very important question for all the vanserra brothers, including the dead ones: ass or titties?
oh ho ho
eris – ass man ass man ass man. said it b4 i'll say it again—eris enjoys anal with females because it is inherently uncomfortable and exclusively pleasurable for him which makes him horny bc it shows their willingness to endure discomfort to please him. notably though if a female is willing to do that, he's willing to play a little dirty dj to make her feel good during. and if you were wondering . yes beron feels the same way. yes this is directly informed by beron
emile – also an ass man! also informed by beron! but he does not care at all to ease the discomfort when he indulges in anal sex. relishes in it guiltlessly in fact. somehow both thinks favorably upon a female who endures it from him and less of her at the same time. look how eager she is to please me but also females are beneath me
carmine – this one was confounding as all get out. i like . honestly don't think he cares very much either way? he cares that a female makes him feel wanted->seen->an approximation of loved. as long as she doesn't have any visible unsightliness he's down, and even then ... i mean this is Thee brother who'd absolutely fuck a human or a lesser fae no hesitation just for the adoration they'd look at him with ykwim. maybe maybe maybe i'll loosely say tit man just cuz i think we could get to a mommy kink with him
silas – just got the most divine strike from god that he's a tit man. yeah he'll linger on cleavage. even get a little bit distractable if it's a non-political situation. they're the first thing he goes for on a female. notably he of all the brothers is the one to have this preference be a make or break deal for him. if she ain't got yitties he ain't sprung. all the other brothers it's just like casual preference
marius – for purely horny threesome reasons i'm making marius an ass man pre-silas' death—but because silas likes a gal w tiddies so much, marius keeps an eye out for them foremost. silas goes straight for the tiddies while marius is palming her ass and grabbing her thighs and then kneeling to tongue between them while silas uhhhhhhh cancel twit
ronan – ass man specifically because he's looking for the development and definition of the glute and hamstring muscles and if it's there he's going boioioioioing ! baby want a muscle mommy so bad but autumn fae aesthetic standards keep him from achieving his dream :(
lucien – (starts visibly sweating) goddd i wish i knew lucien better. i'm going to say he's a thigh/ass man? he appreciates tiddies but they're just kind of a nice bonus nd he can work with anything. lucien knowers please do not stone me
loumand fight but it's armandaniel. "Marius, Marius, Marius, Marius, Marius!" "I talked shit about him the whole time!". "Our problems aren't about him!" "And you threw Louis' name just for cover but it always circled back to him" "I loved him" "But he didn't love you. Not like I do"
Among the Vanserras who feels like laughing the most and who the least? Who always holds their laugh back and who literally can't?
i think ronan laughs pretty openly and has like a really rich, genuine, infectious laugh. trading stories around a fire type laugh. folks always chuckle or smile along despite themselves. carmine laughs freely too but it’s warmer and more inviting and a little sensuous. folks lean in when they hear it just to be closer to it. a sound like fingers grazing the thigh. in writing marius post-silas, i’ve found he tends to laugh at really inopportune times over fucked up things he thinks. the type to suddenly chuckle to himself in the middle of someone saying something not even slightly funny. bless him my little cocoa puff
silas tended to be pretty stoic, except when he was around marius. that was when he could be seen laughing and joking, but otherwise he would just kind of offer the sort of tight-lipped smile at humor that made the person making the joke feel infantile. emile’s just too paranoid that people are laughing at him to find the humor in anything and indulge in it lmfaooo—he’ll laugh at someone though, just like his daddy would
I have a question: as soon as Eris becomes High Lord, Amalia will go straight to Helion, and we know she doesn't have a good relationship with her children, except for lucien. If her children move on without her in their current lives, especially if they marry and have children, and she never meets her grandchildren or becomes close to them, what would she think? Seeing her children being "happy" and "normal" from a distance, and her never being able to be a part of it.
oh this is such a lovely thought-invoking question. let me map post-eris ascension out a little … i think amalia probably waits on helion to seek her out because—if after all this time he does not want her, if after all this time his affections have waned, if after all this time he has found another, for she has of course heard of his dalliances, if after all this time he turns her away, then what does that leave her? but of course it doesn’t take very long for him to seek her out. probably at eris’s ceremony. which is time enough for eris to spin it as a calculated move on both of their parts. to make him a shrewd heir to the throne rather than an abandoned son; to make her into a wily and cunning politician to have leveraged herself as lady of another court so readily, that way the betrayed hearts of the people won’t bring any lords to prompt eris to seek vengeance against her and helion.
