#dialogue starters

[mythshire]

⋆ · 𖤓 · ⋆ 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐋 𝐏𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐋𝐄 𝐃𝐎 ··· a collection of graveyard meetings between haunted souls, inspired by the lyrics of ‘like real people do’ by hozier, roleplay sentence starters. genre: gothic romance, mystery, devotion, hurt and comfort, angst.

I saw you standing alone at the cemetery gates and thought you looked like someone who needed company more than condolences.

You had dirt beneath your fingernails when we met, but I decided not to ask what you had been digging for.

We do not have to exchange histories tonight. We could begin with our names and see where that takes us.

Whatever happened before you came here, it does not make me want you any less.

You always visit this grave after midnight. I only want to know why you finally let me follow.

I know there is something you are not telling me, but I would rather earn the truth than corner you into giving it.

You kissed me against a mausoleum and then disappeared for three weeks. I think I deserve at least a coffee.

I do not need to know who broke your heart to recognize what they left behind.

There are kinder ways to learn someone than opening all the doors they have locked.

Whoever taught you that affection must be earned was wrong.

You look at every exit before you enter a room. I noticed the first night we met.

I will stop asking about the scar if you stop pretending it does not ache.

Perhaps we could act like two people on a date instead of suspects in one another’s disappearances.

I brought you flowers, though I imagine you are accustomed to leaving them for other people.

The cemetery closes at dusk, but you have never seemed particularly respectful of boundaries.

You know everything I refuse to say and have somehow remained gentle with me.

You looked beautiful in the rain, which was terribly inconvenient considering how angry I was with you.

I have spent years learning how to leave before anyone can abandon me. You make me want to forget.

We can talk about the funeral another night. Right now, let me take you home.

I do not care where you slept last night. I care that you knew you could have called me.

If you are going to haunt the same places I do, we may as well start going together.

I recognized the loneliness in you because it behaved exactly like mine.

You never ask why I come here, and that is precisely why I keep hoping to find you.

I do not want the polished version. Tell me the truth.

Come closer. The dead are hardly in a position to gossip about us.

You held my face like there was nothing shameful about being found in pieces.

I cannot promise not to wonder about your past. I can promise never to use it against you.

Stay until morning. I am tired of only knowing you in the dark.

I have your spare key in my pocket.

You do not have to tell me whose name is on that headstone, but you should not have to stand before it alone.

There is mud on the passenger seat, coffee in the cup holder, and nowhere else I would rather be.

I thought you disliked being touched until you reached for my hand beneath the table.

No confessions tonight. Just take off your wet coat and let me make you something warm.

I know you came here to be alone. I also know you left the gate unlocked for me.

You always look startled when I choose you, as though you are waiting for me to remember some reason not to.

We can be haunted without making a home of the graveyard.

You need not become less complicated to be loved more gently.

[mythshire]

⋆ · 𖤓 · ⋆ 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐁𝐄𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 ··· a collection of last confessions, war-eve devotion, and borrowed time roleplay sentence starters. genre: romance, hurt and comfort, angst, war. 

I will not bid you farewell. I refuse it, so do not ask such a thing of me.

Come here. Only come to me. We need not speak of what awaits us on the morrow.

Should some ill befall me, there is a letter within my tent. You must not read it unless there is cause.

I never feared death before tonight. Then again, I had no reason to return before I had you.

You have honed that sword as though the blade has given you some mortal offense. Put it down and speak to me.

I deceived you. I am afraid, terribly so. 

Do not dare speak of loving me tonight merely because you fear the dawn will deny you another chance.

They drink and sing as though some grand feast awaits us. How can they bear it? Why are they not all screaming?

I cannot cease counting the hours that remain.

Lie beside me. I cannot endure this silence alone.

If I do not return, do not suffer them to invent some noble falsehood about my death. Tell it precisely as it was.

There is something I would tell you, but first you must swear not to turn my confession into a farewell.

The fire is nearly spent. Shall I tend it? 

I wrote your name upon the inside of my shield. You need not look upon me so.

We ought to sleep. There can be no question of it. Why, then, are neither of us sleeping?

My thoughts keep returning to the orchard at home. Somehow, you are always there, waiting beside the gate.

How many souls in this camp do you suppose shall yet be living when the sun reaches its height tomorrow?

