sea pearls & opals

stop staring. i do what i have to. indie dahut of the legend of ys. particular inspiration from the daughters of ys.

[damnyd]

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                                   i. about          ii. rules          iii. verses

[damnyd]

melnchly​:

@damnyd​ gets a SUSAN PEVENSIE starter!

         though she has always loved the sea (the gentle waves that lap at the base of cair paravel, the roaring waves of summer storms), she is not sure she likes this place. there is something darker here, as if pulled up from darker depths than narnia’s seas know. (for those were sung into existence long ago.)  even she, used as she is - by now - to the wildness of narnia must look askance at people riding upon the backs of creatures seeming drawn from nightmares. (and part of her cannot help but worry that lucy shall wish to join them, that whatever peace exists between ys and narnia for now could end in a flash of sharp teeth. “i admit, i did not think the stories were true,” the gentle queen says to the red-haired princess, nodding toward the sea and its occupants. “stories of my own land have often be greatly exaggerated. has there always been this accord between your people and the creatures of the sea?” 

the sea here is dark and tumultuous, even on fair days the white-capped waves tangle with the horizon. hands are folded neatly before her and she observes the others in their games, a handful of the nobles throwing a gilt-gold ball between them from the packs of their beasts. on a  different day dahut would be among them ; she would not be joining in their gleeful calls and shrieks, but she would play. instead she stands upon the shore beside one of the visiting queens. “many do not believe it before they are able to witness it,” there is a small smile in her voice, “for as long as i am able to remember. my mother taught the nobility to fascinate them, and they taught their children. it is one of the traditions of ys,” it is a young city to have TRADITION, but dahut says it with a surety that it will bloom into a true one. “i hear many things of your land,” she says, turning to look away from the revelry in the sea, “though not much of your traditions.”

[luthienne]

Ada Limón, Bright Dead Things; “The Good Fight”

[Text ID: How do you love? Like a fist. Like a knife. ]

[beholdingslut]

I see / my escape. I walk into the water. / The sky is blue like the ocean, / which is blue like the sky.

Camille Rankine, “Symptoms of Aftermath” from Incorrect Merciful Impulses (via mythaelogy)

[fawnslay]

think about your life - think about your dreams you planned. think about the moment that’s so close at hand. indie companion au cousland of dragon age. by bee.

[damnyd]

@fawnslay

[damnyd]

crowndaughter​:

SHE IS MYNATHE’S DAUGHTER, just as much as she is her mother’s daughter.  She, from the moment of her birth, has belonged to the queendom and to the people.  Her duty in life is to serve them, and care for them, as a daughter or sister or mother would.  However they choose to see her.  The citizens of Mynathe are just as much her family as her blood sisters.  She is bound, by tradition and blood-right, to do all she can to help those who live in her country.  Still, the appearance of a stranger, a foreigner, is enough to prompt an intense curiosity in the sheltered princess.

❝ My ladies have been whispering about you. ❞  Living her whole life within palace walls, with only family and servants for company, tact and subtlety have never exactly been skills she has honed.  ❝ They seem to think you’re some kind of witch.  Or a siren. Isn’t that silly ? ❞     

♚ ∵ * ∴ – —  @damnyd​  liked for a starter

SHE HAS BEEN NAMED BOTH, and worse still. dahut cannot smile so prettily as she used to - there is something sharp about the pearly sheen of her teeth now - but verdant eyes glitter with some deeper knowledge at the question. “quite silly,” lovely voice twists easy from her lips and she smooths pale hands over the seafoam glimmer of her fine skirts, “i am nothing so fearsome.”

dahut has not named herself yet ; there is no need. those who KNOW do not live long. perhaps she ought to pay these ladies a visit and SPEAK WITH THEM in dulcet tones. it is not as though dahut plans on lingering for long, and surely some tragedies would not be connected to the strange woman who had passed through but nights before. the sea calls to her, the weight of the water pulling her back towards it. she can remain ashore for some time, but must always return. “where have they heard such odd tales?”

