#cinderrose

[miralines]

Cinders and Rose to me are. they're trying so hard to be a courtly romance (chivalric, forbidden yet fated, marked by ritualized yearning and moral truth) while desperately avoiding the reality that they are a prisoner of war and her assigned captor in an edgy war tragedy.

[ebb-is-learning]

cinderrose once upon a time in space and caitvi arcane are equivalent factors

[cinderswife]

in honor of inventing a ship name for cinders x rose, may i present to you some cinderrose fluff? spare eepies for my girls? let them rest? (also bonus, that top image is the canonical height difference between them in the dogstar universe! cinders is 6'4" and rose is 4'10" :3 she's funsized!)

[starbornsoulrider]

this outfit's kinda mid but she isn't

[elizatungusnakur]

‘Loki’s Twilight’ - by CinderROSE on DeviantArt

[miralines]

Happy Pride! Have a cinderrose drawing from a few months ago <3

[miralines]

I do not have the time or bandwidth to write a proper fic of this and there’s only like a 25% chance I ever will, but I keep thinking about a Cinderrose arranged marriage au and am finally posting about it for @mechtober-2024!

I’m thinking it happens as like. Part of a peace deal to end the war between Perrault and Cole’s empire. Cinders volunteers herself to make a marriage alliance in exchange for Perrault retaining more autonomy and freedom than they do in the canon timeline when they lose the war entirely. It’s her idea, a last-ditch effort to save her people, and her father finally agrees to allow it when it’s clear it’s their last chance.

The negotiations are made and Cinders is set to marry Rose Prince, a rising star in Cole’s army and the second daughter of His most noble family. From Rose’s end, this looks like Cole calling her to a meeting and informing her of this new honor. Rose isn’t thrilled with the idea, not least because of all the politics involved, but she’s nothing if not obedient to him. She knows her duty and has never refused his will before, and she won’t start now. So even as she complains to Snow, she agrees to marry the foreign princess.

Cinders is brought to Zantine to move into a guest suite of the Prince family estate, where she’ll live until the wedding in a few months’ time (it takes a while to prepare a celebration befitting the occasion). She’s an anxious wreck– away from home for the first time, stuck in the heart of her enemy’s power, and if she can’t follow through perfectly on this deal her father and all her people will pay the price. At least she’s away from her stepfamily.

The first time she and Rose meet in person is awkward. Rose is determined to be a gentleman about the whole thing, but she doesn’t know this woman or how she’s meant to interact with her in this context. Cinders is approaching it with gritted teeth and a barely-hidden air of self-sacrifice. They make small talk, try to get to know each other.

Both of them are pleasantly surprised by the other. Rose, despite being a tool in Cole’s hands to violently enforce His will, is respectful to Cinders, honest and gentle, and, in a turn of events Cinders has very mixed feelings about, the kind of woman who is exactly her type. Rose appreciates Cinders’ love for her people and her courage in coming here, and is intrigued by the hints of her true personality she lets through under the diplomatic mask. They both have a strong sense of duty and justice, even if it’s to opposite causes, and both have an appreciation for space– Cinders because of her enchantment with the stars and Rose through her hobby of driving and racing ships.

Right off the bat, Rose makes clear that they don’t have to be married in anything but name if Cinders doesn’t want it. They’ll be expected to live together, but Rose won’t touch Cinders without her consent. They quickly establish that they’re on the same page with their union being a business transaction, political theater. They’ll do what they must and try to stand each other in the meantime.

Cinders is still deeply unsure of Rose as a person, especially as she learns more about her career and the atrocities she’s committed in Cole’s name. And Rose remains privately a bit bitter about being pulled into a political scheme. But they get along well enough when they put the issue of the Empire aside (and they have to, both for personal and political reasons. Cinders is marrying into the Empire, and if they want this marriage to work in any way they can’t fight constantly). Rose takes Cinders on day trips in her personal spaceship, and Cinders shares music with Rose. They get closer.

I don’t think they would fall in love by the wedding– I picture this as a slow burn. Before they can fully enter a romantic relationship, Rose needs to learn that the cause she fights for and the tactics she uses aren’t as noble as she thinks, and Cinders needs to figure out how to live with Rose’s past acts and her position in the Empire. They’d need to compromise a great deal. But eventually, of course, they realize they do love each other and become romantic partners as well as wives.

I don’t know what happens next– their relationship would be a bit strained as long as they’re under Cole’s thumb. They also both have a lot of trauma to work through— Cinders from the war and her stepmother’s abuse, and Rose from the army. Rose would have to kick her rapidly-forming dependence on alcohol.

Perhaps Rose quits the army in this AU and Cinders works with Snow in parliament to secretly work against the worst of Cole’s power. Perhaps Cinders and Rose eventually run away together. Whatever happens I think would be delicious– there’s so much you can do with them in this context.

In conclusion. Cinderrose arranged marriage au my beloved <3

[miralines]

A Moss-Covered Home

a little cinderrose ficlet I've been meaning to post for ages, inspired by @bookshopsbizarreblog's suggestion of "a moss-covered home" for their ship name. This isn't canon to any of my other ouatis fic, but I thought I'd finally share it for @mechtober-2024! Alternate prompt: haunted ^-^

Many years after Briar and Cinders have parted ways, years after Cinders mourns the woman who never was her wife, Cinders has settled down someplace. A little cottage in a densely-forested part of Perrault. She’s finally home. It’s terribly lonely, but she prefers the quiet to everyone demanding her time and her stories and her opinions, so she can endure it.

She endured the solitude for thirty years, after all. She’s long used to it by now. Cinders knits, sings, picks up reading again to pass the time, and more years pass quietly.

And then things start happening. She finds objects in places she didn’t leave them. The windows are open when she swore she had them shut. She thinks perhaps she’s just aging; she’s quite old by this point, old enough to be expecting death in the next few years. But things keep happening. More and more. And as time goes on, she begins to feel a presence, warm and familiar.

She doesn’t know if it’s just her mind, but it comforts her. She welcomes the presence. She walks around her mossy cottage, speaks to it sometimes as she does. It’s remote enough here that no one can hear her. Cinders swears sometimes she can almost hear a voice.

She takes to setting out an extra plate for it. It’s her companion in the last years of her life. 

And then her health declines. She knows the end will be soon. One evening, she’s sitting by the fire, resting, feeling the presence. Wishing she could touch her.

As she thinks it, the presence resolves into sight. It’s Rose. Still fresh-faced and youthful, looking the way she did in that lifepod all those years ago, but seeming older and wiser. Seeming to match Cinders. She smiles, and reaches for her. 

Cinders takes her hand.

Her body is found the next morning by the girl who delivers her groceries. Cinders is mourned across the galaxy as one of the last major heroes of the rebellion. And then the galaxy moves on, as they’ve been doing for decades.

In the cottage, Rose and Cinders sit together, invisible to anyone but each other. They’re together at last. The cottage falls into disrepair, the moss overtaking it, but what does that matter to a ghost? It isn’t their grave, but it is their resting place. It’s their home.