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jikookiekosmos · 1 year

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Seneschal || jjk (Part 1)

➥Pairing: vampire!jungkook/reader, former prince!jungkook/reader

➥Summary: Having been burned by the rest of the world, Jungkook was content to watch it go up in flames. Or, at least, he was until you gave him hope for something new. As plans are set in motion to unite your rival kingdoms, unforeseen circumstances arise. In the midst of the chaos, Jungkook is sure of one thing: he’d be damned if he let you get burned, too.

➥Genre: strangers to lovers, angst, slow burn, (eventual) fluff, (eventual) smut, royalty au, supernatural au

➥Rating: 18+

➥Words: ~6k

➥Content Warnings: a bit of angst, no smut in the first part but there is a little bit of nudity mentioned, blood and violence are mentioned, vampire lore(?), swearing, this is more of an intro chapter than anything else so there isn’t a whole lot that happens

A/N: so uh…it’s been a while, yeah? I haven’t updated any of my BTS fics on this blog in over a year due to a lot of life things (you can read here if you’re curious as to why), but I finally had a little time to sit down and dedicate to this idea I teased back in November 2021. As mentioned in the content warnings, this is more of an intro chapter so there isn’t a whole lot going on…definitely will be more happening later.

Anyways all that to say thank you to everyone who has supported/is still supporting me and my writing even during my hiatus. It means the absolute world to me 💜

(Also special shout-out to @dntaewithluv for listening to me ramble off idea about this for a literal year, I love you so much and appreciate you immensely ❤️)

seneschal [sen-uh-shuhl] (noun) an officer having full charge of domestic arrangements, ceremonies, the administration of justice, etc., in the household of a medieval prince or dignitary; steward.

Otherwise known as Jungkook’s consolation prize when he was coerced to step down from the throne.

It had been 2 years since the…incident occurred, but Jungkook could still remember it as if it had just happened.

Which is exactly what he was reflecting on as a vial was being thrust into his vision.

He blinked rapidly a few times before staring up at the person holding the vial out for him, their face a mixture of excitement and mild impatience.

“Well? We don’t have all day. Drink up, Jeon.”

Jungkook glared.

“My apologies, please drink the potion, Mr. Jeon.”

“Jimin, you know how I feel about you and formalities-”

“It just so happens that my manners come out more as my patience grows thin.” Jimin teased. “So,” he tried once more, “drink it.”

Jungkook sighed and shook his head, knowing it was better to leave well enough alone.

“Are you sure this is safe,” Jungkook asked as he stared hesitantly at the vial filled with blue liquid just inches away from his face.

Jimin rolled his eyes before grabbing Jungkook’s hand and closing it around the vial. “Yes, for the billionth time I wouldn’t give you something I thought might harm you.” He took a step back and crossed him arms, waiting patiently for Jungkook to do something.

With a sigh Jungkook carefully brought the vial to his lips, swallowing the liquid without putting too much thought into it. The taste was bitter, but not wholly unpleasant, and a few more moments passed before either of them spoke.

“And the verdict is?” The genuine curiosity in Jimin’s voice was something Jungkook had always found to be endearing.

Jungkook chuckled. Jimin may have still been a wizard in training, but he always had Jungkook’s best interest at heart.

“How am I supposed to know if anything happened? You tell me.”

Jimin blinked before the realization set in. “Oh, right.” He stepped forward once more, peering into Jungkook’s eyes as best he could in the dim lighting of the room.

Jungkook already knew the results before Jimin could confirm them. The way his face dropped said it all.

“They’re still red. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, I’m following all the rules-”

“Jimin.”

“Maybe the spellbook is outdated, you know? This is the only one I’ve ever seen anyone else use, it must be centuries old at this point-”

“Jimin,” Jungkook stated more firmly this time, clapping his hand on the other’s shoulder to keep him from pacing around more. “It’s fine.”

Jimin groaned. “But it’s not fine, what kind of a supposed ‘wizard’ am I if I can’t even do a simple eye color changing spell.”

“You’re one that’s trying and that’s what matters.”

“Yeah, but,” Jimin broke off, pout prominent on his face. “you shouldn’t have to wear contacts all the time.”

Jungkook offered a gentle smile to his downtrodden friend. “There’s lots of things I shouldn’t have to do, but I do them anyway. It’s only a slight inconvenience, not a big deal.”

Jimin didn’t seem convinced. “I don’t know why you need to wear them in the first place, does it really matter if people see-”

“Yes,” Jungkook cut him off with a tone of finality. “We’ve been over this. It’s best for everyone if they don’t figure it out.”

“So you’re honestly fine with everyone thinking you did something horrible enough to make you step down from the throne? You’re ok with letting people drag your name through the mud constantly?”

Jungkook shrugged. “It’s just better this way.”

Jungkook could swear he heard Jimin growl. “It’s not right and you know it. You’re just too set in your ways about not wanting to bring dishonor on your family. Which, by the way, not sure if you noticed but they aren’t the most honorable people.”

“Don’t.” Another statement with a stern tone. This time, Jimin obeyed.

Jungkook ran a hand through his hair, letting the dark curls fall at their own leisure. “I need to get going or I’ll be late.”

If he left now he had just enough time to stop by his room and grab his contacts he’d left behind on his way to see Jimin, as per Jimin’s request.

