He knows that be can trust her to give him the truth — clear, ringing honesty -— even if it hurts him.
#02 HERO
He is different to her because he is neither hero or monster, but something in between; he is the liberator of the oppressed with a madness that exhilarated her — he can set her on fire with just a look and she can’t get enough.
#3 MEMORY
He has no memory of his mother other than the ridicule he receives from those who question his divinity; sometimes he is glad of it, and other times he finds himself despising her for her naivety, but mostly he just misses her — but how can you miss someone you’ve never met?
#04 BOX
He thought to give her a gift once — a set of shears crafted by a eminent artisan ( they were floral print, a stark contrast to how deadly they truly were ); he keeps them in a box now, not enough courage to see her face to face after so long to give them to her, too afraid by the thought that he should even want to; he breathes out and pulls Ariadne flush to his chest as if it might help the loss he feels that he can’t explain.
#05 BREATHE
It’s the summer of 1958 and only four minutes until midnight, four minutes until she’s eighteen; she’s just a runaway, jumping into the car with a greaser five years her senior, not giving a damn for once about all the responsibility her young life has to shoulder — and he’s just a reckless man in a leather jacket, leaning her back onto the hood of his blue, 1955 T-Bird; the metal beneath her does its best to cool down her skin, but her man is stubborn ( her man, she thinks again in reverence ) and he has an uncanny ability to set her skin aflame with just a word — he does it even now, his leather jacket and all its hard zippers tickling her breasts through her dress and his hand between her thighs, spreading sin everywhere he touched until she’s twisting beneath him, shying away from the glinting stars that spy on them from above; “You’re a master-work,” he breathes, her name falling from his lips, his smile pressed into her neck; she responds with a resounding laugh, “Just shut up and kiss me.”
#06 HURRICANE
Aisa was never quick to anger before, and the fact that she screams aloud now is enough to show how much she’s changed; a hurricane of rage and distress, as if after all these years of empathy, her emotions are trying to catch up on her — the sad part is, she doesn’t even know why she is so distraught; she’s simply lost in herself.
#07 WINGS
Hermes was not a foolish man, despite what his behavior may say about him; he saw things that other people didn’t because he could go where others could not, do and say things others didn’t have the courage to do — the connoisseur of the Gods, the go-to man; it is why he sees what Dionysus does not have the nerve to acknowledge and accept: death follows him, certainly, but with it comes love that is not finite like the other lovers who once held his hand.
#08 COLD
Dionysus hears from many a mortal and many a God speak of how cold death is, and it makes him laugh — “cold to the touch, you mean,” — because he knows the difference.
#09 RED
There is no blood spilled from this death; Ariadne hangs like a doll from a string, and Dionysus weeps because it is yet another lost to him; even though she knows that it is wrong, feels his pain and wishes to comfort him, there is some satisfaction in seeing the princess gone that is more personal and deep than others she has taken, and it is only then does she begin to realize just what her presence in his life truly wrought.
#10 DRINK
She drinks him in with her eyes, drowning in him; he doesn’t offer his hand the way she wanted him to.
#11 MIDNIGHT
Ana stays up until today turns into tomorrow, remembering the way Damon touched her just moments before, the way he ran his fingers through her hair and asked why she stayed, why she bothered; she remembers how she didn’t have an answer — at least, not then — “because I love you, ye’ silly bastard.”
#12 TEMPTATION
He watches her flicker around the fire like a wisp of smoke, there and yet not there; the moon illuminates her skin to silver, highlighting every curve, every sweeping mound of her body and — not even the wine can keep his mouth from being so dry.
#12 VIEW
“Will you stop — ” Dionysus shoves on thick, purple robes with aggravation, “ — devouring me with your eyes —”
“ —I didn’t know you had hair down — ”
“Don’t. Don’t even say it.”
#14 MUSIC
He is so very glad the music has started otherwise he is certain she could hear how fast his heart was beating even though they were on opposite sides of the room.
