#a wicked tale of cinderella's stepmother
Note
this might be weird to ask on a writing blog but do you have any manga recs?
yeah i got some recs! i'm gonna assume you mean less talked about titles rather than more well-known but quickfire popular recs i have are: chainsaw man, fullmetal alchemist, jjba, fruits basket, jjk and hell's paradise. but onto my other recs:
seinen
children of the sea**: a troubled teen named ruka embarks on the summer adventure of a lifetime after meeting two boys raised by dugongs at her dad's aquarium in the middle of a mysterious event taking place in the ocean.
the summer hikaru died: it's been months since yoshiki's childhood friend and secret crush, hikaru, went missing in the mountains for a week. hikaru's the same as usual, with his jokes and silly rambles and yet, yoshiki can't shake the feeling that whoever came back from that mountain, it wasn't hikaru. much to his horror, it wasn't. but rather than face reality and grief, yoshiki decides to play along with "hikaru's" act (body horror)
dorohedoro**: in a world where there are humans and magic users, humans have it rough being virtually treated as second class citizens. day after day, year after year, magic users come to the human realm to experiment on them with their magic. and after having his head turn into a caiman, kaiman, wants to get it back in blood and have his true form restored (body horror)
witch hat atelier*: in a world full of magic and witches, it's always been normal human girl coco's dream to be one. but after accidentally discovering a truth of this world and her mom getting caught up in the spell, coco becomes an apprentice of witch qifrey. (it was recently announced there's an anime in the works!)
skip & loafer**: desiring to become a government official to revitalize her hometown in the japanese countryside, iwakura mitsumi's first step to accomplish this goal is by going to a uni prep high school in tokyo. she's got a foolproof 10-step plan to boot! but of course, life hardly ever goes as plan, not even for a prodigy (mc's aunt has great trans rep)
jousei
sign of affection*: as someone deaf all her life, yuki has dealt with discrimination in both small and broad strokes. nor has she ever experienced romance. this all changes when she meets backpacker itsumi, a guy who goes to the same uni. just as he opens her world, she opens his
debu to love to ayamachi to***: after waking up in a hospital with no memories to her name, plus sized yumeko is told she is there after surviving a suicide attempt. the thing is, yumeko isn't sure why when she's just so beautiful! with a strong desire to live life to the fullest, yumeko decides to do everything the past her was to afraid to do. all the while it is revealed that her suicide attempt was more of an attempted murder... but who could have wanted to kill her?
my love story with yamada-kun at lv999**: nothing is worse than getting cheated on especially after akane invested a lot of time and energy into her shitty ex's gaming hobbies. but through gaming, not only does akane find herself healing, she managed to get herself a pretty cool boyfriend too
NANA**: 2 women, 2 different lives, 1 name shared. komatsu nana is quick to fall in love and after a series of less-than-lucky relationships, she finally has someone she thinks is the one. abandoned by her mother and her ex leaving her band, osaki nana hasn't had the easiest life. but on the same night, on the same train, these two women meet and their lives become deeply intertwined
shoujo
a condition called love*: when it comes to romance, hotaru's never experienced it besides stories of her friends relationships. but she soon finds herself about to experience the whirlwind of a lifetime when hananoi, the most popular boy in school, asks her to be his girlfriend
a bouquet for an ugly girl***: as her class' resident big girl, hana isn't expecting a blossoming spring in her high school career. and she's okay with that. she has everything she needsー otome games and gardening. but after her class' pretty boy catches her in the midst of changing the class flowers, their lives become a bit more intertwined
uruwashi no yoi no tsuki: yoi is quite popular at her school because of her neat short hair, beautiful face and overall princely appearance. in fact, it's gotten her dubbed 'prince' many times. but when the other prince of the school finally meets her, cupid's arrow quickly knocks him on his ass
shounen
frieren**: a manga that picks up after the journey has ended. the demon king has been defeated and the heroes have saved the day after 10 years of traveling together. 10 years? that's not even a 10th of elf mage frieren's life. but as her companions begin dying one by one of old age, she finds herself desiring to learn more about humans and the short yet impactful lives they still manage to have
dungeon meshi*: when a dungeon raid goes terribly wrong and laios' sister gets swallowed by a dragon, those that remain in his party decide to get it back in blood by saving laios' sister before she gets digested. in the mean time, there's nothing wrong with gordon ramsay-ing miscellaneous ingredients found in the dungeon along the way, right?
and if you like manhwa or would be down for some manhwa recs these are titles i don't see getting recommended enough
concubine walkthrough: a scifi & philosophical spin on the otome isekai genre that asks 'what is reality truly?', 'is your life any less real if you found out all your experiences were a simulation?' and 'what is reality to you?' where protagonist lee yona finds herself stuck in a VR edition of a game she only played once
a wicked tale of cinderella's stepmother: usually when someone wakes up in the body of a villainess, she's the same age as the protagonists. mildred, on the other hand, is stuck in the body of this story's cinderella's stepmother. with no husband and three daughters to take care of, there's only one thing she can really doー build up her daughters' sisterly bonds with one another and make sure they marry into good families (or that they can at least live lives they're happy with)
tricked into becoming the heroine's stepmother: at least mildred got the body of an important character, daisy on the other hand? she's in the body of an NPC you never even see in the story. bright side? this is a story she helped write and after meeting the presently six year old protagonist's father, she and father of the year decide to team up for the ultimate mission: making sure his daughter never meets any of the love interests
inso's law: ham dan-i is in a bit of a pickle when she wakes up and her new school uniform is completely different than the one her mom bought weeks ago. there's a drop dead gorgeous girl next door who claims to be her childhood best friend. even worse, like something straight out of a drama, there are four heavenly kings that rule her school. by the end of the day, dan-i has no other choice but to accept the fact........ her real life has somehow turned into a web novel. even worse, she's a side characterー the main character's best friend
webtoons
plum: in a world where fruit stacking is a major sport, little plum decides to be the very best like no one ever was and moves to the big city to compete in the fruit stacking games along with making some friends and rivals along the way
webtoons that are probably popular enough if they have hardcover copies at my local bookstore but i wanna talk about it anyway
cursed princess club: as the youngest princess of the pastel kingdom, gwendolyn loves her family. her protective papa, her oldest sister maria who often awakes to woodland creatures doing her hair. her older sister lorena who makes flowers bloom with her every step. and her younger brother jamie who's so pretty, he sparkles. and they adore her just as much. but things come to a very reality shattering halt when their father introduces maria, lorena and gwen to blaine, lance and frederick, the princes of the plaid kingdom and gwen overhears frederick call her ugly, something she's never heard in her entire life. somehow, gwen finds comfort in a club full of cursed princesses (and one prince) who teach her how to start loving herself again
key
*) receiving an anime adaptation
**) has an an anime series or movie
***) receiving an anime adaptation & contains a story with a plus-sized protagonist that doesn't involve weight loss
#look she's answering#anon#manga recs#seinen#jousei#shoujo#manhwa#otome isekai#children of the sea#hikaru ga shinda natsu#dorohedoro#witch hat atelier#skip and loafer#debu to love to ayamachi to#NANA#uruwashi no yoi no tsuki#hananoi kun to koi no yamai#a bouquet for an ugly girl#concubine walkthrough#a wicked tale of cinderella's stepmother#tricked into becoming the heroine's stepmother#cursed princess club#plum
210 notes
·
View notes
Text
and theres also the scrolling format manhwa i so desperately want physically. they did it with raeliana PLEASE do it with a wicked tale of cinderellas stepmom PLEASE please
#also i would love a translation of the novel physically while ur at it. pwetty please <3#who was it who suggested a wicked tale of cinerellas stepmom to me that one time. thank u so much this thing CHANGED me#its so so good. i love that mildred will kill.#ive also read and really enjoyed not sew wicked stepmother (has some big TWs but i remember it handling things pretty well) and#-okay yeah i have a thing about the moms leave me along HJKDSHBJKSd listen i just wanna be the dad who stepped up. is that so wrong#anyway i'd really love a physical release of that too. they're probably waiting until theyre finished like raeliana is i assume#but ouuuhhhhhhhh i hope someday. someday#EDIT: WAIT THEY ARE RELEASING NOT SEW WICKED PHYSICALLY NOW HOLY SHIT#oh this is bad for my wallet.#im still waiting for that wicked tale of cinderellas stepmom physical release. come on kakao i know you can do it
15 notes
·
View notes
Text
The stepmothers in modern fiction tend to be unpleasant unless they are someone the child already knew and got along with, sometimes these two potential stepmother archetypes are pitted against each other (ex: The Sound of Music, Nanny McPhee).
It is interesting then that one of the first written down European variants of Cinderella had Cinderella kill her first stepmother at her governess’s request and then that governess marrying the father and becoming the actual evil stepmother in the Cinderella story.
@ariel-seagull-wings @struttingstreets @princesssarisa
63 notes
·
View notes
Text
Manhua recommendations part 2! Straight version!
