Lady... Laaaaadyyyy... LADY!! How dare you! I mean really! You are getting married! Stop making me swoon like this, it's practically uncouth!
It's about to get rambly and long up in here!
Kim flays three of Harrow’s men to the bone I need to take a moment and just admire my own handiwork when it comes to creating Kim. I had thought the whip might have been too over the top but damn does it lend itself well to our world and metaphor. Obviously it isn't a metaphor here but you know what I mean.
Roman accepts with an easy grin. He doesn’t tell Lene until the day he leaves. Of course he doesn't. She'd be all "Bitch you better not!" and possibly fight him. See how far he gets in the desert with a shattered hip.
In contrast, Chason seems tan, as though his skin has been thirsting for the heat and burn of the sun after so many months inside a cage. I love this. Poor Ita is going red and Chason's body is just like "sun, thank god!" also him trampling down a sand dune naked is quite the mental image. Thumbs up would picture again.
“Tall? Beard? Looks like marble but with an etched on smug grin?” ...That is the perfect description of Roman. It encapsulates him entirely. Except for the vampire thing, but lets be real, his smugness comes before his literal thirst for blood. Poor Ita with Roman like a specter waiting to gobble her up. I know according to our original timeline that Harrow hasn't "shared" Ita with him yet, so it's interesting to imagine what exactly she thinks about him to make her shiver. Besides his general bastard wrongness.
“Something else?”
“He doesn’t smell right.”
Chason snorts. “I didn’t realize you had a preference in body odors.” Dude you probably haven't showered in like a week. If she had a preference she'd have her scarf over her nose for other reasons than the sun. Marinating Hyena is probably not a well selling cologne.
“No,” she shakes her head, fists the skirts in her lap. I always forget Ita was supposed to be a bit snooty at first. Slightly imperious. She's probably not used to dealing with new shifters up close, now that I think on it. Everyone gets lessons before coming into Harrow's inner circle. She interacts with them in the cages, while picking out staff, but obviously that's an unbalanced conversation. Chason's penchant for snorting away her knowledge/authority must have rankled.
Not for the first time, he wonders how he’s ended up in this situation, half-rescued, half-bound to the woman beside him, a creature full of sadness and mystery, with a smell of pond water and feathers in her blood. She is unlike the other few women who have mattered to him, unlike all other women. In her defense she totally meant just to part ways. The whole bonding thing was accidental. Hmm...I wonder if Chason (maybe Austin brings it up?) ever wonders if Ita did it on purpose. Obviously we know she didn't because we're gods on a high mountain watching the mortals and playing with fate, but it could seem suspect to someone who doesn't completely know/trust her.
He can’t explain his feelings for Ita, but the sudden, distant laughter of hyenas in the night push away his desire to try. Do some introspection Chason! God damn it Tilly you have terrible timing. I wanna know (what looooveee iiiissss) how he feels about Ita. Write her a sonnet you hooligan.
His eyebrows knit together above his sunglasses and a scowl shatters his face.
“If?” he scoffs. God you're such a douche Roman. I love it. I'm also totally picturing this happening in the garage so he's wearing sunglasses indoors like an extra Limited Edition Douchebag.
When Roman continues to not look at her, Lene slams the new crate the boxy man passes her into the wedge of space remaining in the back seat. Lene does only have so much patience for bullheadedness. And Limited Edition Douchebags.
Lene’s own face molds into a mask of passivity similar to boxy’s, and she steps back to Arletta as dutifully as any servant, assuming a shoulder-wide stance behind her. Her mouth is slack, her eyes almost vacant. Somewhere Knight is feeling proud. I just pictured that scene in Mulan where Mushu goes "My baby's all grown up and going off to save China" and wipes a tear from his eye. Lene learned a handle of different blank faces from Knight. Much to Anders' dismay. Fairly often they both stonewall him with poker faces.
“They went West,” he says gently, comfortingly. “He’s a desert animal. He thinks he knows how to survive out there.” He slaps Harrow on the side of the arm and then turns, headed to the sandrail. “You worry too much. Hold down the fort, I’ll be back in time for your sister’s arrival.” Boy crush boy crush boy crush~~~~
When he told her he would return, she believed it more than he did. *________* My baby!
Sabra’s breath continues to hitch as she clings to Chason’s side in an embrace that is half hug, half desperation. Aw. I've got a little soft spot for Sabra. She seems so desperate for affection and reassurance all the time. Tilly takes advantage of that, the ass.
