yet still you walk

alaric "ric" de vere, 30 mage, marquess of villiers, senior captain, horse girl, "i hate it here," seems intimidating but isn't, not good at handling their own emotions, tries to act cool, is actually rly cool, thinks about one person a lot

[tfwalaric]

OOC: Ric x Maddie

hello m’love lauren ❤️️ ❤️️ ❤️️ i’ma just leave this here lol

i feel like in the timeline of his feelings for maddie -- ric is in the DENY DENY...UNLESS...? stage atm awjfoiwej he noticeably sits straighter, hands clench to his sides, his breathing is stilled whenever she’s around. my boi got it bad and madeline don’t even know it LMAO 

it’s ok tho i like it when my characters suffer (▰˘◡˘▰)

[beccs]

SIMON BASSET  Bridgerton → “Diamond of the First Water”

[ninaahelvar]

hand touching? in my period drama? bitch i’m about to faint

[thefaewars]

MARQUESS OF VILLIERS, SENIOR CAPTAIN ALARIC DE VERE (30) Regé-Jean Page - TAKEN BY JENN Status: Mage Occupation: Marquess of Villiers/Senior Captain of His Majesty’s Most Honorable Aerial Brigade Relationship(s): Dorothea de Vere (sister), Sebastian Talbot (best friend), Horatio Allerdale, Henry Palmer (commanders), Alistair Turner (former commander), Thomas Harrington (best friend/fellow captain), James Mallerton (fellow captain), Christopher Howard, Rebecca Turner, Cecily Turner, Lucy Turner, Eleanor Turner (dragonriders), Isabella Turner (former attachment/dragonrider), Maria Turner (best friend/former flirtation), Madeline North (interest)

nothing is left, now, save ric and thea

everyone else of the line of de vere is gone, their father having been, himself, the last of the line until the birth of his children

he’d had hopes, once, of raising a large and thriving family, but when ric’s mother died in childbirth with thea, his father died not long after

unable to live without his beloved wife – and leaving his children along in the world, without them

ric knows well enough that his duty lies in marriage to continue his line and his name

that fact has been stridently dictated to him by everyone he’s met, it seems, his whole life long, but he cannot seem to care as much as they

ric does not wish the sum of his life to be measured by reproduction but, rather, wants to feel the beating heart of the universe beneath his pulse

he wants to live, not merely to survive until he may beget the next generation of those whose sums shall also be in mere survival…

and, in truth, there is a willfulness to his heart that prefers to astonish those around him, to break the mold, and, frankly, be a touch contrary

which is how a young man of his elevated rank became a dragon dragoon

in truth, for some time, he felt that his role within the monstrous regiment fulfilled all he’d been searching for - adventure, challenge, meaning

and he absolutely reveled in it

that is, of course, until the darker underbelly of what he was doing began to show through a bit at a time

grown up petted and sheltered from injustice in his cozy position, he’d not seen it until he came face to face with it

hunting down those he has come increasingly to see as innocent people is a horror that grates at his conscience

and he begins to wonder if all is not as it seems and perhaps, indeed, there is something more he can do…

his complications do not end here, however, as he often finds himself befuddled by his contrary heart

he once engaged in a casual romance with MARIA TURNER – a large number of dances at balls, laughter behind curtains, a few stolen kisses

really, it was more a close friendship than anything, that was construed by onlookers as a romance

a matter which both parties enjoyed immensely but neither took seriously – but is now encumbered by the fact that she is wed to ALISTAIR

who was, until recently, ric’s commander and who remains the father of many of his cohorts – making maria their stepmother

but his great struggle, to date, is this: he has fallen for MADELINE NORTH…and yet he has little intention of pursuing any woman

as it would too much please a society he has come to detest…

and perhaps he resists it for himself, too, just a touch, as madeline seems to be very much caught up in another man…