#knightfeared

[sorrowveined]

It's strange to think how only weeks ago, Maria could never have imagined the depths of despair she would soon sink into, or the future waiting for her. It feels like those times - the times when her family was whole - were years ago, now; yet she remembers them perfectly, and those crystal-clear memories now only serve to torment her, leaving her shaking under the weight of the pain they bring.

Perhaps she's being melodramatic. But she feels she's earned the right to be, just a little. Her mother, who she may never she again, is a vampire - cursed to be hated and rejected by all, having become the thing she hated the most - a monster. She'll never walk in the sunlight again. And that fate was supposed to be Maria's... that's what hurts the most. The fact that she's desperate to escape but can never run away from, so agonizing it's unbearable - is that in the end, it's all her fault.

And her father's.

Maria feels her stomach lurch at the thought of him. Grinds her teeth together. It's not like she isn't trying to move forward, like she's sure her mother wanted for her - Richter, too... but it's hard, harder than anything she's ever known. She feels useless, too, which is a feeling she hates more than anything. Seeing Richter, though... while it doesn't exactly ease the weight in her chest, his presence reminds her that she hasn't lost everything, that there are still some things worth fighting for in this world. And she's grateful for that, at the very least.

"You're giving me that look again." she says, once she notices him staring. She's not the person she used to be, and it's no surprise that he can see that, but she feels so exposed and ashamed under his gaze. There's no judgement there, though. She can't see any, anyway.

"Are you worried about me? You don't need to be." The bitterness that colored her words before is gone now, because Richter doesn't deserve that directed at him. "I know you're thinking of leaving, but... I'm not completely useless on my own."

@knightfeared ( starter! )

[undyingmedium]

🀧 + immortality?

"Ah, immortality. Such a delicate topic, isn't it, father?"

"I understand the importance of letting go at some point, just as much as I can see the appeal of living forever and seeing the world change from era to era, maybe becoming able to influence it. It is obvious how such a thing is a threat to the balance of the worlds, taking space away from the future and maybe dragging along the distortions from a past that should be long gone... but, on the other hand, if one is capable of earning it, then I believe them worthy of achieving it and would not bat an eye - that's something that can only be reached at a price, and if that is satisfied then there's nothing to cry about."

"However, immortality is useless if you spend it only to see everything you love fade away, or if that meant to learn to never love again. It's negative if it makes you unable to keep growing, or if you don't let yourself be touched by what surrounds you. That's the line I draw; that's the case where it must meet an end."

[petrokhelidon]

" Man, Luffy wasn't kidding when he said you're like a magician at work in here, " Ace's smile lies easy on his lips, dark eyes roaming around appreciatively both at the spread already forming on the table as well as the man at work himself. He knows he's not really supposed to interrupt a chef at work━ Thatch had cuffed him around the ears good-naturedly enough times for being a distraction ( and one time not so good-naturedly when he'd taken a sleepy face dive into one of his meat pies while sitting at the table ) ━ but there's almost something soothing about the chaos of a kitchen and Ace remembers the chaos aboard the Moby Dick fondly enough.

Not that he's keen on dwelling on either Thatch or the Moby Dick nowadays. " Honestly a small miracle you manage all this while managing to keep Luffy out. "

Of course, he's not just here to suffuse Sanji with praise even if he might enjoy doing so to watch the guy fluster just a little, but before Sanji can question him on why he's interrupting he holds up a pair of freshly caught fish━ albeit already looking a little charred around the edges from his somewhat more... unconventional method of catching them. " Usopp told me you might know what to do with these. " / @knightfeared ft sanji

[myristicisms]

Social interactions were so few and far between nowadays, while such a thing would be complete heaven for a younger variation of himself, the isolation had been something he never learned to readjust to. Bumping into his kid brother's crew, while utterly unexpected, hadn't been the worst thing in the world with how welcoming they were and Ace finds he doesn't mind being aimlessly dragged into numerous conversations. Listening to a bustling ship was pleasant, familiar, like the Moby Dick. Like home.

It's on a far smaller scale of course, the Straw Hats having far less numbers than the Whitebeard crew yet still as rowdy. It's comforting, to enjoy the sounds of the sea smacking against wood and to smell booze and a good meal and have company to enjoy it with too. There's constant chatter and it's pleasant enough to keep his attention somewhat until-

Splat!

A warmth that wasn't originally upon his face sticks and slowly cools in the night's breeze, the scent of potatoes and some series of seasonings wafting closer to his senses than he'd originally had before the world briefly went black and he realizes he hasn't finished chewing his food yet, notes the way a curly eyebrow raises at him in bemusement as if to say ‘ get a load of this guy ’ and then the chef, Sanji his name is, continues speaking to him, sort of. The chide draws a childlike amusement to Ace's calm features, freckle ( and gravy ) stained flesh pulling into an apologetic grin while calloused fingers sheepishly rub at the back of his neck.

“ Sorry Sanji! ” He muses, briefly tipping his hat back to meet black leg's gaze. “ I guess chatting and eating food you make is a bit of a no go, makes my heart too happy to beat right. ” The gentle clatter of metal hitting porcelain cuts through his brief silence, honeyed eyes gleaming in the wake of his delight. “ Go on, I'll try not to interrupt anymore. ”

“ you're interrupting me again. ” — from Sanji | @knightfeared

[darckcarnival]

@knightfeared

"The forbidden texts, the forbidden knowledge! How could you make such accusations, my boy band good sir! I am but a simple little creature, I would never."

