MYRCELLA BARATHEON For Nymeria !

🪐 — MYRCELLA BARATHEON  for  nymeria !

chest tightens with a gasp ────── sharp enough to pierce pass the ocean's roaring winds as she reaches for nymeria's dress. grasping at silk she tugs her back, the sunkissed princess far stronger than one would expect ― resulting in the collision. the girls fall backwards, myrcella the willing sacrifice for nymeria's comfort, collapsing onto the deck with an oof!

 ❝ ────── ouch... ❞ she groans, wiggling beneath the weight of the sand snake as she attempts to make sense of their current situation: a tangled mess of lilac, rose, and limb.  ❝ nym! are you hurt? oh, i am so sorry! i did not mean ― ❞ suddenly, she frowns a soft pout pursing at her lips.  ❝ you shouldn't stand so close to the edge, nymeria! ❞ the princess scolds gently,  ❝ it's dangerous! ❞

   HER SEA-LEGS ARE STRONG  &  STEADY  thanks to years of practice, the muscle beneath her skin shifting instinctually to keep nymeria well balanced at the edge of the ship’s railing.  &  her gaze is focused far outward to the fading sunlight, enjoying the way it casts flecks of gold across the crests of the waves before it sinks beneath the horizon.  so she doesn’t see myrcella approaching her until there is a tug on the back of her gown.  &  it takes her enough by surprise that she goes toppling backward before she can catch herself.                the air is forced out of her lungs as she hits the deck on top of the other.  &  nymeria finds herself glad that her many hidden blades are all well-sheathed when she recognizes the indignant voice of her good-sister.  if not, this could have been a rather bloody ordeal.  but as it is, they are unlikely to be left with anything other than a few bruises.        ❝ you sound just like a septa.  need i point out that i was perfectly fine before you decided to pull me down on top of you ? ❞  nymeria grumbles as she pulls herself back to her feet, sweeping her silks  &  tossing her thick braid back into place over her shoulder.  ❝ what’s life without a little risk, anyway ? ❞  but then she extends a hand to help myrcella back to her feet, in spite of her rather unapologetic tone.  ❝ what about you, are you alright ?  i’m sure to face trystane’s wrath if i deliver his bride to him in an injured state. ❞

#Me and who???

Quotes taken from Black Sails season 4:

❝ If it makes you feel any better, I haven’t considered killing you in months. ❞

❝ You and I have willed our men through unthinkable things to get this far. Why not one more? ❞

❝ We are emotional beings, after all, and rhetoric is the fuel that feeds the fire. ❞

❝ Today, we reclaim what is ours. And we seek retribution for what was taken from us. ❞

❝ Revenge is a powerful motivator, undoubtedly. ❞

❝ If I am to play the role, I ought to make some effort to look the part. ❞

❝ The world is changing so rapidly and we with it. I fear the day will soon come when we will no longer recognize either. ❞

❝ We are who we are. Nothing so important changes so quickly. ❞

❝ There’ll be debts to repay after today. ❞

❝ To elevate one of us over the other, even as a fiction, seems to me to be tempting fate in a most dangerous way. ❞

❝ When a man first needs you and thereafter calls you a friend, a little suspicion is a healthy thing. ❞

❝ I don’t believe you need him to be the man you are. ❞

❝ I was always told that you were the one without fear. Was I misinformed? ❞

❝ It ain’t fear to want to do a hard thing smart. ❞

❝ We fight an enemy here determined to see all of civilization collapse. The only thing standing between them and their goal is you and I, and no one else seems willing to lift a finger to help. ❞

❝ The only man among you I trusted is dead. ❞

❝ I’m asking you… if this war died with him. ❞

❝ I beg your pardon, but have I not proved to you my friendship? ❞

❝ This is now an island of true friends and mortal enemies and nothing in between. ❞

❝ I have become so easily set aside, have I? ❞

❝ There is an unthinkable victory within our reach, and I will see this through by whatever means I have at my disposal. ❞