I have never been much inclined toward prayer. For you, however, I would fall upon my knees.

I stole this wine from the commander’s stores. Speak of it to no one. Come and drink with me.

Promise me you will remain behind the lines. I know full well you shall not, but promise me all the same.

My hands will not be still. They have trembled so since the sun went down.

Tell me something in which war has no part. Anything at all. Tell me of your mother’s garden, or of some hound you loved when you were young.

I cannot stop imagining what shall become of me if I survive and you do not.

I have endured six campaigns. This is the first in which someone has awaited my return. I had thought it would lend me courage. It has made the fear far worse.

Do not look toward the ridge. Do not count their fires. Come back within the tent.

If this is to be our final night, I would rather not waste it pretending to be brave.

I left something in the quartermaster’s keeping for you. It is only a precaution—nothing more.

Every soldier in this camp is seeking peace with whatever powers may hear them tonight. I have come to seek mine with you.

The stars appear no different here than they did above our home. It seems almost an insult that they should remain unchanged.

Will you fasten my armor in the morning? I find I cannot trust my life beneath any hands but yours.

I have rehearsed all that I shall say to you afterward, once the battle is won. It has become quite the speech.

They granted us an extra ration tonight. That is how one knows the danger is grave—they fill a man’s belly before sending him forth to die.

I wish I had met you in some gentler place. A market square, perhaps, or upon a harbor road—anywhere that did not have a war fastened to it.

If I fall tomorrow, take my horse. She knows the road home and shall bear you there safely. 

You are the only soul in this camp who can make me remember that I am more than flesh fashioned to carry a sword.

I can scarcely believe I am spending what may be my final night alive quarreling with you. What are we quarreling over, even now?

I do not know how this is meant to be endured—the waiting, the knowing, the helplessness of it. How does anyone bear such a night?

I shall find you afterward. When the field grows quiet and the dust has settled, I shall come for you. Remain somewhere I may find you.

Hold still and allow me to look upon you. I would remember every part of this—the firelight, your foolish, beautiful face, all of it.

You keep assuring me that all shall be well. Enough. Do not speak promises you cannot know to be true.

I shall not sleep tonight, and you need not attempt to persuade me. Only remain awake beside me. That is all I ask.

I have made my peace with all that tomorrow may take from me—everything save you.

[mythshire]

⋆ · 𖤓 · ⋆ 𝐀 𝐓𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐘 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐀𝐆𝐄𝐒 ··· a collection of tournament glory, unspoken devotion, blood & spectacle roleplay sentence starters. genre: romance, rivalry, hurt and comfort, angst.

You shall not ride in this tourney. I care not what vows you made, nor to whom you made them.

Wear my favor. Only this once. None need know what it means—save you and me.

I watched you fall, and I swear my heart struck the earth before ever you did.

You rode as though you meant to die upon those lists. Tell me true—did you?

I need no ribbon bound about my lance to remember whom I fight for.

Half the realm is crying out your name, yet you look upon me as though no soul stands here but mine.

Let me see. Take off the armor and let me judge how grievously you are hurt.

You chose to tilt against him. Do not dishonor us both with a lie—I saw murder in your eyes.

I have sat in those stands since dawn, half-sick with fear, and you come before me grinning like some fool?

I want neither your victor’s wreath nor your glory. I want only that you return to me alive.

The whole court saw you name me queen of love and beauty. Do you understand what you have done?

I can no longer pretend to watch the tourney when my eyes have followed only you.

They bore you bloodied from the field. I did not draw breath again until they swore you yet lived.

That bruise is near as broad as my hand. Sit down—aye, sit—and let me tend you.

My lord husband sits beneath the king’s own pavilion, and you have named me your queen of love and beauty before half the realm.

Whose favor is that? Do not fashion some pretty lie for me. Tell me whose.

Never once have I prayed before a tilt. Today, I near wore the gods deaf with it.

If you die upon these lists, I shall never forgive you. Do you hear me? Not in this life, nor in any life to come.

You ride on the morrow, and sleep will not have me. Each time I close my eyes, I see the lance strike. I see you fall.

They name you the finest knight in all the Seven Kingdoms. Why, then, do you look as frightened as I feel?

I stitched that favor by candlelight, where no prying eye might see. If any should ask, it was never mine.

