#valiantblooded

[redhuntinghood]

It’s rare that he didn’t have to go hunting for meat. Even rarer that he has to hunt for herbs because a certain someone kept forgetting to water the herb garden. (Reid had better at least be watering the actual vegetable garden or he’ll just have to be short one brother.)

Wait a second. In the distance. Is that--? It is!

“Fancy meetin’ you out here in the wood. No entourage today?”

[juniperblooded]

“Do you think I might make a passable princess?” ( vanessa @ gretchen)

language of thorns starters // @lifedenied ; @valiantblooded

Passable, she asks. Vanessa von der Stolzenberg actually asks her if she’d make a passable princess.

Gretchen stares at her with eyes so wide, one could almost believe that she had been alive again—that things like false claims of heresy or beheadings or revenge tragedies never existed. How could Vanessa even ask her such a thing, like it’s a possibility that she would be anything less than extraordinary?

“Vanessa,” Gretchen says, holding the princess’s hands in her own, “you’ve always been far beyond just a passable princess. You are a veritable saint, a capable warrior, a compassionate ruler, a wonderful human being. You are everything that you’re meant to be and that very thing surpasses all greatness.” She smiles at Vanessa and leans forward so their foreheads touch, gently, tenderly. Her voice lowers to a low murmur, a secret meant for only the two of them. “Vanessa, my angel, my heart of hearts. You’ve nothing to worry about in that regard, trust me.”

[juniperblooded]

🤧 ( apollonia to ansel!)

touch meme // @lifedenied ; @valiantblooded

( comforting them when crying )

He wants nothing more than to just push her away, push everyone away. Why are they like this? Ansel wonders. They had wanted nothing to do with him before. They even hated him—for causing Wolfram suffering, for taking Wolfram away even though it hadn’t been his choice, for existing. After all of that, why do they choose to care now?

Ansel cries a lot nowadays, even when he had thought his tears were all used up after he had been revived for the first time. He tries to cry when he’s alone so that people would leave him alone, would not try to come near with their pity at his misfortune.

He just wants to curl up into the smallest ball he wills himself to be—smaller and smaller until he eventually shrinks into nothingness, with no one to pay him any mind as he does so. But he can’t because Apollonia is beside him and Apollonia has her arms around him and Apollonia is rubbing small circles into his back as he shakes and trembles like a flimsy branch caught in the wind. He hates this, and yet he can’t push her away.

It’s Apollonia who reminds him of his weakness: inaction.

Perhaps if she does this enough, these kind and pitying gestures, it might actually spur him to do go through with what he had tried to do before when he stood at the edge of the church window.

[juniperblooded]

🖐 ( Vanessa to Friedrich!!!)

touch meme // @lifedenied ; @valiantblooded

( high fiving them )

Friedrich often plays bodyguard when accompanying Vanessa on these types of reconnaissance missions. It’s not unnatural, considering she’s the daughter of a company CEO and a former political ambassador. (Both of whom have turned to being international spies, but that’s neither here nor there.)

He usually doesn’t really do much other than keep an eye out on her, as well as look relatively intimidating with his wide, muscular build and stern face. The beard probably adds to the Angry Factor. This time, though, a persistent little gnat in the form of a wiry, cologne-saturated teenager had continued to follow Vanessa around like a minnow trying to prey on a shark. It’s actually kind of pathetic how he thinks he can score with a twenty-three-year-old beauty with no interest in guys and a girlfriend hiding in the rafters just waiting to kill him.

He makes his way over to at least give him the mercy of a swift blow to the ego. He spares no time picking up the boy by the back of the collar.

“At least wait until your voice drops before you decide to make moves on girls,” Friedrich says, setting the boy down and turning him to face the opposite direction. “And maybe don’t act like a total creep, too.”

He doesn’t wait to see the boy scurry along, flustered and indignant yet unable to do anything that wouldn’t bring some modicum of shame to his actions. He takes his strides to back up Vanessa, as she finishes talking with their potential client in coded riddles. From above, two slight glints of gold give them the signal to make their exit. Vanessa politely excuses herself; Friedrich quietly follows.

“Good job,” he says after he appropriately escorts her to the passenger’s seat.

“Good job yourself,” Vanessa says, holding up her hand. “Thanks for that save. Don’t think I didn’t see it.”

Friedrich claps his hand against hers amiably. “Someone’s got to look out for you kids while you’re doing this whole spy thing. Besides, I’m the only one out of all of you that can actually drive well.”