#15 silk
His fingers glide along her skin like he is touching silk, but even as a lover of fine, materialistic thing, he comes to the conclusion quite suddenly that she is far better than any silk he’s ever touched — it doesn’t sigh his name the way she did whenever he grazed with a touch.
#16 cover
Annabel has never been sick once in her life, so it comes as no surprise that her mother panics and keeps her home, the very day that her English class would be handing out information on their next project; she panics, as she often does when something is not in her control, and texts Dean in the hope that maybe, just maybe, he’d been in class today long enough for him to catch the assignment;
“ — don’t worry, i got you covered — ”
he shows up an hour later, an hour after the class ended, and he’s climbing over her windowsill and tucking the paper beside her; she hates to admit that she cried when she saw him.
#17 promise
“You have to have what mortals call ’a little faith’ — ”
“ — I can’t — I don’t know if - ”
“ — can’t or won’t?”
“ — Dion — ”
“ —we’ll meet again, Aisa. I swear on your pretty head..”
#18 dream
It doesn’t feel real when he touches her; it is surreal, ephemeral, and sometimes she grips him too tight to make sure he’s still there.
#19 candle
The wax burns her hands when it spills, forming hard and warm once it settled on her skin; she heard him shuffle behind her, barely a hairs breath away, and he says, “Aisa, I had no idea you were into such kinky foreplay — ”
— she laughs.
#20 talent
Perhaps she is biased or just inexperienced, but the way he curls his fingers inside her, working her fervently into madness, has her thinking he has a gift Clotho forgot to mention to her when she spun him up —
then again, knowing her sister might be the reason she’s crying out his name right now isn’t something she should conjure in her mind when his fingers deftly play her like a violin.
#21 silence
It’s moments like this when Dion simply holds her, that she can forget the disquiet of her mind.
#22 journey
He’s traveled so far and for so long, he almost forgot how it felt to stay in one place, with one person, long enough to feel safe.
#23 fire
He holds her like embers in his hand, stoking each lick of the flame until she’s burning from his touch; she grabs his wrist, guides him where she aches, but he’s persistent on prolonging the light he sparks in her, and it isn’t long until she’s flickering, holding on to him the way fire holds to wood, clutched around his hand and wailing his name.
#24 strength
It’s such a simple thing, but when she hears the satisfying pop of the grape jelly jar beneath Dean’s hand that she’s been trying to open for the past four minutes, she can’t keep the stupid smile from her face.
#25 mask
It’s the first showing of the play, and despite her display of bravado, she’s nervous; Dean’s there too, of course, but with a mask he took off the shelf — old, ridiculously silly — and for a moment she forgets her nerves and laughs, laughs until she has to grab her side and suck in air; she doesn’t miss the way his eyes soften, or the smile he shows only for her.
When you’re 18, you think you have it all figured out. And Alice had everything figured out. She’d go to a grand old school, the one her boyfriend went to, get a degree, have a family, and everything would be perfect. Organized. Logical. She would never admit that she thought of this more often than people would suspect, or that she hated the word perfect unless it pertained to the order of her life. She had a right to do that didn’t she? When you grew up trying to help raise your two younger siblings, fun became more of a controlling thing, and she lost the sense of what youth was supposed to feel like. Maybe that’s why she felt she belonged with Dominic, because he was just the same way and he knew exactly how to keep order. She needed that in her life when things got out of hand.
But logic, and order, and sensible reason just went out the window tonight. Dominic insisted he wanted to go to a party at a neighboring house, a kid that went to a private school and had big toys to play with because his parents had the money, and Alice said she would go as long as he stuck around. She thought it might be a subtle party since Dominic rarely went to these things, but she should’ve listened to her gut and realized it was just what you’d expect from a horny eighteen year old boy.
Half way through the party, Alice was drinking more than her fair share of the booze, eyes locked on the blurry figure of Dominic talking sweetly with his friend’s younger sister. The girl was pretty, pretty in a way Alice wasn’t, with long red hair and a clean, crisp floral dress. It isn’t until Dominic’s face lights up with a smile does Alice grow infuriated, and she’s moving through the crowd to push her boyfriend away from the others to chew him out on the balcony of the house. Her words are slurred and her movements are hasty, and there are parts in her little rant about his carelessness and lack of attention where Dominic has to steady her. She knows he’s worried, she knows that when he says he’s going to take her home after he says good-bye is sincere, but every time his eyes cut over her shoulder to the other girl, her face turns red with anger. Or maybe it’s the beer.
