visions i vandalize [jin-hwa]

[Gemini Enigma]

visions i vandalize

[attr="class","box1"]Perhaps among the wildflowers was where Gemini belonged now.  The nodding heads and proud stalks of the overgrown grasses and the arms of the trailing ivy seemed to regard him as a brother; the scarlet spray of blossoms in this corner of the grounds, small-blooming wild roses and Icarus peonies, swayed towards him like kin. Perhaps he should crush them under his heel before their thorns caught him like the arrow to Achilles. There was always that chance with family, and the chance tended to be good.  Triumph had a sweet perfume that could only be wrung out through mortar and pestle, the persistent application of force in the right places. He would taste it on his tongue yet.  The silver circlet rested cold on his brow, cold like the bitter winds he loved so well. The ones that caused clarity to bloom between his ribs. The ones that burned the ridges of his throat. The ones that swept him upwards towards the next highest echelon, that would one day catch the wings he'd spent his life crafting. Every day spent in hiding, every day nursing his ill-received genius, every day with his head forced low, each was a feather that could never be un-strung once he brought it into his craft. If they were destroyed, they would all be destroyed at once, and he with them.  He was adrenaline-starved, his mouth overflowing with the danger of victory. Nothing could rise forever, but maybe he could be the one who changed. After all, everyone wanted their day on the throne. Very few could claim it. He may never have been fate's favorite son, but luckily he was well accustomed to being a scorned child. He learned how to get by.  Gemini watched the path that snaked into the meadow which unfurled beyond the courtyard. It wound itself into knots beneath the sheaves of grass, serpentine coils specifically stamped bare to drive wanderers mad. Gemini needed no aid on his way to madness. Madness was his only true inheritance.  But even with this thought, he breathed and watched the boughs of the trees rise and fall along with his chest. He noted his pulse, and the answering beats of the earth. The blackthorn throne, the heart of Faerie, had circulated the news: he was a son of the earth, and he did not need it to love him. He only needed it to obey.  Jin-Hwa Mei [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: 403 Notes: There is, in fact, a variety of peony called an Icarus peony.

credit to Laura of Adox

[Jin-Hwa Mei]

[nospaces]

[attr="class","Lost"]

[break]

Gemini Enigma

683 words

music

mentioned: Cassie Eloise Enigma

[break][break]

If you wanted me dead, you should've just said [break]































Nothing makes me feel more alive

[break]

































Jin-Hwa hated being here in the land court, and she hated that the waves of grass seemed more common to her now than the waves of the sea. She had been here too long; she had grown used to the glitter of the stars. In the sea, there were no stars. In the sea, there was darkness. It had been her own personal abyss for so long, and yet the week she had been home felt like being trapped. She hated being turned into one of the weak and flimsy land fae. Soon she would forget how to fight the current. Soon she would forget that she was the current. [break][break]

The spike of her anger felt like a reminder of home. She was used to feeling like this, hot all over and bottled up, told to be quiet and be seen and not heard, to be brutal but not awful. It felt like bottling lightning. She was the storm, and that transcended land and sea. Perhaps it got its strength from the sea, but it could move just as easily on land. [break][break]


She hated being embarrassed, hated being made a fool, hated being wrong. Nikolai ha d ruined her. She had hoped once and the realization of being wrong had clouded her vision. She wasn't supposed to have a clouded mind, she was supposed to be the storm clouds. What would her mother think of her now? she was not the sea's daughter. She was trapped on land.[break][break]

She had told Cassie to ask her brother. She had claimed he could protect her better. She had conceded her pride. What did she get in return? An insult. She could protect Cassie better than someone who didn't try. Why had she forgotten that the name Gemini meant duplicitous? She hadn't seen what was staring right at her. She had hoped so much for something of interest that she had wandered deeper into a trap.
[break][break]
He had said nothing to the mortal queen. If her contempt for him before was hesitant, now it was limited. She had no time for traitors. He hadn't betrayed her-- they had no allegiance to each other-- he had betrayed his blood. She should have expected the same from him. He was half-mortal, half-liar. Cassie hadn't told her. She didn't have to. She saw the look on her face when she asked if the Enigma's plea had worked. She had seen the fear in her eyes when she saw the mortal queen. Jin-Hwa was a smart girl. 
[break][break]
She saw him now, laying in the waving grass like he expected his painting to be done. If he needed an artist, she knew one. Perhaps that girl would burn this down too, convince him that he was justified in his every betrayal. Traitors seemed to be her type.
[break][break]
Jin-Hwa was tired of watching everyone around her get everything she wanted. If she had wondered why mortals were so hated before, she didn't know. A half-mortal girl and a half-mortal prince. The girl he kissed at the boat had killed the dragon. She wasn't even a warrior. She had never trained with a sword. It was infuriating and impossible to win. It was very possible to burn it all down.
[break][break]
She wondered if the mortal queen's reign would end when this boy was nothing but ash on the ground. She wondered if she would be punished if Cassie would be implicated. She was nearly too angry to care. 
[break][break]

She was carrying two swords. She could not feel the weight. She had gotten them from the royal forge. Same design. Same build. No iron. He could touch it and she couldn't. No undersea steel. She could wield it and he couldn't. No enchantments at all. These were glittering silver with stars in the hilts, crossed across her back. She stopped in front of him and grabbed one, throwing it down.
[break][break]

"A duel." she said. "For the honor of your so-called sister, who has been grievously betrayed."

