People who are trying to cover up the misogyny and fatphobia in this portia situation or making excuses to not be as outraged as they would be for other li's Are going to be catching these hands and that isnt a threat that is a fact
bubblegum-monroe replied to your post “some people in this place: nadian is abusive because nadia doesn’t...”
The woman who mistook him as a murderer that he himself also believed is TOTALLY worse than the man who gave him a deadly plague as "motivation" ������
ya m8 how could we possibly believe that the guy (who was about to get a new body as far as he knew in like 3 days) who tried to murder julian just because he could, throws things at him, calls him a hack and screams at him, calls him a nickname that he knows he hates, etc. is worse to him than the woman who gave him the benefit of the doubt in every route despite his confessing to the crimes, created an entirely new justice system just to try to get him off the hook, and brings him on vacation with her multiple times as a close personal friend. Nadia that bitch :/ I can’t believe she’s done this
Hey what if when Asra brought the apprentice back they had to relive their final memories of being burned alive at the lazaret
hey what if u sit down and think about what u’ve done to asra :c
*
When they receive word of Lucio’s death – burnt to ashes in his own bed, consumed by flames – Asra thinks of the heart-half he had carved out with the Magician’s blade, only a few hours ago, and he runs. He sprints through the palace to a portal in the garden, hidden away deep in the maze, and runs through it, stumbling into the shop’s back garden.
He fumbles open the locked backdoor, runs upstairs, and –
There they are. His love.
They’re sitting naked on the bed, their back turned toward him. He can see their spine against their skin, thin and sallow. His breath comes in harsh gasps, and a stitch is developing in his side, but he can only focus on them.
I want them back, he had said, begged, and the Magician had brought them back as they’d been with the plague. Or… they had come back as Lucio had lived: sickly and weak.
He is heartless, but his chest hurts, and his eyes sting. This is what they’d become when he abandoned them, when he had turned his back on them when they’d needed him most. When he had been a selfish coward.
He says their name, just once, but they don’t react. He finds a blanket and walks over to them, his whole body shaking. He half-expects his legs to give out beneath him, so he sits on the bed beside them as he drapes the blanket over their shoulders.
At the touch of fabric against their skin, they start screaming.
Asra winces, casting a muffling spell on instinct – he’s used it often enough to silence Lucio’s rants – and moves to sit on the bed. They’re not looking at him. Their eyes are wide, but sightless, focused on something he can’t see, and they won’t stop screaming, won’t stop clawing at their face, fighting him when he tries to gently grasp their wrists.
And then, as suddenly as it hard started, they stop and go still, their expression smoothing over into cool neutrality once more. Asra moves the blanket to cover them more fully, then says their name. When they don’t react, he waves his hand in front of their face. That makes them look at him, and he smiles through his tears.
“Hi,” he rasps. “Hi. I’m here. Things will be okay now, I promise.”
He reaches up to touch them, and they jerk away from his fingers, eyes widening and nostrils flaring. They scramble down the bed, kicking the sheets off the bed, breathing hard as they clutch the blanket to their body. Their gaze on him is aware, familiar, but – the panic in their eyes is not. They look like…
They look like…
Asra slowly holds up his hands, his stomach plummeting, heavy in his gut as a stone. “Do you know me?” he asks. They don’t react. Asra swallows, licking cracked, dry lips. “Love. Do you understand me?”
They seize at love, drawing their knees up and pressing their forehead to their knees, whole body shaking. Asra rises to one knee, reaching for them before he thinks better of it, his fingers curling into his palm.
I want them back.
Then you will have them back.
But not whole. Not in body, or memories, or any other way that matters. Not them. He hadn’t been careful enough. This was his fault. This was all his fault.
“Okay,” he murmurs, voice breaking. “Okay. I’m sorry, I won’t say it again.”
He sits back, putting distance between himself and them, and keeps his hands balled in his lap as he watches them rock, whimpering, sounding as terrified as he’s ever heard them. (Had this been how they’d felt after he’d left? Had this been their reaction, when he’d slammed the door and never looked back until it was too late? Was there anything he touched that he didn’t ruin?)
His hands shake, and he exhales. “Okay,” he says again. First step – make some tea. Make sure they know he doesn’t mean them any harm. Make sure they can understand him. Make sure they know they’re safe. His love is more important, right now. They’ve always been more important.
Then, once that’s done… then he can deal with what comes next.
;-; th… thank u friend… got long, so put it under a cut
Full Name: Ziah, daughter of Reyansh and Samiya
Gender and Sexuality: cis woman, a bicon
Pronouns: she/her
Ethnicity: She is Nahuṣan, which is basically fantasy Babylonian, with ancient and classical Indian and Sumerian influences. Whenever someone assumes she is Prakran she is quick to tell them she is not, though she never tells people she’s Nahuṣan because the Nahuṣa died out as a tribe around 240 years ago.
Birthplace and Birthdate: The Nahuṣa were centered around a village I have yet to name, but it was on one of the northern coasts of the continent, and is now as of The Arcana’s timeline in Prakra, though it wasn’t Prakran until after Ziah was well into her 50s. The calendar changed while she was in the Waste, so she doesn’t know her true birth date, only that it was sometime in spring. Asra picks a random spring day to celebrate her birthday and she goes with it. Asra’s celebration is the first time in a long time she’s celebrated her birthday, and she loves it too much to ever admit it out loud.
