[ He is stressed. Tim has spent the last few years embroiled in politics, witch-hunts, and hearing that have ruined people's lives, and he left that life for good reason. He isn't happy to be back in the thick of it, to have his speculation about Alia, a friend, cause so much fighting among the manor's guests. But his loyalty to Alicent is strong, and Aemond too, by association. ]
I am. There's been seven deaths in the last week, with no end in sight.
[ there is a lot packed into that sound. agreement, humor, displeasure, a low-thrumming anger. tiredness, as well. aemond slowly moves away from the wall and pins his gaze to tim, walks to him with the stalking grace of someone all too used to occupying a room and centering all attention onto himself. there's nothing arrogant about it. he simply is. ]
We expected opposition from the beginning. [ he reaches out and up to tim's collar. what a strange shape it is, he thinks, smoothing it out with the back of his knuckles. ] These things tend to progress quickly, unfortunately.
[ knuckles remain pressed to the hollow of tim's throat, like he's counting the beat of his pulse. maybe he is. ]
And you've been loyal. More than I thought anyone would be, for my mother.
[ Tim's eyes dart down towards Aemond's hand, and then back up to his face. It's unusual, but he doesn't shy away, just looking at him, questioning. ]
We've been close since she showed up here, like I said. She's been understanding, towards me. It might sound unlikely, but there are struggles that we share.
[ Or shared. From the way he speaks of her, he must assume that Aemond knows not his mother's true feelings for Rhaenyra. With Embry gone, Tim is the only one who does. There's a bond there forged in steel, the ache of longing for what's wrong for you, in a world that wouldn't have it. Everyone else here is so much freer, they don't understand the fear that Tim and Alicent do. ]
And I saved her once. It will have been a waste if I let any harm come to her now.
A blood debt. And you still give of yourself more than ever. You're a worthy man, Tim Laughlin.
[ and unlike the kiss he had bestowed on aegon, aemond cups tim's face with both hands pulls him close, kisses his forehead like a brother might, and his cheeks, his brow, the corner of his mouth. ]
[ There's much about the customs of Westeros that Tim does not yet know, but Aemond's words - those he understands, and the tone with which he delivers he ones he doesn't - imply a sort of ritual, a ceremonial nature to his touch that sets him at ease. He's still, but not stiff, relaxed as Aemond kisses his forehead, his cheeks, the edge of his mouth that turns into a gentle smile when he pulls back. ]
[ everything is moving slow tonight. even the air seems to still, and aemond moves as though a cat lazing in moonlight, a sharp and knifelike smile cutting its way across his face. ]
Valonqar? It means brother.
We are joined as brothers now, Laughlin. You've as good as bled for our house. I should not forget it. Nor should you.
[ he has to let tim go eventually, doesn't he? ]
Do you think it possible to be proud of someone who isn't family?
[ Repeated back softly, as best he can, though his accent is decidedly American. Tim's hand reaches up to cup the side of Aemond's face in turn - it seems like the proper thing to do, to return the gesture, accept the title. Even with his own vote still uncast, Tim stood with them as they made their claim, he offered his testimony, he gave them the name to begin with. His loyalty has been established. ]
I won't.
[ Thumbing over Aemond's cheekbone, tracing the bottom of his scar. ]
Sure it is. Friends, lovers. I've met people here worth being proud of.
[ he rare allows anyone to touch the scar; he permits the touch only for a second before drawing his head aside, and takes tim's hand in his own. long-boned fingers grip tim's wrist in a firm hold, calluses from swordfighting rough against the thin skin where the veins sit under. ]
I have neither. But I have you now. [ he feels — light, and alight, buzzing with an energy he's not oft known. ] Mother's getting ready, she'll be out in a few moments.
[ his cheek is warmed where tim had touched him. still warm, lingering. ]
Pity that silvered hair won't look so good on you.
[ If Aemond is holding his wrist just right, he'll feel a slight uptick in his pulse. It's the stress and adrenaline of this whole situation, surely, the odd sort of intimacy from the gesture of brotherhood, the vow of allegiance.
