“Where’s your wash room?”

The radio crackled as Julien slaved away at the broken wing, which at the present was more or less observing and re-observing the surface for any cracks left unattended. He rolls his eyes at the question, jamming the button. “Have you gone mad? You were there just before to wash yourself up.

Ah… while you’re there, soak your old clothing in the sink.. you cannot do your duties in one of my robes forever, now can you?”

“I didn’t mean the one I washed myself in, old man. Your house is big enough to have one for laundry as well, is it not? Or are you so absorbed in your work that you couldn’t be bothered?” Luca loathes the idea of attempting to wash such large garments in something as small as a sink. What a bother that would be.

“I don’t trust you with machinery without supervision, lest you find a way to flood my house before I return. Until then, you can either wait or use the sink or bath tub to suit your needs.” The man sounds irritated, but Luca believes it’s less with himself and more with his obnoxious subordinates, and so he continues on with his demanding.

“Dear gods, Julien, I’m not a monkey. Do you want me to tidy up my room or not? I’ll rub my naked self all over your bed if you deny me the ability to wash these sheets and blankets with ease.” Though he’s frowning, the boy is laughing on the inside. He believes bringing up the situation from earlier will never lose its hilarious shimmer.

“Gods, you’re.. I don’t even know what to call you, but it isn’t good. If I find my house flooded upon my return I’ll send you to live in the damned ocean instead. The wash is.. finicky, but it’s down the hall, to the left of the other wash room.”

And just like that, bringing it up had granted him his way. How Luca loved it when things worked according to plan. He smiles in his triumph and travels down the hall with his shoulders up straight, dragging the blankets, sheets and cases into the room. It looked almost incomplete in its structure, but he didn’t pay mind to it for very long, having found the object of his interest. He’d never actually been face to face with an automatic washer before, so this would prove an interesting endeavor.

The palace was eerily silent, not a single body present. Everyone from the town had gathered to bury, mourn, and discuss their leader’s passing. Their unity made him long for the days he was still a young boy under his overseer’s training, working side by side with friends he hasn’t seen for years.

Losing a comrade back then was like losing a piece of his heart, and it hurt especially so when they were told to spread all over the world to right its wrongs. It was something even he, arrogant as he was, doubted his ability to do.

Thinking about it all made him ache, because he could have been something amazing. He could have been the apple of Meredin’s eye, but instead he let himself become carried away by his own selfish needs. Naive might be too nice of a word to call it, because it’s not that he doesn’t know what he’s doing to himself, but that he doesn’t want to acknowledge it. He’s gone and let himself fall in love, and even worse, put it above all else. Never did he think he’d see the day that all of the things he had learned, all of the things he had held dear would instead be turned from being for the better of the world, to being for the better of one man’s life.

He was a failure, and with the recent prince of Indova’s death, something he could have prevented, it was only becoming harder to ignore.

“You’re kidding. You have to be screwing with me, come on.” Niko’s arm turns so his hand lay flat on his face, running his fingers down out of frustration.
“Do you know what that would even do to him if he found out? He probably wouldn’t even want to stay with me. That’s not practice.”

“I know Milo better than you. He wouldn’t leave you over this. Maybe if it was just any old person, but it’s me, and I’m not some dumb girl.” He reaches up to twist some of Niko’s hair between his fingertips.

“I bet that’s what you told Kat, too.” Rolling over to his side, Niko watches his phone still blinking occasionally to notify him of his missed text. The worst part about it is that he’s tempted just a little by Jae’s words, and he shuts his eyes to block out the distant flashing of his phone.

“Ouch.” Jae gives one soft laugh, leaning down to give him a light, harmless kiss right below his ear. “Good boy,” and then he rolls off onto his back, crossing his arms behind his head.
“I didn’t have to say much to her. She didn’t really care at the time. She probably didn’t care at any other time either. People like her, well, they can easily throw away guilt as if it were just a paper ball in their pocket scratching obnoxiously at their thigh.

Sometimes I can, but it’s different. She doesn’t do it because she feels like it’s the last edge of enjoyment she’ll get out of her life. She’s not as reckless as I am. My guilt never goes away. I just keep blindly rowing and telling myself that it doesn’t matter if I regret it, because I’m already miserable.”