I was planning on becoming her loyal sword, +52 Chapters
Rating: 9/10
The main character in this is so hot! Just a sword wielding hottie who is a bit oblivious to others' advances but she is slowly forming a harem because of how badass she is. She is living her life as a mercenary, protecting her younger sister, but eventually finds out her true heritage! I'm not quite sure where the story is going from here, but I have a feeling that we are just in the middle of it, so more plot will transpire from here on out. But I love her, she's fun and cool and everyone loves her including myself. Also her guy version is.... kind of hot too😳. Mm, the bisexual in me.
Stepmother Marchen, +110 Chapters
Rating: 9/10
This is a dramatic but lovely story with AMAZING art. Lives her life, dies, get sent back in time to fix her past relationships. Every character is lovely and we get to see some interesting issues being discussed like domestic abuse, gambling addiction, and the-CHURCH. But my lady is doing amazing this time around and is just a total babe. Though I wouldn't call her a milf. And the reason it's not a ten out of ten is cause I'm weirded out why she is a mom in the first place. Like nothing happened between them, but why did she marry this old guy and have to raise his four kids when he died? She's like... fifteen 🤨. I haven't read it in a while, and this one's translation gets weird later on, but there are other copies that you can dip your toes into. It's a compelling and cool story, check it out!
Please Marry Me Again, Husband! +59 Chapters
Rating: 8/10
I-LOVE-THIS-STORY! So soft, so fluffy, so wholesome. Cardi is sexy and I want to eat him up. They are so in love with each other, it's bananas. And really it's just a second chance at love and romance, and it's so charming. The protagonist is so much more sure and confident in herself after she died, got sent back in time to make her life better with the man she married. So perfect.
It's Time to Change the Genre, +78 Chapters
Rating: 8/10
This shit is funny! Like the protag isn't the smartest transmigrated character, but she is fun and goofy and we love her for that. This story isn't a super typical transmigration story, cause there is the part that is kind of different than the rest tho I don't want to spoil it. But this is a fun story that makes me laugh. And her nephew is the cutest little butt head. Adorbs!
Please don't come to the Villainess's stationary store, +54 Chapters
Rating: 7/10
https://manhuascan.me/manga/please-dont-come-to-the-villainess-stationery-store
Transmigrated and decides to leave her stupid family and start a new business. Which happens to be a stationary store where she gives candy to little kids at a neighboring school! Very cute! Very fluffy and wholesome! Her ex fiance is a dick, like probably the worst man ever, and her sister is a crazy bitch. So let's take revenge on them for inconveniencing the protagonist! And she is so smart and one step ahead of everyone and is so pretty aghhnjvhblagggh! And she just has a cute team of side characters who are their to support her during her time of need and it's so sweet! Like candy! Ahhh! Plus Plus! Here love interest is sexy~ Check this one out! Tho I should note that the translation here gets wonky later on, so you might need to find a new place to read it after a while.
Here Comes the Silver Spoon! +80 Chapters
Rating: 8/10
This is a good story. It's not exactly how you expect it to go, but it's still very good. We got Adelaide over here, who is the richest, smartest, evilest babe alive and I love her for that. She is just morbidly evil and will sell you to satan for one potato chip. But like, in a hot way. So the story goes like, she is engaged but her sister steals her fiance, so Adelle's gotta find a new better husband in like a week so she won't lose the family fortune. Her sister, Noella is so fucked up (don't know why yet), love that for her. I just.... ahh! She is so fascinating and Adelle is so cool!
This is a transmigration story btw, so it is even more interesting that Adelaide has these preconceived notions of her sister which influence their relationship.
A wicked tale of Cinderella's Stepmom, +96 Chapters
Rating: 9/10
Mommy! Mommy! MOMMY! MILF! WE GOT A MILF OVER HERE! And oh boy, she isn't like dangerous sexy, but she is so mommy it's hot! So person gets sent into cinderella's wicked stepmom's body and just decides "These are my daughters now." And just adopts all of them and loves them. And these girls are just *flings hands around* GIRLS! Like yes, yes! No girls hating girls here. We are just loving cute girls who have sleepovers and stuff. And mommy here is just mother henning them so much, I cry. And her love interest is such a chad. He's in victorian wherever and in his late twenties and sees a widowed forty-something-year-old woman with three older daughters and is like, "I'm your husband and their dad now." Like way to go, my guy. A man of culture I see. A true milfhunter, u have my respect, my liege. Also.... Feminism? In my manhua? It's more likely then you think.
The Tyrant's Only Perfumer, +87.2 Chapters
Rating: 7/10
This one in the beginning is a 6/10 cause the art isn't the best, but it gets obviously polished over time, becoming a 7/10. Like you can just see the evolution of the artist's hand in this one. It's very impressive. But the story is pretty basic. Person dies and gets sent into a villainess's body, but it is endearing to me because they couldn't smell anything in their past life and in this life, they got a great nose and can make perfume! I'm like: I can't smell shit either! Let me live vicariously thru u! And also she starts a business, and I love it when these protagonists wanna make the money! I'm like, hell yeah! Be a successful entrepreneur! But yes, the art gets very pretty later on, the story and romance are pretty basic, but a fun little read. Nothing bad, but nothing astounding either.
There is no use hanging on, +119 Chapters
Rating: 9/10
https://manhuascan.me/manga/theres-no-use-hanging-on
Ok, this is an amazing revenge story. We get dies, but gets a second chance at life by going back in time. You know the gist. And this story might be very predictable, but it's a good predictable where it is executed very well. The art is a bit wonk sometimes but honestly, it's the story that hooks you in. And all the characters are so compelling, I love it! I can't wait for more!
It's not your baby! +48 Chapters
Rating 8/10
https://manhuascan.com/manga/its-not-your-baby
Found this one recently, it's very cute but also a story filled with longing and the aching feeling in your heart of someone else's absence. The babe here fucks her best friend, gets knocked up, decides she wants to keep the baby and not deal with any of the noble or royal drama that comes with it and decides to gtfo. She is a wise military leader who knows how to absolutely disappear off the radar and honestly, that is so cool of her. Feel bad for her love interest because he just wants to be with her and can't find her. It's a perfect story of angsty longing and also a cute lady who can't wait to have her baby. And ahhhhh it's adorable how excited she is. Love it.
But honestly, I totally get why she misunderstands him and his intentions, and also why she wouldn't want the world to know that she is pregnant. I think her reasonings make sense and I find it very intriguing.
Another Typical Fantasy Romance, +79 Chapters
Rating: 10/10
https://manhuascan.com/manga/another-typical-fantasy-romance
AND I SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST!!!! Against what the name suggests, this is clearly not your typical fantasy romance story! It is so much more!!! Firstly, the male love interest isn't your typical willowy bishonen man. No, this is Pell and I want to chomp on his big fat nipples. He is a bear of a man, covered in hair and scars and uuuggh, Littera u are so lucky, girl! He is like- a gentle giant with big insecurities, but can also deck any monster and oof!!! He is just a nice change of pace and I wanna eat him up. Also Littera is just meta-savvy and knows her way around things, and we get to watch their relationship grow from pretty cute to so communicative it's ridiculous! There is no miscommunication here! They talk about their feelings and just make everything perfect between each other. It's so gooey, and cute, and they are so sensible! I love them and can't wait until they have a million little babies! I recommend this one out of all others if not just for Pell alone!
#manhua#manhwa#manga#fantasy#romance#Another Typical Fantasy Romance#It's not your baby#There is no use hanging on#The Tyrant's Only Perfumer#A wicked tale of Cinderella's Stepmom#Here Comes the Silver Spoon#Please don't come to the Villainess's stationary store#Please Marry Me Again#Husband#It's Time to Change the Genre#Stepmother Marchen#I was planning on becoming her loyal sword
42 notes
·
View notes
Text
Filmation Cinderella
So back in the day the animation company Filmation, (of He Man and She Ra fame amoung others) wanted to do a series of "after the Happily Ever After" continuations of famous fairytales. They had a whole list of potential films, but were only able to make two--Happily Ever After (a Snow White story) and Pinnochio and the Emperor of the Night-- before Disney forced them to stop.
One of the unmade movies they were going to do had the working title "The Challenge of Cinderella", and I wanted to do some quick character designs for what Filmation's take on the story might possibly have looked like.