The way he declares I have you now - as if he were a suitable replacement for both things - is unusual, but not enough to pull his hand free. Any physical comforts from someone he can trust are welcome. ]
It would look awful on me. But she won't stick out so much, with my brown around.
Pity, too, that you think my mother comely only as a man might see a painting. Your interests lie elsewhere, as you've said.
[ and he does have a decent shade of brown.
whatever it is, aemond feels himself move before he realises it, pulling tim to him and kissing him properly on the mouth. there is nothing brotherly about it; there is a pained hunger in his restraint, a roiling heat in the way aemond slips his hand to the base of tim's nape to hold him steady.
what's a little kiss between family? they're brothers now. he makes it so. ]
[ He feels the pull, and despite his confusion, he doesn't fight it. Tim would struggle to explain why if you asked - every emotion is running high, he feels newly bonded to him, he's weak and afraid and ready to cave to any genuine affection - he hasn't thought about Aemond this way, hadn't considered any of Alicent's family, on principle. His web of entanglements is messy enough as it is.
Still, he kisses back, softly, held in place right where Aemond wants him. Tim trusts that he would unhand him if he wanted him to. Maybe that's why. ]
...and yours?
[ That's gay behavior where he comes from, brother. ]
[ pillowing a man is fine, as long as he isn't receiving. some useless wisdom heard from the whorehouses his brother so loves. aemond doesn't care that he remembers it now. ]
I am ever loyal to House Targaryen. Blood of my blood, kin of my kin, dragons us all.
I welcome you now, Tim Laughlin. [ and tighter, nails digging into the skin of tim's neck, just enough to remind him of his hold. ] If you betray my mother, I will never forget it.
[ he kisses tim again, more forcefully this time, more teeth and a grasping need to devour. ]
[ Tim is ready this time, willing to match the energy aemond is giving him, clawing at the front of his shirt, biting sharply at his lip not to harm or to threaten, but to show himself not docile. He's proven his loyalty to Alicent several times over, it's insulting to have to listen to this warning. He'd be a coward to go back on it now, and even if he's no true knight, a coward he is not. ]
I would give the same warning to anyone here.
[ Defiant, pulse thrumming still in Aemond's hand a second longer before he firmly pulls his hand away and takes a step back. ]
If you want me as a brother you'll have to believe that. Quit wasting time.
Edited (I'm smarter after my coffee) Date: 2024-10-07 09:24 pm (UTC)
[ blood, the copper taste of it on his tongue. this may well be the first time he's truly smiling in his stay here in the balfour's keep. ]
I do want you, Laughlin. But you might want to be certain that you want what we offer you. The words of the Hightowers are We Light The Way, and my mother has led you to us for true. But I am Targaryen, and our words are Fire And Blood.
[ he licks the blood off his lip, savouring the sting of spit meeting an open cut. ]
I'm glad to know you bite, Tim. Thank you for this gift.
[ he raps on the door, then, and opens it for tim to enter. he'll see queen alicent within. ]
[ Hours later, when the team meeting disperses (let’s not think too hard about timelines okie dokie?), Tim agrees to go...looking for the blood. A plan which makes him question his sanity perhaps more than anything else that has transpired in the last week, but Aemond was right about one thing for sure – it's better than standing idle and waiting out the clock. He’s withheld his vote against Alia in hopes of new evidence, so better get to finding it. ]
Thank you for not saying anything in there.
[ Around Hawk, and Alicent, Koby and Quentin too. Murder drama is more than enough, Tim’s on edge as it is without adding anything on top of it. But it was...weird, weird that it happened at all, weird that he allowed it, let himself get absorbed into the fucked up power play of it all, that he glances at the small mark at the corner of Aemond’s mouth and feels satisfaction where the shame should be. He doesn’t have time for that. Every waking moment (which is most moments) has to be about figuring this out, so that as many people survive the game as possible. The rest can wait. ]
I have to remind you though, of what I said when we met. I don’t care about House Targaryen, or Hightower, or Atreides. I care about Alicent. And you, and Alia. Your histories and your mottos don’t apply to me, even if you call me brother.