❝ My word will govern. ❞

❝ You think that little of me that I care so much how I’m seen in his eyes, I’d be willing to lose my life over it? ❞

❝ I ain’t here to prove anything! ❞

❝ I ain’t here to figure out who I am. ❞

❝ What happens when those motives start demanding their own ends? And this thing we’re all a part of starts splitting right down the middle? ❞

❝ I did all of it, contorted myself into the role, mutilated myself so that it would fit because I believed as long as you believed I was your partner, it didn’t matter what anyone else believed. ❞

❝ I don’t want to be protected. I don’t want it. ❞

❝ You are not a compromise to me. ❞

❝ I do not regret what I did, no matter the consequences. And I didn’t want you to have any reason to think that I did. ❞

❝ I gave you a life, and you repaid me by conspiring with my enemies. ❞

❝ This will all pass soon enough… if we let it. ❞

❝ Had I not stepped in, who knows how destructive that could have become for everyone? ❞

❝ What I do object to, however, is spectacle, certain to increase defiance and anger rather than soothe it. ❞

❝ I’m no one. From nowhere. Belonging to nothing. I’m a wretch like you. ❞

❝ I’m the reason grown men lie awake at night. ❞

❝ Only a fool would give his life to earn the admiration of a corpse. ❞

❝ So big a name for so small a man. ❞

❝ I am tired of this. This thing that perpetuates itself with anger and bluster and blood. I do not want to be your friend. ❞

❝ What am I… if I spend my days pleading for a return to civility and then do dark things under the cover of night? ❞

❝ You will be gone, but you will live. ❞

❝ What I want is for all of this to end. For it to end, you must end.  ❞

❝ There isn’t a good man among them. Not anymore. Some of them may have been, before all this. Some of them may be again on the other side of it. But right now, good men are not what the moment requires. Right now, the time calls for dark men… to do dark things. ❞

❝ The empire survives in part because we believe its survival to be inevitable. But it isn’t. ❞

❝ Too much sanity may be madness, and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be. ❞

❝ These men would turn on you in a blink of an eye. Why would you go to such lengths to protect them? ❞

❝ You think you can control him. And by the time you realize he has been controlling you, it is going to be too late. ❞

❝ All you are doing is antagonizing them. And who is that serving? ❞

❝ End this quietly and easily and definitively. ❞

❝ He was my closest friend. Lost to a cheap and cowardly shot. ❞

❝ I will show them what the consequences are for threatening that which I hold most dear. I will leave no doubt about it. ❞

❝ Control that no one can see makes for no demonstration at all. ❞

❝ All life begins in violence and wailing. It will pass. ❞

❝ Every fight I have ever won… every death I have escaped, every sacrifice I have had bled out of me, it will all have to be repeated just to get things back to where they were a few hours ago. There’s some kind of hell it seems to me to be. ❞

❝ I have grown quite fond of you. You are someone who is determined to be better today than you were yesterday. And in this world, that is in short supply. And so I find myself feeling protective of you. ❞

❝ Amazing, this place. Somehow leaves no options other than to hurt the ones you love. ❞

❝ I would think some sort of thanks might be in order. ❞

❝ When you and I last saw each other… you had every reason to see me killed. ❞

❝ I’d be angrier about it, but I’m a little preoccupied being angry with other people. ❞

❝ Why didn’t you kill me when you had the chance? ❞

❝ We are at our least rational… when we’re at our most vulnerable. ❞

❝ The thought of losing you… ❞

❝ It is some kind of hell to be forced to choose one irreplaceable thing over another. ❞

❝ You must see by now that when you wage war on the world, the world fights back. ❞

❝ I had put so much of myself into this place, in that moment, I honestly didn’t know where I ended and it began. ❞

❝ I think we’ve all seen our fair share of loss and I have had enough of it. ❞

❝ You should trust that my commitment to you remains inviolable… and that this is no betrayal… but an act of love. And an act I am determined to see through to its end. ❞

❝ It will be difficult. But since when did we expect this would be anything else? ❞

