angel of small death [jin-hwa]

[Gemini Enigma]

angel of small death

[attr="class","box1"] Gemini wore silver chains on his hands that strung between his rings and over the scars from Princess Mei's blade. The silver threaded through slashes of healing flesh like rivers of mercury. He kept hoping it would cauterize the wounds, but to no avail.  Though, in all technicality, they were wounds no longer. Any sting he still felt was a phantom.  The main event still carried on beyond reeds and brittle grasses that sprung up into hedges, the only semblance of walls that guarded this garden by the sea. He assumed the High Queen was there holding court, no longer looking after his every breath like a frantic nursemaid. The worst of his burns, those still red and shining with more scab than scar, were hidden by the billows of his sleeves, but his right shoulder to his chest was still spattered with fresh scars. Perhaps that was why he stood on the shoreline alone rather than making strategic conversation with the most useful of the Gentry.  The duel came back to him in moments, each crashing wave breaking with the intrusion of another image. Jin-hwa bound in thorns. Jin-hwa conducting the acid like a concerto. Jin-hwa pinning him down, blazing with heat against his chest, frigid at his throat, nuclear with danger. He knew her hair smelled of salt. He knew how he was going to die. The winds here on the gray-sand beach were fierce, and Gemini remembered falling. Princess Mei and the glass dragon had made certain that he was well and truly battered in time for the High Queen's garden soiree, but true elegance could keep a broken spine straight. Besides, the dragon's skull now hung with the others above the blackthorn throne.  With the one that was Jin-hwa's trophy. He knew what she had meant to do. She was going to carve out his heart. She was going to cradle it and let his tainted mortal blood stain her white hands. Animals that did not know better attacked their reflections. Jin-hwa knew better; she knew her own madness. Only dangers of her caliber were worth their bloodstains.  It was flattery. It was a capital sentence. It was for the greater good. It was never to come to pass.  The briny wind blustered on. It stung his raw skin. It smelled of 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]

Outfit Word count: 387 Notes:

credit to Laura of Adox

[Jin-Hwa Mei]

[nospaces]

[attr="class","Lost"]

[break]

Gemini Enigma

551 words

music

outfit makeup

[break][break]

Toying somewhere between love and abuse [break]































































shaking the wings of their terrible youth

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Jin-Hwa watched the stars ripple on the water, thinking about reflections. She thought about how still water looks like glass. She thought about herself. [break][break]


Jin-Hwa watched the stars ripple on the water, thinking about reflections. She thought about how still water looks like glass. She thought about herself. [break][break]


At five years old, she was in her room, playing with a mortal chess set. The first game she ever played was a mortal game. She didn’t know the rules. She made her own. She had been sitting there, toying with the bishop, when someone pried it out of her hands and told her the queen was the most important piece. It was some servant or tutor. She knew that. But bishops were supposed to be good, weren’t they? The chess set she had was made of glass. When she was told to stop playing with the bishop, she dropped it. The piece shattered. That was the day she was told that being queen is better than being good. It would be a long time before she learned the rules of chess, but she knew that nearly from the start. [break][break]


At six years old, she was playing outside the palace when a herald told her she was sent for. She paused outside her mother’s room and stared through the window. Her mother looked angry. She remembered that when her mother struck her, it was with a bright angel statue. The statue broke just like that bishop broke. It made sense. Angels were good. Bishops were good. They all broke. Queens stayed just fine. [break][break]


At eight years old, Jin-Hwa was in the library when she looked up and saw the librarian watching her. She liked him, for he had taught her the rules of chess. He smiled at her and he never asked about the scar beside her nose from that sharp angel wing. He had asked her nice questions. But the way he was looking at her was different, somehow. She saw him rubbing his arm. She saw the scar, the scar every father had from slitting their arm to anoint their child. He had such a scar. [break][break]


That was the day she considered if she might be good, and not a queen, for that nearly broke her. And only good things broke. [break][break]


The boy before her refused to break. There was nothing good about him. But she knew better, now. She was not good either. He was her reflection. Still water looked like glass. Still water looked like a reflection. Still water looked like him. [break][break]


She moved behind him, her dress swirling around her like a current. She set her hand on his back, to where his scars should be. She can trace them like a map. She can follow them like a star chart. She stood like this with Nikolai, once, when she threatened to drown Talia. But now, she knows that she will not have to dare this boy to jump. He will do it just to spite her. He will do it just to see if he might survive. And even if she did dare him, who would he save? Some part of her thinks the only person he might pull from the waves was herself. He could not bear to see anything else kill her. [break][break]


