On a River of Dreams

[Talia Avedon]

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[attr="class","Lost"]

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Nikolai Hugh-Sokolov

510 Words

Music

OOP

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what must it be like [break]







to grow up that beautiful

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Talia heard tales of drowning men seeing colors, but she didn't think of that. [break][break]







The world exploded and it was rays and rays of color, stunning, but stunning in the way that a freezing man feels a burst of heat. Stunning in the way dying creatures threw back their heads for air. Stunning in the way that a final kindness was stunning. Breathtakingly so, but she had precious breath to spare.  [break][break]













And then the world went dark, maybe because her eyes were closed or maybe because it was slipping through her fingers. Maybe because she was trying to connect with something solid but everything was melting away. There was no word for how insubstantial everything felt. It was like reaching for sunbeams.  [break][break]













Melting clocks. She thought nonsensically. In her delirium, all that was left was art.  [break][break]













Out of the darkness, out of the lifeless glassiness of the world-- not stained glass, but something slipperier, she felt something solid. She felt arms around her. She knew who it was.  [break][break]













She didn't know much, but she knew him.  [break][break]













It was Nikolai, and it had to be Nikolai, and in that moment in dawned on her that she hadn't really though he would come to save her. The salt stung at the burns on her arms and she realized belatedly that they had hurt the whole time. That in her head she had thought this was another time someone had punished her for loving him, and it wouldn't be the last. It was unfortunate that he came to save her, because he could never have her.  [break][break]













It just wasn't safe.  [break][break]













But he was holding her now, and she was safe, and he was holding her like she was something unbreakable, like she was made of diamonds. She could hear him speaking, but not really, and her mother's blood was doing her no favors. She could feel the water, heavy in her lungs.  [break][break]













She coughed, once, twice, blinked. She still couldn't quite think straight. Still couldn't quite fathom the thought of him, but she could see his brilliant blue eyes, and she found herself smiling. The world didn't feel real. Maybe that's why she reached for him-- because this was all a dream, because her fingers would pass right through him. But she brushed his face, and her expression turned to one of shock, because this couldn't be real. It couldn't. If it was, that meant how afraid she had been was real. If it was, it meant she was nowhere near safe now and as long as he was holding her, she wouldn't be. If it was real, it meant that at some point she would have to let him go.  [break][break]













But she was touching him, and he wasn't fading away. She didn't know what to think. He might not have been fading away, but she was.  [break][break]













She didn't quite know why, but she knew that she had to hold on. She couldn't name why, but there was something she had to do. She had to paint something. She had to paint him.  [break][break]

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[Gemini Enigma]

on a river of dreams

[attr="class","box1"]Gemini had tried to tell Jin-hwa that they were alike, but she had refused to listen. He'd seen that she was being consumed from within just like he was, that they were both burning themselves alive, but she didn't want to see it. He at least knew enough to outrun his own embers. Jin-hwa was a sun waiting to collapse on itself and drag everything down with her.  He could see it happening. She didn't want to share, so she broke everyone else's favorite toys. But she'd never had a plan for what happened next. She hadn't considered that cracks could spiderweb and wildfires could race. Best of all, she hadn't realized that she was taking his advice from the Blue Moon revel. She was expected to be cold. She was seeking true boldness. And her eyes looked gold for the first time since they had reflected the open lanterns of the revel's pavilion.  Gemini drew Quinn to him, cradling her, guiding her head to nestle against his shoulder. She didn't need to see. And he was counting on her losing herself in the petrichor that clung to his skin.  He looked up at Princess Mei and smiled, raising his goblet to her. Good. Just a little further. Slip into your own ashes and you'll be too lost in the glory of the blaze to ever know.  Jin-Hwa Mei , Quinn Allegra Stone [newclass=.box1]margin:0px auto; width:300px; height:425px; background: transparent; overflow:auto; padding:8px;[/newclass] [newclass=.box1::-webkit-scrollbar]width:5px;[/newclass] [newclass=.box1::-webkit-scrollbar-thumb]background: #091c3d;[/newclass]

Music Word count: 227 Notes:

credit to Laura of Adox

[Quinn Allegra Stone]

Quinn was a bit caught of guard, he seemed to be genuinely interested in her. She gave him a shy smile but didn't quite notice that he caught her necklace. The necklace e had some importance to her since it was a present by her brother. He was very close to Quinn and probably the sweetest person. He had her back and her best interest at heart. He believed in her and always wanted what is best.