I don’t exactly remember how it was that we came about it in my dream, I only remember becoming conscious what must have been right as we started. I felt him sink into me, and god I could swear the relief in his groan was so tangible you could grab it and squeeze it through your fists. Hundreds of years of sexual frustration and pain could do that to you, I guess, but he had a good enough distraction in the meantime.

Things started getting real immediately, he was merciless. He wrapped his hands firmly around the undersides of my legs right below the bend of my knees, spreading them to allow himself more room, and began his relentless pound. I was going insane, caught between feeling extremely awkward and feeling good. He was hitting that spot, but it was so cold that, disappointingly enough, I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to orgasm during it, but then he curled over me in such a way..

His breath fluttered against my neck as he grunted from deep inside of his chest for nearly every thrust, his bony hips slapping heavily against the cushion of my ass. I spent my time wondering how a ghost could become this terrifyingly human, so solid and real, but needless to say I’m easily convinced out of wandering trains of thought, it’s no wonder that when he picked up his hips and curled them in just such a way, a way that pressed him just right against that spot, that I wasn’t thinking frivolously anymore. All I could think about was him, the burn, how deep he was, how desperate he was, how desperate I was. A strangled moan escaped my throat as I pushed against my arms and forced my upper body up a bit out of sheer reaction to the white hot that burst behind my eyes.

I felt like he was breaking me, but it was the most amazing I had ever felt while being split in two that I could recall. He kept on pounding, kept rotating his hips and pushing up against that sensitive spot that had me scrambling for something to hold onto, soft and embarrassing moans fluttering from my own lips almost drowned out by the volume of his grunts. I wanted so bad to swallow his sounds, I wanted him to swallow me too.

When he came to his peak, I saw stars. It was the warmth that took me by surprise, but it filled me to the brim, and when he pulled out, all I could do was shake and try to focus on breathing properly. It was hard.

Speaking of hard, though, I lacked that upon waking up, and my pants were perfectly fine. Spotless, even. It was the strangest, most clean sex-related-dream aftermath I’d ever had.

The urge to have it happen again was there, though. That lingering feeling of being wanted so utterly bad, those nails digging into the undersides of my legs, those breaths on my neck, ah, bloody hell. It was all that bastard’s fault — I gave into his whims and he opened up the flood gate of all the things I’d tried to suppress over the past year.

How unfortunate, miserable me.

The more she converses with him, insists on coming closer, holding eye contact, the more uncomfortable he gets. The more he wishes he hadn’t engaged in it. The more he wishes this moment, this day, this entire week and month and year would just end, flush out of his system, drizzle away and evaporate into nothing.

She pokes and prods and smiles and pries into his life as if she deserves to know, to move herself into a place she doesn’t belong, as if she holds some sort of importance to him. Most certainly not, he thinks, and feels his eyes shaking. His eyes, actually shaking more than his hands while they watch her. Her tone changes when she notices his tenseness, and she goes on to mention how she’s sad to see him sad. How she wishes he could be happy like he was when he was younger.

He trembles with a wave of anger that makes his blood briefly run cold. “Do you think I enjoy being miserable?” he thinks instead of speaking, because his lips are chapped and his mouth is dry. “Do you think this is fun for me? Do you think I enjoy waking up to this feeling? Have a cup of coffee and say cheers to the bright and happy morning sky, and tell it how amazing feeling like shit is?”

“But I am happy,” he says instead, forcing a smile toward her. He can’t carry on this conversation. He can’t prove his happiness, instead he crosses his arms behind his back and rocks on his heels in a child-like fashion. Like he’s not seventeen, worrying in the back of his mind every waking moment each time one day passes, bringing him closer to the “future” that everyone loves to brag about, as if there was something waiting for him after he’s deemed unable to be coddled anymore.

As if he’s not in grave danger the moment she leaves — things he couldn’t just speak of so lightly as if they were everyday occurrences that happened to everyone.

She wouldn’t understand. She was old, old and stupid. He wished she would just leave.

He can accept his fate if no one reminds him of how frustrating it is.

Not completely unexpectedly, Luca has found himself in a predicament. This predicament and his expectation of it, however, he had assumed would be long down the road, but perhaps he’d only aided the man’s psychosis by being a constant nuisance, pushing him further and much faster than he would’ve driven himself on his own. None the less, here he is tied, wrists crossed and wrapped in rope just as his legs are spread and tied to posts. It’s not the most practical way to bound someone whom you wish not to move, but it does ensure that Luca cannot escape.

