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vampiresandotherdelights · 1 month

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The Vampire's Betrothed

Peonies, for anger.

Marigolds, for pain and grief.

Yellow roses, for extreme betrayal.

“Ouch!” I hissed as I brought my finger up to my mouth, catching the droplet of blood from where I was pricked. It fit, though—now the pain I was feeling inside had an outlet.

I couldn’t believe my bad luck. Mother wasn’t even cold in the ground and Father was already marrying me off to the highest bidder. I smoothed the black silk of my voluminous skirt, the flowers in my arms almost garishly bright against the dark mourning clothes I wore. My last name, Rue, was fitting; in the language of flowers, it stood for regret and sorrow.

Not feelings my father was familiar with, clearly.

I gave a deep sigh as I made my way out of the garden, flowers cradled in my arms. It’s such a good opportunity, Emilie, Father had said just a week before. You won’t want for anything. Which of course meant that he wouldn’t want for anything.

From the outside, our family still looked as though we were well-off. My sister and I had been clothed in the finest of silks and well-taught in the areas of dance, music, and manners. My sister in particular did everything with a special sort of grace; Editha was beautiful and buxom, with her golden hair and rosy cheeks, and her dance card had always been full at every ball and cotillion we were carted out to. I always faded into the background, with my pale skin and red hair. Truth be told, I always preferred flowers to friends.

Mother had understood. She and I would spend hours in her garden, weeding and tending to it as she taught me the language of flowers. Lavender, for happiness. Agrimonia, for thankfulness. Freesia, for innocence. Jasmine, for eternal love.

I’d been the one to arrange the flowers for her funeral just the week before. Consumption had been the cause, and that was when I’d learned we weren’t as rich as Father had made us believe. She might have survived if he hadn’t been drowning in debt.

Editha didn’t know. A year before, she’d run off to join an acting troupe after their director saw how lovely she was. We still got letters, now and again. I don’t know if she even knew Mother had died; she didn’t show up to the funeral. Bitterness rose up in my throat as I thought about her fluttering off. As the elder sister, she should be the one being married off to a stranger, not me. But like everything else, I was the one who had to take things seriously. I was the one who had to be used as a pawn for my father’s machinations.

I made my way out of the garden and back into the house, asking one of our few remaining servants to fetch a vase. It’d be the centerpiece when my betrothed came tomorrow to properly meet his fiancée. I knew next to nothing about him, aside from the fact that he lived in a country manor a day’s journey from here and his name: Aster Asphodel. Two kinds of flowers in one name, which was odd in itself. But Asphodel was what really sent chills down my spine; in the language of flowers, it meant death.

I shook off my concerns as the vase was brought over, focusing instead on arranging my flowers. As I worked, I heard the telltale clunk of Father’s boots. I didn’t look up, knowing I wouldn’t be able to be demure or respectful, like I should be, if I had the first word.

“Emilie, you’re a mess.”

I let out a breath. “I wanted to make sure the flowers were ready for Mr. Asphodel,” I said. “They need a day to fully settle in.”

I glanced up. Father was a broad-shouldered man, with a heavy mustache. Apparently, he’d had red hair like mine when he was younger, but it had faded out to a dark auburn with streaks of gray. His suit was all black, for mourning, with just his gold watch-chain adding a pop of color to it. He looked over me for a moment, exasperated. I could tell he wished it was Editha that was here instead.

“Well, go change before supper,” he said, gesturing to my dress. “You can’t dine coated in filth.”

“Mother and I would often have supper after gardening.”

“And your mother’s not here anymore!” he snapped. I sucked in a breath, eyes widening as my grip accidentally snapped the stem of the marigold I was setting. Even Father seemed to realize that was too much, and he rubbed his face.

“I’m…sorry,” he said, stiltingly. “Just…just please go and change, Emilie.”

I huffed a breath through my nose as I finished my arrangement, then picked up my skirt and went up the stairs. My maidservant, Carlota, was right on my heels as I stormed up to my room, and she sorted through my wardrobe as I threw myself onto my bed.

“You know he’s grieving too, miss,” she said, absently tucking a gray curl back into her cap with one hand as the other grazed over the black silk and velvet—my normal clothes had been stored away until the mourning period was over. “And he’s hardly used to being home.”

“So the best way to deal with that is by selling me off?”

“He’s not selling you, miss,” Carlota said with a scoff. “It’s a good arrangement. You’ll be taken care of, with a man like Mr. Asphodel.”

I pushed myself up to look at her, ginger curls falling in disarray. “You don’t know that. He could be horrid.”

Carlota sighed, looking back at me with tired brown eyes. “Any husband could be horrid, even the ones that seem sweet at first. That’s marriage, miss.”

