[ P ] the crooked are smiling

He isn't amused. Drusilla watches his expression shift in an instant, all traces of warmth gone from him now. This is the sort of man who belongs in the secretive bar down the street; if she had to venture a guess, he would know exactly who she was talking about if she'd dared to reveal her interest in Amoux. Her nostrils flare as he looms over her, but Drusilla is clinging vehemently to her composure even in her wariness of his intention.

"Then get the fuck out of here." Her ear twitches, like she might have flinched at his harsh tone and language if she wasn't practicing showing a confidence she doesn't feel. Whilst a part of her wants to return his display of teeth with one of her own, Drusilla knows it's a stupid notion, and shoves that instinct down deep somewhere to overanalyze later. She gets the distinct impression he isn't going to tell her twice, and the logical side of her screams to take the out.

Drusilla never says a word as she finally breaks eye contact with the still nameless man, ducking her head and brushing past his shoulder to head back up the beach. Somehow, she gets the feeling this won't be the last time she sees him.

exeunt drusilla

brick and mortar between my bones built a kingdom fierce and fortified my name fading from the yellow page stones are laid upon the mountainside oh, my savage empire how lucky we are never to be moved by the words of a liar the dark doesn't frighten me I chose to close my eyes it is mine, it is mine the night doesn't frighten me I chose to let it thrive it is mine, it is mine the dark doesn't frighten me I chose to close my eyes it is mine, it is mine the night doesn't frighten me

The dark doesn't frighten me

code // art

They weren't stood there long before the little duckling opted for the wiser of her two options. Bastien watched her go with an impassive stare, in case she dared to glance back at him, that broke easily when she didn't and was lost to the deepening gray horizon, as if swallowed by the gluttonous storm clouds rolling in. His insistent intuition told him he'd get to see the results of this rare, selfless act at some time in the future. But if Bastien thought it might offset the bad karma he'd accumulated over the years, all it'd take was another half hour to prove him wrong.

As Ducky was warned away from the treachery that awaited within the Seagull, he headed straight to it. There was an office down below the bar that no amount of cliffside spying would indicate even existed there, and within it was the one interest that Bastien and Drusilla had in common—had being the operative word.

Take a seat, Amoux said, and Bastien grinned, swiping the door shut behind him.

plucked a feather off a crow

so i could fly

code // art