c'est la vie

“There are so many worse things than death. Not to be loved or not to be able to love: that is worse.”

Persephone was the wife of Hades and the Queen of the Underworld. She was a dual deity, since, in addition to presiding over the dead with intriguing autonomy, as the daughter of Demeter, she was also a goddess of fertility. The myth of her abduction by Hades was frequently used to explain the cycle of the seasons. Together with her mother, she was the central figure of the Eleusinian mysteries.

There was no part of him that was not broken, that had not healed wrong, and there was no part of him that was not stronger for having been broken. No one knew who he was. No one knew where he came from. He’d become Kaz Brekker, cripple and confidence man, bastard of the Barrel.

❝𝘔𝘦𝘯 𝘮𝘢𝘺 𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘳𝘦.❞

the risks didn’t matter; the consequences would be worth it. he had to be here. he had to play on this court at least once. he had to know if the crowd screamed loud enough to blow the roof off. he had to smell the sweat and overpriced stadium food. he needed to hear the buzzer sound as a ball slammed inside the white goal lines and lit the walls up red.

❝ Exy was a bastard sport, an evolved sort of lacrosse on a soccer-sized court with the violence of ice hockey, and Neil loved every part of it. ❞

↳ neil wished he had something to give them in return for their easy friendship and trust, but nothing about him was safe enough to share. they never pried, but it took him weeks to realize they didn’t have to. they didn’t ask for secrets; they settled for the breadcrumb truths of day to day life. they knew he hated vegetables but loved fruit, that his favorite color was gray, and that he didn’t like movies or loud music. they were things neil understood only in terms of survival, but his teammates hoarded these insights like gold. 

“right,” she said, “we’re going to the land of the dead and i shouldn’t think negative.”

Rich people are naive. No resentments. No creases on them.

“Truth is irrefutable and untainted by bias. Sunrise, Abram, death: these are truths.” (for @andrcw)