A/N: Enjoy Day 2 of the Twelve Days of Christmas Oneshots! You can find the master list for all the one shots here
Warning(s): This is a modern AU, Coriolanus and Lucy Gray are dating, the Covey is referred to as a legitimate family, before any of you start complaining, note that Barb Azure is canonically apart of the LGBTQ+ community. I'm sorry - the Covey are hard to personify other than Lucy Gray and Maude Ivory :'). I tried my best with the other three.
Pairing(s): Coriolanus Snow x Lucy Gray Baird
Coriolanus fidgets nervously as he enters the daunting and spacious shopping mall he entered. Today he was going to be spending Christmas Eve with his girlfriend and her family for the first time, and Tigris said it would be a good idea to get them all gifts. Obviously he met the rest of the Covey household, but something as serious as Christmas Eve required certain preparations.
He looked at his list scanning his eyes over the list of people he needed to get gifts for.
Gift List:
- Lucy Gray
- Maude Ivory
- Barb Azure
- Tam Amber
- Clerk Carmine
Coriolanus deadpans. He had a long way to go.
Walking from store to store, he finally finds a store that he thinks Lucy Gray will like something from – deciding to start from the top of the list. Alas, nothing was in the store, none of the bright ornaments and baubles seemed to be of anything the colorful girl would like.
Sighing, he moves on, before a paperweight glass piano studded with sparkling pearls catches his eye. The blond man smiles, knowing the charismatic ivory loving girl would be ecstatic over the small thing.
Eyes trailing back to Lucy Gray’s name, he sees a guitar store across the mall, just on the other side of the hallway, making his way inside.
But again, there was nothing that seemed to be worthy of Lucy Gray’s attention. But, on the rack, Coriolanus saw a bass pick with the pride flag on it, picking it up, knowing Barb Azure would accept it happily. As shy as the woman seemed, Coriolanus knew she was coming out of her shell more often, talking about the girl she was seeing with a small grin on her face.
As one can expect, he didn’t have much luck in the other stores, in pursuit of a gift for his lover. In a hat store, he found a feathered and classy hat for Tam Amber, as well as a quality (but expensive) pack of rosin and a tuner for Clerk Carmine’s fiddle, but to no avail did he find anything for the woman that stole his heart.
Heart sinking, anxiety squeezed his heart, what Snow, no- what boyfriend couldn’t find a gift for his own girlfriend?!
Seeing a jewelry shop just around the corner, he entered, deciding that if he couldn’t find anything in here, he’d just give up.
The door opened with a jingle, a woman looking up from behind the counter and smiling warmly before noticing the bags in his hands.
“Christmas present shopping?” she asks, tilting her head slowly.
Coriolanus scratches the back of his neck sheepishly before agreeing with the statement. “Yeah...”
“Cutting it a little close, are we?” she chuckled, before motioning him closer. “I have a few that I’ve been keeping off display for customers like you.”
She shows him a selection of necklaces, rings, bracelets, earrings, and even a few watches, but his eyes settle on a pair of earrings with bejeweled doves dangling from each of them, the cool white light of the store reflecting off of them, making the gems reflect all sorts of colors.
It was poetic in a way, it reminded him of something Lucy Gray had said to him.
“You're mine and I'm yours. It's written in the stars.”
The stars, shining brightly in the sky, reminded him so much of her, just as the gorgeous pair of earrings did.
“I’ll take these.” he said, pointing to the dove earrings.