[ Fire and Blood. That’s not him. It won’t ever be. If that’s a mark against his loyalty, Aemond should have said so before...well, before whatever all that was in the hallway. ]
What is it that you worry for, Tim? Was there a lover amongst the men present earlier? I do not intend to keep you as one, if that is your worry. Mother wants me to make an advantageous match, however that should happen.
[ he wears the cut on his lip with an arrogance, to be true. he appreciates the pain of it; it's something to focus on, something to feel that is different from the impotent rage he's been nursing all day.
that said; ]
My mother holds love for an old friend who has betrayed her. I cannot speak for the nature of it, though I have my suspicions.
I will not tell my mother. You are free to, if you like. But you received me. Did you mislike it?
There was. Hawk. [ And Quentin, but that’s casual, there’s no possessiveness or expectations between them other than friendship and protection. Perhaps that Tim have a little better sense of self-preservation. ] And I don’t think you’ll be doing any marrying here.
[ The question of Rhaenyra? Bypassed. Not his place to speak on it. ]
It’s not about liking it or not liking it. It’s not appropriate, and you shouldn’t be doing that with anyone while everyone’s emotions and tensions are through the roof. Your mother and I betrayed a friend to both of us to keep you from being named. Don’t make this any more stressful than it is.
[ it sounds like an accusation, the question itself, but aemond asks it with true curiosity. true that there is some judgement wrapped around the question; do you presume gratitude from a prince? but he is vowed to their house now. aemond has accepted him.
what is the matter, then? ]
Tell me why I should not have, then. Give your reason.
I expect for you to not make things more difficult on purpose.
[ Tim didn't do it for thanks. He did it because he believes, genuinely, in Aemond's innocence, and he knew that if a better name was not offered, his would be. But he doesn't like this tone, as if he should be grateful to be spared Aemond's violence, as if he's a tagalong and not the one who, at risk of losing Alia and Quentin, offered the name in the first place. He demands no gratitude, but will take no disrespect. ]
I just told you. We need to stay focused. That wasn't brotherly. [ The first ones, the soft ones to his forehead, his cheeks, those don't trouble him. ] If a brother is what you want, you have it. That means you need to respect me enough not to put my other relationships at risk.
[ he can't help the disbelieving, disparaging laugh that escapes him. ]
You are not so blind to have missed that Rhaenyra's husband is also our uncle. Or that mine own sister and brother are themselves married to one another, or that my cousin Baela is betrothed to our nephew Jacaerys. Would that our father married Rhaenyra to Aegon, Helaena would be my wife, my sister of only two years my senior.
You wish me treat you as family? Should I take you to a whorehouse, then? Have you stripped and made to fuck a woman as old as your mother with your friends watching? Should I barge into your quarters and humiliate you in front of a lover by calling you an animal of base and immoral desires?
Family is grief and offence and torment and—— We rise above each other's faults, accept each other's deviances. A united front, as our upbringing insists upon.
You should be happy for the distance still afforded to you.
None of that is normal, Aemond! I am sorry, that all of that has happened to you and your family. I am.
[ It's genuine, even in the face of his mocking laughter. Family doesn't have to be grief and pain and betrayal. Tim shows his off with smiles and pictures and love, the only liar among them being himself. If he is abandoned it will be a result of what he's done to satiate that base and immoral desire, the consequences of his own actions, not a treatise on family as a concept.
Tim's sincere sadness for the tragedy that's befallen them doesn't stop him raising his voice, getting flustered and wound up. Exactly what he didn't want. ]
It isn't any of that to me. And it won't be, here. You have the opportunity to learn something here that isn't pain, you should take it.
[ this time he's looking at tim like he's grown a second head. or become something truly foreign to him, something utterly confounding. ]
I'd prefer we kept the pain, truthfully. I liked that you bit me. The audacity of it was thrilling.
