bakerstreet | I move the stars for no one.

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[meme] shipping

I move the stars for no one.

the monster & the maiden fair meme

There's a long precedent in folklore and myth of beautiful young people - both men and women - being kidnapped by monsters: dragons, beasts, goblins, demons, elves, vampires, wolves, or even evil humans. In the end, however, these prisoners are almost always rescued and brought back to civilization to live a normal and happy life.

But what if they didn't want to leave their jailor?

They've seen behind the surface and have begun to sympathize with this "monster;" no, more than that, they've fallen for them. Will this story have a happy ending? Will the monster believe that anyone could love them? Most importantly, though, can the two of them be left alone without any attempts at a "rescue?"

how to play

Comment with your character, your preference, and what role they'll play. Feel free to AU characters to your desire role.
Reply to others.
Thread anything that could remotely fit under the umbrella theme. Was the kidnapping just that, or did both parties know (and care) for each other before, making it a collaborative, mutual effort? Perhaps you'd prefer to play the actual Beauty and The Beast-style getting to know each other or seeing behind the grizzly facade. What about an attempted "rescue?" Or maybe you could thread out a scene where the prisoner runs away from the society they were forced back into and returns to their beloved beast! It's all up to you. You could even do smut if you wanted to, but this isn't a smut meme.

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[ The maiden.]

{{Either. If she's the beast, she's a dragon that assumes the form of a she-elf.}}

( monster. )

[depending on how au we go, she could be either]

[Could be either really? lol If monster, either a werebear, werewolf, or a dragon. Mediaevil/DnD setting or canon era or modern AU are all good]

{{I could see this one getting herself into a monster/maiden situation with a dragon. Probably from poking around his lair. I can offer her as an a bit more "maidenly" 22, or her current age, which is early 40s, though she looks a little younger because elves. Either way, she probably chafes at her physical captivity while developing a sense of curiosity, affection and desire for her captor.}}

It was a predicament like something out of a fairy-story, finding herself in a dragon's lair like this. Carted out of the village where she'd been living for the last year or two trussed up like a goose for the table and left for the beast to find. Something about killing two birds with one stone: giving the dragon either a feast or a plaything to bribe him into not raiding their fields, and ridding themselves of a non-human witch in the bargain. Her own fault, she supposed. She wondered which of her transgressions had done it: her meddling with local power structures or helping the wrong woman or girl get out of the sort of trouble certain strong pennyroyal tonics solved.

She'd almost laughed when he'd actually showed up, but the weather had turned foul and by then she was perfectly willing to be taken wherever and however he wanted to take her in order to dry her soaked and clinging dress, to get warm and to get away from the ever-present threat that the villagers would get impatient, come back and simply burn her at the stake.

She had the feeling he wouldn't actually stop her from walking out of here-- he seemed possessed of a sense of decency she hadn't been expecting-- but where would she go? At least here there was shelter and safety. Who knew how the local populace would react to seeing her out and about as if the dragon had "rejected" their clumsy sacrifice. No, better to stay here at least for a little while.

And all things considered, she thought as she watched him from where she was sitting, the company is at least handsome as well as inexplicably kind.

Dragons were as varied in their habits as they were colorful. The copper and blue drake that had settled in the hills had not been there long but had found a taste for the local cattle as they were obviously easier to get than deer or boar. But of course the town didn't like that and so tried multiple ways to be rid of him or appease him, only to discover that if they'd left him alone, eventually he'd settle into hunting on his own.

Now he took their livestock out of spite whenever they sent a slayer or some fool to his cave to see if there was anything in his horde to take. Only to find he was actually quite poor as dragons go. He wasn't a young drake either, by his age he should have an established horde with enough wealth to appease and trade with locals if he so desired. But he had what amounted to pocket change.

This new annoyance was foisting a she-elf on him as if eating her would satisfy him as much as a fat cow. But he couldn't just leave her as she was outcast by them for unknown reasons and, well, he hadn't had any company in some time. So, so long as she was alright with him, he'd keep her.

Like all dragons, he had a humanoid form and that of the massive four-legged beast. His human self was a rugged, mid thirties human, with the usual draconian attributes of tail, scales scattered along his skin, horns, and leathery ears.

