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thefreakishmuffin · 4 years

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Why Cinderella is actually a good Disney Princess (you guys are just mean)

Alright, nobody asked me to make this post, but here we are. I post whatever I want.

People over the past years have come to really dislike the older Disney Princesses. They see them as weak, submissive pushovers who always need a man to save them. But of all the older princesses such as Snow White, Aurora, and even Ariel, the one that I see get some of the most hate is Cinderella. And honestly, as a woman myself who is all for helping empower other women, I don’t necessarily think she deserves the hate.

People like to say that she is just a helpless damsel in distress who lets a man solve all her problems for her. That she never does anything for herself. And while I can see where people are coming from, I have to say that I don’t believe this is true. (And for those who are really salty about Cinderella, it’s obvious that all they know about her is from that one really crappy Cheetah Girls song).

Let’s start out from when Cinderella was born. She was born to a wealthy man and his wife, but his wife died very early on in young Cinderella’s life. And so her father remarried to Lady Tremaine, and she brought along her two young daughters, Anastasia and Drizella.

(Look at the way she’s petting that cat. EVILLLLL!!!!)

But not long after their marriage, the father passed away. (I’m pretty positive Lady Tremaine killed him, but whatever). And so what did Lady Tremaine do? Without a man of the house having a hand in how things are done, and leaving Lady Tremaine as the sole head of the house, this gave her the opportunity to do whatever she wished with little Cinderella. And so she made her a servant in her own home.

You could argue that Cinderella was weak for letting herself become a slave in her own home, but you know what? The girl was like, seven. Maybe eight. So chill.

And so the years pass by and Cinderella is still serving her stepmother and two ugly stepsisters. And this is where I see people start to get upset. “She’s certainly old enough now! Why doesn’t she just leave?” Well, here’s why. This is all she has known. As far as we know, she has no other family or friends (outside of animals), out there in the world to go to. And even if she did run away, what do you think would happen to a beautiful young woman all alone on the streets in the mid 1800s? Any number of bad things could happen to her. And there is also the emotional abuse she has been though with Lady Tremaine. This woman has dominated this girl’s entire existence, likely making her feel trapped.

(Yo dude where do I get magic soap like that? That’s pretty dope!)

In fact, while we’re on the topic of Cinderella’s home life, I want to point out something. I think it’s important to understand that Cinderella was very much a victim here. She was a victim of emotional and verbal abuse by her stepmother and stepsisters. She was growing up in a really crappy situation. If she wanted to play the victim, she had every right to. She totally could’ve done that.

But she didn’t.

Instead of sitting back and moping about how her life sucks and allowing herself to wallow in misery, she instead chooses to look on the positive. While she doesn’t like her situation, she makes a conscious effort to be positive. And honestly, I think the ability to be optimistic and joyful even through the worst of circumstances is a very admirable trait to have. One that I think we can all learn from. She had every right to be miserable, but instead chose to look on the bright side and find happiness in her everyday life, even if it was just a little bit here and there.

(*smiles like Flynn Rider* Guys I want a castle)

And then we get to the ever so important plot point of the royal ball. Wanting to be a grandpa, the king sends out invitations to every eligible young maiden in the kingdom to attend a huge ball so that his son, the prince, my find a future bride. Lady Tremaine, as the mother of some eligible young maidens, receives an invitation as well and reads it to her daughters.

It’s here where people like to say that, “Cinderella only wanted to go to the ball because of the prince, and that’s a dumb, stupid reason.” But really pay attention here. I mean really pay attention. We see the stepsisters get all giddy and excited about the prince, but Cinderella makes no mention of him. Like, none at all. She, for the first time in her life, has actually been invited to a party, and a huge one at the palace at that! She’s not excited about the prince here, she’s excited about having the opportunity to go to a big party in a pretty dress. And you know what? If I had to deal with all her family’s crap for the past several years and never got a day off, I’d be pretty stoked too. It’s not until after she meets the prince that she actually gives a crap about him.

And then we get to the next bit of discourse I’ve seen a lot of people fight over. The Fairy Godmother, and how she swoops in out of nowhere and fixes everything.

(Sparkle baby SPARKLE!!!!)

I’ve seen people get really bothered by this part. Some people don’t like the Fairy Godmother, saying that she’s random and that her helping get Cinderella to the ball is, once again, making Cinderella a helpless damsel. But here’s how I personally view it.

I see this somewhat as symbolism as well as an important plot point in the story. To me, this is Cinderella getting rewarded for all her hard work. She’s worked day and night almost her entire life under abuse and terrible conditions, but has kept up a brave face, positivity, kindness, and grace through it all. But then people argue that, “Why didn’t the Fairy Godmother appear earlier when Cinderella was being pushed around for all those years?”

My response to that question is a quote from the Fairy Godmother herself, when she states, “Even miracles take a little time.” This means that good things will come to you in due time, when they are meant to come to you, if you keep your head up and don’t let yourself be weighed down by the world around you. The pumpkin carriage and dress were all rewards for Cinderella’s life of hard work and perseverance, and though we might not get our miracle in the form of some random sparkles, it can always come in other ways.

And then we have the whole scene at the ball blah blah blah...

And onto the next point the internet likes to whine about! Cinderella needing a...man to save her?

(Not gonna like, those looks painful to walk in. I can barely even walk in regular heels.)

Alright here’s the deal. The prince didn’t do anything. He sat at the palace the whole time. I don’t know where you’re getting this “she needs a man to save her” bullcrap, because it ain’t there, snowflakes.

Around the end of the story, Lady Tremaine locks Cinderella upstairs in the attic, hoping that she’ll remain trapped up there when the Grand Duke comes a knocking with the glass slipper. I’ve seen people get upset about this, but seriously, what else was she gonna do other than ask her mice friends for help? Yes, she could’ve jumped out the window, but she was really high up and that fall likely could’ve killed her, if not at least horribly wounded her. But I do admit that she could’ve screamed really loud for someone to hear her. That makes sense and probably could’ve worked, but whatever. It’s Disney.

And then people get upset that she went and married a guy who only seemed interested in feet, but you know what? Given the options of either remaining a slave to your abusive family, or living in a palace with the chance of becoming Queen one day? I think we all know which one we’d choose. (Also the prince actually is funny and gets a personality in the third movie...which is surprisingly really good).

(Waking up with flawless makeup and hair is #goals, to be honest.)

And there you have it. Cinderella, is in fact, a good Disney Princess. Now I’m not saying that she’s by any means perfect. But this Disney Princess brings a lot more to the table than just pretty looks and excellent cleaning skills.

And if you still want to get up on your soapbox and scream about how she is an enemy to feminism, then I feel really sorry for you. Because she possesses some positive traits and qualities that I think everyone, not just women, should have.

#disney #disney's cinderella #cinderella #movie analysis #disney analysis #disney princess #disney princesses #cinderella disney

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unapologeticallyjaylos · 5 years

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descendants halloween week - day 1

prompt: vampire

pairings: jay x carlos ; mal x evie

rating: T for sexual references/language

cameron boyce had somewhat long incisors and it inspired this little ficlet. i miss you, cam. thinking of you always.

---

The deciding of Jay’s costume for the Auradon Prep Halloween Party had been very last minute.

“You look good,” Carlos told him for the hundredth time, fixing his own eyeliner in the mirror. He’d gone a bit heavier on the stuff tonight, and it stood out against the pale white foundation he had on.

“You look sexy,” he blurted back, raising an eyebrow. “I like that makeup.”

“I’m shocked,” his boyfriend deadpanned, applying the final touches to the fake blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. “Stop gawking, Jay, or we’ll never make it out the door. Do you want Evie to be on our asses about being late or not?”

“Not.” Jay returned his attention to the mirror in front of him. “‘Los, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m ready. That’s the whole point of this costume, right? I don’t have to do anything?”

Huffing, Carlos set the vial of fake blood on the bathroom counter and turned to Jay, messing with the shredded shirt and dangling the sleeve off his shoulder. “It has to look - hold still - more disheveled. Mess up your hair. Oh, shit, not like that - give me the brush.” Carlos snatched it from him, artfully teasing Jay’s long strands until he was satisfied. “Now hand me the foundation - not that one, the darker one.”

After several more minutes of fussing and adjusting from Carlos, Jay thought he looked pretty damn good. The smudges of dark foundation streaked across his mostly bare chest and cheeks like mud, and the shirt definitely looked more “ruined” after whatever Carlos had done to it. There was one last thing, though - the defining element of his costume - that needed approval.

“Hey, Pup?” Jay turned his neck, pointing to the two red bite marks on his neck - perfectly spaced and fang-like. “This look alright?”

Carlos’ lips curled into a wicked grin. “That,” he laughed, “is the best damn part.”

“Christ.” Jay loved the look in the freckled boy’s eyes, how he eyed the bite like it was the hottest thing he’d ever seen. “Never took you as the possessive one in the relationship.”

“A fatal mistake on your part.” Carlos leaned into the mirror, baring his teeth. He hadn’t needed to buy fangs from the costume store, as his own incisors were prominent and pointy enough already. Jay loved his boyfriend’s natural kind-of baby fangs; he liked to tease Carlos that he was a real vampire sometimes.

“Ready?” Jay motioned dramatically to the door. “I got like a hundred ideas for pranks to play on these sons of bitches. They’re too soft; they have an entire holiday dedicated to scaring people, and they always default to giving out candy instead.”

“As long as I get some chocolate,” Carlos laughed, “I’m good.”

The girls met them at the bottom of the stairs, raising their eyebrows. Evie looked stunning as always, dressed as a ghoulish Snow White - her makeup corpse-like and dark, as if the princess had never been awoken with True Love’s Kiss. And although Mal had initially complained about dressing up as a princess, she didn’t look any less terrifying in her zombified Aurora costume - right down to the golden curly wig on her head.

“You know,” Jay commented, gesturing to her getup. “Audrey might take some serious offense to that.”

“Well, let her,” Mal shrugged. “I heard she’s coming as my mother with a sword-in-the-heart just to torment me, so I’m just meeting her challenge.”

“And I already cleared mine with Snow,” Evie added, looking a little breathless. “She said it was a spookily perfect idea.” She’d been speaking - tentatively - with her step-sister, and so far, things had been going pretty well from what Jay had heard. He was just glad he didn’t have to beat any princesses up for disrespecting her.

“Well, I said you should go as a Sexy Snow White, but I was outvoted,” Mal shrugged, the comment earning her a nice solid punch from her girlfriend and an indignant “Mal!”

“Changing topics,” Evie laughed, still blushing fiercely as she stepped forward to inspect them both. “What have we got here? Carlos was very secretive on the phone this morning, and I’ve been bugging him about it all afternoon. All he said was ‘there’s more to it than meets the eye.’”

“You little shit,” Jay muttered to Carlos with a smile.

“Well, I’m a vampire,” Carlos grinned, showing off his costume. “And he’s my victim.”

Jay pointed to his ripped ensemble and the bite on his neck. “He got me.”

Evie’s eyes were bright. “That’s adorable! And Carlitos, your makeup is stunning.” She came closer to inspect the bite on Jay’s neck, turning around to motion Mal closer. “Wow, who did the makeup on this? Carlos, was this you? It looks so realistic!”

Even Mal looked impressed as she peered in, ruffling Carlos’ curls. “Pretty solid, Spots. You might just be as good as Evie with a brush.”

“You wanna know a secret?” Carlos batted his eyelashes, smiling angelically at the girls. “Jay got that hickey last night. It’s not makeup - just a fuck mark.” Then he grabbed Jay’s hand and took off towards the doors at a run, laughing like an idiot in love.

“You wild little fuckers!” Mal called after them, hiking up her skirt to follow. “You planned your entire costume in one day around a hickey?? I’m surprised the people next door don’t hate you both!”

“You bit the shit out of him, Carlos!” Evie shouted, her heels clicking on the cement as the girls burst through the doors behind them. “What, is that like a kink or something? Dammit, those sharp little almost-fangs of yours did that, didn’t they?”

“Maybe I’m a real vampire after all!” Carlos joked over his shoulder with a laugh. “And what Jay and I do in the bedroom is entirely our secret!”

“You better not take that makeup off tonight,” Jay told him under his breath as they ran. “I meant what I said earlier; it’s sexy.”

“Round two, huh?” Carlos laughed, slowing to a stop just as they reached the entrance to the party - the girls a few yards behind them. “Too bad we don’t have another costume party tomorrow night. We’ll have to cover up the marks with regular old foundation in the morning.”

And this time, it was Jay’s turn to flash an evil smile. “Who said anything about covering my hickeys up?”

#jaylos #dear descendants #dhalloweenweek #descendants #halloween #malvie #writing #my writing #spooky season

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emospritelet · 4 years

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Homecoming - chapter 18

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Part 6] [Part 7] [Part 8] [Part 9] [Part 10] [Part 11] [Part 12] [Part 13] [Part 14] [Part 15] [Part 16] [Part 17] AO3 link

I decided a long time ago on the direction this fic was going in, so what I do in this chapter has to be done. Be assured that these two will find their happiness, however. Whoops things got a little angsty

The ballroom at Willowbrook Grange was large and opulent, glittering chandeliers sending the glow of countless candles over the guests within. Ladies in long gowns and sparkling jewels sipped from crystal glasses, the sound of chatter and tinkling laughter floating in the air around them. Gentlemen in white tie and tails chatted animatedly about the shooting due to take place the next day. The room was already abuzz with champagne-fuelled excitement, some light piano music in the background adding to the atmosphere in advance of the dancing that was due to take place, but Belle felt awkward among the ladies with her secondhand gown and lack of jewels. It made her very much aware that their's was a world in which she no longer belonged, and she tried to tell herself that it didn't matter. She had already received more than one curious, narrow-eyed glance, and she clutched at the Professor’s arm as he guided her forwards.

“I feel somewhat out of place,” she said under her breath, and he glanced across at her.

“Nonsense,” he said firmly. “You look as though you belong here. Every inch the fine lady.”

“A fine lady whose father lost her fortune and who now works as a governess.”

“Well, I won’t tell them if you won’t.”

“I suspect they already know,” she said, still in an undertone. “I was brought up attending these things back in Sydney. It’s customary to find out as much as one can about one’s fellow guests before one arrives.”

“Just tell yourself that you belong here, and that they’re the guests,” he said. “Give it an hour or two, and they’ll all be so drunk they’ll go cross-eyed if they try to look down their noses at you.”

Belle giggled, and he grinned at her.

“You seem to be better prepared for tonight’s social duties than I,” she said.

“Well, I find that wine helps.”

“I imagine it does.”

“Then I shall take you to our generous hostess, and go and find us a glass or something.”

He steered her past a knot of men in deep conversation about a racehorse, and towards a small group of women including Lady Tremaine. She greeted him enthusiastically, and Belle exchanged pleasantries with the two women with her as they were introduced. The women raised their eyebrows as the Professor announced that she was his assistant, and she hoped they wouldn’t ask her a question she couldn’t answer. After a few minutes of polite observations about the weather and their respective journeys, the Professor excused himself to go and fetch drinks, and Belle tried to think of a suitably inoffensive topic of conversation. Lady Tremaine had a curious look on her face, and was glancing up and down Belle’s form with growing interest.