I let out another groan, falling back onto my bed. No one understood, not even Carlota. I stayed put until she beckoned me up, changing out my dress. This one was black silk as well, with a bit of a looser fit since it was just dinner with Father. She also carefully combed through my curls and tied them back with a black velvet ribbon. I stared in my mirror for a moment as she drew back. My gray eyes seemed to blend right in with my pale skin, all color stripped from me.

Fitting, I thought, that I looked the way I felt.

Father was waiting for me when I came back downstairs, but he didn’t say anything aside from a quiet greeting. We sat in silence as dinner was served. It was a simple affair: thin soup and fresh bread, followed by cold mutton from the night before with boiled potatoes. I didn’t eat much, and I noticed Father didn’t, either.

As I pushed around a potato on my plate, I looked up at him. “Father,” I said, then hesitated. I knew what I wanted to ask, but even so, the question rested heavily on my tongue. I think I was afraid of the answer.

Father met my gaze. “Yes, Emilie?” he finally prompted.

I swallowed. “Is Mr. Asphodel a…good man?”

Father continued to look at me for a very long moment, silent. Finally, he set his fork down.

“Mr. Asphodel is going to take very good care of you,” is what he finally said, and he got up to his feet. “Much better than I could.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“It’s going to have to suffice,” he said sharply, cutting off any other argument. “Good night, Emilie.”

I sat back in my seat for a moment, speechless. From there, I moved in a daze: I left the table, washed up, and was changed into my night clothes. Carlota braided my hair, then took her leave, and I was left in the dark, staring up at the canopy of my bed.

If Father couldn’t give me a plain answer, then I very well could be marrying a monster. In essence, I was being sold, buyer unknown. I may not even get the luxury of a husband who would pretend to be kind to me. Every kind of horror played in my mind as I tossed and turned in bed: wizened old men leaning in for toothless kisses, massive brutes unafraid to use their fists, sly, devilish fellows with a million cruel ideas I couldn’t begin to imagine.

No matter what waited for me at tomorrow’s tea, one thing was certain: This was the last night of my life as I knew it, and I did not want to face what would come in the morning.

#original fiction #vampire #fated mates #romance #gothic romance #victorian #flower language

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vampiresandotherdelights · 5 years

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How to Fix Tumblr’s “No Posts with External Links Show Up in Tags” Nonsense!

Hey fellow creators! So, as some folks may have recently become aware, Tumblr posts with external links don’t show up in relevant tags (as detailed in this post). IE, if you post a Steven Universe picture and tag it “Steven Universe” and there’s an external link in the post, it won’t actually show up in the “Steven Universe” tag! This is very frustrating! What if I make a post and want to link to my Twitter in the description? What if I want to link people to my online store when I post a piece of art? What if I want to link to a YouTube video and still have it show up under the relevant tags I put into the post?

Hold on to your butts kids cuz here’s how we cheat the system.

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The thing about Tumblr’s Anti-Linking nonsense works is that it only blocks external links. Internal links are fine. So if you wanted to post a link to another Tumblr post, or someone’s Tumblr blog, you’re good. But if you wanted to link to your Twitter page or something, you’re screwed. So, all we gotta do is make your external link into a Tumblr link. Sounds weird. I know. But here’s how it works.

First, go to your Tumblr blog. Hit the “Edit Theme” tab.

In the theme editor sidebar, scroll all the way to the bottom, the “Page” section. (Here’s what mine looks like- I already have a few of these set up)

Hit “Add a Page”, and this window will pop up. By default it’s set to be a Standard Page. Hit the dropdown and select “redirect”.

For this example, let’s say I want to link to my Twitter page. I’ll name the page “Twitter” (this is what the redirect URL will end up being- IE yourblogname.tumblr.com/Twitter), and insert my Twitter URL under the “Redirect To” tab. Leave “Show a link to this page” turned off. (Unless you want the link to show up on your blog, in which case, turn it on. Do what you want, I’m not your mom)

Hit “Save”, and your new page should now show up on your Page list!

And done! So now, let’s say I wanted to use the new link in the text portion of a post. Simply use the Tumblr redirect link instead of the direct URL! As a test, I linked to my Twitter in a test post, using the redirect link instead of the direct link, and there it is in the tag! Success!

I recommend making a Redirect Page for any external links you’ll be using frequently. I like to post links to my webcomic/Twitter in posts fairly often, but doing that made me take a pretty big hit since my posts wouldn’t show up in tags. With this method, I can keep the external links, and have stuff show up when I tag it! Workarounds are fun!

Hope that helps! -Star

(Reblog to spread the word!)

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