[break][break]

A murder was one thing. But winning a fairly accepted duel? What could she be punished for then?

[break][break]






[break][break]

[newclass=.Lost]opacity:0;transition:all linear .5s;-webkit-transition:all linear .5s[/newclass][newclass=.Lost:hover]opacity:95%;transition:all linear .5s;-webkit-transition:all linear .5s;background-color:#193229[/newclass]

[Gemini Enigma]

visions i vandalize

[attr="class","box1"]Gemini knew he was being approached before he should have. He could feel the root system, veins of the earth, constricting as their miniature tides answered a moonlike pull; he could feel the shift in the crumbling pearls of earth as steps passed over them but left no prints, no trace. He lay still, head thrown back, eyes half-shut, his throat open to the sky and glittering with finery and pearl. Why did he have to stir when the earth was always moving, humming to life in synchronicity with his most base functions? Finally, the reminders of his mortality, the rush of blood and inhale, exhale, wingbeat pulse, collided with his birthright in a way he did not have to resent. Perhaps his solidity gave him stronger ties to the stone and soil. Perhaps it kept him nearer to the roots. Perhaps the folk of the air could never be as true an heir to the Faewild as a son of the earth.  He cracked one quicksilver eye to see Princess Mei standing above him, her face hard with fury. Something about its edge was new, a blade freshly sharpened. Gemini intuited that he was about to discover what had been the grindstone. Your so-called sister. Was she speaking of Cassie? Ophelia? Ophelia was, so far as he knew, more content under the current regime than she had ever been. But Cassie.... He could ask her for himself. Jin-hwa Mei could not lie, but that had never meant she could not decieve. She'd once told him that everything belonged to those willing to take it. So what was she here to take from him? The very dawn of the day he'd finally claimed something worth stealing?  What do I intend to claim? A legacy you will never have. Perhaps it made her uneasy that he was the one who wore the circlet of an heir now, finely-wrought and fitted to his fine brow. Perhaps there was even fear in her eye as she looked down the line of heirs to topple before any power could be hers. Perhaps she'd looked then to him, and seen a faster path. Gemini knew the hunger that suffused her fine frame. But Jin-hwa would cannibalize before she would starve.  The poisoner's prince. He'd make her choke on any attempt to make him her prey. He could destroy her from the inside out. She would loathe nothing more than to die like a mere king.  "Do you suddenly care for honor in the Undersea?" Gemini questioned, shutting his eyes most of the way and arching his back, stretching across his ribs, before settling into a more comfortable position. He observed the princess from beneath dark lashes. "I knew you would do near anything to despise me, Princess Mei, but is righteousness not an effort too far?"  He'd seen her send that girl under. He'd seen it from his position against Quinn Stone's lips. It was never about the artist girl; it was hardly even about Nikolai. She hadn't believed at the time that Gemini was worth her envy or even her attention, but her eyes had been on him still. You may spear my portrait with your knife each morning, but still you have it beside your bed.  She wanted him to drown. She wanted it so badly she was nearly salivating, snapping at every passing reason or excuse to fill his lungs with salt. Strange that she needed one. Strange that she hadn't tried already. Despite his words, phrased as a question, he'd noticed that Princess Mei was not as free from any code as she would like to believe. Otherwise she would never have been surprised by the betrayal of which she accused him. "Were you not expecting my fealty to falter?" he asked, crooked and amused. "I thought you saw me as rightly named, two-faced. You seem stung as if by a blow you did not watch fall. Besides, if Cassie has been so terribly wounded, you ought to cross blades with the perpetrator. Are you so starved for a fight with an equal?"  Despite the appearance of comfort, Gemini lay tensed and prepared to spring to his feet when she inevitably struck. For a girl who claimed wildness and boldness, Jin-hwa Mei was as predictable as the tide.  Jin-Hwa Mei [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: 719 Notes:

credit to Laura of Adox

[Jin-Hwa Mei]

[nospaces]

[attr="class","Lost"]

[break]

Gemini Enigma

630 words

music

mentioned: Cassie Eloise Enigma

[break][break]

If you wanted me dead, you should've just said [break]































Nothing Makes me Feel More alive

[break]

































