vii. the chariot

liberty lends us her wings and hope guides us by her star. independent fem!england based on the history, culture, and personal interpretation. written by rosa.

[zigingfaa]

good lord it’s been a hot minute since i’ve existed here.

i don’t think i have any active mutuals, but out of courtesy this is my official thank you and goodnight. i’ve long moved on, adulthood got very busy very quickly and i just have no spark for writing leon any more — although he will always be cherished. i’ll leave this blog up for nostalgia’s sake (plus i still enjoy the theme).

to anyone out there, thank you! this was a very fun chapter in my life.

[sobforsirius]

Pulteney Bridge, Bath, through the seasons. 🍂 Autumn will always be my favourite. // ig: kristinelizabeths

[alionessesthrone]

[ She plucks at the frayed edges of the bandage, easily undoing Shihong’s work and with ease unravels his hand from the bloody gauze. ]

Did you even clean the cut, Victor? An infection might not be of a huge concern to you, but at the very least I’m sure you could do without it.

[haknam]

I’m not stupid– of course I cleaned it! 

| Victor scowls, wiggling what’s left of his midle three fingers, all fo which have at least the top joint missing. |

Sure I could but like, it’s too much of a pain to keep an eye on shit like this so I just leave it alone. 

[alionessesthrone]

...well, you have done a poor job.

[ Do know that this is coming from a place of concern, more or less.

She isn’t even remotely squemish about the severed fingers -- either jaded from her experiences as an old (ish) nation or as a nurse.  ]

[ Before she starts scolding again, she slowly rubs a damp cloth over the wound just to be sure. ]

Rubbing alcohol would likely pose more risks than anything else -- I shall simply redress the wound.

...

Perhaps you should learn some form of first aid.

[lovlae]

british vogue quickfire questions

[alionessesthrone]

lace or leather?

fitted or flared?

white t-shirt or white blouse?

french or british style?

new york or paris?

hiking or swimming?

biker or bomber?

square glasses or round glasses?

lipstick or lipgloss?

denim or leather?

minimalist or maximalist?

ready-to-wear or vintage?

sweater or hoodie?

handbag or backpack?

always early or running late?

night in or night out?

edie sedgwick or jane birkin?

60s or 70s?

mini or maxi?

heels or flats?

morning or evening?

sheer or leather?

suitcase or carry-on?

chain or ribbon?

all or nothing?

spring/summer or autumn/winter?

eyes or lips?

sporty or romantic?

town or country?

black or navy?

[andantegrazioso-deactivated2018]

Autumn roses after the rain by hitomi tsuchiya

[cardcaptorr]

so gorgeous

[haknam]

alionessesthrone replied to your post: “What happened?”:

… my goodness. You’re going to get something infected with that bandage work – come here; allow me to fix it.

Oh c’mon– it’s not like I’ve never done it before.

| Reluctantly, he holds out his hand anyhow. |

For the record– an infection won’t be the worst thing that could happen.

[alionessesthrone]

[ She plucks at the frayed edges of the bandage, easily undoing Shihong’s work and with ease unravels his hand from the bloody gauze. ]

Did you even clean the cut, Victor? An infection might not be of a huge concern to you, but at the very least I’m sure you could do without it.

[alionessesthrone]

[ Victor had gone for the past five minutes, and if Elizabeth hadn’t immersed herself in the roses before her maybe she’d have gotten nervous as to what he was doing in her house. Although as he strolled back outside and stood behind her, she saw the evidence of cat fur all across his clothes.

She tutted a thank-you for the water bottle. ]

I suppose it depends on how cool you think garden maintenance is.

[haknam]

It’s not half bad–

| Victor squats down next to her, tying his own hair back with a rubber band he kept around his wrist. Gently, he attempts to wipe some of the cat dander off of himself. | 

I know a thing or two if you’d want the help since I’m here. 

| Sure, he’s a little nervous, but he won’t passup an opportunity to show off what he does know from groundskeeping. |

[alionessesthrone]

Mm.

[ Initially is sounded like sarcasm, and she’d have run off with such assumption if she didn’t peer to the side and notice the unmistakable look of enthusiasm across Victor’s features. She frowned. ]

I think I have this under control, Victor.

[ Pause. ]

...though, I suppose if you’d like something to do -- there are petunias just to your right, if you’d like to check on them.

[ They’d already reached their peak for the year, so she wouldn’t be too upset if he damaged them a little. ]

[haknam]

Alright– I’ll be back in like a second.

| Before entering the house again, he bends down, tucking the laces of his (ratty) sneakers in. Suer enough he spots the cat in question, but he does his best to ignore her as he makes his way into the kitchen. He grabs a bottle of water, hesitating for a moment before tucking another under his arm. 

Sure enough, Victor gives in, spending five or so minutes with Cressida. When he comes out, there’s cat hair on his shirt. |

I know you said not to but like, I’ll leave this here for whatever. 

| He sets the water bottle down on the porch before moseying over to liz, setting his hands on his hips as he looked down at the garden. |

So– doin’ anything cool or–?

