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housemarcellus · 3 years

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🌾 for Lubomir and 🌲for Ari.

lmao u gonna make me write

Evil Lubomir...

You know, it's really hard for me to even imagine an evil Lubomir. (And I've tried, lol.) Oh, I've thought of the basic bloodthirsty and chaotic werewolf he could be, (he tries to limit his beastform runs to the wild and elk, but if a stray bandit tries him, he doesn't worry too much about it). But that always felt kind of... not really evil. It would just be a mix of him and Ariana at that point.

No, a truly evil Lubomir would be like a shitty frat boy. He would constantly lie and manipulate and gaslight. He would guilt people into sleeping with him. And if that didn't work, he would try to ruin their lives. Think of if the meanest mean girl and the shittiest, business major frat boy had an even shittier baby. That would be Evil!Lubomir. He would feel entitled to everyone and everything because he had a hard(ish) upbringing, and would absolutely refuse to work on himself.

I don't... lol, I don't like Evil!Lubomir.

I like the idea of a campy evil version of him, though. Like maybe an AU where his magicka reserves are a bit deeper and Vendhal teaches him a bunch of necromancy in the hopes of becoming the next Mannimarco. Or Lubomir becomes a vampire, and like... dramatically goth with it. Like wayyy too obsessed with maintaining a "look" to go with it.

In no universe do I see him aligning himself with the Thalmor though. (Spoiler: His dad worked/works with them.)

The Kindest Thing Ariana Has Ever Done For Someone...

I don't know if I can really say it's purely kind, considering how much fear was involved, and understandably selfish fear in the beginning.

It actually took Ariana a long time to leave Honorhall. She says she left at sixteen, since that seemed to be the standard age the orphans were kicked out. But she was actually seventeen, and in all honestly, she could have gotten away with leaving when she was maybe fourteen. No one would have made her go back at that age because she was more than capable of working/fending for herself.

Twelve was the approximate age Ariana started physically fighting Grelod back. It took Grelod no time to realize that Ariana could actually injure her at that point, and that the threat of a beating was no longer enough to control her. So she started to threaten to beat/punish the younger orphans. Naturally, the other kids did not take kindly to the thought of the headmistress's "favorite" ward being the reason they got beat, so they all quickly got on her ass about it. Ariana quickly found herself with absolutely no friends. Not only no friends, but it seemed like the rest of the children straight up hated her.

But this worked. Grelod threatening the others with punishment whenever Ariana displeased her/wouldn't immediately bend to her will worked. And Ariana felt more bound to her than ever. So she would tense and straightened whenever Grelod came near, ready to hear the tiniest mention of a chore, making sure she wasn't in a "lazy" looking position. Making sure Grelod didn't think she was having the tiniest amount of "fun".

It didn't take long for Grelod to start mentioning things that suggested Ariana's permanency at the orphanage. "I'm getting up in age, you know..." It became clear that Grelod had every intention of Ariana becoming her assistant, (this was before she hired Constance), and she would essentially be her little numb and broken slave.

Now, this kind of guilting that Grelod would periodically do no longer worked on Ariana, but she had already been conditioned to think that any suffering the other orphans received was her fault. So leaving, which would go against the headmistress's will, seemed a very dangerous thing to do.

The kindest thing she did for another* was take the brunt of the abuse (she thought), to spare the younger ones from it, (she THOUGHT). The kindest thing she did for herself was finally leave.

*YET

The Kindest Thing Someone Has Ever Done For Her...

There have been many people who have done very kind things for her, but usually she had done something for them first, even if it was just something small. Except Marcurio shortly after they first met.

She hung around Riften for a day or two after storming out of Honorhall. She was unwilling to go back, despite her mind screaming at her to do so. She hadn't a septim to her name, and her only possessions were like two raggedy books and her raggedy little wool blanket in a small knapsack. She didn't even have proper shoes, because Grelod refused to give her a pair to replace her old, worn (to the point of being unbearable) ones until she "earned" it. She wore footwraps and a plain work dress.

Eventually she made her way to The Bee and Barb, figuring she would ask for work. She was willing to do anything from killing rats and skeevers to scrubbing piss buckets. Keerava was very kind about declining, but the rejection still made Ariana cry. Ariana breaking down and crying embarrassed her, sure, but it also filled her with IMMENSE anxiety. Crying in front of an adult was a dangerous thing after all.

