pretty bird with its throat slit open wide, wide, says mama don’t love her, says fire wants to be her; inferno-bound thoughtless thing, untouchable, unloveable, needed. to be a queen like this, chin up and choking on the blood that won’t bleed, should know that the cost of divinity is that humanity; stubborn insistence to be alive and burning-bright. know that if there is a godhood, you will never have it. pray for your sorry soul that you will know better than to want it.
send a colour for a deadly sin aesthetic of your character
DATE&TIME: january 15th, 12:30am
LOCATION: vip poker room
STATUS: closed for @fire-birds
the room is full of men in their crisp suits, with their fat cigars and parted hair - some younger than her, bright-eyed things, new money or new stardom - while a handful are older, potbellied and greying, thick rings on fat fingers.
so it’s no surprise that the girl is at place at the head of the table, that red silk clings to curves as easy as water, that there’s a languid control to her movements when she draws her cards, when she sits on her chair, shoulders back, head held high. a smear of red blood in silk and lipstick among a roomful of men dressed in black.
small smiles are not meant to be coy, exposed skin is not meant to tempt. sharp nails pick up cards and sharper eyes read them, don’t miss how another girl slips into the room.
no, not a challenge. a familiar face. there’s that small smile when sol recognizes li hua, there’s that slight beckon of perfectly manicured nails at the girl that needs no words, no second glance to know that she’ll comply.
and throats are exposed when sol turns to li hua when she takes a seat next to her, attendants quick to provide an extra chair with just a sharp look from the woman; exposed throats and long earrings barely brushing the younger girl’s shoulder when she tilts red lips towards the girl.
“watch carefully at how we win tonight, my sweet girl.” sol smiles almost kindly, turning her hand so that li hua can see her cards easily. “it’s easy for pretty things like you and i.”
she places a pair of cards carefully down at the table, touch deliberate and lingering on the cards before returning to her side. eyes flicker from the other players at the table to the girl sitting next to her, a perfect eyebrow arched when she speaks.
“did the ballroom bore you, my sweet? no suitors worth your while?”
I don’t know if you watch the west wing, but there’s a scene where one character asks another why they did something for them that really didn’t have to and the other character responds that they want to because it’s like getting to do something for their cool older brother. When I think of the first time you, Misha, and I went to the bar I think of that scene.
To turn the intensity down a little, Ashley I am so glad to have met you!! You’re just so cool and witty and have very good taste. I want to talk to you about movies and books and get your opinions on music!! From the very time you messaged each me you made me feel welcomed and that you were someone I could talk to. When I was feeling overwhelmed or anxious about all this writing stuff I felt like I could come talk to you without fear of it being this huge blight in a potential friendship. Instead, I felt, and still do today, that you genuinely care and want to help and I feel better off for having come to talked to you instead of letting it fester. Sometimes I wonder why younger me was so worried about those PSA about meeting people from the internet because based on this experience it’s great!! Next time we hang out, let get drunk and cry over the tragedy of King Arthur.
SEND ME ⊗ FOR 3+ HEADCANONS ABOUT YOUR MUSE AND MINE. @fire-birds
01. Emme treats touch hesitantly, something she has learned since she was so young was something not for her to initate in anyway. When her mother made sure Emme knew that her touch was one so easily associated with death, when any kind of contact can trigger an omen from a girl with a mind half already in a dream. When Emme learned this before she knew what she experienced were visions at all. So Emme learned to expect it, to begin the still slow process of navigating a room without the fear of bumping into someone else. Yet, whenever Emme has hugged Li Hua, it has been Emme who initiated it. When acceptance is a stable of their relationship, someone else accepting them for all their sides, acceptance of the self. When Emme first hugs Li Hua it was after a dream of the girl, one of family, and when Emme dreams other’s dreams, she feels it, everywhere, it’s felt, as if there. And this dream was warm, one of the few that are, one of the first times she looked at a family and felt warm. It was of her father. It was the same dream Emme realized that the other woman’s father was gone. And Emme hugs Li Hua the next day without explaining why at first., quick, even with the same hesitation.
02. Over the first couple of weeks that Li Hua first came to the Menagerie, beyond making sure the other knew her way around the train and the circus grounds, the secret routes and tricks to avoiding crowds - from the other workers or visitors, she told Li Hua, after learning her connection to the grounds, what the she knows of the history of the Menagerie, of stories of the people and those she knew in Li Hua’s father’s time here were shared too. Stories that haven’t been told so long except by other veteran members that have long since passed, or haven’t been told in close to a decade anyway, even by Emme to other people she’s known around the circus. As if making sure Li Hua felt as connected to this place as she was, that this could be a place to be connected to her father, and something beyond him too. (While also silently connecting the two women too, by giving someone else Emme’s history too, because many of them were just stories of Emme too, beginning that habit of acceptance, of wanting to tell someone else about herself too.) They shared these moments mostly when Emme was showing Li Hua her way around the funfair and the games, old tales of the phoenix before her told when they dared each other to win the largest plushie prize after the circus grounds were officially closed and before Emme needed to go help close up the fair. Li Hua helping Emme becoming better at the shooting games, while Emme teaches Li Hua the small tricks of the others between quiet retellings.
03. Not many of Emme’s visions are warm, are those that seem more like dreams than nightmares, than terrors. The visions that show her something of just normal days, or shared-dreams that are just dreams, are unusual, thus remembered just because of their rareness, secretly cherished by her mind as a reprieve. One of these was the same dream she first shared with Li Hua, of a birthday surrounded by family, by parents and brother. And Emme remembered each detail without fully meaning to, but also meaning to after she learned the date the dream was set in by some off-comment by Li Hua on her birthday. And from there, a plan was set, because she remembered the small hints of tradition, remembered the warmth of the dream. Emme didn’t recreate the birthday, but she did make sure to follow the full meal her mother made, to draw a picture a picture of Li Hua because she doesn’t have much else to give. To surprise the other woman in her sleeper car that night with it all, hoping it felt just as warm.
