#those are the only two I've had the misfortune of coming across enough to remember them

[the-land-of-eternal-winter-novel]

Chapter I

The Death of the Emperor

The prince sat down next to his brother-in-law, slamming some newspapers on the table. He quickly sifted through them, handing him one of them, pointing to the title of a certain article.

“Read that!”

“Maksim Vladimirovich Yusupov died in a fire in his own laboratory, only a day after having been found guilty of his parents’ poisoning. ”

“And that’s exactly what he deserves! ” exclaimed the prince, full of confidence.

“What is it that you want from me, Tolya? Why are we reading a 25 year old paper? You weren’t even born then! ”

“You didn't believe me when I told you of lab-made diseases, so I did a bit of research on that. If they existed then, they also do now. Read the other articles as well, you'll find everything you need to know about that “scientist”.”

The brother-in-law placed his palm on his forehead and sighed. Then, he continued:

“Please, stop now. Not only do you believe that somebody who makes poison in their laboratory existed, but that he also poisoned your father? ”

“Yes! Had it been a normal disease, I wouldn't have had any reason to suspect anything! ”

“Instead of accepting there are rare, even incurable conditions, you only conjure up conspiracies! ”

“Should I accept that my father is going to die without even knowing who's guilty?! ”

“Guilty?! Not every misfortune has to be blamed on someone! Come back to reality! ”

“Nothing is just a coincidence : when you're a great emperor, you can be sure somebody's plotting against you! ”

“Be done with it - I've been having a nice morning until you brought this up again!”

“What are you arguing for? ” asked the general imposingly, after just having entered the room.

The two princes stood up and saluted as per protocol.

“Anatoliy, what are those sheets scattered across the table? Let me see: «A chemist killed his own parents using handmade poisons». That's the reading material I'd like to wake up to! ” he curled his nose.

“Well, uncle, I was just trying to prove to Radek that dad's illness may be artificial! ”

“You've done some searching, it seems : the paper is from the summer of 8023. Since you looked into the archives, haven't you found anything about me? During that year, my divorce was the «scandal of the century». Yet here I am now, the General! With enough effort and dedication, any reputation can be salvaged! ”

The old man paused for a second, then remembered what he had come inside for.

“Radimir, come with me along the hall. We need to talk. ”

“What happened? ”

“The same roudy lads started a revolt. Of course, stopping it was nothing to our great army. There have been many arrests, you know how it goes... The problem is that your sweet little brother was one of them, too” he said in a slightly mocking tone.

“I can't believe it! He's already 20, he should have already stopped his teenage behavior! I'm going to go talk to him. ”

Anatoliy remained alone at his desk, being frustrated thar his concerns were not taken seriously, despite their gravity. Not long after, his wife came in.

“Aren't you going to eat your breakfast?” she asked sweetly, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, then kissing him, on the cheek.

“I'll be there in a minute. ”

“Is there something wrong? You seem downcast. ”

“The same old discussion. ”

“Stop thinking about it, then. ”

“You don't believe me, either? ”

“I do! But is it worth the trouble?... ”

“You're right ” he said, although not entirely agreeing. Then, he changed the subject: “Where's Oleg? ”

“I asked Elena to take care of him for a while. I think I even saw him stand up while she was holding his little hands! ” she grew excited.

Anatoliy couldn't help but smile.

*

Meanwhile, Radek searched for his brother, and he reprimanded him as soon as he met him.

“Kęstas, what do you think you are doing?! Don't you want our country to be in good relations to the Empire? Your behavior is inappropriate for an heir! What will dad say? ”

“Why would I not want to inherit an independent country? It's quite easy for your to be on the side of the Empire when you're married to their Heiress! ”

“Leave such remarks and think about the consequences. ”

“Are you afraid of war? I thought the Emperor was a pacifist. ”

“Even in peace times, what about your reputation? ”

“I will be recognized as a leader who stood up for his people! ”

“If you say so... Well, I have to leave, but I promise I'll visit you again. ”

Just as Radek left, Elena, the youngest daughter of the Emperor, snuck in, seeking the young man.