Jin-Hwa watched him carefully as she always did, looking for cracks in his armor. Looking for lines in the facade and breaks in the illusion. She learned fats and she earned young that if you shattered something all pretense fell away. He was proving strikingly resilient.
[break][break]
He was not easy to hurt, to break. She would admit that much. Taunts of his mother were old and tired, and there was no one close enough to him to threaten. Not really. She had wondered if one of his siters would meet that mark, but he had proven that Gemini Enigma cared only for himself. So she would crack him. She wanted to watch him fall apart. She wanted to see what made him up. She curiosity had a sharpened edge of anger now. What had started as a fascination had morphed into something much more famished. She was angry. She was hungry. She would tear him apart.
[break][break]
In every imagination, she always saw herself as some sort of man-eating creature. What else could she be? Not a dragon, for they were old and ancient and bound by old rules. they were mortal and they did not feed on fae. She was something more brutal and wretched. She did not know what yet. Maybe the world had never seen a monster like her.
[break][break]
"Do not speak about the Undersea," she said sharply, "And make yourself a foll twice. What you call honor we call foolishness. In the Undersea, we understand that any good thing must be paid for in blood. I deem freeing Cassie from the maze you've built to be something good. I will pay in your blood."  
[break][break]
She used terms of honor to make this make sense to him. But of course, he was just  another Janus, another painted smiling face, another porcelain masquerader who did not want the best for her at all.
[break][break]
"I expected you to have some respect for anything other than your own pride. I should have known better, you Agamemnon. Do you expect me to watch while you drag Cassandra to her death again, while you roast your own blood on the spit of your pride? Even kings crumble when they have crossed too many lines, and you are no king."
[break][break]
The blade glinted on the grass between them. Yes, this land was his breath and his blood, at least a bit, but Jin-Hwa could feel the electricity in the air now. She could feel the humidity and the wind pressure. She could feel a storm waiting to be summoned. She had always felt like trying to capture her rage was trying to bottle lightning. 
[break][break]
"I mean to." she said. "A clever bit of misdirection there. Cross blades with the perpetrator. Yet it is not a denial, because you cannot lie, not even halfway. We both know what you did." Her eyes narrowed. "Pick up the blade. Or forfeit."
[break][break]
And that was the trick, wasn't it? He would never forfeit. he would never deny it, not just because he couldn't, but because he was too proud. He would rather throw himself off a cliff than thrown himself on anyone's mercy. He though tot hold his crown over her head, but all he had done was bare his neck. He had made clear that all that mattered to him was himself. Fine. She would run him through and wipe her hands of his blade, and no one would mourn. 
[break][break]
She wondered, sometimes, if her pride would be the death of her. But as she stood facing him, feeling her heartbeat like a flint against stone, feeling the wind in the air like a spark, she knew the truth. She would never be destroyed by anyone else. In the end, her downfall would be her own rage.



[break][break]






[break][break]

[newclass=.Lost]opacity:0;transition:all linear .5s;-webkit-transition:all linear .5s[/newclass][newclass=.Lost:hover]opacity:95%;transition:all linear .5s;-webkit-transition:all linear .5s;background-color:#193229[/newclass]

[Gemini Enigma]

visions i vandalize

[attr="class","box1"] For all his musings about Jin-hwa chewing off her own proverbial paw in desperation to escape, Gemini was finding that he made his own sacrifices when faced with freedom. He put caution on the altar. He could feel himself being reckless just to give his a mind a place to run. Should he not be building new pathways to explore? Making something new? There was only so much that could be broken. Eventually, all that remained to break would be themselves or each other. It would have put him in a greater position of defense to stand, but that felt like surrender, like concession to her will. He knew the foolishness of it, and yet he did not stop himself from being willful. If he made trouble for himself, he'd have something to get out of again. After all, what if he left his mind to rest and it atrophied? He understood again the ease of wandering into madness. Perhaps one day it would be the only path that remained, the heart of the maze. "On what terms should I cease to speak of the Undersea, Princess?" he questioned, arms tucked beneath his head. He had no doubt his curls would be full of leaves and weeds if he ever arose. It irked him to be so thoroughly disheveled, but it lost on the scale to the bitterness of standing up as Jin-hwa wanted and acknowledging her as a threat. "Should I not say its name? Or reference that such a place exists? I fear that that leaves us with very little to say to one another, though one could argue that such a state of limited conversation already exists. You seem to think otherwise." He couldn't deny there was a curiosity that fueled his satisfaction in riling her. She may have been set on defeating him, but that wasn't enough. He wanted to see what she would do. He wanted to see what she broke. Or if she broke.  And if she did, he would be the one to break her. No one else deserved the privilege.  "It was you who spoke first of honor, Princess," he said, extracting one arm and taking a safe grip of the hilt of his rapier. "I only followed your lead. A mistake, I now see, that has gotten us both lost." He turned his gaze to what he could see of her face, the shadow it cast on her bone-white throat.  "You promise many threats for one who can no more lie nor break her vows than I," he mused. "If there must be blood, there must be blood, though perhaps in the course of the blows we exchange you'll tell me directly what I've done. But you ought not be so sure that the blood will not be yours." Now he sat up and splayed one beringed hand out in the grass. He was weary of her threats. If she wanted a duel, he'd duel—for the sake of answers, the sake of a challenge. But the precedent needed to be clear: he could hold his own. "It's been many days since we've had rain," he told her, his voice low, fingers pressing into the dry, crumbling pearls of earth.  The other hand grasped his weapon.  "I've done many things, Jin-hwa Mei. Too many to know which act you reference. But if you so insist, defeating you can become one of them."  Jin-Hwa Mei [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: 578 Notes:

credit to Laura of Adox

[Jin-Hwa Mei]