The way you looked upon me as they lowered your helm—do not look at me so. Not when you are about to ride beyond my reach.

I care nothing for the purse, the title, or the songs they may make of me. I entered these lists for you.

I beg you—yield. Let honor damn itself and yield.

Three tilts upon a cracked rib, and never once did you think to speak of it?

Every knight upon these lists hungers for glory. You are the only one for whom I am afraid.

I cannot be both the favor upon your lance and the secret you hide beneath your tongue.

The whole realm has gathered beyond this canvas, yet somehow this tent is the loneliest place in all the world.

Take it off. The armor, the courtesies, the brave face—all of it. There is no one here but me.

I did not so much as flinch when the others fell. Yet when they leveled their lances at you, I could not bear to look.

I crowned you because I would have all the realm know where my heart lies. I have grown weary of hiding it.

A man might have heard a feather fall when you rode into the lists. Even the king leaned forward to watch.

I stitched your wound while you swore it gave you no pain. Your hands trembled too fiercely for such a lie.

You speak of it as though it were but a game. Men have died playing at less.

The melee is no place for one who has something worth living for—and whether you will admit it or no, you have such a thing now.

Your hands are trembling. Give me the gauntlets; I shall lace them for you.

I have watched men fall from horseback since I was old enough to stand beside the lists. It never mattered until the man falling was you.

You do not ride with rage in your blood. You do not wield a lance so recklessly. Tell me what passed before you mounted.

I shall not sit meekly in the stands while you court death. If you mean to be reckless, then I mean to remain near enough to drag you back from it.

All believe you won that tilt cleanly. I alone saw you turn the blow aside at the final heartbeat.

Do not dare kneel before me. You are bleeding through your surcoat—rise, before the whole court sees.

Of all the knights who rode today, you alone came to my tent afterward. The others went to drink of their glory.

I watched you dedicate every victory you claimed today. Not one was given to me. I counted each of them.

How many times must I bind your wounds before you confess this is no longer a matter of honor?

I found your favor beneath the churned mud after the joust, trampled beneath horse and boot. Shall I return it, or must I go on pretending it means nothing to me?

I heard the lance splinter from across the field. I believe I screamed your name, though the gods know I remember little after.

You claim you fight for the realm, yet after every pass your eyes seek the very same place in the stands.

They are already making songs of your victory, and here I sit, cradling the hand that was broken to win it.

The tourney ends on the morrow—and what then? You ride north beneath your banners, whilst I remain behind these walls?

I did not come to see you win. I came because I could not trust the gods to keep you alive without me watching.

[faeiememes]

⠀︵⠀THE LITTLE MERMAID SENTENCE STARTERS.

⠀⠀⠀⠀♥︎⠀⠀⠀⠀collection of dialogue from 𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒔 𝒄𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒏 story THE LITTLE MERMAID.⠀⠀adjust phrasing, add context,⠀&⠀change gendered language to your needs.⠀⠀part 1 / 2