“Why, Miss Marchland, I thought you looked familiar when you arrived here!” she exclaimed. “Seeing you in that gown makes me realise why. You’re the very image of a portrait that hangs in the gallery on the second floor of the west wing!”

“Oh?” Belle smiled politely. “Goodness me, how odd.”

“Yes, the daughter of the family that had this house before my husband’s family took it on,” she said, waving a careless hand. “Pretty young thing. There was some dreadful scandal surrounding her. Madness, I believe, although admittedly I know little of the history of this place. Thwaites is probably the person to ask.”

“How interesting,” said Belle. “Perhaps I might see the portrait?”

“Certainly. I shall take you there tomorrow,” said Lady Tremaine. “The likeness really is remarkable. Oh look, here’s dear Ella.”

She waved a gloved hand, and Belle turned her head to see Lady Ella Deville, arm-in-arm with Ursula Waters and wearing a long gown of ivory silk, a white fur stole draped around her shoulders.

“Victoria, darling!” she drawled. “I thought we were never going to make it here. The roads get more dreadful every year.”

Miss Waters excused herself with a whispered word in Lady Ella’s ear, smiling at Belle before making her way across the floor with swaying hips. Lady Ella immediately started to bemoan the trials of travelling in England in winter, and the two women that Belle had been introduced to turned aside and began discussing the latest fashions from Paris, a subject that Belle wasn’t confident in contributing to. She glanced around, looking for the Professor, and relaxed a little as she saw him talking to Ogilvy, who appeared to have just arrived in the ballroom. He looked handsome in his white tie and black dress coat, if a little uncomfortable, and she suspected he enjoyed formal occasions as little as she did. Candlelight gleamed on the gold rims of his glasses and the silver streaks at his temples, and she watched as he took a sip of wine from his glass, gesturing to the Professor to emphasise whatever point he was making. Ogilvy glanced across, eyes crinkling as he gave her a reassuring smile, and she felt her heart lighten a little as she returned it.

“Willowbrook Grange has many attractions, does it not, Miss Marchland?”

Belle started, turning on her toes to face the speaker, and Lady Ella looked her up and down, smirking as she did so.

“Well,” she said. “Don’t you look lovely? I said being in London agreed with you, didn’t I? It appears being back in the country agrees with you even more. Or perhaps it’s simply the company you’ve been keeping.”

“You’re looking very well too, Your Ladyship,” said Belle, and Lady Ella waved an impatient hand.

“Yes, well never mind that,” she said. “Has that wonderfully sweet man professed undying love for you yet, or do I have to do everything myself around here?”

“I - I beg your pardon?” stuttered Belle, and Lady Ella rolled her eyes.

“I take it that’s a no,” she mused. “Pity, as I imagine the sentiment would certainly be returned. I swear, you’re almost as painfully obvious as he is!”

Belle stared at her, feeling her heart thump painfully as a blush rose in her cheeks, and Lady Ella grumbled something under her breath.

“My dear Miss Marchland, I’ve been in this world long enough to know when two people are suited,” she said. “Now, you may have set your sights on not getting married at all, and don’t think I don’t understand that, because if not for Aurora, I’d regret ever walking down the aisle.”

“Well, I—”

“You have more freedom to choose than I did,” Lady Ella went on, “and to be frank, are far more inclined towards the other sex than I. If you choose anyone, make it someone who will build you up and let you shine, not seek to snuff out your light.”

Belle could feel that her mouth was open, and snapped it shut. Lady Ella seemed to take this for denial, and rolled her eyes as she sighed dramatically.

“Don’t tell me you aren’t head over heels for one another already, because I shan��t believe it,” she said.

“I - I - well, I’m sure Mr Ogilvy likes me, of course…” began Belle, and Lady Ella snorted.

“Likes you,” she said. “Yes, I should say he likes you, Miss Marchland. I should say he likes you a great deal. Are you telling me you don’t feel the same way?”

Belle desperately tried to think of something to say that was both truthful and appropriately noncommittal, and Lady Ella pursed her lips with a knowing look in her eyes.

“My own life has been empty enough of love that I recognise it instantly in others,” she said. “He’s completely besotted, or haven’t you noticed?”

Belle could feel her blush deepen as she remembered the look in Ogilvy’s eyes, the softness in them whenever her gaze caught his. The way he would glance away, as though he wasn’t ready for her to see it.

“But - we barely know one another,” she said lamely, and Lady Ella sniffed again.

“Then I suggest you get on with it,” she said. “I suspect he’ll ask you to dance this evening. Do say yes, won’t you? I do so love a spring wedding.”

She wandered off, hips swaying, and Belle stared after her, wide-eyed.

“Here we are.”

The Professor’s voice made her jump, and she turned to face him as he held out a glass of wine. He frowned a little.

“Are you alright? You look a little flushed.”

“I’m well,” she said quickly, casting her eyes around for Ogilvy and finding him talking to Miss Waters. “A little overwhelmed, I think.”

“It’s certainly more people of means than I expected to find so far from the cities,” he agreed. “I’m informed that several of the well-heeled families in the area had equally important visitors for the Christmas holidays, and it looks as though they’re all crammed in here.”

“Perhaps I’ll talk to Mrs Mills,” she said, as she noticed the Mills couple enter the room, arm in arm. “Lucy mentioned some books she was interested in reading, but was worried that Lady Tremaine wouldn’t approve.”

“I daresay that’ll be a more interesting conversation topic than hunting,” he remarked, and sighed. “Oh well, nothing for it.”

“I suppose we really ought to be sociable,” said Belle, taking a sip of her wine.

“Life is full of torments,” he said wistfully, and she giggled.

The music changed, strings starting up, and Belle glanced around, noticing the guests filtering towards the large, clear area in the centre of the room. The dancing was due to begin, it seemed. The Professor turned to her and raised an eyebrow.

“Well,” he said. “This sounds a little exuberant, but I’m sure I’ll cope. Shall we?”

“I’d be delighted.”

He took their glasses and set them down on one of the tables at the side of the room, and Belle took his arm with a fond smile as they headed to the floor, other guests hurrying to join them. She could see Ogilvy watching them, a tiny grin on his face, and he raised his glass in greeting as she returned his smile. Lady Ella appeared to be stalking towards him with a determined look on her face. Remembering her earlier words, Belle blushed again, and stumbled a little.

“Steady now,” murmured the Professor. “I didn’t stand on your feet yet.”

Ogilvy watched from the sidelines as couples headed to the centre of the floor, the band playing the opening strains of a lively folk tune. It made a somewhat strange contrast to the fine clothes and jewels of the guests, but something about the music called to him, a spark of memory from another life, another time. Dancing in dew-soaked grass on Midsummer’s Eve with his head full of mead and his heart full of love. He watched Belle and Doc dance, weaving in and out of the other couples, Belle laughing as they twirled, her eyes bright with excitement.

“I hope you’re going to ask her to dance with you.”

Lady Ella appeared at his side as though she had been summoned from the ether, fur stole slipped down to her elbows and her glass half empty.

“I can’t think why my plans for the evening are of interest.”

“Because I’m determined that at least one person I care about is happily married,” she said. “And I care about both of you, so perhaps it’ll be two.”

“She’s not been in my house a fortnight, give me a chance,” he said with some asperity, and Ella sniffed.

“Not a denial. Good, I don’t have the energy to argue with you.”

“Well, that makes a change.”

“But you should still ask her to dance,” she added. “I was thinking an April wedding. June’s too hot, and you know what they say about May.”

“Well, I’m not superstitious,” he said.

“April it is, then,” she said decidedly. “And that offer of help with unlocking the secrets of a woman’s pleasure remains open.”

“I don’t need any help,” he said dryly. “And I’ll thank you to stop interfering.”

“You can thank me on your wedding night,” she said, grinning.

Ogilvy sighed.

“Ella…”

“Fine, fine!” She threw up her hands. “She’ll say yes, by the way. She didn’t deny it either.”

She bustled off, calling to one of the guests, and Ogilvy shook his head in exasperation, taking a sip of his drink as he studied the dancers. He had attended so many social occasions in search of Belle that scanning the crowd was automatic, and it felt strange to realise that he didn’t have to, that she was there in the room with him. He watched as Lady Tremaine’s daughter Anastasia twirled by in the arms of Mr Branson, and took another drink.

“Such pretty, twittering birds.”

A familiar voice made him turn, and his heart thumped at the sight of the woman who had appeared by his side. She was dressed in a vivid green gown, the colour making her skin gleam with a copper tone, dark hair twisted up on her head and gold earrings in the shape of tapered leaves hanging almost to her shoulders. The Seer turned her black-eyed gaze on him before glancing back towards the dancers.

“Spinner,” she said, by way of greeting, and Ogilvy’s mouth flattened.

“I had not expected to see you here,” he said, and she pursed her lips.

“I go where the gods will,” she said. “Even if I do not always know their purpose.”

“Precognition must let you understand their wishes far more than I,” he remarked, and she smiled slightly.

“Foresight does not always provide context.”

He supposed that was true. Doc spent more time analysing his visions than having them.

“A matter of translation, then,” he said. “What dreadful signs and portents bring you to the north of England on New Year’s Eve?”

“A strange date to be the start of a new year,” she observed. “It was not always so.”

“I remember.”

He wondered why she was there. It was not by chance, surely. The Seer nodded towards the scene before them. Belle was laughing as she and Doc moved through the dancing couples, eyes sparkling.

“She found you,” she said, with satisfaction. “I said it would be so, did I not?”

“I give thanks to the gods for it,” he said. “But she still knows nothing of our past.”

“It was ever thus,” she said dismissively, and he frowned.

“True, but we always had the stone,” he said. “This time we’ve seen no trace of it.”

He hoped she had Seen something, that she would tell him where to find it. Perhaps that was the reason for her presence. The Seer kept her gaze averted, and he could feel himself growing anxious at her silence.

“Doc says we must go to the castle, where she used to live,” he went on. “She says she feels as though she remembers this place, so perhaps it will help. Perhaps the stone is there, tucked away in the ruins. We never got the chance to take it from her when they—” He cut off, squeezing his eyes shut as a lance of pain went through him at the memory of losing her. “Was that the reason we couldn’t find it again? Doc was always able to See where the stones were, or they would turn up unexpectedly, but this time—”

He was aware he was babbling, and snapped his mouth shut. Music played, the sweeping sounds of strings and cheerful pipes, and the Seer turned slowly on her toes to face him. Her expression was calm, her gaze steady, and somehow it scared him. He set down his glass, wine sloshing over the edge onto his fingers.

“Why are you here?” he demanded roughly. “You told me she would find us again, and she has, so why come now? Why – lurk in the shadows at a country ball like a bloody spectre?”

“To tell you what I know,” she said simply.

“Which is?”

“That some dreams die, and others are born from the remains.”

Ogilvy could feel long-dead rage flare to life inside him.

“What in the name of all the demons in hell does that mean?” he snapped. “Don’t tell me my dreams are dead when I can see them in this room! Belle found us again!”

“That is not—”

“She found us again,” he insisted. “And now she’s here, we can find the stone and wake her, and—”

“You will not find the stone,” she interrupted.

The flames of anger in his chest fizzled and died as a shard of ice pierced his heart, freezing the breath in his lungs, and he shook his head.

“No no, that’s not possible,” he said numbly. “She - she came back to us, we have to find the stone! We can’t get her back and not wake her!”

“You will not find the stone,” she repeated, her voice firm. “Not in this life.”

It was as though her words had stopped time, riveting him in place, his body encased in iron, the weight almost too much to bear. But the music was still playing, the cheerful tune counting down the seconds of his life, mocking his pain. He managed to swallow, a hard lump in his throat, burning its way down through his body like a bead of acid.

“So she’s trapped, then,” he said bitterly. “Cursed to never know her true calling, her true purpose? How could you do that to her?”

“It is not my doing,” she said, looking vexed. “It is a product of the breaking of your bond. There was some - interference - there. Some form of darkness fighting the power of the gods for its own purpose.”

“It was a bunch of hypocrites dressed as holy men,” he snapped. “She was betrayed and murdered by those she tried to help, surely you know that!”

“I do not See the past,” she said. “I can only See that it will cause you problems in the future. It is no doubt what has kept you parted all this time. It’s a miracle that she found you at all.”

“But - but she did find us!” he said desperately. “She came back to me, to Doc. She feels the love we have for her, I know she does! Surely I can make her remember me, remember us! She feels the bond, I know it!”

“You will not find the stone, Spinner,” she said gently. “Not this time.”

He shook his head slowly, as though by that gesture he could change their fate. His eyes flicked to Belle, the light making her mahogany hair gleam, her cheeks flushed as she turned in the dance. The thought of never being able to touch her, to love her, was agony.

“Why tell me?” he whispered. “Why destroy my hope of finding the stone?”

“Because otherwise you would run down your life and tear apart the world to find it,” she said gently. “And the duty you have taken on is too important to be neglected.”

Ogilvy let out a humourless chuckle.

“Oh yes, the selfishness of taking some time away from vanquishing the forces of darkness to focus on my own life and happiness,” he said bitterly. “Well, may the gods forgive me for trying to mitigate the steaming pile of refuse that destiny has handed me!”

“Destiny is neither kind nor spiteful,” she said. “It is simply inescapable.”

“I’m aware of that,” he said coldly. “I hold to my vows, Seer. I will do my duty, for the good of all. But I will find the stone and I will wake her.”

“You will not find the stone in this life,” she repeated. “I have Seen it. You must accept it.”

“And if I do not?”

“Obstinacy does not help you.”

“Doesn’t hurt,” he muttered.

“If it gives you comfort, your future selves will find it,” she said. “You will be together again, and your bond remade, but it will not be in this life.”

“When?” he asked, his voice a hoarse whisper.

“I cannot say.”

She was silent, and he could feel grief rising up within him, threatening to spill over and drown him in tears.

“I can’t bear this,” he said, his voice trembling. “To - to have her back in my life, always out of reach, never able to touch her? To have her a - a polite stranger? The gods wouldn’t be so cruel!”

“I think you overestimate their interest in the feelings of humans,” she remarked. “And underestimate yourself. Did you not say she feels the bond? Would she not take you, if you offered? You could still have a life together, Spinner, if not the one you seek.”

“I - I have considered asking her to marry me anyway,” he admitted. “But it would seem - dishonest - to keep such secrets from her, to lie about our history. It’s as though I could only offer her a half-life.”

“She will not be happy with another,” she said.

“That’s not what I meant…”

He ran his hands over his face, peering out at her through his fingers before dropping his arms to his sides.

“The last time we met, you said you restored her memories in a previous life,” he said slowly. “How?”

“You are not the only ones to wield power through ancient stones,” she said stiffly. “But all power has its limits. Your bond was forged with ties of blood and magic, by the choices you made, your devotion to each other. My own magic is not part of that bond.”

“But it worked,” he persisted. “Before, when you gave her back the memory of us. It worked, yes?”

The Seer sighed, her expression troubled.

“It worked,” she said. “It also caused her much pain. No doubt you can imagine the shock she endured, the realisation of all she had lost.”

His jaw tightened. He well remembered the grief on waking, the long years of anticipation that faded into hopelessness as he scoured the world for her in vain.

