hi ! i hope you're doing well, and i just wanna say first that i love your blog and it just radiates comforting vibes :)
i wanted to ask for some advice. i chose god over a year ago after having this push-pull thing with him for almost ten before that. most of my issues with actually accepting him came from ideas i had about him from his more conservative/evangelical followers, which i began to debunk for myself after figuring out that god, not them, was who i wanted.
so i've been sticking to the old testament, mostly. i found god in there, grew to love him because of it, and it's just a beautiful text, but also there are far fewer conservative dogwhistles in there than there are in the new testament. the new testament is hard for me to look at, and i feel guilty about it.
and its like- ive grown up with jesus my whole life. my parents are methodist, i was raised methodist. but i've never felt very close to him, thanks to those who twisted his verses about love and kindness into weapons against people like me. i read these verses that mean so much (john 3:16 and the like) and all i get out of it is a crawling sense of dread. like the associations are Bad, and it seeps through the whole new testament.
all this long-winded nonsense is basically to say that somebody got their hands all over the new testament and now i look at it and it is just barren. have you ever experienced something like this? any advice on how to,, reclaim the new testament or something? (thank you so much for reading this holy shit it's long. sorry about that)
Thank you beloved, I'm glad you're here! No such thing as too long here, I promise—well, there might be on my end. (You've been warned.) I'm overjoyed that you've chosen to pursue God—separating what you've been told from what you seek to believe in is such a hard thing to navigate.
I'm gonna be honest, this is such a refreshing question and I'm glad that you're asking it. I overwhelmingly hear the opposite from Christians—that the New Testament is easy and loving and comforting, and the Old Testament is scary and violent or whatever. I always want to ask first, what their opinions of Judaism are, because that's a red flag to me; and next, have they read the NT? It isn't easy and it isn't always comforting, and I think too many Christians only read the parts that they think are. The fact that you're recognizing those hard things and wanting to deal with them is a beautiful thing—we should take these texts seriously enough to criticize and struggle with them.
First of all: You have no need to feel guilty for what other people have done with holy things, or for your emotions. You have not done something wrong by carrying this hurt with you. What we feel is not in our control—but we can listen to it. Let this be a movement of desire, not of guilt. You're seeking God past the dread. You want to grow enough that the ideas people have taught you don't stand between you and what you want—and you've already done so much of this growth. I believe that you can keep moving in the direction of God, and find God in more and more places. But you don't have to pretend it's not hard. And if it was easy I'm not sure that would be a good thing.
Your experiences and associations and discomfort and fear—they're your history and they're also the history of the text. I'm sure you've heard people say "Don't let stuff like that turn you away from the original meaning of the verses!" Or "Jesus didn't mean that!" But of course the verses hold weight. They've had baggage before they ever got to you—two thousand years of it. Hold space for the fact that they've been used to hurt you and others. That's not meaningless—it's part of the meaning now. People who claimed their destruction was what Jesus meant have added to the history of Jesus and the text—and people who created love and beauty in honor of those verses have also added to these histories. We can learn about the original meaning of the text, but we cannot erase or ignore the meanings that have existed over the years. Go into this without guilt or pressure or expectation, and bring the anger and confusion and bad experiences. The text is strong enough to handle them. God is strong enough to handle them.
I want to acknowledge that finding God in the Hebrew Bible and existing there with Them is a beautiful thing. You don't have to equally relate to every single part of a religion to create a home there. Of course I hope that you grow new connections with the NT, but if it's never the same as the OT, that's not a flaw or a failure. None of us can find all the places where God is present and hold them all equally. Our brains aren't big enough for that. You have created a beautiful connection with God, and I hope that you know that there are so many fulfilled, faithful people who have not, and will never, experience God in the NT. Of course these people generally aren't Christian—and that's obviously a choice you can make—but I hope that knowledge reminds you that you aren't doing anything wrong. You have a duty to God, not to religion. And you certainly don't have a duty to the ideas you've grown up with or translators or interpreters or even to Biblical writers. We enter religion to learn and create community and to fully live out our duty to God—religion serves us, not the other way around.
I love that you brought up conservative dogwhistles because this is a point that, again, I've heard more people fall on the other side of! More people have a problem with the politics of the OT, for lots of reasons. The NT was written much closer to our current point in history, of course, in a time and culture much more familiar to most of us than Ancient Israel. The Roman Empire's language and government and philosophy has influenced the world immensely, and I think for most people it's therefore easier to exist in/relate to/project on. For you, though, this might be having the opposite effect. The fact that the Roman Empire is closer and more influential to our culture may make you more aware of its injustices and biases. Conservatism as we know it is much closer to values found in the Christian scriptures than the Jewish ones partially because it's more culturally and politically similar to ours. (Think about how many far-right people idolize the Roman Empire! And of course, think about how many conservatives are Christians.)
I'm assuming, because you're someone who notices politics in texts, that you've probably confronted things in the OT that you've had to process and put in context and perhaps still struggle with. I know that you've been met with violence and patriarchy, and that you've read verses that you probably know have been used to justify racism, sexism, slavery, and homophobia. Perhaps you've come to these chapters and said something like, "Wow, this has been used for a lot of evil, and this is something I have to deal with, but I also want to give grace to the culture that existed this way and told these stories, see the times that systems like patriarchy are challenged and changed over time, and use this for good and liberation in my own life." Maybe this is easy for you, or maybe it's taken a lot of strength.
