  helped.  He  didn't  feel like  he  had  -  honestly  he  felt  like  he’d  become  the worst  friend  to  both  Nimue  and  Ominis,  yet  he  couldn’t  quite  change  it.  He  had  to  save  his  sister,  after  all -  did  he  really  have  the   time  to  care  for  a  single  other  thing?  ❝ This  really  means  a  lot  to  me.  ❞  And  he  meant  it.

see that seat there ? it's the best seat in the house .

i always keep something up my sleeve .

you will get what's coming to you in ways you can't expect .

if there's one thing i believe in , it's an eye for an eye .

people who don't even know you think you're an asshole .

when you're two people at the same time one of them is bound to trip the other .

i've been behind the scenes my whole life .

you cannot trust anybody in this city anymore .

if you're nervous , it can be really helpful to picture each other naked .

i do not understand what's going on right now at all .

how does it feel to be out of control , perhaps for the first time ?

in a world of surveillance , the only true freedom lies in not being seen .

you might not be having fun , but i am .

you think i'm still gonna play your little game ?

you got tired . you got sloppy . you stopped paying attention .

i'm not really concerned with what [ name ] likes .

i end up taking their trust . and then their wallet .

i'm sorry , did you think that i was like those other girls ?

i am desperate , which means i'm dangerous .

i hope you're happy with the situation you've put us in .

once again , science beats magic .

this is the consequence of your personal vendetta come to life .

hell is going to seem like a day at the spa by the time we're through .

you scared the hell out of us , man .

we're the only ones that even know that he's alive .

a magician's greatest power lies forever shrouded in his empty fist .

goddamn , it feels good to be back .

i'm going to make something fly using actual magic .

that guy had a bird in his pants , that's disgusting !

find the pattern . you do that and you'll be able to cut them off .

i'm gonna do something that god can't do .

meet me at the rendezvous point , now .

i came into the world with the wrong family , but i'm leaving with the right one .

the one thing we didn't count on was it going so wrong .

@thenightmareofyourdrems asked: "I wish you'd stop talking, and prying.. trying to find things out." ~ sebastian

Elizabeth laughed, a genuine laugh that echoed along the stone walls of the Undercroft. "Says you! The second we met you were trying to get information on if I've ever dueled before, then kept asking questions ever since!"

She got off the crate she was sitting on, to walk over to him to push the book he was reading down "Sebastian Sallow, you and I are two sides of the same coin, you knew that befriending me I would be a handful, why are you suddenly so perturbed by my actions?"

She blinked innocently at him, blue eyes glistening in the light of the Undercroft but there was a glimmer of mischievous defiance there too "you like when I talk, and pry and try to find things out, it gives you something to do besides drown yourself in ancient texts. Don't lie to me now."

Befriending  her,  asking  questions -  he  had  only  wanted  to  be  kind,  to  make  her  feel  welcome. And  then  there  were  the  secrets  she  had  revealed,  the  ancient magic. It  would  be  a  lie  to  claim  he  had  not  considered  it  useful.  However,  if  what  he  had  discovered was  true, then  he  needed  no  one  standing  in  his  way  now.  Definitely  not  someone  he  truly  cared  for .

Beatrice had been paying close attention. She was always someone who read between the lines, caught subtext, thought about things long after the moment had passed. But she had watched Sebastian enough to know what she needed to about him - not just the reputation, the controversy, the condemnation - but his intelligence, resourcefulness, loyalty to those who mattered to him, how deeply he cared for his sister. The way he was willing to risk himself and put his future on the line if he thought he could do anything to help her. She saw how it had been affecting him, and it wasn't helping that everyone else around him was reaching for the worst conclusions about him without really listening. And Beatrice could not agree with those voices when she saw him. Really saw him.

She didn't care how dangerous this path had been, and he had every chance to leave her alone in the chaos... but he didn't. He didn't have to help her catch up with spells, or share knowledge she used to make it this far. She didn't need cozy evenings in Hogsmeade to decide that she trusted him. That she cared enough to want to help in whatever way she could. Either way, she was involved now and she was confident in her judgment in character to know that Sebastian wasn't a bad person. She sensed something about him from the beginning, drawn to him and the more time she spent with him, through forbidden spells, peril, exploration, risk taking, the more certain she was and she would stand by that even now. It had all been worth it to her so far.

Beatrice  being  there …  it  meant  a  lot.  Having  someone,  who  understood,  who  was  willing  to  listen  without  judging.  Ominis  should  have  been  this  person.  He’d  been  his  best  friend  ever  since  he  could  remember  themselves,  they  had  spent  summers  together,  while  always  causing  trouble  at  school  with  Anne  as  well.  He  was  a  coward,  though.  Now  that  his  friend  was  sick,  instead  of  helping  her,  working  with  him  to  find  a  cure,  he  was  telling  him  off  as  if  he  were  committing  the  greatest  atrocity  in  the  world. 

She didn't need to be invincible, she just needed to survive long enough. It did strike her, as she thought it, that her line of thinking wasn't a good one. There was some part of her brain that knew better than to admit to the fact that she wasn't certain she would survive the year and had already made peace with that. Nimue's head fell back against the couch, content to sit on the floor in front of it.

"I don't even know what my priorities would be. Schoolwork almost seems pointless, but I keep up with it. The Keeper trials seem important, but that's slow going. Ranrok, Rookwood, Harlow... sort of all important to handle. Then Poppy's got word that a previously thought extinct animal needs saving. That's important, too. Helping Anne's also important. I mean, maybe I could stop doing things for random people around Hogsmeade, that's something I could cut down on."

 ❝ You can’t do everything at once. ❞  And  quite  honestly,  he  couldn’t  understand  why  everything  and  everyone  seemed  to  depend  on  her .  Sure  the  Trials,  the  homework,  those  were  certainly  her  responsibility.  But  extinct  animals ? Surely  someone  else  could  take  care  of  that.  ❝ Can  I  help  somehow ? ❞  He  offered ,  though  with  pain  aching  through  his  entire  body,  he  doubted  he  could  be  of  much  use.  ❝ At  least  with  the  homework.  Believe  it  or  not,  I  used  to  be  a  straight  A  student. ❞  Even  though  lately  his reputation  had  taken the  worst  possible  turn.