“But she was alone,” he said. “No one to talk to, no one who would understand… If Doc and I had been there, things would have been different, surely!”

“Perhaps,” she acknowledged. “Having the two of you there would certainly make it easier on her, but you must still prepare yourselves. She will be hours in the waking, if not days.”

He nodded absently, mind working as he tried to think of a way to make the process more bearable.

“I can restore her memories of the lives you shared,” she added. “But without all the stones together I cannot reforge your bond. When the sun sets for her in this life, you will lose her again.”

“I would lose her anyway!” he said urgently. “At least let her know me. Let her know her family again! At least give us this! Please!”

“Very well.”

He wanted to heave a sigh of relief, his body sagging a little as he reached for his wine. The Seer sucked in a breath, and he looked up.

“There is something more,” she said.

His mouth flattened. Of course there is. It could never be bloody easy, could it? Dear gods, haven’t we all suffered enough? How much pain is enough?

“Tell me,” he said quietly.

“Waking her this way will have consequences,” she said. “Everything has its price, Spinner.”

“Oh, I’m aware of that,” he growled. “How many lifetimes have we paid that price? All of us! Don’t talk to me of what the gods demand of us and how little they care, Seer, I am well aware!”

“Nonetheless, I feel I must forewarn you,” she said. “If you wake her in this life, it will affect you in the next.”

“Affect us how?”

The Seer grimaced, shaking her head. Gold earrings swung, flashing in the candlelight.

“That I do not know,” she said. “At least not yet. I will think on it, and pray to those we serve. Perhaps the gods will answer me.”

“Perhaps they’ll think it all a wonderful joke,” he said flatly. “Seems to me we’re nothing but playthings, to be picked up and used and then cast aside when they’re bored.”

“The world is fickle,” she said. “And the gods even more so, unbound as they are by any moral code. We do not always understand the prices they set.”

“Do they?”

The Seer gave him a level look, and Ogilvy sighed, running a hand through his hair in frustration.

“If there’s a price to be paid, I will pay it,” he said. “Just tell me what I need to do to wake her.”

The Seer smiled at that.

“You must wait for the time to be right,” she said. “And I will find you, when it comes. When she is ready. Be patient, Spinner.”

“Do I have a choice?” he snapped.

“There is always a choice,” she said. “And always a price. There is not always a choice in who pays it. Remember that.”

Ogilvy looked away in exasperation, and when he turned back she had gone, disappeared into the crowd like a wraith. Bloody woman, speaking in bloody riddles! We have to wake Belle. We must! I can’t bloody bear this!

He swallowed the rest of his drink, the taste bitter on his tongue, and set down the glass, striding to the double doors and out into the cool solitude of the entrance hall. Celebrating could damn well wait.

#fic: homecoming #ogilvelle fic #ogilvelle #my fic #rumbelle fic #rumbelle angst

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pikachu78109 · 4 years

Text

Taking a bit of a break from doing SWSH HC’s and I want to do some SWSH long reads/reader insert stories. These can vary in topics and characters, so I’ll mostly have more freedom with these than with the HC’s. So, yeah.

Anyway, this long read/reader insert is gonna be something that I have seen on here. There are a few Leon x Princess!Reader inserts, which are all adorable, and I want to contribute because let’s face it, Leon is charming! However, I want to write the reader as someone who believes they are in a fairytale and are dressed similar to Princess Aurora in Sleeping Beauty as Briar Rose. Leon does play along with their delusional fantasies, but does realize why the reader is like this, and it’s kind of disturbing. So, here’s part one!

Once Upon A Dream: Leon x Reader (Pt. 1)

Leon got lost again. Of course, not intentionally but given how the Slumbering Weald has a winding path and thick fog to cover the trail, it’s easy to end up going around in circles. There weren’t any signs that could point him in the right direction and, what’s worse, he forgot to bring his phone and partner Pokémon Charizard with him. The reason why Leon ended up in the Slumbering Weald mostly had to do with one of the Wooloo straying too far from Postwick and somehow wandered into the forbidden territory without any Trainer catching it. Regardless, Leon heard word about it and decided to investigate the sleepy forest.

This wasn’t going to be simple. Given that the fog thickened the more Leon wandered about, he started to get the feeling that eyes were watching him. He knew that there were Pokémon lurking about such as, Blipbug and Skowvet and maybe the lost Wooloo that was causing such a worry. Still, despite the speculative intuition, Leon didn’t seemed too fazed by his surroundings. Through every fallen log he searched and every jutted rock formation he came across, there wasn’t any sight of the missing Wooloo. Thinking maybe the Sheep Pokémon might’ve dawdled back to the fields, Leon turned on his heels to head back, with some hope he might remember his way. And given that the afternoon light began to give way to a dusky twilight, it’s probably for the best to call it quits. As Leon ambled his way back, he heard a few scuffled distant behind him. Assuming that it’s a scampering Pokémon, Leon paid no mind and continued on, trying to focus his attention on the path while there’s still enough daylight. As Leon met with a fallen log that he surprisingly remembered earlier, he noticed a slight change. For starters, when he passed by the log, its bare, mossy, wooden exterior was completely spared from anything covering its bark as he passed through. By some unknown reason, Leon took notice of a lone wicker basket, nestled on top of the chestnut colored log. Contents filled the basket with an abundant amount of Pecha and Sitrus Berries, each one being freshly picked and placed intricately in the basket in a particular way. Leon didn’t know if someone else was in the Slumbering Weald or if someone accidentally forgot their basket of Berries. Which is odd, because why on Earth would someone leave a basket of food out in the open like that, in hopes that no one else is here in the forest to take them? Just as Leon was asking himself this, he heard a nearby bush rustle nearest to his left. Lowering his hand to Pokéball, Leon grabbed hold of it and narrowed his eyes at the bush, ready to battle.

Almost like a weak jump scare in a bad horror film, a Wooloo hopped out into the open, mustering out a timid cry when it saw Leon. Leon looked down at the little chap with a mix of annoyance and relief, giving a look of ‘What-the-hell-happened-to-you-all-this-time’ look. Approaching Wooloo, Leon took notice that Wooloo had a few scrapes on its feet and figured that it might’ve tripped while finding its way back. Picking up the Sheep Pokémon, Leon balanced the Wooloo in his arms and circled around to continue his way out of the Slumbering Weald. As he did, he almost stopped abruptly when he caught sight of a person standing a few inches in front him. They seemed to be his age, maybe a year or two younger and they looked at with wide (e/c) in a deer in the headlights look. Their hands grasped onto the handle of their basket and they stood absolutely still, giving Leon a surprised yet frightened look. What caught Leon’s eye the most was their clothing. It appeared nothing like Leon has ever seen, except maybe in old fairytales. They wore a peasant dress that had a few tatters here and there and the gray fabric seemed slightly faded, but still managed to be wearable nonetheless. This person did not wear any shoes at all, which confused Leon even more, and noticed that their hair was long and kind of unkempt.

The person darted their gaze to look at Wooloo and the Pokémon immediately wiggled out of Leon’s grasp and bounced over to the mysterious girl. The young lady proceeded to giggle and picked up the Wooloo gently, cradling the sheep in their arms.

“I see you found your owner!” She said, her voice sounding like sweet Honey and silky as Moomoo Milk.

Wooloo cried out happily and, once again, wiggled out of the girl’s arms and started to bounced here and there. The girl looked at Leon, whose now eyeing at her suspiciously.

The girl didn’t know what to say and offered a slight curtsy as a greeting, which Leon did not expect.

“Is that your Wooloo?” She asked, her voice friendly.

Leon blinked and realized that they asked a question. “Um, no. This Wooloo wandered off here. I came to look for it, but I didn’t think it would...,”

Leon’s voice trailed away as he took notice of the girl stepping forward to close the distance between them. She eyed at his appearance, which contrasted greatly with their fairytale like presence. They took a good look at his Pokéballs that were latched onto his belt and she offered a innocent smile.

“That’s a lovely tunic you’re wearing! A-And those...um...stones? Rocks? They look pretty!” She exclaimed, her eyes dazzling with intrigue.

Leon stared at her, completely thrown off by their choice of words and observations. The hoodie that Leon wore looked nothing like a tunic and the Pokéballs he brought with him didn’t feel anything like rock.

“You mean my hoodie, right? And these aren’t rocks. They’re Pokéballs,”

The girl blinked and mumbled the newfound words underneath her breath. Once again, her eyes widened in surprise at thought of learning something new.

“Oh, are they? Well, let me apologize to you and your hoodie and Pokéballs. Forgive me. It is just that I do not come across any other person in these woods. I always go out to pick Berries and, to be honest, seeing another person is just... oh goodness! This is incredible!”

Their energy caused Leon to chuckle, but also caused him to raise his eyebrows in a quizzical manner.

“Wait, wait. You honestly have never seen a single person in the Slumbering Weald?” Leon asked. To be honest, Leon understands why that is. The Slumbering Weald has been marked off and only a few are allowed to enter if they are skilled enough. Still, it does puzzle Leon that this girl happens to inhabit this mysterious place, let alone go and pick Berries without so much as making her presence known to any passerby’s who come strolling through. The girl then proceeded to shrug her shoulders and bends down to pick the Wooloo up once again. She offered a Sitrus Berry to the Wooloo, who accepted happily, and looked back at Leon.

“I usually don’t run into other people here. In fact, it’s just me and my mother who live here. We don’t ever venture anywhere outside of the forest. Only my mother does and she gets supplies from nearby villages and kingdoms,”

Villages? Kingdoms? Another question enters Leon’s head and he narrows his eyes at the girl. “You mean to tell me that you’ve never been to Potswick or Wedgehurst before?”

“Are they villages from which you came?” The girl asked, her voice dripping with blissful naivety.

“You could say that,” Leon replies, shifting his gazes upwards at the warm evening sky. “In fact, I’m heading back now but I don’t think I know my way. Can you point me to the right path, since you’re more familiar with this place than I am?”

“Of course!” The girl lowered Wooloo to the ground and walked closer towards Leon, taking her hand and wrapped it around Leon’s left arm. Her soft palm warmly wrapped his arm like a hug and she guided down the winding trail towards the halfway point. The entire time neither of them talked and the daylight started to wane closer and closer to dusk. As they approached the entrance to the Slumbering Weald, the girl stopped abruptly and dropped her hand from Leon’s arm.

“Here you are!” They now said, standing firmly in place a few feet away from the entrance.

Leon stepped forward and watched as the Wooloo exited the forest, heading home on its own.

“Thank you for leading me back here. My sense of direction isn’t the best..,” Leon sheepishly admitted, offering a smile.

The girl giggled and stepped back, almost turning on her heel to head back deep into the Slumbering Weald.

“My pleasure, Mr....um...I’m sorry, I didn’t quite ask your name,”

“Leon. My name’s Leon, former Champion of the Galar region,” Leon introduced, giving himself a title to make his introduction sound...ridiculous, to say the least?

Once again, the girl curtsied once again and smiled. “Y/N, inhabitant of the sleeping forest. I hope to run into you again, Leon the former Champion of the Galar region,”

Leon could not help but feel his cheeks flare up a bit, but thanks to the night settling in around him, hints of his blush was concealed. He gave a bit of laugh and walked backwards while keeping his eye on Y/N, before turning around to run back home, exiting the fog and entering into the clear direction towards home.

((Okay, so this has been part one of this long read. Feel free to tell me what you guys think. If you like where this going, then I’ll keep going with this! If not, then I’ll do something different!))

#pokemon #pokemon sword and shield #gen 8 #galar #pokemon leon #long reads #reader insert

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nestofstraightlines · 4 years

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The Dæmon-Cages

I went to a preview screening of episode six of His Dark Materials,’ The Daemon Cages’, followed by a Q&A with the senior creative last night.

I’m not even going to give broad expectation spoilers for the episode above the cut (I’ll include a bit right at the end under the cut just giving a broad overview of whether I liked it or not).

As for the Q&A, it was very interesting.

The team were asked several questions (by a very positive audience) about themes and research; things like ‘how did you decide which of the many themes to focus on? Did you go back to the inspirational material of the books such as Milton and Blake?’ and I would characterise the answers as a slightly defensive ‘we just went back to the book’.

Call it confirmation bias, but for me that tallies with what I’ve perceived of the writing/creating flaws of the series.

Because what does that mean?

I’ve been going back to the book for 22 years now and unpacking more depths and more angles. It really did feel like there was a rejection from Thorne and series Exec Producer Jane Trantor that adaptation would involve unpacking something and repacking it into your own storytelling form.

Their tone was much more enthusiastic when it came to discussing detail: they talked about wanting to know exactly what every moment of Lyra’s day at Jordan would be, what she would do for breakfast etc. And that’s got merits; it can suggest nice images (I’m guessing this is where the idea of Roger bringing Lyra breakfast every morning comes from).

But for me, in general, it’s an approach that fits badly with Pullman as a source material. Pullman writes intuitively, discovering the story as he writes is.

At one point in Northern Lights he uses the metaphor for reading the Alethiometer that it is like climbing down a ladder in the dark, and trusting that, though you can’t see the next step, it is there. I believe that he was describing his writing process there too.

He writes indirectly, using negative space to let the reader infer a fact or an idea. For example, with daemons. We are told a little and shown a lot. Pullman is showing himself the story too.

I don’t believe Pullman knew when he was writing Northern Lights what Lyra would do for her breakfast every morning. But if the story had wanted to contain a scene set during her breakfast, he would have known.

And okay, different writing processes, whatever. But actually it is fundamental to the text and I think where the problems have crept in.

Genre storytelling can be broken up into two rough camps: character-led and ideas-led. The senior creatives of this programme, almost inevitably coming from a British TV background, fall into the wrong one - character-led.

Now both camps contain both things: if I call a story idea/s-led it’s not saying its characters aren’t important and good or vice versa. It’s about which is the ultimate point o fthe story.

For instance, Harry Potter is, for me, character-led. Its fantasy trappings are rather unpacked or picturesque dressing used to heighten basically mundane human interpersonal drama. Yeah, it’s good versus evil, acceptance versus discrimination, but those topics aren’t explored, they’re not a priority, they’re a situation to throw the characters into.

Where Thorne has worked in genre shows before, the same can be said. There is a specific situation, even a mission statement, but these are not shows constructed around telling an idea as story, but rather focusing on interpersonal drama. The premises are settings, real or imagined, which are already neatly packaged for the audience. They’re not about inventing fantasy, they are about using it to tell small-scale human dramas. Events serve nothing larger than character and relationship drama.

In Pullman’s His Dark Materials, character and relationship drama are a but not the greatest priority of the series, they are in service to broader ideas and themes.

That’s the other camp of genre fiction, where the fantasy is not a static setting used to heighten charater stuff, but an active agent used to tell a particular story.

Calling this camp ideas-led sounds like its an inherently grand sort of a category, and His Dark Materials is of course an example that is grand and important and epic and so on. But for a show to be ideas-focused, it doesn’t have to be a Big Important Theme with Big Important Execution.

Some ideas are ‘what is it to be human?’, some ideas are simply ‘whodunnit?’ or ‘what if a monster got into your house?’

Anyway.