As my post about Dimitris Mitropanos’s song Roza (https://wordpress.com/posts/wordscene.wordpress.?s=great+song+bu) has for some reason been generating a lot of interest recently, I thought I would translate another song in the zeïmbekiko style of the Greek rebetiko tradition – brilliantly performed here by Themis Adamantidis, Dimitris Mitropanos and Dimitris Basos. The lyrics, by the writer…
Γενέθλια έχει η Βάσω Λασκαράκη και ο σύζυγός της, Λευτέρης Σουλτάτος, θέλησε να της ευχηθεί με τον πιο γλυκό τρόπο στα σόσιαλ μίντια. " Ένα αστέρι του ουρανού σήμερα που γιορτάζεις ,να σου χαρίσω θά’ ήθελα αφού πολύ του μοιάζεις .Xρόνια πολλααααααα με υγεία happy birthday ”, έγραψε στη λεζάντα της φωτογραφίας. Η Ραχήλ Μακρή έδωσε απάντηση σταδιάφορα δημοσιεύματα που κάνουν τον γύρο του διαδικτύου, σχετικά με τη συμμετοχή της στο «Just The 2 of Us» και παλιότερες αναρτήσεις της για τον Ιβάν Σαββίδη και τους φιλάθλους του ΠΑΟΚ, εξέδωσε η Ραχήλ Μακρή. Η ανάρτηση της Ραχήλ Μακρή: ΔΗΛΩΣΗ ΜΕ ΑΦΟΡΜΗ ΑΝΥΠΟΣΤΑΤΟ ΔΗΜΟΣΙΕΥΜΑ ΓΙΑ ΤΗΝ ΣΥΜΜΕΤΟΧΗ ΜΟΥ ΣΤΗΝ ΕΚΠΟΜΠΗ "Just The 2 Of Us" Mε αφορμή την συμμετοχή μου στην εκπομπή "Just The 2 Of Us" του Τηλεοπτικού Καναλιού OPEN και αμέσως μετά την πρεμιέρα της εκπομπής, επανήλθε στην δημοσιότητα και φιλοξενήθηκε από διάφορα site ένα συκοφαντικό και άκρως ψευδές δημοσίευμα. Ειδικότερα σε διάφορα sites φιλοξενείται με ημερομηνία 18-10-2020 άρθρο με τίτλο : " Σάλος με τις ύβρεις της Ραχήλ Μακρή κατά Σαββίδη- οπαδών ΠΑΟΚ και με τη συμμετοχή της στο Open". Τον Απρίλιο του έτους 2018 είχε δημοσιευτεί σε διαδικτυακό site άρθρο με τίτλο " Επίθεση Ραχήλ σε Σαββίδη και φίλους του ΠΑΟΚ" στο οποίο ο συντάκτης του, ισχυριζόταν ότι, εγώ προέβην σε προσβλητικούς για τους οπαδούς του ΠΑΟΚ χαρακτηρισμούς, πράγμα το οποίο ουδέποτε συνέβη. Για τον λόγο αυτό δημοσιεύσα στις 13-4-2018 δια μέσου της πληρεξούσιας δικηγόρου μου, διευκρινιστική δήλωση με την οποία ζήτησα την απόσυρση του ψευδούς στο περιεχόμενο του δημοσιεύματος. Σήμερα, επανέρχεται στην δημοσιότητα το ίδιο συκοφαντικό δημοσίευμα και μάλιστα με τρόπο ώστε να αφήνεται να εννοηθεί ότι τα διαλαμβανόμενα σε αυτό έγιναν σήμερα και κατά την οποία παρουσιάζεται δημοσίευση (post) η οποία ουδέποτε συντάχθηκε από εμένα. Ουδέποτε έχω αναφερθεί δημόσια στον Πρόεδρο του ΠΑΟΚ ή στους φιλάθλους του με προσβλητικούς χαρακτηρισμούς. Ο στόχος μιας τέτοιας ενέργειας αδιαμφισβήτητα έχει σκοπό να δημιουργήσει πρόβλημα στην συνεργασία μου με την παραγωγή της εκπομπής και την ιδιοκτησία του τηλεοπτικού καναλιού και προφανώς εξυπηρετεί σκοπιμότητες που έχουν ως στόχο αποκλειστικά την προσβολή της δικής μου προσωπικότητας, και είναι συνηθισμένες για εμένα όλα αυτά τα έτη δημόσιας έκθεσης μου. Ωστόσο, η συμμετοχή μου στην εν λόγω εκπομπή συνιστά μια ευκαιρία να βοηθήσω έμπρακτα στο φιλανθρωπικό σκοπό που εξυπηρετεί, οι σχέσεις μου δε με τον σταθμό και τους συντελεστές της εκπομπής διαπνέονται από αισθήματα σεβασμού και κοινής συνεργασίας και επομένως η αναπαραγωγή ψευδών και παραποιημένων δημοσιευμάτων έχει ως μοναδικό σκοπό την δημιουργία εντυπώσεων και προστριβών στην συνεργασία μου, τα αποκρούω δε ως παντελώς ψευδή και ανυπόστατα, ζητώντας εκ νέου την απόσυρση τους και δηλώνοντας κατηγορηματικά ότι, σε αντίθετη περίπτωση θα ασκήσω άπαντα τα νόμιμα δικαιώματα μου για την προστασία της τιμής και της υπόληψης μου. Με τιμή, Αθήνα, 18-10-2020 Ραχήλ Μακρή
Some of the Brothers and Sisters of Silence, or at least the ones who still have ties to the Church of the Mirthful Messiahs, believe in the Mirthless. Due to the inherently fractured nature of the BaSoS, exactly what the Mirthless is remains largely up to the individual. Some of them believe it is an ideology, that the universe they live in--where inescapable assassins could claim you at any moment, regardless of blood or power--is inherently devoid of humor and the only “punchline” is inevitable death. Nothing waits but oblivion, happiness is fleeting, and everyone should recognize it. The Mirthless is simply another word for entropy, given the name to spite the Church and everything it stands for.
