he sits across from the green witch with a hunched-over back and fingers playing together as elbows rest on his knees. The carpet is more interesting than normal, his head full of the words said when he crossed his arms and left. He wasn’t normal. Here. Anywhere. He was different. Most kids like to swim, or they tolerate it. He can’t stand it. He sees bubbles in his eyes, feels a hand around his throat, and every nerve in his body makes itself known.
Brown eyes flicker up, and back down. He feels weird looking at her. He’s still getting used to it. But he’s seen weirder things ; at least she makes no attempt to hard him. And he has no intention of insulting or harming her, either. He’s kind. He’s also hydrophobic.
eyes go to the book. ❛ Everyone but you. ❜ he points out, still looking at the book. ❛What are you reading ? ❜
‘ how observant. ’ she snips. it is perhaps a but harsher to him than it seems to her, but she makes no move to apologize. his staring is not the most SUBTLE thing, but then, it isn’t anything she’s not use to. ( at least this one doesn’t sneer or spit. really, that would so ruin the taste of her tea. )
she closes the tome with a hollow thud —– running her fingers over the cover as she turns it towards his gaze. THE GREAT DROUGHT ; A HISTORY. she waits & waits & waits for his scoff ; some boring old book, surely he’d find it ridiculous. some nights, she thinks she does too, but with the tightening of security along the yellow brick road & the unsettling sound of tick-tocks crawling about campus, she finds her late professor’s words all too prevalent in her mind ; remember the past.
‘ anyway, NO, despite the coloring you seem so enthralled with — my house pride clearly wasn’t enough to drag me out there. ’
guYS IF WE’RE MUTUALS AND YOUR MUSE RANDOMLY WANTS TO TALK TO MINE, TAG. ME. IN. A. STARTER. I WILL REPLY BECAUSE I LOVE RANDOM STARTERS AND CUTE SHIT AND JUST MY MUSE BEING THROWN IN A SITUATION WHERE THEY’RE LIKE “WHAT THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO BE DOING?!?! WHO THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO BE DOING?!?! WHY THE FUCK ARE WE DOING THIS?!?!” BECAUSE ITS THE BEST THING EVER. So yknow yeah. Tag me in shit.
❝ ——— he said he would rather be put in a COFFIN than obey my orders. I was simply making sure his wishes were granted. you know how men get when their wishes aren’t granted ; they turn into overgrown babies. ❞
THERE ARE NEARLY NO PLACES IN WHICH THE WITCH IS AT EASE. somehow, the empress’s chambers had become one. it was still a strange relation — the recluse witch & the empress with POWER beyond what her people may have known… still, she found herself seated at the edge of the bed, leaning forward with her response. ‘ & what – ? surely you left it not at THAT. I know you too well, theo. bite him ? merely behead him ? ’