Pullman’s HDM is ideas-led. He creates a world (and later worlds) of things we need to pay attention to. This is not Harry Potter – school, castle, wizards, you pretty much got it – this is unconstructed fantasy. And it’s not constructed for picturesque ends either. Pullman isn’t inventing this stuff because it’s independently cool or pleasing or whatever, or at least not only that. He is creating it to express a set of ideas through the medium of a story.

So story and world are perfectly bound together. And he understands the difference between convincing a reader and making your world CinemaSins-proof. It’s a story, not a world.

The series is over-invested in the details; over-invested in the tools, and misses what they are used to build in the book/s. Sometimes it even breaks what they are meant to build.

I think the failure of daemons is the biggest casualty of this.

At the screening the creatives talked about the challenge there, the unprecedented challenge of making a show in which every human character is accompanied by a unique CGI creation. They mentioned the impossible budget challenge this presented as well as the challenges in visual storytelling and presentation. I.e. even if one can afford to put a whole crowds of daemons in every wide shot it looks impossibly cluttered and like Doctor Doolittle.

And yes, of course, but it baffles – and frankly annoys – me that the imagination seemed to stop there. Or rather, the understanding of storytelling stopped there.

They talked about having spitballed pragmatic adjustments to daemons, such as making them be semi-invisible, flicking in and out of visibility. But in the end they ‘wanted to stay true to the book/s’. Again, I think we’re looking at a profound lack of understanding of what ‘true to the book’ even means.

Creatives more suited to the material would have found creativity borne of limitation. They would have had a deep and confident enough understanding of the idea they were dealing with to find the solutions from within their own storytelling field, to create daemons for screen in a way which worked.

It feels like this teams’ reaction to the challenge has been ‘to do our best and tell people they don’t understaaand it’s haaard when they complain we haven’t got it right’.

I’m sorry if that sounds harsh. But they took on this challenge and there’s a little hubris in that. I’m not sure what made them feel they were the people for the job here, but they’ve failed to convince me of that fact.

People have been telling fantastical and profound stories on screen for a long time before CGI became so photorealistic. And I think CGI has both a limiting effect on the imagination, and it encourages directors and writers with a limited sense of visual storytelling to imagine that they are equipped to deal with stories that they perhaps aren’t, because they can unthinkingly assign fantasy ideas to the ‘literalist CGI’ box.

I just get the feeling that none of the head creatives, as a mix of character-focused storytellers and details-people, really get what daemons are in a storytelling sense.

They mentioned that when they had conversations with Pullman, he advised them not to focus on daemons, that he novel included them only when they were important. And that’s true, and I can’t put words in Pullman’s mouth, but it’s my belief the TV series team misunderstood what he was getting at, and I’m basing that on stuff Pullman has said elsewhere (such as in his essays and speeches collected in Daemon voices) as well as my own reading of the book/s.

Daemons don’t appear important but the story is carefully constructed, without ever seeming to be on the surface, to explore the idea of the daemon.

It’s a practical issue too. You employ people to write and direct this stuff who are used to stories made up of human characters interacting in rooms, and they’re going to lack experience in showing stuff which is vital to this story, which includes the relationship between the human heroine and her shape-shifting animal-shaped companion, a giant talking polar bear, a city in the Aurora Boreales, fights with demons during a hot-air balloon fight and so on.

A lot of the stuff that matter in HDM isn’t just mundane drama in fantastical settings. The most vital emotional scenes include a girl interaction with a giant talking solar bear; the threat tot he bond between a person and their shape-shifting soul-manifestation etc

The human/daemon relationship is like a lot of things at different times and in different ways: human/animal, siblings, friends, parent/child etc. But it’s not a mundane human relationship clothed in light fantasy disguise. It's an idea and thus needs careful building for screen just as it did on the page.

Russell Dodgson, the head of VFX on behalf of Framestore for the series, talked about how fans always focus on daemons while there are so many more ideas in the book. ‘People love talking animals, I guess.’ He joked.

And OK, he was being off-the-cuff and deliberately glib, and in any case he’s not the writer and thereby not responsible for getting the overall imagining of daemons for this series right. But he’s so off the mark here in a way which helpfully sums up the misses of this team.

Daemons are not talking animals in the book and that is what the series has rendered them as through this lack of understanding that they amount to more than an emptily whimsical note.

EXPECTATION SPOILERS FOR THE DAEMON-CAGES:

... Having said all that; a really great episode! Best episode of the series yet.

It benefits from coming from a part of the book which is perfect for an episode of TV: it is very dramatic and climactic, while also being something of a great self-contained story in form. Lyra goes into a situation with very clear parameters of tension, fears, goals and a ticking clock. The production plays on all of those very strongly.

The weakest element of the episode is predictable given what the weakness element of the adaptation has been all along: daemons of course. As with last week my feeling is that while the show is so far from doing justice to certain ideas and moments it might as well be on a different continent, it finds enough strengths in other areas to stop the bottom dropping out of the episode.

The production design is absolutely incredible. It’s the boldest imaginative leap from the book so far. The staging of some of the events plays out differently due to a differently imagined Bolvangar and I adore the new approach. Again, I’ll have more to say when the episode has aired. I can’t wait to get into the detail of this!

#His Dark Materials #The Daemon-Cages #crit

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pixie-skull · 5 years

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AU Disney # 5 Heroines: How your cutie asks you out

Before I go, yes I am going to attempt to make this open to anyone, but this creator wants more LGBTQ+ AUs, so this one just if you and x character went and the character’s thoughts. Please share your thoughts if this good or not in my ask box? :D Here are the rules too. I am not going to use gifs every time, but this felt fitting.

P.s. Like mentioned are the 1st AU and 2nd, 3rd, and 4th I can not promise all featured like in the first one, but I try to list the ones that are fan favorites and please feel free to give kindly-worded feedback. Lastly, I do edits with (non)Disney hand-drawn characters, so feel free to request. :D

P.p.s. Compared to my other Alternative Universe, these can be shorter, yet I do like to write Disney AUs slightly more, but I am sorry for shorter. I am also so tired and I am sorry if unclear. I attempted to make kinda like movies, yet mostly creative ideas. I also feel this my weakest Disney AU. XD

Snow White (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs):

Snow White asked her friends to help her, so you got a hint. Doc asked if you liked the outdoors or indoors. Happy asked what makes you happiest of Snow White, especially in her cooking. Grumpy asked what foods you do not like. Sleepy asks if what kind of blanket you likes. Sneezy asked if you were allergic to flowers. Bashful asked what colors you like or thought looked flattering on Snow White. Even Dopey helped, he led you to a little part of the forest and you found Snow White with a basket of food you liked, with a blanket you, pretty flowers, and a dress that she looked beautiful in. On top of that, she squeaked when she saw you “I hope that my little clues were not too much, I wanted to ask you out, but I was shy” and her pale face turned pink when you said yes.

Cinderella (Cinderella):

When one day just goofing together and dancing, you leave the house, only you realized you left your jacket in her house. When coming back you caught her humming and rubbing her dog’s stomach and it warmed your heart in hearing all these kind things. Even “I want to ask Y/N out, yet I am probably just a friend in their eyes” and you sneaked up and hugged her from the back and she gave a mini yelp. Both you laugh and she then realized you overheard her and she went quiet. Only she gave your jacket with a hole patched up and she grinned. “I did not want you to risk getting cold or something”.

“Cinderella, Ella, we both know I heard you, and I be happy to have you as my significant other” and she smiled so widely and hugged you.

Aurora (Sleeping Beauty):

She did ask you out yet after a clutter fest of aunts getting too involved with a cute date night and her parents did little to limit the magic of the imaginative minds of her aunts. Even got Aurora three different outfits, a long-sleeved off-shoulder pink blouse or a cute blue top (a size up was accidental). She ended up wearing a shirt and make the blue top on top of the blouse. Also, she just wanted a nice day out in the garden and funny enough you planned to ask her out, yet seeing so much happened, yet did not want stress her out. It was a happy surprise when she asked out.

Jessica Rabbit (Who Framed Roger Rabbit):

Jessica was busy preparing for her next performance night. After helping her practice and just general support with being there for her. Of course, spending more time together and just general hangouts, you two grew closer. When her big night finally happened she tended looked at you, sure she was quick to look at others, yet go back to you. By the end she went up to you and asked “I own you so much, so what about a meal on me and I can pick you up” and she smirked at you blushing. “So is that a yes” and you mouthed ‘yup’ and she kissed your forehead.

Ariel (The Little Mermaid):

Ariel asked when you are free and thought of going to a fun aquarium. Only, she was so silent, you at first thought was a hangout, but after nervous breathing steamed up the glass, and write ‘I like you’ and you understandably felt uncomfortable. However her tongue-tied has been always an impact in her life, like asking to order food, she points to the picture. Not she is shy, yet Ariel is so excitable. However back on topic eventually you look at her and smile.

“Ariel, I like you too” and she smiles widely and the hall of the aquarium played some music, which she danced with you.

Belle (Beauty and the Beast):

You one day after work met her up in a library and after helping with books clicked. Sure you two only liked you as friends, yet once you felt comfortable and started to open up to her, she was starting to be attracted to you, as you in return. So another day after meeting up she wanted to list her and your favorite romantic scenes in what you both read. She took mental notes and asked “so if I made this scene come to life, will you be *Character A* to my *Character B* ” and you jokingly replied;

“Sounds like a date”.

Jasmine (Aladdin):

You asked her to a dance night at a local event and even though barely knew each other, she happily agreed. When taking a break from the dance, she and you played truth or dare version of “spin the bottle”. So whoever spinned it asked the person the bottle landed. She spun and asked you truth or dare.

“Truth” you spoke nervously.

“Was this a date or a friend hangout?” and you mumbled.

“I am happy for either or both”. Jasmine smirked and replied.

“Why not a date then?”

(this loosely inspired by how my first significant other and I started dated in high school at a school dance)

Pocahontas (Pocahontas):

After both of your friends gushing over how cute you two are, Pocahontas eventually caved in and asked you out. She felt bad for her father thought for sure she liked a childhood friend of hers, although he did like you and how kind you were to her and everyone. So one day when on a walk with your dogs she asked;

“Y/N I would be more romantic about it, yet my heart too blunt, would you go out with me this upcoming night show”? Even though you stood in shock, yet you understood she may have felt she lost the genuine comfort to ask you out, but glad she still asked you out and you agreed.

(inspired by a couple friends who got the extra push to date for everyone thought they were so cute and a good match)

Esmeralda (The Hunchback of Notre Dame):

Esmeralda was helping hanging out one day after helping her friends, so nothing too special. Just after a watching movie and she offered to read your palm or tarot cards. You took the tarot cards and when reading she “did a new reading” and her new six cards. After asking what you hope for in the world of romance and more, she flipped a card slowly. Eventually spelled out “will you go out with me” and you blushed but said yes.

Megara (Hercules):

Meg was hoping you make the first move for she felt it be cliche if she did something. Only after a while, she grew more and more antsy, so when alone after a performance, she joked how gross the couple in the show was. Hinted how much she likes what you and her act. Eventually, she became sincere in how much she appreciated you. In the end she huffed “I guess I am just saying, I am asking you out”. You grabbed her hand and smiled.

Mulan (Mulan):

Even though you been friends for a couple years, she formed happy daydreams of what it be like to date you. So she asked you to meet up alone one day and when you did she gave you a poem. It was simple, yet it was a cute flattering poem and ended “will you go out with me” and you agreed. Of course, right away all your friends found out and her friends too, and they were happy.

Jane Porter (Tarzan):

Jane always liked to invite you to art events if both could go and afford. One day was extra special and she needed a plus one for this rare event, her dad helped fond. She attempted to be causal, yet her shy smile and blushing gave away.

“Y/N, you mean so much to me, like supporting my passions, and wanted to ask you want to be a plus one?”

“So a date?” you grinned.

“Yes, I mean err, yes” and she and you laugh.

Kida (Atlantis: The Lost Empire):

Kida too forward so when she started to like you, she asked her friends for advice. Her dad eventually got word and told you the next time he warmed up to you. Sure, it made me uncomfortable, but you understand different customs can be why he can act differently. After bonding more and finding more to enjoy together, you felt close. Kida was unsure how to ask out, yet just simply asked you if she could kiss you and you knew her culture kissing and any form of affection like a hug was huge step. Additionally, Kida being demisexual added this level of how it felt to be asked. You checked in and Kida said yes, and you two started dating.

(I headcanon Kida as demisexual)

Audrey (Atlantis: The Lost Empire):

Audrey funny enough tends to act tough and confident, yet when slowly started to crush on you, she was more unsure and you checked in often. Even though her feelings became more transparent and you were flattered this intelligent and strong woman, so of course, you liked her too. One day you reassured her;

“Audrey, you know you can share what is on your mind?”

“Y/N I like you, but...” and you see her smile in relief “but I was worried you did not like me back”.

“I do like you”.

“So, want to go out?” and you both laugh.

Helga (Atlantis: The Lost Empire):

Helga always so busy, but you liked her so much, and she notices and tries to tell you it not work. Only your ambition to keep in contact when she away, warmed her distant heart. So one call she asked you out and when you came back, you rushed with a sign “yes I date you”.

Nani (Lilo and Stich):

Nani so busy, yet Lilo was trying to be your little wingman or wingperson, so she helps in her special Lilo way, to make Nani more free in time. Nani even wondered how she asks you out, so one day when having a movie night, she sleepily asks you out. The next morning at her job and you ran over to talk to her quickly

“What Y/N?” she asks worried if Lilo or the dog Sitch were hurt.

“You asked me out, right, or did I dream that?” and Nani froze.

“Yes, I did”.

“Got it” and she rolled her eyes laughing.

“So I talk to you about this after work?”

“Sounds good”. You leave smiling so widely.

Tiana (The Princess and the Frog):

Tiana and you been friends since ever and when realizing she liked more than a friend, she asked Lottie or Charlotte, if she asks you out.

“Oh, Tiana, this like a fairy tale, plus if Y/N says no, at least you can be friends, for how close you two are. I advise ask them out by writing on your famous benyas”. So Tiana sat down waiting for you one day and when you came she had an honest chat and you saw the banyas and happily said yes to dating her.

Charlotte (The Princess and the Frog):

Charlotte meant you through Tiana and she could not hide her attraction you to Tiana. So when going to one of her dad’s parties, she rushed up and asked you to dance and Tiana hinted slow dance be a fun idea. So when dancing it clicked and Lottie asked you;

“Y/N can we do more fun cute moments like this together? In other words, I like to date you”.

Rapunzel (Tangled):

Rapunzel meant you through a festival in the kingdom and even though she liked you as friends, you slowly grew to like her and given her compliments and tiny gifts. After a few days of hanging out, she was getting the hints. So one busy fun day, she and you leaned in to kiss, and when done with that day she half-joked, “was that date” and when you nodded she was so happy.

Merida (Brave):

Merida hated being gushy and traditional romantic dates, so when her brothers were making fun of her liking you, she owned up to it and said she liked you. Her parents were happy she liked someone, her dad thought you were awesome, her mom was a bit more unsure, yet after you let Merida choose the date, she said archery and said as long she comfortable, you were happy, her mom liked you.