So here's a hypothetical Cindy, Fairy Godmother, helpful Robin sidekick, and Wicked Stepmother and evil snake sidekick (amazingly not inspired by Heston in Ella Enchanted I totally forgot about him until after I drew it xD i was thinking of the skipping rhyme "Cinderella dressed in yellow, went upstairs to kiss a fellow, by mistake she kissed a snake, how many doctors will it take" so presumably the Wicked Stepmother in this has the power to glamour her snake to look like the Prince or something in an assassination attempt on Cindy)
#my art#non disney#filmation#cinderella#fairy godmother#wicked stepmother#happily ever after#Pinocchio and the emperor of the night#ella enchanted#nursery rhymes#fairy tales#animation#disney#he man#she ra
64 notes
·
View notes
Text
I’m gonna try and do a Cinderella webcomic next year (working on it this year) so putting up some concept art doodles so I know other people will be expecting it and I have to work on it xD there will likely be changes between these and the final stuff but yeah, first early buzz for it
#my art#Cinderella#cinderella retelling#fairy tale retelling#webcomic#prince charming#wicked stepmother#wicked stepsisters#fairy godmother#witches#charles perrault#brothers Grimm#fairies#fantasy#fairytales#the domesday book of fairie
51 notes
·
View notes
Text
19 notes
·
View notes
Text
A fairy tale retelling of the Japanese "Cinderella" within the Eva Evergreen universe
A fairy tale retelling of the Japanese "Cinderella" within the Eva Evergreen universe @julieabebooks
@LittleBrownYR
Alliana, Girl of Dragons, by Julie Abe, (Aug. 2022, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers), $16.99, ISBN: 9780316300353
Ages 8-12
In a Cinderella-inspired Japanese fantasy tale, Alliana is an orphan living with her cruel stepmother and stepsiblings, with only her Grandmother Mari providing any affection. When Grandmother Mari dies, Alliana is bereft and alone in a hostile home, until she rescues…
View On WordPress
#Alliana Girl of Dragons#Cinderella#Eva Evergreen#fairy tale#fantasy#Little Brown Books for Young Readers#magic#step-siblings#wicked stepmother#witches
5 notes
·
View notes
Link
Cinderella’s wicked stepmother makes a last ditch effort to prevent her “happily ever after”. The tale is derived from the Cinderella story along with the children’s playground/jump rope song.
#cinderella#Cinderella dressed in yellow#happily ever after#Prince Charming#wicked stepmother#fairytales#fairy tales#jump rope songs#the good fairy#fairy godmother
0 notes
Text
Given I have made two posts already about "Hansel and Gretel", or variations of the story, I'll make this fairytale the Grimm fairytale of this season. And since everybody knows Hansel and Gretel, and I already spoke somehow about it, I'll just leave below several notes, trivia and facts.
I have spoken before about the "original" version of the Brothers Grimm fairytale - aka the first edition of the text, and how it changed and evolved up to the story we know today. Many of these changes are well-known by the public - for example how the wicked stepmother was originally a wicked MOTHER (but the Grimm changed it because they had a mother-worship thing going on) ; or how the whole "duck scene" where the kids are helped crossing the river by birds was added later and not present in the original text. Some are less known, such as the fact that the "heavenly wind" rhyme was not part of the original text, or how Hansel's prison was originally not some sort of stable like in the final text but a tiny hicken coop.
In terms of "sibling stories" when we look at the great patches of historical fairytales and older literary works, you will find a lot of people pointing out to the Italian fairytale "Ninnillo and Nennella" by Basile - but I have to strongly disagree with this claim, because while Basile's fairytale does contain the motif of "boy/girl sblings abandoned several times in the woods, using various objects to find their way back, until it fails and they are lost forever", beyond that the fairytale has little to no relationship with Hansel and Gretel. A more direct ancestry and relationship has to be found in the French fairytale. More precisely in Perrault's Little Thumbling, Le Petit Poucet, which is also a story about children abandoned in the woods due to a lack of food, that found their way back several times before the birds eat the bread, and that end up in the house of a man-eater, an ogre trying to kill them. But we are still quite away from the German tale - and it is another French literary fairytale that forms the "missing link" in this chain. Madame d'Aulnoy's "Cunning Cinders" (Finette Cendron). This story doesn't involve children, but four young women - however it still follows the Hansel and Gretel formula very closely. Abandoned by their parents in the wilderness, manage to get back several times before it fails, end up trapped in the house of man-eaters, and the titular character defeats the ogre by pushing hm into a fiery oven... Of course, beyond that d'Aulnoy has a ton of additional content - such as the ogre having a wife that must be beheaded ; the lost girls being helped by a fairy godmother ; and the second part of the story being an alternate Cinderella.
But all in all it shows a point I made previously, and talked about in my ogre posts: the structure and type of the "Hansel and Gretel" story is originally an ogre tale. All older versions of the story involve ogres, not witches - but since the German do not have "ogres" in their folklore, the ogress was replaced by a witch. And despite this replacement, the witch of the story keeps several ogre traits - such as a motif of "the elderly devours youth", the idea of the witch having a poor eyesight but a keen sense of smell, or the entire "maternal perversion" motif. Which is my next point.
"Hansel and Gretel" is a familial tragedy, like many other fairytales. But the family of Hansel and Gretel is an actually extremely bizarre one. You can see, once you know your folklore and fairytale lore, that despite it being considered a "classic" and a "foundation", this tale is actually a fragmented and pieced-together story that leaves numerous gaps and is much more muddled and confused than its equivalents and predecessors. What I mean by that is that, when you look at the familial relationships in this story, you will discover several remnants of an older and more commonspread familial structure that was erased, and only leaves bizarre analogies in the new set of characters the tale offers.
To be clearer. We know that Hansel and Gretel are siblings, and that they have two parents - the father and the stepmother, formerly mother. The witch is an unrelated character acting as an outside element - or so it seems. The fairytale actually establishes a parallel and a connection between the wicked stepmother and the witch. They are parallel characters, two wicked women that want the death of children, but whereas one wants to throw the kids out of the house to leave them to starve or be devoured by beats, so she can have more food herself, the other imprisons the children in her house and overfeeds them to devour them later. A more direct link is established whenn the children return home, at the end of the tale, and discover that their step-mother is dead.
Some dark and edgy adaptations will have things such as the stepmother being killed by her husband, or killing herself, stuff like that - but by the tale alone, on just reading the words, and the first impression it leaves on a child, is that the stepmother mysteriously dies in unexplained ways right after the children burned the witch in her oven. The fact that the two wicked women end up deceased for the tale to end happily, the fact the stepmother's death is left unexplained while the witch's death is graphic and fully presented, the fact the stepmother's death is announced after the witch was killed... It all leaves the impression that the two were connected, and that by some sort of "parallel magic", killing the witch triggered the stepmother's death.
This is something many adaptations picked up upon, and you find versons where the witch and the mother look a lot alike, or are played by the same person, or are the same being. (One can compare it to Russian variations of the stories of Baba-Yaga, where wicked stepmothers sometimes send their nice stepdaughters a la Vasilisa the Fair, to the Yaga's house claiming the Yaga is their "sister"). All in all this continues the idea that the witch is a perverse take on the mother figure - nourishing and protecting children only to gulp them down into her stomach. Which, by the way, is the very symbolism and essence of ogres: fathers that kill, mothers that eat.
But while this is the most famous of the "perverse family connections" in the tale, there is another people tend to forget: the connection between Gretel and the witch. I talked heavily of the difference of treatment the witch has between Hansel and Gretel in a previous post ("Why was Hansel the meal of the witch?"). People have noted the strange discrepancy of Hansel being the one locked up and fattened up to be eaten, while Gretel became an abused slave. Many modern adaptations played on this element by having the witch planning on not eating Gretel, but making her an apprentice in witchcraft, an heir to her house, and treating her like a daughter/witch in training. After all, she does malnourish her, so she seems not keen on the idea of eating her at first...
But these modern adaptations actually picked up on something deeper and more fascinating. You see, the witch not locking up Gretel and treating her as her slave seems to be a leftover from older variants of the tale, because there is a widespread archetype in fairytales known as "the witch's daughter" or "the ogress' daughter". In many ogress or man-eating witches tales, the antagonist has a daughter that assists her in her chores. Sometimes the daughter will secretely help the protagonist escape and be an ally - but these are quite rare, and most of the time the daughter is the one the witch/ogress charges of killing-cooking the protagonist. Then the protagonist tricks the daughter, kills and cooks her instead of themselves, and serve her to their monstrous mother, who believes she is eating the protagonist, when in fact she devours her own daughter. It is a very typical structure in those tales, found from the Baba Yaga legends to the Kabyle tales of the teryel.
The witch's daughter archetype also exists in fairytales where the witch is not a man-eater, but rather an antagonist that imprisons people, or that imposes impossible tasks - and here, the daughter will be a more benevolent figure that will secretly help the protagonist escape the witch and/or overcome the trials and tasks the mother imposes. In fact, in several of those stories, the protagonist fights for the right to love and marry the witch's daughter.
All in all, the fact that Gretel is treated as a slave and assistant to the witch, that she is to help feeding and fattening her brother, etc, etc, implies that her character in the story of the Grimm is a leftover of the "ogress' daughter" or "witch's daughter" of older stories. As a result it makes even more sense for adaptations to have the witch treat Gretel as some sort of surrogate daughter, and it makes the whole family picture of the German story very messed up. The witch who tries to eat the children might be their mother/step-mother, and Gretel might be the witch's daughter.