"Aside from that, you're the one with the biggest thirst asking everyone out to dinner so often so-"

[reveromantique]

@knightfeared | squall.

There are a lot of ways a job can end.

The long hall of the bland motel is empty, deserted, like they've got the whole damn place to themselves. Not that Seifer would care, Squall pinned up against the door to their room as he attempts to blindly unlock it with the key card and leave a very distinct mark right over Squall's pulse, beating hard in his throat.

Shit-god-fucking-damn lock-- he swears an oath and pulls away long enough to look at the card, flipping it the right way up and slapping it back against the box.

This time, the lock beeps, grants them access; he shoves the handle down, pushes forward, and they both nearly hit the floor with how fast the door swings open. Seifer turns that momentum in his favor, toward the nearest wall. The keycard falls somewhere, ignored, buried under his jacket as he rips it off of his arms, hurling back into a kiss with his hands up in Squall's hair, teeth, tongue, the scent of cordite in his nose like the world's finest cologne.

Adrenaline and bloodlust make very pleasant bedfellows, and right now, he wants all of them to focus on Squall, on ripping off his shirt and then Squall's own, on a hold hard enough to bruise, on bared teeth grazing a very specific path down pale skin stretched over taut muscles, a heaving chest.

His knees hit the hideous carpet.

"Gonna start just cutting these off you," he snarls somewhere around Squall's navel, biting there, too, as his fingers make short work of the belt, the button, the zipper.

He gets his reward, broad palm coming to stroke, to relish in the effects of his very specific brand of attention-- it's all worth the hours in the field, the energy that had stretched like a tripwire in the car between them, the near-run down the hall to their room.

There are a lot of ways a job can end.

This is Seifer's favorite, though.

[rcsetorn]

@knightfeared (Chris) for smol

╼ ༺ :||        It was so relieving whenever he came back. Sometimes she'd act like such a school girl, not realizing it until it was too late and then trying to mask the joy with a flushed recollection, hoping he didn't see it. Turning away with the pink dusting her cheeks and a familiar seriousness returning, Beatrix gestured for Chris with a toss of curled tresses.

"I've made us a dinner reservation for 6. I don't want to be late," she'd reason bluntly.

[pitgritted]

                                        plotted  starter  @knightfeared.

𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄’𝐒  𝐀𝐍  𝐀𝐔𝐃𝐈𝐁𝐋𝐄  𝐆𝐑𝐔𝐍𝐓  𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌  𝐓𝐇𝐄  𝐇𝐀𝐋𝐅  -  𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐃  .                                                  eyes  pinned  to  the  hollow  metal  junk  sprawled  haphazardly  at  his  feet  .  well  —  maybe  he  shouldn’t  call  it  junk  [  ;  ]  wonder  boy  put  his  all  into  this  after  all  .  an  experiment  ,  he  says  .  sett  tuts  as  he  thought  back  on  it  .  the  gig  being  sett  wanted  some  new  toys  [  ;  ]  toys  he  &  his  fighters  can  make  great  use  of  .  hell  —  make  a  piece  of  machinery  that  might  even  act  as  competition  .  &  what  do  you  know  —  it’d  be  jayce  up  for  the  job  .  the  lucky  bastard  of  tomorrow  .

                                                  sett  whetted  his  tongue  over  the  barrier  of  white  teeth  ,  smacking  his  lips  matter  -  of  factly  .  he’d  reckon  this  opportunity  would  come  with  some  heavy  weight  payment  ,  hard  on  buck  for  a  piece  of  jayce’s  work  .  but  all  it  was  —  piltover’s  finest  only  wanted  to  test  out  his  training  dummies  .  be  it  if  he  fought  one  on  one  with  it  or  test  the  endurance  of  said  dummies  .  how  much  can  his  hits  lethally  damage  it  ,  if  at  all  .  the  latter  being  sett  quite  literally  damaging  it  without  recoil  .

                                                  sett  retracts  his  fist  ,  knuckles  coated  in  small  cracks  of  reddened  lines  ,  bleeding  just  a  bit  .  not  that  it  bothered  him  .  another  audible  noise  from  him  .  ❝  thought  you  said  this  be  it  ,  smart  guy  .  gettin’  my  blood  riled  up  for  nothin’  ?  my  momma  slaps  harder  than  this  piece  of  shit  .  ❞  the  metallic  jaw  of  the  carcass  was  stripped  from  it’s  skull  as  sett  reaches  to  grasp  the  limp  body  seemingly  ridden  with  ire  concavities  ,  brass  knuckles  shapely  embedded  within  it’s  panels  that  overlapped  it’s  skeleton  .

                                                  ❝  what’s  holdin’  you  from  using  your  hextech  -  whatsit  on  these  things  ?  i  mean  …  i  get  bein’  cheap  ,  but  yeesh  .  hangin’  out  on  me  .  ❞

                                                  the  boss  walks  over  ,  each  long  stride  making  it  almost  effortless  to  reach  the  man  lingering  in  the  corner  of  the  room  .  some  place  jayce  had  managed  to  empty  out  &  use  it  as  some  kind  of  lab  or  whatever  this  was  .  ears  flick  forward  as  his  golden  hues  began  surveying  him  up  &  down  .  noting  the  bulkiness  around  his  forearms  .  canines  click  together  &  there’s  an  amused  exhale  from  his  nostrils  .  ❝  y’  should  start  entertainin’  me  ,  jayce  .  i’d  reckon  you  can  throw  a  punch  or  two  ?  how  ‘bout  it  ?  ❞