❝ This is not easy for me, but I know it is harder for you. Please. Don’t forget that I know that. ❞

❝ … would I be enough for you? ❞

❝ For so long, I thought I knew what I was. ❞

❝ I fear the instincts that have awoken in me… are more insidious than that. ❞

❝ Civilization… has a number of faces. ❞

❝ There is very little… I wouldn’t do to protect my wife. ❞

❝ You’re exactly what I hoped you’d be. ❞

❝ I’m not gonna stand by and watch while all our futures are destroyed. ❞

❝ I don’t know I have it in me to do. ❞

❝ Worry ain’t a good look for a king, not in a kingdom like this… where loyalty is in short supply. ❞

❝ You and I are enemies as our kings are at war with one another. But their war… right now their war is meaningless to me. ❞

❝ You are not my enemy, because my king tells me so. Don’t insult me… by suggesting otherwise. ❞

❝ They’re paying for their war with your money. ❞

❝ This isn’t right. All those men out there that you and I have fought alongside. I can’t believe I’m the only one who knows this isn’t right. ❞

❝ I saw your bloodlust with my own eyes. ❞

❝ If you had suffered such loss, is there anything you can imagine making it right? ❞

❝ It would have been so easy to lessen your suffering by divulging the secret. And yet, I never did. Have you yet asked yourself why that is? ❞

❝ I mistrusted all of you. ❞

❝ It seems the only means I have of registering any meaningful disapproval at this point is to kill one or the both of you. ❞

❝ You are my friend, but I know what you are. I have no illusions about it. ❞

❝ The one thing he’s never done is force me to choose between him and you. That, you did. ❞

❝ You made a terrible mistake and you paid a terrible price. ❞

❝ I could walk out there and tell them the sky is red… and they’d believe me. That’s the power you’ve given me. ❞

❝ I have to know you’ll never put me to a choice between you again. ❞

❝ You chose. Live with it. ❞

❝ Is there any way you can forgive me? ❞

❝ Making sure you don’t slit my throat out of spite, perhaps. ❞

❝ You were a pirate once. ❞

❝ If a man can be replaced so easily, how can I know that his promises won’t be, too? ❞

❝ What has begun here, there is no altering it now. ❞

❝ I loved you. And I betrayed you. But I cannot apologize for it. ❞

❝ If I apologize, you will know it is a lie. And I do not wish to lie to you ever again. ❞

❝ I am going to stay with you. I want to take care of you. ❞

❝ A life of isolation and uncertainty as long as it is lived with someone you love… And who loves you back. It is possible, isn’t it? ❞

❝ I’ll not leave anyone behind. ❞

❝ Seems a fair amount of resentment towards you these days. ❞

❝ I just want you to know… that I remember what you did for me. ❞

❝ It wasn’t supposed to end like this. How can we all have sacrificed so much and none of us has anything to show for it? ❞

❝ Civilization has been winning that war for ten thousand years against men richer, braver, stronger, and smarter than you. How can you be so blind not to see that? ❞

❝ You cannot fight civilization from the outside in. ❞

❝ It wasn’t your fault. ❞

❝ The revolution you promised has begun. ❞

❝ I wasn’t able to say good-bye to you…  ❞

❝ I loved you. And I believe you loved me. ❞

❝ They may call you a king, but only in the kingdom that is no more. ❞

❝ We’re all free here. And I wish to stay that way. ❞

❝ You’ll have plenty of time to murder me another day. Right now, you need to rest. ❞

❝ No one changes the world. Not like this. Not all at once. The world is too strong for that. ❞

❝ Truth isn’t nearly as interesting. ❞

❝ They all turned on me. Discarded what I’d done for them, the sacrifices I made, and left me for dead. And I want them all to pay for it. ❞

❝ Given that kindness is a condition rare in our family, I suppose it’s unsurprising that it went misdiagnosed. ❞

