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« solntse » TEXT ✧ AUDIO ✧ VIDEO ✧ ACTION ALINA STARKOV ✦ GRISHAVERSE
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[commandership]

Poor little Alina.

[ the tart bite of her voice is unapologetic, crisp and cold as a winter breeze. if alina is searching for sympathy, she'll find zoya's is a dried-up well. there's no pity to be spared when she once that girl — enraged by her own helplessness, trapped by hands that had willingly sold her away to suit their purpose. she had found her escape in power; alina will learn that soon enough on her own. a lesson that can't be learned by patting her bottom and drying her tears, each time she curses her own fate rather than seizing it for herself. ]

I don't need to repeat how much you didn't stay out my way. You know it as well as I do.

[ a pointed arrow aimed back at the original target alina keeps trying to avoid, keeps trying to move: dallying with aleksander as though this is a game with no stakes attached. zoya's chin tips, a prideful and convicted point in the air, as she takes a treading step forward. a heavy footfall, the commanding step of a general. ]

I'll tell you the truth, since Genya and Nikolai prefer to do you the injustice of coddling you through your tantrums. I don't care what you asked for, Starkov. None of us ask for what life has given us. Stop flattering yourself by thinking you're so special.

[ behind her, her fingers clasp around her wrist, held to a finer composure the longer alina's unravels, a shift in power zoya seems to inherently snatch. ]

This is the hand you've been dealt. Learn to play it, or you'll be stuck whining about how unfair the stakes are for the rest of your life.

[solmate]

[ Looking for sympathy from Zoya is a fool's errand, and Alina's not even sure what corner of her mind thought she would have found purchase in that foothold. She's slipping on the icy front Zoya's thrown up in front of her. On her knees and knocked down, the last of Alina's resolve dissolves.

She's not special? Being special is exactly the problem. ]

What is this— [ Her knuckles, white with the strength of her grip, wrap around the collars locked around her neck. ] —if not dealing with what I've been dealt? I don't forget what's waiting for me because I can't.

[ She'll laugh it off with a joking explanation when asked about the antlers, do her best to try and be numb to the press of the points into her skin, but there is no forgetting it. No ignoring it. No escaping the strings of fate that are tangled into a noose. ]

I'll do what I need to do. I won't run. [ And ah, there it is, the hot prickle of frustrated tears in her eyes, confronting the fact that the end of this is inevitable. And then you won't have to hear me whining any more, she thinks bitterly. She had thought she reached an amicable peace with Zoya but apparently she's ready to shepherd her to death's door. ] But I can't here. Unless you'd rather chop my head off and take this too.