“I’ve got it all figured out, so you won’t even need them this time!” Jimin had promised.

Jungkook had hope that one of these days Jimin would be victorious in all of his spellcasting endeavors, and he’d be there to support him the whole way through.

Right now, however, he had bigger matters to attend to.

On his way back to his chambers he saw Seokjin, who he figured was en route to go check on Jimin, seeing as he was the appointed court wizard and Jimin was his apprentice.

Jungkook nodded at him as they passed by each other, but Seokjin calling out for him had him turning around.

“Yes?”

It was then that Jungkook could see just how tired Seokjin looked. “Lord Jeon requests your presence before your meeting with the king.”

Jungkook raised an eyebrow. “Did he now? He bother to tell you what it was about?”

Seokjin shook his head, brows somewhat furrowed. Jungkook sensed that he seemed tense overall, and Jungkook didn’t like it.

“He didn’t. He just said it was important and had to be done as soon as possible.”

With a deep sigh, Jungkook relented, mumbling a thank you to Seokjin as he changed the direction he was walking. His brother’s chambers were located in a completely different wing of the castle, but he still had enough time to stop by his own room afterwards if he played his cards right.

He could hear the noises before he even approached the door, faint enough to go unnoticed by other passerby, but due to his heightened senses he had the unfortunate luck of not being able to remain oblivious. Jungkook knocked on the door despite the urge to just barge in; protocol was a big thing here and it was best for him to keep that in mind.

When he got no answer, he knocked once more before he squared his shoulders and turned the knob to open the door.

Without waiting for a greeting, he walked in, fully prepared for what he might find, seeing as it’d happened before.

Sure enough, the sight he was met with was exactly what he expected.

“Ah, so you finally came,” a snarky voice called out to him, slightly muffled. Jungkook rolled his eyes as he waited for the other party to get situated.

“What do you want, Yoongi?”

The blonde man in the bed not far from Jungkook smiled as the sheets fell around his waist. The woman next to him had even less shame, not bothering to cover her naked torso.

It wasn’t like Jungkook had never seen it before, anyway-

“Now is that anyway to address your superior?”

Jungkook gritted his teeth. “It is when my ‘superior’ is my younger brother.”

Yoongi tutted disapprovingly. “If you recall, you’re still only 24 years old-”

“Yoongi.”

“Which makes me the older brother now since I just turned 25.” he flashed a grin and the woman beside him snuggled up to his arm, still not completely covering her breasts. Jungkook looked away.

“So,” Yoongi continued, “you care to try that again?”

“I don’t, thanks. What do you want?”

Yoongi huffed, clearly unamused. “What I want is for you to tell our father what my requests are for the event we’re holding.”

This intrigued Jungkook enough to turn his sights back to his brother. “You’re not attending?”

“Unfortunately, no,” Yoongi feigned remorse. “I have more important matters to attend to.”

Jungkook watched in disgust as Yoongi grabbed a hold of the woman’s chin to turn her face so that he could kiss her. He closed his eyes and let out a deep breath.

“So you’re not coming then?”

“Oh he’s not, but he will be,” the woman ran her hand up Yoongi’s arm. Long, teal hair covered her shoulders, reminding Jungkook of when it was first dyed. He’d been there with her after all, so of course he’d remember it.

She giggled at her own joke while Yoongi laughed boisterously, 2 sounds Jungkook wished he’d never have to hear again.

He’d never been that lucky.

“I don’t have time for this,” was his only remark before he turned on his heel to exit the room.

Jungkook ignored Yoongi’s calls for him to come back, instead taking longer than necessary strides to put as much room between him and his brother as possible.

A low growl died in his throat as he pulled on the edge of his chain dangling from his neck. It looked like an ordinary chain necklace to the untrained eye, but it was long enough to where the end of it could fit in Jungkook’s pocket. From his neck, the rest of the chain disappeared beneath his shirt, covering the length of his chest.

It was a safety measure more than anything, something Seokjin and Jimin had helped him come up with following the ‘incident.’

⊱─────✧༺✧༻✧─────⊰

“Silver has been known to cause excruciating pain to vampires,” Seokjin had explained, “but this is a special chain, charmed with a spell that dulls that effect.”

“It doesn’t get rid of it completely?” Jimin’s confusion was evident alongside his concern for his friend.

Seokjin shook his head. “It won’t, only because that was Jungkook’s request.”

Jimin’s worried stare shifted to Jungkook, who was sitting on one of the tables in Seokjin’s chambers. His shirt was shredded, and his chest was stained scarlet: souvenirs of his most recent outing.

He went out to feed, traveling several towns over, and ended up failing miserably. Jungkook maybe got a few seconds of satisfaction before he was being ripped away from his willing victim and promptly beaten by 3 other men.

He absolutely could’ve taken them, but he was already ashamed of what he was doing in the first place. He figured that this was punishment that he had coming in one way or another.

That night when he stumbled into Seokjin’s room, bloodied and defeated, they put together a plan straight away.

Jimin asked to sit in and observe, since he was still unfamiliar with certain spells, but he missed that part of the conversation when he was fetching supplies.

“I don’t understand, why do you want the chain to still be able to cause pain?”

Jungkook sighed, wrapping part of it around his fist and noticing instantly the slight burn the metal singed his skin with. “Because the pain will hopefully be enough to stop me.”