[nospaces]

[attr="class","Lost"]

[break]

Gemini Enigma

547 words

music

n/a

[break][break]

If you wanted me dead, you should've just said [break]































Nothing Makes me Feel More alive

[break]

































Jin-Hwa smiled wickedly, letting his words run past her like water, letting them flow over her. If he wanted to taunt her, if he wanted to anger her, so be it. It was good and more than good. It would fuel her. Her anger did not make her sloppy. It burned bright, like fire, like a storm, yes, but it also burned hot. It devoured anything too close.
[break][break]
"Your hubris will be the death of you." she said. "And if it is not, then I will gladly do it." The swords were equal in every manner. The skill of them wielding the swords were not. She was angry, furious, burning bright like a comet, like the sun itself. He was just bored. She would beat him back in fury and he would parry without any real interest.
[break][break]
Perhaps she should have stopped then, taken the upper hand and run. Perhaps she should have allowed him to be bored. But she could not help but wonder. Met equally, which one of them would win? all things equal, could she beat him? she believed it wholeheartedly. She believed it with all her blood. If she could not beat him, she would prefer he killed her than have to live second to anyone. She was entirely too acquainted with the feeling. And he had to be as well.
[break][break]
"You should not speak of the Undersea because you would be a disgrace there. So quick to abandon our blood for any piece of position. So quick to abandon your blood for a new mother that cares nothing for you. You sacrifice your family at the altar of your own likeness to stay subordinate to another mortal. We in the Undersea would run ourselves through before bowing to a mortal girl. Sacrifice your sister to your mortal mother, whichever one you claim today. Just know that my bones with never grace any altar, but build one that rivals them all. And my altar will be truly to myself, for I do not sell myself to grasp a sorry excuse for power. Tell me, Gemini. Have you lived so long under a mortal yoke that you have grown used to its shape?"
[break][break]
She was goading him, like a foolish child, but she entirely believed everything she was saying. They cannot lie. Is that her fatal flaw? That she saw all he can be and cannot help but want it, even as she felt disgust at herself for trying to draw it out? That she saw all that she could fight, and must always demand the greatest adversary? She needed to prove herself like she needed to eat. She was furiously hungry.
[break][break]
And her anger fed her as much as it fueled her. It felt good to be this angry, to not doubt anything she was doing, to see all the pieces before her. It felt good to have such a plain path, no matter how recklessly she may have been charging down it. She wanted to drag him with her. She wanted to be accompanied by equal even if it means she will destroy him. She wanted to test her blade on another that is finally sharpened in equal propensity. Boredom was not great challenge. But hot, true, pure anger? That was a test. 










[break][break]

[newclass=.Lost]opacity:0;transition:all linear .5s;-webkit-transition:all linear .5s[/newclass][newclass=.Lost:hover]opacity:95%;transition:all linear .5s;-webkit-transition:all linear .5s;background-color:#193229[/newclass]

[Gemini Enigma]

visions i vandalize

[attr="class","box1"] The prophecy the princess told was one that Gemini already knew. He had been nursed on stories; he knew how they went. He knew the proverbs and parables and the things they said about pride. He knew that he had it in abundance. He knew they all said that it came before a fall.  But why should he not be the one to change the ending? He was a rift in the bloodline, a cycle-breaker. This would just be another pattern to break.  "Bold words, Princess, but I expect nothing less of you," he said, sitting up and dusting leaves of grass from the back of his head. "You know the trouble is that now you have made a vow you cannot ensure. What will become of you if I survive not only you, but myself?"  Gemini was no fool. He knew she was dangerous. But he had always been his own greatest threat.  After all, for someone to be a danger to him, they had to know him, and who knew him better than the only companion he had ever had? A lonely child, given enough cleverness, could trick and trap anyone into loving him, except for the one with no choice but to know the truth. Himself.  What a strange, thorned species of pride I've grown. And yet, that said, Jin-hwa knew eerily well where to strike. He saw the predatory narrowing of her eyes and could feel it echoed in his own fine features. They were circling, baring their teeth. Soon enough one of them would have to spring.  Her words blazed over him and left him sitting in a patch of scorched earth. Slowly, nigh mechanically, Gemini rose to his feet and drew his rapier, a smug curl touching his lips now that he could look slightly down at her.  "If the Undersea cares as well for honor as you claim," he began measuredly, frostily, his silver stare glacial, "you will understand that I must defend my own against the claims you have hurled in my direction. Shall we see how well you truly like justice, the foreign ambassador to Faerie?" He fell into the elegant fighter's stance, almost dancelike, that was so familiar it lived in his bones, and began to prowl. "While I ought to admire your dogmatic self-regard, it has not paid off nearly as handsomely as the barter you say I have made, has it, Princess?" Sale, a mortal practice, a mortal trade of currency between a mortal woman and a half-mortal boy. He refused to use her word for it.  The thorn burrowed most deeply into him, the sting that had driven him to his feet, was her accusation of a new mother, and what he loathed most was that she'd used it precisely for that reason. He should never have let it stick to begin with, for to remove the barb would allow it to bleed and there wasn't time for that. He would hemmorhage damning excuses and surrender the entire exchange in any attempt at denial. Better to put it aside altogether, in a mental container for later inspection. That, Gemini could do very well.  Jin-Hwa Mei [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: 529 Notes:

credit to Laura of Adox

[Jin-Hwa Mei]

[nospaces]

[attr="class","Lost"]

[break]

Gemini Enigma

630 words

music

mentioned: Cassie Eloise Enigma

[break][break]

If you wanted me dead, you should've just said [break]































Nothing Makes me Feel More alive

[break]

































Jin-Hwa watched him bleed like a shark in the water. She watched him breathe like something lurking in the dark. Ine very metaphor, she was always the monster. But she cut out the dragon's heart. But her mother's mother had killed the monsters. Jin-Hwa had taken their place. It felt like a conintuation of the legacy.


[break][break]

What would Gemini become, then? A frail mortal? She could not imagine him as something that might die, only something that could be killed. He was a force, not a person. He was a goal an object, a target. Without him she would have no equal. With him she would be forever dissatisfied. So she would destroy him and she would forget him. Her remembrance was a reverence he did not deserve. She snatched up her sword like she seized her sacrilege. "I am never anything but bold. If I lose it all, I would do it staring down the executioner. If I am to fall, it will be as a comet falls. Magnificent. You recognize it, don't you?"


[break][break]

She is pacing. Her movements mirror his. They are both brilliantly trained, but she is so much angrier. Cassandra. The first night she met him. His pride. The look in his eyes when he looked at her. What was that? It was not desire or even simple anger. It was not something controllable. It was not something she could manipulate. It was loathing and it could not be bottled. She could only fight against it. Even the Undersea did not command that sort of storm. She knew it. One such disaster lived in her.


[break][break]

"You see, the trick is that we are not so different, you and I. You see some of yourself in me and you hate it. Do you fear so deeply what you might become? Irrelevant instead of irreverent? I speak of what I am because I know. What can you say about yourself, you liar, you Janus, you Gemini?"



[break][break]
The first time she used his name, and there was no affection in it. She said it like an epithet. She said it like a title. It could mean a million things, but for her, it took on a new meaning. Duplicitous. Betrayer. She should have seen it coming. She will not be easily fooled now.


[break][break]

She struck now not like a snake or even a dragon. She struck like a force of nature. The force rattling down her blade was like being struck by lightning. She parried. She met his blow evenly. But mostly, she attacked. She pushed forward. The anger was hot in her eyes. She looked up, and she saw him, and their eyes locked. She recognized the look in his eyes. She had seen it in the mirror a million times. That look itself was a natural disaster. It was a force of nature. They were not so different at all. She knew how she would kill him. She knew how she would die. 



[break][break]

[newclass=.Lost]opacity:0;transition:all linear .5s;-webkit-transition:all linear .5s[/newclass][newclass=.Lost:hover]opacity:95%;transition:all linear .5s;-webkit-transition:all linear .5s;background-color:#193229[/newclass]

[Gemini Enigma]