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀When you get to be fifteen, you will be allowed to rise up out of the ocean and sit on the rocks in the moonlight.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀Watch the great ships sailing by.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀You'll see woods and towns, too.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀Come, let me adorn you like your sisters.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀You must put up with a good deal to keep up appearances.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀If men aren't drowned, do they live on forever⠀.ᐣ⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀Don't they die, as we do down here in the sea⠀.ᐣ⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀They too must die, and their lifetimes are even shorter than ours.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀We can live to be three hundred years old, but when we perish we turn into mere foam on the sea.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀We haven't a grave down here among our dear ones.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀We have no immortal soul, no life hereafter.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀We are like the green seaweed - once cut down, it never grows again.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀Human beings, on the contrary, have a soul which lives forever, long after their bodies have turned to clay.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀It rises through thin air, up to the shining stars.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀Just as we rise through the water to see the lands on earth, so men rise up to beautiful places unknown, which we shall never see.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀Why weren't we given an immortal soul⠀.ᐣ⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀I would gladly give up my three hundred years if I could be a human being only for a day.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀We fare much more happily and are much better off than the folk up there.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀Then I must also die and float as foam upon the sea, not hearing the music of the waves, and seeing neither the beautiful flowers nor the red sun⠀.ᐟ⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀Can't I do anything at all to win an immortal soul⠀.ᐣ⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀Not unless a human being loved you so much that you meant more to him than his father and mother.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀If his every thought and his whole heart cleaved to you so that he would let a priest join his right hand to yours and would promise to be faithful here and throughout all eternity.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀His soul would dwell in your body, and you would share in the happiness of mankind.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀He would give you a soul and yet keep his own.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀The very thing that is your greatest beauty here in the sea - your fish tail - would be considered ugly on land.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀They have such poor taste that to be thought beautiful there you have to have two awkward legs.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀Let us leap and bound throughout the three hundred years that we have to live.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀Afterwards we shall be glad enough to rest in our graves.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀That must mean he is sailing up there, he whom I love more than my father or mother.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀He of whom I am always thinking, and in whose hands I would so willingly trust my lifelong happiness.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀I dare do anything to win him and to gain an immortal soul.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀While my sisters are dancing here, in my father's palace, I shall visit the sea witch of whom I have always been so afraid.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀Perhaps she will be able to advise me and help me.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀It is very foolish of you, but just the same you shall have your way⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀it will bring you to grief, my proud princess.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀You want to get rid of your fish tail and have two legs instead⠀.ᐣ⠀so that you can walk about like a human creature⠀.ᐣ⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀Have the young Prince fall in love with you, and win him and an immortal soul besides.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀After the sun comes up tomorrow, a whole year would have to go by before I could be of any help to you.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀It will hurt; it will feel as if a sharp sword slashed through you.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀Everyone who sees you will say that you are the most graceful human being they have ever laid eyes on.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀But every step you take will feel as if you were treading upon knife blades so sharp that blood must flow.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀I am willing to help you, but are you willing to suffer all this⠀.ᐣ⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀Once you have taken a human form, you can never be a mermaid again.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀You can never come back through the waters to your sisters, or to your father's palace.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀if you do not win the love of the Prince so completely then you will win no immortal soul.

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀If he marries someone else, your heart will break on the very next morning, and you will become foam of the sea.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀Also, you will have to pay me, and it is no trifling price that I'm asking.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

[faeiememes]

⠀︵⠀LOST INSIDE YOUR DREAMS SENTENCE STARTERS.

⠀⠀⠀⠀♥︎⠀⠀⠀⠀collection of lyrics from 𝒓𝒂𝒇𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒑 single LOST INSIDE YOUR DREAMS.⠀⠀adjust phrasing, add context,⠀&⠀change gendered language to your needs.

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀I know you, the girl always lost inside her dreams.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀I know you, the curl of your hair, your lips.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀The way your eyes gleam.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀You know it's true, in darkness you always felt unease.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀If you fall, you lose.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀Darling, I choose to give up my love to you.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀I love my only dream.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀How I hate to lose.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀Fall with me.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀Oh loveliest one, the one that I love.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀You called out to me inside your dreams.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀I know you, inside your dreams.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀The way your tears gleam.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀If I call for you, with unseeing eyes you follow me⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀What is there to lose⠀.ᐣ⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀It's freedom you choose⠀.ᐣ⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀The freedom to love, forever.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀my love will wander dreams⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

⠀⠀❝⠀⠀I know you, trapped inside her dreams.⠀⠀❞⠀⠀

[mythshire]

✧˖°.⚔️.°˖✧ 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐏𝐇𝐄𝐂𝐘 ··· a collection of prophecies, forgotten auguries, ill-favored omens, and those whose lives have long since ceased to belong to themselves. genre: medieval fantasy, prophecy, court intrigue, political drama, angst.

The gods spoke your name long before your mother ever did.

It was never a question of whether the prophecy would awaken, only when.

There are older things than kings, and older promises than crowns.

I fear the prophecy less than I fear those who seek to fulfill it.

The realm has spent generations preparing for your coming. I wonder if it prepared you at all.

You have mistaken a prophecy for a promise.

Every man who has interpreted these words has reached a different conclusion.

The stars have not been thus aligned since the prophecy was first spoken.

There is another verse, though none alive dare recite it.

The oracle begged that your name never be written.

The prophecy speaks of two heirs, though history remembers but one.

Some truths were buried not because they were false, but because they were true.

You bear the face the prophecy described.

The realm has long awaited a savior. It never considered what such salvation might require.

