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Fic: Who Could Love Me Better

For @twodrunkencelestials, have a LonelyEyes with "divorce of convenience" theme! In which Peter and Elias divorce so Peter can fulfill his family duty with another marriage, SFW with angst.

Who Could Love Me Better

After the divorce has been finalized, Peter comes to Elias's house for one last time.

"I guess you won't miss this place that much," Elias says when he opens the door for Peter, stepping aside to let him in from the rain outside. "You never spent much time here in the first place."

"You never know," Peter replies, although Elias is right; Elias's house is just a house to him, not a home the way Tundra is. Still, Peter knows how to move there, where to take off his shoes and where to leave his clothes, where to go for the cognac. He heads to the living room and the cabinet there, seeking out the bottle of cognac from Elias's selection of liquor.

"You read my mind," Elias comments behind Peter, voice thick with amusement. "Which one of us belongs to the Eye again?"

The idea of belonging to the Eye is, as ever, repulsive to Peter. He shudders, but takes the cognac out.

"That would be you." He takes two glasses out too, watching Elias's reflection in the cabinet's glass door. Elias is smiling, standing just close enough to Peter for Peter to sense the warmth of his body, but not quite touching. Being his usual self, in other words, and while that should be a relief, it irritates Peter. But Peter doesn't comment on it for now, taking the bottle and the glasses over to living room instead.

They sit on the sofa side by side, Elias's knee brushing against Peter's. Peter is the one who pours the cognac; he always is.

"To think we won't be doing much of this anymore." Elias's voice is soft and wistful. "But you will come see me sometimes, won't you? Or will that be a problem for your future bride?"

"If it is, then it's not someone I ought to marry." Peter takes his cognac, taking a long sip instead of answering. But he can't put the words off forever, doesn't even want to. "I will. All my family wants out of a marriage is a heir. They won't care about minor details."

Peter risks a glance at Elias, who is looking thoughtful. Elias has his cognac in his hand, but instead of drinking it, he's waving the glass around a little bit, watching as the liquor splashes within it.

"You know, I know it's just usual business thing for your family." Elias turns his head towards Peter, and the smile on his lips takes a bitter edge. "It still stings to be considered a minor detail in your life."

Elias could give Peter relief now, look away and drink his damn cognac. But he stares at Peter instead, his grey eyes serious, and since Peter isn't looking away, he has to address this. Licking his lips, he puts his glass back down on the coffee table, and turns towards Elias on the sofa.

"Do you want me to apologize?" he asks. "You said you understood."

"I do. I still get to have feelings about this, don't I?" Elias puts his glass down too, reaching out to rest his hand on Peter's knee. He grips it, the clutch of his fingers tight despite him being a smaller man, and Peter lets him, lets him touch him and look at him. "And no, Peter, I don't want your apologies. I just want to know that it mattered."

Peter doesn't think he has ever seen the Lonely hang so close to Elias, dimming his sharp gaze, brewing despair in his voice. It's beautiful.

"It did," he whispers.

Elias says nothing, just nods as his grip on Peter's knee loosens. But as Peter tries to stand up, eager to flee, Elias grasps him by the arm, pulling him back down. A moment later, Elias is moving in on him, his lips pressing tight against Peter's own, his hand finding its way to the back of Peter's head. Peter slings his arms around Elias, pulling him against himself as he kisses Elias back.

It's a bitter kiss, an angry one with teeth and hair pulling and fingers pressing bruises into skin, and it makes Peter feel too much. He shoves Elias away from himself, gasping for breath as soon as their mouths have parted. This seems to satisfy Elias, who is starting to smile like himself again. ´ "Do visit me, Peter," he says. "Know that I always appreciate your company."

Peter can only nod.

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Aight. The brainrot is rooting.

This was supposed to be a doodle but oh well. Enjoy :)

HGDGJKLGFDJKL

I Have no words. Look at that! Thank you! Aaaaaaaa <3

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"I will simply say that – when a spider reaches a certain size, it is often not entirely made up of spider anymore."

This line has been haunting me for years. I have no idea what it means.

Me neither. It's good, tho, right?

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Magnus fandom, 2016: We're horny for this lady made of worms!

Me: Huh. Unexpected, I'm not sure how to feel about that.

Magnus fandom, 2024: We're horny for this guy made of needles!

Me: Of course you are, my children. Be free.

Magnus fandom 2024: We're horny for this bulbous oozing clown man!

Me: I think 95% of your are being facetious, but the true 5% can go with god.

Magnus fandom, just now: We're horny for a member of the British Aristocracy!

Me: Gross. No. Absolutely not. Sick freaks the lot of you. I am officially kinkshaming. You disgust me.