❝ As I would be no slave again, and nor would I be a master. ❞

❝ I do it for us. ❞

❝ You’ll lead them there… and they will follow you. ❞

❝ There’s nothing here but horror. ❞

❝ What if the result of this war isn’t beyond the horror? What if it is the horror itself? ❞

❝ A moment of terror…where everything appears to be without hope. I know this. But I cannot believe that that is all there is. I cannot believe we are so poorly made as that. ❞

❝ It’s a lot to ask…to wager so much suffering on blind faith. ❞

❝ I think that you are the best of us. The two of you together are the world in balance. ❞

❝ A future? I don’t know who broke it first. But it broke. And there ain’t no putting it back together again. ❞

❝ The solution to our problems is not going to come from a council meeting. ❞

❝ The defense of civilization is not your responsibility! ❞

❝ I will move heaven and earth to protect him, but while playing this role, the limits of my influence are ever-present. ❞

❝ Privacy always comes with a price, dear. ❞

❝ You move in a dark and destructive direction. Your grief and your anger… I believe have unmoored you from sound judgment and have left us all in grave danger if you are not reined in. ❞

❝ That sounds an awful lot like treason to me. ❞

❝ Do not ask me to choose between a war and a lover. I do not think you’re going to like the answer. ❞

❝ Because despite the world reminding me every day of my life that I’m undeserving of being given anything by it, that I was unworthy of what little I’d managed to take from it… despite all of that, I never believed a word of it. ❞

❝ I have been fighting the whole goddamn world since the day I was born. ❞

❝ I cannot imagine the road you’ve travelled. The humiliations…and the sacrifices and the defeats… and the illusions maintained at so great a cost to your sense of self.❞

❝ That road has led you to me. I am the gate through which your journey becomes something else. I can make the dreams you have built real. ❞

❝ The toll is small, but it must be paid. ❞

❝ So many lies… to deny a simple truth. ❞

❝ The crown does not divide. It cannot be shared. ❞

❝ You are the bravest person I have ever known. The truest person I have ever known. And I betrayed you and it sickens me. ❞

❝ I am so sorry for working so hard to protect the wrong things. For failing to see that there is nothing important that does not include you. ❞

❝ The men said it sounded to them… like the voice of God… warning them to stay away ❞

❝ We fight, only two outcomes I can see… I die or you die. ❞

❝ But for pride to be an issue between you and I… well, I… I think we’re playing past that by now. ❞

❝ if every man fights differently, seems to me what you’ll really be teaching me is how to defeat you. ❞

❝ You are, for now, a necessary evil here. ❞

❝ You’re still watching my eyes, which is a good way of getting yourself killed. ❞

❝ I have no idea who you were. ❞

❝ I suppose I assumed that if you ever became somebody worth knowing, I’d learn the truth of it eventually. Only… in this moment, I’m realizing that never happened. ❞

❝ And what is of some concern to me is that… despite how invested we each are in the future of the other… you just lied to me again. Why is that? ❞

❝ The latest in a line of ill-fated partners, situating yourself such that… were you and I ever to come to blows… I’d be forced to hesitate before doing you any harm. ❞

❝ I don’t want you to know my story. ❞

❝ Hold on to this for as long as you can, for all of us who once had it… and walked away. ❞

❝ You have no idea the restraint this takes. How urgent the instinct towards violence. ❞

❝ You’re luckier than you know… ❞

❝ Do not make the same mistake I did. ❞

❝ I hear other voices. A chorus of voices. Multitudes. They reach back centuries. Men and women… and children who’d lost their lives… to men like you. ❞

❝ Fuck you… for dictating this outcome to me, for swearing your friendship falsely to me, for your arrogance, your indifference. ❞

❝ You’re too important to what comes next to have to bear a burden like that. ❞

❝ I have no story to tell. ❞

❝ I’ve come to peace with the knowledge… that there is no storyteller imposing any coherence, nor sense, nor grace upon those events. Therefore, there’s no duty on my part to search for it. ❞

❝ You know of me all I can bear to be known. All that is relevant to be known. ❞

❝ That is to say, you know my genuine friendship… and loyalty. Can that be enough and there still be trust between us? ❞

