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themannequins · 3 years

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a failure. that’s what he felt like.

for once in mischa’s very sad little life, he had the opportunity to prove himself to his country, to his people, his general, and to himself. he was always sure he was good at his job, but now he wasn’t so sure. he had gotten to the king moments after he took his last breath, aka too late.

and what would happen now? mischa never liked the (ex) king’s son, he always seemed too eager for destruction. he would become a tyrant, and ravka would fall once more, when it was partly his job to help keep it safe. so he did what he always did whenever his mind was going a thousand miles a minute, and sat in front of the piano in his room. he wasn’t necessarily playing than he was just sadly pressing random keys and hoping it would work to distract him. it didn’t.

upon hearing the door open, his head perked up and offered his sister a sad smile. miro and moonshik were the only two of his siblings he was closest to, who would not judge the way he kept his life a secret. miro must have been his only sibling that knew his occupation, which meant she also knew how badly he felt at that moment. when she sat next to him, he rested his head against his palm and watched his fingers as he continued hitting random notes, thinking back to the times in the essen household when he would teach her how to play.

“you here to congratulate me?” he asked, sarcasm dripping from his voice like honey.

.

miro moved her hand so that it wasn’t placed on top of his but holding it now. his hands were so different in comparision to hers. miroslava’s hands were smaller, that was a given, but mischa’s hands felt rough to the touch. all those calluses and blisters telling different stories, most of them she knew too well. despite the fact that she knew she was the one who knew and kept most of her brother’s secrets, she was well aware there would always be things he kept from her. part of her would always fear whatever he quiet he did to protect her, out of fear that she might pull away if she knew about them but in reality, there wasn’t a thing mischa could do that would make miroslava pull away from him.

after a moment she shook her head at his words. “i’m just here.” she simply said. because what else was there to say? when she took off to find her brother she didn’t do so in the hopes to try and cheer him up, she did so because the moment she heard the king was dead she felt a heavy weight on her chest and she could swear it was because mischa was feeling it in the first place.

she was just there, she didn’t have the perfect advice or the words he needed to hear but she was there. it had always been that way with them. what mischa was going through felt heavy, as heavy as the weight on her chest, but he didn’t need to carry that weight alone. after anastas miro never thought she could ever love a person as much as she loved her brother and for a while part of her felt ( still felt ) guilty about it but the truth was that she loved mischa just as much as she had, still, loved anastas. if she had the power to take away whatever mischa was feeling right now she would, she would feel for it him so that her brother would be free from any grief or sadness.

#YO IM EMO I LOVE THEM SO MUCH WHAT THE FUCK #001: mischa #( threads. )

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themannequins · 3 years

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anastas hadn’t slept since he arrived at the little palace. then again, he probably hadn’t had a good nights sleep…. ever. it was always tossing and turning, ending up in a pace around the room until he was so bored of it he considered knocking himself out. he’d only done that once. it didn’t really work. he’d considered using his corporalki ability to lower his heart rate until he was sleeping, but he hated the ability he was born with. he only ever used it in combat, how he was trained to. otherwise he treated it as if it weren’t there, but at the little palace that was easier said than done.

this time he wasn’t confined to a room with a lock on the outside of the door, was free to go as he pleased. so he did.

anastas strolled around the gardens, trying to take in the cool night air as best he could until an all too familiar figure came into his view. he was thrown violently back over a decade ago, and suddenly he was a child calling his little sister’s name again. his own mind yelled at him, over and over, go back inside, leave her, she’s not your family anymore, and then before his mind could rationally think again, he was standing right in front of her.

her face made him angry. now that he knew, he could so easily see the six year old girl he used to take in after finding her sleepwalking in her more grown up face, and kicked himself for not realizing sooner.

anastas reached out reluctantly, afraid to touch her. he put his hand on her forehead and raised her heartrate, just a bit, just to see if it would wake her up quicker. he didn’t know what he was doing. he wasn’t this person anymore, someone who looks out for others.

.

miroslava felt a warm hand pressed against her forehead but she didn’t react to it, not when her eyes were fixed on her feet. she often wondered if that was perhaps the one quality about the saints she knew was real, among all the lies and fairy tales people sprung about them, this was the one thing she knew to be real; they could see a creature with its back broken and be unmoved. she wondered if it was fun for them, when for her it was anything but.

the grass was damp and it had only made her feet get dirtier. there was a single piece of grass sitting on top of her left foot and she couldn’t take her eyes off it. she kept her focus on it as if it were an anchor, because the moment things started to make more sense she knew she would fall into the despair she had grown so familar with over the years.

it was so gradually that she didn’t notice her heartbeat racing, despite it causing her to gain a little more consciousness she was still not present. she was somewhere, but not there, not yet anyways.