visions i vandalize

[attr="class","box1"]Gemini inhaled and felt his lungs expand as if they were unfurling. He wondered if the full-blooded folk of the air felt it the way that he did. He wondered how much longer Princess Mei would feel it at all, if he were to spear through her dreams of legacy and scatter them like ashes over the wildflowers. Would the courtyard choke and die with her, then? Would it defy his inheritance and refuse to survive if he left this duel as a victor?  Or perhaps it only made the fate of the land still more his, balanced on the fine tip of his rapier.  At the precipice between collapsing inward and burning out, there was only room for one of them to stand.  There was also a choice to be made. Gemini by birth defied dichotomies, but by name had been made one. Yet another choice to make between two. Name or conception? Supernova or oblivion? To be slain and have his blood water the earth that now obeyed him, or to kill and become a dull blade as immortal years wore on with no stone to sharpen himself against? Iron sharpens iron, the old saying went. But Gemini could handle iron and Jin-hwa could not.  His eyes were bleak, frosted, as he leveled his gaze to hers. "My dear Princess, you are only staring down the executioner because you have forced his hand. You are my enemy by necessity. But they have always told you that your first cries were a roar and you have had fangs since your first set of teeth. I cannot make you shoulder the blame when you were helpless in becoming a monster." He raised his sword arm parallel; if they were much closer, it would be resting under her chin.  He could escape her. He had the mind for it. But he wanted to study her wicked, her wild. And then he wanted to make in himself something stronger.  "I never trust a reflection in water," he replied, beginning to circle, pinning his stare on the elegant arch of her face. "The smallest disturbance can warp and smear it. Debris can drift into the image." She spoke his name as if it were a title. Perhaps she was not the only one who became what she was made. But Gemini was not nearly so quick to admit that.  Jin-hwa struck fast as he had always known she would; the parts of her that were muscle and sinew instead of silk and seafoam had been molded into stances, into pulleys and levers that snapped between strikes and slices and always acted first. It was her strategy to be too quick to ever need defense, Gemini realized as he blocked another blow, stepping nimbly to the side. It was a fault of far too many swordsfolk that they put far too much effort into dodges and parries. It was neater to stay close and sharp.  He urged his pace higher and pressed forward, attacking with more brute strength than he would typically employ, trying to catch her on the back foot. The exhiliration was charging him now, suffusing his previous words with too much hate to be true—he did despise her. Now, now, at the pinnacle of his success, still she clawed, still she was determined to drag him down.  No. Not yet. Not ever. Not when I've won. Not when he had taught himself these steps in corridors between bookshelves. Not when he had practiced every thrust and swing against palace columns. Not when he had been locked outside for three nights the first time he defeated Ambrose in practice. Not when he was so much better, so much brighter, and had barely even begun to burn.  Not when he was the Crown Prince of Faerie, son of the earth and heir to the blackthorn throne.  Had he imagined it in the adrenaline rush, or was the soil moving with him, quickening his steps? His gaze caught Jin-hwa's like a grappling hook. They were ships in a storm. They were the storm itself. Either one of them would remain and the world would bow, or they would destroy everything else before each other and the Faewild would fall to waves and wind.  Gemini would find the eye. He would find the stillness in the center. Perhaps, this time, triumph would come quietly.  Jin-Hwa Mei [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: 733 Notes:

credit to Laura of Adox

[Jin-Hwa Mei]

[nospaces]

[attr="class","Lost"]

[break]

Gemini Enigma

630 words

music

mentioned: Cassie Eloise Enigma

[break][break]

If you wanted me dead, you should've just said [break]































Nothing Makes me Feel More alive

[break]

































Jin-Hwa wanted to snarl, but wouldn't that just prove him right? She could not be weak. she could not be tame. Doing so would only render her unimportant. Doing so would only rend her irrelevant. But the more ferocious she became, the more he would declare it to be a product of her circumstances. The only way to make him see her awfulness as her own was to claim it. The only way to own her glory was to break out of the maze he was building. He was trying to constrict her and she wanted to rampage. She could not change his mind by changing her nature. So she would burn it all down.
[break][break]

"I need no one's help to be a monster," she said. "The only reason you call me one is that you have not yet witnessed it. But you will." Another vow. Another foolish act. Another thing to break.
[break][break]
They called the Minotaur cursed before it ever broke skin, but it did anyway. The calling of something did not create it. It could influence one, yes, but if she seized and took power in her becoming? What if every insult was just fuel on the fire? What if the fire was an altar to herself?

If he was claiming that she chose to be his enemy, very well. She would choose it with all the intensity of romance. Star-crossed swords, not star-crossed lovers. This would be just as epic of a tragedy. 
[break][break]

"You think they made me a monster?" She finally broke their gaze, instead studying the sky. But her eyes fixed back on him in the end. The only celestial being that really mattered. "I'll show you a monster."
[break][break]
After that, there was nothing that could be said to deter her. She had chosen. The gauntlet was thrown. The toss was made. The coin had not come up heads or tails, it had depicted a crown. All of her movements were driven by a new sort of intensity. Not just fury. Rage, driven and chosen. Anger that was claimed. Anger that was named. She could pin it all on him, not just some vague understanding of circumstance. That anger was more her weapon than the sword in her hands. 




[break][break]

[newclass=.Lost]opacity:0;transition:all linear .5s;-webkit-transition:all linear .5s[/newclass][newclass=.Lost:hover]opacity:95%;transition:all linear .5s;-webkit-transition:all linear .5s;background-color:#193229[/newclass]

[Gemini Enigma]

visions i vandalize

[attr="class","box1"] Gemini's focus narrowed like the beam of a prism, eclipsing all but his blade, the unalloyed gold of Jin-hwa's eyes, and the line of fire between—the range of what he could cut. It was chess. Behind him lay his king—the blackthorn throne. But she had no equivalent king, nothing to lose. One could say that meant she had already lost. But when she refused to concede, it became an advantage.  Their blades clashed and Gemini schemed. What could he take from her? She was scaffolded by her will and her fury. He could not wear those away slowly. The ocean eroded; the stars only observed until they fell, and the land gave its banks in exchange for nourishment and rainfall.  They could have been allies. They could have balanced the give and take.  But that was not the way of their lands. Since the extinction of the old magic, the magic of the land was to create and the power of the sea was to destroy. The growing seasons put forth life, and the storm seasons dragged it into the depths. It was sold to them as a different kind of balance. But Gemini didn't want balance. He wanted victory.  "So many promises," he said, his voice like a bead of water rolling down his blade. Their strikes crossed for a moment, a moment where their faces were mere breaths apart, jaws set and arms trembling with the exertion of trying to push one another out of the bind. Looking at each other across an x-marks-the-spot of blades. But there was no treasure here besides the gold and silver of their cruelest stares. "You call me a betrayer, a vow-breaker, but when I defeat you, when I survive, what then will you be, Princess? Certainly less than a monster. But no less likely to bite."  Jin-Hwa Mei [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: 309 Notes:

credit to Laura of Adox

[Jin-Hwa Mei]