❝ Am I mad? Tell me. I’m asking. ❞

❝ The result ahead of us… promises to be a victory…of a different sort. A true victory. Freedom… in every sense of the word. ❞

❝ How many men in the history of the world have ever known it? How remarkable a moment is this? How fortunate are we to be standing on the threshold of it? ❞

❝ The mind is prone to mischief, I suppose. Especially in a place like this… remote and… full of stories. ❞

❝ There are no monsters in the dark… though there are dangers. ❞

❝ You still think you’ll persuade me to see this all your way? ❞

❝ That’s all this has ever been, isn’t it? A partnership only insofar as it enables you to do whatever it is that matters to you in any given moment. ❞

❝ You do this, and you’re gonna regret it. ❞

❝ What’s to be done with the unwanted ones? ❞

❝ I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but this is considerably better luck than you and I have experienced lately. And yet somehow, I get the sense you and I are possessed of different instincts as to how to react to this. ❞

❝ I know what it’s like… to have lost her. And then seeing a way to have her back. ❞

❝ What I’ve just done… there’s no coming back from that. ❞

❝ They are all enemies of mine. ❞

❝ You think killing me means defeat for them? You will have given them a martyr to unite them. ❞

❝ We could suffer under the weight of our respective questions. Or would you like to start trading answers? ❞

❝ I wish to cause confusion and terror amongst her men. I wish to shatter their spirits. I wish to break them. ❞

❝ Pain is an exceptional tutor. ❞

❝ That isn’t a war. That is a fucking nightmare. ❞

❝ This is how they survive. You must know this. You’re too smart not to know this. They paint the world full of shadows… and then tell their children to stay close to the light. Their light. Their reasons, their judgments. Because in the darkness, there be dragons. But it isn’t true. ❞

❝ In the dark, there is discovery, there is possibility, there is freedom in the dark once someone has illuminated it. ❞

❝ But beneath all of that, I recognized the other thing… hiding in the spaces. The one whose shape you first showed me. And when asked, it was honest about the role it wanted to play. It was rage. And it just wanted to see the world burn. ❞

❝ I see a life for myself with you. And I will not live it wondering if tomorrow is the day your nightmare finally takes you away for good. ❞

❝ Defined by their histories… distorted to fit into their narrative… until all that is left of us… are the monsters in the stories they tell their children. ❞

❝ Even if you can persuade her to keep you… she’ll no longer be enough. And the comfort will grow stale. And casting about in the dark for some proof that you mattered and finding none, you’ll know… that you gave it away… in this moment… on this island. ❞

❝ if our intent was to extinguish his war, feeding it a martyr seems like an odd way of going about it. ❞

❝ Don’t you dare insult me by denying this. ❞

❝ You may think what you want of me. I will draw comfort in the knowledge that you’re alive to think it. But I’m not the villain you fear I am. ❞

❝ You didn’t just betray my trust. You have planned to betray it…all that time. ❞

❝ The stories we want to believe… those are the ones that survive, despite upheaval and transition and progress. Those are the stories that shape history. ❞

❝ The men who believed most deeply in it… were ultimately destroyed by it. And those who stood to benefit most from it… were the most eager to leave it all behind.

❝ Until all that remains of any of it… are stories bearing only a passing resemblance to the world the rest of us lived in. A world we survived. A world that is no more. ❞

❝ It’s the art that leaves the mark. ❞

🪐 — LUCIUS SPRIGGS  for  izzy !

the admission catches him by surprise,   leaving him entirely stunned for a good few seconds.  for a moment he is even tempted to ask izzy who he is and what he has done with their resident feral first mate,  but well..  lucius hardly wants to ruin this,  whatever this is shaping up to be,  so he holds his tongue,  allowing his expression to actually soften.  they had their rocky moments,  for sure,  and lucius has all but forgotten cutting himself on izzy’s sharp edges not too long ago at all.  still,  there is no metaphorical blood spilled between them now.  izzy doesn’t shove past him,  doesn’t lash out,  either  —  he gives him very much needed directions,  instead,  instructing lucius on what he wishes him to do.  so that’s really nice.  it also makes lucius finally stop over thinking each stupid intake of breath.  that’s great too,  helps him feel less like he is trying to kiss a wild animal.  it’s definitely a learning curve from here,  but lucius is good at paying attention and pretty determined to not overstep any boundaries that might be set.  