#002: anastas #( threads. )

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themannequins · 3 years

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anastas felt something squeeze his heart at the mention of her siblings, an unjustified jealousy suddenly making his limbs go numb. he did not know why he just did not want to hear about her family, maybe because he hadn’t had one for so long. he knew it wasn’t fair, but there was nothing that he could do to stop himself from feeling that way other than question why he felt that way.

and why did he? he didn’t know, but he figured he’d amuse the girl with this conversation a bit longer. he was not there to make friends, and was cautious about actually becoming attached to people though that likely wouldn’t be a problem.

he looked over to the steps, something of disgust crossing his features. “gross,” he mumbled, trying to keep the imagery out of his head. after a few more moments of silence, he spoke up again. he didn’t know why. her presence brought something weird up in his body that he hadn’t felt in a long time. “your brother… is that who you were arguing with earlier?”

.

miroslava stole a glance at nils. it was a strange mix of feeling; on one hand she felt herself comfortable around him. as comfortable as she felt whenever she was around her siblings, with them everything came easy. she could simply relax and be, something she had never allowed herself around others. and on the other hand, something about his presense made her insides twist.

“uh, yeah.” she said looking away from him and fixing her gaze on the altar before them. it was no secret the essen siblings argued on a daily basis and miroslava didn’t like that everyone could see them, if it were up to her they would only do so behind close doors, but there was no telling her siblings what to do --- even do she still tried.

“well, i mean, one of them at least.” moonshik had argued with semy over something she couldn’t remember and when miro ran into him he was on his way to burn the library down because ‘that ought to teach him.’ they argued for a few minutes before someone caught moonshik’s eye and he was gone, whatever issue he had with semy forgotten.

“they can be a lot, saints!” she exclaimed. “they are a lot. sometimes i think the only thing we do is argue.” she didn’t know why she was telling him this, she wouldn’t say to anyone after all she always tried to make her family seem as perfect as possible in the eyes of others. and yet, something about him made him feel comfortable enough to speak freely. “oddly enough, i wouldn’t want it any other way.” they were as dysfunctional as they could be but despite all their fights, and how much miro tried to change them and get them to act differently in public, she loved them. it was as simple as that: she loved them, and in return they loved her, what else could she ask for?

#002: anastas #( threads. )#hi that someone that caught moon's eye is art bc i love them Bye #don't match sorry sdkfjhsdf

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themannequins · 3 years

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anastas contemplated just getting up and leaving, but something prevented him from doing so. he didn’t know what it was, his feet refused to move him and he wasn’t too sure that he really wanted them to. he did not know this girl, so why was he drawn to her? he felt like he had been surrounded by ghosts ever since he came to the palace, and he did not enjoy it.

he looked over at the girl, simply studying her for a moment to try and scratch the itch in his brain to figure out who she was. nothing came to him, like always. he had to remind himself of who he was, who he was pretending to be. i am nils.

“you’d think most people wouldn’t gatekeep an entire sacred building,”he said in the nicest voice he could muster. ravkans are different. silence once again flooded through the chapel, and anastas found himself… comforted by it? it was a foreign feeling, and he didn’t know how to cope with it.

.

something about him reminded her of the comfort she felt around her siblings. that was the only way she could describe the way his presence made her feel. it was like she knew him, like she knew him enough to feel comfortable to just sit in silence by his side.

miro smiled at his comment and something close to a laugh escaped past her lips. she readjusted herself as she remembered that after all they were inside a sacred building, and laughter inside such a place felt disrespectful, but still miro couldn’t help the smile that lingered on her face. “oh, after hours it’s not so sacred.” she joked back, if he was joking, despite the familiarity she felt when she was around him she still couldn’t quite understand his character.

she was joking but there was some truth to it. “my brother once threw up right on those steps.” she said ponting at the steps that lead to the altar. usually she wouldn’t think back to a memory like that with fondness but that had been a good night. it was perhaps the first time in her life she had gotten drunk and with moonshik out of all people and at some point through out the night he said he wanted to pray and he ended up throwing up right on the steps she was now pointing at. “i’m certain things stop being sacred the moment there’s puke on them.”