there’s never any hope for her and emile, and she knows it. he is her biggest disappointment, biggest failure. he immediately ingratiates himself with the beron loyalists and begins an intense downward spiral; he died without his father’s acceptance, the one thing he wanted above all, and so he mythologizes beron—is the most potent threat to all of his family. emile, by necessity, has to die soon after beron dies. she and carmine have a cordial but distant relationship, the way you might have with a friend you once loved dearly but fell out with and things can now never be the same but neither of you can address the rift because that would be to acknowledge a problem at all. she would favor marius most of all the non-lucien sons she has left, if only because his grief is the most potent and least generally violent—but he makes it very clear that he would kill lucien in less than a heartbeat and she can’t countenance that. he’s also most loyal to eris, if only because of complacency, which strains them further. so left to her after emile dies are eris, carmine and kirsi, and marius and adonia.
i think carmine and kirsi would probably bring her the biggest sense of indignation; they have three children together and carmine, despite still being charming and silver-tongued, is unlike amalia has ever known him to be now that he’s married to kirsi. proof to her of how different her sons could have been if they ever even just got free of beron, which means proof to her of how she failed her sons in letting beron sire them at all. kirsi is very hypervigilant of her kids and doesn’t let any vanserra close knowing How They Are, so i could see a lot of strain between kirsi and amalia at social gatherings, especially because kirsi doesn’t have time for autumn pleasantries and that would offend amalia. they are kin of my kin; i have a right to know them, amalia might say if sufficiently offended. you know not even your own kin; you may claim no right to mine, kirsi might say back. and carmine who has never (and will never) acknowledge that his deep-rooted sense of unlovability comes from his mother feels a keen satisfaction at hearing kirsi do so, which strains everything even more.
i’d say marius and adonia are most gracious with her in the aftermath, once adonia heals enough from losing her mate to regain her sense of self and her sense of propriety. but i think amalia disdains adonia for all she sees of herself in adonia—adonia who was in love with a male who was not her husband yet stayed with her husband until his end at the expense of herself and those around her, then immediately found solace in the arms of her love once her husband died. the parallels are Very Much There. so if adonia eventually gives birth to any of marius’ children, i think amalia might try to overstep with them. maybe try to make amends for her own failings as a mother by criticizing adonia. gently, of course. they are both autumn ladies. but marius wouldn’t stand for it, not after so long of adonia doubting herself with emile. he’s a bit more of his old self now, which is to say he takes on the silas role in his relationship with adonia—happy to be bark and bite on both of their behalves because she is him as he is her. this fills in the loss of a mating bond well for adonia; she basks in it.
and of course uhhhh things with eris and amalia are uhhhh. well. irreparably damaged just like i like em<3 so i guess allat to say—amalia Does Not Take Any Of This Well. it’s just like. such invariable, glaring proof of her failings as a mother, but she also can’t really ever accept her role in how her sons and their females behave because the weight of it would crush her. she really blames beron for all of it to protect herself from the truth of her being just as detrimental to their lives, just like eris does :•) so i think she probably just gets really resentful, probably unfairly more so of kirsi and adonia for Encouraging Their Behavior. even more avoidant of her sons, to the point helion (who feels immense guilt about all of this i think & probably a fair share of cognitive dissonance, once he sees the vanserra boys as not just like evil beron clones but real people who have been impacted by analia) has to encourage her to make time for them.
Thank you so much for answering my ask also it was so good! I love maronia also her name fits so well. And Marius is absolutely a little rizzler. I need more of them 🥹. So maybe maronia + don't leave or hide. Actually write anything you want for them- I will love it
maronia + don't leave, hide
At some point, the sheets are pulled back. The fire in the hearth has long since burnt out, and the cold seeps in with a vengeance, as it always does. Never just a chill pebbling at his skin anymore, but the marrow-deep iciness known only in death.
Marius catches Adonia's wrist, and it is warm to the touch. “Don’t leave,” he rasps. “Not yet.”
Conflict writes itself across her face, tugging down at the corners of her mouth, flattening her brow. He knows it is an unfair thing he asks. Emile will kill him if they are found out, but his brother will do far, far worse to her.
Still, he cannot bring himself to retract the words.
Adonia glances to the balcony doors, where the light of false dawn is too bright behind their curtaining, then looks back to him.
“Alright,” she murmurs. Again, like she is reassuring herself, “Alright.” She tucks back in against his chest, and her heat presses into his flesh, far enough he can pretend it is all he knows. “But just for a little longer, hm?”
He might nod, but already drowsed by her comfort, sleep overtakes him before he can be sure.
Marius is jostled into waking with his heart already in his throat. It takes him a moment, first to realize that he is conscious, then to wince against the bright of late-morning, then to realize who is shoving at his chest.
"Adonia," he mumbles.
She gestures frantically at the door as he pushes up onto his palms.
Emile’s voice filters in through wood that seems suddenly insubstantial: “…ny my entry?”