[damnyd]

why are we...like this

[damnyd]

pippa and i found our old rp blogs from eight years ago

[damnyd]

starlyht​:

“at some point,”  he responded,  “you get to be a little too well-traveled.”  but,  alas,  for some time the stability of settling long in one place hadn’t been a luxury he could afford.  years and faces blurred.  nonetheless,  dismissively,  he shrugged and took another drink from his goblet.  his eyes scanned the engraved and raised patterning on the silverware with sudden interest,  noting soft curves and swirls printed with only an artisan’s grace.  

but he would take calling it unique,  even if only for the sake of his wits.  either he would find it unique or maddening to be unmoored,  a perpetual stranger.  but tonight he could agree it was unique,  so dreadfully unique.  though few places stood in uniqueness beside ys,  this place which,  to the conception of any rational mind,  should not be.  few places he found to be so compelling,  both desiring to look away and flee and linger for the thrill of discovery.  

brown eyes regarded her once more.  he considered that,  somehow,  the lady of ys was as uniquely perturbing as the city itself.  perhaps he ought not be there;  perhaps he ought flinch from those bright eyes.  “but it isn’t as terrible as i make it out to be.  have you traveled far from the city yourself,  your highness?”   she had a sister,   he knew (he’d had a sister,  too,  once);   he supposed the one before him remained here and ruled while the other ventured for whatever obligation beckoned.

“i find myself ENVIOUS of your journeys,” dahut loves ys - dahut is bound to ys - dahut feels the salt-tide in her veins and the in and out of the sea resonating in the beat of her heart. they are TIED TOGETHER, bound since birth. who would princess dahut be without this city around her? on their trips to quimper she felt empty and too still in the silence of the world away from the rushing sound of the sea.

“not often.” it is rozenn who ventures ; it is a BITTER TASTE in the back of her throat, venom lurking just beneath her teeth, and so dahut does not mention her elder sister. the one who has turned her back on ys. the one who has abandoned her duties and left this iron weight on dahut’s shoulders. she should be the one running about the moors. SHE SHOULD BE THE ONE WITHOUT THIS BURDEN OF A CITY ON HER SHOULDERS. dahut smiles pretty and leans back against the soft fabric of the cushions - the picture of comfort and lack of worry. “we venture to quimper annually for a festival,” she pays in advance before that trip, double the heads tossed down, down, down, “but we do not remain long.”

gaze does not fall back to the sorcerer. it travels the room and lingers on the space her father occupies. he is shadowed on a high balcony, half-hidden behind heavy drapery ; pale, drawn face flickers, ghostly, in the light. when their eyes meet the king vanishes further into the room and dahut does not scowl despite how much she wants to. “we miss it terribly when we are gone,” SPEAK FOR HIM - FATHER WILL NOT SPEAK FOR HIMSELF. “where do you hail from?” head tips towards him and the smile that pulls at her lips is there as if it never wavered from her face. “you must miss it.”

[highaever-a-deactivated20210427]

𝙷𝙾𝙼𝙴 𝙸𝚂 𝙱𝙴𝙷𝙸𝙽𝙳, 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚆𝙾𝚁𝙻𝙳 𝙰𝙷𝙴𝙰𝙳.     canon divergent warden cousland of bioware’s dragon age saga. by nan.

[weltenwellen]

Virginia Woolf, The Waves

[fyeahmovies]

Portrait de la jeune fille en feu (2019) dir. Céline Sciamma

[damnyd]

@highaever telling me to make my cousland blogs url highaevaer,,,,,like she WANTS me to accidentally get tagged in her stuff

[damnyd]

divinesleft​:

@damnyd​ said: ❝ he has the strength of an ox. and sadly the grace of an ox as well. ❞ ballroom dialogue accepting

       “a fool to think he could charm the court, though you cannot blame him for trying.”

she supposes that she would have been like that too, had she not had expert guidance. clumsily bragging and revealing her position to the nobles around her as though it were something to be proud of and NOT something that could be easily manipulated many ways. 

“i envy him. to not know the dangers that lurk beneath gilded masks and empty smiles.”

“oh, you could blame him,” she smiles placidly, watching the man ATTEMPT the elaborate moves of the dance that sweeps across the gilded floor. there is something terribly sad about watching someone try with all their might and still fail abysmally, “i do not, though. one could commend his courage for even trying, foolish as it might be.”

gaze floats from the man to the woman beside her, cool eyes bright from within her mask, “i would not. to be clueless is to be as good as dead.”

