bakerstreet | Would you be the devil's bride?

Would you be the devil's bride?

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 desired 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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[ He can be the Monster, but a deceptive pretty monster; and he can be rather enticing promising you the secrets of magic ]

[ Ok but this makes me wonder: what if patron? Patron he found first or swung to instead of Wild Mother? Like just a whole AU where Essek saves a drowning sailor? Or he's just actually a whole eldritch entity when M9 meets him and he and Fjord end up making a pact for one reason or another to swing him away from Uk'otoa? ]

Edited 2024-02-15 13:07 (UTC)

[ I would love to have Essek be a Patron, and Fjord his chosen Warlock; Essek being an Eldritch being would be fun dynamic to pursue and I think that Fjord is so eager to please that he'd probably fall right into a pact with Essek, do you think it would be a pact the rest of the Nein would or should it be done in secret? ]

[ I kind of love starting maybe as a secret relationship and they eventually grow into something they break to the Nein? That's so Fjord's MO honestly and I think it is Essek's as well? They have a similar character arc where they start shady and then just kind of melt into the Nein and open up as themselves eventually. They're both very good at pretending to be something they are not. I think Fjord would love to serve a patron who would actually talk to him rather than give him cryptic messages and crush him to death in his dreams. The bar is very low.

Would you rather they start early from the drowning or would you rather something like Fjord freshly lost patron via dropping his falchion? And Essek can just tell... Or something else? ]

[ Yes, their arcs are very good like that. And gods, they would understand the pretending to be something they are not, mutually between the two of them. So yes, I think that would work-- with Essek dealing with some 'not consecuted' bs but really it's because you cannot consecute someone who is hiding a secret in the soul. Fjord finds himself in the Dynasty and Essek notices that Fjord is lost, and so he organically and naturally steps in because he is nothing if not able to take control.

Gods, can fit so many control issues in this drow.

Now, I'm excited for this! ]

[ Ok, so last question, do you want to start this as a 'how they made the pact' or would you just rather do this like... first time Essek actually contacts Fjord as a patron to do a thing for him? Just visits him in his dreams bc he can do that now since they made a pact? I'm for either one, they both seem spicy.

Or if you have any other idea? I'm open to it! I was just trying to think of scenarios where Essek could flex his eldritch status. ]

Edited 2024-02-18 11:40 (UTC)

[ Sorry for that, work has been on fire-- I like the idea of Essek coming to Fjord in a dream because yeah-- that seems like it would make Essek feel like a whole being of undetermined power, and also considering the powers he weaves, it feels like time and space, and if he has a bit of fey ancestry in him, it's in the realm of possibility. ]

[ Fjord still fears dreams, when they come. He hangs in darkness once again, but it's not quite the tread of water like being in the grip of the fathomless Uk'otoa. It's not the vague warmth of the Wildmother either.

As he hangs in space this time, tiny threads move out from him, lighting on invisible stop points, blotting and then expanding like ink. It does make him more curious than afraid. It's not a bone-deep call, nor some distant reassurance. It feels like he follows himself.

He tugs a thread and then he is at its end, looking up at dozen, hundreds of shades within starlight. It's magnificent, truly. And it makes Fjord think maybe he conned his way yet again into somewhere he doesn't belong. But like all those other times... he's willing to play along. He's willing to wake up, too. That's before he feels the true movement, the true consciousness of this dream settling in. ]

[ Reaching across starlight as he did, the threads of fate converging and twining just as Fjord had followed it to such-- their were still waters here, for were not the universe merely another entirely different sea. It was often said that sailors set their course by the stars-- charted routes across oceans.

So perhaps it was not such a stretch that a new patron would emmerge to guide the patron.

It was simply a matter of astral projection and then he was descending from the stars, into this dreamscape that they were both moved within. Until he was hovering over soft twirls of water; he speaks and it seems to echo-- or perhaps it is merely the axis of which the planets spin around that echoes around them, tranquil and yet impressive. ]

Seek and you shall find, and therefore you have found me-- tell me what it is that you seek.