Marius is on his feet before he makes the choice. He shakes his head, a paltry attempt to clear away the muzziness of sleep. He has no time to reckon with whether this buzzing in his body is fear or thrill.
His chamberlain, the blessed fool: “My sincerest apologies, Lord Emile. I would never—”
There is no hiding Adonia. Emile would sense another presence in the room and grow suspicious not to see it plainly. No doubt already does.
“—be so bold under any other circumstances, but—”
He could send her out onto the balcony to slip away, but that would only rouse Emile’s suspicions further. None amongst them has ever been precious about their conquests, spare the one.
“But?”
If he could stomach it, he might be able to glamour her, but even as minor a use of their ability as that stings up his throat.
“Well, it—it is only that the master does not—”
Unless he did not need to call on their magic at all.
Marius looks to the clutter of his desk. There sits a recent request from Eris: a bangle, charmed to disguise the appearance of the wearer. It is not yet finished, but it will serve purpose enough.
“—take kindly to his rest being disturbed. If-If—”
He plucks it from the pile and tosses it onto the bed, where Adonia still sits, stricken and small and paler than he has before seen. She looks down at it with wide eyes, then obediently slips it onto her wrist. When she looks back up at him, it is with honey-gold hair framing her face—a vernal cascade, shimmering its deception.
“If you could only—”
A gesture towards the pillows at her back as he makes for the door. She turns over into them, positioned that only the spill of her hair and curve of her back are visible amongst the ample bedding.
Assured enough by the ruse, Marius yanks open the door as though freshly woken and irritated for it. His chamberlain is convulsing at his feet, the tendons of his neck strained as he fights for breath that will not come with Emile’s smoke clogging his lungs.
It is a wonder his brother held off so long at all.
“For fuck’s sake, Emile,” he grouses. But he supposes the servant deserves more than just that, for sparing Adonia. “Don’t be a prick. I've no interest in spending my day training a new chamberlain.”
Nearly, he thinks this will not be sufficient. But then there is a gasp from below, followed by a wretched cough. Those burns will linger long and heal slow.
Without a care, Emile flicks his eyes up Marius’ naked body and steps over the sputtering male, no more than a bit of debris on a footpath. His lip curls up as he crosses the threshold into the room.
“It reeks of cunt in here.”
Marius watches his chamberlain scrabble to his feet, then summon as much dignity as he can muster to flee down the hall. He glances to Emile once the male is out of sight and says, “You think you were the only one to lose yourself in a whore after the banquet?”
Narrowed and assessing, Emile takes in the disarray of the mattress and the body sprawled within it. “You permit her to stay the night?”
“We only just finished," he simpers. "You give yourself away, being free to intrude on me so early.”
It is not enough of a barb to ensnare his brother’s attention. Emile takes a few leisurely steps towards the bed, perusing what he can see of Adonia as one would a jeweler’s samples.
Pulling back the sheets for better view, he hums his appreciation. “Where were you hiding this one?”
Marius has the perverse urge to laugh and crosses his arms over his chest as if that might settle it. “She’s one of mine.”
At this, Emile glances back to him, sheet still in his hand. “It doesn’t do to get attached to them.”
“Is this what you’ve roused me for?” Marius goads. “A bit of brotherly advice?”
“No,” Emile replies, finally letting the covering fall and turning to face Marius fully. A pause, brief. “Adonia is not on the grounds. Her maids are unable to account for her whereabouts.”
Wretches. They ought to lie through their teeth for their mistress. They ought to offer their lives before letting her befall this sort of suspicion. If Marius hadn’t been certain they’d been bought by Emile before, he is now.
On a roll of his eyes, “I didn’t realize you were so deep in your cups last night.”
Emile stiffens, as though someone has wound a string about the top of his spine and abruptly yanked it. He has been this way ever since they were young: so quick to offense, so quick to intimidation. Unwilling to ask after the information, he only flicks his hand in impatient gesture for Marius to continue.
“She mentioned at dinner that she’d be visiting her parents’ estate today.”
Marius watches as Emile thinks on the lie. Some spymaster, to have his thoughts flit across his face so. That press of his mouth—how deeply he indeed drank. That furrow of his brow—how his mind did wander whenever Adonia spoke. That tilt of his head—how she very well could have mentioned such a thing to him, perhaps while he had been caught up in the breasts of the servant leaning across the table from him.
At length, “But not to have her maids ready her? Not to take them along?”
It is not an accusation, though some part of Marius wishes that it were. He shrugs, fending off his disappointment. This is for the best. He might face death, but, he must remind himself, Adonia would face worse.
Marius says, “Much as I relish playing soothsayer for you, Emile, your mate’s dealings are not my concern.”
“No,” Emile grouses, “I suppose not.”
But his tone assures that they will be Adonia's.