She didn't know why she felt the need to get closer. Her eyes locked on his, like a hypnotic pull. So much she didn't realize that he was pulling her closer, "I uh...ummm. so...do you enjoy these parties?"

More like gatherings between the most powerful families. Acting like peacocks as they tried to strut who has the most money and power. Quinn hated these places and usually wanted to be dissolve in some corner. Talking with these kind of people were not her kind thing and she was not good with confrontation and surprises.
Gemini Enigma,

[Jin-Hwa Mei]

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Gemini Enigma , Nikolai Hugh-Sokolov

665 words

Music

Outfit

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Fine [break]



Make me your villian

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Jin-Hwa was lost, lost in her mind, lost in a reverie. Sometimes, she felt like she had so many thoughts that she would just drown in them. Sometimes she felt like if she didn't act or didn't answer she would never speak again, just lose herself to her own dreams. But dreams didn't make girls queens. Dreams didn't give girls power. Strength did. [break][break]

She was watching the girl darkly. She was breathing, shuddering shallow breaths, but still breathing. Should Jin-Hwa be disappointed? Be sorry? She felt nothing at all. If she had died, would she have felt anything at all? Really, killing that girl was just killing her younger self. [break][break]

Jin-Hwa was born without a bloodright. She didn't like to admit it. She pretended she was a princess, swathed in gold, but the world really owed her nothing. One of four daughters might as well not be a daughter at all. Her mother made the choice, who got the kingdom, who didn't. The daughters who didn't get the throne got nothing. Whatever she wanted she would have to take. [break][break]

And that was the game, wasn't it? Taking what she wanted so cleverly no one could fault her for it. She had been called brutal, impudent, harsh. All she really did was be clever. Scheme and scheme and scheme. She had taken what she wanted and then her mother had called her into her sitting room and taken it all away. Jin-Hwa knew then that she didn't have a bloodright. She would have to earn everything, and even then it could all be taken away. [break][break]

So how to have something that was hers alone? She had to break the system. She had to be the strongest, the bravest, the best, so that she couldn't be ignored. Maybe she should have forgotten one cruelty that occurred when she was six. She didn't. She knew what it was to be afraid, and she swore to herself she would never be afraid again. [break][break]

Or no one would see it. [break][break]

So now, she threw her shoulders back and looked the Prince of the East in the eye. He was soaking wet, the girl in his arms shaking. If she didn't look at him, she could pretend they were both kneeling.  [break][break]

"You forget yourself." she said, and the words felt like she wasn't the one saying them at all. Her tone was so cold. "I am still your guest, and your little artisan is still breathing. Barely even hurt. She isn't even yours, is she?" He was a prince of the east, but Jin-Hwa was the high court's guest, esteemed at least in title. "Now, if her mistress has a complaint, then I can speak with her." [break][break]

But why would she? Why would some faraway noble care if her painter was coughing up water for a few days. She was a half-mortal nothing. Replaceable in almost anyone's eyes. Jin-Hwa had endured the hard truth for long enough that it didn't make her uncomfortable anymore. Gone was the mercurial high of violence. Gone was the spark in her eye of delight. She had seen herself in this drowning girl, and she couldn't unsee it. She could only hide it, a cold mask locking into place. Speaking facts and facts alone. How could he argue?  [break][break]

"Don't forget," she said more quietly, "Perhaps I will poison myself, but drink enough poison slowly and you become immune. I know her mistress. I know her name. Do you really want your father to know?" [break][break]

She wouldn't want her mother to know, if it was her. This was a gamble, a throw of the dice. She said it all without looking at Enigma once. If a prince interceded for her-- or against her-- it would change things. But if Nikolai threw her off the boat, he would have to explain why. And she suspected the two of them were two sides of the same coin, the same mistake, falling into the flaws of their parents again and again.  [break][break]

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[Nikolai Hugh-Sokolov]

    Nikolai had never felt such relief. To one part of him, it was shameful how relieved he was at the sound of Talia’s breathing, her coughing, the way she blinked deliriously. The way she smiled with such pure truth. She would never have given him such a smile in a right state of mind. And to the other part of him, his relief at Talia’s safety was a relief in and of itself. It meant that he cared. Not only because he wanted something from her, but because he truly cared about her, all of her. He let her reach up to touch him, and would let her do anything she wanted to him. He’d almost lost her, and he’d live his whole life being ignored by her, or worse if it only meant that he could know she was safe and happy.