Barbara Brown Taylor talks about "shadow languages" in her book Holy Envy (which I recommend)—languages in the Bible that assume things, that carry with them narratives we need to look out for. She identifies the language of contempt, the one of social hierarchy, the one that glorifies suffering for suffering's sake, the one that divides reality into opposed pairs. She tells us that "the purpose of staying on the lookout for languages like these is to prevent them from becoming uncontested parts of the Christian worldview. Every time I run into one of them hard enough to hurt, I turn around and look in the opposite direction, where there is almost always a counternarrative in scripture, just waiting for someone to notice it."
I think about how slavery is not abolished in the Bible—it has not been abolished ever. At various times in history, it has been taken for granted, challenged, uprooted, and changed form. Why are the ancient Israelites freed from captivity and go on to enslave people? Why does God move them to chip away at slavery but not fully eradicate it? Why does Paul say there is no slave or free under Christ Jesus, but preserves the social hierarchy inherent to that statement? It angers me that oppression is never abolished completely and immediately, but I also know that's not how people (or true stories) work. We take a lot of things for granted—and that leads many people to conservatism. I love Paul's writings, and I also know that his greatest sin (like many of us) was believing God's love liberated only as far as his imagination. He could imagine a God who loved the enslaved, could imagine a world in which their souls were equal, but could not imagine a world without slavery. He could imagine a spiritual equality of men and women, but not a social one. The gospel writers could worship a Jewish man as God, honor the scriptures he quoted, and add no nuance to the Jewish leaders who opposed him. They could imagine a messiah coming from Judaism but could not give grace to the Judaism around them.We all have failures of imagination, and we are always wrong. (Thanks be to God.)
I am not in the business of excusing harmful systems. I don't think you should do this when tackling the NT—I think you should challenge it and accuse it and dismantle it. But I also want you to remember the grace that you have brought to the Hebrew Bible. You have found God in a text with a lot of hard things and a lot of beautiful things—I bet you can do it again. Maybe it's more personal this time, maybe it's closer to your culture, but you have the skills. And maybe this is gonna make you go back to the OT with harsher eyes—so be it. Be curious about how this changes your relationship with history—humanity's and your own. However you understand conservatism, you can find it in both parts of the Christian Bible. And you can't take away the ways people have furthered that. But you can see them, and you can build relationships with the stories, knowing that your imagination can go further—and God's goes further still. You have been taught by bigoted people and a bigoted world, and you know it. You already know you want God, not them.
So what do we do when someone got their hands all over the New Testament? I love that question, because they absolutely have. They're still doing it. Someone got their hands all over the OT too—actually, probably more and worse someones seeing as it's a Jewish text and Christian hands are inherently meddling. But this is all part of the text's history. However much we believe God was involved, people wrote in their own language and from their own culture. The curation and copying and collecting and translating and analysis inherent to the Bible's existence (it didn't spring fully formed into the King James Version) are people's hands. We can't take that away—and in fact, we needed their hands for these texts to get to us.
Reclaiming the Bible for me has not included pretending those hands don't exist—especially when they're personal. What it has included is prying some of those hands off to see God underneath. The thing about that, though, is that it gets our fingerprints involved. You can't reach into a text and find God without getting your hands dirty. There is no pure holy text in this life. The NT that you're reading—unless you're smarter than me—is already translated. You can learn to read Greek, you can study history, but you're gonna be doing it with your own hands. While you're finding God in the text, accept that even if you go all the way back, the original writers' fingerprints are on the very first copy.
Let this move you to know that none of it is empty. I acknowledge the barrenness you're describing as the only thing you can see right now—but know that even if this is overwhelming, it's proof that the text itself is full. The fact that so many people, for good and evil, have touched it and transformed it, the fact that you desire connection with it, means that it is not empty. There would be nothing there for you to want to reclaim—but you're asking.
I think it would be really interesting for you to find the humanity in the gospels. Look for the people. Yes, these are characters told and retold—you can see the fingerprints—but they were people first. Look for people reclaiming and messing around and taking cultural things for granted and challenging other things—and live in it with them. Don't approach any of it as a solid text that exists—look at it as a living, breathing text that we all tear into. And, yes, this means people are going to twist it almost beyond recognition, but they do not have a monopoly on joining the story—you bring your experiences and your biases. Be human with it, the way that I'm sure you are with the OT, which is full of flawed, evil people who sing beautiful songs. Be human with them.
Enlarge your theological circle. Read liberation theology, queer theology, disability theology. Read the Quran, which is an amazing time that people got their hands on the NT (as well as having its own history of violence). Find different, beautiful hands that tell these stories in new ways. I can't promise you'll find beauty—that's such an emotional and personal experience. We can't force beauty out of anything. But other people have found and created beauty, and we can experience it secondhand—through stained glass, a musical, a movie, a song, a poem—not because their eyes are better than yours, but because they're also honest.
Barbara Brown Taylor (again in Holy Envy) recounts wisdom from a visiting imam, who "explained that the long lineage of Muslim scholars who have worked collaboratively for centuries to interpret the Quran in the most humane ways are more to be trusted than those who spill blood based on their own readings and ambitions." There are always other traditions, and when all we can see is a weapon, there are those who will unclench our fists.