“I'm sorry you ended up here. Just so you know, I was a supporter of your cause! I've telling myself I'm going to run away when I'm 18, but my birthday was yesterday. ”

“Why would you leave? You have everything you need, and you said your father was good to you. ”

“He is, which is why I haven't left yet. However, I don't have any like-minded people around, and I'm starting to feel lonely. Actually, I'd say you're my only friend. ”

“I'm glad you think me your friend. I had been worried you'd look down on me, like other nobles from the Empire. ”

“That's why I can't stand this place anymore! Nobody ever agrees with me, I feel trapped by these walls, but I want to see the world. Not yo mention the fact that I can't stand my family arguing over nothing. In fact, all of these arguments are stated by that brother of mine. That man has some loose screws. I'd say «his poor wife», but she's also quite the airhead! ”

“Why are you talking about then like that? I also have fights with Radek but I don't talk behind his back. ”

“... You're right... After all, Ingrid gave me those. ” she said, unpacking a bag in which there were two folk costumes, men's wear, and women's wear. “I told her me and my boyfriend would be wearing these for my graduation. She said her and my brother had worn these for the same occasion. Keep them for when we run away” she winked.

All of a sudden, he began to like the idea of running away, if it was with her. They continued talking, agreeing on many things, especially the revolution.

A few weeks later, Kęstas' father came to visit him.

“Saying that your behavior disappoints me is an understatement. ”

“I'd have thought you were on my side! It's our country, after all! ”

“We already have it well, we only have to pay some additional taxes. ”

“That doesn't make us free! ”

“If you want true freedom, you can get that with diplomacy. We wouldn't be the first to do so. Not to mention that we are already in good relations with the Empire. Don't forget that the Emperor is a reasonable man. ”

“He'd have given us independence already if he were! Where's your verve? You said you were just like me when you were my age! ”

“It's about time you matured and thought about consequences. Why would you provoke war for no reason? Any issue is better solved diplomatically. If there has to be a war, let it not be in my lifetime. ”

“Forgive me, dad... ”

“I forgive you, but it's you who has to repair your mistake. One day you'll be the ruler of this country, maybe this new, independent, one, so you have to know to take wise decisions. ”

*

The emperor was feeling worse than ever. He got to spend the morning with his eldest daughter, feeling he would never get to see her again. She was forced to leave for the negotiations with their neighboring country. During the day and the follow-on days, the old emperor did his best to spend time with his family members. He even gathered his grandchildren to tell them a bedtime story, but he barely had the breath to say anything. Now it was night, the children had long fallen asleep, and the adults were all in the elderly father's bedroom. They talked cordially, almost forgetting of the worrying condition he was in, but then the doctor came in. This time, he gave him a new medicine, in hopes it would help him get better. They were eventually made to leave, but Anatoliy was the last one left behind, lingering as if wanting to ask something. Noticing this, his father said:

“I've heard of your discussions. I know there may be many people who would wish me harm, but I'd rather believe that not to be the case. No way that I agree with those calling you a madman, though. I know you are very intelligent. However, you should stop burdening yourself with such thoughts. We all die, eventually... How does it help whether we know the cause? ”

“This cause is the mystery which keeps me awake at night. ”

“Do you believe that, if you knew, you'd have peace? ”

“Yes. ”

“I'd advise you to stop worrying about this after I die. Enjoy the time you have with your own family. You can’t live in the past. ”

“I know... ”

Anatoliy didn’t manage to sleep much, waking up before dawn. Without wasting any time, he rushed to see his father, who was still alive, but in deep suffering. Since it was dark, the son lit a few candles, and he was startled to see how his father looked. Weakened by the illness, the skin on his face was almost caved in, his eyes sunken, surrounded by dark circles. His lips and nails were turning a bluish purple. Anatoliy ran towards the sick old man’s bed, and held his cold hand tightly. The father tried to utter a word, but his throat only produced a suffocated sound. The son ordered the servants to bring the other family mbers, but he didn’t move an inch from the bedside.