He'd hunted a boar this afternoon and taken it back to the lair near the rocky entrance and worked to disembowel and get it ready for eating and drying what couldn't be finished. It was a pleasantly warm afternoon but he knew winters could be harsh in this region and with himself and her to feed, he had to start planning on stores now. He caught her watching him and he looked up, "You okay?" Arthur asked

This relative poverty was notable to her, one in a growing list of curiosities about her...host. She wasn't sure if he moved around more than his kin, or if he was afflicted by some strange aversion to collecting. As someone who was herself tainted with a hungry, avaricious streak from a draconic great grandfather, it was most curious to her. But she'd not thought to ask him about it as if yet, simply content to watch him.

"Hmm?" A cat-like noise when he catches her staring. "Oh, yes. Just... assessing my circumstances." She said, getting up and approaching him and the butchered boar.

"Just assessing my circumstances." She sighed. "Do you want a hand with that?" She smiled, the expression sharp and cool. Mica-fine green scales trace the shape of her cheekbone in the afternoon sun. "Believe it or not, I've lived rough and learned a thing or two about butchering game." She'd come to him in a green velvet frock that was now decidedly worse for wear, but her life hadn't always been velvet and silk.

"Uhh, sure" he agreed and they worked together, separating the organs and setting the skin aside. While he wasn't rich in gold or jewels, he did have a growing collection of pelts which served as his nest and on the walls for insulation, and a handful of animal skulls about-none humanoid-which indicated he was a hunter.

When the carcass was cleaned out and rid of the less pleasant parts, he had her help him get the largest portion of meat onto a skewer and over the firepit in the middle of the cave. The rest of the meat he had her start to salt to be dried and set aside for later, while he shifted briefly back to his dragon form to throw back the organs down his gullet. He didn't much like dealing with cooking them, but he didn't want to waste them either, so it was the easiest way to eat them.

He burped and excused himself when he shifted back and he led the way to a nearby creek to wash their hands of blood. The late summer air was warm but breezy, the trees creaked in the wind and birdsong rang out.

In human form, he wore a pair of jeans and suspenders, boots, and a black hat, looking much like a cowboy of the southern lands.

It was a messier, more distasteful process than she remembered, but it had been more than twenty years ago that she lived in bands of adventures and sellswords who often ate only what they could catch because they preferred to spend what coin they earned on booze and trinkets. Still, she gamely helped him finish the job-- she didn't want to just sit in a corner and pout about her circumstances.

She was also hardly unaccustomed to blood on her hands.

He was impressive when he changes into his true form, briefly, though she enjoyed admiring his handsome humanoid form. And she did so openly as they go down to the creek to clean the blood and other mess from their hands. His foreign attire was also intriguing, and suited him perfectly, somehow.

She had a wry sense of history repeating itself, imagining that distant, many generations removed grandmother who had probably found herself in a similar predicament: in the lair of a dragon with more reasons to remain than to leave it.

She knelt to scrub her hands up to her elbows, working to get it out from under her nails.

"We'll eat well tonight, looks like." She said. "Do you cook for yourself? If not, I appreciate you going out of your way." Being complimentary didn't come natural to her, but she was appreciative. And hungry.

Arthur was glad that she didn't balk at the sight of the dead boar or the messy job they'd landed themselves, otherwise she'd need to leave because this would be more regular as he hunted more to keep them fed for the cold season ahead.

After all was washed, they returned to rub herbs and spices into the meat and begin to roast it.

"Not often no, only do it when I catch large game like this." he answered

"You do seem to have a nose for spices." She notes. "Much appreciated, for a moment I was worried I was going to have to accustom myself to neither salt nor spice." When the meat was prepped, she wiped her hands and settled to sit beside the fire, her green eyes almost luminous in the dark while she watches him. "Though I would have adjusted. Better than having been eaten myself, of course." She looks around, noting that none of the skulls look like they belong to elves. "Though perhaps you don't eat two-legged things and I was never in any particular danger. From you, anyway."

"Lot of trial and error, believe me" he grunted. Took some time before he learned to cook for himself but it was a good skill and kept his meals from becoming boring.