    But his relief shattered once Princess Mei spoke to him again. His relief, which had been such a pleasure to feel, gave way to anger again, and this time he would not hold back his tongue, political tensions be damned. “Still breathing,” he repeated. “If I had been any longer she wouldn’t be. What then? An act against her is an act against me, and we all know how weak the relations between the Undersea and the land fae are.” He wanted to rise, to face the girl eye-to-eye. Nikolai didn’t want to kneel at her feet and grovel. But it was only groveling if he let it be. Besides, he would not deny Talia his presence. He would kneel for her, any day.

    “If you truly want to speak to her mistress, try her master. Disregard our personal relationship, because she will be my subject one day.” The words tasted awful on his tongue, but he had to make Jin-hwa understand. “Anything you want to say to my aunt, you can say to me.” He tilted his chin up at her in defiance. “I am not afraid of my father. His reign will come to pass, and then it will be my turn to sit upon the throne. I will only hope that another war does not come, but if it does, know this: the East Court does not forget. You will find no ally there, and when word of tonight’s events reaches the nobility, you will only be able to hope that you have not made yourself an enemy.”

TAGS: Talia Avedon , Jin-Hwa Mei
Notes: N/A

★fai

You may be on my mind. Everyday baby, say you're mine.

[Jin-Hwa Mei]

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Gemini Enigma , Nikolai Hugh-Sokolov

689 words

Music

Outfit

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Fine [break]



Make me your villian

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Jin-Hwa wanted to laugh. This was the time she felt most alive, when she was angry, and she could feel it boiling at her skin and pressing at her edges, threatening to be released. It was an adrenaline high of the worst kind, because there was no sort of anger but looking at the person you once loved. [break][break]

How could she not have loved him? She was fifteen when they met and he was eighteen, already the golden prince of storybooks. And she had worked so hard to make him forget that she was really just a child that it worked, and now they were here. She had found herself in his bed trying to pretend that she knew what she was doing, that she didn't care, that she wasn't always in wonder at the way he smiled, but if she had been asked to say those things out loud she wouldn't have been able to get it out.  [break][break]

It didn't matter anymore. She was an angry girl before she had been lovestruck and she was angry again now, and if he never understood why she was angry then she had just met her aim. That was all.  [break][break]

"Is she your wife now? Your consort? An act against her is an act against nothing. It's barely an act at all." He was claiming allegiance to someone else, and Jin-Hwa had to wonder at what this girl had that she didn't. Maybe kindness. She had never been kind. She had never seen the value in it.   [break][break]

"I wasn't even aware this girl was your lover. Was I meant to know? Did you simply forget to tell me? Such a slip of the mind, I'm sure. With so many lovers to keep track of. Unfortunately for you, it's a bit late for you telling me now."    [break][break]

Either way. Even a prince couldn't decide allegiance on a whim. In the system of the world, Jin-Hwa was worth more than this girl, every time. Clearly the system of the world matter nought to him, but it was still there. He could hold personal grudges, but what did that matter to her? He had already hurt her.  [break][break]

"And do you know what else is weak?" she asked. He was holding the girl. He was holding her like he had never held anything else. Or anyone else. He was standing now. She needed to stop looking at him, because she was just getting angrier, and this was the kind of angry that was going to break things. The winds around the boat whipped at her hair. The waves were rising. "The land itself. Will you invade our sea? Will you threaten us where you cannot even breathe? You have no High King, no High Queen. My mother killed everything in her way before. She will do it again. Or perhaps she will give the honor to her daughter." The threat was implicit in the tone. "Do you really want to threaten me on a boat?"
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He wasn't afraid of his father. He was already the chosen heir. She wanted to sneer. Don't you just have everything. Well, Jin-Hwa was terrified, but more than that, she was  furious. The anger grounded her. It kept her focused. It kept her at her best.   [break][break]

"I said everything I have to say to you, Your Grace." she said. "I care not about what you think of me, considering how little regard you clearly treat me with. You might want your little songbird to think you have a heart of gold, but we both know better. I was a girl of fifteen when we meant, and I wasn't the only one. Unfortunately for you, the sea bows to no man. Unfortunately for you, the waves remember."  [break][break]

She wanted him to understand. She wanted him to understand enough. That she was not just one more broken heart, that she was not a girl left crying in his wake. That she had been disrespected, and she would not stand for it. That he was just a boy, and she knew exactly how to deal with them. She wanted him to know exactly who to blame when it all burned down. 
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[Nikolai Hugh-Sokolov]

    Nikolai was only getting angrier and angrier. He understood that the choices he’d made when he was younger would have consequences. He was prepared to face them. But Jin-hwa, of all people, dared to throw those actions back in his face? He was not going to stand for it. “An act against her is an act against me, and you know it. You knew it when you decided to throw her overboard. Why not throw me overboard instead? Why not not smother me with your powers? You chose her because you knew it would get to me. And it did. Are you happy now?” He was standing now, drawn up to his full height. Jin-hwa looked up at him defiantly, the golden fire in her eyes shining the way it had always shone, the way it had when Nikolai had first loved her.