[ the voice was quiet and yet still managed a bit of authoritative. ]

[ Fjord has seen motes of possibility before, but not like this, and he has not recognized them as such. He does not know perhaps some part of him has been put now into another fragment of reality, much less to whom he speaks. Not yet.

The voice asks a question no other god yet has bothered to. They just always seemed to know, and so Fjord was spared the task of truly thinking about it. What does he want now? That answer has changed so many times over the course of mere months in a way... But in another, it has remained the same. ]

I seek... power. [ And in this, he admits that he feels powerless now. The love of his friends, their faith, don't equate to what he can - or can't - do anymore. ] Power to protect what I care for... To- to help me take whatever path I want to.

[ He doesn't know this entity, though some part of it feels familiar. Familiarity, however, does not all mean good to the likes of Fjord Stone. He will not readily give up what, or rather who he cares for. If there is meant to be a price here, he wants to pay it all on his own. That had only ever been Uk'otoa's folly: it wanted Fjord to drown this world, and he just so happened to have come to care for some of the ones who wanted to live on it. ]

[ Essek could grant that, he was able to grant such to Fjord-- and he could tell that the half-orc was hungry for it, hungry for something to belong to-- but not at the cause of his own soul, his won obsession, his own friends. The creature from the Feywild and yet beyond it, he understood it for what it was even though he'd never had anything that he was willing to fight for. Everything expendable and nothing truly gained.

His eyes opened, dark gold like fire in the universe and he regarded the other from his floating, how he was tipped on the tides but not quite touching while the stars reflected themselves within them. ]

You require a pact, and someone far more benign than your last Patron, they who did not understand the nuances of anything save destruction and desire.

[ Even though this Patron, the one that was now hovering before Fjord-- ambition clung to him like a cloak, but there was also freedom there, as well as guidance. ]

[ Gold is what Fjord sees for a moment, gold slits opening up on a void of stars. It catches his breath, wondering what he's gotten himself into now, if not a new dream. There is something ridiculously reassuring to see it's a pair of golden eyes.

Essek is wrong in at least one respect: Fjord is very willing to offer up his soul, it just needs to be for the right deal. He will serve an ambition that doesn't malign who he cares about.

Because the nasty truth is he would have drowned this world for Uk'otoa, had the Nein not found him, had he not cared about them. ]

I don't need... 'benign' necessarily, but I need something that isn't gonna hurt my recent endeavors. I think... we're gonna go start a cult for one of my friends?

Maybe it's better for me to ask what you'd want from me?

[ Essek considers Fjord for a moment, the way that the other man holds himself like he's prepared to do anything for the deal, to protect his friends. That gives Essek pause but only because he has no idea what even the concept of friends is like, however there is something that Fjord has that Essek doesn't and that's mobility.

So it was that which coloured his next statement. ]

Power in return for errands, I suppose--

[ He said this casually, not that he was so very desperate to have someone collect information, information that he absolutely needed about the way and the shape of the luxon; knowledge that the Cerberus Assembly promised him. He would keep it light. ] Within the position that I am, I need someone to act as a liaison, ensuring that items get from point A to point B. Once again difficult for me since my position is not forgiving of time taken off.

[ A reasonable request, Essek rather thought ]

[Most DEFINITELY the captive one.]

[ ota ]

[whether he'd be the monster or the maiden might be up fpr debate]

[Can be either role, but probably the slightly too dangerous maiden]

[The maiden fair, probably. Canon, crosscanon, AUs, assumed CR, I'm here for all of it.]

[It's a story old as time - a demon, a maiden, a sacrifice. Of course, most demons would probably enslave or harm their sacrifices, not spirit them away to somewhere they might be better appreciated. Mollymauk is not most demons.

Which makes it extra entertaining that this girl smuggled in a sword and has it pressed against his throat.]

Really? Really? You think you've got a chance? [His voice doesn't waver even as his blood freezes to the blade.] You're probably getting pretty cold right about now...

[Indeed, the temperature in the room is plummeting. Being a demon in your own lair has its perks, even when you choose nonconformity.]

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