Speaking of Tilly: well done on the dialogue and inner thought bit! You got her demanding bitterness down pat.
Adira is so fascinating. How she's gone but still there. Roman carrying her in his heart in a way Lene doesn't completely understand. His own version of love I suppose.
he’ll be as the moonlight, slipping forward steadily and silently. He’ll be, as always, a soldier. A vampire soldier is so fun to read descriptions of. There's a duality there. Because obviously the moonlight is not like a soldier, but it still makes sense somehow. The moon is steady and sure but ephemeral. Roman is made of solider stuff.
when Roman least wants to, he pictures Lene. Her face is bright and lovely despite her inverted smile. Her eyes are full of judgement and disappointment.
“Out of my head now, kid,” She's not going anywhere you punkhead. You're in ~love~ and that means you get to feel the weight of her anger on you like a backpack full of river rocks.
He smells her all the same - mountain grass and wildflowers, cavern waters and shifting red sands. The hunger that is a gaping maw in the pit of his stomach snaps its fangs. I love when people describe scents. I'm such a smell dweeb and it feeds that part of me. I'm like a sommelier swirling your words in a wine glass. "Ah yes, hints of wildflowers. A touch of cavern water gives it a musty hollow edge. Hm. Hmmmm."
From the corner of his eye, Roman thinks he sees Adira frown. Oh ho ho you've got competition Adira!
He grunts an acknowledgement and scratches the sand in his beard, but he’s grinning all the same. It’s a knife cut of an expression. Niiiice!
She gives him a small smile, still made awkward by the way her heart leaps into her throat whenever he’s near. “I did not know you too had wings.”
Chason grins. “There was a ladder in the shed.”
“Are you here to check on me?”
“You really must stop talking to me in questions.”
Ita smiles again, the same small, timid expression. Awwww! The question is, did he find the ladder earlier and go drag it from it's hiding spot (trusting it wouldn't break on him), or did he see her on the roof and went hunting for something to climb?
That one, with the cold eyes, I think she would eat me if she could.”
Chason laughs. It’s warmer, less automatic than the laughter he shares with his packmates. “Tilly? She looks that way at everyone.” She would. She'd eat all you fuckers. No shame.
Tentatively, he curls his arm around Ita’s slender waist, feeling her ribs shudder beneath the weight of his palm. It takes her a moment to relax into him, and then she turns her face into his shoulder, breathing in the smell of his skin. Chason being tentative is an adorable thought. Especially since Ita's used to being manhandled. (By him and by everyone else.)
Okay this whole scene with Tilly is one of my favs. And not just because I now want these two to bone in SOME universe. You did really well with the action sequence, so bravo for that! Roman thinks of Lene again, of the shape her mouth makes when she frowns. Gonna be seeing that a lot buddy boy. It is a good mouth though. I think of it often. ...Wow that sounded creepy. I meant she's pretty and I daydream a lot.
“Tomorrow night,” she says after a moment, and he respects the stable, even quality of her voice. “You can take them. But you never saw us. You’ll have nothing to report. We were never here.” Definitely need to bang. Look at this respect already blossoming! They're practically engaged now.
He has not slept with the pack for some time now I just love flailed for a second there. (~Give up, give in, check the grin you're in love~)
“What?” Ita asks, no hint of grogginess in her voice, but a sharp, startled pitch of fear. Has this lady ever gotten a good nights sleep in her life?
She touches his hand, and he jerks away, agitated, nervous. ;__; Don't hurt her feelings, she's sensitive!
They wrap her large wings in chains so pretty that they could be jewelry. I actually had this imagery (back when I was first creating Ita) of her animal form wearing jewelry that was designed to transform with her. Like it would suddenly be lovely body jewelry when she shifted to human. Harrow seemed the type to like ornamentation.
Roman tucks her in the passenger seat of his sandrail, like she’s a pet. Her eyes are sad. He strokes her neck once. He isn’t sure why. It wouldn’t be much of an apology, and he knows she doesn’t seek comfort from the likes of him. Because Lene that's why. Her outlook is growing on Roman like moss on a tree trunk and his on her like rot on an apple.
Roman doesn’t think Lene will smile at him when he returns to the Compound. Surviving, she had once said, isn’t living.
Roman shifts the sandrail into drive. Lene, he thinks, is still very young. She'll be the living embodiment of the (ง'̀-'́)ง emoticon when he comes back and tries to bite her for the first time.
no subject
It's about to get rambly and long up in here!