He made sure the meat began to cook and not burn before sitting back to let the fire do its thing. He glanced around at the skulls and shook his head, "No, I don't eat humanoids. Deer, boar, elk, rabbit, them sorts of animals I do. Some dragons do eat humans, elves, and the like. Knew one with a taste for them. Foul bastard." he sighed, scratching what looked like a deep scar on his left side.

She craned her neck like a little cat to look at the scar he's scratching.

"Did you kill him, then? So noble." She smiled. "I'm a lucky woman, to have been rescued by so upstanding a dragon."

Arthur shook his head, "No, he's still out there." he sighed regretfully, turning the meat and flicking his tail.

"If you should ever come across a gold dragon named Micah, stay far from him." he advised "Or a black dragon named Dutch for that matter."

The drake picked up a pan and put a blob of animal fat into it, beginning to cook some vegetables to have with the meat.

"What do you want to do with yourself anyway?" he asked, trying to move on from the subject.

"Not sure yet. I should lay low until the locals forget about me." She admits. "Not that I want to abuse your hospitality for too long, of course." She draws her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs. "Eventually they'll get after something else and it'll be easier for me to slip away." She regards him steadily. "I'll have to think of some way to repay you, of course. But a smart, self-sufficient creature like you has no need of a housewife." She jokes, as if she's at all the sort.

He nodded, wouldn't take long, humans often had short memories and would eventually assume she was dead or in his service or something of the sort.

He looked up at her statement and he grunted, "No need for repayment. Ain't your fault you ended up here." he tossed the vegetables about in the pan, letting them roast with a few more spices and herbs mixed in with them.

"Dragons don't take wives anyway. We have mates, for short or long term, varies from dragon to dragon."

"What's the difference?" She asked, with genuine interest. The intimate ways of dragons were a mystery to her. "Is it only that mates are temporary? Which, to be fair, is how some men view their wives. My ancestor was always referred to as her dragon lover's bride but I suspect that may have been to attempt to soften the already heavy judgement of her having suddenly shown up back home carrying a dragonborn son on her hip. To contaminate the bloodline-- in her family's eyes anyway-- had been shame enough, to do so with a dragon's bastard was quite another."

“Short term means-wait, hold up, you’re part dragon?” He asked.

He knew of course humans-or rather humanoids in general-and dragons could intermingle firsthand but it came as a surprise the woman who’d been “sacrificed” to him, had dragon blood in her. Maybe that accounted for also why the town was so quick to discard her.

Dragons weren’t looked at in the kindest light, but few messed with them directly if they didn’t want to get burned alive.

"Oh yes. Introduced to the bloodline a handful of generations back, but enough to give me magic and a hunger for the world nothing ever seems to satisfy." She said, summoning a bit of green fox-fire to her hand, just enough to demonstrate the way her mica-fine scales glow a little when she used magic, jade colored shimmers on her cheekbones, forearms, shoulders, down the contours of her throat. They traced many other curves besides, but perhaps he would learn that in due course.

She dismissed the fire with a snap and her scales fade back to what might be mistaken for faint freckles from a distance.

"You were saying...?"

He’d wondered about the scales but they were so tiny he figured they were just some elf thing. The appearance of fire was a surprise too, but then again, she also did have elf blood in her and the blood of them usually carried and built magic through the generations.

But it was also a reminder of what he didn’t have and he was quiet for half a moment before recalling what they were talking about.

“Huh? Oh, short term usually means for sex only, long term is a planned family. Though keep in mind short term could still be years.” He elaborated.

"Hm. I suppose it never occurred to me dragons might fuck only for pleasure." She noted. "Rather than a pure biological imperative to reproduce. But that makes sense: you're a higher being, after all, one of the thinking species." She sat back on her hands, looking around at his lair.

"Do you have company often?"

He could guess there was a whole lot she didn't know about dragons, from their mating habits and beyond. They were misunderstood, thought as threats, pests, and at worst a source of high quality armor if you go their scales.

"No, I don't. Apart from dumbasses who try to steal what little I got, you're the first since I came to this area" he said

"It was good of you to take me in, especially if you're a man who values his solitude. I'll try not to overstay my welcome but I am glad of your interesting company in the meantime. You've been nothing but a gentleman about it." In his brusque, rough sort of way, but that was kind of charming in its own way.

"Dragons don't typically settle alone but, circumstances ain't great for me." he said simply.