“Stop you from doing what?”

Jungkook slowly raised his eyes to look at Jimin, a small, sorrowful smile stretched across his face.

“Something I regret.”

⊱─────✧༺✧༻✧─────⊰

The familiar sting of the chain branded the inside of his palm with invisible marks, and he kept it curled inside his hand until he was in front of his own chamber doors. He was really pushing time now, close to being late for his advisory meeting, but he’d risk a slight delay in the start of the meeting versus having to explain why his eyes were crimson colored.

Once he had his contacts fixed, he all but jogged to the large meeting room down the hall. A few guards and his father were already there, waiting on him as it seemed he was the last to show up.

“You’re late,” the king greeted, a hint of disappointment in his tone.

Jungkook was used to that by now.

“Sorry, Your Majesty, I had to run a few errands first. Shall we start?”

The king cleared his throat and nodded, holding out his hand to the guard nearest him. A scroll was placed into his large palm before he quickly unraveled it.

Jungkook watched his eyes flit across the parchment, and when he deemed it satisfactory, the king handed it back to the guard so he could pass it down to Jungkook.

“You’ll find the agenda there for tomorrow’s event. I’m entrusting you, as usual, with all the planning so you can make sure everything is taken care of.”

Jungkook hummed as he read through everything. It all looked to be in order: designated time for the other guests to arrive, instructions for what catering needed to be prepared, an outline of what was required for Yoongi’s meeting with the princess-

Jungkook read that line again. And another time. He ground his teeth together as he looked back up at the king whose eyebrow was raised as he waited.

“Well? Is something the matter? You look perturbed.”

“Father-”

“This is an official meeting, boy. No informal titles allowed.”

Jungkook’s jaw was clenched. “Your Majesty,” he tried again, “what is this last portion here about a meeting with a princess?”

“Ah yes, that.” The nonchalant answer made Jungkook’s anger rise even further. “The meeting between their princess and our prince is what will be the defining moment for the entire event.”

Jungkook had known there was some sort of event happening that was supposed to – hopefully – demolish the rivalry between the two neighboring kingdoms. There had been bad blood for far too long, and it sometimes made it difficult to retrieve supplies from other areas without conflict arising.

Jungkook had been tasked with planning everything for the guests arrival, as his job required him to do. Despite being kicked from the royal lineage, he was allowed to stay a part of the royal court and act as a steward of sorts. It wasn’t always the best, but he figured it beat being exiled from the kingdom entirely.

He worked tirelessly over the last several months to ensure that all boxes were checked for this gathering. But this new information blindsided him, and now it suddenly made sense why his father and Yoongi both seemed so cocky and sure that this would work.

“And no one thought it pertinent enough to tell me that this would be happening?”

Of all things he could’ve done in that moment, the king had the audacity to shrug. “You won’t be present for that bit of it, so we didn’t feel it was necessary to tell you.”

“Then why isn’t Yoongi here for this instead of me,” Jungkook tried to keep his tone respectful, but even he couldn’t stop some of the malice from slipping through.

“The prince” the king put heavy emphasis on the title, “is busy carrying out other affairs, so it didn’t seem important to bother him with this.”

“Yeah, affair is certainly one way to put it,” he mumbled, crossing his arms as he looked to the side.

“I beg your pardon?”

Jungkook exhaled through his nose. “Nothing, Your Majesty.”

The king stared at Jungkook for a few more moments before he dismissed the other guards in the room.

“Gentleman, if you’d kindly take your leave for a moment – I need to have a discussion with my son. Two of you may remain posted at the door in case you’re needed.”

The guards obeyed quickly, bowing as they exited.

Jungkook scoffed. “So now I’m your ‘son?’ I’m surprised that word still exists in your vocabulary where I’m concerned.”

“Jungkook, be quiet!” The king raised his voice as a warning and slammed his fist against the table, stopping Jungkook’s jabs in their tracks.

“Regardless of your faults and any heinous acts you may have committed, you are still my son. Whether I like it or not.”

Jungkook hated how those words caused a dull ache in his chest.

“And because you are my son, that is why you are still allowed to be here in the first place. Do you ever think about how easy it would’ve been to toss you on the street like some mere commoner,” the king spat, his own outward frustration mirroring what Jungkook felt on the inside.

“You only tell me every chance you get, how could I not?”

“Watch your tone with me, boy. I am not above throwing you in the dungeon for insubordination.”

Jungkook was well aware. At this rate, he had his own personal cell with how often his father (and more so his brother) felt the need to send him there.

“Can we go back to what this ‘meeting’ is supposed to entail? Why is their princess involved?”

The king squared his shoulders and smiled. “They’ve offered a marriage proposal.”

Jungkook’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry, a what?”

“Exactly what it sounds like. The king’s eldest daughter, Princess Mina, is being offered as a marriage candidate for Prince Yoongi.”

“And Yoongi agreed to this?”

The king frowned at Jungkook’s continued lack of formality before he nodded. “He’s been preparing for it for a while now.”

Jungkook clenched his fist under the table.

“Fucking unbelievable,” Jungkook muttered, a few seconds from leaving the meeting altogether in order to give the prince a piece of his mind.

“Language,” the king reminded him sternly.

“Look, fa- Your Majesty. With all due respect to you, I think this is a terrible idea.”

“Please do enlighten me as to why you feel that way.”