I would encourage you to make sure you have a NT text that has footnotes to tell you when someone is quoting the Hebrew Bible. The NT is in relationship with, building on and interpreting and philosophizing about, the OT. If you are coming from the OT, bring those verses with you, the same way Jesus and early Christian writers did. The New Testament as a body of work did not exist for the first Christians—the scriptures they had were the ones you have connected with. You're in such good company. Look at how easily Jesus quotes scripture, the verses he adds on to and interacts with, the prophecies he sees himself in. Look at the sacrifice imagery that the gospel writers use to talk about Jesus—assuming that the reader will be familiar with these themes. Even within the OT, we can see later Jewish prophets criticizing and conversing with earlier verses—humanity is constantly in conversation with itself and God. You have such a good foundation for understanding this relationship.
The other good foundation you have? Wrestling with a text. It's the ones we're in community with that are the ones we're most often in conflict with and hold to the highest standards—for Jesus, this was the Jewish community he was a part of, and for you, this might be the NT. Have beef with your own scriptures and communities and religious leaders—reclaiming and wrestling are what the gospels are about. Acts and the letters in the NT are continuously debating the relevance of various OT verses. Do hard work on a text, and do it in good company.
Carry with you the scriptures you love as you travel into unfamiliar or painted-over territory. Know that you have something to come back to, however far you g0. While wading into waters you don't understand, you know that there's land under your feet—and you know that it's land that Jesus valued, that all the people in the NT valued, even as they wrestled with it. The first verses of the NT are a genealogy from Abraham to Jesus's adoptive father. Christians see this all as one story—whether you believe that right now or not, the human story is constantly moving, and God is your solid ground.
Jesus set down a foundation on that rock of God and Christians have added bricks to it and torn stuff down and messed around and burned it and kept building it—but you know there's God under it, because you've seen Them. So when you read Paul awkwardly shoving some bricks together and think, "That's not how I would build a community…" know that God's under there. When you read Peter denying Jesus, know that his name still means "rock," that you can still create solid ground after everything. You know where God is, and also, our lives are ever-expanding journeys of finding where else God could be. Yours looks different from the Christians who consider the NT to be that same rock, but that's okay! It's okay if the OT is a firm foundation for you, and the NT is one of the bricks. Look for God in those awkward bricks, which I know you can do because you've already done it. King David wrote the most beautiful songs I know—you don't ignore his murder and rape, you honor the whole story.
John 3:16 is a much-loved verse—but it being more important than other verses is a construct. You don't have to like it—in fact, the context of this is Jesus talking to Nicodemus, who doesn't understand what he's saying. Jesus is very familiar with confusion and even anger as a response—and he even seems to seek it out sometimes. Nicodemus comes to him as a genuine student, and Jesus starts going on about being born again, something that his new student seems to have no foundation for. Oh, to be a confused new student rather than someone whose had "being born again" held over my head! I wish I could come to the idea with no baggage! I wish I had no foundation for that idea, so I could start over—which would, perhaps, come closer to what Jesus is saying than any evangelical teaching.
Take care, keep trudging. Whatever path this brings you to, whatever communities you end up building, know that with God as the foundation, even awkward haphazard fingerprinted ripped-up texts can tell stories that we need to hear. I can't take away the associations you have with these texts, but I can pray you create new ones. Learn new songs, meet new characters. Get your hands messy.
Don't force a positive relationship—what people have done with the text is a barrier to you right now, and this might be more of a journey with a barrier than a going through it. There are pieces of barriers I've broken open that come with me when I revisit those verses. You already have a more honest relationship with all of this than so many others, and you have the skills already to know that it is God, not the world's followers, that you want.
I hope this wasn't long-winded nonsense, and I hope something here resonates. The short answer (which I probably should have put at the beginning) is that yes, I've experienced something like this. The year I couldn't read the Bible without panicking, I cried while watching The Prince of Egypt. In the years after that, I almost came back to it like I was converting—reading the basics, starting from scratch. Growing up and becoming purposely Christian (rather than your parents exactly) is a kind of conversion, and you have to reclaim the texts, and ask God to reclaim you as you are now.
Isaiah 55:10-11 tells us that God's word pours out like rain, and never returns empty. It sticks with us until something grows inside us. And John begins his gospel by telling us that the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. This is a living word, one that cried and got angry and fell in love with his friends and participated in a culture and wrestled with God's will and interpreted scripture and was a person with us. You'll have to forgive Christianity for being so human—God did it first. God got his fingerprints all over us, and we wrote texts that have God's living breathing word—and also our messy hands. Thank God for your hands, and the love that they will bring.
<3 Johanna
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For the Death's Row AU, any chance we could get a look at exactly what led Killer to ending up on the Row? We got a look at Dust and Horror's, and I can't deny I'm very curious how Killer's looks as well 👀
Your art is super cool and I'm thriving on the story for this au so far! Im glad I stumbled upon it :)
oh absolutely! ive been waiting for someone to ask, hehe!
So, Killer was raised in a a slum/house thing with 12 other people, maybe they were his family, maybe they weren't, who knows. Regardless, one of the other kids in the slum started to pick on him.
They were younger than him, and for a while, Killer just kinda ignored them, assuming it was a little kid just trying to make friends in a shitty way, but, as the years went on, this kid started outright ABUSING him, in horrible, HORRIBLE ways - any way you can think of someone being abused? Yeah, this kid did it. They outright tortured him, for their entire childhood.
Killer went to the police, and tried to report what was happening to him, so many times, and each time, he was laughed at and told to stop wasting their time; a kids picking on you? yeah right, piss off kid.