"You're welcome here so long as you wanna be." he said. The company was far more appreciated than he realized.

When their meal was done and they had their fill, Arthur shifted back to being a dragon and settled down to relax and perhaps sleep, his copper scales glinting in the firelight. He'd made a nest of pelts and blankets for her not far from the fire.

For a time, she sat in this heap of warm furs and blankets, watching him settle himself in his true form. She found she couldn't sleep, however, her mind too preoccupied with her curiosity about her unlikely protector. Curiosity and the kind of hunger she often blamed on that green dragon blood in her veins.

In the wee hours, she got up, gathering what she thought might be a bear pelt around her shoulders, and going to curl up closer to the dragon. Not quite touching, but clearly settling herself in the sense of security that came from being so close. And, of course, testing his reaction when he awoke.

When it seemed as if she too was settling in to sleep, he finally allowed it to claim him and drifted off with a full belly and warm cave, all good things he was happy to have over gold and jewels any day.

A leathery ear perked and he opened one large blue and gold eye to watch her settle closer to him.

"You okay?" he asked. All fire breathing dragons like coppers were like furnaces thanks to their fire bladder, but strangely he radiated no more warmth than the average human.

"Oh, yes." She laughed softly. "Just making myself comfortable. Sorry for waking you." In truth, she had expected it to be warmer over here, but he'd surprised her. She knew what she wasn't warmed by any element of her dragon's blood-- greens carry poison in their bellies, not fire-- but if she recalls correctly, he ought to be a little warmer. No matter, the closeness was far more the point. She curled up in the pelt she's surrounded herself with and snuggles down with the intent to fall asleep assured by his massive protective presence.

"It's alright" he assured her, saw her trying to get a bit warmer and so shifted about, curling his great bulk around her. Wasn't a lot, but a little body warmth would help no doubt.

His tail curled around, a few scars evident in the copper scales which, up close, had seen better days. Up close, it was plain to see he didn't take very good care of himself, or didn't have the means to. Along with hording gold, dragons devoured it and other precious metals and jewels to aid them in good scale health, hot fire, and a stomach full of diamonds made quick work of any meal. Without a horde, or at least regular intake of such things, he'd grow weak and sick.

What a strange dragon. From what little she knew, they were proud, avaricious beasts but Arthur seemed humble and almost...shy. And there was the matter of his not hoarding the things that should have brought him pleasure and kept him well. He seemed smart and capable enough from her perspective, so why had he chosen this life?

She had plenty of time to find out, she thought, resting one of her small porcelain hands on his scarred scales as she curled up like a little cat in the bearskin and finally fell asleep.

The following morning, the dragon was up fairly early, left the cave to do his business, wash up, and returned, stoking the fire back to life, shifting back to the form of a man in order do so.

He plainly couldn’t breathe fire if he was using more mortal means to strike a spark and blow it back into a decent flame.

He got some breakfast going for them, greeting her when she woke.

She woke when she smelled food, but lay for some time just watching him until her body urged her to do more than just enjoy the smell of the hot food.

"Promise you'll let me cook, sometimes." She teased, crossing the cave floor to him, the pelt she was wrapped in trailing. "I'm not an expert chef, but I can manage." She smiled, sitting down next to him. "Smells good."

[The abducted princess]

[ooc: Either role. Monster if only due to injuries sustained during battle. His hip is scarred and he now walks with a limp and a cane.]

[ooc: Maiden.]

[AUs, canon and cross canon all welcome. OTA for gen, 21+ F/M for ships.

Can be the maiden or heck, maybe she's here to rescue someone instead? She's got some experience with this after all.]

[Monster]

[He's a ten foot long deep sea monstrosity without the glamour on, monster it is.]

[So very much the monster.]

[The maiden.]

[probably the monster, he's not a great guy, except when he is. also comes in actual monster flavour.]

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I move the stars for no one.

Zoey | Left 4 Dead | M/F

Eligre Kaivodulin||D&D/flexible/generic high fantasy||OTA

james buchanan barnes | mcu

Yelena | MCU

Arthur Morgan - Red Dead Redemption II - OTA20+

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Let me know if anything wants changed. If you prefer different tense/format, I'll follow your lead.

all good, lmk the same

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sry, thought i tagged this :/

It happens!

Re: It happens!

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