‘  yeah?  okay,  yeah  —  i can do that.  ’   there is an actual smile on his lips at this point,  relieved and hopeful  (   foolishly maybe,  but a tiny bit proud,  too?  he seriously doubts izzy would have gotten there without a little push,  if anything else   ).  '  i don’t mind.  i wanted to touch you earlier,  actually,  i just.  wasn’t sure you would have wanted me to.  you,  um..  didn’t have the happiest reaction last time,  so.  ’   and who could blame lucius for hesitating,  seriously?  but anyway,  he has more urgent things to consider right this moment,  like following through on what lucius has asked him to do.  less talking and more doing.  he knows,  he knows.   '  i am going to  —  here.  is this okay?  ’   lucius pushes his hands up until one finds the back of izzy’s neck,  fingers brushing against his hair.  the other goes to his waist,  as he experimentally tugs the other man closer. 

      HE DOESN’T MISS THE HESITATION,  eyes following every moment — as well as the absence of it when lucius goes still at his request.  &  there is sense of panic that rises in izzy instantly, warning him that he’s asked too much, that there will be consequences for such an admission.  but then there’s a smile, a softening in his expression.  &  when lucius admits that he actually wanted to touch izzy, that leaves him breathless with shock.  for who would want to touch him, of all people  —  especially now that he is old  &  wounded  &  undesired by all, even the one man who had always been at his side ?  but there is no hesitation in the boy’s hands when they curl around him  &  pull him closer.  one even finds bare skin above his collar, cradles the back of his head in a way that’s confident, yet gentle.  &  the way he draws izzy in, it’s easy for him to believe that this is no joke, no trap.  that lucius actually does want him, too.                    ❝ yes, it’s — ❞  but izzy’s voice breaks off, unable to find the words. it’s overwhelming is what it is, to be so close to another man, the flush of heat beneath his black clothes spreading slowly up his throat  &  over his face.  but though izzy can’t entirely understand it, he also knows without doubt that he doesn’t want it to stop.  ❝ it’s fine.  it’s good, ❞  he decides at last.  &  in admitting it aloud, it’s like the resistance to his desires that he has been honing for decades frays thin, becomes weak enough for him to push through it  &  slot his lithe body against lucius’s larger one, hands pressed to his broad chest.  &  izzy tilts his face upward with the intention of making good on his request for another kiss,  finally allowing his eyes to rise to the other man’s.  &  he’s still a bit shocked to find there’s not a trace of disgust there, only his own desire mirrored back at him.  ❝ lucius, ❞  he says, the first name unfamiliar in his mouth. izzy had kissed him once already  —  but even he knew that he had been none too kind about it.  &  he wants to make up for his mistakes. wants to do it right this time.  his gaze falls to lucius’s lips again.  ❝ can i — ? ❞

🪐 — GARLAN TYRELL​  for  margaery !