It gets to the point where this kid forced Killer to watch as they beat someone to a pulp, before they drag Killer over, and tells him to kill them, its in his name, after all! and, they threaten, if they don't, they'll kill him.
anyway, Killer does it. That's his first kill, and miraculously, he doesn't get caught for it.
The abuse goes on an on and on, years and years of gaslighting into believing himself a weapon, and 'peer pressure' on max, until, he snaps and kills his abuser.
he ends up just fucking loosing it after that, with a 'fuck it' attitude, hes gonna get caught anyway, and kills a bunch of people that he believes were complacent in the abuse. he ends up killing 4 people, including the kid, before hes caught.
In court, Killer tries to defend himself, explaining the abuse he suffered for YEARS, and the help he was denied. but the courts found him guilty of murder, after all, his 'abuser' was a minor; he must be lying, and, even if he wasn't, that doesn't change anything.
So, onto death row he goes.
He can be sassy and unserious most of the time, but there's an aura of wrongness to him.
He uses that uses his 'personality' to hide what hes feeling but also when hes snooping for information. His only really motivation is to avoid boredom; hes very much trying to avoid being left alone with himself and his thought, cus that's when he starts to spiral:
He doesn't care that he murdered, and doesn't regret it; in fact he found it thrilling. He REALLY struggles with emotions, finds it hard to feel things deeply, and to recognise WHAT hes feeling, but he doesn't regret it! He doesn't feel... bad about what he did to... to those innocent people... NO! he really doesn't!
He also very much wants power, after so long without any, and being told that he was *supposed* to kill, that was all he was - hes named 'Killer' for god sake!
He just wants to feel alive. Even if, just for.. a little while...
He know to cause physical fights all the time with other inmates, doing to as an outlet for those emotions he definitely doesn't feel, but also as a way to climb to the top. He RUNS the Row! HES the one in charge - hes not, that's Nightmare but shh, let him believe that.
He meets Dust and Horror when they're friends, and, always looking for new prey, decides to pick on them.
hes had a few fights with Dust before now, hes partially the reason Dust is in a straightjacket, and Dust is partly the reason hes in handcuff/chains, but he hasn't seen him about for a little while, and, when he sees him again, his little punching back has attached himself to the biggest motherfucker the joint, little shit. Well, Killer decides he should take them down a peg. Horror is a threat to his dominance here, anyway!
(Horror has no clue who this dude is, other than *trouble*. Hes seen the fights this guy get into, and they're not GOOD)
it starts off with Killer picking on them, teasing in that was that's common in his character, and it looks like Horror is gonna defend Dust, as he is wont to do, except, no one was expecting little Dust, who's top of head only reaches Killers EYES, in his straightjacket, restricting him movement, to fucking roundhouse kick Killer in the neck. His arms may be restrained, but his legs sure aren't!
And Killer... runs off to lick his wounds.
Except, he comes back to ick on them. again, and again and again.
Killer is picking on them the way young boys try and 'flirt' with girls they like; pulling on their pigtails. he thinks they're kinda cool, and is envious of their friendship, and wants IN, thing is, he ain't gonna just TELL them that! hes not gonna sit down and ask 'hey can we be friends?' cus that would make him WEAK, so, he pushes them about as an excuse to get close to them.
About a month after the roundhouse kick incident, Killer comes to pick on them again, with a bandage around his throat despite it DENIFETLY being healed by now, and starts boasting about his kill count; four whole people in a single day! and hes expecting them to look up at him, scared or maybe admiring.
Hes not expecting Dust to look at Horror, make that little smile people make when they're making fun of someone - that 'oh my god this guy' face - and...laughs? Hes giggling like a madman, and even Horror looks amused, when Dust says "Four?!" and Killers like '??? yeah, four whole people, dead cus of me!' which just makes Dust laugh harder.
Dust has recently been made aware of his accidental kill count, and while he still cant get his head around most of it and forgets a lot of it, he knows he killed a dozen in a matter of like, a couple hours, and he knows Horror killed 5 people, cut them up and COOKED them, and FED THEM to starving people!
Four murders is PATHETIC.
Killer tries to reclaim his pride, and is sort of going like 'well, yeah, but uh like-' and Dust just keeps laughing at him, and at that point Killer flushed bright red and.. leaves.
Im gonna stop here, cus ive written A LOT! But, they find Killer int the bathroom :)
(im very gladyou like my art and works! it means the world that i can entertain someone at least for a little while with my stuff, and that fact you take time out of your day to appreciate them and compliment me is just... auugh <3 <3!)
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Hello muffin tis i, deluded anon with another ask. Tw for ablism i think? I am autistic and get called slurs and mocked for it by my family n friends, such as the r word n whatnot. If theres any issues that cause me stress like putting the cutlery away- they are too loud and hurt my head. Or if my clothes and everything touching me burns n pricks me, being mute on occasions i get told to get a grip n to shut up- then told off later if i was in public. They treat other autistic people differently from me n reassure them that its ok n valid but its not ok for me to be like that. Anyways i dont really do people and am attached to my teddies n plushies- they have feelings. I always take the most care with them n i dont want them to be uncomfortable, they all call me delusional and a not right for loving my plushies (and fictional women)more than them.
So what would happen if the reader were to be autistic and a maid in the castle struggling with some certain tasks and the rest of the maids treating the reader like how ive been treated (if that makes sense. Idk if i’m making sense) so readers kind of like the laughing stock for them, unbeknownst to the sisters until some maid rips a teddy or comfort item.