#a lil moon mention bc i'm sad i can't make him and miro interact sdhfsdf #002: anastas #( threads. )#tw alochol #just in case

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themannequins · 3 years

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this was her place. out of every place inside the little palace this was the one where she felt most at peace. miroslava wasn’t a religious person, she was once when she was a child but that changed over time. she found nothing but empty promises and unaswered questions when she thought of the gods, ravkan fjerdan, they were all the same --- empty. but sometimes empty was good.

miroslava never had a moment of quietness for herself. she didn’t remember how it all started, and she had wrapped herself so deep into this lie she had created for herself that didn’t even know what parts of her were real and which were just lies. if she pretended to be this perfect, sweet, proper lady who was always just fine; then people would gravitate towards her. but there were consequences. she was well known around the little palace and there was always someone next to her, and she of course, would never push them away. no matter how much she wanted to, that wasn’t lady like.

this was the one place where people wouldn’t talk to her, this was the one place where she didn’t need to pretend, since it was usually empty.

usually. miro was taken back when she saw a familar face inside the chapel. she kept quiet as she made her way into the chapel. she sat at one of the pews next to the one nils sat at, leaving a good distance between them. “you know, this is technically my place.” she began, her voice echoing inside the chapel. “people don’t usually come here after dark.” she wasn’t tying to make him leave, if anything miro appreciated his company, even though she didn’t know why.

CLOSED STARTER FOR @themannequins in the chapel before the king’s death

anastas in his core was not entirely a religious man; he grew up in fjerda, where everyone worshipped djel. he did have respect for the god, only out of a sense of obligation, because what god could forgive the monster that anastas had become? anastas had already made peace in knowing he would not be buried in fjerda, as he’d been told many times before what an abomination he is. he’d be lucky if he didn’t end up dead on the battle field in ravka, one of the many who would become forgotten.

so if he was not religious, why was he sitting in the chapel? he didn’t know, perhaps because of the peace it seemed to bring him. even in ravka, or anywhere, he would always be searching for that peace. he never seemed to truly find it, though.

anastas had been sitting in one of the pews, eyes closed and his head resting back until the doors opened. then he was alert, sitting up straight and trying to seem less irritated than he was now. was quiet not a concept they knew in ravka?

#hi bestie #002: anastas #( threads. )

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themannequins · 3 years

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( @sodaparticles )

a few hours had passed since the king’s death. no, not death, assassination. the little palace was still chaos, even though some of it had quiet down the place had been turned upside down. miroslava knew what this meant for them, for the grisha, for ravka but the entire nation could come crumbling down and she wouldn’t have cared right now --- the only thing she cared about was getting to mischa.

miroslava didn’t have to look around to try and find him, she knew exactly where he would be. the way she looked at it this had always been his escape, his safe place, whenever it was just him and the piano keys the noise around him would cease and it seemed that for a moment her brother found the stillness that had never come easy into his life.

she closed the door behind her as she stepped into the poorly lit room. there wasn’t that much space left in the piano bench where he sat but she was small and ever since she was a kid she would always find a way to squeeze next to him. as she sat by his side miro kept quiet. what was there to say? what could she say? should she ask him if he was okay? of course not, one shouldn’t ask questions they already knew the answers to. instead miro placed her hand on top of his, on top of the hand that played the same key over and over again.

#THE GIF I FOUND IS PERFECTI FEEL PROUD #plot drop: two #001: mischa #( threads. )#this also seems like god mooding but we plotted what mischa was doing before hand just in case someone is reading this sdfkhshdf

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themannequins · 3 years

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somewhere in the gardens ( @sodaparticles )

dreaming was supposed to be safe, or at least that is what most kids are told when they're little. safe and sound, tucked in their beds. drifted off to another place, somewhere but not there. a world of their own making where nothing bad would ever touch them and where they could be anything they wanted. dreams were supposed to be safe, but dreams can lie. miroslava van der bellen essen had never been safe inside her dreams. there was no comfort to gain from being trapped in them. as a child, miroslava had drifted to another place, somewhere but no here, and she was yet to return from it.

her feet were cold. the sight in front of her began to morph into something she couldn't recognize, the room had gone darker in the blink of an eye. black figures with strange textures she couldn't place stared back at her, had they been in the room with her all alone? no, it was no room at all. her feet were cold. she stood somewhere out in the dead of night. her feet were cold. the black figures weren't black at all, they were different shades of green. the moonlight decided which ones were lighter and which ones were darkest. her feet were cold. trees and bushes surrounded her.

my feet are cold. she thought. "oh." her lips never parted, the word never left her mouth. it echoed somewhere inside her body. that was how she usually knew. she would walk barefoot because she wore no shoes nor socks to bed. it was always the first thing she would notice --- her feet were cold and she wasn’t in her bed.

#LETS GOOOO #001: anastas #( threads. )

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themannequins · 3 years

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i wish i were a girl again, half savage and hardy, and free; and laughing at injuries, not maddening under them.