Anna (Frozen):

Anna asked you out on your birthday, well the day after, because she did not want to ruin your celebration. Even though she got you so many gifts and a huge card on how she thinks you are the best friend she could have had. The next day her last “gift” was part two in how what traits she liked about in you.

Elsa (Frozen):

Elsa wanted to deny she liked you, but once Olaf saw how happy she was around you, he told Anna, and Anna told her she had to ask you out. Even though Elsa felt like romance was not her thing, she had to ask you out, because Anna would have asked you all these embarrassing questions; at least Anna claimed they would be embarrassing. So Elsa when alone with you half-mumbled and half-said how she would like to spend more time with just you, she was happy you said you like to too.

Moana (Moana):

Moana and Maui did a fun game of questions and somehow the topic of crushes came up. Maui bragged how many deities liked him, yet his powers could tell you and Moana liked each other. So he asked Moana all these questions that subtly built up to confessing her liking you. Moana was able to laugh it off, yet when both alone, you shared your feelings and thoughts of her. Eventually, she asked if you wanted to go out and when you agreed, Maui yells “YOU’RE WELCOME!”

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bookshopwitch · 5 years

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An LGBT Disney Movie Concept

I’ve been thinking on this idea for a while, trying to find a balance between making it faithful and LGBT while also appeasing the more conservative audience Disney might draw. It was also created off the top of my head as I wrote it, so it might not make any sense whatsoever.

It would be an adaptation of The Prince and the Pauper, in the traditional Disney Princess musical movie style. And it’s probably not what you think it’d be.

You have a Prince. He’s handsome, probably a little quirky like Disney princesses seem to be these days. We’re talking like Prince Hans before he was evil. He’s sick and tired of all his princely duties, and longs to have more freedom to

You have a Pauper. He’s ressiliant, probably more subdued, if we’re comparing them to Disney princes we’re probably talking, like, Prince Phillip. He lives a hard life, and aspires to be more in life. To do something wonderful. As with most Disney protagonists, he is an orphan, and is in charge of looking after and providing for his younger sibling. They probably have some kind of animal companion.

The Prince, as with most Disney protagonists, is being forced to marry a Princess from another kingdom, in the hopes that the marriage will restore peace between the two kingdoms, as up until now they have been fueding for years. The Princess’s father has agreed to the marriage, so long as he recieves a precious, and probably magic, jewel as a dowery. The Prince’s mother has obviously agreed, and so the jewel is kept closely guarded, so that it’s not lost or stolen before the wedding.

The Prince and the Pauper meet, as with the original story, and find that they look identical, and decide to switch places for the day. The Prince teaches the Pauper all the ins and outs of being royalty to prepare him for the switch, whilst the Pauper also prepares the Prince for the life he lives. They become fast friends, and eventually the day comes for the two to switch.

But not before the Prince steals the jewel from the palace. He suspects the King is up to no good, and decides to take it and hide it away whilst he is living his day as the Pauper. Without the jewel, he is unable to marry the Princess, which means he will be free.

The Pauper has a grand old time for most of his day as the Prince, enjoying living in the lap of luxury with everything he’s ever wanted.

The Prince’s day starts off relatively fun, he’s enjoying his freedom, and having a sibling to spoil, and a pet to play with. The three get up to various schenanigans. The Prince goes to buy something for the younger sibling from the marketplace, but realises that in his haste to leave, he hasn’t brought any money with him. He decides to run away with the item, which leads to a fun, Aladdin-esque chase scene. He’s caught, however, by a young Solider. The young Soldier takes pity on the Prince, and pays for the item to get him out of trouble.

Meanwhile, the Queen finds out that the jewel has gone missing. There is a uproar in the palace, as the Princess was supposed to be visiting and meeting the Prince for the first time, and the King was going to varify the jewel.

The Prince, coming to the end of his day as the Pauper, decides to hunt out the Solider, in an attempt to get him to aide him in hiding the jewel. The Solider agrees, and the two go, under cover of night, to hide the jewel outside of the town.

While on their adventure, the Solider and the Prince get to know one another, and the Solider discusses the awful conditions the poor have to live in in the kingdom, and mentions how hopeful the kingdom is that the marriage of the Prince and Princess will bring them a better life. The Prince is drawn to the rugged, well-meaning Solider, debating whether he would want to go back to the palace at all, although is torn due to his duty to his kingdom, especially after hearing of the kingdom’s hope of peace and a better life.

Just as the two are reaching their destination, the royal guard show up. They are searching the kingdom high and low for the missing jewel, and have been ordered to search any townsfolk who may have been at or near the palace that day. They recognise the Prince as the Pauper, and search him, finding the jewel, and both the Solider and the Prince are arrested. The Prince tries to tell the guards that he is the Prince, but they laugh at him in return.

The day is coming to an end, and the Pauper is getting worried, as the Prince hasn’t returned. He confides in the Queen, posing as the Prince, discussing his anxieties over the situation, but disgusing them as worries over the kingdom. The Queen shares his anxieties, and the two share a nice moment.

The Prince and the Solider are thrown into a cell, and are told that they will be executed for treason. The two are understandably upset, and the Prince tries to figure out a way to send a message to the Pauper to rescue them. The Prince and the Solider have another conversation, and it is here where we see that the two are falling in love.

The morning comes, and the Pauper has still heard no word from the Prince. He is hurried to get ready, and takes it upon himself to carry out the Prince’s duties, rather than running away to find the Prince. He is dressed in the finest princely outfit, that One Outfit that he’ll probably be wearing around all the Disney parks for meet and greets, and as he places the Prince’s crown on his head, he has a Moment™ looking at himself in the mirror as a prince.

He goes downstairs and meets the Queen, who says he is just in time as the Princess and her father have arrived. The King enters first, and he is obviously v evil. Like he looks evil. Like Jafar level ‘this guy is a villain’. We’ve probably been introduced to him before this moment, just so he’s more of a threat, and the audience already know that the jewel is magic, and with the right incantation, can be used for mind control. The King wants to obtain the jewel in order to control everyone and rule the kingdom. Normal villain stuff.

Next, the Princess enters. She has the poise and grace of a traditional Disney princess (think Aurora), although she has the personality of a Shakespeare heroine. Intelligent, witty, and kind. She and the Pauper, as the prince, are introduced, and they are given time to get to know one another. The Pauper falls head over heels for the Princess, and the Princess is pretty into him too. They discuss the unfair way in which the poorer townfolk of this kingdom are treated, and find common ground on the topic. They probably have a dance and sing a song, as one does in a Disney movie.

The Prince and the Solider are getting desperate, as they are set to be executed that afternoon. Just as they are giving up hope, the animal pet of the Pauper appears at the bars, barking or meowing or whatever noise it makes, and so the Prince gives it a message, telling it to take it to the palace.

After hours of getting to know one another, and falling in love, the Pauper and the Princess are spending time in the palace gardens. The pet appears, with the note, and the Pauper reads it. He explains the situation to the Princess, and she agrees to sneak out with the Pauper in order to save the Prince, although she is disappointed that he is not the actual Prince.

Awesome ‘time is running out’ sequece ensues, and the Pauper and Princess arrive just in time. The Pauper comands that the Prince and the Solider be freed, and so they are saved. The Queen and the King arrive, and the Prince and Pauper reveal that they have switched places. The Prince calls out the King on his evil-ness, and the Queen calls off the wedding, and he is hauled off by the royal guard. The Princess claims that, even though he’s a simple Pauper, she wants to marry the Pauper.

The Pauper turns to the Queen and tells her that since the King is in jail, that the Princess is the rightful ruler of the Kingdom, and so she and the Queen can come to an agreement that will save both kingdoms. He also agrees to marry the Princess.

The Prince and the Solider confess their love to one another, and he tells his mother that he is alright with the Pauper marrying the Princess, as he didn’t want to marry her, and that he is in love with the Solider. For his bravery and willingness to help the Prince, the Solider is given some kind of important role which allows him to live in the palace.

The movie ends with the wedding of the Pauper and the Princess, where the Prince and his Solider discuss basically what just went down, and it ends, in true Disney fashion, with a song and a kiss.

That is my plot for an LGBT Disney movie that has both a satsifying straight romance, and a satisfying gay romance, and will also have some banging tunes in it or so god help me.

#disney #disney princess #disney movie idea #lgbt disney #gay disney #prince and the pauper

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flying-elliska · 5 years

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salut ellie! someone once asked you about your writing and you recommended falling in love with language and finding ways of writing you love. i was wondering, what books and/or writing styles are you in love with? it's just so interesting to know what somehow had an impact on the way you're writing bc i honestly adore your style

wow do you remember that ? that is such a flattering question oh my god. well, i’m still working on it. some of my favorites are (i’m very eclectic lmao) :

- His Dark Materials (it’s a fantasy book series ‘for kids’ but it’s actually insanely deep and philosophic) is pretty much the first book series that made me fall in love with stories, and made me want to write. I think I found it when I was 10, and it completely shaped me. It’s so ambitious and clever, it never talks down to the reader, brings up those amazing worlds and philosophical concepts and is still accessible to kids. Most of all it is so committed to atmosphere, to making it vivid, to really make you go through what the characters are. I’m thinking of it and I can remember exactly certain passages in an almost sensory way : the witch Serafina Pekkala describing what it feels like to feel the Aurora Borealis on her bare skin as she is flying through the arctic. The polar bear Iorek giving Lyra frozen moss to help bandage his wounds after a battle. The grilled poppy heads that the Jordan College scholars at Oxford eat during a meeting. The little Gallivespians on their dragonflies and the way the sun reflects off their poisonous spurs. That’s how you make a story stick ; that’s how you can put in deep stuff without ever making it boring. I am so excited they’re making a tv series because that shit deserves some recognition. And I mean the whole plot about the importance of stories, free will, the horror of religious fundamentalism....always relevant. Philip Pullman’s stuff is great in general, I love his Sally Lockhart series, which is more adult and adventure focused, and is a great deal of fun. And of course, the sequel to HDM he’s been putting out recently.

- I spent a lot of my teen years reading either crime novels or historical novels. (When I think of some of the stuff I read when I was 13 I’m like oh my god what were my parents doing lmao some of that was really horrible.) And I think it gave me a good feeling for suspense and setting, and how important tension is. One of my all time faves is Andrea Japp. She is a French writer who does mostly crime, involving complex/monstrous woman characters and a very sensory, poetic approach to language, often involving food, plants and poisons. My favorite by her is the “Season of the Beast”/Agnès de Souarcy chronicles, which is a crime series set in medieval times, with a cool independent lady at its core, crimes in a monastery, and this very gloomy end of times vibe that I love. I also read a lot of Scandi Noir stuff, I love the kind of ...laconic approach to life. And again : vibe. Vibe is so important. And Sherlock Holmes stories. I love the Mary Russell series that take place in that universe and are basically a big Mary Sue self insert guilty pleasure but are just. So much fun.

- I like poetry a lot - not stuff that is too wordy, but something short, sharp and vivid. i think reading poetry is essential to feeding your inner ‘metaphor culture’. I love Mary Oliver. Rimbaud, too, that I read at 17 and rocked my world. One of my underrated faves is Hồ Xuân Hương, a Vietnamese poet from the 18th century who was adept at using nature metaphors to hide both erotic stuff, irreverent jokes, and political criticism, and correspond with all the great scholars of her time under a pseudonym. Badass. Recently I bought ‘Soft Science’ by Franny Choi, which is about cyborgs, having a female body, emotions and politics and it’s absolutely brilliant.

- I love reading fairy tales, too. Currently reading (i always read a lot of books at once lol) Angela Carter’s Book of Fairy Tales, basically fairy tales for grown ups, collected from folklore all over the world, with an amazing kind of gruesome humor and wisdom. Norse mythology is also so damn funny. That one bit with Thor dressing up as a bride or Loki’s shenanigans...amazing. And I like fantasy, I find it very soothing to read for some reason, my fave has to be Robin Hobb and her Realm of the Elderlings series. And Terry Pratchett, especially the series with Death or the Witches. Just brilliant. Neil Gaiman too.

- I tend to be very impatient when it comes to literary fiction, I find a lot of it is self-indulgent, dreary. I’m a genre reader through and through, I need to be amazed. I loved ‘the Elegance of the Hedgehog’ by Muriel Barbery though. Some stuff by Amélie Nothomb, Virginie Despentes occasionally (they’re French writers with a very dark, wry approach to life, tho the first is more polished acid and the second very punk rock). And ‘Special Topics in Calamity Physics’ by Marisha Pessl is pretentious as hell but a lot of fun, if you like dark academia. Salman Rushdie has a way with language that is amazing.

- I read a lot of non-fiction. At the moment : the Cabaret of Plants (about the symbolic/socio historical meaning of plants and how they shaped history) by Richard Mabey and ‘Feminist Fight Club’ by Jessica Bennett. One I absolutely love is ‘the Botany of Desire’ by Michael Pollan in which he traces the history of four plant species (apple, potato, cannabis, tulip) and how they impacted us as much as we impacted them. I was obsessed with plants for most of my life as you can see lol (my mother is a herbalist and I wanted to become a botanist for quite a while.). Also philosophy/anthropology in little bits. I love Tim Ingold. Things about witches. Anything by Rebecca Solnit is incredible.

- I’ve been reading a lot of YA recently, because it’s fun and quick and keeps me reading, and has a lot of good female characters. Big fave recently : Jane Unlimited by Kristin Cashore. It’s about a young bisexual woman who’s grieving and comes to this weird house full of doors, each of which leads to a different path in life, and we follow her through each choice she can potentially make, each of one becomes a different genre of story : creepy ghost story, spy story, sci-fi, cute romance, etc. It’s so innovative and it’s a story that is also bisexual culture at its core. Also I absolutely love love love love love (etc forever) the Raven Cycle series by Maggie Stiefvater. What she does with language is just so cool, because she stays simple and efficient but uses her metaphors in such a fulgurant, vivid way. Some of her lines are just. bam! genius. #goals. Also Ronan Lynch is probably THE character that helped me the most with my coming out. He’s one of my forever faves. Of course Harry Potter, lmao, I was of the generation that pretty much grew up with him, the last book came out when I was 17. JK Rowling really should just stop rn. But I learned so much from those, about the importance of making your story feel like home, and having a clear emotional journey. And Harry is such a sarcastic little shit, I love him. And I love a Series of Unfortunate Events too, the darkly funny tone of it, the celebration of knowledge and resilience.

- I think in terms of the classics (I had to read in school lmao), I do like Victor Hugo a lot even though some of his stuff just doesn’t fucking stop. I also like Balzac and his Comédie Humaine, he’s very observant, mean and funny when it comes to people (even though it’s depressing.) Colette is my grandma’s fave writer and she is a rockstar, I love her (also hella bi culture). Jane Austen is great, I read Pride and Prejudice in one night straight, I was so hooked. Love Jane Eyre too. I read On the Road by Jack Kerouac while hopped up on opioid pain killers and that’s probably the only way to appreciate it, but it did mark me.