She said nothing. Her hand rested on his back. Her fingers looked nearly webbed in the moonlight. She had set the first piece in motion. She waited. [break][break]




























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[Gemini Enigma]

angel of small death

[attr="class","box1"] He had almost been right. He'd been so close.  I will hate you as magnetic poles hate one another.  But now, the fine hairs on his back rose to her approaching touch like bits of metal to a magnet. His skin pricked in some attempt to draw nearer to her and shivered at the first brush of her skin. Gemini inhaled sharply, and he knew she felt the way it moved him.  Sea salt. He could taste her in his mouth. All of a sudden it was dry.  "Do not touch me." His voice was nearly a whisper as he turned his head, not quite looking back over his shoulder.  It makes it easier to hate you. It makes it so, so much harder.  He could see the faint shimmer of something scattered over her chest in his periphery. It made him furious. It was sheer greed and she knew it, to adorn herself that way; she already had inborn all the foreboding beauty of a red sunrise, and still she wanted the glitter of stars too.  No one else could stop her. No one else could take her like he could.  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: 193 Notes:

credit to Laura of Adox

[Jin-Hwa Mei]

[nospaces]

[attr="class","Lost"]

[break]

Gemini Enigma

271 words

music

outfit makeup

[break][break]

Toying somewhere between love and abuse [break]































































shaking the wings of their terrible youth

[break]











































































Jin-Hwa thought this would be easy. In her mind, it was all rote actions, threatening him and walking away, being sure their parents saw. It was easy to watch him from a distance and see the waves crash on the shore. She could not see his face then. She could not smell the cologne he was wearing. Her fingers tensed. He was altogether too real.
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Her face felt hot. Her dress was gauzier than she was used to. She was uncomfortable and she should not have been. She had planned this.
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She gripped tighter in response to his words. She was holding him like he was the only solid thing here, but she did not expect him to save her. She expected him to be the death of her. She fought to keep her breath even. He turned to face her, and his eyes were too bright. He was standing too close. She should have faltered, but she was too proud.
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“Or what?” she asked quietly. Someone would have to break her fingers to get her to let him go. It would have been wiser to just watch the water, or to stare at the skies. Instead, she was looking at him. She was captivated. He was so angry, it was almost beautiful.
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This felt like looking at him with her sword over his throat. This felt familiar. [break][break]


“What will you do? Duel me again? I would like to see it.” [break][break]


She would do it as many times as it took. She would destroy him eventually. Maybe here. He looked like he would combust under her fingers. That felt familiar too. [break][break]




























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[Gemini Enigma]

angel of small death

[attr="class","box1"]She was holding him like she was drowning, princess of the sea pulling him under. She had no need to save herself. That would be the way of it, Gemini knew; he would sink into her world because she wanted him to, not because she needed his sacrifice. Either way, he would not come up for air. Or what? At the sound of her voice by his ear, her breath prickling the sensitive hairs there, Gemini’s every nerve lit like a fuse. The challenge in her tone dragged him in. He wanted to answer. He wanted to show her. He wanted to leave. He did not need this. Gemini tried to tell himself he didn’t want her, but he knew he could not have said it out loud. Of course Jin-hwa was beautiful—the fae all were, the Gentry most of all—but she was beautiful in a way that was not meant to exist in one creature. Her beauty was for sky-shattering storms, for black waves high as mountains, for the star-punctured sky in the depth of the witching hour. It was expansive. It was never meant to be comprehended all at once. But all at once was how he wanted it. And perhaps if it crashed over him and dragged him down, one taste of the sea floor would be enough. Perhaps if he had his feast now he’d never want to taste salt again. It would be too much and therefore enough. Gemini needed this out of his system. He needed not to want her. Would they duel again? “In a manner of speaking,” he said, feeling disconnected from his body and voice. He seized Jin-hwa’s hand where it rested over his scars and spun himself around, facing her now, their hands hovering in the air beside his head, their breaths colliding in the space between them, opposing currents meeting, mixing. 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: 312 Notes:

credit to Laura of Adox

[Jin-Hwa Mei]

[nospaces]

[attr="class","Lost"]

[break]

Gemini Enigma

480 words

music

outfit makeup

[break][break]

Toying somewhere between love and abuse [break]































































shaking the wings of their terrible youth

[break]











































































Jin-Hwa didn’t break eye contact with him. To back down now would be an admission of defeat. She was in over her head, but she would drown before she would give up. She was the undersea. She would not drown. [break][break]


There was a saying she remembered her mother’s scholars loved. Gravity exists everywhere. Even underwater. The undersea fae did not cave to tides or lack of air. They could succumb to pressure, even the deep sea fae. [break][break]


But the deep sea fae handled it better. [break][break]


And her mother’s favorite scholar and Jin-Hwa’s favorite teacher had been born there.