Guilty Pleasures: She thinks they’re utter garbage, but she enjoys reading the romance novels in Vesuvia’s local library (which gets shuttered during the plague and re-opened when Nadia wakes up). She also splurges on incense, scented candles, and odd little home decor trinkets. Her home with Asra is filled with weird lil knick knacks.
Phobias: Post-amnesia, she is afraid of spiders, but will never kill them. Instead she gets Asra to take them outside. She’s attempted to do it herself, but it always ends with the spider skittering away unexpectedly and Ziah screaming bloody murder. Asra had never heard her scream until then so he basically had a heart attack until he learned what was going on.
What They Would Be Famous For: Selling the best artisan soap on Etsy and taking #aesthetic photos of it. Not much, but... she works very hard to be forgettable, and would never, ever want to be famous.
What They Would Get Arrested For: Tax evasion and production of counterfeit money bc she uses pebbles to pay for everything and doesn’t pay taxes
OC You Ship Them With: @katharaya’s Rei (pls everyone go read The Secrets We Keep Come Out In Our Sleep and Gemini’s Dreaming), I think, is an excellent match for Ziah. Not only is there a height difference (in our infinite wisdom, she made Rei 4′9″ and I made Ziah 6′0″) but they balance each other out and are just very supportive of and Softe with each other, which is something Ziah definitely needs.
OC Most Likely To Murder Them: I really can’t think of anyone. Ziah values self-preservation most out of everything, so she wouldn’t do anything that would risk angering powerful people enough that they’d want her dead. If she did, she would make sure to disappear somewhere she couldn’t be found. If she doesn’t want people to find her, they won’t find her.
Favorite Movie/Book Genre: She really enjoys well-written mysteries! It’s happened rarely, but sometimes if she gets really absorbed in a book (regardless of whether Asra has read it) she talks a lot about what’s going on in it, who the characters are, etc. She would ironically enjoy rom-coms and favors indie films.
Least Favorite Movie/Book Cliche: She wouldn’t like horror movies. She’s seen enough blood and violence and death, she doesn’t need fiction to saturate it in her life even more. She also isn’t a fan of love triangles and conflict that happens as a result of lack of or mis-communication. She rants to Asra about it at dinner, to his endless amusement. “This wouldn’t have happened if she had just talked to him!”
Talents and/or Powers: lmao so I made her OP but you know,,, it comes with immortal territory. Her greatest magical strength is, of course, water & ice bending, because of the connection she has to Tiamat. After that is blood bending, which she learned from the Devil. She has no real innate talent for other magical abilities, but she spent a lot of time studying under various magicians, and so she’s capable in some form, whether competent or not, in fortune telling (either through cards or scrying), fire bending, darkness manipulation, sex magic, illusion magic, and other magics. She is hopeless at dream manipulation; that’s one of Asra’s strengths compared to her. Non-magically, she makes excellent soap, is also skilled in herbalism and midwifery, and can play the kalimba.
Why Someone Might Love Them: At her core, Ziah has a gentle, Softe soul, and when if someone gets close enough, they start to see how that reflects in her words and actions. She easily forgives loved ones, and attempts to approach most people with a sense of compassion and kindness. Her loved ones’ well being is extremely important to her, to the point that she will almost always put them above herself. To watch her icy, distant, protective shell melt under someone’s loving attention and care is a beautiful thing, and she rewards those efforts tenfold. Also, when she smiles? wrow.
Why Someone Might Hate Them: She is very proud and set in her ways. Once she makes a decision, the only thing that could change her mind is if her own life or the lives of loved ones (i.e., Tiamat or Asra, that’s it) are in danger. If she has no emotional connection to you, she can also be cold, brusque, and rude, which has ruffled more than a few feathers. She’s also selfish and closed-off from the rest of the world, meaning people have to work very hard to get close to her emotionally. Asra’s first kiss with her was six years after he’d known her. ;-;
How They Change: It starts small at first. Her smiles, once forced and obliging, are still close-mouthed, but they are warmer, more genuine. The hardness in her eyes when she looks at him softens, and melts, and eventually disappears. Three years of knowing her bleeds into four, five, six, nine, eleven, and her softness only grows more apparent. She begins to reach back when he reaches for her; more importantly, she begins to reach out. The distance between her and the world, between her and Asra, slowly closes, and eventually vanishes altogether, and with enough time Asra forgets she had ever been distant in the first place.
Why You Love Them: i really love ziah because of her personal journey. it took a while, but listen, her growth? amazing. her slavery is only four years, ~.013% of her life, but it had a massive impact on her, manifesting in ptsd (especially intrusive thoughts), anxiety, and lingering trauma from emotional, verbal, and physical abuse. she worked hard to escape a violent life, and to make a peaceful life for herself instead, which i think is an admirable accomplishment for anyone. most of all, i LOVE the “icy person melts around the one they love” trope and that is just… exemplified in ziah and asra, especially at the beginning. i’m soft.