Though, the boy does not try. He finds this predicament quite peculiar, quite exciting. He was never one known for his overabundant knowledge in common sense, he preferred to risk learning about the dangerous side of anything at the expense of wasting away in some way or another.

The room is dark, lit only by a couple of candles on the dresser, but they don’t do much to reach up to the peaking ceiling, this house always noted to be far too big for one, two, even three occupants. Luca twists his hands in the binds once to find the most comfortable position to lay them, and awaits the man he knows will come, eventually. He wouldn’t just tie him up for no reason, but perhaps — ah, he hears a voice, and strains his ear.

“I can’t, this isn’t… this is for study, I have to, but…” Pearce sounds distressed, pacing back and forth outside of the room, speaking to himself in a frantic manner. “This is ridiculous. I could have done this all by myself, but I had to—” he glances toward the doorway only to find a newly awake Luca peering over at him, and his exterior changes immediately, a scowl on his face.

“What? Don’t look at me like that, you should’ve seen this coming, boy.” As if that wasn’t motivation enough, Luca turns his head down and to the side to avoid Pearce’s glare, a rather disinterested tone in his voice. “Of course. I was aware that it was only a matter of time.” So cocky, this one was. Pearce wishes he wasn’t, that he could at least be a quiet, smiling boy who appreciated every small measure he went through to accommodate him despite his demands, but he’s stuck with a brat.

He concludes that because of this, sympathy is not an option.

PEOPLE
LAURENT - the youngest heir to the erelan throne who was first in line for the crown, but was swept away by his brother’s call for an assassin. now resides with alexandre on travels to a place far from home with promises of a better life.

PASCAL - the elder brother of laurent, a bitter and somewhat disturbed man who now holds the future crown of erelur.

LIVIUS - pascal’s exotic pet, a creature half man and half bird gifted to the man at a young age. extremely faithful and placid, though he will stop at nothing to protect his master.

ALEXANDRE - an assassin that follows the brotherhood of mere but resides on the escian continent due to his own choice. only he, razja, and a few other assassins are present on escias, just as a few are scattered on each continent, but most prevalent in era.

MEREDIN III (MEER-din the third) - the head of the most current assassins that taught them as young boys, successor of meredin II. resides in the winding city (jrald) within era’s country kyppczen

RAZJA (RA-zha) - one of alexandre’s “brothers”, an informant and overseer of the equator of escias.

TAHARKA - n/a

JUDA - n/a

PLACES
ESCIAS - the “middle continent”, the second largest on the world and the one with the most varying climate.

DALA - a country along the equator somewhat to the east of the continent of escias

BOURGE - a country south of dala that once had an indiscriminate border and agreement with them due to the metal rich mines between the two countries, but lost the land and has since been halfed its size as of 1354

DALASIAS - the largest city devoted to the water god dalai, came after indur and indova after the battle of greed in 1351 with bourge, a country south of dala that had declared war on indova/indur over mines on the border, and the profits made from them vs. the need of the metals produced by them

INDUR/INDOVA - two neighboring cities slightly northeast of dalasias that were the first cities where the dalist religion was founded by the dark skinned lesser domini and humans

ERELUR - laurent’s home country, and also home of one of the largest kingdoms on the escias continent. located in the northwestern area.

ARCOR - laurent’s home city, the city of the kingdom located in the heart of erelur.

ERA - the “continent of barbary” — despite its name derived from “the barbaric land” for it’s many games and sports that revolve around death (coliseums, duels, jousting, betting games, etc), era is a very prosperous continent with many businesses, even more prosperous than its sister continent, escias. it is located to the east of escias just above the equator, and houses many exotic cold-dwelling creatures.

KYPPCZEN (kip-chen) - a country within era relatively close to the west coast, home of the winding city.

JRALD (sh-rald) - the winding (WIN-ding, not WHINE-ding) city, or the city of wind. one of the most innovative places in the entire world, jrald is always creating. their methods of transportation due to the land being mountainous are almost exclusively airborn via hot air balloon, blimp or a glider-like contraption.

ASS CAKE ASS CAKE

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