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bubblesthemonsterartist · 7 years

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Thank you! Will you please do part 2 of the last dvd commentary?

Ooooh nonny. You like the pain, huh? (It’s okay.. so do I ^_^ )

The room is bright, filled with sunlight and the scent of freshly cut flowers. For the first time today, he is alone, servants dismissed and Mitsuhide’s fussing hands driven away by Kiki’s patient suggestion that they take a walk.

Let Zen enjoy his last few moments as a bachelor, she had deadpanned, dragging Mitsuhide through the door and leaving Zen in anticipatory silence.

Zen smiles, excitement and anxiety curling in his stomach. Everything was coming together. Finally. Soon, he would be married, followed shortly by the wedding of Sir Lowen and Lady Seiran. And then, maybe someday soon his children and theirs would be running around the Palace, filling it with more laughter than he had experienced in his own childhood.

Code: Joanna is being mean again. To everyone. And everything.

I very much enjoy writing Zen with this Calvinistic undertone of “God favors the righteous.” It seems very apropo for him. Things just turn out right because he, and his friends, have made righteous actions throughout their lives and ultimately good prevails. (Disclosure: I have a grad degree in Religion so I have headcanons for the spiritual life of all of the AnS squad and I apply them when I’m writing. It helps me motivate them in the direction I want them to go.)

Ultimately, setting up this scene I wanted to counteract the end of the last scene with the happiness of a man about to marry the woman he has been waiting years for. It really is a joyous day because they have been through so many trails (mostly separately) and now they are finally coming together.

Also, I imagine that Zen’s marriage to Shirayuki is one of the first times that Zen has successfully overcome the requirements of his station and he is getting to balk the status quo. So he is terribly happy, especially knowing that his friends are in the same boat with him. Kiki is also getting the husband she wants rather than the husband everyone expects.

And I would be remiss in saying that Zen had a happy childhood. He most certainly did not. If you look at the canon, it appears the Palace is frightfully empty for the vast majority of his childhood, which is a big reason that he clings so hard to the friends he has made, but he is also willing to go to such lengths to protect his most important relationships.

He dares to dream that their children would serve his the way they serve him.

Let us not forget that even though Zen is, in his heart of hearts, a good, sweet guy, he is also a Prince. A Prince privileged with the expectation that people will serve him. And it makes sense that he would want any Mitsukiki babies to be as close to his own children because there is that familial loyalty that has potential to be passed down through the generations.

Laughing to himself, Zen crosses the room to stand in front of the full length mirror, checking to make sure his appearance was perfect for the hundredth time this hour alone. Everything was in order. Their chambers had been moved, the preparations for the honeymoon complete, Shirayuki had completed her etiquette and decorum lessons for her first weeks as Princess…

Boots thud softly on the balustrade, followed by a cheerful, “What a wonderful day for a wedding, Master!”

…well, almost everything was in order.

Dun dun dunnnnnnnnnn

Really, I spent the majority of this chapter going hnnnnnnngggggggggggg I don’t want to do this. Why am I doing this? This is going to hurt so much. STAHP IT JOANNA YOU ARE HURTING THEM. The next several paragraphs were literally the last bits that I wrote before posting. I edited everything else even before I could bring myself to write it and even then I was in so much pain.

However, I didn’t write (at this point) 45k? to stop now. ONWARD TO THE SUFFERING.

Zen turns towards where Obi perches on his balcony, his dress uniform immaculately pressed and a wide smile on his face.

It was curious. If anyone had cause for this day to be a melancholy one, it would be Obi. But he gave no hints, no suggestions of this day being any less joyful to him than it was for Mitsuhide or Kiki or even Shirayuki.

“Yo, Obi!”

Honestly? This is actually a happy day for Obi. He has been rooting for them since day one and has gone out of his way. He might be the happiest out of everyone because he expects that Miss is going to get everything she wants and deserves in life and in his mind, Zen is the one to provide it.

On one level, Zen knows and accepts that he is the better out of the two of them for her. On another level, he cannot fathom that sort of selflessness when it comes to people one cares about.

Obi slides from the balustrade, crossing the room quickly with a long gait to stand before him with such affection in his gaze. “Ah, Master, you look so handsome today,” he lilts, reaching up to dust imaginary lint from his collar. “Mistress will hardly be able to wait for the wedding night.”

Obi winks and Zen blushes, shooing him away with false annoyance.

HE’S EVEN MAKING SEX JOKES FOR THEIR WEDDING NIGHT. COME ON. HE’S SO HAPPY FOR THEM (although the thought of it turns his stomach, he’ll never show it).

He puts up with his prattle for several minutes, Obi informing him of everything from the tiff in the kitchens early this morning to a small, but repairable incident in the chapel regarding rhododendron lining the pews.

Google rhododendron. I’ll wait.

It’s when he gets to Shirayuki that Zen starts to truly listen, though.

“I can’t wait to see the look on Masters face when he sees Mistress,” Obi sighs, cocking his hip against the chaise lounge with a soft smile. “She’s absolutely breathtaking.”

Zen glances over at the other man with a question on his face, only to have his breath driven from him when he takes in Obi’s naked expression.

Oh. Oh, that look—

I have the MEANEST idea for a B-side from when Obi sees Shirayuki in a wedding dress, but le sigh… so many ideas, so little time to write them.

But I also wanted to carry over this idea that Obi always sees Shirayuki first when she’s all dressed up. Why would her wedding be any different? And why would Shirayuki expect any less?