[ he speaks it plain and simple, as if he's only reminding tim of the weather. ]
You act as if I've begged you to kneel at my feet and become slave to my whims. Is your lover so insecure that he will judge you for a wandering interest?
[ Tim just rolls his eyes, internally doubling down on not doing that. He’s accustomed to pain, he expects pain, it’s all he can recognize or respect. That’s no way to live. If Tim withholds it, maybe he’ll realize that. ]
It’s complicated between us. But he won’t judge me. [ Probably. Tim’s demanded enough space to ensure he knows the truth of what he really wants, but that was before all this. Before Embry. How many wandering interests until he’s just made a whore of himself and abandoned Hawk when he needs him the most? He’s not interested satisfying Aemond’s need to play little power games, pushing him for no reason other than to try to prove that he’ll break. Tim's been toyed with and made a fool of enough. ] I don’t like being a passing interest.
I'm not interested at all. [ is he? who knows. ] Not the way you think I might be.
It is not a lover I seek from you, Tim. You'll find that elsewhere as you already have, and I'm certain your current paramour would prefer it over your entangling with someone like me. You will burn; that is what we do. One of the reasons we marry blood to blood — we are born from fire, the last of our people to have dragonblood after Old Valyria was claimed by the Doom.
[ he's still surveying the grounds as he speaks, noting the pristine nature of their surroundings enough that slight disturbances would stick out immediately. misplaced gravel here, scuffed stone there. no blood yet. ]
I want a brother I can stand. Someone I won't desire to burn to a crisp, or suffocate in his sleep. Would you not welcome a kiss from your family?
He will burn. He is burning. He's been burning. When Tim arrived in this place, he was certain that it was purgatory. A last-ditch effort to save himself from his sins, to cleanse his soul and make himself worthy of light, of love - not the mortal kind that says one thing and does another, that scolds and flees and muddles the head, but love that is divine and eternal. Without argument. Without fear. It's not what he was taught this place would be, but nothing else made sense.
He's been mocked for this, disbelieved. Tim hasn't cared. The trickery, the illusions, the wolfman that rampaged through the grounds and threatened the lives of two of the people he cares about most in this or any world - tests, a measure to see if they're good enough to do the right thing in horrible circumstances. He hasn't cracked, he hasn't doubted, he hasn't missed a prayer.
And suddenly, in the last week, seven people have been killed. The chapel desecrated, blood still thick in his nostrils, paranoia and screaming and fear everywhere he looks. The chaos will only get worse as the game continues. The bodies will pile higher. The flames licking at his heels will only get hotter.
They're in Hell. And he will burn. He deserves to, for his part in enabling this exact same thing back home, the slower, more insidious, more subtly violent version of it. The witch hunts on little to no evidence that ruined lives, had people turning on friends and family alike. Years of this. Tim was filling glasses of water at the head of the table then, complicit, and he's no better now for actively participating.
He fingers the cross around his neck as they turn the corner to peek into the alcove. ]
Where I'm from, kisses between family aren't so heated. Do you really not know the difference?
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2024-10-07 05:32 am (UTC)I am. There's been seven deaths in the last week, with no end in sight.
[ Always sincere. He's stressed, but he's here. Duty calls. ]
Is she okay? Alina came at her hard.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-07 05:47 am (UTC)[ there is a lot packed into that sound. agreement, humor, displeasure, a low-thrumming anger. tiredness, as well. aemond slowly moves away from the wall and pins his gaze to tim, walks to him with the stalking grace of someone all too used to occupying a room and centering all attention onto himself. there's nothing arrogant about it. he simply is. ]
We expected opposition from the beginning. [ he reaches out and up to tim's collar. what a strange shape it is, he thinks, smoothing it out with the back of his knuckles. ] These things tend to progress quickly, unfortunately.