Marius wishes, then, for S—
No, not him. He cannot think to him now.
Marius wishes, then, for Eris to be here. He would have lied more convincingly. He would have known how to keep her from any consequence at all. He would have been wiser than to ask her to stay in the first place.
Suddenly at his side, Emile says in his exit, “Have a servant by to tidy this hovel.”
And that will be that.
Emile will leave. Adonia will be punished. Marius will not.
Wanting for something more, Marius says, “Of course, brother. Shall I fetch one of my own, or shall I select directly from your retinue to spare you the coin?”
Emile pauses at the door. He is drawn up so tall, and when he smiles, thin on his mouth, he looks very much like Beron. “You are so much bolder now that Silas isn’t around to fight your battles, Marius. I know it was a… difficult time for you, at first, but you should be glad of your freedom. It becomes you.”
There, Marius thinks. That is better.
He does not realize he has been left staring into his empty doorway until the door closes and Adonia is before him, her hair dark once more. She looks up at him with those soft, round eyes, the same ones she wore when she first slipped into his chambers.
“I’m sorry,” she says, hushed.
Marius does laugh, now. Just a chuckle. “You are sorry, Adonia? For what?”
Adonia reaches up to cup his jaw, the cradle of her palm a suggestion of warmth. Her thumb slips too easily on his skin as she slides it across his cheekbone.
He must be crying.
Marius says, “He will hurt you for this.”
“Yes,” Adonia replies.
“I am the one who should be sorry.” Lamely, “I shouldn’t have asked you to stay.”
Like a gardenia wilted around its edges, Adonia smiles at him. “Where else did I have to go?”
Silas and his betrothed 👀 (we need more oc's...pls )
for Maximum Pain i would love for her to be extremely similar in bearing to adonia. well-bred autumn court lady, pristine etiquette, socially savvy, educated in court matters, strong with the flame, fiery and wily and raging quietly against the restrictions imposed on her. ambitious. a little bit spiteful. always dreamt of being picked by a vanserra son as do all the ladies. except where adonia had hers shattered by emile, silas was the real deal. charming, proper, aristocratic and regal, strong the way a lord ought be, just as ambitious as her—yet he could be roguish and playful, especially around his same-faced brother, and sometimes his smile quirked such that her belly leapt as though in freefall. maybe she even grew up friends with adonia and that’s how she caught silas’ eye as a suitable match—an in-autumn arrangement that strengthened beron’s ties to some dissenting faction of the nobility, thus an edge over unmarried eris. but then a romance actually kindles between them, too. basically just better-timeline adonia.
it is all going very well between them. marius gets jealous at first that his twin’s attentions are being taken from him, so silas sets up a threesome between the three of them to show marius that nothing has changed, that they can still share in all things, that it is the bond between them as wombmates that comes first, always. she sees this too—realizes that if she wants to ascend with silas, marius is a package deal. with marius placated, things go even better between silas and his betrothed. maybe they become a little dream team. two people in love and uhhhh his brother, for some reason. marius grows fond of her. not in a romantic sense but she gels well with their dynamic, and she never intrudes on matters that ate just between silas and himself. things are good.
then, of course, silas dies.
beron still wants the benefits of the marriage—and he wants to punish marius for failing, then for making an attempt on his life. so he swaps out silas for marius. she is devastated, but at least she’ll still have marius to lean on. someone to understand. someone so like her beloved. someone she could come to love. someone she knows could come to love her. except that marius can’t even stand to look at her because she serves the exact opposite for him: a remnant of silas and thus a reminder that silas is gone. like having yet another corpse of what was tied to his leg and drifting behind him. he would cut her free of him if he could, but beron would never allow it—and that’s another reason he cannot stand to he around her, because she is a punishment from his father, who he hates as much as he hates lucien for being the reason silas is dead. she is left completely unmoored and alone, even further because she alienated adonia by 1) having everything adonia wanted handed to her; and 2) making no effort to include adonia in it.
adonia had been so excited to have one familiar, friendly face here in the forest house. but she was on the outside of it all. i think this makes her covet marius even more strongly than she does if there’s no betrothed in the picture. it’s like—why could it not have been him? then it could be the four of us as an unstoppable group, not the three of them and me alone and my mate who hates me. so when silas’ betrothed falls to despair, adonia is kind of just like. sucks to suck. little taste of what it’s been like for me. she has far more sympathy for marius—and no one is there to care for him. she is, though. it feels good for a bit, taking this away from silas’ betrothed. having marius feels like a win as much as it feels like a betrayal of emile. (remember: spiteful! there is a reason my darling girl is a match for her mate.) but eventually adonia begins to feel badly for the betrothed too. she doesn’t relish in her misfortune once her own is lessened. especially when the betrothed comes to her for advice because she thinks marius might love another:•)