How would the sisters react to this? I dont think theyd like it nor tolerate it due to cassandra being autistic and daniela having adhd.
I’m sorry this is such a long ask and quite frankly too much of a self centred one. I have no idea if this makes sense- i apologies sincerely if this makes you uncomfortable in any way. Please dont feel pressured to write this.
I can 100% see the rendition of lion king being played out with dani 😂 she would without a doubt try n blag her mother into making her sister make up for being mean to her, like forfeiting a maid to her.

Of course! I’m very curious about this ask tbh and hope I’ll do it justice :)
A few things first up under the cut, if anybody wants to skip to the start of the HCs, it’ll be marked for you😊
TW: ableism, bullying
Let’s get into this! :)
Masterlists
Tbh I’m hoping I’ll be able to get this right! I’m not autistic myself and am only going off what I’ve read here and experiences I’ve been told about by friends.
First thing I want to say hon, is that you are absolutely, 100% valid.
Nobody- and this includes you- deserves to be called slurs or treated wrongly for such reasons. There is no justification to it at all. To treat you differently while claiming to be accepting with others is awful, and I sincerely hope you will find people decent and good enough to accept you, friends especially :)
Also- plushie superiority honestly XP What are their names?👀 Have you got a fav? Or is it an I-love-them-all-equally- situation? Honestly, regarding what you’ve said about plushie love not being okay? I call bs on it. I find plushie love is one of the sweetest there is, even when I don’t have that many myself, I greatly treasure the few plushies I still have. Heck yeah XD
Is the autism and ADHD for Cassandra and Daniela canon? Or a HC?👀 I’ve never heard of it
(Lion king drabble mentioned: here)
Aight that’s it from me! This all probably made little sense, because ironically I cannot comfort at all, I suck at it in most cases, but I hope I still got the key points across somehow XD
Let’s get into it!
(Beginning of the ask)
Bela
She adores you, with all her heart
Bela loves you so much, each part of you
She tries her best to make life as comfortable as possible for you
Even if she can’t always relate to your struggles, she always attempts to ease them
The moment you open up about some of the things troubling you, Bela takes action
She takes special care to ensure the new uniforms are made of fabrics you approve and feel comfortable in, and orders them as soon as possible
Until their arrival, Bela has taken it upon herself to declare to everyone that you are not obliged to wear the old ones
Nobody dares to call you out for working in a shirt instead of the uniform, the order comes from Bela, after all, one of the highest of your superiors, right after Alcina
When the new uniforms are delivered, you can’t help but smile. They’re perfect!
Bela has the old ones disposed of, thrown someplace she can’t be bothered to know
Next, there are the tasks appointed to you
While she normally doesn’t get involved all that much in the staff’s business and shares a mutual respect with the grand chambermaid, she does interfere here
She requests that you are not given tasks in the kitchen as to not get overwhelmed by the loud noises
Nor does she wish for you to work anywhere near the basements
Of course, your lover would never allow you anywhere in the basements, even outside of work, even when she is lurking down there
It’s for safety purposes, most of all
Instead, you are usually appointed calmer places, such as the library or even the castle gardens or greenhouse at times
Bela is flustered whenever you remember to bring her a flower from the outside in winter
Aside from all these things, Bela is your shoulder to cry on, and your pillar to lean on
She never fails to reassure you how much she loves you, and how things you consider as flaws are endearing to her
She knows, sometimes you tend to be quiet, if not entirely mute
After a quick check in whether you’re all right, and you reassure her, she smiles widely
Bela treasures such silence, really
She enjoys to spend time with you, and sometimes silence is just what she needs
After all, the castle can be loud already, especially to her
Wrestling her screaming, kicking and bickering younger sisters all day and night often gives her a migraine
She loves simply cuddling in bed or sitting together, reading together or simply relaxing
Bela doesn’t mind your quietness, and she can easily either make conversation by monologing, or bask in it, even go as far as to close her eyes
She finds these moments precious
She knows nearly everything about you- all except one thing
Life among the staff
Bela doesn’t know of the torment you face, not quite
She doesn’t notice your anxiety when they make fun of you, doesn’t know about how uncomfortable you become when they poke you for fun
She doesn’t know an old uniform has been retrieved from the storage and switched with yours specifically merely to amuse the other staff members
You grit your teeth at the wrong fabric on you, the uncomfortable one that feels entirely too heavy and scratchy
No matter how much you search for the new uniform, it’s hidden far away beyond your grasp
Only when all your duties are done can your change out of it and back into your normal clothing, just in time for Bela to finish work and greet you with a warm smile
You don’t dare tell her, too worried what the other maids will do
After all, Bela can’t dispose of them all
Then there’s the noises…
How often you are brought to the edge of feeling overstimulated and overwhelmed when maids laugh and mock you, forks and knives in their hands as they slap them together
Like sticks hitting a drum, maybe
You are not oblivious to their laughter as you bury your head in your brown teddy bear and fluffy, blue arm sized blanket
Soon, you are indirectly appointed to the kitchens
Not by the grand chambermaid, nor by Bela
You feel uncomfortable at the hands grabbing you by the arms and leading you there
Their reasoning? If you don’t clean up, maidens will be hurt, and it will be your fault
