I was moving at the pace of a glacial plain
and I was burned
→ for being brave
↳ Basics
Name: Josiah Maxwell
Age: 377
Species: Merfolk
Occupation: Royal Advisor for the Queen
Sexuality: Bi
Relationship Status: Pining (and pretending it doesn't hurt)
Personality Traits: cunning, clever, loyal, emotionally guarded, mortally compromised
↳ Biography (tw: death, violence)
Born into a legacy of service, Josiah was never meant to live a life of peace. The son of the Queen’s most trusted right hand, was raised with duty in his blood — diplomacy, warfare, and court protocol woven into his education. He was a quiet, observant child, more inclined to watch than speak, but always listening. His father taught him how to hold a blade and a secret with equal precision.
Tragedy struck early in his life, when his twin brother was taken from him. They were inseparable in youth. Two halves of the same tide. Elian vanished beneath the waves when they were still children. He was gone without a trace. Josiah and his father spent years scouring trench after trench, risking exile and ruin to bring him back. They never found the boy. And Josiah never stopped looking.
Their mother couldn’t bear it. She left not long after — fled court, or grief, or maybe herself. That left Josiah alone with the man who raised him like a soldier, not a son. For two hundred years, they carved up strategies in blood and silence together. They were the Queen's sharpest instruments of war. Josiah followed him everywhere, watching his back until the day he couldn’t save him. No one mourned his father in the palace. The Queen paid for a handsome memorial and life went on.
He stepped into his father's shoes. And that was when the drinking worsened. But everybody knew, liquor couldn't cloud a mind that sharp. He began disappearing to the surface far more often than allowed, gathering eyes and ears in all corners. Not just merfolk, but witches, traders, fallen nobles, exiles. Josiah was building quiet webs of loyalty. Fae owed him favors, so they gave him legs whenever he asked. He whispered through coral palaces and backroom halls, befriended spies, seduced men and women, and listened more than he spoke. He knew which lords were loyal, which were crumbling, and which could be cracked in half with the right word in the right ear. No scandal moved in court without brushing past him first. Then came the twenty-sixth birthday of the Princess. The day her enemies delivered a gift — her mother’s corpse. The next morning, Josiah became her royal advisor. And she became Queen.
With trust, grew love. And with love, consequences that tied around his throat like iron. If anyone knew what he felt, they could have his head for the sinful weight of it. So his affection stayed hidden, deep beneath his stillness. He drank it away when he could, tried to drown it, or rip it from the roots if needed.
But one night, she came to him. Not as Queen, but as the woman who had trusted him, and leaned on him. She looked at him with the same adoration he’d buried so deeply inside himself. And for a brief moment, they fell into something secret and wrong. The truths they shared were too dangerous to speak aloud. Their kisses stolen like war plans.
He should’ve walked away. Should’ve stayed her sword, not her lover. But he was bewitched — a man shipwrecked, and she the siren calling him to let go, let go, let go.
And he would. For her, he always would.
They haven’t spoken outside of council chambers in some time. Not since her marriage. It’s been a month. Long enough for him to start trusting the man by her side. The King.
Josiah stood where he always had: at her side, behind her throne, watching the horizon for storms. And if he was quieter now, more than usual, no one mentioned it. After all, the Queen’s right hand was always listening.
Wanted connections
THE GHOST // Twin brother, Elian. Raised elsewhere, turned into something monstrous. Josiah would risk everything if he thought Elian could be saved or stopped.
THE SPIDER // low ranked fae. They were caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, or maybe the right place, depending on how you look at it. Josiah uncovered a secret that could ruin them, and rather than destroy them, he offered a deal: loyalty, in exchange for silence. So they’ve fed him rumors from the surface, acting the part of the obedient informant. But loyalty built on fear can only last so long. And maybe, they’ve finally found a loophole.
THE MORAL COMPASS // An old friend. Merfolk. They believe in justice, in honor, in the crown. And once, they believed in Josiah. Maybe they still do, but it’s getting harder. They remember who he used to be, before the drinking and the quiet rage. Whether they’re trying to save him or condemn him, Josiah listens to them more than he’d ever admit.
THE ONE WHO KNOWS // They know about those stolen kisses behind closed doors. The night that never should’ve happened. Whether it was whispered to them by a loose tongue or witnessed with their own eyes, the truth is theirs now. They haven’t said anything, not yet. But they’re watching him carefully, weighing his every move. Maybe they're waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Whatever their motives, Josiah knows that if they speak, everything falls apart.
OTHER CONNECTS: EXS, FLINGS, SERVANTS, FOES, ANYTHING