Kim flays three of Harrow’s men to the bone I need to take a moment and just admire my own handiwork when it comes to creating Kim. I had thought the whip might have been too over the top but damn does it lend itself well to our world and metaphor. Obviously it isn't a metaphor here but you know what I mean.
Roman accepts with an easy grin. He doesn’t tell Lene until the day he leaves. Of course he doesn't. She'd be all "Bitch you better not!" and possibly fight him. See how far he gets in the desert with a shattered hip.
In contrast, Chason seems tan, as though his skin has been thirsting for the heat and burn of the sun after so many months inside a cage. I love this. Poor Ita is going red and Chason's body is just like "sun, thank god!" also him trampling down a sand dune naked is quite the mental image. Thumbs up would picture again.
“Tall? Beard? Looks like marble but with an etched on smug grin?” ...That is the perfect description of Roman. It encapsulates him entirely. Except for the vampire thing, but lets be real, his smugness comes before his literal thirst for blood.
Poor Ita with Roman like a specter waiting to gobble her up. I know according to our original timeline that Harrow hasn't "shared" Ita with him yet, so it's interesting to imagine what exactly she thinks about him to make her shiver. Besides his general bastard wrongness.
“Something else?”
“He doesn’t smell right.”
Chason snorts. “I didn’t realize you had a preference in body odors.” Dude you probably haven't showered in like a week. If she had a preference she'd have her scarf over her nose for other reasons than the sun. Marinating Hyena is probably not a well selling cologne.
“No,” she shakes her head, fists the skirts in her lap. I always forget Ita was supposed to be a bit snooty at first. Slightly imperious. She's probably not used to dealing with new shifters up close, now that I think on it. Everyone gets lessons before coming into Harrow's inner circle. She interacts with them in the cages, while picking out staff, but obviously that's an unbalanced conversation. Chason's penchant for snorting away her knowledge/authority must have rankled.
Not for the first time, he wonders how he’s ended up in this situation, half-rescued, half-bound to the woman beside him, a creature full of sadness and mystery, with a smell of pond water and feathers in her blood. She is unlike the other few women who have mattered to him, unlike all other women. In her defense she totally meant just to part ways. The whole bonding thing was accidental. Hmm...I wonder if Chason (maybe Austin brings it up?) ever wonders if Ita did it on purpose. Obviously we know she didn't because we're gods on a high mountain watching the mortals and playing with fate, but it could seem suspect to someone who doesn't completely know/trust her.
He can’t explain his feelings for Ita, but the sudden, distant laughter of hyenas in the night push away his desire to try. Do some introspection Chason! God damn it Tilly you have terrible timing. I wanna know (what looooveee iiiissss) how he feels about Ita. Write her a sonnet you hooligan.
His eyebrows knit together above his sunglasses and a scowl shatters his face.
“If?” he scoffs. God you're such a douche Roman. I love it. I'm also totally picturing this happening in the garage so he's wearing sunglasses indoors like an extra Limited Edition Douchebag.
When Roman continues to not look at her, Lene slams the new crate the boxy man passes her into the wedge of space remaining in the back seat. Lene does only have so much patience for bullheadedness. And Limited Edition Douchebags.
Lene’s own face molds into a mask of passivity similar to boxy’s, and she steps back to Arletta as dutifully as any servant, assuming a shoulder-wide stance behind her. Her mouth is slack, her eyes almost vacant. Somewhere Knight is feeling proud. I just pictured that scene in Mulan where Mushu goes "My baby's all grown up and going off to save China" and wipes a tear from his eye. Lene learned a handle of different blank faces from Knight. Much to Anders' dismay. Fairly often they both stonewall him with poker faces.
“They went West,” he says gently, comfortingly. “He’s a desert animal. He thinks he knows how to survive out there.” He slaps Harrow on the side of the arm and then turns, headed to the sandrail. “You worry too much. Hold down the fort, I’ll be back in time for your sister’s arrival.” Boy crush boy crush boy crush~~~~
When he told her he would return, she believed it more than he did. *________* My baby!
Sabra’s breath continues to hitch as she clings to Chason’s side in an embrace that is half hug, half desperation. Aw. I've got a little soft spot for Sabra. She seems so desperate for affection and reassurance all the time. Tilly takes advantage of that, the ass.