Jungkook sighed as he rubbed his temples. “Arranged marriages amongst royals never seem to work out well from what I’ve seen. Arranged marriages amongst anyone just seems like a poor idea.”

“Your mother and I married as part of an arrangement, and we turned out fine.”

Jungkook would beg to differ, but that was an entirely different conversation for some other time.

“I just think it’s odd that he would accept this proposal when he’s already involved with someone else.”

Finally, it was the king’s turn to look taken aback. “Whatever do you mean?”

‘He doesn’t know,’ Jungkook realized.

“Don’t worry about it, I just assumed he already had someone in mind is all.”

“Unlike you, the prince seems to be able to keep his mind off of finding love amongst the common rabble outside the castle walls.”

Jungkook winced.

“Additionally, if he did already have someone in mind, I’m sure I would’ve heard about it by now.”

“You know better than I would,” Jungkook lied. He knew that Yoongi kept many, many secrets from their parents, which is why he’d always been the favorite. They never got a glimpse of his true nature, but unfortunately for Jungkook, he got to see all of it.

“Indeed,” the king said with finality, marking the end of that conversation. “Now, back to the preparations for the event-”

“I’ll handle it,” Jungkook sounded much more deflated than when he entered the room. Animosity exhausted him.

“Good. I expect nothing less of you. I don’t expect much from you to start with, but I at least anticipate you will do your job.”

Another mindless insult. Jungkook stopped keeping count of how many times his father shamed him years ago after the scandal first broke.

If anyone asked him, he’d even go so far as to say his father’s love for him died the same day his human life ended.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, the queen and I have other matters to attend to before tomorrow.” The king got up from the table and walked off, not even bothering to see if Jungkook would also make way to leave. Before he exited through the door, he turned back one last time to look at Jungkook.

“Don’t make me regret letting you stay here. This is the most important thing the kingdom has faced since you were a child, and if you mess it up somehow, being exiled will be the least of your worries.”

Jungkook received the threat with a solemn stare, no more words spoken as he was then left alone in the large room.

On the way back to his chambers, Jungkook had a lapse in judgment. He turned and let his feet carry him to his new destination, landing three hard knocks on the door before it opened quickly.

“What?” An annoyed tone filtered through the open doorway. “Oh – it’s just you.”

Yoongi’s hair was less disheveled than it had been earlier, but it was clear he was now trying to get himself ready for later activities in the day.

“What do you want?” Yoongi crossed his arms as he leaned against the doorframe, not allowing Jungkook any space to enter the room.

Not that he really wanted to, anyway. He just needed to know one thing.

“Does she know?”

Yoongi blinked in confusion. “Does who know about what? You gotta be more specific, I can’t read your mind-”

“Does she know,” Jungkook interrupted, more sternly this time. “What’s happening tomorrow. Does she know?”

He had to ask. As much as he loathed her now, he still thought she deserved better than to be cheated on and discarded like she was nothing.

Even if that’s exactly what she’d done to him.

Jungkook watched as Yoongi’s eyes sparked with amusement when he finally understood. “Aeris? Yeah, she knows. She actually just left by the way; sorry you didn’t get to see her again.”

Jungkook’s eyebrows furrowed.

“So she knows and she’s fine with it?”

“Yeah, I mean – she gets it a ‘thing’ I have to do. It’s completely transactional and I’m only doing it for the betterment of the kingdom.”

Yoongi was lying through his teeth and Jungkook wanted to wipe his smug grin off his face. His entire life Yoongi had been selfish and only looked out for himself, so this idea that he was doing it to help the people living in the kingdom?

Absolutely preposterous.

Jungkook needed a fucking break. He needed to get away, clear his head before he had to come back and deal with everything else tomorrow.

He walked off without another word, something he knew Yoongi hated – which is most of the reason why he’d done it.

“You know,” Yoongi shouted after him, “I think bitterness suits you. It’s a good look since it matches the rest of your miserable demeanor!”

Jungkook ignored him and continued walking, not stopping until he reached his favorite spot in the entire castle.

He would often come up to the highest balcony, somewhere he could be alone with his thoughts and not have the added stress of other’s opinions for a short while.

The balcony was all but abandoned as he was the only one to frequent it. The only crime he’d ever say he committed was stealing the key to the door that granted access up here. After a while, everyone else forgot about it, so he was able to keep this spot hidden. A place of his own, where he didn’t have to worry about being found.

A place of his own where his thoughts could run wild. A place of his own where his demons continued to follow him despite his best efforts.

A place of his own where he could just be alone.

After all, that’s what was best for everyone, right?

Jungkook couldn’t help but wonder, as he’d done many times before, what his life would be like now if he hadn’t been attacked. His entire life – as a prince, as an official royal family member, as a living, breathing human – was cut short in the blink of an eye. His humanity as he knew it was gone in an instant.

If it hadn’t happened, though, where would he be now? Would it be him getting ready to marry someone for political gain instead of his brother?

He shook his head as he let out a humorless chuckle. He knew he’d fight that decision with everything he had, and for he first time since it had been stripped away from him, he was relieved he wasn’t in that kind of position anymore.

The thought of sharing his life with someone he didn’t truly care about, whether it was for the greater good or not, just didn’t seem right, nor did it seem fair. Not to mention the fact that it didn’t just include him: someone’s else’s life would be affected just as much as his.