Opportunities like that, to be able to leave the castle walls and move away from what he perceived as an oppressive atmosphere, would become rarer and rarer the quicker the wedding approached. Already it was difficult in those times to find a moment of quiet and privacy; the keep, while welcoming to the soon-to-be-queen and her family was not a place the knight looked forward to spending a long amount of time in, distrustful of most of its inhabitants. A distaste so far he voiced, in whispers even though he was walking through the keeps gardens and no one else was around to hear, only to his lady wife — and plans were already in motion for after the wedding, to take the castle he had been granted with his actions on the battlefield and leave the capital behind. A luxury that couldn’t be granted to his sister — albeit things were supposed to change once she was the bearer of the title of queen.       (       And for that his father’s goal was to cement Tyrell’s influence even so far from the Reach, win the people’s favour at the expense of the king’s family.       )       « The city is most grateful for your presence, » Garlan corrected her in a lower tone than hers, a smile lighting up his visage for a moment as he turned to look at the girl. Both statements were true; the city was grateful for the arrival of the Reach’s army as they saved it — and they welcomed their young future queen as a symbol of a new era of peace. And Margaery was perfect in the role — all smiles and kind words, helping those in need, it was impossible to resist her charm. The crowd gathered around them as they passed, chanting her name, was proof enough of how the people of King’s Landing were already in love with her. « I’m sure Her Grace too will show her support and blessing, in time, » he continued, adjusting the pace of his horse so that it matched his sister’s, side by side, looking ahead. He refrained from adding more; he didn’t wish to affect the girl’s mood. It was difficult in truth to say whether or not the queen would show herself more open towards his sister in time; he could only hope, though his instincts were different. « And how does His Grace feel? Have you gotten to know him? »

     HER SECOND WEDDING  would be nothing like her first, margaery knew.  &  even renly had not been her first intended husband  —  less than a year ago, her family’s plan had been to wed her to king robert  &  have their young daughter bear a legitimate heir to the aging king.  but she had learned quickly that kings could die just as any man could,  &  sometimes with very little warning.  &  so her wedding had happened with precious little grandeur or ceremony in spite of the wealth of their union, rushed in the wake of king robert’s death.  &  the marriage itself had been just as barren as the ceremony, renly seemingly far more interested in the troops that their formalized alliance would afford him than finding time for his new wife.  but her second wedding would be massive.  half of the nobility from across all seven kingdoms had been invited to the city in order to celebrate the union of the king  &  his young bride, which would forever cement house tyrell into the upper echelons of royalty within the seven kingdoms.  her family’s dream for generations, all balanced now on her petite shoulders.  still, margaery does not let the pressure bend her spine, does not let her uncertainties reveal themselves  —  this is what she was born to do.                                                    yet in spite of her years of practice, margaery feels her smile flicker at her brother’s question  —  though only for an instant, certainly not long enough for anyone in the crowd to notice.  ❝ not near as much as i’d like.  but then, it wouldn’t be proper to see each other without a chaperone present until we are wed.  so in the absence of any true privacy, we’ve mostly exchanged pleasantries.  &  he has been kind to me thus far.  with his words at least, the king has been every bit as polite as he is handsome. ❞  although his prior betrothed, sansa stark, had warned her that the handsome  &  chivalrous exterior of the young king was not to be trusted.  &  who would know better than she, who had lost her father at his command ?  margaery may be young  &  a maiden still,  but she was not naive enough to fall for pleasant manners  &  well-practiced courtesies  — how could she, when none could play that particular game better than she.  ❝ grandmother says that ours is to be the wedding of the century  —  that it will be all the smallfolk talk about for a decade, at least.  but i pray only to be  a good wife  to his grace,  &  a good queen  to his people. ❞  &  she gives garlan a rare genuine smile,  glad to have  someone that she trusts  at her side while finding her footing in this nest of snakes they call a capitol.

🪐 — EDWARD TEACH​  for  stede !

seeing stede’s eyes fill with tears is never easy,   and edward absolutely loathes knowing he has been the one to bring them forth.  he is almost tempted to call this whole thing off,  to wait some more and promise stede he isn’t going to leave his side just yet,  but if he doesn’t do it now edward fears he never will.  it’s for the better,  he reminds himself.  he is doing it for both his and stede’s sake,  to help them move forward.  distance makes the heart grow fonder sounds like crap,  alright,  but he has to believe this little journey of his will help him figure some things out.  and of course,  not coming back is out of the question  —  edward knows this as well as he knows how to spot favorable winds to sail to.  but does stede?  apparently not,  judging by his words,  and that can’t do at all.  edward sighs, one his hands leaving stede’s face to wound around his shoulders,  bringing the man even closer. 