The scroll has outlived kingdoms.

The prophecy did not foretell peace.

I have devoted my life to preventing what now stands before me.

There are some doors that ought never be opened, and some prophecies that ought never be read.

Fate has a curious habit of finding those who flee it.

Every attempt to thwart the prophecy has only strengthened it.

The gods delight in speaking plainly only after it is too late.

The prophecy named no victor.

You ask whether I believe the prophecy. I ask whether it believes in you.

There are many who would sooner see you dead than see the prophecy tested.

It is no blessing to know the shape of one's own ruin.

The child foretold has become the very thing the realm feared.

We have spent centuries preparing for the wrong heir.

Not every chosen soul is chosen for glory.

You were never meant to inherit the kingdom. You were meant to change it.

The prophecy concerns blood far more than birthright.

There are those who worship the prophecy and those who fear it. I have yet to meet one who understands it.

Your ancestors spent their lives hiding these words from the world.

Every generation has believed itself the last.

I would sooner question the gods themselves than trust the certainty of prophets.

Some prophecies awaken only when spoken aloud.

The oldest lie ever told was that destiny cannot be resisted.

There is a reason the seers refused to finish the tale.

You have inherited a burden no crown could equal.

Even the ravens refused to fly the night you were born.

The heavens marked your coming with uncommon violence.

There are prophecies written in ink, and others written in blood.

The prophecy was never meant for mortal eyes.

I begin to fear that we have misunderstood every word.

The final line has been missing for generations.

A kingdom may survive a poor ruler. Few survive a fulfilled prophecy.

The gods have remained silent ever since your birth.

I do not doubt the prophecy. I doubt our understanding of it.

The greatest danger lies not in destiny itself, but in those determined to hasten its arrival.

Should the prophecy prove true, none of us shall leave this age unchanged.

[mythshire]

⋆ · 𖤓 · ⋆ 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐕𝐘 𝐈𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐍 ··· a collection of birthrights and betrayals, the throne that costs more than it gives, love tangled up in the question of who is fit to rule. genre: drama, angst, romance, court intrigue.

I was born to inherit this. From my first breath, it was meant to be mine.

You are not the heir my father chose, whatever claim you may believe yourself to possess.

The council shall convene at dawn, and there decide what is to become of me.

I have been schooled since infancy to sit that throne. No one thought to teach me how lonely it would be.

You are but a second son. By rights, that ought to mean little. Here, it means all.

The succession runs in my blood, heedless of my wishes. I have never once been granted a choice in any of it.

I would surrender my claim for you. 

You look upon that throne as though it were a cage. Of late, I have begun to see the bars as well.

The court has already begun to choose its banners. I must know beneath which one you mean to stand.

You possess the better claim to this crown, and we both know it, though the court may choke upon the truth.

The regency ends when I come of age next spring. I cannot say whether I am prepared for what follows.

My sister gathers allies in the north and calls men to her banners. I do not think she means to wait for the old king to die in his own bed.

I would trade this birthright for a single year lived as any common soul might live. 

The council would have me wed before autumn’s end, that the succession might be secured. Not one among them has thought to ask whom I would choose.

I watched my father die with his fingers still closed around a power he no longer possessed the strength to wield.

You would rule with greater kindness than any of us.

The crown has passed over me and settled upon my cousin’s brow. I have spent my whole life preparing for a future that is mine no longer.

I do not desire the throne. I desire only the right to refuse it, and even that has been denied me.

You were raised in exile, waiting upon a claim that might never ripen. I do not know how the waiting has not broken you.

I have inherited a war I did not begin and a crown I am not certain I have earned.

You would burn the realm to ash before you saw it fall into unworthy hands. I have begun to wonder whether mine are such hands.

The laws of succession favor the eldest son. I had the ill fortune to be born a daughter, and thus wrongly born in the eyes of the crown.

You ask whether I desire this. No one has asked me such a thing in all my life. I find I do not know how to answer.

The realm requires a strong hand upon the throne. I do not know that mine is strong enough. Tell me that it is, even should you have to lie.

You would have made a good queen. I think upon that more often than I should, now that the crown has fallen to me instead.

The ancient laws decree that the crown must pass through blood alone. I fear that law has destroyed far more of this family than it ever preserved.

You stood beside me at my coronation when half the court wished you cast out. I shall remember it until my dying day.