Zen blinks, swallowing rapidly as he straightens himself and painting a careful smile on his face.

This must be killing him.

“You are a better man than I, Obi,” he comments as he adjusts his cufflinks, turning back towards the mirror to watch the other’s reflection. “I don’t know if I would be able to do what you were doing.”

Obi stills, his smile wavering for just a moment, but it’s enough. One hand with its tapered fingers and bronzed skin reaches up unconsciously to clutch at his shoulder, and his gaze becomes wistful as he looks at the open balcony doors. “I could never hope to be worthy, Master. It is just my wish to serve you both as long as I am needed.”

I have always wanted to write an honest conversation between Zen and Obi about Obi’s obvious feels for Shirayuki. And this is as honest as it gets. It hurts him on an obvious level to see her marrying Zen, but not so much that it overshadows his love for the both of them and his happiness at seeing them wed.

Also Obi has, from day 1, been waiting for the moment when he is sent away. If you remember that conversation with Torou in canon, there was a long talk about the body becoming heavy when one stays still too long. I believe that for someone who has lived such a transient life, the longer one stays in one place, the harder it becomes to pull up the plant by the roots. And this is done in such a violent way that it of course leaves damage to the whole.

So in this scene, Obi means every single word that he’s saying. He just doesn’t know that Zen’s about to use his words as permission to take the next step.

It would be a mercy. A kindness, really.

It reeks of self-justification, but Zen truly believes that he is being compassionate in doing what he’s about to do.

Zen braces himself for what he knows must come next. “What are you going to do after the wedding, then?”

Obi guffaws, the longing disappearing from his face in an instant as he turns back to Zen. “Likely get drunk,” he replies with a broad grin. “I hear these royal weddings serve only the best!”

Zen laughs. Of course. He would, too, if the situations were reversed.

At this point, Zen and Obi’s understanding of the conversation has diverged. Out of all the days, this is not the one where Obi expects to be sent away, but Zen is seeing it as the only solution for all of them. The rumors labeling him a cuckold can disappear with Obi, and Obi doesn’t have to watch the woman he loves be with another man. It’s a win-win.

“No, I mean, long term,” he clarifies.

Obi tilts his head, questioning. Ah, why was he making this difficult? Obi had always been skilled at hidden meanings, but perhaps he couldn’t, or more accurately, wouldn’t want to understand.

It’s best to remove the bandage swiftly.

And this is where Zen realizes that they are not speaking at the same level and he is going to have to do the unfortunate task of spelling it out because Obi is too loyal to leave on his own.

He glances up to where Obi’s reflection leans against the lounge. His face has gone blank, but the edges of his eyes are tilted downwards, wide and motionless.

There is no way I could have written this scene from Obi’s POV. No way. It’s too much. The level of shock and pain he is feeling in indescribable. He’s realizing that his expectation is coming true, but he’s also realizing that he put so much faith in his Master and his Mistress that there was some small hope that he’d be allowed to stay with them forever.

But, of course, that’s not the case. And he thinks it is his fault because he couldn’t keep his emotions off of his face and he couldn’t squash them down so they didn’t get in the way. He doesn’t hate Zen–he never hates Zen throughout all of this (he does get rage-y about Shirayuki’s suffering, but he loves Zen too much to ever get to the point where he hates him)–he hates himself for making this situation what it is.

Zen clenches his jaw in a bid to keep from taking his words back, pretending that this was all an ill-conceived joke and going about the rest of their lives the way that they had been for years.

There’s a lot of torn emotions going on in Zen throughout this. He has this undercurrent jealousy driving his actions that he refuses to acknowledge as having something to do with his actions. He has his “compassion” for Obi. But he also can see that he has just broke the man and he loves him, too. He entertains the thought of just silently suffering the fact that his wife and her knight might be sneaking around behind his back. But that’s not pragmatic for his station. He doesn’t want to hurt him, but ultimately he is making a difficult choice to do what is best for everyone.

A motion in the corner of the room catches his attention and he follows it to see Kiki standing still by the door, her face grim.

Kiki’s character, throughout all of Ever After, is the most enjoyable silent side story because she stands as silent witness to EVERYTHING. And she gets to be witness to the worst-case scenario marriage that she has always dreaded.

The sound of bells ring through the palace and Zen pulls in a deep breath of air, nodding. “I’ll see you at the reception then,” he says quietly, moving towards the door under Kiki’s watchful gaze.

I have PLANS to hurt you all at a whole new level.

The door opens before him, and Mitsuhide is there, making broad motions with his hands. “Come on, Zen!” he laughs. “You are going to be late to your own wedding.”

While Kiki’s character stands as silent witness, I thought it would be great to pair her with Mitsuhide’s inability to see what is wrong. He is blindly loyal to Zen and even if Kiki were to explain what had happened, it is likely that he would have explained it away. Obviously, Kiki misinterpreted what she saw… which is why she doesn’t tell.

Zen smiles, casting one look back and finding Obi collapsed on the chaise, fingers pressed to his forehead–a dark blotch in a room filled with light.

It’s for the best.

Carrying on with the earlier theme of God favors the righteous… Some small part of Zen thinks that Obi gets what he deserves. He wouldn’t be afflicted like this if he weren’t so deserving of it. He’s seen the scars, the way Obi fights, his willingness to bend the rules… He’s been infected by the darkness that he wears and he operates in. He doesn’t belong in a bright place like this.

And Obi agrees.

#Anonymous #dvd commentary meme #ever after #watchtower #i wrote this at 3am #hopefully it is coherent #ask bubbles

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