[nospaces]

[attr="class","Lost"]

[break]

Gemini Enigma

630 words

music

mentioned: Cassie Eloise Enigma

[break][break]

If you wanted me dead, you should've just said [break]































Nothing Makes me Feel More alive

[break]






















There was nothing he could take from her that she had not already put at stake. There was nothing he could say that would scare her or hurt her, not now. Everything he called her was just reinforcement. She already knew what she was. She had chosen it. [break][break]


“Hate me then.” she challenged. “Hate me with all your so-called power. You will not scare me, not now, not when you refuse to fight with your full power. You call this a fight? You pin the blame on me? Have you inherited your mortal mother’s lying tongue or picked up the habit from the queen you cower behind? Look around. She is not here. Hate me of your own accord. Come out of hiding.”


[break][break]
She knew he could challenge her if he wanted to. She could see the potential for destruction in his eyes. She did not understand why he held back. What could he lose? What was worse than being shackled? She had been broken too many times. She would never be put right again. So she would be broken. She would be destroyed. And she would be destruction.


[break][break]
The wind whipped at her hair. Her feet were steady. Her blade was sure. Electricity crackled along the length of her sword as she struck, again and again. She could feel him parrying. She could feel him deflecting. She could feel the current of the fight in her blood.


[break][break]
“Deflect. Run. Hide. Is that all you can do? You will not beat me like this. You will not survive by risking nothing. I have risked it all. What can you take from me that is not already at stake? What can you call me that I have not already become?” She echoed her own thoughts in her words. Her voice carried over the growing wind. “You think you can scare me with your clever words? The worst you can do is brace for a storm. I command it.”




[break][break]
And she did. The wind grew stronger, blowing in his face. The storm gave her strength. It invigorated her. It urged her forward. Or she was encouraging it. She did not know. She was not fighting against the storm, not like him. She was fighting in it. This was her element. She had never felt more in charge. She had never felt more sure. Death was a breath away, held back only by a slender thread. She knew it. She had never felt more alive.


[break][break]

[newclass=.Lost]opacity:0;transition:all linear .5s;-webkit-transition:all linear .5s[/newclass][newclass=.Lost:hover]opacity:95%;transition:all linear .5s;-webkit-transition:all linear .5s;background-color:#193229[/newclass]

[Gemini Enigma]

visions i vandalize

[attr="class","box1"]It was so simple to loathe her. Clear as ice. Clear as the silver light that cut through midnights. It needed no machinations, no deductions, only seventeen years of bitterness unburdened by reason or sense. He could make it make sense. He was aiming for blood and thus he despised her. He wanted to see her fall. He wanted to see if she would break, and when she did, what her insides would be. Would they be fire? Would they be gold? Would they be malformed and crude and wrong? Or would her broken halves be indistinguishable from his own? Even if their blood was ichor, it would be the same. He took steps back, ten paces, and bowed—disgracefully shallow for a fellow royal. He extended his rapier towards her. This was far from protocol, to break for formalities in the middle of a duel, but whoever won today would not be legendary by following procedure. "As you wish, Princess," he snarled, his eyes flashing mercury. "I will hate you. I will hate you as magnetic poles hate one another. As water hates oilslick. As sunrise hates sunset. I will hate you as iron hates the children of Faerie. I will hate you as the blackthorn throne hates impostors and liars. I will hate you as justice has hated me all the years of my life." With each spoken sentence, he took another step closer, crushing the wildflowers under the weight of his half-mortal steps, forever dragged down by the blood of his mother, forever crushing his better inheritance under the one he despised as he would now despise her.  The wind was heightening, thrusting his dark curls back from his high, pale brow, baring his silver circlet, making his sleeves billow in its wake. Gemini had his answer. He breathed down through the soles of his feet, claiming his anchors, claiming his inheritance. He only needed the earth to obey. The wild blackberries began reaching thorned arms for her, the stinging nettles crawling, extending. The soil had started to churn. He spread his arms wide. "Where is the monster, Jin-hwa? All you have done is bare your fangs. What of your promises? What of my pride?"  He needed her attention redirected. At his hip there hung a flask of poison, a gift courtesy of the High Queen, that would eat and burn flesh upon contact. All he needed was to pop the cork, to douse his blade. He would finally see her burn.  She would not cage him again. No one would. He was the poisoner's prince. He was the heir to the earth. He was the son of the blackthorn throne. He was the most brilliant mind in generations. He was a bird flinging himself at a window. He was Gemini Marvel Enigma, and he was not a hero, but no mere monster would bring his end.  Perhaps she was right. Perhaps he'd do it himself.  He could not lose concentration. His mind had gone white-hot with loathing, sharp enough to weld. He kept one hand by his belt, switched the rapier to his equally dextrous right, and lunged with a new hunger.  This blade was no longer a scepter. It was a thorn.     Jin-Hwa Mei [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: 540 Notes:

credit to Laura of Adox

[Jin-Hwa Mei]