It dawned on him then that he was standing here, genuinely putting thought into how he would handle such a situation. He wasn’t some cold, heartless being. He still had the ability to care for others, and that alone gave him some sort of hope.

He looked up at the moon, admiring how the light spilled through the branches of the tree overhead.

“Maybe I still have some humanity left after all.”

lady-in-waiting (noun) a woman of noble birth who serves a female monarch as a member of the royal household.

“Please hold still, Your Highness,” you huffed with thinly veiled frustration as you tried to lace up the corset you were currently working on.

You made a mental note to go shopping later in order to find better dresses for the princess. They still would be ones that were just as extravagant, but hopefully didn’t give you a blood pressure spike to assist with.

“Oh please, what’s with the formal treatment? It’s just us right now, you don’t have to do that, you know.”

“Yes, but,” you tugged once more, finally letting out a sigh of relief when the strings worked how you wanted them to. “With the event happening soon, it’s better for me to get back into the habit.”

Being best friends with the princess granted you some privileges that you were grateful for. When it was just the two of you, you didn’t have to uphold this extra formal, fancy attitude and instead you both got to be much more laid-back. You knew she appreciated it just as much as - if not more than - you, since she was held to a higher standard and scrutinized more heavily.

However, by the kingdom’s definition, you were first and foremost her lady-in-waiting, which ranked above any and all other duties you had in the royal court. Which, unfortunately, meant that at certain times your role took precedence over your friendship, and that was just the way it had to be.

“Ugh, I can’t wait for all this stupid royal relations stuff to be over.”

“Mina-”

She held up a hand. “Let me get it out, then you can scold.”

You waited patiently, fixing the other parts of the dress while she rambled on for the umpteenth time about her dislike for the event happening soon.

“…I mean this is a rival kingdom, we don’t even like them, so why bother. You know?”

“Mhm,” you hummed as you agreed honestly. It did seem like a stretch for your kingdom to try and force relations with one who had been a long-standing rival. The way you saw it, if after all these years and prior failed attempts had yet to work, what made the king think this would be any different?

Of course, there was now the added factor of a new bargaining chip: the king and queen were offering one of their daughters as a potential marriage candidate for the other kingdom’s prince.

Mina, being the oldest princess in line, begrudgingly accepted for the sake of the kingdom.

The plan had been set in motion months prior, but it was all finally happening tomorrow – both you and Mina were on edge, anticipating the worst but hoping for the best.

What was supposed to happen seemed simple enough: the king would accompany the princess on her visit to the other kingdom, escorted heavily by guards and with you at her side, as you always were. She would meet the prince officially for the first time, and both kings would try to strike up some sort of arrangement.

You figured this would actually be more beneficial for them, seeing as their kingdom was still recovering from a huge scandal that happened a few years ago. You remembered it vividly, taking note of how the abruptness of it all never sat right with you.

The eldest prince stepped down from his position as next in line for the throne, following some sort of act that was only described as ‘utterly disgraceful’ and never really elaborated on in the public news.

Before the news broke, the kingdom was well known for its power and influence all over the land, and the downfall from it all landed a huge blow to their standing. It aided your own kingdom in rising above them in their rivalry, but it appeared that now your own monarchs wanted to put everything behind them and unite for…whatever reason.

You tried not to get too deeply involved in the politics. Your duty was to serve Mina, and the royal family as a whole – this didn’t leave you much room to voice your own opinions.

Mina’s soft calling of your name pulled you out of your thoughts.

“Yes?”

Any frustration you had left from the dress fiasco quickly evaporated when you saw her face. She was biting her lip, and in that moment she looked very meek, small. Very unlike the exuberant, confident young woman you knew.

“I’m scared.”

You sighed at that, pulling her into a hug that she gratefully accepted. This was this first time she had outright said it, but you could tell she was terrified from the moment she was first told about this arrangement months ago.

“I know,” you patted her back. You wanted to tell her everything would be alright, that it would all work out, but you couldn’t bring yourself to do it.

Lying to someone to provide them comfort was never something you could get behind, and you didn’t plan to start now.

“I promise you, though, that whatever happens, we’ll get through it together.” You didn’t feel bad saying that because it was the truth; you were ready to face anything when it came to Mina, and you’d do anything for her.

She was basically the most important person in your life, and you’d be damned if you let anything bad happen to her.

Well…anything short of letting her go through with a marriage to a man she’d never met.

Just as your duty to her came first, her duty to her kingdom came first. You knew it and respected it, even if you didn’t always like it.

Mina giggled, her frame shaking slightly in your hold. “It almost sounds like you’re the one I’m supposed to be marrying,” she teased.

You joined in her laughter. “I mean, I don’t think it would yield quite the same results-”

“We both know we’d be arrested before we could even say ‘I do.’” Mina joked, despite her dark attempt at humor having a level of truth to it.

“A princess marrying her lady-in-waiting?” You covered your heart and pretended to be appalled. “Imagine the scandal!”

Mina shoved you lightheartedly, her laughter echoing off the walls. She looked miles happier than she’d been a few minutes prior, and you were relieved to see it.

“C’mon, help me with my hair or we’re gonna be late.” Mina collected her hairbow from her dresser and handed it to you so you could tie up her hair in the back. When you were done, she glanced quickly in the mirror and nodded, pleased with the result.