Another motif that has been picked up by various adaptatons is the motif of birds. I remember long ago I stumbled upon a fascinating art series depicting the witch as a half-bird half-human creature - unfortunately the pictures are now lost in the vast pit of the Internet. More recently, another artist posted an image of Hansel in his cage, with the witch appearing a large, black bird above the cage, wearing a witch's hat.
All those art pieces reflected a true fact: "Hansel and Gretel" is a bird story. You have the birds that devour the bread crumbs, but also the pretty bird that leads the children to the witch's house, and the ducks that helps them cross the stream in the added ending of the Grimm. Some variations also have Hansel claim, when he keeps looking back at the house, that he is seeing a "pretty bird" instead of a "pretty cat" like in the Grimm's final text. As a result, some people did identify the birds that eat the breadcrumbs and/or the bird that leads the children to the house with the witch. The anime "Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics" notably depicted the pretty bird luring the children to the house as the witch's familiar.
A last note: The idea that the witch's house is made of tons of various candies and sweets was popularized by various modern adaptations and retellings of the story. In the Grimm tale, the house isn't made of candy. It isn't even made of gingerbread as so many people believe! While it is common for people to think of this tale as "the one with the gingerbread house", I don't know where that comes from. In the text of the Grimm, the house is merely made of bread, plain old bread, with sugar for the windows. There are however cakes that are said to cover the house, as ornaments. Maybe people in retellings decided to mix together the "cake"and the "bread" and decided to make it "gingerbread"? I don't know.
#hansel and gretel#fairytale analysis#gretel#fairytale witch#the gingerbread house witch#grimm fairytales#german fairytales#the brothers grimm#hansel#birds in fairytales
270 notes
·
View notes
Text
I'm now reading Heidi Ann Heiner's book Cinderella Tales From Around the World. Hopefully it will make me as knowledgable about those stories as that inescapable old post of mine has probably made people think I am.
The different Cinderella stories are arranged in geographical order. So far I've read all the variants from Egypt, Greece, and Italy, and I'm about to start reading the German versions.
For now, I'll share the most interesting points from the versions I've read so far:
*Not all versions of the tale feature a stepmother and stepsisters. The Egyptian variants don't have any parents in them at all. In the proto-Cinderella story of Rhodopis, the title character is just a Greek slave-turned-courtesan with no family, while the other Egyptian tale, The Magic Jar, just has three sisters living together. Meanwhile, the Greek versions usually give the heroine a loving mother and two cruel biological sisters, with no father. In the Italian versions, there's almost always a father, but it varies whether the wicked women are the heroine's stepmother and stepsisters, or her own mother and sisters, or just two sisters with no mother.
*Greek versions typically have the heroine living with her mother and two older sisters. The sisters murder their mother, then cook and eat her flesh, but the grieving heroine lays her mother's bones to rest in a place of honor. Forty days later, the bones turn into three beautiful dresses and other finery and riches for her.
*Italian versions tend to come in two variants.
***One variant uses the archetypal "heroine's father goes on a journey" scenario, much like the Grimms' Aschenputtel or Beauty and the Beast. When he asks his daughters/stepdaughters for gift requests, the sisters want clothes, but the heroine asks for something unusual (e.g. a bird or a tree sapling), or else she asks him just to greet someone for her (e.g. a fairy, or a far-away relative), and when he does, that person gives him a tiny gift for her. Either way, the gift he brings back is what produces her finery.
***In the other variant, the heroine's stepmother or mother sends her out every day to pasture an animal (a cow, a sheep, or a goat), along with an impossible amount of spinning, weaving, or sewing to do. The animal tells the girl to place her work on its horns, and when she does so, it's magically done. Eventually, the (step)mother finds out and has the animal killed, but the heroine saves either the animal's bones or a golden ball she finds inside its body, and from there she gets her finery.
***That said, a few Italian versions include a fairy godmother-like figure: a kind old woman or a fairy who meets the heroine when she's out in the pasture and gives her a magic wand.
*In Italian versions with a stepmother as the villain, she typically starts out as the heroine's teacher or governess. She treats her kindly then, and urges the girl to convince her father to marry her, which she does. But after the marriage she turns cruel. (Some Italian versions of Snow White also begin this way.)
*Another detail from the Italian versions: in the "father goes on a journey" variants, the heroine warns her father that if he forgets her request, then his ship or his horse won't be able to move either forward or backward. He forgets, and sure enough, his ship or his horse freezes in place until he remembers.
*In the Greek versions, the special event the heroine attends in her magic finery is typically a Sunday church service. Some Italian versions have her go to church too, while others have a royal ball or festival, as does Egypt's The Magic Jar.
*In The Magic Jar, the heroine loses a bracelet instead of a shoe. I wonder if Gioachino Rossini and Jacopo Feretti knew about that version when they replaced the slipper with a bracelet for the sake of "propriety" in the opera La Cenerentola?
*In nearly all these versions, the heroine already has her magic source of finery and knows what it can do before the ball/church. So at no point does she beg to go, or cry because she thinks she can't go. She just lets her (step)family leave, then magically dresses herself.
*In both Greek and Italian versions, there are typically three balls or church services. Each time the heroine leaves, the prince has his servants chase after her. But the cunning heroine throws gold coins or jewels behind her, and the servants scramble to pick them up, letting her escape. Sometimes instead, or when she runs out of riches, she throws sand in their eyes to blind them. In a few versions, she doesn't lose her shoe by accident, but throws it to distract the servants because she has nothing else left to throw.
*Very rarely in any of these versions do the heroine and her prince actively "fall in love." They're not described as dancing together the way they do in the familiar Perrault and Grimm versions. The prince just sees her and falls in love with her beauty, with no mention of whether she ever speaks to him or not.
*In all three of these cultures, some versions continue after the heroine's marriage in the vein of the Grimms' Brother and Sister. The (step)mother and (step)sisters turn the newlywed heroine into a bird, or throw her into a river when she's weak from childbirth, or find some other way to get rid of her. But somehow or other she comes back to her husband in the end.
*The fate of the (step)mother and (step)sisters varies. In some versions, namely the ones where they try to get rid of the heroine after her wedding, they're executed. In some Italian versions that have just one stepsister, the stepmother puts the heroine in a pot or a barrel and plans to fill it with boiling water to kill her, but somehow or other she escapes and the stepsister takes her place, so the stepmother accidentally boils her own daughter to death. But in others, they're just left with their envy, and in still others, the heroine forgives them and shares her wealth with them.
I'll share more about different countries' variants as I read them!
@adarkrainbow, @ariel-seagull-wings, @themousefromfantasyland
#cinderella#fairy tale#variations#egypt#greece#italy#cinderella tales from around the world#heidi ann heiner#tw: murder#tw: cannibalism#tw: violence
53 notes
·
View notes
Text
Young at Heart: The Prince (Benedict Bridgerton x Reader)
Benedict Bridgerton x fem!Reader
Rated: G, the fluffiest fluff that ever fluffed
Word count: 1.6k
Masterpost
Summary: A bedtime story for the children takes an unexpected turn.
Author's Note: This beautiful idea came from none other than @angels17324 who knew exactly how Benedict would charm a lady under the guise of entertaining children. I had a lot of fun with this. 💙 Enjoy!
As punishment for their prank in the hallway, the boys were sent straight to bed after dinner and denied their usual bedtime story. They fussed and groaned as you tucked them into their small beds, closely arranged in parallel. Even though they had heeded your advice and insisted they were only following their uncle’s orders (much to Benedict’s horror, their parents’ chagrin, and everyone else’s amusement), they were being disciplined for failing to know better than to disturb the Viscount.
Thus, the following night they were clamoring for a story, bouncing in their beds until you agreed to act out one of their favorite tales. Neddy pointed you to a well-loved volume of fairy stories and you allowed the boys to push their beds together, the three of them snuggling amidst a fortress of blankets and pillows until they resembled a nest of blinking baby owls. The atmosphere was ripe for magic, with the light of a full moon bathing the room in soft shadows. Your mind was drawn to thoughts of a midnight ball and a shimmering evening of dreams come true. With a candle at your side, you settled into a chair opposite the eager faces and knew precisely which story to turn to.
The children listened with rapt attention as you relayed to them the sad origins of Ella, a kind heroine forced into a life of servitude by her wicked step family. They giggled as you adopted the whining inflection of the ugly stepsisters, and cheered as you described the array of woodland creatures who sang and danced to help Ella through her chores. Their mouths hung open as you described the transformation of a pumpkin into a carriage, mice into footmen, and rags into a sparkling gown. Performing all the characters’ voices and heightening all of the dramatic action, you led them through the story, feeling a growing sense of pride as their heads slowly began to droop and they burrowed deeper into their blankets. The shadows in the room had grown long and each boy was fighting to keep his eyes open when you reached the final scene.