[nospaces]

[attr="class","Lost"]

[break]

Gemini Enigma

630 words

music

mentioned: Cassie Eloise Enigma

[break][break]

If you wanted me dead, you should've just said [break]































Nothing Makes me Feel More alive

[break]






















If she had been feeling an adrenaline rush before, this was a windfall. If she had been in control of the storm before, now she was commanding it like a general. She finally understood why everyone said her mother would go mad. Trying to come back from this would feel like madness. But in the moment? She was not born for this. She was not made for this. She had built herself for this. She had broken herself down into the weapon she needed to be in this moment. It was glorious. It was all worth it, now.


[break][break]



It was all worth it if she won. 

[break][break]


Magnetic poles and sunrise and sunset. They were all driven by the same force. They were all opposites of the same strength. “You cannot deny it. I am the only one that equals you. I am the only one that equals you because we are the same. Hate me and I will welcome the challenge. Know that you are also hating yourself.”



[break][break]



Didn’t she hate herself already? Didn’t she view her body as a weapon, her mind as a knife? Wasn’t she already pointing herself like a spearhead towards him? Directing the hatred anywhere but inward was a fresh novelty. She reveled in it.



[break][break]



“Don’t you see? The monster is here. The monster has always been here. It is lurking in the mirror. I have shattered the glass. I have broken out. I am the reflection you can never match. I am the shadow you can never outrun.”




[break][break]



Even now was a step in her becoming, a daring in her dreaming. She was building herself into the opposite of what he was because she needed to be. She was building herself into the opposite of him because she always would be. She was hastening her own implosion. He was too focused on his own survival to realize how bright he would burn before he fell. He thought he had already fallen.



[break][break]





“Your pride will destroy you,” she said, and it was not a vow, it was an omen. He wouldn’t listen. Agamemnon never did. Every time this story was told, it ended the same. Every time this story was told, it changed. She didn’t believe in fate. She couldn’t keep living without it.



[break][break]



Her storm was a hurricane now. Her storm was a force of nature and she was the storm. Her blade was landing harder and harder before. The force of the currents themselves rocketed along her blade. She struck for his neck, for his side, for his leg. She slashed his arm and he started to bleed.





[break][break]
She expected him to bleed gold. Maybe it was gold. Or maybe it was the reflection of her own eyes in his blood. It felt strange. It felt familiar. She had been here before. She had never experienced anything like this.



[break][break]




But he could bleed. He could die. She could see it all now. She knew how this was going to end.




[break][break]

[newclass=.Lost]opacity:0;transition:all linear .5s;-webkit-transition:all linear .5s[/newclass][newclass=.Lost:hover]opacity:95%;transition:all linear .5s;-webkit-transition:all linear .5s;background-color:#193229[/newclass]

[Gemini Enigma]

visions i vandalize

[attr="class","box1"] His rapier was a compass needle and she was its north. She was meant to be on the other end of his blade. Gemini understood it now. He'd spoken of magnets. It was kinder for them to repel. He was drawn to her weapon-first.  "All paradoxes have a breaking point," he ground out as he struck and struck again, hungry to cut, thirsting for the mortality that he knew lay in her somewhere. "I cannot hate myself and yet be doomed by pride as you say. Either I am faithless to what I am or will die praying to my own altar. Either you will end me or I will." She had cut him. She had cut him and he'd been speaking in hypotheticals, but it was true, wasn't it? In a flash like a lightning strike, Gemini saw how this had to be. Either you will end me or I will. It wasn't a flaw in her argument. It wasn't a false dichotomy. It was the only truth. It was a prophecy.  Mystics said the future was written in the stars. How far could he rewrite it? How much could he deny? Was that the prophecy that looked down on him night after night? Either you will end me or I will?  His true name, Asterion, meant child of the stars. Did every father have to despise him? Did every parent he had, in any sense of the word, have to wish his doom? Was he star-crossed, or were they both? But Gemini still had a choice. If the monster was in the mirror, that meant he could be his own villain. Your pride will destroy you. "So be it," he said, and, flicking the cork away, spilled poison down his blade. At the same time, the thorns began to coil themselves around her, encircling her white throat.  Either you will end me or I will. He would choose a death by his own hand at every turn. Anything but giving someone else the chance to say they'd struck him down. Anything but giving it to her.  Jin-Hwa Mei [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: 351 Notes:

credit to Laura of Adox