SUNSETS WERE A LUXURY she was sure no one in auradon even realized they took for granted. evie could never have imagined seeing so many colors before she left the isle, the constant impending storms turning sunsets to a simple darkening of already gray clouds. she could remember the first time she’d seen it, the first time the sky had seemed to glow in orange and yellow and red, painting everything in ocher & gold. she’d lost her breath in a rush, tears burning the backs of her eyes at the sight, a swelling of something foreign in her chest. for someone so attuned to beauty, so ingrained in the idea that there was nothing more breathtaking than her own reflection, the warring dichotomy of emotion that welled in her was almost enough to cause her knees to buckle beneath her. half torn between appreciating it for all its majesty and hating it for so easily making her pale in comparison, she found herself unable to do anything but stare with wide eyes as the sun sunk behind trees cast in nothing more than black silhouette.
AND EVEN NOW, days and weeks and months since that first sunset, she can’t help but sigh as the clouds turn to watercolors, as everything seems to truly come to life with the setting of the sun. she feels more than hears someone behind her, but besides the tightening of her shoulders, she doesn’t acknowledge them. years of raised hackles and frayed nerves had left her wary of every small shift in the air, every quiet breath or step near her. fingers curling slowly into fists on the balustrade in front of her, she knows her time outside is coming to an end. oh, how she wished to stand there all night, to be allowed to gaze and wish and yearn for the answers she’d always sought in the night sky. “ i could wax poetic over how unfair that curfew is, ” she offered quietly, her voice a knife’s edge in her frustration. “ but no flowery words or angry protests would make the king see us as anything but thorns in his royal ass— ” a pointed glance over her shoulder and a humorless smile, furrowed brows marring the expression to something of a grimace. “ pun intended. ”
MAL WAS NOT THE TYPE OF GIRL who sighed over the beauty of nature. a lifetime spent upon an essentially barren rock prison, life painted a muted shade of grey except for the purple glare of her hair, and the breaths of life colour she’d relentlessly painted anywhere she felt like. a lifetime spent with a mother who’d have tossed her daughter into the stormy waves surrounding the isle if mal had ever been the type of weak prissy girl who mooned over sunsets and prettiness. and yet, and yet, the artist in her couldn’t help but admire the sunsets here in auradon that painted the sky a range of colours she’d never even imagined. it made something in her seethe and stir as anger stirred, not in the pit of her belly, but in the hollows of her bones. the ignominy of being pushed aside, of being deprived, of being most graciously allowed back only to be shackled by rules and hindrances. by a curfew.
as if nobody from auradon were capable of evil; as if some of the parents of these villain children the heroes begrudged, had not once been part of this same world. mal had seen enough in the past few months to get a good glimpse under that cheap plastic veneer of the goodness of this fixed world to see that there were vipers here too. the only difference was that these vipers hid behind a pretty smile and pastel clothes; whilst she, and others like her, wore the telltale colours of their poison clear for everyone else to see. she’d never known the real power a smile could have whilst you lay your trap until coming here. her mother had taught her to strike hard, the people living in auradon had taught her stealth. oh, mal had no doubt that there were good honest people here who were far more capable than murder than some of the losers from her own home would ever been.
“ i’d like to stick something bigger than a thorn up his royal ass, ” came the wry voice of the purple haired girl, prowling her way over to evie. “ like my foot. ” the witticism of her addition was juvenile and unacceptable by auradon standards, but exactly the kind of retort not unusual in their former home. mal’s pixie-like featured curved up into a sneer, disdain dripping as she settled nearby the other girl, her green eyes fixed upon the setting horizon. spray paint cans were padded into the purple backpack slanted across one shoulder haphazardly, and the proof of her recent exploit lay written in the paint worn across her dark clothes. in her defence, if dragged up to explain herself, she had been to see to her official artwork earlier in the evening.
“ cinderella got zapped a new dress and some stupid shoes when she got stuck with a curfew. ”
pixelskylines
2087
germansingergirl
amandla
snowghoul