“From house to house went the Prince. One young woman after another tried to put her foot into the glass slipper, but none could fit. And so the Prince moved on. At last, he came to Cinderella’s house. The first step-sister tried to place her foot in the glass slipper. She tried with all her might, but it simply would not fit. The second step-sister tried to place it on her foot but failed too. ‘Are there no other young women in the house?’ asked the Prince. That is when Cinderella stepped into the room.”
You reverted to the shrill rasp you had devised for the evil stepmother, “‘None who matter!’ hissed the stepmother.”
“I’ll be the judge of that.”
Startled, you nearly dropped the book as you spun to see the source of the unexpected voice from the doorway. The tall figure stepped forward and the moonlit illuminated Benedict, walking toward you with a playful smirk on his face.
As you sat frozen in confusion, he began narrating the story for you. “‘Come here,’ said the Prince, and Cinderella moved to him, sitting in a chair.” He reached your side. Even with the dark and his height, you could see the cheeky points of light in his eyes. You cast a look back at the boys to find their interest mildly piqued by the appearance of their uncle, but they were undeniably hovering on the brink of sleep, reclining back on their pillows.
“The Prince got down on one knee,” Benedict continued, his tone steady. You held your breath as he knelt to a knee beside you. He was playing the part, acting out the roles as you had.
“And he tried the glass slipper on her foot.” He raised his brow in a gentle request for permission, which you granted him with a breathless nod. Lifting your skirt just an inch, his long fingers wrapped around your ankle and he held it lightly, miming slipping a shoe over the one you already wore. He beamed up at you with that lopsided grin that made you feel knotted inside. “It fit perfectly.”
When you realized the silence between you was growing unnaturally, perhaps inappropriately long, you cleared your throat, remembering yourself. You glanced quickly down at the book in your hands. “Then, from her pocket, Cinderella took out the other glass slipper.”
Benedict never broke your gaze, his hand still warm on your ankle. “‘I knew it,’ he cried. ‘You are the one.’”
He was quiet enough that you weren’t sure if the children could hear him. But you also found that you were no longer concerned about the quality of your performance. All your mind could process was the tethering feeling of his soft grip, and the dance of light in his eyes which refused to leave yours.
Some rote part of your memory continued through with the story, though you ceased any attempt to adopt voices. “‘This cannot be!’ yelled the stepmother.”
Still grinning, Benedict concluded the tale. “But it was too late. The Prince knew that Cinderella was the one. He looked into her eyes, and he did not see the cinders in her hair or the ashes on her face. He had found the woman he loved, and they lived happily ever after.”
The silence that followed was so complete, you could hear your heart pounding in your ears. His smile, his eyes, the ease infusing everything about him, it held you under a spell. Thank goodness for Barney’s small but dramatic yawn which snapped both of your attention back to the children. Benedict carefully placed your foot on the floor. The boys were all fast asleep, limbs sprawled over one another and blankets kicked aside. With a chuckle between you, Benedict held the candle overhead while you gingerly rearranged the children as best you could without waking them, tucking them each beneath their own blanket.
When you were satisfied that they would sleep undisturbed, you led Benedict back out into the hall.
“Mr. Bridgerton,” you whispered, unsure of precisely what to say. “Thank you for your help with the story. Were you listening the whole time?” You felt yourself start to blush and hoped the dim light would hide it.
“Long enough,” he shrugged. “You have been untruthful with me.”
Bewildered, you shook your head. “I beg your pardon?”
He crossed his arms and leaned a shoulder against the wall. “You said you weren’t an actress, but I just witnessed an exceptional performance.” His quirked brow and unfailing smile clued you in. There seemed to be no limit to this man’s cheekiness, or perhaps it was charm.
You chose to demure. You already felt odd enough, flustered by the lingering memory of his fingers pressing through your stocking. You would be friendly, but not engage in blatant flirtation. “It’s easy once the story is already written,” you explained. “I’m sure someone read to you like that when you were small.”
He softened. “My father did, yes. Once upon a time.” His smile broadened, coaxing one from you.
“He must have made quite an impression for you to memorize the story. I’d wager not many gentlemen could recite Cinderella if called upon.”
His smirk finally faltered. “I memorized it later. I read it constantly to my sisters when…well, when he passed. From that very book as a matter of fact.”
You bit your tongue. You didn’t know the precise details of the Bridgerton family history, but knew that the former Viscount had died too young and that Neddy was his namesake. To imagine he had left behind children still young enough to need bedtime stories, and to picture Benedict tending to them while managing his own grief, it seized something in your heart. You were ashamed at bringing up such memories and turned your eyes to the floor. “I’m sorry.”
“You don’t need to apologize.” The kindness in his tone drew your gaze back up to find him grinning thoughtfully. “Look how useful it is now that the house is full of children again.” Then he squared himself in front of you. “And now that I have found my stage partner, I believe we shall have to combine our theatrical prowess if we’re to keep those miscreants occupied tomorrow. A repeat performance at the puppet theater.”
Your heart climbed into your throat. His proposal made you equal parts terrified and excited. You had never ventured behind the nursery’s puppet theater yourself, but couldn’t deny how appealing it sounded to find yourself crowded into the tight space with him. You tried to keep your voice steady. You shouldn’t be imagining such things. “Mr. Bridgerton. I told you, I cannot improvise.”
He shrugged again, always airy with his demeanor. “Then we shall plan the story ahead of time. What is your schedule for the day?”
“Their parents are taking them to the lake actually, and then they will be mine in the afternoon.” You didn’t have much of an excuse to give him. In fact, some extra hands to help you entertain the children would be a welcome relief.
He was glowing, creases etched around his eyes from his easy smile. “Perfect. We’ll rehearse and then surprise them.”
You arched a brow. “But if I’m in the theater, who will be minding the children?”
“Colin,” he said dismissively. “It’ll give him something useful to do.”
You wavered, chewing on your lip. There was no reason to refuse his plan other than the fluttering feeling he elicited every time he looked in your direction and your fear of enabling it. He clearly sensed your hesitation and dropped his swaggering stance, gently offering you the choice. “Only if you want to, Miss y/l/n. Perhaps it would be nice to break up your routine.”
You probably should have declined, but your heart spurred on your tongue before your mind could interfere. “Alright. I’ll meet you in the nursery after tea.”
Tagging: @angels17324 @bridgertontess @broooookiecrisp @desert-fern @fiction-is-life @kpopstanthot
#bridgerton#bridgerton fanfiction#benedict bridgerton#benedict bridgerton fanfiction#benedict bridgerton x reader#benedict bridgerton x you#benedict bridgerton x y/n#benedict bridgerton imagine#bridgerton x reader#bridgerton x you#bridgerton x y/n#bridgerton imagine#cinderella#female reader#fluff#regency era
298 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Night Nurse ~ Chapter 10
A John Wick x Helen Fic
Masterlist / Chapter Map
Author's note: It's been a minute since I posted on this fic, I'm so sorry!! I lost a good chunk of this chapter to an untimely computer update (fuck you very much Windows) and I was so frustrated I just had to let it sit for a while. BUT I finally managed to re-write it, so here we are! I hope you enjoy! 💗💗💗 (Oh and the illustrations here are from the turn of the century version of Afanasyev's Russian Fairy Tales, the book John hid his marker in, in JW3...you'll see why.😉)
Times gets tough
Oh, they get tougher
Hold on to me
I got you, darling…
-I’ll be your man, The Black Keys
X.
The walls of his library were lined with built-in bookshelves, filled to the brim with antique and vintage books. A single leather reading chair sat in the corner with a lamp and a small table. A larger table took up the center of the room with a proper book cradle. Helen breathed in, reveling in the magical smell of old books. She realized that this must be where John gets some of that intoxicating scent of his, bottom notes of leather and parchment paper. The chair in the corner looked well-worn, and she imagined him spending hours of his downtime just sitting and reading away the day.
For the umpteenth time, it squeezed her heart to the point of pain.
Throughout the course of the tour, they did not let go of each other once. John didn’t seem to mind handling books with one mitt of a hand, the fingers of his left laced tightly with Helen’s.
“Do you still have your book of Russian fairy tales?”
“Yes.” Gingerly he pulled it from a shelf, resting it in the cradle on the table.
They perused the book together, Helen leaning against his shoulder. He was warm, and solid as a tree, and for a heady moment it was difficult to concentrate on the antique tome, no matter how beautiful. The illustrations were utterly gorgeous, and she mentally kicked herself into focusing. She thought about a young John toting this beloved book around the world with him like a Lost Boy with his teddy bear, and the thought succeeded in tying her up in inextricable knots.
John turned to a page of an illustration of a lovely peasant woman in the woods, holding a torch made of a glowing human skull. “Oh, who’s that?” asked Helen.
“That’s Vasilisa the Beautiful,” answered John.
She hovered her finger over the first line of Cyrillic, careful not to touch the paper. “What does it say?”
