This post's authors have general content warnings that might apply to the current post.
View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
So, if Edarial wasn't sure that his wife hated him before, he's really, really sure of it now. It's pretty usual that if they're in the same room, he feels nothing but silent, seething hostility from her. Usually, his reaction to this is a poker face followed by running. He doesn't like having someone hostile just - there at the dinner table, glaring at him with her hissing familiar.
Zevros doesn't hate him, Edarial's certain of it, but he's not helping. He's literally never seen his twin this angry before. This is coming from someone who has seen his twin be angry loads of times. At meals, he just - sits there. Stabbing his food and glaring at Edarial while he does it. He gets why, he knows that Zevros is furious with him for the whole 'cold political marriage' thing. It still hurts, though, to have his immediate family just be so openly hostile.
He gets more withdrawn. Meals get delivered to his room rather than him eating with Iobel and Zevros right there, being near-openly hostile. He stops sparring with Zevros nearly entirely, spends an unhealthy amount of time in either his office or his room, and Berathyme spends all her time coiled around his shoulders, offering what little comfort she can.
She's pretty terrible at advice, but at least he has someone that doesn't actively hate him nearby.
He throws himself into being a king, gets lots of things done, and is generally considered by the public to be good at it. A good king. It's sort of tainted by bitterness, now. But the country does not fall apart, it does not break down into civil war - he handles it. The education system gets a shove in the right direction, the canals get cleaned up, various unemployed people get jobs. He wonders what on earth he's done wrong when he's doing good in the world, but he supposes it doesn't matter.
He knew what he was getting himself into, when he made this choice. He knew that Zevros would be upset with him. Maybe to the point where their camaraderie will just never recover. He doesn't know. From the beginning, he knew that he'd be shackled to someone he doesn't love. Edarial hadn't been expecting the random hatred from his new wife, but he certainly wasn't expecting to be happy.
Just, well. He wasn't expecting to be so miserable, either.
It shows, the misery. Dark circles under his eyes, the withdrawn, blank expression, unkempt hair. He loses some weight due to skipping meals just to avoid his close family. Or, other times, he just forgets, burying himself in work so he doesn't have to think 'What did I do?' over and over again.
But he's a good king. So that's something.
+ Show First Post
royal_obligation
royal_pain
"Cool, thanks! So, anyway, I was trying to figure out a way to tell him, since he is a huge fan of duty and responsibility and I'm kind of firstborn. I figured he would tell me it was a phase and that I needed to suck it up for the country or some other bullshit. So I was kind of aggressive and challenging about it, like, 'Yeah I don't like women what are you going to do about it?'"
Zevros snickers. "He kind of just looked confused, then said, 'Nothing? I already knew' and just moved on because he just didn't think it mattered in the slightest. It was kind of funny, I wanted to hug him for it."
Zevros snickers. "He kind of just looked confused, then said, 'Nothing? I already knew' and just moved on because he just didn't think it mattered in the slightest. It was kind of funny, I wanted to hug him for it."
come_midnight
"I begin to suspect that he agreed to get married to spare you the trouble, as though there is somehow more justice in a straight man being married to a woman he has no interest than in a gay man being likewise. Or perhaps that didn't factor in and it was only your preference for absconding for fruity drinks."
royal_pain
"Pretty sure it was a bit of both. Me not wanting to be king, and me being gay. He wants to be king, and doesn't seem to be gay, so I guess in his head it was the better option. Honestly though, he doesn't seem to be anything, I don't even know if he likes women. He's shown absolutely no interest in anyone. At all."
come_midnight
"Which was a relief on the wedding night yet could prove inconvenient when it begins to look like one of us is doomed to childlessness. Perhaps I'll find - someone."
royal_pain
"Yup. Warn him if you do, though. Because fairness. Pretty sure he won't demand that you stick to celibacy, but he likes to know things."
come_midnight
"I assure you I am not going to carry on an affair without informing the public-father-to-be of any child I may fall pregnant with."
come_midnight
"You're welcome." She sighs. "I'm probably going to need to have either an actual pregnancy or a story about a tragic miscarriage soon."
royal_pain
"You can probably talk to Edarial about that? Maybe there's a funky spellbinder solution to get pregnant."
come_midnight
"I'm not aware of one, although it probably wouldn't be too hard to chart one up homebrew. I do also have misgivings about having a child in this... atmosphere, though."
royal_pain
Zevros shrugs. "Yeah, I am not the right twin to talk to about this. Um, if you have a kid take care of it and keep it away from the crazies?"
come_midnight
"I don't doubt that I could manage single parenthood - so to speak - if obliged to do it. My mother did. But I don't think the environment of despair would do it any favors."
royal_pain
"Gonna have to agree with that one. Sorry, I swear he's not normally so - despairy. And miserable."
royal_pain
Another shrug. "Unfortunately he doesn't come with timestamps. 'Will be ready for child-rearing in two years.'"
come_midnight
"The particular aspect of myself I had in mind is my ability to - consciously steer myself. Decide what it would make sense and be consistent with my self to want and do, and then go more or less directly there."