This quarrel over the succession has already claimed two lives. I fear it has not yet taken its full due.

I never wished to rule. I wished only to be free. No one born to this house has ever been permitted both.

You would surrender everything for me. I begin to understand that you count your claim among those sacrifices.

I have worn this crown for but a single day, and already I understand how it broke my father.

You are the rightful heir, and every soul in this chamber knows it, even those who would rather bite out their tongues than confess it.

The throne was never meant to be mine. Perhaps that is the very thing that might set me free of it.

You once told me that power is not inherited, but seized. I did not understand you until I watched my brother reach for mine.

The council fears the ruler I may yet become. On certain days, I find that I fear them as well.

I would sooner lay down my crown than become the sort of monarch my father was.

I inherited this throne, but not the certainty that I possess the wisdom to rule from it.

[mythshire]

⋆ · 𖤓 · ⋆ 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐎𝐀𝐓𝐇 ··· a collection of sworn oaths and rusted honour, the men and women who guard a city that would sooner forget them, loyalty that bleeds but never bends. genre: drama, romance, angst, medieval.

I didn't take this post for the glory. There is no glory in this.

I swore an oath before I knew what oaths cost. I have been paying ever since.

You should not be in this part of the city at this hour. I will not ask again.

My loyalty belongs to the crown. 

Stand down. All of you. I said stand down! 

I have kept this city's peace for fifteen years. You have undone me in fifteen days.

You come to me with this now. At this hour. With blood on your hands and no explanation.

The gate closes at sundown. You knew that. Why are you only arriving now?

There are things I have done in service of this city that I will not speak of. Not to you. Not to anyone.

Lower your voice. These walls remember everything said within them.

I have followed orders my entire life. I am looking at you and wondering, for the first time, what it would mean to refuse one.

You are not safe here. 

My men did not see you. As far as this watch is concerned you were never here tonight.

I have held this post through three rulers. I will not compromise it. Not even for you.

The city does not sleep. Neither do I. We have that in common, at least.

Tell me what you know and tell me quickly. I have neither time nor patience for half truths.

I understand sacrifice. What I do not understand is being asked to sacrifice you.

Nobody passes through this gate without my leave.

I have drawn this sword in service of causes I did not believe in. I will not draw it against you.

You ask me to look the other way. You do not know what you are asking.

A commander does not have the luxury of doubt. I have been doubting since the moment I met you.

The fog comes in heavy off the river at this hour. Stay close.

I know every shadow in this city. I know every place a person might hide. I will find who did this.

You should fear me. Most people do. The fact that you do not is either very brave or very foolish.

I have given this city everything it has asked of me. Tonight it is asking for something I cannot give.

My second will take the watch. You and I need to speak somewhere without ears in the walls.

The law is the law. I did not write it. I do not always agree with it. I enforce it nonetheless.

You, of all people, came to the barracks. What has happened?

I have seen men break under far less. You are still standing. That means something.

Do not mistake my silence for approval, boy. Do not mistake it for indifference either.

I was told you were trouble the day you arrived in this city. I should have listened.

A knight serves. That is the whole of it. Serve, protect, endure. I have never wanted more than that until now.

I have enemies in every quarter of this city. I will not have you become a target because of your association with me.

The order came from above me. I am not certain it came from a place I still respect.

Put the blade down. I am asking you as someone who does not wish to see you hanged.

There are two kinds of people in a city like this. Those who are protected and those who do the protecting. I have always known which one I am.

You should not trust me simply because I wear this cloak. Trust must be earned. Let me earn it.

I will not pretend the law bends for sentiment. I will also not pretend I am without sentiment where you are concerned.

My duty ends at that door. What happens beyond it is between you and whatever gods you keep.

You are asking me to betray everything I have built my life upon.

The city watch answers to the crown. I answer to the city watch. Tonight I find myself answering to something else entirely.

I have buried men I called brothers. I have mourned them quietly and moved on because the realm does not pause for grief.

I am not accustomed to being seen. Only to being obeyed.

Ride out at first light. Take nothing that marks you as known to me. I will follow when I can.

You remind me of something I gave up a long time ago.

I have protected this city from every threat that has come for it. I did not anticipate that the thing I most needed protecting from would walk through my own gate.