“How could this happen to you?! You have always been an honest man, a just leader, and such a good father... You don’t deserve to die! ” Anatoliy said desperately, but his father looked at him as if to say “in life, there’s no such thing as to deserve or not”.

The son leaned his head against the corner of the bed, telling his father that he loved him, and the old man patted his head. The other adults arrived soon enough, but it wasn’t very long until the emperor died. The sun had only just risen, and it was snowing, but the light coming through the draperies was irritating, and the glimmer of the snowflakes outside seemed to mock the mourning of the people inside.

#draft 1 #chapter 1 #the land of eternal winter #my novel

[mrs-bartowski]

what is wrong with you? i know some mutuals who ship meltie in peace, don’t generalize us… it’s just one deranged person on twt who keeps on saying that mel and chris are divorcing, plz don’t generalize the whole fandom

DO. NOT. SHIP. REAL. PEOPLE.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with me and something very, very wrong with you and your mutuals if you truly think it's okay to do so. Shipping real people is absolutely, without exception, abhorrent.

Let me say again: these are real fucking people. Not your OCs. Not your fave TV characters. Real, live people with their own thoughts and feelings and emotions that you cannot possibly know without personally knowing them. There are absolutely zero valid reasons to ship real people and about a hundred million not to.

Chief among them: you have no control over what of those deranged musings get back to them. They smile at each other for 5 seconds and suddenly they're getting tagged in and sent posts about how happy they make each other and how they should just date already by that "one person" you thought was the problem.

I don't give a flying fuck what you think a person should do with their love life. If you are not a personal friend of theirs, you have no business putting those opinions in a place where they could be exposed to them, especially if that person is a public figure.

Like I said in my reblog, how would you feel if some random stranger on the street decided to start shipping you with one of your friends and suddenly you can't go a week without coming across pictures the two of you took together that you're not even sure you remember posting, so how the fuck did they even get those? Or even WORSE that you know you didn't post because they didn't exist and you realize people are fucking photoshopping you into romantically edited pictures with this person.

Fuck outta here with your "what is wrong with you" like I'm the one obsessing over the love lives of people I will never actually know. It's. FUCKING. CREEPY. It's intrusive and assumptive and disrespectful and I'm sick and fucking tired of it. There is no excuse for shipping real people. Talk about them in your gcs, in person, idgaf, but fucking STOP PUTTING THIS BULLSHIT IN PUBLIC SPACES WHERE IT GETS BACK TO THE ACTORS. THEY ARE NOT YOUR FUCKING PLAYTHINGS. THEIR LIVES ARE NOT YOURS TO DISSECT AND ANALYZE AND OBSESS OVER. THEY ARE HUMAN FUCKING BEINGS.

They deserve better than that. Better than you. So instead of asking what's wrong with me, maybe ask what's wrong with your mutuals that they have quite literally endless amounts of fan content for just about any nature of relationship they could want to consume and instead they're projecting their own interpretations of a whole ass living person's interactions with another whole ass living person directly onto those people without care for the consequences on those very people.

Leave. Them. Alone.

Period.

If you ship real people, unfollow and block me now because I do not now and will not ever have the patience for it and I don't fucking wanna see it. Miss me with that literal stalker shit.

#meltie #anti meltie #shipping #fandom #supercorp #this goes for literally everyone #sendrick #i see you too #those are the only two I've had the misfortune of coming across enough to remember them #but even people who used to date and don't anymore #shacam #? #literally shan and cam haven't dated in over half a decade #and i still see shit about them every once in a while #its fuckin terrifying how deranged all of you are not just the people who take it way too far #just fuckin stop