[alionessesthrone]

[ Victor had gone for the past five minutes, and if Elizabeth hadn’t immersed herself in the roses before her maybe she’d have gotten nervous as to what he was doing in her house. Although as he strolled back outside and stood behind her, she saw the evidence of cat fur all across his clothes.

She tutted a thank-you for the water bottle. ]

I suppose it depends on how cool you think garden maintenance is.

[haknam]

| He almost winces at the name, but it’s as much as his as “Shihong” is, so Victor shrugs and stretches his arms, cracking his knuckles in the process.| 

Yeah, I’ll do that– DO you want me to bring anything out for you or what? 

[alionessesthrone]

[ She ponders for a moment about troubling him for a cool drink – water would do, but she decides against it. ]

No, no – just get something for yourself. And mind Cressida; she’ll be after your laces.

[alionessesthrone]

zhaicheng replied to your post:老太太？Are you around? | Shihong stopped by almost on...

Not really, nah– | He makes his way on into the garden. He’s not surprised to see her so… casual…. as this was her own home– and really he looks no better, all the time. | I just wanted to stop by n’ stuff.

Oh --

[ Maybe she should put on the kettle, a guest is a guest even if he’s as rude as Victor, but she had streaks of soil on her arms and face and even if Victor wasn’t as concerned with cleaniness as she was.

Plus she wasn’t about to abandon her work on her roses now. ]

I’m a little busy, Victor -- if you’d like a drink or something to eat I’ll trust you momentarily to go fix yourself something in the kitchen.

[alionessesthrone]

老太太？Are you around? | Shihong stopped by almost on a whim-- it'd been a while since he'd seen Liz, and it's not like he was trying to avoid her or anything. Curiously, he peered around, trying to see if he could spot her without intruding.

[ Oh goodness – is a day of peace really so much to ask for? Ignoring of course that she’s been in her own company for at least a week, another day couldn’t hurt. Plus, she didn’t like her present herself without glasses and a messy bun. ]

[ And Shihong, she’s well aware of what you just called her. ]

In the garden – is it urgent?

[zhongghua]

☠ ★

☠  four times my muse thought about hitting yours, and the one time they did

I. “Her voice is so grating. She’s so fucking snotty.”

The meeting wouldn’t be over for hours yet. Traffic had been heavy– and Wenqian had put a run in her tights within 5 minutes of scrambling out of her (shitty, rented) car. In all honestly, she was in no shape to be around a crowd of people. 

But of course, how was Liz to know that? She had no fucking idea. Either way, she probably would have kept talking. 

Under the table, Wenqian clenches her hand into a fist, cracking her knuckles.

Keep reading

[alionessesthrone]

❤  four times my muse says they don’t love yours, and the one time they admit it. || @zhongghua

i. Overgrown grass tickled Elizabeth’s ankles as she sat book in lap under the blossoming magnolia tree – though she had become distracted from the pages’ story, unable to tear her eyes away from the woman in the red robe who stood mere metres away from Elizabeth and the tree. She was speaking with someone, assumed to be someone important, not paying a mind to the woman at the base of the magnolia tree staring up at her in some kind of awe, adoring the fact that Xingjuan was completely unaware of the blossoms falling in her hair.

A woman you love with flowers in her hair is a sight to marvel.

Elizabeth’s heart skipped a beat; no, you don’t love her.

ii. Thoughts under the magnolia scared her, and Elizabeth had avoided the same tree and the book that sat in her lap was now stuffed out of sight under her guest bed in hopes to forget, as if the romantic genre had been what caused such a ludacrious thought to invade Elizabeth’s mind and plague her with that terrible feeling in her chest. Now she sat at the very end of a banquet table, not quite plucking up the courage to make conversation in shaky Mandarin and instead brooded over the conflict between her mind and heart. The mind was winning – the mind had won until Elizabeth made the mistake of looking up and caught Xingjuan mid-laugh, a split second of joy that caused the heart’s second breakdown.

You can’t love her.

iii. A week had now passed since the incident under the magnolia tree and Elizabeth only had another 7 days to go before she was to sail back to England and could deal with whatever in God’s name she was currently surpressing. However the silence of the night made any unwelcome thoughts nearly impossible to ignore as her body refused to fall asleep, so with a defeated sigh she slipped from under the silk sheets and carefully creeped out of her room’s door to the hallway.

And she didn’t mean to look, she’d insist that she tried not to look, but a glance into Xingjuan’s room quickly turned into a fixation, the moonlight spilling through the thin fabric of the curtains and drenched Xingjuan in a ethereal glow that Elizabeth couldn’t tear her eyes away from. She watched the other run a comb through long black hair before her gaze shyly drifted to the reflection of Xingjuan’s face – and as if she sensed Elizabeth gawking at her like a fool she opened her eyes and looked back at the blonde staring.

Xingjuan’s lips curled into a gilded smile as their eyes met in the mirror. “Goodnight, Elizabeth.”