After a moment of being frozen on a barstool, she forced her tears to dry (a nifty little survival skill she had to learn). She asked Keerava if she knew if anyone else in the city was hiring.

I'm not going into that whole conversation, but Talen-Jei basically ended up advising her to leave the city altogether, (and Keerava agreed), because in Riften, it was way too easy for someone young and desperate like her to get mixed up with the wrong people. This felt like, objectively, the best course of action, but Ariana had no clue how to start. Talen-Jei pointed her to Marcurio sitting on a bench by the entrance if she needed help.

Marcurio was firm on his price. 500g, not a septim less. "Sorry," he plainly said with a shrug.

Ariana wanted to cry again, she wanted to beg and plead and... guilt him. (Wonder where she learned that, lmao.) But she held it in for a little while longer, out of pride if nothing else.

She stepped out into the marketplace, and eventually found a merchant willing to buy her books. (The wool blanket, everyone seemed to agree, was completely worthless.) Despite the very worn condition, she managed to get a whopping 45g for one of them, as it turned out to be a first edition and uncommon.

She was 50 septims richer, and though that was only a tenth of Marcurio's price, it was better than nothing. She sat on a bench outside the tavern for a while, trying to think of something to do for the rest. She couldn't seem to come up with something she was comfortable with and was safe from being possibly murdered or arrested.

She went back into the tavern and tried to see if Marcurio would take 50 now, and the rest, plus maybe even more, whenever she got to her destination. (While outside, she decided on Winterhold on a whim. She heard apprentices at the college got a bed and meals, and she had always been interested in magic.)

As soon as Marcurio folded his arms and started to shake his head, she began sobbing. She was sure (or perhaps just overly hopeful) it would work. For whatever reason, this made Marcurio panic, and he started shushing her and waving his hands trying to get her to calm down. She couldn't stop just yet and he said, "Damn it, stop that!" Which was the wrooooong thing to say, because Ariana curled up into a little, but very conspicuous, ball on the wooden floor in front of his bench and sobbed harder. She was so overwhelmed with all of this, and she was considering just returning to Honorhall, if Grelod would still have her. At least it was familiar and she would be able to eat sometimes. She didn't know anything about anything, and she was beginning to understand that.

Marcurio continued to panic, though Ariana's face was too buried in her knees to see, and it was starting to gain... attention. He leaned down next to her head and eventually whispered, "FINE! FINE! I'll take you there just PLEASE STOP CRYING." It took a moment to register his words, but surprise and relief ended up flooding through her, and her tears slowed.

"Really?!" She said a little too loudly, only to be met with Marcurio shushing her once more, glancing about to the other patrons.

"Yes! We can leave immediately!" He projected his voice awkwardly. "Thank you for the 500 septims, and I'm terribly sorry about your sister!"

Outside of the gates, he took her by the elbow and said, "Don't ever let anyone know I did this. Gods... if people found out, they'd all be asking me for probono work or discounts. Can't give an inch in Riften... And I still expect the full 500 whenever we get there, I don't care how you get it."

"Why did you decide to help me?" Ariana eventually asked, a day or two later.

He merely shrugged and said, "You remind me too much of my little sister. She turns fourteen soon. She and our parents live in the Imperial City. It's been years..."

Ariana and Marcurio's trip to Winterhold ended up being filled with all sorts of mishaps and setbacks. They bonded over their journey, and though he did eventually collect the 500g that was promised, he gave her a few months to get it.

Damn, I went off the tracks there, where was I...? Ah, yes...

The Worst Thing She Did to Another Person...

You know, apart from straight up murder, uhh...

This is a mild fic spoiler, so I'll keep it vague. She convinced a Talos... stan... to leave a relatively safe Hold with a very convincing tale about a new underground resistance that needed their own priest, or someone like it. She buttered him up with lots of praise and admiration, and a hint of desperation, as if his knowledge, his word, was greatly needed.

And then she delivered him straight to a Thalmor Justiciar in an Empire-controlled Hold where the Jarl would be more willing to permit an arrest. All because... she thought it would be fun. (And he annoyed her sooooo baaaaad.)

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