#that line.

[sinnerism]

“It wasn’t a story book ending or a fairy tale, it was just life”.

[fiirelords]

Hidden Figures (2016)

[meistwentyinchheels]

day 10 of daily songs:

late post again bc it’s past 12am by this point lmfao i got too distracted playing the lonely shore 😔 anyways this is a really good song

[withloveajaxx]

"what matters is you, not the state of you" but hurt/comfort with injured childe who's ashamed to present himself to you because of how unsightly he thinks he is :)

[ilyzuh]

[johnbottoms]

so no.... i don't have fat stacks or drive a tessy...

[aandrezel]

“I’m sure that you think you’ve been very clever,” Verina said. “But my patience for your interference is entirely used up. Slapping your wrists at every turn was trying enough when you were a child with pretensions to the throne. Now you’ve supplied another to take up your place. Don’t think the honorary title that Their Majesties have left you with will buy my regard, or spare you my consideration.”

“Your Grace!” Elsa objected, rising slightly.

Verina’s eyes widened as she turned to her daughter. Elsa fell back to her seat, as surely as if the gaze carried the piercing power of a flesh and blood arrow. It did nothing to quiet the horror on Elsa’s face.

Ferdinand stood in her place. He was reminded, considering the backward stagger of Verina’s startled shoulders, why he put on the uniform every morning, out there at the end of the world. It was his little offering to the habit of command, stretching as far back as there had been Edels, sewing plateen side-by-side with brass buttons.

“What that honorary title buys me,” he answered, “Is parity under the Charter with a petulant Archtrustee who never bothered to rise higher than the rank of captain. I could censor you in your own newspapers and refuse you shipment of your own plateen. I could block the passage of your prospectors onto the dunes and unload every one of your trains for inspection on the central platform of the Vienna Hauptbahnhof. Civilized respect, Verina, is a custom extended in both directions.”

“The Emperor would never allow it,” she insisted.

“No,” Ferdinand agreed. He took the cigarettes from his pocket, lighting one calmly. “But not before I’d embarrassed you in front of an entire continent. —Or did you think that Standard Tower would give your pride the same consideration that Her Majesty extends to Geneva and the southeast?”

Verina was silent.

“No, of course not,” he continued, more quietly. “You may be ambitious, but you’ve never been a fool. I don’t need to remind you that humiliation is least of what can be accomplished with the remnants of my power. There’s my money to consider, in addition to the title. I could buy your light and your water and still have enough left for the better fraction of your stock.”

Verina didn’t flinch, buoyed by what Ferdinand was certain she imagined was her righteous anger.

“Her Majesty would cast the both of us to the Polish wilds,” she declared, “And never give the matter a second thought. But if Your Excellency would like to embark on our mutual destruction, you ought to do it soon. The money you’ll have left once Amsterdam joins the Republic wouldn’t buy a Demir. Not even your mischief with Wohlhändler can spare you that.”

She paused. Her grandeur was collected from the root as she straightened her skirts. The impression was not, on the whole, far from the one he’d read a thousand times in the immaculate bearing of Elsa-Marie.

“You’ve behaved abominably, Ferdinand-Kristoff,” Verina said. “—But I’m a tolerant and a reasonable woman, despite how you slander me. I would be willing to consider this episode with the Bundesrat as the final growing pains of a bewilderingly immature young man’s passage to adulthood. Put this nonsense with Wohlhändler behind you, and I’ll leave you to whatever diversions you arrange to pass the time in pleasant exile.”

“And if I persist?” Ferdinand demanded.

“I’ll admit the total loss of your generation,” she sighed, “—And turn my attention entirely to the next. What happens to you, young man, is neither my responsibility nor my concern.”

She made for the door. Elsa did not immediately follow.

“Did Mademoiselle Wittlin have something to add?” Verina demanded of her daughter.

Elsa blinked a moment. Ferdinand could see the impact of her mother’s words, filtering behind her eyes. I’ll admit the total loss of your generation, and turn my attention entirely to the next.

Elsa’s hands hesitated, suspended in some horrible stillness at the center of the swinging room. With a sudden and terrible confidence, they delved into her pocket, emerging with the cigarettes. Their years of hidden protest had come to their close.

“Does Your Excellency mind if I smoke?” She asked him.

Verina watched in horror.

“Your Grace is very welcome,” Ferdinand insisted. Konrad leapt to provide the light.

“Elsa-Marie!” Verina commanded.

Elsa finished her drag before answering. The fingers that had been steady through every frustration and embarrassment in Ferdinand’s memory trembled like leaves.

“The train isn’t due out for another hour,” Elsa observed, not raising her eyes. “I’ll meet you on the platform.”

Verina did her best to tower. Ferdinand had never noticed how much smaller she seemed than his mother, despite being the taller of the two.

“You will accompany me now, Elsa-Marie,” she said.

Elsa looked up in Ferdinand’s direction before turning her gaze, at last, on her mother.

“Sometimes it’s necessary to suffer a private embarrassment in order to prevent a public one, Your Grace,” she offered with a voice more steady than her hands. “Shall we ask His Excellency where I ought to go—or would Madame Archtrustee prefer to call the Emperor?”

Ferdinand had never seen Verina so angry. But she had no intention of spreading the word of her lack of control as far as Edena.

“Don’t be late for the train, Elsa-Marie,” she snapped. “—There won’t be another for quite some time.”