- But to be completely fucking candid, I probably read the most fanfic nowadays still. Esp since I got to college, I need to unwind when I read, and having characters you already know can be so comforting. Now, of course, there’s a lot of fanfic that is just fluff (nothing wrong with that) but I honestly really believe in the literary value of fanfic. Because some of that shit simply just really slaps and is well written. But also as a genre on its own : you just simply don’t get so much emotional nuance, and depth in most other things. Because these are characters we already know and the writers are not afraid to be self-indulgent and plot is secondary, we see shades of things that we never see anywhere else, we see relationships developping in the small things and wow that shit is breathtaking, bro, sometimes. The art of infinite variation on a theme. Even though a lot of fic writers could use a bit of stricter editing, and do stuff a bit too many unnecessary details in here, so does Victor Hugo soooooooo....

lol i could go on forever. i love book soooo much. uni kinda killed my reading appetite, I used to read several books a week when I was in middle school. hope i can get back there (although maybe not as much bc i have a life now lol.) but thinking about everything i have yet to read makes me sooooo happy. I want to get more into sci-fi, English lit classics. Basically I like stuff that’s witty, dark, political, hedonistic, with dry humor, but a warm heart. Stories that celebrate knowledge, curiosity and human weirdness. And that gets to the point. When I get bored by a book, I put it down, because I just don’t have the time. I also hate writers where you can tell that they think they’re better than other people. Misanthropy is boring. Thank you for this question anon I had a blast

#reading #books #book recs #literature #anon asks

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auraleanna · 5 years

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21 tag

Answer and tag 21 individuals. Thanks for tagging me @coconberry! :)

1. Nicknames: Lau, bebbi, bibber

2. Zodiac Sign: Capricorn

3. Height: 5′7" (I think?) / 1.75m

4. Hogwarts House: Hufflepuff 🌻

5. Last Thing I Googled: hmmm a trauma related topic I'd rather keep to myself.

6. Favorite Musicians: , Aurora, The Smiths, Courtney Barnett, Vindsvept, Fatoumata diawara and I also listen a lot to game/movie music. There’s a lot more that I like, but those just my main ones rn

7. Song Stuck in My Head: The seed by Aurora

8. Following Now: 156

9. Followers: 106

10. Do I Get Asks?: I think I've had 1 or 2 asks up until now because I made this account pretty recently, but nice asks (or constructive ones) are always welcome! I like asks ^-^

11. Amount of Sleep?: ehehe... I mean right now I'm fine? But sleep has been an issue for me. First I just constantly (for several years) didnt get enough sleep because of school and then I became burnout (+anxiety +depression) and just couldn't fall asleep anymore, and after 5 days that gets kinda scary, so my psych gave me meds to sleep (non-addictive, long story) that I'm still taking today, but I'll eventually have to get off them.

12. Lucky Number: I guess I have one but imma keep it secret

13. What I’m Wearing: a blue long flowy dress with a grey croptop on top, grey fingerless armsleeves, a necklace and my doc martens for shoes

14. Dream Job: Idk yet?? Being an illustrator, making clothing, maybe something with plants. It has to be creative but it also has to work with my adhd. I'm still searching for what would be best for me. But as a "dreamjob" I'd love to just work on my own projects and somehow live off that stress-free, but that's a bit too idealistic

15. Dream Trip: I’d love to go to japan and stay there for at least 4 weeks to travel around the country, But also, I really want to go to sweden or norway, and preferably see the northern lights. North Italy in the mountains is also wonderfull, been there 3 times before and I'd love to go back (there were so many fireflies💕)

16. Favorite Food: How can I possibly choose a favorite food,,, so much food is good! Like bread, eggs, pasta, bami, noodles, pizza, tangerines, chocolat sprinkles, kale, salmon etc etc etc the list goes on

17. Instruments: I have an electric guitar and an ocarina but I can play neither of them 😅😂I would still like to learn it, though.

18. Languages: Dutch (native language), English and the tiniest bit of french (barely anything)

19. Favorite Song: there is a light and it never goes out by The Smiths

20. Random Fact: I love watching frogs with my bf and giving them names

21. Aesthetic: daffodils and dandelions, meadows inside a forest, wildflowers, sparkly stuff, fireflies, 90's/80's fashion, long flowy dresses, layers, spring/autumn, campfire parties, braids/messy buns, the whole aesthetic of the movie amélie, old things, vintage shops, little flowers everywhere, bumblebees, frogs, fairies, cats, soft kitten purrs, music boxes, cotton bags, berets, sturdy boots, barefoot, animal crossing, comfy places, round sunglasses, colorful drawings

Tag List: I'll try to get up to 21 people. I'll tag some mutuals from here as well as some mutuals from my other blog, but no pressure for anyone to do this! ^_^ again thank you @coconberry for tagging me! @trash-rat-official @inkedinblackbird @guardianangelof-light @butcherhog @strawberryishness @kattenpootjes @spiritualfurry @myextrablogfor-things @treatyourselfwithkindness @charabara @batsoui @potleaf @mosscookies @capoeri @charlie-daydreams @luvluz @beautybehindth3madness @onbestaand @hetisjeboiluuk @naga-nadel @gaminginthekitchen

#ask #asks #21 tag #lauranne talks #thanks for tagging me!!!

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platyhelminthez · 5 years

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21 tag

Answer and tag 21 individuals. wrow i got tagged in something thanks @auraleanna

1. Nicknames: Cait, Loku, Typhy, uhhhh Bo-pip apparently thanks sid

2. Zodiac Sign: Taurus, Libra Moon, Aries Rising

3. Height: 5′7″/8″ i can’t remember exactly fshfksd

4. Hogwarts House: i’ve been told ravenclaw

5. Last Thing I Googled: airport horse statue (was looking for a picture of bluecifer)

6. Favorite Musicians: HOO theres a lot.... atm Bulldog Eyes, Mitski, Death Grips, Tame Impala.... some Miku too for good measure

7. Song Stuck in My Head: No Children / Mountain Goats

8. Following Now: 671 (i should go through and get rid of unactive ppl tbh)

9. Followers: 191

10. Do I Get Asks?: rarely, tumblr seems to eat them to the point i’ve argued with ppl over not getting asks ;w;

11. Amount of Sleep?: used to be all over the place but my medication is getting me that steady 8 hrs babeyyy

12. Lucky Number: 8

13. What I’m Wearing: black skinny jeans, blue trainers, this really sweet bright orange and blue plaid top and a fwancy leather apron cus im in work lol

14. Dream Job: getting paid to sleep. i have no concept of where i’ll be in a month let alone dream jobs

15. Dream Trip: boring answer but probably japan or the netherlands

16. Favorite Food: mi goreng fried noodles..... and crunchies. tbh im not fussy at all i love pretty much all food

17. Instruments: used to be able to play keyboard but nah not really

18. Languages: English and a tad of French. Learning Dutch rn

19. Favorite Song: Hard question but either Danger in the Snow / Snowmine or Death Grips is Online atm

20. Random Fact: I have a cool lip scar from running into a TV as a kid

21. Aesthetic: somehow both rustic, warm forest, plaid and beeswax polish smell, or grimy city neons and bright lights. really depends on mood

Tag List: huuu idk 21 people so ill just tag some pals @nevlogeos @butcherhog @alliancebiotics @yellow-boii @artgorl @sbongebob

#tag game

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varanest · 6 years

Text

ii. jealous kiss (andré silva)

a/n: second part for the types of kisses series. i’m tagging a lot of players so this gets across and you guys can suggest who should feature next!

The red and blue lights start flashing when she’s driving down a back road, about three blocks away from the church where her brother is currently getting married.

“Fuck,” she says.

“Keep driving,” André instructs, which is pretty much the worst idea ever and definitely a thing that Aurora will not be doing.

“We are not getting arrested tonight,” she hisses, eyes flicking to the rear view mirror again.

“We’re forty-five minutes late. The wedding won’t start if we aren’t there,” he points out. Aurora gives him a dirty look, because he’ll be the only one to blame when they get to the church and the bride promptly cuts their heads off for being late. Who takes three hours to get themselves in a suit, anyway?

She only has a moment to plan how she’s going to kill André for this before the cop – young and handsome officer Costa, of all people – is knocking on her window with a flashlight.

“Ma’am, do you know how fast you were – Aurora?

“Hi,” she says nervously.

“Hi,” he answers tone considerably warmer. André stiffens beside her. “I didn’t know you were back,” he continues, clearing his throat.

“Yep. Got back last week for a little break.”

“You still in college?”

“Graduating next semester.”

“Good, good. You look good.”

“So do you,” she answers automatically, because she’s a fucking idiot and she’s too busy checking the dashboard clock to think of an appropriate response.

André is looking out the windshield like he wants to punch something, but Costa doesn’t seem to be bothered by the comment. He’s smiling, at least. “Uh. So this is going to be kind of awkward.”

“Because you have to give your boss’s daughter a ticket?” She asks, and she’s antsy and nervous and doesn’t even care about paying the fine as long as they’re good to go so her friends can get finally married.

“Because I promised myself the next time I saw my boss’ daughter, I’d ask her out for coffee.”

And what. What the hell.

Costa leans a little closer and gives her such an obvious once over that Aurora can almost physically feel the gaze travelling up and down her body. Her face flushes red.

“Oh. Wow, uh, okay, I –“

There’s a sharp crack next to her and she whips her head around to see André holding a large piece of plastic, a bland look upon his face.

“Oops,” he says.

Aurora’s lips thin. “What the hell? Did you just break my seat?”

“No,” André answers, and it’s so obviously a lie that Aurora wants to punch him

“You’re fucking paying for that.”

He doesn’t answer, just wedges the plastic somewhere under him and Aurora turns back to officer Costa with an exasperated huff.

“Sorry, I –” she trails off at the look on the officer’s face.

He looks sheepish and contrite, eyes flicking back and forth between her and André. “Wow. I, um, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize.”

“Realize?” She furrows her brow. “What –”

“Forget it. And forget about the ticket.” He takes a step back from the car. “Just drive safer, alright? Have a nice night.”

“We will!” André calls and Costa trips over his own feet on the way back to his car.

Aurora gapes at him, completely bewildered. “What the hell was that about?”

“Just drive,” he hisses.

Later that night, after finding the bride almost crying because of their fault but the ceremony turning out just fine at the end, she’s driving them back to the hotel. Aurora may be babbling a little bit; switching topics between commenting on the fancy dresses, how big her childhood friend’s twins are, the exquisite food they were served and the fact that she thinks she just inadvertently flirted her way out of a ticket - which she might be talking about a lot more that the other things because it is seriously the best thing that has ever happened to her.

“It was kind of weird at the end though, wasn’t it?” she’s asking as she swings into a parking spot near the hotel’s entrance. “Like, when he said to forget it you don’t think he meant to forget about the date, do you? Just the ticket? Anyways, I don’t think my dad would like that. I mean, I really should have gotten a ticket and a date. But hey, I’m not complaining, and my dad has absolutely no business in my sex life –”

André makes a sudden, wounded noise and Aurora abruptly cuts herself off. “Whoa, you okay?”

“Fine,” he says shortly. “Just a headache.”

“That wasn’t what I meant.”

André sighs loudly and gives her and impatient look, gaze fixed on the little necklace he had given her more than a decade ago.

“I meant. Are you okay? Like emotionally? You seem kind of–quiet.” As soon as she says it, Aurora realizes it’s true. She doesn’t think André said one word the whole ride back to the hotel.

“Fine,” he repeats.

“Look if this is about the broken seat, it’s not that big of a deal –”

“Aurora –”

“No, seriously, I was kind of flustered because of Costa, so –”

“Aurora,” André all but snarls. “Go to your room. It’s late.”

Aurora frowns.

“What are you–why are you suddenly acting like an idiot? Did something happen at the wedding?”

André’s fists clench in his dress pants. “No.”

“That what –”

“Maybe I’m just sick and tired of hearing how fucking perfect officer Costa is,” he spits out, eyes flashing.

Aurora stares at him, mouth hanging open and André promptly gets himself out of the car.

“What the fuck,” she hisses under her breath, hastily undoing her own seatbelt. Aurora catches up with him before he even makes it into the building.

“You are not getting away from me that easily,” she says, angrily crossing her arms and blocking his way to the entrance.

“I don’t want to talk about this right now,” André grits out and Aurora bites her tongue, moving out of his way and following him all the way to his hotel room door until his door is shut.

“What is your problem?”

“I don’t like him,” he answers tightly, undoing his tie.

“You don’t like Costa,” she repeats incredulously. “Since when?”

“Since forever.”

“That’s not true,” she shoots back. “You told me you liked him because of his sense of humor when I took you to the station the other day.”

“I changed my mind.”

“Why?” She presses, throwing a hand through the air. “Because he asked me out on a date? Fucking–André, that makes no sense! You’re acting like a jealous boyfriend or something –”

Her voice cuts off on its own volition and Aurora doesn’t know if it’s the pinched, guilty look on André’s face or the way his shoulders are hunched and his head is bowed but everything suddenly just clicks and her heart drops from her chest and bounces into the soles of her feet and André is just fucking standing there.

She swallows three times in quick succession, but when she speaks it still comes out hoarse. “You’re jealous?”

André clenches his jaw and looks away, towards the window.

Aurora lets out a whoosh of air. “God, you’re such a fucking idiot. Just. Sit down.”

André sits.

André is jealous.

The thought is roaring in her head and her hands are shaking slightly. Wordlessly, she helps him out of his suit. She motions him to lie down, and calls room service for some Tylenol pills. She hands them to him and goes into the bathroom for a wet washcloth. When she comes back, he’s still where she left him. She sits beside him.

“Costa is cute,” she says, placing the wet towel on his forehead. “But. You’re better; you’re you and –”

She drops the towel onto the coffee table, looks down at André and has to stop and collect herself for a second because André is already looking back at her, eyes wide and vulnerable.

“Aurora.”

“I can’t believe you never –why didn’t you just tell me?”

André’s fingers brush her wrist, tentative; like he isn’t sure he’s allowed to touch. “I didn’t think you’d –” Aurora makes a noise deep in her throat, and André’s lips part. “But you do.”

There’s blood rushing through her ears and she’s never seen André like this – never seen him so open and wanting and pliant. “I want you to –“ she sucks in a breath as André’s fingers circle her wrist and tug her gently down to the bed until they’re laying side by side, arms pressed together. “Uh.”

“What,” André murmurs, even as he’s moving closer to her, eyes roving all over her face. “What do you want?”

“You know what I want, idiot,” she breathes out, heartbeat ramping up another few thousand notches. God, it would be just like her to have a heart attack the second André kisses her.

André is going to kiss her.

Scratch that. André is kissing her.

André is kissing her, his mouth hot and surprisingly soft, dragging over her lips again and again until she makes this broken noise and lets her mouth fall open, lets her body press forward and André’s arms are sliding up her back, pulling her closer, sliding down her arms and up to her cheeks and just touching her everywhere.

“Aurora, I,” André moans against her lips and the sound goes straight to her core, makes her blood fizz like crazy inside her.

“What?” She gasps out, sweeping her tongue over André’s bottom lip and relishing in the way André’s breathing hitches. “What is it? Tell me.”

“I don’t want you to –” André groans and pushes back suddenly, so Aurora is lying flat in the bed and André is a heavy, delicious weight above her, smearing kisses onto her neck. “I don’t want you to go out with Costa.”

