[ the first step of admitting a weird kink is acceptance, you know. ]
I don't miss.
[ unless, of course, it's deliberate. a warning shot is more conducive than risking a burnt, princely corpse on her hands. ]
The look on your face was worth more to me than burning you, anyway.
I don't miss.
[ unless, of course, it's deliberate. a warning shot is more conducive than risking a burnt, princely corpse on her hands. ]
The look on your face was worth more to me than burning you, anyway.
[ that would be terribly inconvenient, is alina's first thought, given her very nature depends on light and heat. her second thought —
is that she would very nearly feel bad about him squirming like a fish baited on a hook, if he weren't reversing this on her. time to put an uno reverse card on top of this uno reverse card. ]
First you ask me to participate in your fetish, and now you're asking what my own may be? That's a bit perverse.
is that she would very nearly feel bad about him squirming like a fish baited on a hook, if he weren't reversing this on her. time to put an uno reverse card on top of this uno reverse card. ]
First you ask me to participate in your fetish, and now you're asking what my own may be? That's a bit perverse.
Edited 2023-04-29 18:17 (UTC)
[ a heartbeat of moments passes between one missive and the next. it's not particularly surprising that a man steeped in pride would take it as a great offense, on par with filth smeared across pure white: a dirty stain on a reputation.
alina still finds herself dumbly confounded by it, anyway. no, not by it. by the sheer misinterpretation of who she must be. as if suffering degradation her entire life would make her turn the blade on someone else and savor it.
it allows enough of a lull for the teasing, evidently, to mellow — temporarily, at least. lucky him. ]
You could think me not needlessly cruel, for one.
I relished in your surprise, not your humiliation. You're telling on yourself.
[ maybe not lucky him, after all. she'd never have interpreted it as mortification, without his help. ]
alina still finds herself dumbly confounded by it, anyway. no, not by it. by the sheer misinterpretation of who she must be. as if suffering degradation her entire life would make her turn the blade on someone else and savor it.
it allows enough of a lull for the teasing, evidently, to mellow — temporarily, at least. lucky him. ]
You could think me not needlessly cruel, for one.
I relished in your surprise, not your humiliation. You're telling on yourself.
[ maybe not lucky him, after all. she'd never have interpreted it as mortification, without his help. ]
No. I think I'll spare my mercy to whatever and whomever I choose.
[ the calm, casual nature of that stubbornness is only among the various ways she's infuriating. but it's built on a pillar of conviction, all the same; the darkling had been cold and callous, might have delighted living in that menacing shadow. alina, having been crushed beneath it, has no desire to breed that same contempt.
for all that he had believed them twin mirrors of each other, even in death, she has to make the strides to prove that, whatever sliver of himself he had glimpsed in her, had just been a mirage born from the mind of a deluded madman.
beyond that, there's a reason her trusted retinue is full of misfits and outcasts. ]
Ravka has already suffered enough at the hands of men who cared too little what people thought of it.
[ i am trying, she does not say, to not make the same mistakes. it's implied, nevertheless, silent between the loops and lines of her written words. ]
[ the calm, casual nature of that stubbornness is only among the various ways she's infuriating. but it's built on a pillar of conviction, all the same; the darkling had been cold and callous, might have delighted living in that menacing shadow. alina, having been crushed beneath it, has no desire to breed that same contempt.
for all that he had believed them twin mirrors of each other, even in death, she has to make the strides to prove that, whatever sliver of himself he had glimpsed in her, had just been a mirage born from the mind of a deluded madman.
beyond that, there's a reason her trusted retinue is full of misfits and outcasts. ]
Ravka has already suffered enough at the hands of men who cared too little what people thought of it.
[ i am trying, she does not say, to not make the same mistakes. it's implied, nevertheless, silent between the loops and lines of her written words. ]
[ do you ever tire of cynicism? she sketches out, defensive. immediately crumples it out to become litter. i destroyed the thing that needed to be changed to restore it to its former glory. he'll likely insist it's arrogance in need of humbling, no matter how true it has been, now that the fold's curtain of darkness has been tugged apart.
she concedes to something equally laconic, but no less honest. ]
Bold of you to claim Ravka had any sort of former glory to speak of.
[ she's not going to kid herself, here. can anything so wartorn, from its very conception, be considered glorious? never mind, of course, the lantsov kings that had followed. it begs the reason of why, then, she'd want to save a country that detests her nearly as much as alina is resentful of it. ]
she concedes to something equally laconic, but no less honest. ]
Bold of you to claim Ravka had any sort of former glory to speak of.
[ she's not going to kid herself, here. can anything so wartorn, from its very conception, be considered glorious? never mind, of course, the lantsov kings that had followed. it begs the reason of why, then, she'd want to save a country that detests her nearly as much as alina is resentful of it. ]
Oh, no. That part is just me fostering an interesting new side hobby.
[ of throwing fireballs at princes, as one does, when you're a temperamental, walking furace trying to curry respect for a nation that feels as faltering and fickle as a toddler, some days. one wrong move, and it all topples down to bruise its fragile knees. ]
I used my fist on the last prince I met. You should count yourself lucky.
[ rip nikolai's side profile. ]
[ of throwing fireballs at princes, as one does, when you're a temperamental, walking furace trying to curry respect for a nation that feels as faltering and fickle as a toddler, some days. one wrong move, and it all topples down to bruise its fragile knees. ]
I used my fist on the last prince I met. You should count yourself lucky.
[ rip nikolai's side profile. ]
[ saints, does this list of strange fetishes never end. ]
A surprise strike is more of my specialty. And it was to his nose, if you're taking dedicated notes.
Don't tell me you're truly trying to pick a fight with a woman the size of a tree branch right now.
[ AGAIN. ]
A surprise strike is more of my specialty. And it was to his nose, if you're taking dedicated notes.
Don't tell me you're truly trying to pick a fight with a woman the size of a tree branch right now.
[ AGAIN. ]
[ she's a saint as pure as winter snow, thank you (footage not found). ]
Do you usually begin all your conversations with thinly veiled threats and challenges? In my experience, talking doesn't usually involve discussions of fireballs and fists.
You're trying to goad me. It's not your most subtle work.
Do you usually begin all your conversations with thinly veiled threats and challenges? In my experience, talking doesn't usually involve discussions of fireballs and fists.
You're trying to goad me. It's not your most subtle work.
Edited 2023-05-05 05:28 (UTC)

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