Faveship week - Ebony and Koz
Dec. 15th, 2018 03:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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felinefablesBased on the prompts for Faveshipweek in 2017, one of the pairings I chose was Kozmotis Pitchiner and his wife, Lady Pitchiner (who I also gave the name Ebony.)
Day 1 - Trials and Tribulations
It’s the hardest at night. At night, all the thoughts from throughout the days come tumbling. At night, she feels the lack of his presence even more than she does during the day, where she at least can busy herself with Sera.
At night, she remembers how lonely she feels, and wonders if Kozmotis feels the same.
“It must be so difficult,” the ladies of the Lunar Court will coo at her during official meetings and arrangements, their words sweet and sympathetic. “I do not know how you can handle it.”
What some of them are really saying is ‘I could never be married to a soldier.’
They consider themselves lucky, Ebony thinks, and she can understand why. Most of the Nobility of the Lunar Court are not soldiers, or officers for that matter. Younger wives consider it a blessing, that they are married to simple dukes or counts or marquis, who long decided they had to protect their homes on solid soil, rather than on star ships. Very few of the Nobility these days go for a military career, considering it too great a risk because of the shadows.
Ebony does not fault them. Entire families have been wiped out because the Shadows. And those who are left just do theirs to survive in the harsh, sometimes ruthless world of politics.
It has the negative side-effect of some people not understanding things as a result. Of some of the same young counts and dukes and so on, who laugh off the hard efforts of soldiers, who listen more to their older peers who have not been to war, the same older peers who would sooner lose a battalion in order to save a coin.
Some of them have begun to hate her husband, because he is has gained popularity as the Golden General. Young men and women, their sons and daughters, nieces and nephews and so on, are talking of joining the Golden Army in different ways.
The former Nobility, particularly the elder, have become quite cheeky, trying to smile their way into Ebony’s good graces, to ‘politely request’ of her husband through her, if he would please make certain considerations when it comes to specific materials used for weapons and ships. It is all so dreadfully expensive, and one must consider the economy…
And oh, she knows those hidden poisons in their words.
Some are more understandable than others. They don’t want their children to leave the safety of their nests. Others simply don’t want to lose an investment.
To most of them, Ebony is calm, kind and polite. She speaks of her own knowledge, of where young soldiers or nurses or other members of the army are usually posted, and how unless something very serious happens, no one fresh out of the Golden Army Academy is allowed on any battlefield if not approved of by the Golden General himself.
To those who only speak of saving money, Ebony’s smile turns more sharp and cold, and she gives them a simple question that most seem to get cowed by.
“Which would you rather have coming back to your door? Our boys and girls fighting in the war, safe and sound? Or an army of Shadows waiting to devour you?”
Those words usually give Ebony her own piece of mind. Because she knows, that as long as Kozmotis is out there and protecting the Constellations, no one is in any danger of losing anyone.
It does not always make the waiting easier… but it helps a little.
Day 1 - Trials and Tribulations
It’s the hardest at night. At night, all the thoughts from throughout the days come tumbling. At night, she feels the lack of his presence even more than she does during the day, where she at least can busy herself with Sera.
At night, she remembers how lonely she feels, and wonders if Kozmotis feels the same.
“It must be so difficult,” the ladies of the Lunar Court will coo at her during official meetings and arrangements, their words sweet and sympathetic. “I do not know how you can handle it.”
What some of them are really saying is ‘I could never be married to a soldier.’
They consider themselves lucky, Ebony thinks, and she can understand why. Most of the Nobility of the Lunar Court are not soldiers, or officers for that matter. Younger wives consider it a blessing, that they are married to simple dukes or counts or marquis, who long decided they had to protect their homes on solid soil, rather than on star ships. Very few of the Nobility these days go for a military career, considering it too great a risk because of the shadows.
Ebony does not fault them. Entire families have been wiped out because the Shadows. And those who are left just do theirs to survive in the harsh, sometimes ruthless world of politics.
It has the negative side-effect of some people not understanding things as a result. Of some of the same young counts and dukes and so on, who laugh off the hard efforts of soldiers, who listen more to their older peers who have not been to war, the same older peers who would sooner lose a battalion in order to save a coin.
Some of them have begun to hate her husband, because he is has gained popularity as the Golden General. Young men and women, their sons and daughters, nieces and nephews and so on, are talking of joining the Golden Army in different ways.
The former Nobility, particularly the elder, have become quite cheeky, trying to smile their way into Ebony’s good graces, to ‘politely request’ of her husband through her, if he would please make certain considerations when it comes to specific materials used for weapons and ships. It is all so dreadfully expensive, and one must consider the economy…
And oh, she knows those hidden poisons in their words.