[ knuckles remain pressed to the hollow of tim's throat, like he's counting the beat of his pulse. maybe he is. ]
And you've been loyal. More than I thought anyone would be, for my mother.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-07 05:56 am (UTC)We've been close since she showed up here, like I said. She's been understanding, towards me. It might sound unlikely, but there are struggles that we share.
[ Or shared. From the way he speaks of her, he must assume that Aemond knows not his mother's true feelings for Rhaenyra. With Embry gone, Tim is the only one who does. There's a bond there forged in steel, the ache of longing for what's wrong for you, in a world that wouldn't have it. Everyone else here is so much freer, they don't understand the fear that Tim and Alicent do. ]
And I saved her once. It will have been a waste if I let any harm come to her now.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-07 06:10 am (UTC)[ and unlike the kiss he had bestowed on aegon, aemond cups tim's face with both hands pulls him close, kisses his forehead like a brother might, and his cheeks, his brow, the corner of his mouth. ]
Iksā ñuha lentor biarvas isse. Valonqar.
{ you're always welcome in our house. brother. }
no subject
Date: 2024-10-07 06:30 am (UTC)What does that mean?
no subject
Date: 2024-10-07 12:55 pm (UTC)Valonqar? It means brother.
We are joined as brothers now, Laughlin. You've as good as bled for our house. I should not forget it. Nor should you.
[ he has to let tim go eventually, doesn't he? ]
Do you think it possible to be proud of someone who isn't family?
no subject
Date: 2024-10-07 01:18 pm (UTC)[ Repeated back softly, as best he can, though his accent is decidedly American. Tim's hand reaches up to cup the side of Aemond's face in turn - it seems like the proper thing to do, to return the gesture, accept the title. Even with his own vote still uncast, Tim stood with them as they made their claim, he offered his testimony, he gave them the name to begin with. His loyalty has been established. ]
I won't.
[ Thumbing over Aemond's cheekbone, tracing the bottom of his scar. ]
Sure it is. Friends, lovers. I've met people here worth being proud of.
let's pretend all of this is happening after j'accuse
Date: 2024-10-07 01:52 pm (UTC)I have neither. But I have you now. [ he feels — light, and alight, buzzing with an energy he's not oft known. ] Mother's getting ready, she'll be out in a few moments.
[ his cheek is warmed where tim had touched him. still warm, lingering. ]
Pity that silvered hair won't look so good on you.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-07 02:29 pm (UTC)The way he declares I have you now - as if he were a suitable replacement for both things - is unusual, but not enough to pull his hand free. Any physical comforts from someone he can trust are welcome. ]
It would look awful on me. But she won't stick out so much, with my brown around.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-07 02:44 pm (UTC)[ and he does have a decent shade of brown.
whatever it is, aemond feels himself move before he realises it, pulling tim to him and kissing him properly on the mouth. there is nothing brotherly about it; there is a pained hunger in his restraint, a roiling heat in the way aemond slips his hand to the base of tim's nape to hold him steady.
what's a little kiss between family? they're brothers now. he makes it so. ]
no subject
Date: 2024-10-07 03:19 pm (UTC)Still, he kisses back, softly, held in place right where Aemond wants him. Tim trusts that he would unhand him if he wanted him to. Maybe that's why. ]
...and yours?
[ That's gay behavior where he comes from, brother. ]
no subject
Date: 2024-10-07 03:35 pm (UTC)I am ever loyal to House Targaryen. Blood of my blood, kin of my kin, dragons us all.
I welcome you now, Tim Laughlin. [ and tighter, nails digging into the skin of tim's neck, just enough to remind him of his hold. ] If you betray my mother, I will never forget it.
[ he kisses tim again, more forcefully this time, more teeth and a grasping need to devour. ]
Do you understand me?
no subject
Date: 2024-10-07 04:23 pm (UTC)I would give the same warning to anyone here.