    It was interesting now, how much he despised that fire. “You can’t seriously be upset about that. It wasn’t like you were around ever, always busy doing whatever you Undersea fae do with your time. How was I supposed to know you expected our relationship to be exclusive if you never told me?” He was partly in the right and partly in the wrong. If he’d really loved her, he wouldn’t have taken other courtesans to bed, but on the other hand, there had been no communication on Jin-hwa’s part about her feelings for Nikolai. Nikolai had treated their whole relationship casually. Because to him, they had been nothing more than two lovers who simply kept coming back to each other.

    He ignored her statement about the land. War with the Undersea was always imminent, no matter how hard the High Court pretended it wasn’t. Nikolai would not have the whole land go into war because of his mistake, but he knew, for all her talk and all her threats, Jin-hwa’s hands were tied. “Threaten me. Go ahead. But you are my guest, as you decided to remind me. What kind of guest tries to threaten their host? Your mother restrains you, we all know it.” His brows furrowed. Was she done berating him yet? The boat had almost reached the shore, and the difference in the weather since they had left was stark. Whereas before it had been warm and calm, now there was a slight chill set in the air, and the waters were roiling angrily around the boat. Jin-hwa’s work, he was sure. “My patience for your theatrics has run out. The minute this boat reaches the dock, I want you gone. But please,” Nikolai gestured to the railing. “Feel free to leave whenever you feel like it.”

    He turned back to Talia, fighting the urge to scrub a hand over his face. There would be hell to pay with his father for this, but he knew how to get out of it. He paused and turned to look at Jin-hwa over his shoulder. “And don’t be angry that you were young when we met. You made yourself grow up too fast. You never wanted to be treated like a child. So do not dare to hold your age against me when I treated you exactly how you wanted to be treated.”

TAGS: Talia Avedon , Jin-Hwa Mei
Notes: N/A

★fai

You may be on my mind. Everyday baby, say you're mine.

[Talia Avedon]

[nospaces]

[attr="class","Lost"]

[break]

Nikolai Hugh-Sokolov

1022 Words

Music

OOP

[break][break]

what must it be like [break]







to grow up that beautiful

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Talia awoke to pounding waves. [break][break]


She had closed her eyes with Nikolai holding her, her hand reaching for him, and then she opened her eyes again and she heard waves. [break][break]


The boat rocked under her feet. The world was cold. Nikolai was moving away from her and it felt like drowning all over again. Was this a nightmare? Or had she been dreaming before? She was unsure of everything and unsteady all over. She was shaking and coughing up water. The floor under her hands was slick. She couldn't hear anything over the wind.[break][break]

Was that wind, though, or was it words? Words were wind. Words moved even faster and destroyed even more than wind. They were just as insubstantial. She was trying to wrap her hands around a thought and catch it, but she couldn't. She was lost and scared and she felt like she was dreaming and she felt like she was drowning. [break][break]

She rubbed her eyes once, twice, forcing herself to focus on words. "So many girls.." [break][break]

"I only treated you the way you wanted to be treated." [break][break]

"An act against her is an act against me."[break][break]

"I was fifteen when we met." [break][break]

Talia could hear it now, not the pounding of waves at all, but a storm of angry words, swirling around her like hornets. Swirling because of her. She was the cause of this current, but she didn't start the storm. It was a pot waiting to boil over. [break][break]

She didn't know how to feel about what she was hearing. She didn't know how to feel at all. Every breath hurt. She was still coughing up water. And Nikolai had let go, and it was desperately cold will him gone, but she wouldn't reach for him. She had learned not to reach when she was a child, and she had learned to let go. She wasn't worth all this trouble. [break][break]

The tale she was hearing was troubling, but was she surprised? The boat rocked under her. The ground was slick. She propped herself up on her elbows, trying to force herself awake. Had they all forgotten she was here? She was the catalyst to start the battle and she was watching the blows fall from the outside. [break][break]