“No fucking shit,” she keens, her whole body flushing with heat from head to toe. André pulls back to glare at her and she smiles crookedly up at him, lips feeling swollen and tingly and fuck, everything is perfect. “I can’t believe you were jealous,” she murmurs, fingers tracing down his chest. “You’re so stupid sometimes.”

“Stupid for you,” he mumbles shyly, dipping back down to pepper kisses in her collarbone.

“Oh my God,” she groans, voice high and upset. “Are you going to say romantic shit like that? God, you’re so much better than I ever imagined –”

André hums against her neck. “So are you.”

✿masterlist

#andre silva imagine #antoine griezmann imagine #paulo dybala imagine #dele alli imagine #julian draxler imagine #julian brandt imagine #marco asensio imagine #marcus rashford imagine #kylian mbappe imagine #jesse lingard imagine #roman burki imagine #football imagine #football fanfiction

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mama-m1na · 5 years

Text

Children of the Crown: Chapter 1

~~~I~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Warnings: None

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A twenty-year-old male sat patiently in the bleachers as he watched various groups perform their shows.

The combination of dance, music, flags, sabers, rifles, and various props not really bringing him much excitement.

He blew some of his dark hair out of his face before pulling out his phone to see that the group he came to see was coming up next.

A few minutes later the voice of the announcer rung out through the gymnasium, “And all the way from Temecula, we have Infernus Royal Guard with their show titled ‘Wear the Crown’!”

At the same time a group of girls and a boy wearing red dresses or shirt and black leggings came out and pulled out their mat, set up their castle props, and set their equipment before going behind the castle.

“Infernus, is your guard ready?” the announcer asked before a single red clad female gave a nod before stalking off behind the castle, “Infernus Royal Guard, you may now take the floor in competition.”

The music started as the audience clapped and one by one the individuals came out with their hands on their hips and toes pointed.

Once everyone had reached their drill spots they began their dance work and were for the most part in sync despite not looking at each other save for a few individuals.

The crowd applauded as the sabers were introduced in with simple tosses with their hands placed on the sides of their heads to fit the theme of the Queen of Hearts.

As the show continued on the male watched with his full attention even as various females seemed to try to get his attention in the audience.

He watched the performers until he spotted the familiar form of his house mate on the floor amongst the rest of her teammates.

She had gotten up at six in the morning to eat then make sure her makeup and hair were perfect.

She didn’t disappoint in the slightest.

On top of her head were two identical buns with a black/red crown in between them with the rest of her long black hair cascading down her back.

The crown was secured with elastic loops that went around each of her buns and the one she wore was bigger than the others.

Her dark maroon eyeshadow was smoked from the crease of her eyes with a dark red eyeshadow on her lids and winged liner sharp enough to kill a man. Under her right eye was a perfect red heart that he had watched her trace and fill in without any mistake. Same went for her red lip in the shape of a small heart, like the ones found on porcelain dolls.

All the red makeup popped out against her tanned skin giving it definition.

The intense eye look only added to the facial expressions she gave throughout the performance and whenever she would catch.

When she would somehow lock gazes with the males dark irises he could feel a mischievous and playful aura come from her brown orbs speckled with gold flecks.

About halfway into the show the five girls on saber switched out with rifles as they worked their way around the floor while doing their complicated work.

During the parts where they turned the red tails of their dresses would flutter behind them gracefully.

Once the weapons had completed their ripple the previous flags came out from behind the castle with rifles of inverted colors as they made an “X” formation with no work until all the girls made their way to the edges of the floor.

One by one all the girls came across the floor with white flags that had red and black card symbols decorating the silks as they began their flag feature.

It was full of different work and as they tossed their last toss of the show all the girls screamed in unison, “Heads roll!”

The metallic clang of their flag poles echoed throughout the gym as they slammed their flags onto the ground and began more dance work.

The show ended with the girls looking up into the audience before dropping to the floor as the music ended.

Once the crowd applauded the girls got their equipment off the mat and started to quickly fold it before carrying it off to another part of the gym as parent volunteers picked up the flags and weapons before following the kids.

Outside the gym the groups stopped as a ravenette cried, “Oh my god I botched that rifle work!”

“Mina, you did fine,” a male wearing a red shirt encouraged, “Sister slay!”

Before the ravenette could berate herself further a pair of arms wrapped themselves around her waist and spun her in the air for a few seconds.

“Seung-hyun!” she scolded turning back to see the Korean male who she spotted in the stands, “You can’t just do that!”

“You did so good!” he chuckled ignoring her faint glare and looks from the rest of the group.

“So you’re Ramen’s room mate, I’m assuming?” an older woman with long brown hair and darker skin asked giving her hand to shake.

“Yes, and you must be Krystal,” the male answered after letting go of the sixteen-year-old, “I’m Seung-Hyun, nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too,” the woman greeted with a smile as she shook his hand, “Are you two a thing, perhaps?”

“Oh no,” the male chuckled, dismissing the notion the pair got often, “We’re just really close. We’ve known each other since we were really young. Like toddlers.”

“That makes sense, the others, mostly that one,” Krystal said pointing towards a brunette with cartilage piercings, “Keep teasing about you two being a couple.”

“Oh, Kerstin? That makes sense but no we aren’t and even if we wanted to it would be illegal,” the male chuckled thinking of a way to get to a different topic.

“Oh, trust me there are ways around that!” Kerstin exclaimed earning a smack from the ravenette.

“Kerstin, no!”

“Bitch, you’re the one who keeps saying how-” Slap!

“Language we are in public and you’re in uniform!”

The adults watched as the ravenette’s expression changed to one of absolute disgust before she wiped her hand off on Kerstin’s leggings after the brunette most likely (one hundred percent actually) licked her hand.

Once the group had finished loading their mat, equipment, and props they all drove over to a nearby restaurant to get some lunch.

In one of the cars a phone began to ring which Kerstin answered.

“Hello?”

“Kerstin, can you give the phone to Rhamina real quick?” asked Seung-Hyun from his car which was driving behind the one they were in.

“Can’t she’s changing right now.”

“...the car is moving though.”

“Yeah.”

“...”

“Mina, your boyfriend wants to talk to you.”

“He’s not my boyfriend and let me finish getting my shirt on!” Rhamina hissed from in front of Kerstin’s seat as she tried to get her clothes on as fast as possible due to being in a window seat.

All Kerstin heard from the phone was a sigh from the male before he hung up.

As the party of about twenty waited to be seated the younger ones went up to a chalkboard the restaurant had for waiting children and began to completely fill it with inside jokes from marching band season or from their previous winter season.

Rhamina sighed out of relief as the group was finally seated and she didn’t have to witness her friends being absolute idiots.

“Guys, this is where we sat last year!” Aurora chirped recognizing the corner seats near the restroom they had eaten in from the previous winter season.

The girls all got comfortable at their table talking about the performance and the other shows they had seen before going up to perform themselves.

Soon the waitresses came around and took their orders for food and drinks before going back to the kitchens.

As soon as the teens were sure the parents weren’t listening in they all huddled closer together and began to discuss their plans for the following day and night.

“So we all down for the overnight at Imperial Hospital?” Kerstin whispered at the table that seated most of the team.

“We can’t,” Emme said gesturing at herself and Cadence, “We have a field trip.”

“Same, I have a track competition tomorrow,” Amelia added.

“Shay and I have a party to go to tomorrow,” Juliet said.

“I’m going to Michigan,” Moh said, “Sorry sisters.”

“Okay so it’s me, Mina, Sam, Sophie, Hannah, Tijarah, Aurora, and Chloe,” Kerstin listed.

“I’m going too,” Seung-Hyun added before taking a sip of his drink.

“Aw, you want to keep, Mina, safe,” Sam teased while she nuzzled up against Rhamina who sighed in disappointment, “That’s cute.”

“Sam shut your face,” the ravenette hissed as she slapped away the female of Mexican descent.

“I’m sure my beloved Mina can take care of herself in those situations, I just want to go for fun,” the male chuckled as he earned a glare from the ravenette who sat a few seats away from him.

“I never asked before but do you believe in the supernatural, Seung-Hyun?” Sam asked glancing up at the male, “I know Mina believes in this stuff but do you?”

“To an extent I guess,” Seung-Hyun replied after some thought, “I haven’t experienced anything like Mina or Kerstin but I do believe in spiritual presences.”

“Interesting,” Kerstin nodded, “Has Mina told you about the thing in my house?”

“Yes actually but I’m pretty sure it isn’t there anymore right?”

“Well, we don’t know but it if it’s still there it hasn’t really done anything recently.”

“Kerstin, didn’t you sneak out just last night because you thought there was someone in your house?” Rhamina asked with a raised brow, “You even looked through the whole house and there was no one there so you just went to Sam’s house.”

“Oh, yeah!” Kerstin said upon remembering earning a laugh from Sam.

“You stupid bitch!” Sam chuckled, “you could’ve died and you don’t remember shit about it?”

“Shut the fuck up, Sam!” Kerstin retorted, “I will expose you!”

“For what? I’m an open book, Bitch. Do it.”

“Fuck you.”

The table erupted in laughter at the exchange between the teenagers before they turned back to the meals which just arrived.

“Don’t eat yet!” Rhamina said as she grabbed Sam’s and Aurora’s hands, “We must pray to the Guard Gods.”

The whole table followed suit and joined hands before turning to the ravenette.

“Okay, Kerstin, go for it.”

“Hey, Guard Gods, We’re sorry for not praying to you during Fall, or really at all for the past year but we still respect you and, um, let us place today and have a good meal without anyone getting constipated or diarrhea. On three guys. 1. 2. 3…”

“Hail Guard Gods!” the group cheered in unison before eating their food.

Once they were finished with their meal the groups went back to the competition site in their separate vehicles.

As the girls reentered the gym as spectators this time they wore more casual clothing.

They watched about five more groups before the floor was cleared and it was time for awards.

“And in third place with a score of 50.51, 50.51, Infernus Royal Guard!”

“Off with their heads!” the girls cheered in response as their guard captains walked forward to receive their trophy.

“Yeah, Sophie!” Kerstin screeched over the applause from the audience as the captains did their salute.

Rhamina chuckled before she screamed along with the crowd as the award ceremony came to a close.

“See you back at school, Seung-Hyun,” Rhamina said with a smile before the gave the male a hug and walked off the the red car of one of the parents.

“Yo, when are you going to ask her out?” Kerstin asked once the ravenette was out of earshot.

“We’ve told you multiple times that there’s nothing between us, Kerstin,” the male said.

“Bullshit, you it’s so obvious you both fucking like each other.”

“She’s not wrong you know,” Sophie said walking past the two earning a groan from the male.

“Bye, Kerstin,” Seung-Hyun said as he turned to go to his car.

“You know I’m right!”

When the red car transporting Sophie, Rhamina, Moh, Aurora, Kerstin, and Sam arrived back to the school they were all laughing.

“Oh my fucking God! Our new cheer is just going to be Shaniqua!” Moh laughed referring to one of the performances where one of the women’s underwear was visible.

“Hey, someone is probably telling her, ‘Oh, honey I’m sure no one saw it’ and here we are laughing our asses off about it!” Kerstin wheezed causing another fit of laughter to rise from the teens.

“Oh my god!” Rhamina wheezed before opening her door and stepping outside, “I need air!”

As Hannah rolled down her window from a different car Moh asked, “Were you guys talking about Shaniqua, too?”

“The purple with white polka dots,” Sophie clarified upon seeing the red head’s confused expression causing her to burst out in laughter.

Rhamina then shook her head as she gathered her things out of the other car to already see Kerstin in the back seat of Seung-Hyun’s.

“So, we’re taking you home?” Rhamina asked as she put her things in the trunk.

“Yep.”

“Okay.”

About five minutes into the drive Kerstin looked up from her phone and asked, “Can I sleepover?”

“Sure,” Seung-Hyun replied, “Did you need to pick up anything from your house?”

“Yeah,” Kerstin replied giving Rhamina a look that read ‘I need to take a shit.’

Once the car reached the home of the younger, sixteen-year-old Filipino both girls dashed out of the car and into the house once Kerstin unlocked the door.

Immediately the brunette rushed up the stairs to her bathroom leaving the door open and Rhamina to sit on the floor with her back to the door.

They made small talk as Kerstin was taking care of her business.

As soon as Kerstin had gathered her things the two girls got into the car once again and pulled out their phones.

“Oh god, someone uploaded the performance to Youtube,” Rhamina groaned as she clicked on the link sent in the guard group chat.

“Oh! I want to see!” Kerstin said as she scooted closer to see the phone screen, “We didn’t do bad in the beginning.”

About a minute into the video Kerstin screamed, “God dammit, Cadence! Why are you looking over at Aurora?!”

Rhamina winced as she watched herself drop her saber toss because Cadence wrapped her flag a count too late.

“Fuck that was such a bad run,” the ravenette sighed as she clicked out of the video before opening Tumblr.

“Hey, you didn’t place last and from what Krystal told me your show isn’t finished yet,” Seung-Hyun stated as he looked back at the two females using the rear view mirror.

“Yeah, but I’m literally the liability of the rifles,” Rhamina scoffed earning disagreeing responses from the other two.

“You saw how shitty I did!” she continued, “Why the hell did Krystal even put me on weapons again?”

“Shut the fuck up, Mina, this was one of your first runs with that work, your first season on rifle-” “Exactly-” “Shut the fuck up and let me finish! You fucking care about what you’re doing unlike the one who’s always late and fucking around even though she doesn’t know what the hell she’s doing,” Kerstin finished referring to another team member without saying her name.

“She’s been on rifle before, she knows more than I fucking do,” Rhamina huffed as she leaned her head on the window of the car.

“Mina, keep talking like that I’m going to rape you.”

“Bitch, I’ll tuck and roll out of the car.”

“Mina, I swear to God if I have to start using the child locks,” Seung-Hyun teased as the car pulled up in front of the large house belonging to the two people.

The group was greeted by the faint scent of sandalwood as they walked into the home.

Immediately the girls walked up the stairs and passed Rhamina’s studio to her room.

Rhamina left the door ajar behind her as Kerstin took out a vape pen from her purse to which the ravenette responded by closing the door completely.

As soon as the brunette removed it from her lips she offered it to her friend as she attempted to blow rings.

“You’re still practicing?” Rhamina asked as she took the pen from her friend.

“Yeah,” Kerstin said as Rhamina brought the pen to her mouth, “Seung-Hyun doesn’t know?”

“Nope,” Rhamina said after letting out a long, thick stream of the smoke.

“Jesus, that stream was so clean!”

“You can do tricks but this is all I’ve got,” Rhamina chuckled as she handed the device back to Kerstin.

Soon a knock came at the door and the girls began rapidly fanning at the remaining smoke hoping the haze wouldn’t be obvious.

“What is it?” Rhamina asked nicely opening the door a crack.

“What do you guys want for dinner?” the male asked ignoring the unusual smell of the sixteen-year-old’s room.

“Kerstin, what do you want?” Rhamina asked turning back to the brunette who stuffed the pen in her shirt.

“Poke.”

“Alright, and you Mina?” the male asked.

“Pho, since it’s close to that shop,” Rhamina responded.

“Okay, I’ll see you when I get back,” Seung-Hyun smiled reaching down to give the girl a hug, “I love you, bye.”

“Love you too,” she smiled pulling back and closing the door again as the male walked away.

When she turned back to Kerstin, Rhamina was greeted with a skeptical glare.

“We’re just friends.”

“Just friends my ass.”

“I tell all my friends that I love them.”

“... Mina, there’s going to be a day when you realize that statement is bullshit and when that day come I’ll laugh because I know when you realize you’re actually in love with him you’ll one hundred percent be freaking the fuck out about it,” Kerstin said as she plugged her phone into the wall to charge.

“Did you have everything you needed for tomorrow with you so we can just meet up with the others straight from here?” Rhamina asked as she turned on the tv and went to the youtube app.

“Yeah, I think so,” Kerstin replied as she pulled out a portable battery from her purse, “Can you charge this?”

“Sure,” the ravenette replied as she traded the remote with the other female for the battery, “It’s going to be in the other room though, I’m out og outlets in here.”

“That’s fine.”

As Rhamina walked into the next room she looked through the open blinds to see the sun starting to go down giving the room a harsh glare.

She hissed in irritation as she quickly closed the blinds before plugging the battery to charge with a cord she had on the really old computer desk.

Once she finished she went back into her main room leaving the door open a crack.

On the tv was a video of unsettling stories of the dark web which both of the girls liked to listen to from time to time.

“It’s kind of disappointing that the deep web is just an illegal google,” Rhamina sighed as she plopped onto her bed.

“It’s better than being stalked by creeps though,” Kerstin replied as she scrolled through something on her phone.

After about thirty minutes Seung-Hyun returned with the food requested by the females and they gathered in the living room to eat while they watched bad horror movies.

“Jesus christ that’s disgusting!” Kerstin exclaimed as they looked at the screen to see the main character turned into a walrus using human skin.

“I know right,” Rhamina said casually slurping up from pho, “That’s what I said when I first saw this.”

“Why would you suggest this?” Seung-Hyun asked before eating some of his ramen.

“I wanted to share this disturbing mess so Bunni and I wouldn’t be alone.”

After the movie they played episodes of Ghost Adventures in the background as they discussed what would happen tomorrow night.

“So what’s the plan?” Rhamina asked, “There isn’t much security but the people who live near the hospital don’t really like people on the property.”

“We’re going to have to get there like in the afternoon to check it out for any possible entrances,” the male stated lying across the couch with his head in the ravenette’s lap.

“Yeah, there’s a restaurant nearby so we can just be ‘passing by’ then we can actually eat dinner there before we go in,” Kerstin said as she was looking up some things about the chosen site of exploration.

“Oh yeah, Kerstin, can you text in the group chat that everyone who’s coming needs to be wearing all black and no bright colors?” Rhamina requested as her phone was upstairs at the time.

“Yeah, should I tell them about the plan too?”

“Yes, tell them to ring money,” Seung-Hyun said, “And an extra set of clothes just in case we need to sneak our way out.”

“Seeing as this is pretty illegal I’m surprised you agreed to this,” Rhamina said looking down, “You’re supposed to be a responsible figure.”

“I’m supposed to be keeping you safe and I’m one hundred percent sure even if I didn’t come with you guys, you would have done it anyway,” he replied as he sat up.

“You right, you right,” Rhamina chuckled as she made her way to the kitchen and opened a can of coconut juice.

“Hoy, kuha mo isa sa akin din,” the male called from the couch.

“Ikaw na, ayaw ko,” the ravenette replied as she put in a straw, “Don’t be lazy.”

“You’re already in the kitchen.”

“No.”

“Wow, so ungrateful.”

“Hey, I’m paying for half of this house too, you buttface.”

The male clicked his tongue as he got up to get himself a drink.

As they passed each other Rhamina stuck her tongue out at the male before seating herself at the couch again.

“Hey, Mina, should I tell Sophie to bring her ouija board?” Kerstin asked looking at the texts in the group chat.

“I didn’t even know she owned one,” the ravenette chuckled before taking a sip of her drink, “But yeah tell her to bring it.”

“You’re bringing the Go-pro, right?”

“Yeah, it’s in my office, you should tell everyone else to bring them if they have one,” Rhamina suggested, “It’ll be interesting to see different POV’s.”

“Yeah!”

At about ten at night the girls went upstairs where they began to pack necessities into their bags.

They each had a change of clothes, some snacks, and water.

Rhamina brought a knife, like she does everywhere, and a first aid kit.

Kerstin had extra chargers, a lighter, a candle, some matches and other random items Rhamina didn’t bother to remember about.

“Fuck, I’m so excited!” Kerstin squealed as she zipped her backpack shut.

“Dude, me too!” Rhamina squealed back, “This is our first abandoned exploration!”

“I hope we don’t get arrested.”

“You don’t need to run the fastest, just as long as you aren’t the slowest.”

“...Mina, what the fuck?”

“Shhh-ut your face. It’s true.”

The girls kept up their talk and watching of really bad horror movies until about midnight when both decided to go to sleep.