Some are more understandable than others. They don’t want their children to leave the safety of their nests. Others simply don’t want to lose an investment.
To most of them, Ebony is calm, kind and polite. She speaks of her own knowledge, of where young soldiers or nurses or other members of the army are usually posted, and how unless something very serious happens, no one fresh out of the Golden Army Academy is allowed on any battlefield if not approved of by the Golden General himself.
To those who only speak of saving money, Ebony’s smile turns more sharp and cold, and she gives them a simple question that most seem to get cowed by.
“Which would you rather have coming back to your door? Our boys and girls fighting in the war, safe and sound? Or an army of Shadows waiting to devour you?”
Those words usually give Ebony her own piece of mind. Because she knows, that as long as Kozmotis is out there and protecting the Constellations, no one is in any danger of losing anyone.
It does not always make the waiting easier… but it helps a little.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-15 02:30 pm (UTC)Personal headcanon: In my “Courage and Creativity” verse, Kozmotis and Ebony went on a trip to different planets that were part of the different Constellations for their honeymoon. Koz knows some of the worlds from campaigns with the army, while others are worlds he’ll come to know when he reaches the rank of Golden General (I like to think he wasn’t quite that rank yet when he got married), some of them through campaigns and others working as an ambassador.
They promised each other, that when Emily Jane was old enough, they would take her on the same trip, both because it’s healthy for a child to learn about different cultures, and because they wanted their daughter to know of the places her father protects.
Sadly, that was a journey that never came to be. At the time their home on Orion’s Moon was attacked, more than one planet had been scarred badly from Fearling, Nightmare Men and Dream Pirate attacks, leaving some of them very unsuitable for anyone to visit.
And when the Nightmare King attacked, what was already devastated became fully destroyed. Some of the places out of sheer spite from Nightmare Men and Fearlings, and others by the Fearlings possessing the Nightmare King himself, simply to purge their host of any happy memories that might turn him from their influence.
Day 3 - Therapy
Date: 2018-12-15 02:31 pm (UTC)You also have to deal with what comes after. With good and bad days, with the trauma that affects not just the body, but the psyche.
You have to learn how to handle help when it comes to the nightmares.
You remember one of the first time your husband suffered night terrors after returning from a campaign. He’d been well enough through the day, smiling and laughing...
And then during the night, he was kicking and gasping as if he couldn’t breathe, and when you tried to speak to him, he lunged after you, scaring you so badly you fell out of the bed and caused a nightlamp to crash to the floor, waking him up.
It’s only because of your contacts to other people of the Golden Army that you learn what is best. You speak with the right people, and they help you find what is necessary: One of the best therapists the Army has, that has helped other soldiers and your husband before.
He can inform you that this is not the first time your husband has suffered a trauma after a campaign, but it had been a long time since he had been affected this badly. The best he can do is go through recovery the same as everyone else, with a scheduled conversation starting every few days.
And it helps. Part of the therapy is that your husband is advised to talk to you as well, to tell you what bothers him or what he might have nightmares about. And while he is reluctant at first, you tell him that you will not force him. But he should at least consider it.
Eventually, he opens up about his troubles. About the things he has seen, deaths of fellow soldiers he has witnessed, lost to the Shadows that plague the Constellations.
And you listen, and you guard his heart and mind with love and patience, giving it the time it needs to heal.
Day 4 - Forbidden fruit
Date: 2018-12-15 02:33 pm (UTC)He can not say how, but there is a part of him, long ago buried and hidden within that dreadful heart of his, that will look at the Muse and long.
When he watches her work, humming to herself as she picks flowers that he knows she uses to make paint of (how did he know this? Why was he remembering such useless things?), he can not help but want to join her, if only to sit with her in the warm sunshine...
But the rest of him, the part that is mainly dominated by Fearlings knows better.
She is a Muse of the Greek Pantheon, and as much as they squabble amongst themselves, they are also viciously protective of their own.
To touch her against her will would be like taking forbidden fruit.
But oh how sweet its taste has to be, a part of him wonders, and yearns to find out.
Day 5 - Strange and Unusual
Date: 2018-12-15 02:34 pm (UTC)“Is that… Pitch?” Toothiana asked, noticing the tall and intimidating figure standing at the edge of the crowd. The other Guardians were instantly on the watch, and Bunnymund especially, having never forgotten, nor forgiven that Easter so many years ago now.
“Tha’s him alright…” He said, sounding puzzled. “But there’s somethin’… different about him.”
“Is it me, or does he look healthier?” Jack asked in confusion. “Like… he’s not as thin. “
All the while, the Guardians all thought the same: Who was the woman standing by his side as his companion?