Aside from this, with more hurt maidens and their panic increasing, so will the stress your girlfriend will have to face over trying to manage the castle
They know of your love for Bela, and often use it to have you do things you dislike
Such as picking up all the silverware from the wet sink, drying it in a towel of a texture you dislike, and putting them in the drawers
Their laughter and mockery rings out behind you while you’re made to finish their work
Still, as torturous as all of this is, their newest stunt is incomparable to it
As you find yourself hugging your stuffed bear yet again and cry into its fur at the loud laughter around you, you suddenly feel it tugged from you
Naturally, you try to hold on
Slurs are thrown at you. Mockery
You hear a particular loud cry, a maid calling you a baby, just before you’re suddenly sent back on the bed
You’re holding your teddy- as is the maid tugging it
Tears well up in your eyes as you hold its body, your eyes scanning the unattached leg now dropped to the floor
You feel someone snap their fingers right next to your ear and jump
More laughter
The women around you laugh and mock as you sink to the floor, your teddy and blanket held tight to you as you attempt to grasp the leg
It’s kicked in the corner of the room, and more laughter rings out when you crawl after it quickly
More harsh name calling, until eventually you grasp it
Unsurprisingly, you can’t just push it back on
You aren’t sure how much time passes until your girlfriend finds you
You aren’t even sure when you wandered off to Bela’s room. It’s as if your feet just automatically carried you to your safe place
She immediately swarms to you, her hands hovering by your arms
With a nod of your head, reassuring her it’s okay, she touches you
She immediately feels the change of fabric of your uniform. She knows, this isn’t the right one
Still, golden eyes set on the damaged teddy bear in your hands
Again, she waits for your permission before she pulls you on her lap, knowing you’re so distraught now
She grasps your hands and dries your tears, and gently holds the leg one one hand, the remaining teddy in her other
“He’s broken”, you sob, and Bela is quick to assure you
“Damaged, my dove, not broken”
She promises, she can fix your friend
And true to her word, she does
Urging you to change, she allows you to search her closet for anything that suits you
You watch with wide, hopeful eyes as she takes a sewing kid from one of her many shelves
Thankfully, your beautiful girlfriend enjoys branching out and learning so many new skills…
You watch with wonder as she adds stuffing back into the leg, and even allows you to pick a color to stitch it back together in
Dressed comfortably in her larger clothing and holding onto her pillows and your blue blanket, you watch as slowly, but surely, your friend’s leg is reattached
“He’s on bed rest now, you know”, she teases, hoping to bring a smile to your face
Bela portrays this picture of calmness for you, but rest assured, the moment she knows you’re completely calm and happy again, she will personally see to it that such actions are punished
She demands to know what has been going on with the staff, and offers you your own room, should you not want to move into hers
Bela smiles in self satisfaction as she hand picks the new recruits for cadou experiments, hunts, and, of course, Cassandra’s birthday presents ;)
Cassandra
She cares a lot about you, and is incredibly protective of you
Cassandra tries her best to make you comfortable
She knows, her fast, often dangerous and hectic movements can intimidate or scare away most. She doesn’t want that to happen with you
While Cassandra isn’t the best at listening, she takes in all you say whenever you are made uncomfortable by something
Such as the clanging of her weapons when she carelessly drops them all on a big pile
Her heart breaks a little when you cover your ears at the loud noise caused by metal hitting metal
Was she a dog, her ears would droop down
Instead, she immediately apologizes and tries to still the rocking blades
She makes sure not to clank them against one another again, instead is careful to place them down one by one
She grins widely whenever this earns her a kiss and a smile of yours
Her efforts are certainly not dismissed and ignored!
Then, there’s of course your like and dislike towards certain sensations
She can’t help but giggle when you fall into her bed the first time you touch it
She has all the perfect fabrics!
Cassandra is very picky as it comes to them, too
Her dress is tight, but soft
It doesn’t scratch along her skin and isn’t too soft to make her feel droopy. It’s just perfect to her
Her bed equals this
Soft, satin sheets she likes, and a few large pillows. Not too much, just enough for her to sleep comfortably
You love wearing her clothing. It’s perfect and doesn’t irritate your skin
In return, Cassandra doesn’t mind lending it to you, even if you don’t quite fit into it
All her clothing is custom made, such as Alcina’s dresses and the typical black dresses all three sisters like to wear
The crafter? None other than the famous other Lady of the village
Cassandra makes it a point to ask Donna for clothing made in your size. In return, she is ready to send across a few of the castle’s finest cooking ingredients
It’s working out well, and often she likes to surprise you with a new clothing item of your choice, made of a fabric of your choice
Cassandra doesn’t care for fabrics, merely the feel of them
She allows you to take charge whenever it comes to picking the right ones out
In the beginning, you worry Cassandra will mind your occasional silence
You’re all too happy to notice: she doesn’t
Cassandra talks often, but isn’t quite one for conversation
She likes monologuing, knowing you’re listening to her as she rants about her hunts and her sisters
She doesn’t take your silence as disrespect, though at times randomly reminds herself to check in whether you’d like her to keep talking or stay silent as well for some peace and quiet