Speaking of Tilly: well done on the dialogue and inner thought bit! You got her demanding bitterness down pat.
Adira is so fascinating. How she's gone but still there. Roman carrying her in his heart in a way Lene doesn't completely understand. His own version of love I suppose.
he’ll be as the moonlight, slipping forward steadily and silently. He’ll be, as always, a soldier. A vampire soldier is so fun to read descriptions of. There's a duality there. Because obviously the moonlight is not like a soldier, but it still makes sense somehow. The moon is steady and sure but ephemeral. Roman is made of solider stuff.
when Roman least wants to, he pictures Lene. Her face is bright and lovely despite her inverted smile. Her eyes are full of judgement and disappointment.
“Out of my head now, kid,” She's not going anywhere you punkhead. You're in ~love~ and that means you get to feel the weight of her anger on you like a backpack full of river rocks.
He smells her all the same - mountain grass and wildflowers, cavern waters and shifting red sands. The hunger that is a gaping maw in the pit of his stomach snaps its fangs. I love when people describe scents. I'm such a smell dweeb and it feeds that part of me. I'm like a sommelier swirling your words in a wine glass. "Ah yes, hints of wildflowers. A touch of cavern water gives it a musty hollow edge. Hm. Hmmmm."
From the corner of his eye, Roman thinks he sees Adira frown. Oh ho ho you've got competition Adira!
He grunts an acknowledgement and scratches the sand in his beard, but he’s grinning all the same. It’s a knife cut of an expression. Niiiice!
She gives him a small smile, still made awkward by the way her heart leaps into her throat whenever he’s near. “I did not know you too had wings.”
Chason grins. “There was a ladder in the shed.”
“Are you here to check on me?”
“You really must stop talking to me in questions.”
Ita smiles again, the same small, timid expression. Awwww! The question is, did he find the ladder earlier and go drag it from it's hiding spot (trusting it wouldn't break on him), or did he see her on the roof and went hunting for something to climb?
That one, with the cold eyes, I think she would eat me if she could.”
Chason laughs. It’s warmer, less automatic than the laughter he shares with his packmates. “Tilly? She looks that way at everyone.” She would. She'd eat all you fuckers. No shame.
Tentatively, he curls his arm around Ita’s slender waist, feeling her ribs shudder beneath the weight of his palm. It takes her a moment to relax into him, and then she turns her face into his shoulder, breathing in the smell of his skin. Chason being tentative is an adorable thought. Especially since Ita's used to being manhandled. (By him and by everyone else.)
Okay this whole scene with Tilly is one of my favs. And not just because I now want these two to bone in SOME universe. You did really well with the action sequence, so bravo for that!
Roman thinks of Lene again, of the shape her mouth makes when she frowns. Gonna be seeing that a lot buddy boy. It is a good mouth though. I think of it often. ...Wow that sounded creepy. I meant she's pretty and I daydream a lot.
“Tomorrow night,” she says after a moment, and he respects the stable, even quality of her voice. “You can take them. But you never saw us. You’ll have nothing to report. We were never here.” Definitely need to bang. Look at this respect already blossoming! They're practically engaged now.
He has not slept with the pack for some time now I just love flailed for a second there. (~Give up, give in, check the grin you're in love~)
“What?” Ita asks, no hint of grogginess in her voice, but a sharp, startled pitch of fear. Has this lady ever gotten a good nights sleep in her life?
She touches his hand, and he jerks away, agitated, nervous. ;__; Don't hurt her feelings, she's sensitive!
They wrap her large wings in chains so pretty that they could be jewelry. I actually had this imagery (back when I was first creating Ita) of her animal form wearing jewelry that was designed to transform with her. Like it would suddenly be lovely body jewelry when she shifted to human. Harrow seemed the type to like ornamentation.
Roman tucks her in the passenger seat of his sandrail, like she’s a pet. Her eyes are sad. He strokes her neck once. He isn’t sure why. It wouldn’t be much of an apology, and he knows she doesn’t seek comfort from the likes of him. Because Lene that's why. Her outlook is growing on Roman like moss on a tree trunk and his on her like rot on an apple.
Roman doesn’t think Lene will smile at him when he returns to the Compound. Surviving, she had once said, isn’t living.
Roman shifts the sandrail into drive. Lene, he thinks, is still very young. She'll be the living embodiment of the (ง'̀-'́)ง emoticon when he comes back and tries to bite her for the first time.