John read it aloud, his voice low and all for her, and she sighed a little, not understanding a syllable. For some reason hearing him speak another language so easily, and something about the lilting cadence of the language in his deep voice, the soft shh and musical ya sounds of the Russian words inspired a curl of lust in her belly, a small thrill zipping down her spine. She shuddered lightly, and prayed he hadn’t noticed.
He absolutely noticed, his pupils blowing wide with desire. Doggedly, he kept them fixed upon the page below.
“Is that, ‘Once upon a time’…in Russian?”
“Something like that. This is a Cinderella story about a young woman who outsmarts her wicked stepmother and the Baba Yaga with her determination and the help of her magical doll. It’s one of my favorites.”
He’d seen a bit of himself in Vasilisa as a young man, straining under the yoke of his unforgiving masters. He turned the page to reveal a witchy old woman riding in what looked like an upright log. Helen couldn’t suppress a grin. “Oh look, it’s you, Baba Yaga.”
John snorted at that. “I still don’t know what idiot started that damned nickname,” he groused.
Actually, he suspected it was Marcus, but he’d never found out for certain.
“It sounds fierce, at least.”
His lips twisted in a smirk, and he couldn’t help himself from turning to look at her, then. Their faces were torturously close. “Think I should get some flaming skull torches for out front?”
“Yes, I think the neighbors would love that,” she deadpanned, and more felt than heard John’s responding chuckle.
He turned the page to a new illustration of a strapping knight on a black horse. “Oh hello, handsome. Who’s this guy?”
John narrowly resisted the urge to ask if she had a thing for men in black, even as that telling warmth clouded his brain.
“That’s…Night.”
“The night Knight?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmm.” Her lips twisted in a cheeky smile. “Nice. I like him.”
“You would.”
“I have excellent taste, John.”
He found himself looking at her mouth again, thinking her taste would be excellent. For the umpteenth time, he managed not to kiss her by the skin of his teeth. By the way she was looking at him...maybe he didn't need to be exercising such restraint. But maybe that was the excellent wine talking
Maybe he really was an idiot.
“So...in reward for being clever Baba Yaga gives Vasilisa one of the skull torches. She takes it back to her house, and when she lights the candles her wicked step mother and awful step sisters burn up.”
“Oooh. And she lives happily ever after?”
“Well...she marries the tsar, for what that's worth.”
Helen wrinkled up her nose, communicating her opinion on that. “Overall, I give it a nine out of ten.”
John couldn’t help it then. He actually grinned, showing teeth. “Glad you liked it.”
“Thanks for sharing with me.”
“My pleasure.”
She was still leaning on his shoulder, and was it him, or had she somehow sidled even closer, her body pressed to his side? Her eyes traveled leisurely from him to the book to the chair in the corner. It was then that she noticed that the bookmarked novel on the side table was a mass-market paperback she recognized quite well.
He’d taken her recommendation on the Codename Villanelle spy thrillers, despite teasing her about her taste in books, what felt like a lifetime ago that fateful night in the subway. The fact that he was on the second one touched her to no end, and she squeezed his arm.
“Aww, you’re reading about Eve and Villanelle,” she purred. “You like them?”
“Yes. You were right, they are fun.”
“Taking notes from Villanelle?” The Russian spy was wickedly clever at finding ways to kill her targets.
“Maybe. That poison hair stick was something. Think I could pull it off?” Helen reached up to curl a lock of his dark hair around her finger with a smile, and John couldn’t stop himself from closing his eyes, overwhelmed by the sensation of her touching his hair.
He was hopeless.
“Oh, definitely. You could so rock the man-bun.”
John rolled his eyes at that, reluctant to admit that he often did when training.
Helen looked back to the book, now with what John was learning to recognize as a sly glint in her eye. “I’m on practically the same spot in that book,” she noted. “Want to read me a chapter?”
John looked at his reading chair, the comfortable old soldier that it was. It was also the only place to sit in the room, and he went a little cross-eyed at the thought of Helen curled up in his lap in it.
There would be zero reading done, of that he was certain. He would debauch her for the first time in that chair, and maybe again on the table for good measure.
A virulent heat licked at his collar as he imagined it. Fuck him, but she was making him blush.
“Sure. Let’s take it to the living room,” he proposed, ignoring her lips pursed in a theatrical pout.
Minx. She knew exactly what she was doing to him—and he was increasingly unsure why he wasn’t just letting her have her way.
He scooped up the paperback book, her hand still firmly clasped in his other while he led them back to the recessed living room. He set the book down on the couch. “Want another glass of wine? I’m going to clear these dishes.”
He needed to clear his head, and he felt Helen look at him with some disappointment that felt a little bit like being stabbed.
“Can I help you?”
“No, this is your night off. Sit, relax. I’ll be right back.”
“Okay.” She seated herself on the couch with only the book for company.
She watched John practically flee into the kitchen, and wondered if she’d done something wrong.
Regaled by the sound of clinking dishes and the faucet running, Helen looked around at John’s shelves. They were rather bare, though she noticed he had a bit of a CD collection on display. It plucked at her nostalgia for the days before everything could be so easily accessed via the hand-held computers known as phones but so rarely used for actually talking.
Standing, she decided to be nosy and thumb through them. He seemed to favor classics, from classical music, to rock and blues. There was very little on the shelf dating from past the 90s, and that made her smile for some reason.
“See anything you like?”
She turned to find John with two freshly-filled wine glasses in tow. He set them on the coffee table, before joining her at the built-in cd tower.
“Some good stuff here,” she agreed with a Chili Peppers cd in her hand. The fiery pool with the ocean in the background on the cover tickled the nostalgia center in her brain for sure. “Who are these guys?” She pulled out a black and white album with a high contrast photo of a guy with glasses, and a bearded dude.
“Never heard of the Black Keys?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Oh, honey.”
She chuckled. “Ok, do not pull the my taste in music is better than yours card. I will leave.”
“I wouldn’t do that,” he defended with a sly close-lipped smile. “I reserve that card only for books.”
She snorted in answer, and found herself gravitating closer to him, even just standing there looking at his music. She just couldn’t help it.
That really was some good wine he served with dinner.
She watched as he popped open the jewel case, feeding the CD into the slot of his player. He hit a couple buttons, and the speakers erupted with a very bluesy distorted guitar riff. It was loud, and John laughed a little as she jumped—conveniently, into his arms.
“Sorry.” He turned down the volume slightly, his arms circling her waist almost of their own volition. It felt so easy, being with her. Maybe from the very moment they’d met, it just felt like she should be in his arms, and acting on it made something loud and uneasy always clamoring in the back of his brain to go quiet. She swayed her head and shoulders a little to the beat; it was impossible not to.
“John?” she asked from beneath his chin, brushing the soft scruff of his beard with her nose. It filled him with a tingling warmth, in the very marrow of his bones, a pleasure in this closeness that just seemed too good to be true. It was like a drug, better than cocaine or heroin or anything else he’d ever tried, and he didn’t know how he would ever let her go.
“Yeah?”
“They made you learn ballet at your…school, but do you like to dance?”
He’d spent so much time in night clubs, hunting, and acting as backup muscle for Tarasov while he closed business deals, but it wasn’t a setting he really enjoyed. He wasn’t sure he really classified the writhing and arm waving one engaged in at the club as dancing. He was familiar with other dance forms, but they didn’t come up often in his life.
“I feel like you’re actually asking me a different question,” he teased, leaning into her to reach out to skip to a different track.
“I am?”
“You’re asking if I want to dance with you?”
The first metallic notes of Dan Auerbach’s guitar rang out, and John swayed to the beat, a hand on her svelte waist pinning her close. With a smile she moved with him, her other hand finding his.
“Do you?”
He looked down at her with a glint of mischief in those shining dark eyes, and so much warmth that a flood of heat washed through her from her hair follicles all the way to her toes. This man. She really would follow him anywhere. Maybe the wine they’d drank lubricated this thought process, but she knew that didn’t make it any less true.
John knew that his answer to any question that involved an activity with her would be a resounding yes. Groceries? Yes. The dentist? Fine. Just hold his hand. He was broken for her.
“Of course I do.” He lifted his arm to guide her in a turn before pulling her close again, and she simply couldn’t help it. The joy in her heart soared.
Then the vocals in the song began, and Helen couldn’t help the fuzzy warmth that spread in her chest. Need a new love? I’m ready. Want my time? I’m willing.
There wasn’t a huge amount of open space in the living room, but John was very good at making do, leading her in steps to the beat, throwing in fun checks and turns and behind-the-back maneuvers that made her giggle. She knew she sounded drunk. It was on him though, far more than the wine. He made her happier than any one had in a very long time. Maybe ever, if she was being honest with herself.
To make things even worse, the chorus of the song rang loud in her ears with the infectious guitar riff: I’ll be your man. Mmm, I’ll be your man. She didn’t know if he picked this song on purpose for the lyrics, or the intoxicating rhythm, but she felt it in her bones, and in her heart, and every cell of her being; she was so attuned to this man.