Some of them believe the Mirthless is an actual being, a counter to the Mirthful Messiahs, a devil figure to their deific status which opposes them at every turn because of its inherent dislike of everything the Messiahs represent: Chaos, happiness, warmth, comedy, change. Some believe even further than that, that the Mirthless is an elder being, an otherworldly horror, a beast that mutes color, smothers sound, and erases free will to eradicate everything that disgusts it, removing chaos and leaving behind only endless. mechanical order.
Whatever the case, the goal of the believers remains the same: Every life claimed by their knives serves the Mirthless, in some form or another. Whether hastening the collapse of the world, to empowering the being(s?) itself, or making the universe just a little more tolerable for it, they work to serve. Of course, those who don’t care for this whole bout of religious nonsense simply see themselves as very well paid, very elite assassins. They don’t need the illusion of some higher power goading them on to justify killing.
Here I go. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna remake the BaSoS again (third time? third time). Please note that whatever I write is subject to change and probably doesn't make a lot of sense because I'm forcing myself to stay focused, and I'm TRYING to keep it short. So if you have ANY questions about it, feel free to ask!
Long story short: The Dark Brotherhood, Alternian edition! though not limited to Alternia proper. they're an Empire-wide thing.
Short story long:
THE BROTHERS AND SISTERS* OF SILENCE
*Though they are equal-opportunity and will indeed take genderqueer members.
While wanting someone dead isn't exactly new on Alternia, sometimes you don't want to be connected to their death. Sometimes you want it done quietly, and you want it done without anyone questioning your motives. And, on occasion, the person you want dead is too high up, too well protected, or too high-profile for you to kill without some serious retribution.
Some people would elect to send in the clowns, but clowns make noise. When you want someone gone, and want no trace left behind, you whisper for a mime. The BaSoS will gladly end lives if the price is right, and they will do so while leaving nothing at the scene but the body.
And if the price is high, they may not even leave that.
Secretive to the point individual members don't even know each other (and may, in fact, get sent to attack one another if necessary), the only reason anyone even knows they exist is because they allow it. They have to, or they wouldn't get any customers. Small slips of paper left around the city, mysterious letters in mailboxes, pop-ups on random sites. Such things are slipped into the world as needed, to whoever needs it. And they know who needs it. They hear the whispers, the death threats made under ones breath, all the violence wished on another. They hear all of that and more, and act on it in their own ways.
All agents have their horns removed upon joining. A sets of prosthetic ones is then supplied, and removed when they're "on the job" to keep anyone from identifying them by horn shape. Agents also gain custom made tailor-fit suits (to prevent anyone else from wearing them), facepaint with a design their own (merely cosmetic, to mock subjuggulators), gray contact lenses, gloves... And their knife. No one is exactly sure what those knives are made of, but they reflect absolutely no light, are nearly unbreakable, and never dull.
One does not simply join the Silence, though. Agents are found, not made; they do not train assassins, but scoop in those who have talent, a talent which is further honed during their service. Those who show promise are selected by the Hushed Emissary itself... Who also personally disposes those who fail their task.