“Is there anything else you need to do?”

You gave yourself a once-over in the mirror as well and decided that your outfit would have to do. It wasn’t bad by any means, but if you had a little more time, you probably could’ve spruced it up some more.

“All good here. After you, my Lady.” You made a grand gesture out of letting her go first, which earned you another light shove.

“Cut that out! We still have a few minutes of freedom left before we have to be formal.”

You chuckled. “You got it.”

✧───────⊱✧⊰───────✧

You accompanied Mina to her final etiquette training before the big day. Everything she learned was more of a refresher than new material, but her nervousness kept her from doing her best, which led to her being reprimanded by the queen.

“How can you expect to marry someone if you can’t play the part of a prim and proper princess?”

Mina bit her tongue, as she usually did with her mother, and you expected to get an earful from her later about the situation. To your surprise, instead of venting, she was quiet and calm upon returning to her chambers.

Before she was ready to sleep for the night, you checked in one her one last time. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?”

With a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes, she responded. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

✧───────⊱✧⊰───────✧

You had never woken up more stressed out in your entire life.

All your training had culminated in this moment. You were to make sure that the princess arrived safely along with her appointed guards, and it was also up to you to make sure that everything went off without a hitch.

Such a small responsibility, right? What could possibly go wrong?

Well, for starters-

The castle you found yourself in was much larger than you anticipated, which was saying a lot considering the castle you lived in was already rather large.

Also, you weren’t the best with directions, but as long as you and Mina didn’t get separated, that shouldn’t be a problem.

And it wasn’t a problem…until it came time for her to meet the prince.

“We’re sorry, miss, but only high-ranking royal officials can be present for this meeting.” A guard held out his arm, blocking you from following Mina into the room. She frowned and tried to protest on your behalf, but her father wasn’t having any of it.

“She’ll be fine, we need to get a move on.” He grabbed a hold of her elbow and ushered her along, and you got one last look at her worried countenance before the doors closed.

Now was when the panic set in.

“I-I need water. Or just- something.” You said it aloud but didn’t really know if anyone would hear you or help you for that matter.

Thankfully, the guard who had just cut you off was kind enough to give you directions to the kitchen and dining area. You’d been there not too long ago when everyone was eating the meal that had been prepared, so surely – you thought – it wouldn’t be an issue to stop by and get a drink to calm your nerves.

That plan worked for all of about ten minutes before you re-entered the hallway from the dining room only to find nobody was around. No guards, no passerby, nothing.

It didn’t help that, from what you had seen, most hallways looked nearly identical.

You were officially lost. Alone, panicking, and lost in a castle you’d never been to before with no one in sight to help. Unsure of what else to do, since walking around aimlessly definitely did not seem like a good idea, you did what any normal person would do.

You sat down on the floor and wrapped your arms around your legs, resting your head on top of your knees.

This had to be your worst nightmare. You were separated from Mina, the one person other than yourself who you were responsible for taking care of, and you were also stuck in unfamiliar territory which was one of your biggest fears.

None of your training ever prepared you for this-

“Are you alright, miss?”

A soft voice filtered through your thoughts, making your head snap up. Your breath got caught in your throat.

There was a man kneeling down in front of you, his hand extended as he offered you a gentle smile.

Suddenly, your situation didn’t seem like such a nightmare anymore.

A/N: thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!

permanent taglist: @inlovewiththemoonn @lavienjin

fic taglist: @veronawrites @thisartemisnevermisses @outro-kook @cravingforhotchocolate

please let me know if you want to be added or removed!

➥Series Masterlist

➥All Works Masterlist

#bts #jungkook #vampire!jungkook #jungkookangst #jungkook au #jungkook x reader #jungkook scenarios

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powdermelonkeg · 1 year

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Tears of the Kingdom: Final Trailer Analysis

This is most likely the last teaser we're going to get before the game's release in three months, and hoo boy, did Nintendo not hold back with this one.

Unlike my previous set of trailer breakdowns, this one's also going to factor in the audio. Because the audio for this gives some very telling details.

Let's start with the first shot.

Unfortunately, the video starts off a bit grainy due to the rain contrast. This clears itself up later, but it makes these initial first few seconds a bit hard to make out. The clearest one I could get is the one above, where the lightning strike is visible, but the flash has already passed.

Death Mountain is ablaze with malice, as we saw in previous trailers.

The shrines are encased in green spirals.

Then after that, the graininess starts to clear up, and we see these strange new enemies

I'm going to call them kargarocs. I'll get to why later.

With another flash of lightning, the scene finally gets into proper definition, and we can make a few things out.

Bokoblins patrol the ruins these kargarocs are guarding

And it's right beside a misty, deciduous forest. The mist seems like a new element of the game rather than weather we can pinpoint, however.

Then, up in the sky, only visible thanks to the lightning, we can see an island with a structure on it.

The light fades, and-

Look at that design! It looks somewhere between a keese and a toadpoli. The feet can definitely grab things, but the throat pouch makes me think this thing might spit acid.

Next we have a shot of the Hyrulean countryside, facing Hebra from the southeast.

The first thing that stands out is this rune. We saw it in the last trailer, too, though this one appears more yellow than teal; it could be lighting, or it could be a different effect.