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astarion - i'm so smart they're never gonna find out i'm a vampire - ancunin

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All the pretty bugs~

Lady Jane Prentiss- Corpse eating butterfly

Queen Agnes - Monarch butterfly

Jon Sims (witch) - Small emperor moth

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one more butterfly ✨

Mike Crew (witch) - Pipevine swallowtail butterfly

based ot this ask

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Oliver Banks (witch) - Mourning cloak butterfly

based on this ask

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More pretty bugs! ✨

Gerry Keay (witch) - Luna moth Lady Sasha James - Atlas moth Prince Michael Shelley - Comet moth Lord Elias Bouchard - Green page moth Lady Gertrude Robinson - Smoky emperor moth based on this ask

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Where are his eyes?

Exactly where they’ve always been, Martin. Watching over my Institute.

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Commission for @rookfeatherrambles for their selkie AU "The Selkie of Vauxhall Bridge." Feel free to hit them up if you're curious about it!

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woahhh it's... headshots!! Not the most exciting thing in the world but I've been wanting to knock out my personal designs for these guys, especially for some characters I don't draw a lot of.

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get you a man who despite his literal decades of practice repressing and hiding his emotions to survive physically cannot hide how smitten he is with you

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I've been wanting to draw Jon and Elias as Christine and the "Angel of music" from the Phantom of the Opera for a while now, so here you go ૮( ⸝⸝´꒳`⸝⸝)ა

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Ah, even better than links- advice on how to look for this myself!

Genuinely 90% of historical fiction would be so much better if more writers could get more comfortable with the fact that to create a good story set in a different time period you do actually have to give the characters beliefs & values which reflect that time period

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Hey this is cool and all but does anyone happen to have any good resources out there to LEARN about these different values and such?

Spare a link to help a writer reasurch?

Genuinely 90% of historical fiction would be so much better if more writers could get more comfortable with the fact that to create a good story set in a different time period you do actually have to give the characters beliefs & values which reflect that time period

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Hey, Horrormaster Sims. I have a wildly different question that barely relates to TMA (Sorry about that) but its about your own process. Please, if you could, can you tell me how your first drafts made you feel? I'm on the fence about writing my own thing (not a podcast, and again, not Magnus related, though I have a million little aus for that delightful tragedy you wrote, thank you for that!) But I'm discouraged by the collective notion that first drafts are always terrible, because there's no ... examples I can solidly use to help the dumb anxiety beast in my brain that tells me everyone who is in any way popular popped out a golden turd and not, well, you know. One of my friends said 'Oh I bet Jonathan Sims's first draft was nothing like what he wanted' and I got the bright idea to just. Send you an ask, since you're trapped on this hellsite like I am. Anyway, thanks for reading this (if you do) and if you'd rather ask it privately, I am cool with that. Alternatively, you're a hella busy man with Protocol (you and Alex are making me rabid, i hope you know) and you can just ignore this! Cheers, man, and good words.

To my mind all writing advice, especially stuff that's dispensed as truisms (like "first drafts are always garbage") are only useful inasmuch as such advice prompts you to pay attention to how you write best: what helps your workflow, what inspires you, what keeps you going through the rough bits. There are as many different ways to write (and write well) as there are people who write and so always consider this sort of thing a jumping off point to try out or keep in mind as you gradually figure out your own ways of writing.

On first drafts specifically, I think the wisdom "all first drafts are bad" is a bit of unhelpful oversimplification of the fact that, deadlines notwithstanding, no piece of writing goes out until you decide its ready, so don't get too hung up on your first draft of a thing, because a lot of writers find it much easier to edit a complete work than to try and redraft as they go. It's also important to not let perfectionism or the fact your initial draft isn't coming out exactly how you want stop you from actually finishing the thing, as it's always better to have something decent and done than to have something perfect and abandoned.

But the idea of a "first draft" is also kind of a fluid one. The "first draft" you submit to someone who's commissioned you will probably be one you've already done a bunch of tweaks and edits to, as opposed to the "first draft" you pump out in a frenzy in an over-caffeinated weekend. For my part, my first drafts tend to end up a bit more polished than most, because I'm in the habit of reading my sentences out loud as I write them (a habit picked up from years of audio writing) so I'll often write and re-write a particular sentence or paragraph a few times to get the rhythm right before moving to the next one. This means my first drafts tend to take longer, but are a bit less messy. I'm also a big-time planner and pretty good at sticking to the structures I lay out so, again, tend to front load a lot of stuff so I get a better but slower first draft.

At the end of the day, though, the important thing is to get in your head about it in a good way (How do I write best? what helps me make writing I enjoy and value? What keeps me motivated?) and not in a bad way (What if it's not good enough? What if everyone hates it? What if it doesn't make sense?) so that you actually get it done.

As for how my first drafts made me feel? Terrible, every one of 'em No idea if that's reflective of their quality, though, tbh - I hate reading my own writing until I've had a chance to forget it's mine (I can only ever see the flaws). I suppose there's theoretically a none-zero chance they were pure fragments of True Art and creative perfection, but Alex's editing notes make that seem unlikely.