She almost tripped when he attempted to twist her up like a pretzel in a figure-eight step, but he caught her, laughing with her as he held her close.
“I’m not that good,” she apologized, clinging to him more than she really needed to. He was just…so solid, and if she was being honest all she really wanted to do was climb him like a fucking tree.
His arm around her waist was like a warm band of iron, and he smiled gently down at her. She felt herself melting like chocolate in the sun, her knees gone weak beneath her.
“That’s ok. I’ve got you.”
She couldn’t stop the sigh that escaped from her throat. Because, she knew it was true, and not just here being silly dancing in his living room. She realized she trusted him not to drop her no matter what they were doing, or what they were facing. That kind of faith in another person, much less a man, was a rare and precious thing.
“John…” she said softly, looking up into his warm dark eyes from so very close. She wasn’t sure if she was asking a question, or if she just needed to cite his name like a prayer, invoke him like a saint in her personal pantheon. Maybe it was madness, but wrapped up in his arms like this, he felt like something to believe in.
Her eyes drifted down to his mouth, those full lips she’d coveted since the moment they’d met, if she was telling the truth.
This was the moment that John’s will to fight it broke at last. He felt it inside, not like a hard snap, but a definite release, like a boat coming unmoored, being swept down a swift stream. There was no more resisting. He was lost to her.
Pulled like a magnet, he finally leaned in that fraction of distance to press his lips to hers. His kiss was like a sunrise in her heart; warm and bursting, soft and sweet. She couldn’t stop herself from standing on tiptoe with a low moan, looping her arms around his neck as she pressed her body against his. It won her something like a deep growl that thrilled her to her toes, and greedily she wanted more.
She teased the seam of his mouth with her tongue, begging entrance he gladly granted. She felt the tremor in his arms as he held her, so tightly that he nearly lifted her from the floor. He kissed her like a starving man offered a life-giving meal, and her fingers fisted in his hair at the back of his head, holding him to her, holding on.
His heartbeat a thundering timpani in his ears, John felt like Helen’s lips on his was the answer to a question his heart had been asking his whole adult life. She was the air he breathed, the sustenance necessary to live, and the desire to drink her down, to eat her up, was a dogged, insistent demand from the darkest depths of his soul.
He never wanted to let her go.
With a ragged breath he pulled back to rest his forehead against hers, his fingers digging into her sides. She might have bruises later.
She didn’t mind.
She wanted his hands, rough or gentle.
She wanted all of him, and if he didn’t return his mouth to hers she was going to scream.
“Helen,” he panted. “I—”
The tinny electronic sound of his phone ringing in his pocket interrupted what might have been a foolish—or a life changing—confession. “Fuck,” he cursed under his breath, knowing he had to answer it. That was the deal with the devil he’d signed, when he didn’t really have any better choice. He was on call all the time.
“I’m sorry,” he apologized.
She nodded, but did not extricate herself, leaning on his shoulder while he pulled the device from his pocket. It was Viggo Tarasov, and his heart dropped like a stone. It was rare that the boss Himself called. He absolutely had to answer it, and he had a feeling he wouldn’t like what his pakhan had to say.
With a heavy heart he lifted the phone to his ear, his other arm still wrapped possessively around Helen.
“Da?”
“Good evening, John.”
John fought to keep the impatient snarl out of his tone, but feared he failed royally. “Evening, Viggo.”
“I’ve just heard some interesting things about your latest adventures about town. I think we need to talk.”
That was probably the understatement of the century.
“When?”
“Now.”
Of fucking course.
“I can be there in an hour.”
“Good.”
Viggo hung up, and John clenched the phone in his fist, fighting not to throw it across the room. He knew Helen heard every word for the way she sighed with disappointment, snuggling into the bend of his neck. The sensation of her front molded to his was heaven, and he didn’t know how to let her go.
“I’m so sorry,” he apologized with lips to her forehead. “I have to go.”
“I understand.” There was some consolation, in that she sounded as devastated as he was.
“You’ll be ok here? My house is your house. Help yourself to anything you want.”
She made a kittenish little sound that sent all his blood straight to his groin. “What I want is leaving,” she informed him with a pouting lip, tugging on the front of his shirt.
He couldn’t stop himself then from stealing another kiss, a deep and probing thing that left her breathless and starry-eyed.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he told her.
“Promise?”
“Yes.” John wondered what Viggo had in store. If he was in trouble, or if his boss would send him out to teach the Medvedev boys a lesson tonight. He didn’t want to go hunting that night. Everything he truly wanted in the world, he realized, was standing right in front of him, looking up at him with melted toffee eyes. He cupped her cheek, memorizing every detail of her all over again.
He realized with a startling clarity that he could never get enough of her.
The intensity of his stare sent a thrill jetting down her spine. “John…” He worried her a little, when he got like this. She wasn’t afraid of him, exactly—but some little intuition in the back of her brain sang out that something bad might happen.
“It’ll be alright,” he told her, sensing her unease. “I have to change.” He kissed her forehead again, and disappeared up the stairs to his room.
Helen plopped down on the couch with a sigh, crushed with disappointment but knowing this was how it was, and she understood more than ever now that it wasn’t his fault or his choice. She picked up the Villanelle book, No Tomorrow, stroking her thumb over the cover, but not cracking it open.
When John stalked down the stairs he was wearing one of his slim-fit all black suits again, his hair slicked back from his face. He looked beautiful, and predatory, sleek as a panther stalking in the jungle, and fierce attraction warred with dread in Helen’s breast. She had a feeling that someone might die tonight, and it was so strange to think in those terms with such a sense of acceptance.
At least she knew John’s prey would be no one innocent.
“Don’t forget you owe me a chapter,” she said in a sing song tone as he approached, waving the book, trying to lighten the pall that had fallen upon the room.
The smile he paid her was filled with melancholy; she felt it like a knife between the ribs. “I won’t,” he assured her, taking her hand to press his lips to her knuckles. He paused, looking down at this beautiful woman seated on his couch, with her legs that went on forever and the warmth in her eyes all for him. There was nothing he wanted more, than to stay there with her. To lay her down and kiss every inch of her perfect flesh. He probably should have told her that, but he just sighed, and let her go.
“I’m going to leave this here, just in case,” he said, all business as he showed her a blocky black automatic pistol. “There’s one in the chamber. All you have to do is pull the trigger. It has a long trigger pull but please do not touch it unless you need it, and be very careful.” He stashed the Glock in a drawer beside the couch. “I’ll leave the alarm on. If it goes off I’ll get an alert on my phone.”
With wide eyes she nodded. “Do you…think the Medvedevs will come here?”
“No, or I wouldn’t leave you here alone.” He honestly thought this was the safest place for her. “But…” One never knows.
“Okay.” He could tell that he managed to scare her a little, and he hated himself for it.
“I’m being paranoid,” he tried to assure her. He dared add, “Because you’re precious to me.” She softened then, and stood to wrap her arms around his neck once more. Embracing her was as intoxicating as kissing her, and again John warred with himself as to how he was going to leave.
“Come back to me,” she demanded softly, kissing the soft scruff of his cheek.
“Always,” he answered without allowing himself to think about it, pressing his lips to hers in a long, gentle kiss filled with all the yearning in his heart.
Reluctantly, he slipped from her grasp, and didn’t look back.
She watched him go, admiring his tall dark form even as he was leaving her.
She heard the roar of the Mustang starting in the garage, and the trail of its growl as it prowled across the driveway, disappearing down the street into the night. She couldn’t help but feel like her heart sped away with it.
40 notes
·
View notes
Text
Our Secret | Jonerys Orgasmic October 2023
Day 4: How wet can you get? Prompt: Dirty talk
Summary: Like Cinderella, poor Dany is stuck with a wicked stepmother after her father's death. Resigned to being Cersei's servant, everything changes when her new stepdaddy Jon Snow enters her life.
A classic tale that's dirtier than the Disney version and the only Fairy Godmother here is a shameless writer ready to give them their hornier, happily ever after.
-a gift for my dear friend @qyburnsghost. It ain't DaddyAemond, but it does have some dirty stuff like cheating, age difference, and a slew of other things I'm way too embarrassed to write here. Hope you like it 😘
Read it here on AO3
@snowxstormworld
63 notes
·
View notes
Text
Based on this discussion (made into a separate post for the sake of length and I do have the habit of reblogging and reblogging my posts about Aşk-ı Memnu and I don’t want to do that to someone else’s post)
I agree that both Fire and Blood and Aşk-ı Memnu are examples of a Subverted Trope regarding Wicked Stepmother rather than a full-fledged Deconstruction. They subvert the expectations regarding the stepmother and the stepdaughter’s personalities, but don’t fully pick the trope apart.