The ache in Elizabeth’s chest returned as she returned to her room in silence. You’re not in love with her …right?

iv. Oh she could just fall asleep, with the lake waters still and the sun sinking behind the surrounding mountains with birds singing in distant trees, she hadn’t been at such peace in a long time. Yet despite nature’s lullaby her eyes rebelled as they refused to stay closed, peaking one at a time to watch Xingjuan sat at the other end of the boat fixated on a text covered in Chinese characters, desperately wishing for herself to be doused in whatever content of the book so that she could hold Xingjuan’s gaze like so.

Freckling cheeks blushed at the thought.

Eyebrows furrowed as she tried to keep her eyes closed, embarrassed by her line of thought and hoping to solve the problem by hiding away behind her eyelids. Though perhaps she was more embarrassed that she shut out any voice that came from her heart and not her head knowing she was inexperienced and afraid, but that wasn’t a possibility she wanted to consider in that moment because it would mean that there was a chance that the heart was right and she didn’t know how to protect herself.

The heart whispered; you know you love her.

❤. A cowardly exit, the usual heartfelt yet somewhat formal goodbye replaced with a slip out of the door 2 hours earlier than scheduled, hurried goodbyes given to Chinese officials after Elizabeth swayed her country’s men to get on board in a hurry – she gave no reason but perhaps the homesickness had set in and the men needed no convincing to sail back for home. They were just waiting on her now, about to leave for the docks when she had a change of heart on the goodbye letter and single rose she’d left on Xingjuan’s bed.

Once she’d quickly excused herself and stumbled in poor Mandarin about forgetting something, she scuttled back to where she had stayed and with a glance over her shoulder she darted into Xingjuan’s room, locking eyes on the letter that contained a spill of made-up excuses and half coherent feelings and grabbed it without a jolt of hesitation. As she tore the papers into smaller and more plentiful squares, she couldn’t quite decide if she was doing this out of cowardice or rationality – but there was no need to answer, the letter was in tatters all over Xingjuan’s silk sheets. She would deal with the mess of writing in a moment’s time –  the solution for the vibrant rose was a lot simpler, and she took it in her shaking hands as she eyed the window knowing the bush with blooming red peonies nesting outside would hide it well enough. Before she could act on her oh so devious plan, a voice startled her.

“…Elizabeth?”

Whirling around, she saw a look of confusion strewn across Xingjuan’s face – and God she still looked as beautiful as ever – with her head cocked to the side, watching as Elizabeth’s cheeks began screaming pink before noticing the rose clutched in her hands so defensively. Her eyebrows furrowed as she patiently waited for an answer – anything, to explain Elizabeth’s uncharacteristic behaviour.

But Elizabeth just sighed. “I must leave,” She saw Xingjuan opening her mouth to speak, but she quickly cut her off. “– now. I apologise for the inconvience and the hurry – it is quite urgent. Farewell for now, Xingjuan.”

She considered saying it for a fraction of a second, but favoured the idea of not looking like a complete fool. Besides, actions are more precious than words.

So she handed a speechless, confused Xingjuan the red rose and left without another word.

Xingjuan felt her heart jump at the gift, but she did not dwell on implications as she saw a scatter of torn paper on her bed. She approached, looking down to inspect when she saw three words strung together in cursive English on a shred of paper.

The three words Xingjuan had been afraid to say to Elizabeth since her arrival.

I love you.

[untitled-reader]

🐱🌿🌱🌼

[zhongghua]

☁

☁  four times my muse has thought about yours, and the one time they do something about it.

I.

    She can’t get her off her mind. Usually, thoughts of elizabeth are swirled with confusion, regret, but never hatred– a vile, nauseating mixture that leaves Wenqian with a headache and even a date with her liquor cabinet (if circumstances were dire.) 

Why did we end up like this? What did we do to deserve that? 

Of course, she can never answer the questions that come to her. She can only sit and wait for it to pass, or at least for it to fade again, back into the quiet corner of her mind where it’d been banished to begin with. 

II.     

Did she ever really love me? Were we really what I thought we were?

The sunset was dying down, melting into the colors of night when the thought came to her. It made her pulse quicken– a small lump rose to her throat and she swallowed it. There was no use in  dwelling on the past, and she knew that better than anyone.

She set down her glass and set off to bed. 

Keep reading

[stutterisms]

send me a symbol for...

✿  four times my muse almost texted yours, and the one time they did.

▲  four time my muse thought about kissing yours, and the one time they did.

☠  four times my muse thought about hitting yours, and the one time they did.

★  four times my muse though yours looked breath-taking, and the one time they voice it.

❤  four times my muse says they don’t love yours, and the one time they admit it.

▼  four times my muse has caught yours getting off, and the one time they help out.

♫  four times my muse swears it’s not a date, and the one time it maybe is.

☪  four times our muses almost hold hands, and the one time they do.

☁  four times my muse has thought about yours, and the one time they do something about it.

☢  four times my muse almost sends a nude, and the one time they do.