[juniperblooded]

🤝 ( from vanessa to wolfram!)

touch meme // @lifedenied ; @valiantblooded

( holding their hand )

He stands at the edge of the forest for the first time.

The world beyond the trees is so unnaturally open. Wolfram would be lying if he wasn’t a little frightened, but he knows that he has to do this—not only for himself, but for the one who is no longer there. 

He feels his cousin place her hand in his and grip it reassuringly. He returns the gesture in kind.

“I want to see the world he saw,” Wolfram says quietly. “I want to see the world he wished to see. I… I can do that now, can’t I?”

Vanessa smiles at him and nods.There are no trees or roots or trails of ash to hold him back anymore. While the forest will always be the home he comes back to, everything out of it will be the adventure he will take Ansel’s memory on. He closes his eyes and breathes in.

The image of a white bird soars high above into the sky, with beautifully trailing feathers of sunbeam. In the wind of its wings, there’s a voice that says We’re free now.

Wolfram takes his first step forward. 

[juniperblooded]

“Are you jealous?~” ( @ gretchen!)

Jealous Lovers Sentence Starters // @valiantblooded

“Yes,” she admits all too readily. Gretchen crosses her arms, bouncing her leg to try and get some of her mental cogwheels turning. She could probably scare them away en masse in the castle, but the king’s consort isn’t exactly human anymore and he knows where she is. They’d be pretty mad about it, for sure. “Of course I’m jealous. How could I not be when you have all these noblemen vying for your hand in droves?”

Gretchen had never really considered herself to care about her femininity or masculinity: she did what she liked and took what she liked. It’s only now, very briefly, that she wishes that she had been born a man or at least pass for one. A rags to riches story is easier to pull off, after all.

Well, her life wouldn’t be hers if things are easy.

“Heists are more fun anyway,” she mutters to herself. Remembering Vanessa’s presence, though, Gretchen is quick to catch herself and give the princess a devilish smile. “I suppose if my angel lets me, I can just put myself in the running, right? You’ll choose me yet, won’t you~?”

[juniperblooded]

◎ what are your thoughts on the friedhof family, friedrich? are you glad you became entangled with them? or no?

My muse cannot lie !// @valiantblooded

◎ - Next to any question to have it answered sincerely, no matter how personal or embarassing. 

“It’s rough keeping up with them, I’ll give you that,” he says. Ever since he died, it’s been one complicated matter to another. Even just talking to Wolfram was a task and a half, considering his negative outlook. Friedrich isn’t used to having to take his time: the Dahlke family had been one of tough love and action. There’d been no time to sulk. “But it’s not like I dislike it. I’m just still adapting to the pace of everything.”

After his brother betrayed and killed him, Friedrich never really thought he would be given another chance at ‘family.’ But he found one in the company of this small child turned not-so-small child, who tries to be smart and polite and the perfect sacrificial lamb to be slaughtered for other’s sake. Friedrich would be spitting in the face of the Friedhofs’ kindness if he didn’t do his damnest to try and fix that.

“…Yeah, though. I’m pretty happy I’m here.”

And, after all their time together. he just wants to see Wolfram happy, too.

[juniperblooded]

◎ reid do regret not protecting peter better?

My muse cannot lie !// @valiantblooded​

◎ - Next to any question to have it answered sincerely, no matter how personal or embarassing. 

There’s no day that passes where Reid doesn’t think on what had happened. The screams had resounded throughout the entire compound. He had been the first to run over to where the elders stood, guarding the entrance to the Trial Ground like stone statues protecting their sacred rite. Peter had been twelve then: still a child.

“I regret a lot of the things when it comes to Peter,” Reid answers, averting his eyes. He sees the image of a small boy with dull eyes—eyes where burgundy wood once shone with the splendor of the forests and the majesty of the hills. He sees him for what he had really been: a child who was forced to kill a very important thing, forced to betray his own heart. “We were close, sure, but admittedly I didn’t spend as much time with him as I should have. My efforts were with my grandfather. I suppose it was because… I expected others to protect him in my stead—others with a much greater power than I could ever hope to achieve. I left him to his own devices a lot and… I realize that perhaps that might be where I failed him.”

Still, the small boy had eventually grown into a slightly bigger young man: strong and quick-tempered and determined to protect everything he’s able to. Reid may have failed him as an older brother before, but he will never repeat that mistake again. “We are the way we are because of that. In a way, we both needed it to happen. So while I regret it, there’s a part of me that’s grateful for the outcome.”