That wasn't to imply she didn't feel the blows. She did. Every one of these girl's arrows hit her heart harder than it would ever hurt Nikolai. Looking up at him now, he seemed more than mythical, glittering and otherworldly. But the things this princess were saying was the failing of a man. [break][break]

Girls, so many girls. Girls treated like currency. Not even gold, just sand, passing with the wind. It was a mortal story, not a fae one. Fae didn't care about gender. Fae didn't consider it. But in the mortal world? What was it her mother had said? [break][break]

She had been six. She had been sitting in the sun. Her mother abandoned them when Talia was one but came back from time to time to see her girl or get money. Talia didn't know. She knew she wasn't worth visiting with any consistency. If anyone had taught Talia her worth, it was her mother. Esther. But Talia's mother was no queen.  [break][break]

So she had been six, and the sun was out. She had tilted her head up to the sun and then it was blocked out by a shadow, and the shadow was her mother. Her mother had seemed divine then. Whenever her mother came back, for the first little bit, she looked like an icon of beauty until Talia took a second look and saw the cracks in the facade. Then she saw her mother's gaunt frame and empty eyes, sliding past her child like it was nothing. Talia had grabbed at her mother's hands and begged her for stories, believing her mother must have been far away in some fine court, maybe the glittering east court she had heard about. She was sure her mother was special, because she had seemed so beautiful then. Esther yanked her hands away and glared at her sun-streaked child and spat at her. "I'm not special to them," she sneered. "There are always more girls."  [break][break]

Talia had learned from her mother not to reach, not to want. Talia had learned from her mother to look past the facade to the cracks under the service. Talia had learned that there were always more girls.  [break][break]

And this girl? Was she and Talia just another in a long line for Nikolai?  Talia wasn't the first girl and she clearly wouldn't be the last. And this girl was just a child. [break][break]

She did what she shouldn't have done. She pushed herself to sitting and ignored the coughs racking her body. She reached for Nikolai's sleeve. She pushed past the current. Enough was enough.  [break][break]

"Nikolai," she said, the anguish clear in her voice. "She's just a child."  [break][break]


Her anguish was the anguish of a girl who wanted none of this to happen. Her anguish was the anguish of a girl facing down the inevitable. Her anguish was the anguish of a girl who had been a child once, who had believed her mother was beautiful and had believed her mother was special, and he was the man who taught them both otherwise. He was the man who had killed her mother by never loving her enough. Their arguments were all the same. It was never their fault. It was always the girl. She wanted this, they said. She had asked to be treated this way. And she never, ever had. [break][break]

Talia was tired now, tired of being just another girl, tired of caring. He wasn't going to bring her back to see the waterlilies because he wouldn't want her back. She would have to stay with her tears and her fears and her paintings. It would have to be enough for her or it would eat her alive.  She was Orpheus, dying to create the perfect art. She was Tantalous, drowning in the very thing she needed. She was nothing at all. She was just another girl. [break][break]

And there would always, always be more girls. 

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[Jin-Hwa Mei]

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Gemini Enigma , Nikolai Hugh-Sokolov

702 words

Music

Outfit

[break][break]

Fine [break]



Make me your villian

[break][break]



Jin-Hwa wondered if he was giving her time to calm down. If he thought he could wait out this storm. He couldn't. This was no fit of childish pique, though the girl before them seemed to think so. This girl was a fool. She knew that already. 

[break][break]

She tried not to react when the girl spoke. She was dirt. She was dust. She was not worth looking at. Her words stung. Jin-Hwa was even more angry. 

[break][break]

Her anger threatened to consume. She felt six again. She wanted to scream. I'm not a child! But what would that do but prove her point? She couldn't keep herself calm.  

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"We're in the great game now," she said, spreading her hands wide, not acknowledging the girl at all, not dignifying it with a response. She didn't want pity. The way that girl spoke made her stomach turn. "Will you play it with me?"


[break][break]
She wondered if he was high on hubris or just unwise. Nikolai had proven already he could look past what he didn't want to see. That he could avoid the unpleasant. But she was nothing like the girls he had been with before. She wasn't a child, to be sure, but she wasn't soft and kind and easy to play with. She didn't cry saltwater tears-- saltwater ran in her veins. She was coldblooded. 

[break][break]

"I have given one chance, two. Perhaps you will accuse me of being unreasonable. Just like every one of your accusations, they will fall on deaf ears." She narrowed her eyes, sizing him up. "I wonder that as one who cannot lie, you can get some of those words out." They were so glaring untrue to her, but then again, everything was a matter of perspective. Even magic. 