[ Defiant, pulse thrumming still in Aemond's hand a second longer before he firmly pulls his hand away and takes a step back. ]
If you want me as a brother you'll have to believe that. Quit wasting time.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-08 02:02 pm (UTC)I do want you, Laughlin. But you might want to be certain that you want what we offer you. The words of the Hightowers are We Light The Way, and my mother has led you to us for true. But I am Targaryen, and our words are Fire And Blood.
[ he licks the blood off his lip, savouring the sting of spit meeting an open cut. ]
I'm glad to know you bite, Tim. Thank you for this gift.
[ he raps on the door, then, and opens it for tim to enter. he'll see queen alicent within. ]
no subject
Date: 2024-10-08 04:11 pm (UTC)Thank you for not saying anything in there.
[ Around Hawk, and Alicent, Koby and Quentin too. Murder drama is more than enough, Tim’s on edge as it is without adding anything on top of it. But it was...weird, weird that it happened at all, weird that he allowed it, let himself get absorbed into the fucked up power play of it all, that he glances at the small mark at the corner of Aemond’s mouth and feels satisfaction where the shame should be. He doesn’t have time for that. Every waking moment (which is most moments) has to be about figuring this out, so that as many people survive the game as possible. The rest can wait. ]
I have to remind you though, of what I said when we met. I don’t care about House Targaryen, or Hightower, or Atreides. I care about Alicent. And you, and Alia. Your histories and your mottos don’t apply to me, even if you call me brother.
[ Fire and Blood. That’s not him. It won’t ever be. If that’s a mark against his loyalty, Aemond should have said so before...well, before whatever all that was in the hallway. ]
no subject
Date: 2024-10-08 04:31 pm (UTC)[ he wears the cut on his lip with an arrogance, to be true. he appreciates the pain of it; it's something to focus on, something to feel that is different from the impotent rage he's been nursing all day.
that said; ]
My mother holds love for an old friend who has betrayed her. I cannot speak for the nature of it, though I have my suspicions.
I will not tell my mother. You are free to, if you like. But you received me. Did you mislike it?
no subject
Date: 2024-10-08 05:00 pm (UTC)[ The question of Rhaenyra? Bypassed. Not his place to speak on it. ]
It’s not about liking it or not liking it. It’s not appropriate, and you shouldn’t be doing that with anyone while everyone’s emotions and tensions are through the roof. Your mother and I betrayed a friend to both of us to keep you from being named. Don’t make this any more stressful than it is.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-08 05:05 pm (UTC)[ it sounds like an accusation, the question itself, but aemond asks it with true curiosity. true that there is some judgement wrapped around the question; do you presume gratitude from a prince? but he is vowed to their house now. aemond has accepted him.
what is the matter, then? ]
Tell me why I should not have, then. Give your reason.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-08 05:50 pm (UTC)[ Tim didn't do it for thanks. He did it because he believes, genuinely, in Aemond's innocence, and he knew that if a better name was not offered, his would be. But he doesn't like this tone, as if he should be grateful to be spared Aemond's violence, as if he's a tagalong and not the one who, at risk of losing Alia and Quentin, offered the name in the first place. He demands no gratitude, but will take no disrespect. ]
I just told you. We need to stay focused. That wasn't brotherly. [ The first ones, the soft ones to his forehead, his cheeks, those don't trouble him. ] If a brother is what you want, you have it. That means you need to respect me enough not to put my other relationships at risk.
cw: child marriages, sexual humiliation
Date: 2024-10-08 06:11 pm (UTC)You are not so blind to have missed that Rhaenyra's husband is also our uncle. Or that mine own sister and brother are themselves married to one another, or that my cousin Baela is betrothed to our nephew Jacaerys. Would that our father married Rhaenyra to Aegon, Helaena would be my wife, my sister of only two years my senior.
You wish me treat you as family? Should I take you to a whorehouse, then? Have you stripped and made to fuck a woman as old as your mother with your friends watching? Should I barge into your quarters and humiliate you in front of a lover by calling you an animal of base and immoral desires?
Family is grief and offence and torment and—— We rise above each other's faults, accept each other's deviances. A united front, as our upbringing insists upon.