[break][break]
She was standing strong against the pressure.


[break][break]
She could still feel the gravity between them, two stars threatening to implode, caught in orbit. Their hands were almost touching. He spun to face her and she was breathing his air. She wanted to rip it out of his chest and watch him turn blue. Desperation was her favorite look on him. She hated how much she thought about him kneeling.


[break][break]
He was folk of the land, folk of the air. She was of the sea, of fire. They both looked their parts, her crowned in pearls and him looking more cloudlike than she could remember in a long time. She knew he was solid. She remembered his heartbeat under her hands. She remembered how it felt to wrap her hands around his throat and look into his eyes. Her heart had been racing then, and it was again now. She was so close.


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She remembered what it was like to be on top of him.


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She could still feel it, her knee against his sternum, one foot trailing in the dirt. She had known then to stay tethered. She realized, now, that it was a fight against gravity. She would inevitably lose.


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She took a step back, then another, then a third. Her heels were hanging over a tide pool, the moon glittering on the surface behind her, lighting her like a spotlight. She smiled.


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“Then do it again,” she said, challenging him, daring him to do the same as she was. Her smile grew. She gave into gravity. She fell into the water, arms out.


[break][break]
Droplets flew around her in the air as she broke the surface. Her legs arched up in the water and she pulled herself back twice with a wave of her arms. Only her head broke the surface. In this light, the wings around her eyes looked like gills. Her eyes were glowing. The trails of her skirt around her legs looked like a tail.


[break][break]
She was a siren again, but this was not the practiced seduction she had played with Nikolai. “Gemini,” she said, trying to fit the word around her mouth. It tasted like a second language. She was going to find out if it tasted like him. She was going to consume him. “Get in.”



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[Gemini Enigma]

angel of small death

[attr="class","box1"] As Jin-hwa backed away, she strung Gemini's gaze along a line, some invisible thread that tethered them. He could not have broken away any more than a fish could escape the hook it swallowed. He'd seen the lure for what it was, and chosen to consume it anyway.  But it was false food, and he was still hungry.  She fell so easily. What was it like to fall and know that you would be caught, buoyed by your element? What was it like to have a sure place to land? Gemini's only choice was to soar or die trying. He still remembered crashing to the ground as the dragon's blood swept up past him. He remembered thinking that they were the same, that the dragon's final fall was a lesson he too would have to learn. There was starlight in the water and she shattered it on impact.  Gemini watched the droplets spray up from the tide pool, the wake that she left, and let the hollow want in him sharpen. Legacy lay in those aftershocks. It was alive in the smolder after a fire. If they burned too high and fast, nothing would remain.  This moment, this night, would have no legacy. The sands would be smooth and the tides would be gone out by morning. He could keep his vow to hate her. He could give in to the hunger, unwanted though it was.  So when Jin-hwa Mei said his name, Gemini answered the call. He climbed into the water.  He did not leap as she had; he sank slowly down, the billowing sleeves and lace cuffs of his open shirt growing transparent and swirling in the water. The pool was shallow, the bottom sandy. He'd have to wash the sand away tonight, any reminder of her.  "I've tired of the games our people play," he said, his voice a low burr, eyes molten. Hers were gold as always, lighthouses on a jagged shore. He did not want to go to them. But it was that or run aground. "So have you. Why did you not take your hand from me? The scars are there for your eyes. Or is there some other triumph you wish for?"  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: 371 Notes: Outfit

credit to Laura of Adox

[Jin-Hwa Mei]

[nospaces]

[attr="class","Lost"]

[break]

Gemini Enigma

480 words

music

outfit makeup

[break][break]

Toying somewhere between love and abuse [break]































































shaking the wings of their terrible youth

[break]











































































Jin-Hwa let herself settle into the water. Was it strange that it almost felt foreign to her? She was not afraid– she was never afraid of anything but what she would not do– but she was confused. [break][break]

This was supposed to be her home, a sea that coddled her when no one else did. Perhaps that was why it felt so odd. The water was not harsh or pounding or demanding. It was gentle. [break][break]