With a few curse words and an embarrassing display only a crazy girlfriend could manage, she locks herself in the bathroom and ignores Dominic’s pleas for her to come out. But she can only think of one thing, and that’s to go home; but she can only think of one person, and she says his name in the most pathetic way possible.
“Danny. I want Danny.” And then silence.
She assumes Dominic gave up, because she can’t hear his voice anymore over the din of the party, but after an hour of moaning on the ground and heaving into the toilet, she hears a girl with a seductive voice from outside the door trying to pick up her next prey.
“I haven’t seen you around in school. Are you with Dominic’s group?”
“Look, I’m just trying to get to the bathroom. Can you move?”
It’s just as irritated and concerned as she expects it to be, and when he’s at the door, his voice softens considerable. There’s no more irritation, just worry as he murmurs her name into wood, “Alice? Alice, I know you’re in there.”
She starts to cry. It isn’t a beautiful, sweet sort of cry that people see in movies, but ugly, desperate tears of relief that have her pushing herself to her knees. “Danny.”
“The door’s locked; you’re gonna have to open it, crazy pants.”
Irritation floods her. “Just jiggle it!”
There’s a brief pause where, she can safely say, his nose is scrunched with doubt and reluctance before he takes her word for it and the doorknob jiggles violently, until the door swings open and he’s rushing in, crouching down in front of her and cupping her cheeks in his hands.
“You look like you drank a brewery,” he laughed, but she doesn’t get angry. He may be laughing, but his hands are so warm, and his bright eyes express more concern than she was expecting.
“I asked for you.”
“Yu-p.” His lips make a popping sound, a smug quality entering his voice. “I know.”
“I want to go home now.”
He doesn’t bother to question her, but instead slips his arms beneath her knees and the other beneath her arms, her own hands locking behind his neck, and lifts her up with ease. After maneuvering around the crowd of drunk, hyper teens, she feels Danny come to a stop and the sound of his voice rumbles out from deep within his chest and into her own.
“I’m taking your girlfriend home now, just to let you know.” She heard a vague sound of acknowledgement, and Danny scoffs, not even ashamed of the barely concealed ‘fuck face’ he shoots at Dominic as he turns to leave.
As he settles her into the passenger seat of his car, Alice takes the moment to watch him through half-lidded eyes. He pushes her hair back, pulls the seatbelt around her neck until it sat comfortable on her clavicle, and then proceeds to hand her two bottles of water and a paper bag with almost an amused, 'you know, for when you gag your guts up,’ and then moves to start the car.
“So,” he starts off with a low whistle, tapping his finger on his lap and looking at her with the occasional not-so subtle side glance, “Dom likes gingers, huh?”
“He was still with her?”
He gave a noncommittal hum. Alice thinks. Not much thinking, mind you, as the alcohol is still quite in her system, but she tries. She pictures the perfect, orderly life she had in mind and puts Dominic in there, but he doesn’t fit the way he used to. His perfect edges are all rounded, worn out from her trying to shove him in there so often. He did once, maybe when Alice’s feelings for him were new and exciting, but now it’s not so. Now the boy she thought would be her comfort turned out to be the one who fell for another girl’s charms, and the one everyone lustfully envied was taking her home with great care.
It’s not like she hadn’t tried fitting Danny into her plan, because she has, but he doesn’t fit either. With Danny, there isn’t plans, and even then, everything seemed to work the more she thought about it. They balanced each other out, and it hasn’t been until the day he took her to the fair did she realize it. But people talked, and the idle gossip the popular girls bitched about in hushed voices behind her back in class was that Danny was promiscuous. Unlike Dominic, he was wild and fun, spontaneous and theatric. He was the type of guy people wanted to be, and the guy girls wanted to be with, but also the guy you wouldn’t expect to settle down with just any gal. It’s why she always tried so hard to ignore his advances, because at first that was really all they had been and she had just been the unattainable for a little while, but it was different now. But how did someone go about making that happen when they were so scared they weren’t good enough, they’d settle for someone less? What if she did say yes to all his silly flirtations; what if they did become a thing, how long would it last until he got bored when he finally had her?