MIROSLAVA VAN DER BELLEN ESSEN, a twenty four year old grisha in the little palace. she is a tidemaker and are known in the little palace as the mannequin. they are known to be methodical and repressed and vaguely resemble milena tscharntke.

character inspiration: emma woodhouse ( emma ), sansa stark ( got ), daphne bridgerton ( bridgerton ), anastasia ( anastasia )

ABOUT AND LIFE

if you want to die here is my baby’s full bio but i couldn’t shut the fuck up while writing it so here’s the summary but i can’t shut up ever so i added new things here ANYWAYS

here’s my baby miroslava (ex van der bellen) now essen. she’s a control freak, people pleaser, the nicest girl you’ve ever met and she’s always just fine. she’s made sure to build her personality around what others might like and she has been pretending for so long she doesn’t even know she’s pretending anymore and she has no fucking clue who she is, but she doesn’t even know that :)

tw: death, misogyny, gaslighting and sleepwalking ( just in case )

born in fjerdan to the noble family van der bellen, miroslava was the youngest and only daughter of freyja and kuznetsov. her mother, died during child birth and her father resented miro for that and he always made sure she knew just how much he blamed her for it.

for the moment miro was born she was promised to the son of another noble. she grew up with the idea that her purpose in life was to marry. she was molded by different tutors and governesses to be the “perfect wife” whose only purpose would be to please and obey her husband because according to her father those should be a woman’s priorities. the idea that she as incomplete unless she marries was rooted into her and is still with her till this day.

she was never allowed to join in whatever activity her father and brother were doing because it wasn’t “lady like” but that wasn’t just it, her father simply couldn’t stare the sight of the child who had taken his wife away from him. had it not been for anastas, her older brother, miro’s life would’ve been incredibly dull. her whole world. had it not being for him miro wouldn’t have known what love truly was. anastas used to sneak miro out of the house so that she could hang out with him and his friends, who in time became her friends as well.

fjerdan testers, non grisha who made sure there were no grisha hidden in their country, were scheduled to come to the van der bellen manor to test miro. to try and protect his sister and out of fear she might be grisha, anastas gave her a small cut on her forearm, just like her mother had given him when he was younger. accidentally, he slowered his sister’s heart in that moment so that she wouldn’t be afraid, and they both discovered anastas was grisha. miro was terrefied, not because her brother was one of the monsters she had heard so much about, but because she knew the real monster, their father, would should him no mercy if he ever found out.

their father began to suspect and one night he asked miro about anastas. she denied everything but he convinced her he wanted to “help” miro believed him, and told him. that same night drüskelle came in and took anastas and miro understood she had been deceived by her father. she kicked and scream but her father held her in place as he patted her head, the same way one would pet a loyal dog. she never saw anastas again, her father fobbid her from ever speaking his name. miro believes her brother to be dead, and she knows she was responsible for yet another death.

only five months after anastas was gone, miro’s powers first appeared, she was a tidemaker. her father found out at the same time she did and she was driven to the house drüskelle officer. she was locked and left to wait, for what? she will never know because when she thought all hope was lost a servant kid her age appeared in the room and helped her out of the house and into a carriage that was meant to go near the border of ravka. it was a long shot, but it was all she had.

she ran and made it to ravka. three nuns from a near by convent found her and she spend a few months there were she grew quiet until she barely spoke a word to anyone but in time she realized she needed to go back to her old sweet and polite ways because that seemed the way to get people to like you. after a few monts she was adopted by edmund essen.

at first, it was hard for her to adapt to life in the essen manor because she felt that if she allowed herself to love her new siblings she was betraying anastas (all over again) but in time they found a way into her heart, as dysfunctional as they are, she loves them.

she adores her father, edmund essen, yes she’s a daddy’s girl AND WHAT ABOUT IT THE MAN IS COOL AS SHIT and her old father was the absolute worst. when edmund fell ill a few months ago she left the little palace to look after him.

miro sleepwalks. anastas always looked after her whenever she did, and even though she has her siblings who look after her now, everytime she awakes as well as feeling disoriented she feels incredibly sad because she’s reminded her brother anastas isn’t there. she has dark circles under her eyes always because she sometimes avoids sleep altogether in fear that she will sleepwalk but she always asks her sister lucrezia to tailor her so that she can look as if nothing happened every day.

bosses around every single person but she does it in a way that it doesn’t feel like she’s bossing you around but that she’s helping you, but it’s different when it comes to her siblings. miro bosses every single one of them in without being sublte about it, she’s not afraid to raise their voice at them when things aren’t done the way she likes them. this earned her the nickname of general among the essen siblings.

very popular around the little palace, not queen bitch popular vibes but nice girl popular vibes.