She likes to bask in such silence sometimes, to have her head on your lap and play with a few of her flies while you stroke her soft hair
Another thing she’s surprised you by is regarding your stuffed animals
While she hasn’t quite got the connection to them you have, she respects it
Though, she will not allow all of them in her bed. She wants that space all to herself
Still, she is mindful to keep a corner of the bed empty for your stuffed animals, and only growls playfully when you shower them in love, subtly reminding you to place a kiss to her forehead, too
She can’t help but be a little clingy sometimes, after all
Cassandra doesn’t fault you for preferring plushies to humans. She isn’t exactly a fan of them either and rather sees them as nuisances or means to an end, after all
All except you. You’re her precious little human
And Cassandra wants to keep you safe at all times
Yet, there are things even she cannot seem to keep you safe from
Such as the staff members
You know, Cassandra doesn’t get involved with the maiden’s affairs unless to drag one to the basement
She is therefore unaware of the pokes and laughter that follow you sometimes
The slurs whispered your way… you know Cassandra would have their heads for it, yet you can’t seem to bring yourself to tell her
And they know it all too well
Your heart hurts when they talk to you, and in time, you know the only reason for this are dares
Dares, from one maid to another, to talk to you
Entertainment, as they chat and mock you subtly, trying to see how long it takes you to notice
You try to brush it off. To not let it bother you
Cassandra surely wouldn’t let it bother her! She seems so powerful…
Their words regarding this sting. How she could be with someone like you
When you’re allowing them to walk all over you
Some freak, as they say
Their words haunt you hours later even, when your shifts end and you’re cuddled up against Cassandra as she monologues about this and that while showing you her newest dagger
Then, there’s the little stuffed turtle you like to keep in your pocket
It helps you stay calm sometimes, even with the uniform being scratchy and uncomfortable
Often they laugh as they snatch your turtle from you, instead throw her through the air, right above your outstretched hands as you attempt to catch your precious friend
All other stuffed animals are kept safe in Cassandra’s room. All but this one
No one would dare venture into her territory merely to taunt you
No maid is this foolish
You gasp when the turtle is thrown yet again, high in the air in the main hall, right above your hands even as you jump to reach it
Your eyes widen when your precious stuffed animal lands right in the fireplace
Thankfully, not a lit one. It’s summer, thankfully, and the castle is warm enough as it is
But it’s hot, and dirty, and smears black dust and ashes all over the green fur
“Freak”, they taunt as they pass you, crying and attempting to wipe the dirt off
Cassandra finds you easily, having heard your fast heartbeat indicating your panic attack even from the basement
You can merely look up at her as she kneels down, her gloves easily pulled down by her teeth as she holds the little turtle
She’s very careful no blood is smeared on it or you, and opts for staying a little distant upon realising she’s covered in it nearly from head to toe
You don’t seem to mind, you can only look at the turtle, impossibly small in Cassandra’s large hands as strong fingers rub over the dirt gently
A stain remains, and you smile watery. A battle wound, maybe?
The thought comforts you only slightly
You suppose, a scar, a battle wound, wouldn’t be the worst thing…Cassandra has them, after all, scars littering her backside from challenging fights
She won, in the end
Upon demanding what happened, and hearing your tale, Cassandra sees red
She wipes the back of her hand against her lips to clean her bloodied lips, then presses a small kiss to your forehead before she swarms off
In the days to come, plenty examples are maid
Maidens are set free only to be dragged back screaming and badly hurt, begging for forgiveness as they are killed in front of the others
Others are immediately dragged to the basement
And the remaining two that have started it all, are devoured alive in front of the rest of the staff, Cassandra’s warning screamed from their lips
Never, never, will she allow someone to mistreat you again
She keeps a close eye on you, and often opts for having a few flies buzzing around you when you aren’t with her
Daniela
Daniela is a hyper little thing, full of energy and love that she wants to shower you in
She’s very clingy with you, but also incredibly perceptive
More so than her other two sisters, even
She picks up on your slight grimace when it’s dinner time and the rattling of silverware irritates your ears
Without having to tell her, Daniela is more delicate in her movements with her fork and knife- she was the main source of this noise after all, smacking them together because she is generally too energetic to sit still
Instead, she merely swarms around excitedly and annoys her sisters until the food is served
She also notices- you don’t like every clothing item she has to offer
Some just- don’t take your pick, and at first she is a little hurt
She doesn’t understand why, and worries you might think she has horrible taste
Or perhaps don’t want to wear a gift of hers altogether
Daniela tends to overthink fast, and quickly becomes a little hesitant to shower you in gifts when you don’t seem too happy with the two dresses she’s brought you
While she is all for comfort, Daniela doesn’t mind scratchiness of her gowns
Being put in so many of them for balls and events hosted by Alcina, she has learned to ignore the urge to scratch and the annoying itch caused by scratchy sleeves
Overall, she still loves gowns, and isn’t bothered by differences in textures
When you explain to her that you feel differently about this, it’s a little difficult for her to understand
However, Daniela cares about you, and if you tell her this fabric is bad fabric, she’ll tear it to pieces for you, as though you’re her fair maiden and she is the knight protecting you from the fierce dragon!