“Danny?”
“Hm?”
“Thank you.” He was always there for her, and he rarely, if at all, asked for anything in return. “I’m really happy to see you.”
Maybe it would be different if she let Dominic go, and chose him like she wanted to. Because his eyes, when they turn to her, are full of surprise and yet a tender warmth; it’s hard to believe she’s never noticed before.
“I’m not surprised he likes gingers,” she says nonchalantly all of a sudden, a glum expression taking over. “I tried to be good enough, but here we are. I’m a drunk piece of trash, and I think there’s some throw up on my dress—”
“Alice, stop. That’s not true. I mean, yes, you do have throw up on your dress…” He cringed, “but you are good enough. For a lot of people. Just because Mr. All About Me can’t get that through his head, doesn’t mean you should just accept it.”
“You’re bias.”
“A bit.”
The silence falls over them again, even when he reaches over to squeeze her hand and she refuses to let go. No one speaks until her house comes into view and he’s guiding her out of the car.
“So how are we gonna sneak you in?
"We’re not. I’m going to walk through the door—”
“Won’t your grandmother get upset?” He gave her that look.
“Yes, but if I just explain—”
He cut her off again by waving his hands about in the air, and then turning around and bending at the knees. “Get on spider monkey,” he cooed, eyebrows rising up and down suggestively enough to get a laugh.
“No, I’m not getting on your back. It may not look like it, but all that junk food goes to my butt.”
“I’ve noticed.” He dragged his tongue across his lips, and she wasn’t in the right mind to be peeved. Instead, it made her cheeks flush. “Come on. Squats aren’t exactly kind on my legs, you know.”
After a great sigh, she wraps herself around him from behind, legs around his waist, arms around his neck, chin on the space where his shoulder met the nape of throat. He was a lot warmer than she was expecting, and a lot sturdier. He always looked much thinner beneath those shirts of his.
“Don’t suffocate me, okay?”
She gives a small sound to let him know she understood, but as he started to climb the tree beside her window, she gripped him tighter, legs slipping below his waist. She doesn’t realize what her calves brushed against until he groaned faintly.
“Is this turning you on!?”
“No!” He paused only to chuckle, before adding, “Yes.”
They were already halfway through her window when she pinched his side, and his grip slipped in surprise and they went tumbling on the ground in a mess of limps and painful moans. Thankfully, her grandmother was a heavy sleeper, but little Cole was not.
“Alice?”
“Yes?”
“Are you okay?”
“I just fell out of bed, but yeah, I’m fine. I’ll just bruise in the morning.”
Once the feet scuttled away, Danny pinched her right arm. “Idiot.”
“You’re the idiot.” She stuck her tongue at him, before attempting to pull herself up on her bed by the sheets. She might have fell if it wasn’t for the hand on her butt giving her a helpful push. “Free butt touch.”
“I think I deserve it.” His smile, although still smug, was much softer as he watched her settle down into the comforter. She stares for a little while longer than necessary, and he notices. The way his eyes dilate, the way his fingers brush her hair over her shoulder, it all makes her stomach twist and turn. Any other day she might have blamed it on the drinks she consumed, but she couldn’t ignore it this time. When he leans in all promising like, Alice can feel her breathing pick up and there’s no way she can stop herself from gripping at his forearm.
And then he ruined it by reaching up and bunching her lips together in his fingers. “No. No kissing. Bad girl.”
Any sound she makes is muffled until he pulls his hands away, and she swats at him the moment she gets the chance. “I wasn’t going to kiss you anyway.”