[break][break]

"But if you will not be my ally, if you will not accept my gift, then you condemn yourself to being my enemy. You speak like that's what you want. Is it?" Her tone was vicious, poisonous, but slow. Deliberate. Clear. Words had weight, and she was balancing and weighing each one. "That brings you not only your petty vengeance, but it brings you my anger. 

[break][break]

"I wonder if you could tolerate it. You could not even stomach my love. Do you really think, Duke of the East, that you can outmatch me in rage? I have so much more to give. Being my enemy doesn't just mean your satisfaction. It means my rage, my vengeance, my cruelty and my ruthlessness. That is not a game you can win."
 

[break][break]
She felt unbridled, wild. She felt like Icarus before he fell. She felt like the minotaur, screaming at the walls of her prisons. She was not lacking potential-- she was drowning in it. The floodgates had been opened and she could not stop it. Was control not a virtue? She had never been virtuous.  

[break][break]

This was reckless and this was unkind. This was dangerous and this was freeing. She was throwing herself against her walls so hard she threatened to shatter them. If she made a promise here, she could not break it. But she already had made a promise. She had promised to be cruel, to be ruthless, to be cold. She should have thought. She should have slowed down. Owing anyone anything, even owing them vengeance, was its own sort of prison. 
 

[break][break]
She was trying so hard to break free of her cage she was entrapping herself all over again. She was trying to hard to act like an adult that she was making childish mistakes. She couldn't find it in herself to care. Controlling herself felt like imprisonment.


[break][break]
Greatness and madness were two sides of the same coin and Jin-Hwa was watching it fall. She couldn't stop it. If she could, it would mean stopping herself. She wouldn't. 


[break][break]


"Hear my vow," she said, a foolhardy, childish thing to say. "You may be kind and you may be golden-- you may be loved and you may be chased, but I will say it again. This is not a game you can win. Throw me off your boat and curse my name. It will not change this: The one thing you will never be is more brutal than I am."  


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[Nikolai Hugh-Sokolov]

    Nikolai couldn’t believe how much of a mess he’d made. This whole night was supposed to be a celebration, and it was ending in a disaster. Someone had almost drowned, and he had taken years of diplomatic work and thrown them away all for the sake of argument. It wasn’t like he was winning. Nobody was. They were talking in circles at this point, trying to see who could inflict the most hurt. Jin-hwa had. She knew that. But that didn’t mean that he’d wanted to match her. At this point, he just wanted to go home. He wanted to be alone. There was a tug at his sleeve. Maybe not completely alone. He turned to look at Talia as she spoke, her dark despairing eyes pleading with him.

    He looked down at her with sadness in his eyes. “No, Talia, she’s not. I don’t think she ever was a child.” How could she understand? This girl whose own mother had treated her the way Jin-hwa’s mother had treated her. How had they turned out so differently? Jin-hwa, loud and full of rage, and Talia, quiet, thinking she should not be seen. How had Nikolai gotten caught in between the two of them? He turned back to the Princess, looking lost, caught in a storm. Her words were so venomous, but he could barely register the sting of them anymore. The time for consequences would come later. Now, he just wanted to go home.

    “What do you want me to say in response?” He asked, and his voice was hoarse and tired. “Fine. You won. Congratulations. But it’s not like that will satisfy you, because you never will be satisfied. I never wanted to be your enemy. My actions tonight should show that. You instigated everything. You ordered the water to swallow Talia, not me.” He didn’t know why he was still speaking. It wouldn’t fix anything. It would only make everything worse. You could not even stomach my love. Nikolai scoffed. “Love? You call that love?” He remembered an old mortal adage about love. What was it? Love is patient, love is kind. Love is not quick to anger.

    Jin-hwa’s love, if one could call it love, was none of that. It was everything she was. Full of rage, vengeful, cruel, ruthless. It was not love at all. “I barely saw you. I know you never had a good example of real love, but let me tell you, whatever you think you’ve done out of love was done out of something else. I don’t know what it was, but it was certainly not love.” Nikolai looked out past her shoulder. They were just now reaching the dock. He felt an overwhelming wave of relief at the sight. Who knew he’d ever be happy to be home? He shook his head at Jin-hwa once more. “You just don’t get it, do you? You think it’s an accomplishment to be feared, to be dangerous. Go ahead and be more brutal than I am. It was never a competition anyway.”

TAGS: Talia Avedon , Jin-Hwa Mei
Notes: END OF THREAD

★fai

You may be on my mind. Everyday baby, say you're mine.