[timotaychalamet]

Lady Macbeth (2016) dir. William Oldroyd

[naeberries-old]

❝ your world isn’t for people like me. ❞

❝ i will always hate you, i vow it.❞

❝ i’m having a premonition. we’re going to have fun tonight. ❞

❝ dirt. it’s where you came from. it’s what you’ll return to soon enough. ❞

❝ i hate you so much that sometimes when i look at you, i can hardly breathe. ❞

❝ you’re better off being scared. ❞

❝ you’re no killer. ❞

❝ horror of horrors, you might actually have a good time! ❞

❝ there’s always something left to lose. ❞

❝ i am done with being weak. i am done with being good. i think i am going to be something else. ❞

❝ only idiots aren’t scared of things that are scary. ❞

❝ how can anything done in the service of a noble cause be wrong? ❞

❝ get down on your knees. beg. make it pretty. flowery. worthy of me. ❞

❝ i have made myself less. i have made myself small, i have kept my head down. i’m not going to do that anymore. ❞

❝ desire is an odd thing. as soon as it’s sated, it transmutes. if we receive golden thread, we desire the golden needle. ❞

❝ i will never be cruel to you for the sake of delighting in it. ❞

❝ our lives are the only real thing we have, our only coin. we get to buy what we want with them. ❞

❝ you’re a story that hasn’t happened yet. i want to be part of the unfolding of the tale. ❞

❝ poison might be a coward’s weapon, but it’s an effective one. ❞

❝ being born mortal is like being born already dead. ❞

❝ may your hands always be stained with blood. may death be your only companion. ❞

❝ do you love me enough to give me up? ❞

❝ if you hurt me, i wouldn’t cry. i would hurt you back. ❞

❝ half a plan is good enough. ❞

❝ i killed him, and then i buried him. so believe me when i threaten you. ❞

❝ true power isn’t granted. true power can’t be taken away. ❞

❝ i challenge you to a duel. for my honour, which was grievously betrayed. ❞

❝ was it fun to deceive me? did you like the feeling of having something over me? ❞

❝ i’m a mirror! i’m the mirror you don’t want to look at. ❞

❝ i will not stand in front of your happiness. i will not even stand in front of misery that you choose for yourself. ❞ 

❝ love doesn’t grow well, fed on pain. ❞ 

❝ i know you’re keeping secrets. something is making you sick. you’re paler and thinner and your eyes have a weird shine. ❞ 

❝ you fit in better than i do, but i bet it cost you something. ❞ 

❝ as i am now, i am well on my way to becoming one of the wolves. ❞ 

❝ the odd thing about ambition is this: you can acquire it like a fever, but it is not so easy to shed. ❞ 

❝ maybe being a monster was my calling. ❞ 

❝ most of all, i hate you because i think of you. often. it’s disgusting and i can’t stop. ❞ 

❝ go ahead and run. i definitely won’t shoot you in the back. ❞ 

❝ i will act as your shield. i will act as your hand. i will act in accordance with your will. ❞

❝ i can be charming. i charmed you, didn’t i? ❞

❝ i know. don’t bore you by dying. ❞

❝ this is where i grew up. even if i hate it half the time, it’s mine. ❞

❝ you’d do well to decide how much you care for goodness before you go too far. ❞

❝ you’re a dirty liar and i hate it and i hate this. ❞

❝ i turned out to be useful after all. what a terrible surprise. ❞

❝ if you live your life always afraid, always with danger on your heels, it is not so difficult to pretend away more danger. ❞

❝ oh, yes. let me tell you my whole plan. you’ve goaded me right into it. ❞ 

❝ i am what you made me. ❞

❝ i have not always danced to your piping, but you haven’t the stomach to truly cross me. ❞

❝ it turns out i still don’t know how to laugh. ❞

❝ i have lied and i have betrayed and i have triumphed. if only there was someone to congratulate me. ❞

❝ come back when returning feels like a hard choice instead of an easy one. ❞

❝ i may be the useless shield you put in front of you, but don’t expect me to start being useful. ❞

❝ this is what you wanted, isn’t it? what you sacrificed everything for. ❞