“Sure looked that way to me. Besides,” he pauses, expression turning serious, “if I’m going to kiss you, I want to do it when you’d remember.” By then she’s already feeling things she would’ve tried to convince herself not to if she were sober, but it isn’t until she gets a good look of his expression — that all consuming, baby blue look forget-me-not look — that has her eyes burning up again with tears.
“Aren’t you just a cry baby tonight.” He might have intended to say it humorously, but his voice was too warm, his fingers too tender as they brushed her cheek. “Why you crying now?”
“Because I like you,” she blurts out, and his fingers stilled on her skin. “I like you so much.”
“Then date me.”
“Yeah, and then how long until you get bored of me? How long until you find another girl or boy, who’s prettier and stupider than I am? And then you’d be all gung-ho about leaving me to die by alcohol poisoning at some pervy stranger’s house filled with other pervy teens just like Dominic.”
She can see he’s trying not to laugh. “That’s not going to happen.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I just know.” His gaze darkens, his fingers brushing the tears from her lips until she could taste salt and the perfume of his skin. “Alice, I know.”
She grips at his hand on her cheek, squeezes until he does the same back, and then he’s pulling away. “Can you write this down on that note pad over there? That... That I want to remember this.”
“Seriously?” He turned to look at her desk, before back at her with a smile. “Should I write ‘Danny is amazing, and I really want to be his lady love?’ in pretty cursive?”
When she gives only a short nod, it doesn’t escape her notice the shock that settles on his gaze, so when he clears his throat to rid himself of the surprise, she only smiles.
“This is so odd. I’ve never been the responsible one. What do I say?”
She gave him a pointed look, and he merely laughed, although the sound rumbled in his chest, all warmth and sunshine. She hated how much she loved it.
“How about: don’t be a fool, stay in school?”
“Danny.”
“Okay, okay. I’m going.” It’s clear he’s reluctant to leave, and it’s clear by the way she watches him so carefully that she doesn’t want him to either. “Call me when you wake up. I’ll help you through it, and tell you what to eat.”
“Or you could take me to get something to eat.”
His eyes light up. “I’ll hold you to that.”
“Good-night, Danny.”
“Sleep tight, Alice.”
He blows her a kiss before he climbs out the window, and she feels like an idiot when she pretends to catch it, but that doesn’t stop her from holding that closed fist close to her heart as she falls asleep.
It was the first thing she could say when she found him again, hand raised to stop him from opening his mouth any further and distracting her from her purpose in coming here. She had spent some time considering her options, but the more she thought, the more she realized it would be better this way. Once she had been able to do her job without bias, without getting caught up in emotions, and it had been so easier. There hadn’t been any pulling or pushing, just a steady stream of focus. It had been better. That is what she tries to tell herself on the way over here anyway, fingers curling into the sleeves of her black robes to the point where the ends were frayed, the threads coming undone and tickling her wrist. If she didn’t have this, she didn’t think she could concentrate on the words she had prepared.
“You wouldn’t have been a mortal; you couldn’t have been.” Her voice is softer than usual as she explains to him what she had done to save him when he was born, just one small twist and what was written in stone became undone. The only reason he was met with so much pain was because he was an unknown variable, a miscalculation in the threads, but he made it better. He endured to become something better, but sometimes she forgot just what he went through to get to this point only because she looked to the future, and rarely stopped to observe the present.
“Because it is my responsibility, I can help you get them back.” She doesn’t specify who, at least not right away. She takes a moment to let her words sink in before she utters them: Semele. Ariadne. Aisa made it sound so simple, but even with her words as firm and as sure as they were, her hands were still clenched tight at her side. “There will be consequences, there always is, but you won’t be facing them alone.” He wouldn’t be facing anything if it all went well. Ananke could be generous if generous meant losing any sense of self.
When you close your eyes, what do you see?
Do you hold the light, or is darkness underneath?
In your hands, there's a touch that can heal,
but in those same hands, is the power to kill.
Are you a man, or a monster?
Pamela doesn’t move around too much in her sleep. It’s a trait she picked up sleeping on a ship with a crew of men for so many years. There isn’t a lot of room to go around so she had to make do with what little sleeping space she had.