‘  nothing will stop me from coming back to you.  nothing,  you hear me?  i will swim all the way back to you if i have to.  ’   he seals the promise with a kiss to his forehead,  then to one of his eyelids and finally  —   finally  —  he sneaks farther down to slide his lips against stede’s own.  something in him blazes to life as soon as their lips touch,  and he has to muffle a near whimper on his mouth before capturing it once more.   edward dazedly wonders why he has waited so long to kiss stede again,  depriving them both of something so sweet.  it takes more strength than he thought to possess to incline his head back,  enough that he can comfortably look at stede as he speaks next.  because he needs all the presence of mind at his disposal to answer his question as clearly as he can.  and stede..  well,  he is downright distracting is what he is,  with streaks of fire gold in his hair from the setting sun and lips edward could spend hours losing himself into.

'  all these years and i’ve been feeling so  —  dunno.  numb,  i guess.  like i was wearing someone else’s skin.  i don’t know where i am anymore,  stede.  i just wanna know if i can be out there without my reputation,  without having to be responsible for so many people all of the time,  or having to behave in a certain way.  just me.  ’   he is basically whispering at this point,  their heads so close it hardly warrants for anything more.   '  haven’t told anyone yet.  i wanted you to be the first to know.   ' 

    NO ONE KNOWS THE SEA  like edward does.  he can read it better than anyone stede has ever known, navigates it seemingly by intuition alone.  he knows how to track its tides, to chart its storms, to manage its moods  &  guide their ship from stormy seas into calmer waters with a steady hand.  &  it’s with an equally natural ease that he returns stede to calmness, soothes all anxiety away.  it’s impossible not to believe him when he promises a return,  &  stede responds by leaning into every kiss he is gifted with.  there’s been few enough of them exchanged between them still that every one is precious, to be treasured.  &  he revels in the gentleness when ed’s battle-roughened hands wrap around his shoulders  &  pull him in closer, when his lips when touch first to stede’s forehead, then brush away the saltwater gathering at the edges of his eyes, before connecting with his own at last.                 edward’s mouth is the sweetest thing stede has ever tasted by far  —  the lingering flavor of a cup of tea with seven sugars  —  &  it’s over far too soon.  but edward stays close, head inclined to keep the space between them slight, his voice soft  &  hushed.  secretive.  &  though stede’s head is still swimming from the kiss, from the hands holding him tightly yet tenderly,  he does his best to listen well.  &  slowly, the words start to sink in.  he has always been able to see ed clearly, just as he is, as though he is permanently illuminated by some unknown source that glows only on him.  but perhaps edward cannot yet see himself through the wreckage of  blackbeard  &  the lingering shadows of  the kraken.  &  stede could understand as much;  after all, he knew firsthand how uncomfortable it was, as edward said, wearing someone else’s skin.  who knew better than he about the need to leave everything behind to find what truly lie inside yourself ?           but this isn’t like when he left mary that first time.  edward isn’t running away in the dead of night like a coward  —  he’s still here,  &  he’s promised to come back. so slowly, stede nods, taking one of edward’s hands in both of his own  &  letting his thumbs trace over the back of his hand.  ❝ alright. i  — i hear you, ed.  &  i understand, ❞  he begins, his voice steadier than it had been before. ❝ if that’s what you feel you have to do, darling, then of course i’d never seek to stop you.  go, for as long as you must.  just see to it that you return yourself to me safely. ❞                                        &  stede finds himself a little embarrassed then, cheeks flushing pink.  he’d made quite a fool of himself, all but bursting into tears at the idea of ed leaving him before he’d even gotten more than two words out.  &  he lifts edward’s hand to his lips  &  presses a kiss to the back of his knuckles, a wordless apology.  only then do his eyes return to edward’s face.  &  as he looks at the man he loves, stede thinks that perhaps it would be good for him to spend some time on his own, as well, learning to stand on his own two feet.   ❝ &  know that no matter who you may be when you come back,  i will be here waiting for you.  &  i will love you still. ❞