~~~Fin. Chapter 1~~~

#children of the crown #chapter 1 #Rhamina Miyu #original story

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onlyjihoons · 6 years

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collegebf! daniel

a/n; happy birthday to kang choding hehe,, dedicated for my dearest mother @mongniel aurora until she disowned me so im trying to validate myself and also the loyal mom, ariane @deepdickdaniel

(repost bc the tags werent working)moodboard will be uploaded in a seperate post soon!

major: vetinary

minor: sports science

honestly took up vetinary bc of peter and rooney

so he could save on the fees to the vet

though he puts up a strong front he is often a kultz and actually really soft??

likes kids too and often swings by the early childhood department to visit minhyun

but let’s face it, animals like him better than the babies do

has a phobia of insects, especially flying ones

hence cant join practical lessons that involves specimen or live insects

his classmates would be kind enough to share with him the notes they took in class, but he would rather fail the topic than look at notes of insects

there was once his friend, ong threw a fake spider whilst daniel was studying and he screamed, pushing off the seemingly 1 ton table and chair away from him

ong was like,,, “are you sure he wants to be a vet next time”

despite his phobia of insects, he will actually grin and bear it when he needs to remove lice from animals

red bull and gummy addict, but more likely to die of shock from insects than diabetes

you will always spot a can of red bull on his lecture desk, and bet 10 bucks it has a love note attached to it from his admirers

fairly popular in school, because a soft, tall and cute guy doing vetinary?? he just screams boyfriend material in that white lab coat

and glasses slipping down his nosebridge just makes him look even more cuter

loves dancing as a hobby so he took it up as his minor

does b-boying and modern dance, looks equally hot in both

when the school hall is filled with girls, it is either some kpop boy band is performing, or daniel and his dance group, wanna one are performing

has so much charisma in his dancing, the idea of “cute daniel” gets thrown away

but a cute bunny most of the time who is addicted to gummies

surprisingly, hasn’t dated a lot as contrast to rumours that he’s a fuckboy

he really hates fucking around with others’ feelings… despite being choding(childish) around his hyungs of wanna one

meanwhile you,, a medicine student trying to keep up with the expectations of society

to be honest, you’re doing well

but not well enough to enter the top hospitals of seoul

and you’re here on scholarship anyway, might as well make use of it to make your parents proud

you’re your parents’ only child too, the pressure to do well is also quite high

you barely dated, the only time was in high school where you were a foolish teenager dating your best friend

you did have classmates confessing to you though, but everything stayed platonic

they weren’t upset surprisingly, they were more than willing to be friends with you too

eventually they found their other halves, but are still good friends with you

you were glad guys in your faculty were understanding,, unlike some that disliked you after that

you were friends with jaehwan, your old friend since the both of you were in diapers

he took up music, and ended up having lots of college scholarship offers

he eventually went to your college, despite it not one of his first few choices

“my friend would die a lonely virgin if i didnt help her with her love life”

“shut up jaehwan, 80% of your girlfriends broke up with you because your laugh is annoying”

“i dId NOT aSk for this sLaNdEr”

anyway, you had no idea how jaehwan ended up in wanna one(and daniel’s roomate), depite his “boom boom-bastic” dance skills

winkwonk

but that boy’s vocals can reach to the gods in heaven and appease them

he tried to matchmake you with all of the members of wanna one(excluding the minors of course) but it all failed because your friend was the worst at being discreet

the lords of venus eventually shined upon you when daniel was sent to your faculty for “emergency” treatment

“y/n,,, we need you to fix daniel, quick.” jaehwan said breathlessly over the phone

“if he needs a one night stand, im not an option, you know that, kim jaehwan.”

“no, that stupid boy accidentally cut himself while trying to disect a frog… and he’s bleeding a lot.”

“oh the flower boy from vetinary?” you nodded as you took your first aid kit, “but you aren’t even majoring in vetinary, jaehwan, what are you doing with daniel?”

“he called me to call you– ok nevermind, i’ll explain to you later, we’re on our way to your faculty. wait for us outside the medicine labs.”

“uh okay.”

so there you were, waiting outside the medicine labs with your first aid kit

seconds later, you saw 3 boys running towards you, one visibly taller than the other 2

you could finally make out their faces, it was jaehwan, daniel and another boy, wonwoo whom you were friends with due to jaehwan’s failed matchmaking

“y/n,, i think daniel is gonna suffer from anaemia…”

you tried to stifle your laughter as you examined the cardigan wrapped around daniel’s hand

“he won’t. don’t worry.” you assured them as you unraveled the cardigan, “let’s just hope it’s nothing too deep…”

when you revealed the wound, it was just a minor cut, though not as minor as a paper cut but definitely bleeding

you glared at jaehwan, who smiled sheepishly and resigned to his death after you treated daniel

you dressed the wound quickly, lips pursed in concentration

what you didnt notice was daniel’s gaze, which was on you the whole time

he had a weird feeling in his stomach, he wanted to use his other hand to run it through your hair

he tried to shake it off, but he got more and more attracted to you when he saw your eyes meeting his to make sure he isnt uncomfortable

this wasnt the first time daniel saw you though, he often saw you on jaehwan’s lockscreen, as your friend had set the selca both of you took as his lockscreen

as much as daniel wanted to meet you, he didn’t want to give you the wrong impression because of his rumours

and now he finally did, but he was pretty sure you’re gonna hate him for being over-reacting

“done,” you patted his dressing and pushed his hand towards him, “it’s nothing too deep, don’t worry. but make sure to take it off when you’re showering, if you need any help just give me a call.”

daniel shot you one of his signature eyesmiles, “thank you so much, i’m sorry i had to make you rush down for me…”

“no its fine! just call me whenever. i hope you get well soon.” you smiled, then tiptoed to daniel’s ear, “just don’t tell jaehwan though, he can be a little, nosey.”

you were lying if you said daniel wasn’t attractive and totally did not win you over with his eyesmile in the span of 3 seconds

“and kim jaehwan, you owe me a meal. for helping your friend and putting up with your drama.”

at this point, daniel was totally smitten

everyone could see it, even the members of wanna one started teasing him about it

“i can set you up with a date with y/n if you want–”

“no i dont like her peter and rooney are my girlfriends”

daniel totally did not ask almost everyone in his faculty for your number

when he finally had the guts to text you, he was all giddy when you replied, jumping up whenever he heard the personalized notification just for your contact

meanwhile, while you were talking to daniel, you really loved it when he talks about animals, it seemed like all time has stopped in the world and his passion for taking care of animals is just so attractive

and he didnt seem like the usual fuckboy everyone perceived him to be

one day, daniel asked you out for a pizza date, and you immediately agreed

because free pizza and a cute date, why not

the both of you ended up going to laundry pizza, just bc daniel said ioi went there to take their album jacket photos there LOL

but the pizza there was good so you weren’t complaining

daniel ended up paying for the both of you, after 15 minutes of rentless argument over who should pay

the both of you also went to the arcade, wasting your money on those claw machines

you didn’t get anything, but you had fun throwing airballs at the basketball machine thingy

daniel walked you back pretty early, because he knew you had a morning lecture the next morning

not gonna lie, you wanted to stay longer but daniel was not gonna have any of it

daniel walked you till your doorstep, and your hands were fumbling through your purse for your keys

looks like someone forgot their keys,,,

you laughed humourlessly as you tried to open the locked door, but only for daniel to giggle along with you

your roomate was out too, and she wouldn’t be back till the next morning

“i dont think its safe for you to be sleeping outside, why dont you stay over at my place?”

“im–”

“ok let’s go”

you didnt even say anything and here you are, at daniel’s dorm, unsure of what to do

just watching daniel hastily clean up his dorm is quite amusing

“jaehwan wont be back till really late, he has an event to attend to.” daniel smiled as he proceeeds to kick the sweet wrappers under the sofa, “i’m sorry you have to put up with this, y/n.”

“no, no, thank you for letting me stay here, or i’ll be freezing in the cold right now.” you shook your head, yawning

“do you want a change of clothes? i have a hoodie you can wear…hopefully”

you never knew you would be staying in daniel’s dorm, on his bed, in his hoodie

until today

you slept fairly well, with daniel’s scent invading all your senses

until you felt something on your foot

you woke up, scared

the thing kept probing at your feet, and soon it was licking it

you screamed, and soon enough daniel ran into his room to see what happned

“y-y/n?” he rubbed his eyes as he turned on the lights, “what happened?”

“s-something was at my foot”

daniel moved the sheets, and he found rooney peacefully sleeping on the foot of the bed

“i’m sorry, rooney always likes to invade the bed in the middle of the night,,, i should’ve told you earlier”

“it’s fine, i was just too shocked hahaha”

silence

“maybe i’ll sleep with you, so peter and rooney wont disturb us”

you stared at daniel, as he quickly waved his hands, “no, no, i wont do anything, i swear, you can end me if i do.”

neither of you could sleep, so daniel nudged you

“y/n… i know its weird to say this but,, i like you”

well that was really weird

“i don’t expect you to accept me and all but i just wanna let you know that i–”

you cut daniel off with a kiss, as he sneakily snaked his arms around your waist to bring you closer

after a good like, 20 seconds, you pulled away, “me, rejecting kang daniel?? no way.”

ever since the both of you started dating, jaehwan started to brag about himself, saying that the both of you were a couple thanks to him,,,

but would shut up immediately after he sees you in the vicinity because he would be running away from you

a very cute relationship, daniel would always wrap his arms around your shoulders and snuggle you close to him

instant ramen dates are a big thing and you always have to clean up after daniel

but he helps of course, after hearing you nag at him for the nth time

he would always make you a bento before your papers, with a note that says, “with this bento, you will do well! fighting! love, daniel”

and vice versa, you would bake him muffins too

sweetest boyfriend, but the type to say pick up lines to annoy the heck out of you

they arent even smooth, theyre hella bad

and yes, kang choding still exists

you have to physically stop him from buying/eating more gummies or his teeth would rot

since daniel is relatively bigger in size, you would always steal his clothes and he would always wonder how his clothes would mysteriously go missing

he would know the answer when he sees you the next morning

the whole campus ships the both of you sm

please love kang daniel

#wanna one scenarios #kang daniel #wanna one

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