☆ - happy headcanon
Pamela’s happiest memories are from her childhood in those moments of peace in between the pirate raids. She’s almost romanticized the time when her family was whole in her mind because she misses it and her parents so much.
☯ - likes/dislikes headcanon
Pamela highly values loyalty among the crew which is something that’s partially been taken from working with Tristan for so many years. That’s why she’s especially disgusted by the news of the Temperance mutiny even though she is glad to see Tristan’s motive for staying in town gone.
♒ - cooking/food headcanon
Pamela is a functional cooker. She can’t do anything fancy, but can cook enough things with enough variety to get by. While on the Trident, she and the crew mainly survive off of non perishable foods that don’t require on-ship cooking.
ൠ - random headcanon
Pamela is very fertile since Pleione had over a dozen children and her mother had a couple thousand. If she ever did settle down, she’d probably have a few kids at the very least.
◉ hc about pamela's goals future plans as of right now
◉ - Any other question of your choosing
Pamela doesn’t have any long term future goals at the moment. Her sole focus is to ensure that she, Clara, and the Trident crew survive this war and get out alive. After that, she’d be happy to go on sailing the sea until she dies.
Freya is happiest when she’s wandering through the forest barefoot. It makes her feel one with nature, and nature seems to be one of the few things that can bring her peace of mind. If she had it her way, she’d wander the forests at night under the stars, but she knows that it is too much to ask for.
☠ - angry/violent headcanon
Freya lashes out with her words rather than her fists. Despite her wishes, she knows she isn’t yet able to defend herself, but that doesn’t stop her mouth from getting ahead of her and getting her into trouble. She doesn’t think when she lashes out because she’s accoustomed to getting away with so much.
✿ - Sex headcanon
Freya is a virgin who has never entertained the idea of having sex, though she knows that it will happen in the future eventually as it is ultimately her job to bear her future husband babies. As of right now, she does not enjoy this thought, mainly because she doesn’t want to have making babies be her main job in life, but she expects that he will be the only person she will ever have sex with.
♥ - family headcanon
Freya is very protective of all her family, but she can’t help but feel a little distanced from them as the war continues. Merek is often busy attending to his duties as a knight, especially with the public being so upset with the knights, she doesn’t want to bother Maia since she now has two huge Royal Weddings to plan, and she and Estella seem to only be able to argue about the city’s events and what she should do about her job as a soothsayer.
▼ - childhood headcanon
As a young girl, Freya would often play pretend that she was a knight going off on grand adventures to rescue damsels. She would play swords with Merek using sticks as swords and stolen pot lids from the kitchen as shields.
ൠ - random headcanon
While Merek was going through squire training, she’d beg him to show her things that he’d learn like riding a horse like a man, or how to hold a knife. Some things he’d indulge her with, like horse riding, others he would not.
☾- Sleep is not something Colette gets too often. Her mind is too awake to quiet down. Happens when you have dozens of voices screaming in your head about past. Though when she does get to sleep her dreams tend to be happy. She remembers her past lives and her family through happy memories.
♥- Colette’s family that she left back at home is something she tries not too think about too much. Seems odd for her to worry but when she thinks of them she does. Her father is the main cause of her worry and she does find herself concerned he could figure out where she ran off too.
☮- Since it can take awhile for Colette to make friends, seeing her odd behavior does tend to drive people away, she covets the friends who stay close to her. They become more like family than just friends.
♡- Romance is something Colette wonders if she has the luxury for. Or if it could even ever be possible for someone like her. Deep down she likes the idea of it but she pushes off the thoughts.
∇- Aging is something that has been odd for Colette. Ever since she remembered who she was it has been odd to age up so fast. Being a god it seemed her time has stood still for her. But now she has watched the time tick by, just as it has in the past life. It feels almost like a count down until she has to start everything all over again.
ൠ- When she was younger her mother would hire many tutors to teach Colette the different skills she might need as a Lady. One of the many skills she learned was music. While she has not practiced in awhile Colette has always had a love for the piano and music.