She often makes slashing noises as she does though, a little too invested in her fantasies
You don’t mind
You think her creativity and fantasy endearing, even
Daniela is curious, though. Often she will randomly swarm to you to ask whether something is good or bad, just out of curiosity, and maybe because she’s turned it into a game
She wants to see if she is getting better at telling what is good and what isn’t, so her surprises and gifts for you are ones you can actually enjoy
She brings you fabrics of gowns and shirts, food and drinks, and even once a very grumpy Bela to question whether her sister feels bad too
She claims she does, with a large, shit eating grin on her face, and you smile as her laughter is heard through the halls when she is chased down for such behaviour, likely made to sit and listen to another lecture of the blonde should she be caught
You find, you look forward to hearing Daniela complain about it
While Daniela can be very loud and hyper at times, and often enough you join in, she doesn’t mind times you’re quiet either
She had no trouble at all leading a conversation, either monologuing or talking for so long and so fast, there’s no way for anybody else to join in anyway
Often, when she notices you’re in a quieter mood, she’ll take control of the conversation until the other person leaves
In return, she only expects a smile, and a kiss to her face
Yet, as much as Daniela dotes on you and coddles you, there are others who are not as sweet
Others, who do not make you feel as welcome
Others, who dare make you feel as though you aren’t normal. Not “right”
The maidens at Castle Dimitrescu can be ruthless, sometimes, especially to outsiders
Being Daniela’s partner has made you an outsider
And having autism has made you their target
They thread carefully at first, knowing you are not only under Daniela’s protection, but by this also under Bela and Cassandra’s
Should they hurt you, it hurts Daniela, after all. Alas, you have three murderous fly women on your side
However…what they don’t know…
It starts off with a group of four who take, seemingly, immense pleasure in taunting you
Their hatred comes from being small minded, and jealous, yet knowing this does nothing to help you
They don’t understand- how come you get to wear a different uniform than them?!
How come you never have to clean up the table and wash the dishes and silverware?
How come you get to work in quiet, reserved locations and get to take so many breaks, while they are to work near the entrance to the dungeons, the screams of their fellow fallen maids taunting them
How come they fear for their life, and you never need to?
You are a target by far too soon
You often find yourself crying and hiding at your bed as they laugh and bicker about, silently wishing Daniela opts for a random visit and slays them all
She doesn’t, and won’t. She isn’t allowed into the maid quarters
Their shrill laughter and loud voices hurt your ears, and as you find yourself clutching one of the stuffed animals not tucked away in Daniela’s room- a grey, knit bear- they laugh even more
Soon, you are titled as a baby and inhuman for your affection towards the stuffed animal
You feel fear shoot through you whenever you don’t find him sitting at your pillow
Often, they wave the teddy in front of you, snickering and commanding this and that
They’re playing God, and for moments you feel as though they are the predators of this castle
With the wish to receive your stuffed animal again, you clean their beds and bring their plates, silverware and cups to the kitchens after supper
Usually, you receive your bear again
Not yet this time, it seems
“Go and get it, if you dare” they snicker as they throw it down the stairs to the basement
You gulp. You know, you aren’t supposed to go down there
No maid is, but especially you
Even Daniela has forbidden you from stepping in the cellars
You shudder at the memory of her truthful description upon being asked what lies down there. Monsters with swords and sickles, mold and blood, pain and the reek of the dead, corpses and torture chambers
But…your bear
You venture down as they snicker, and jump when the door clasps shut behind you
As tears sprint to your eyes, you hear a lock. No going back now, either way
You gulp at the loud whimpers and cries, and the distant screams and groans of the undead
It’s dark, and you can barely make a thing out
You jump when you hear a loud gasp from one of the cells and a hand reaches through the bars, as though to reach you
Immediately, you keep on running
More hands shoot out, some grazing your arm and dirtying your uniform, others mere inches away from your skin
You nearly trip a few times, the floor stony and littered with buckets, thrown over tables and chairs, dull knives and what not
It’s so dark, so that you can barely make out your own hands and the ones reaching for you
You shriek as a body bag drops in front of you, immediately taking off to run another direction
Again, you scream, when you run into something
A monster?! It’s so dark you-
“Uh-“
You blink at Cassandra’s voice, and upon opening your eyes, you find golden ones staring down at you
She seems almost unsure. You aren’t supposed to be in the basements, and were you anybody else, she would have already dug her sickle into you and called you a foolish prey for running right to her
But…you’re Daniela’s
You jump at a second gasp, and whine when another pair of golden eyes sets on you
Thankfully, these do not belong to Bela Dimitrescu. You recognize the light green colour shining through gold in them
Daniela!
She gasps when you run into her, quickly adjusting her hand so you don’t run right into the scalpel you can’t see in the dark
Immediately, her shock is covered by concern when she smells the fear surrounding you
She demands to know what you’re doing her, even if she feels flustered upon thinking you might have missed her and wanted to see her bad enough to venture into the cellars
Upon opening up about the bear, you feel her grasp your hand tightly
She promises, she’s going to find it with you
You nod shakily as Cassandra grins, having just received a reason to go upstairs and cause some more trouble along the maidens
With a lit torch held tightly in Daniela’s hand, it’s by far easier to navigate the dim basement
You realise the hands reaching out were maids, now backed far in the corner of their cells to avoid Daniela’s gaze
But the redhead doesn’t mind them. She is focused on finding your bear
And find him she does, after a while of searching
You nearly whimper when she holds it up between two fingers, the fabric soaked in blood and dirt and a rat having already started to eat away at its side
She hugs you tightly as she explains, it must be disposed of
It’s a major health risk by now, having been exposed to the mold of the basement and who knows what else
You spend the next couple of days entirely in her bed, cuddled up under the covers and crying your heart out between your other stuffed animals
At last, Daniela enters, a nervous smile on her face
You notice her hand behind her back, and lift your head curiously
“So, I know it’s not the same, but I told Bela what happened and asked her to fix it…”, she trails off
You can’t help but smile and cry as she pulls her hand to the front, a bear, knit nearly perfectly and in the exact same colour as yours, sitting in her palm
“She’s actually really good at this stuff. I made her make me an octopus. I named her Sally”
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