We have what appears to be a Sheikah tower, surrounded by light. The core is orange, though, indicating that it's disabled, and it looks to be missing its top; upon closer inspection, the sides seem more organic in shape than the rigid towers we're used to:

Then when the lightning strikes the scene

We can see a very interesting-looking shape in the sky.

It looks like it might be the source of this thunderbolt, but more importantly, it looks like it's hiding something. Possibly the temple thing from the 2021 trailer?

We then move on to the isles

This isn't a lot to look at at first, just some mossy ruins, with clouds covering up identifying features. However

What is this? A weight? A checkpoint? Why is it orange? Does it need to be activated?

Then the clouds move.

These ruins here look a lot like the Sacred Ground Ruins in BotW, where Link was recognized as hero.

There are some key differences, though. For one, the platform has no pillars at its center, instead four structures being seen towards the back.

Then there's the big block of a building it's attached to on the right.

Moving on from this, we can also notice another glowing rune

Which looks to be the same one from the first scene, just from a different angle.

What I'm most interested in, however, are the meteor spots beside the Sacred Ground.

Because I recognize that.

That's Gisa Crater.

It's just south of Rito territory. There's a Talus there, and a shrine with a glitch that lets you fall forever. I used it to make Link into a barcode.

Continuing this in a Part 2, because I'm out of image space. I'll edit this with a link to it once it's done.

Edit: Part 2!

#loz #zelda #totk #analysis #breakdown #long post

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aer1ths · 9 months

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FFXV Fic Recommendations

Hello! I thought I’d share some of my favorite fics from my most favorite game. Will update with more when I read more. Thank you!

Set Thy Hidden Stars On Fire by MYuzuki (16k words)

This time, when Prompto wakes up to start a new loop, it’s raining.

Normally, this wouldn’t be a cause for concern (or even a blip on his radar, really) but this time he wakes up outside for some reason, which means he’s in the rain.

And as his luck would have it, it’s something of a downpour.

If you love Prompto, you’ll love this fic. It’s relatively short, but managed to have me still think about it nearly a year after reading. MYuzuki is a great author!

Salvation by cassisluna (11k words)

Nyx Ulric lives and accompanies Lunafreya across Lucis to wake the six. Written for the 2021 FFXV Reverse Bang.

As she travels to wake Titan and Ramuh, Luna is grateful for the time given to her to see the land of Lucis with her own eyes and feet.

Nyx promised the King that he would see Princess Lunafreya to Altissia, and it seems easy enough—until he learns the Oracle's price for forging the covenants. After that, it's just a matter of... maybe going off-route for a while to let the princess sight-see for a bit.

I love anything that expands upon Lunafreya’s character or Kingsglaive. This fic did not disappoint with that at all.

Worth The Risk by Asidian (6k words)

It's captivating. Prompto's probably going to have thirty-eight photos of it for them to relive the experience, in vivid detail, later on.

But Prompto's not taking pictures anymore, Noct realizes. The camera's stopped.

And when Noctis looks over to see what the matter is, Prompto's just staring through the view-finder, head angled up. He's gone absolutely sheet-white – looks like he might pass out. He says, "Noct," very softly, like it's a plea.

Then the world explodes, and something slams into Noctis with the force of a subway train, and everything goes dark.

I adore Asidian’s writing, especially for Prompto. This, and any of their other fics you should absolutely check out!

Honor Bound by The_Asset6 (125k words)

It’s still hard for Ignis, Gladio, and Prompto to believe that Noctis has been gone for a year. However, when an old ally appears to tell them that what is gone might not be lost after all, that spark of hope they kept alive during their ten years apart is rekindled. Their only question: what will they have to sacrifice this time in order to bring their brother back alive?

This fic focuses more on the bros rather than Noctis himself, and it was really nice to see from their POV how far they’d go to get Noct back. A longer read but didn’t drag, great fic!

Somnus Ultima by The_Asset6 (349k words)

King Regis and Queen Aulea’s desire for a child has finally been fulfilled, as well as their kingdom’s need for an heir to the throne. However, when a dark mage with a vendetta against Lucis blesses the young prince with a deadly curse, they realize that no sacrifice is too much when it comes to someone you love.

But too much, it turns out, is never enough.

A sleeping beauty AU! I won’t lie, this one is long, but it’s so worth it. I don’t typically like AU fics, preferring canon-compliant work, but I gave this one a chance and didn’t regret it. The author made great use of the characters and created a lengthy but not hard to read story that was very enjoyable.

Reliance, Resolve by Gnine (13k words)

"Where are you?"

Noct. Voice controlled, each word precise and even. In other words, pissed off to the point of seething. Prompto had obviously screwed up. Again. Seemed about all he was capable of doing lately when it came to Noct—and just about everything else.

-------

Prompto's self-reliant streak kicks into overdrive, sending his life into a tailspin.

A nice pre-game fic centered around Prompto, giving some insight to his and Noct’s relationship. Author tagged as pre-slash.

#ffxv #final fantasy xv prompto #final fantasy xv #final fantasy #ffxv noctis #noctis lucis caelum #fic rec #gladiolus amicitia #ignis scientia #prompto argentum #promptis #ignoct #gladnis #gladnoct #lunafreya nox fleuret #lunoct

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theresattrpgforthat · 6 months

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I just found this blog and i love it!!! I have a few different questions so to make organizing easier im gonna ask one here and send the others separately so I apologize for the abundance of asks im about to send :D what are some of your favorite past jams or bundles?