DATE && TIME: JANUARY 2ND, 11:20AM.
LOCATION: DINING TENT.
STATUS: CLOSED FOR @fire-birds.
Clinking glasses herald the end of another half-hearted toast, idle words and false promises echoing through the tent with more whispers than cheers. Kai swirls the remnants of wine left in his glass with a disinterested glance, raising the glass to his lips and taking another hesitant sip. It does nothing to soothe the ice in his chest, no heat rising to calm the chill that runs through his veins at the growing discontent in his peers.
He glances up at Li Hua, seated across from him at the long banquet table — the fire-breather seems intensely focused on thoughts of her own, a frown tugging at her lips. Metzger’s short-lived speech had shaken them all, and the sharp interjections from the crowd even more so. Her eyes burn with a quiet intensity, a fire that echoes her phantom wings.
Kai leans forward, catching her eye with a glint of quiet sympathy, of barely-there rebelliousness — there and gone in a flash. “A toast of our own, maybe?”
He raises his glass, tipping his head forward in acknowledgement. “To 真理,” he murmurs, gaze darting behind her to land on Metzger’s retreating figure. If she is a roaring flame, he is a glowing ember, heat closed off and hidden away — too afraid of being burnt to spark his own light.
how I feel about this character: ashley u already KNOW i love li hua??? like you said, she’s a stubborn teenage girl and i’ve said that i honestly would smack this girl over the head for being so stubborn but at the same time she’d be like my best friend and i’d Mom her always?? the way you’ve so intricately developed li hua and her perception towards herself and the world is something i can only dream of for my own characters, and she’s such a fleshed out character that makes it so easy for you to understand her and sympathise with her even if you are like gURL WYD sometimes. i love her, u know this??
all the people I ship romantically with this character: li hua x carter bc contrary to all of my characters’ thoughts, i lOVE THESE TWO SM
a headcanon with my character: hrhhhgh there’s so many okay, you already know i scream forever over sol giving li hua that charm necklace for her bday and li hua just never knowing and still wearing it and thinking it’s a sign of her father when it’s really sol??? and soren and li hua as those friends who love to hate each other, eternally competitive, shut up and fuck me relationship, i’m dEAD okay?? but soren teaching li hua how to lap dance, the closest they’ll get to friendship without being piss drunk -- still needs to Happen
my OTP: li hua x carter, soft rebellion couple OKAY
my OT3: li hua x emme x lenny, also li hua x noah x xue birb squad ;))))
for nadia -
how I feel about this character: girrrrl ok nadia is a menace and a half and wow i’m so gay for her?? i love her take no shit attitude - i’ll take what i want and you’re either with me (or under me) or in my way - truly my everything goals??? ik you haven’t developed her as much as you did for li hua just yet but gOD i’m so excited for you to really branch out with her and discover all her different sides of rage and patience (or impatience) as well as her softer and uncontrollable sides??? a bitch is Ready for her??
all the people I ship romantically with this character: nadia x sweet sweet vengeance JWJEJGKWEG, but also nadia x marci as Monster Girls (enemies with benefits, gUYS)
a headcanon with my character: u already know i want nadia to step all over theo but??? for her to potentially one day have him rEALLY under her thumb and not just because of his fear but because he wants to be?? -insert longest YEEEE BOOOI ever here??- and pls nadia x soren, i need this double crossing plot bc of soren has some dirt and knows a handful of people’s soft spots and he’d be more than willing to work for nadia for the right price - while ofc being the worst kind of shit and having nadia 2 seconds away from knocking him out always???
my OTP: honestly idek for nadia, someone just give her someone either who can challenge her or someone who’ll make her softish??? someone that she DOESN’T want to behead, tHANKS
my OT3: nadia x marci x laurel, monster girl squad??
“Sure, it *looks* safe, but watch what happens when I do this.”
non-romantic fluff meme
eyebrows are arched in perfectly sculpted boredom until the flames of the baton grow larger and larger, dragonfire as the girl blows with a deep breath at the flames. he’s not sure if it’s merely because flame calls to her, or if it is just another circus trick, but boy is amazed all the same.
“that’s fucking amazing!” he’s enthusing, remnants of firelight now in his eyes as he watches the girl, all too smug for his liking, twirl the batons in her hands easily. “‘s it phoenix shit, or did sean teach you? shit, i wonder what else he can teach me - i mean, i asked for him to let me do some sword swallowing with all the shit i swallow but he said no, ‘cause of some stupid reason like safety or whatever - “
he’s bounding towards her all the same, a flurry of excitement and silver hair reflecting under the circus tent.
“again, again! think you can burn down the bleachers back there? bet you you can’t!”
“Going to the mall alone is boring. Besides, I need someone to tell me how great I look in all the clothes I try on.”
non-romantic fluff meme
“you’re gonna have to find someone else then.” he rolls his eyes, arms crossed and foot tapping impatiently. “‘m not here to make you feel good about yourself li hua - honestly, fuck that. literally, i just need you to stop wearing your goddamn thrift shop clothes every time we go out to the club. seriously. it’s embarrassing. the least you can do is pretend like you almost tried. almost, li hua. i’m not even asking for the full thing and yet you still disappoint me.”
he sighs dramatically, unfolds his arms to tuck a strand of hair behind her ears, tutting softly under his breath. “shame. starting to think i should stop calling you pretty bird and leave it just at bird. god.”
but there’s still the faint flickers of a smile as he tugs at her arm, feet already picking up pace as they walked towards the brightly-lit strip, boy quick to blend in.
“alright, so first things first for you - a good suit…”