You should be happy for the distance still afforded to you.
let's add internalized homophobia regular tim stuff
Date: 2024-10-08 07:10 pm (UTC)[ It's genuine, even in the face of his mocking laughter. Family doesn't have to be grief and pain and betrayal. Tim shows his off with smiles and pictures and love, the only liar among them being himself. If he is abandoned it will be a result of what he's done to satiate that base and immoral desire, the consequences of his own actions, not a treatise on family as a concept.
Tim's sincere sadness for the tragedy that's befallen them doesn't stop him raising his voice, getting flustered and wound up. Exactly what he didn't want. ]
It isn't any of that to me. And it won't be, here. You have the opportunity to learn something here that isn't pain, you should take it.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-08 07:36 pm (UTC)I'd prefer we kept the pain, truthfully. I liked that you bit me. The audacity of it was thrilling.
[ he speaks it plain and simple, as if he's only reminding tim of the weather. ]
You act as if I've begged you to kneel at my feet and become slave to my whims. Is your lover so insecure that he will judge you for a wandering interest?
no subject
Date: 2024-10-08 08:26 pm (UTC)It’s complicated between us. But he won’t judge me. [ Probably. Tim’s demanded enough space to ensure he knows the truth of what he really wants, but that was before all this. Before Embry. How many wandering interests until he’s just made a whore of himself and abandoned Hawk when he needs him the most? He’s not interested satisfying Aemond’s need to play little power games, pushing him for no reason other than to try to prove that he’ll break. Tim's been toyed with and made a fool of enough. ] I don’t like being a passing interest.
no subject
Date: 2024-10-08 11:52 pm (UTC)It is not a lover I seek from you, Tim. You'll find that elsewhere as you already have, and I'm certain your current paramour would prefer it over your entangling with someone like me. You will burn; that is what we do. One of the reasons we marry blood to blood — we are born from fire, the last of our people to have dragonblood after Old Valyria was claimed by the Doom.
[ he's still surveying the grounds as he speaks, noting the pristine nature of their surroundings enough that slight disturbances would stick out immediately. misplaced gravel here, scuffed stone there. no blood yet. ]
I want a brother I can stand. Someone I won't desire to burn to a crisp, or suffocate in his sleep. Would you not welcome a kiss from your family?
no subject
Date: 2024-10-09 02:58 am (UTC)[ You will burn; this is what we do.
He will burn. He is burning. He's been burning. When Tim arrived in this place, he was certain that it was purgatory. A last-ditch effort to save himself from his sins, to cleanse his soul and make himself worthy of light, of love - not the mortal kind that says one thing and does another, that scolds and flees and muddles the head, but love that is divine and eternal. Without argument. Without fear. It's not what he was taught this place would be, but nothing else made sense.
He's been mocked for this, disbelieved. Tim hasn't cared. The trickery, the illusions, the wolfman that rampaged through the grounds and threatened the lives of two of the people he cares about most in this or any world - tests, a measure to see if they're good enough to do the right thing in horrible circumstances. He hasn't cracked, he hasn't doubted, he hasn't missed a prayer.
And suddenly, in the last week, seven people have been killed. The chapel desecrated, blood still thick in his nostrils, paranoia and screaming and fear everywhere he looks. The chaos will only get worse as the game continues. The bodies will pile higher. The flames licking at his heels will only get hotter.
They're in Hell. And he will burn. He deserves to, for his part in enabling this exact same thing back home, the slower, more insidious, more subtly violent version of it. The witch hunts on little to no evidence that ruined lives, had people turning on friends and family alike. Years of this. Tim was filling glasses of water at the head of the table then, complicit, and he's no better now for actively participating.
He fingers the cross around his neck as they turn the corner to peek into the alcove. ]
Where I'm from, kisses between family aren't so heated. Do you really not know the difference?
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From:when massive misunderstandings happen
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From:we could wrap this one soon?
From:here's probably good!
From:🎀 done!
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