THE UNVOICE AND VANISHED ADVISERS
Any and all blood colors can be accepted into the BaSoS, and all of them regardless of their psionic ability are taught to use the so-called "unvoice." ALL trolls have some form of psychic power, great or small, but whether or not they can actually tap into it is a matter of practice. The unvoice uses that power to send long-distance messages to other agents, and the most practiced users can send messages across planets if need be.
The unvoice can also be used as a weapon, as those untrained in understanding it experience significant distress as words are suddenly deleted from their mind, sounds suddenly stop in their ears, spots of light vanish before their eyes. All of these can surprise a listener, but those used to it can quickly figure out what words are lost, what sounds they CAN hear, and what their vision has forced them to focus on.
It's an unsettling, sometimes painful, invasive, and impractical method of communication that requires the trainee to pick up on clues the speaker is using, but no one who cannot decipher the unvoice is allowed to be an agent and the complexity of the "language" itself prevents anyone hijacking their messages from fully understanding them.
While an agent is expected to complete a contract as quickly as possible, sometimes they may know nothing about their target. In fact, 90% of the time they will not. It is because of this the vanished advisers were created; these skeletal, faceless spirits in Silence gear act as the physical manifestation of the unvoice and relay information about the target to the agent. They will answer only four questions, and only about the target, but their answers are thorough and correct to the point of omniscience... so choose wisely. Failure to slay the target even after consulting the advisers draws the attention of the Hushed Emissary.
On occasion, when the unvoice would not work properly (such as for an extended conversation), agents can use the vanished advisers to communicate with one another.
THE MIRTHLESS MESSIAH
The patron deity of the BaSoS, though few actually pay tribute to it out of fear that it actually exists, because calling out to it for blessings is said to make it angry. It is a creature of death, silence, order, and oblivion, opposed to everything the Mirthful Messiahs preach. While they usher in a world of freedom and madness with their Vast Honk, the Mirthless ushers in absolute order with the Vast Hush. They want only the best bloods under their control, while the Mirthless cares not for blood color, only talent.
It demands nothing from its followers, and nothing is what they deliver: It's believed that every death by their hands serves to make the Mirthless more powerful as it works towards its goal of ridding the universe of chaos by ridding it of life. Dead space is quiet space, orderly space, beautiful space. Utter, perfect silence.
While nihilistic, this belief is shared by many in the Silence, though not all. Some accept for the rewards that come with it, some for the thrill of bigger and better kills. Whether or not the Mirthless really exists and whether or not they believe doesn't matter, because its hand in the universe certainly does:
THE HUSHED EMISSARY
An agent among agents, the Hushed Emissary (or simply Hush) has rarely ever been seen. Some believe it is the ghost of the Mirthless and the god is dead, some say it's either a fragment, a child, a manifestation, or a servant to the god, some think it's the manifestation of the Vast Hush, and some believe it's merely an agent that has made it to the topmost rank in the whole organization. But anyone who has personally seen Hush work can attest to the fact that whatever it is, it is most certainly not a troll.
Being contract killers is fine and good, but sometimes a mission will come down from Hush, whispered to the highest ranking members, who then pass it down through the unvoice until an agent can make sense of the message. A target, chosen apparently at random--anyone from a beggar to a royal--is chosen to die, and the first agent to decipher the whisper is tasked with the deed. Succeeding in these missions grants the reward of ascending the ranks and being offered more high-profile kills and thus receiving better payment. But missions from Hush are rare, and failing them is punishable with things much worse than death.
Hush is said to be the creator of the vanished advisers, and can hear everything they say and is said to them. It's also said Hush hears all the whispers in the world, even those through the unvoice. It may or may not be true, but what IS true is catching its attention is a very, very bad thing... Unless you succeeded on a mission it passed down. A gift, usually something valuable or something murderous, is always found placed near your recuperacoon.
No matter how secure your hive.
THE CENSORS
The close bond between the Censors of the Empire and the BaSoS is a bond hidden to all but the highest members among both organizations. They work in tandem, the Silence eliminating key figures and the Censors making sure they never existed, records-wise. Many Censors frequently employ the Silence and its members, and in fact many Censors are Silence members.