No one was gentle with her. [break][break]
That was how it should be. What did gentleness ever do for her? It did not make her stronger. It did not make her better. Life was a crucible.[break][break]
She could have had anyone at this party, but she didn’t want them. She didn’t even want Nikolai. It had been easy when she was pretending, when she was putting on a facade, when she knew it didn’t mean anything. It was easy even when he was careful with her.
She could not bear it anymore. If they tried to hold her– if they tried to love her– she was a violent creature. It would be useless. It would not take. [break][break]
He would not be gentle with her, and it would be familiar, not warm and terrifying. He would dig his nails into her arms and it would feel like her childhood again. She would know what to do with it, and no one would catch her unsure. No more mistakes.
She hadn’t meant to hurt that girl, that little songbird of an artist. It was just that she was surprised that she was hurt. She was surprised that she still could be. She reacted, and now she had to make it look intentional. She could not apologize. Her mother would not hit her and she would not lose another tooth and all would be well. She needed all her teeth to bite.
But she was sure of what he was, what he would do. He was awful and he was just like her. She dragged herself back through the water, watching him jump. It was like watching a memory. Her skirts floated behind her, ghost-like. Her feet touched the ground. The water was colder in the back of the pool.[break][break]
That was familiar. Cold water. Cold blood.[break][break]

“I wanted to spite you,” she said. “I knew you could do nothing about it.” She raised her head, proud and unyielding. Her eyes glittered like funeral pyres.[break][break]
“Scars are not enough,” she said. They both knew it. A challenge of honor demanded satisfaction. In the undersea, honor was blood. “I will have your heart.”[break][break]
She honored him, calling him something like the monster she had slain. All she knew was that he fell like one. All she knew was that she would keep all her teeth. All she knew was that she would take his heart in her hands and bite down.
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[Gemini Enigma]

angel of small death

[attr="class","box1"]There was no current and yet the water eddied around them. That which touched his skin now had been touching hers. It was false contact. Again, the false food.  He looked upwards, set a distant glitter loose in his eyes. That light was already dead, so far had it traveled to reach them. But reflection was a eulogy. It distorted the light but saved it from oblivion. It could reflect forever until the shape of its former self was lost. "I would not stop you," he said. "The difference is critical, Princess. If I wanted to stop you, I could have, in any number of ways. But the essence of what you say is true. I did not try, did I?" He leveled his gaze with hers. Across the pool her eyes were lanterns, swinging.  I will have your heart. So he was a triumph to her. A dragon. Her bloodthirst for him was impersonal. In fact, it was a strange compliment. Killing him would be a myth to add to her canon. It was the way she meant to prove that she was the strongest. "Though I have hunted you for your life, I don't wish to disappoint you," Gemini said. "My heart is not like a throne. It cannot be taken. Only I can give it away."  He would not give it to her. She would crush it in one hand. But his body was an easier thing to barter, to lend. And hers was a fair trade for it.  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: 256 Notes:

credit to Laura of Adox

[Jin-Hwa Mei]

[nospaces]

[attr="class","Lost"]

[break]

Gemini Enigma

480 words

music

outfit makeup

[break][break]

Toying somewhere between love and abuse [break]































































shaking the wings of their terrible youth

[break]










































































Jin-Hwa wanted to bare her teeth at him, but what would that do? He knew that she could bite already. There was nothing to prove. [break][break]




“No,” she said. She moved closer. “You didn’t.” [break][break]


He wouldn’t stop her now, close to him, close as breathing, close as a bite. Her hair was slick, his was damp. She wanted to run her hands through it. She wanted to force him underwater. She wanted to make him say her name. She wanted her tongue in his throat. [break][break]


She wouldn’t have stopped him either. [break][break]


Her smile was wider, reaching out, the siren’s smile when their prey jumped in the water. She was even closer now. She hoped he could see the points of her teeth. “Anything can be taken.” [break][break]




Her lips were nearly touching his. Her words were being swallowed by his before she could get them all the way out. “We face each other on opposite sides of a legacy,” she said. The water was moving around them, the currents a heartbeat, a war drum. “Statuesque, but changeable.” [break][break]


Nothing was set in stone yet. They were still leaving handprints in the cement. It had yet to dry. Soon it would, and their roles and paths would be unchangeable, as chained by dynasties as they would have been by powerlessness. If there was a way to break the mold, now was the time to find it.


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“Opposite sides of a statue, Enigma.” She did not know why she was daring him to do this. She knew exactly why. She wanted to watch him jump. She wanted to see him fall. She wanted to know that the rocks would not break him, that it was the fall that would kill him before he ever could drown.




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