I haven’t watched House of the Dragon, but I listened to the Rhaenyra chapters of Fire and Blood on audiobook some time ago, so I still have an idea.
If we reduce the Wicked Stepmother trope to its basic essence, yes Fire and Blood may not be considered to subvert it. Alicent is a stepmother who is wicked. “Hansel and Gretel” definitely uses the Wicked Stepmother trope, and that story definitely has nothing to do with sexuality or a Madonna-Whore dichotomy. But @la-pheacienne still very much has a point, because unlike with “Hansel and Gretel” where the children are of both genders and are very young in the story, Alicent and Rhaenyra are both women and the different sexuality of both of them is a very integral part of their dynamic. This makes it recall “Cinderella” or “Snow White” far more than “Hansel and Gretel”. Alicent is a stepmother who is wicked, that’s not subverted, but the “Madonna” and “Whore”’s roles are switched and the Wicked Stepmother (who is still wicked!) is the “sexually pure” one who apparently plays by the patriarchy’s rules. That’s still a subversion.
(Maybe Fire and Blood can also be called deconstructive in the way it uses its narrators to tell this story but I don’t remember enough to say something substantial on that).
Aşk-ı Memnu explicitly refers to the Wicked Stepmother trope and its prevalence. A character (who is characterized by her love for fiction and her propensity to search for what she had read in her life) actually thinks this:
“Finally that thing that had been feared, that had been delayed for a year, but that could never be kept from occurring, was finally beginning. Bihter and Nihal were taking out the claws that longed to tear at each other. The old girl was saying to herself, ‘whose fault is it? No one’s!… In the affair itself… Step-mother and daughter! After all, the lives of these people are, for all of history, either a comedy or a tragedy. How will this play end between Bihter and Nihal? I am afraid lest it be a comedy for one and a tragedy for the other…’”
(Chapter 7) (italics mine)
The fairy tale that is most similar to Aşk-ı Memnu is Snow White and its variations. Nihal has a little brother, but as is clear from above, this is a play between a stepmother and a stepdaughter. And sexuality is a very integral part of Aşk-ı Memnu of course. (“Cinderella” might also come into play here, but of course not as much as “Snow White”).
Aşk-ı Memnu does not reverse the “Madonna” and “Whore” positions of the stepmother and stepdaughter: The stepmother is still the sexually transgressive more active woman who is punished by the narrative, and the stepdaughter is the “innocent”, passive character who comes to a relatively happy ending. But Aşk-ı Memnu still subverts this trope in two ways and it then pulls a switcheroo and kind of plays it straight at the end, but also not really:
1- The personalities of the two parties are switched. Nihal might be the “sexually innocent” one, but she is also the one madly jealous of Bihter rather than the other way around.
2- The wickedness of Bihter is purely in Nihal’s head. Nihal completely believes that Bihter is wicked but it is not true at all.
Then the book seems to play it straight at the very end as Bihter becomes jealous of Nihal due to her now having Behlül’s love and has very vengeful, aggressive thoughts on Nihal:
“This emotion united Behlül and Nihal; she wanted to throttle them both in the same vice of wrath and enmity.”
“She did not pity Nihal. She had stored up many grudges against her; all the things she had tolerated had each become an excuse for enmity towards this girl, each bearing the weight of due vengeance. But beyond all this enmity was that in Nihal, who had been a child only yesterday, having emerged a rival. It was this more than anything that she could not forgive Nihal.”
(Chapter 21)
The latter passage is very “Snow White”. But the focus is still on Behlül and Behlül’s love, that’s what Bihter cares about. Snow White and Cinderella’s stepmothers (and stepsisters) really are mostly jealous about them, their beauty and their “virtue”, the Prince is only a symbol. Not so for Bihter. Her wrongs against Nihal (her sacking her governess, her ruining her engagement, even her last vengefulness) are about the affair Bihter had, not about any resentment about Nihal in particular. Bihter is still very much not a Wicked Stepmother, and Nihal is still very much the more jealous one overall.
Aşk-ı Memnu is also of course more subversive or deconstructive than Fire and Blood because in it both the stepmother and the stepdaughter are complicated and very human people. Aşk-ı Memnu is a psychological novel that reveals the inner thoughts of all of its characters and is about a domestic tragedy. Fire and Blood is a faux-history narrated by unreliable narrators that is a companion piece to a fantasy series. Maybe House of the Dragon might be more deconstructive than Fire and Blood in this particular way since in it Alicent and Rhaenyra are supposed to be more complicated and human than their book counterparts. Maybe @minetteskvareninova is right about the TV show being more deconstructive than the book in this particular way, though the deconstruction is apparently not done very competently.
Anyway, thanks for giving me the opportunity to ramble yet again about Aşk-ı Memnu.
#aşk ı memnu#aşk-ı memnu#fire and blood#alicent hightower#rhaenyra targaryen#wicked stepmother#house of the dragon#snow white#cinderella#nihal#bihter
26 notes
·
View notes
Text
I’m very interested in the presence of the fairies in Neverafter…
Because the way the fairies are is one of the things that has been changed from the fairy tales D20 is working with. And I’m operating on the assumption that if it was worth changing it’s worth paying attention to
Rosamund's fairies:
Oddly enough we have not met any of Rosamun's fairies yet....probably. We've heard all four of them described in Brennan's opening narration, but no one got to interact with them. But Rosamund's story is the one that has been changed:
Grimm’s Briar Rose has twelve good fairies, not three, and the thirteenth is the wrathful one who was purposefully not invited because there were only twelve golden dishes. While she is called a fairy, she is described as clad in black, with a broomstick, so I’d forgive anyone who misidentified her as a witch.
Perrault’s The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods has seven fairies, with the eighth being the old, forgotten fairy who is accidentally not invited.
The change to three (plus one) fairies could just be because three is a more manageable number and also with very good fairy tale pedigree, or it could be because of Disney. But the "four great fairies of the kingdom (of Reverie)" might also be significant in some other way. One for beauty, one for grace, one for...?
Gerard's fairy:
Grimm’s Cinderella (Aschputtel) has no fairies, but Perrault’s Cinderella (Cendrillon) has the famous fairy godmother. Who, interestingly, is only helpful. She does not punish. But here she is also the fairy that transformed the Frog-Prince:
In the Grimm translation D20 shared The Frog-Prince the enchantment was laid by “a spiteful fairy”, but in many English translations it is a “wicked witch” and that is the word used in the 1857 edition of the Grimms’ fairy tales (in the 1812 edition there is no explanation for how the transformation happened).
The fairy tale also does not state that the Prince was transformed as a punishment. This sounds more like the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast, where the beast is transformed by a fairy to punish his pride, whereas in the most well known version of that fairy tale (de Beaumont’s), the fairy transforms him simply because she is “wicked”. Of course Gerard’s story would not work without it being a punishment and it makes for a much more interesting narrative, but it does muddle the waters between Good Fairy and Wicked Fairy. It’s suddenly a matter of perspective.
Pinochio's fairies:
We haven’t met Pinocchio’s good Fairy yet (if she is good in Neverafter), but we have seen the evil fairy who turned him back into a puppet when he lied about his fathers name (something that probably saved his father’s life). Now I wonder: is this the same Evil Fairy that cursed Rosamund?
I’ve seen it suggested that this evil fairy and the Stepmother are the same person, but that seems odd, considering the Stepmother claims she cares for Pinocchio and his father. Sure she’s probably lying, but if she was that fairy Pinocchio wouldn’t be fooled and it seems he is, even if he’s also afraid of her. I still think his Stepmother is also Cinderella and Snow White’s Stepmother, so in that case she might be a Wicked Witch.
She is also Pinocchio's patron, which might make her a fairy, but she calls the Fairy Godmother a "little fairy", which sounds like she's at least not the same type of fairy as she is.
If this Pinocchio’s good Fairy is like the one in his book, she is the Fairy with the Azure Hair (I struggle with her, because Pinocchio is not a folk- or fairy tale, but she is famous). She is described first adopting Pinocchio as her little brother, but later as she grows up (she was already) becomes his mother. She protects him, seems to be the reason his nose starts growing when he lies, and turns him human in the end when he has learned to be kind and obedient. So whether she's seen as good or bad in this universe is anyone's guess.
So, we've met two fairies in game and both of them seem to be bad, but perhaps weren't always intended to be so.
Because right now it sounds like Cinderella rebelled against the narrative her Fairy Godmother tried to force her into, but… maybe there’s something more afoot. The Fairy Godmother did insist “we are trying to help”, so maybe we’ll meet the other fairies after all...
#more of my ranting about fairy tale sources#neverafter#d20 neverafter#d20 meta#dimension 20#dimension20#sunfreckle's scribbles#long post#freckle folklore fretting
220 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
officialboredom
Funnier, Yet Less Interesting, IRL
bigdog1369
All Things Dirty
22jfk
Untitled
cua-hang-pts
Cửa Hàng PTS
xoxomeowz
meowz