THEME: Game Jams and Game Bundles.

Thank you so much! I will probably space out these answers so that other folks have a chance to get their questions answered first. But this one is a pretty fun one to start with.

I’m a sucker for charity bundles, to be sure. My first bundle was the Itch Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality, which was back in 2020. I filtered through all 50 pages and sorted all of the ttrpgs into folders - this was the start of my Itch organization. It also introduced me to quite a few games that showed me the amazing breadth of tabletop games, including Subway Runners, Visigoths vs Mall Goths, Troika, and i’m sorry did you say street magic. An additional recommendation I have from this bundle is Transmission Burst v.1 and Transmission Burst v.2, collections of evocative mini games by UFO Press.

One really impressive bundle was The Bundle for Ukraine, which had a staggering amount of tabletop games in it, including Thirsty Sword Lesbians, Apocalypse Frame, Lutong Banwa, and The Great Soul Train Robbery. I want to give a specific shout out to Bright & Terrible (Atlantean Exiles from a kingdom that fell), as well as Recipe on Kmiydish Paper, a solo gaming experience that fleshes out a world through a single recipe.

If you have bought a lot of charity bundles, I also recommend checking out Bundle Browser, which is a website that helps you sift through games by bundle and tag. I find it super helpful when I'm not sure I have a copy of a game, and clicking on the game brings you to its game page!

Now, let's talk about game jams. The Emotional Mecha Jam was a game jam in the beginning of 2019 that explore the depth of emotions that exist in the mecha genre. This jam inspired works such as A Long Night in the Mech Bay, All My Exes are in Mechsuits, and Breakup on Re-Entry. You should absolutely check this jam out.

In 2021, there was a jam called Applied Hope: The Solarpunk and Utopias Jam. I’ve talked about this jam recently, and it’s very very good. I love the theory and conversations sparked in this jam - the goal was to dream of possible worlds - not perfect ones, but ones that were brighter, worlds that could are meant to increase our capacity for joy. I’ve talked about a number of games here before, including subconscious_Routine, Waxworm, and After the World Drowned. I’m also intrigued by Scraps, which won the award for Best Solarpunk DIY game.

The BIPOC Vamp Jam was also a lot of fun! It was a jam that ran in 2021 and asked Black, Indigenous and Creators of Colour to submit their vampire games, in an effort to look at vampires through a different lens. I’ve talked about Vamp Camp and Bloodbeam Badlands before, but I’m also stoked about The Vamp is Dust, (a hack of The Witch is Dead), as well as Project: Day Breaker (Vampires in space!).

Some of my favourite jams are jams that are focused on a specific system. The What’s So Cool About Jam is one of those. It is a super simple system, and the jam is what introduced me to the WSCA ruleset, which is pretty light-weight system that can be translated to a lot of settings. I’ve personally been interested in What is So Cool About Sky Pirates, as well as What’s So Scary About Dinosaurs?.

Titanomachy also has a solid history of good game jams, as evidence by their first and second Caltrop Core jams. Caltrop Core has gotten some pretty big attention, because it’s so easy to hack! This can be seen in in HexFall, which is also by Lex, as well as SW//NG by @farmergadda (emotional superheroes), and Last Hope (dark magical girls). I’m also interested in The Dreaded & The Deep (nautical horror) and The Dying of the Light (a city struggling in the darkness).

#tabletop games #indie ttrpgs #game recommendations #mint speaks #asks #game jams

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chiskz · 1 year

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I'LL BE YOUR MAN (KINGDOM LEGENDARY WAR

𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞: 2021, Kingdom Legendary War era

𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭: 2,2k

𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲: Stray Kids' performance with "I'll be your man" wasn't easy from the very beginning...

♡𝐭𝐚��𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭: @alyszaen , @smh-anon , @neohyxn , @stealanity , @alixnsuperstxr , @kimcheon-sa , @hafsa-hoofsa-heefs , @qtnoaly

《 ♡ 》

The performance with the cover of I'll Be Your Man as part of the Kingdom Legendary War program was fast approaching... It's hard not to, though, when there wasn't that much time at all between recordings for the episodes. Work on the show began a few hours after the song was chosen. All Chichi was waiting for was a background music from 3RACHA that she could work on. Its absence, however, didn't mean she wasn't working - in the meantime, she had already spent several hours thinking about the concept and general set design, which she offered to take care of as part of the choreography. She was just sitting exhausted in the middle of the practice room in worn, washed-out sweatpants and carelessly combed hair when she took the phone in her hand. 3:11am. The night is still young, right? That's probably what Bang Chan thought too, from whom an incoming call had just popped up on her phone screen. She answered the call quickly, maybe a little too quickly.

„Yeah?"

"Are you at the label?"

"Yeah..."

On the other side she heard a quiet sigh.

"Normally I'd tell you to go to bed right away, but this time I'm glad you're here. Will you come up to my studio?"

Ichi made a quiet sound of confirmation and hung up, putting her phone in her pocket. She took a blanket from the leather black couch and wrapped it around herself becoming a pancake of fatigue. She walked slowly up to the next floor, to "Channie's Room." She knocked briefly and went inside. Han and Changbin were already waiting for her on the couch, and Chan was sitting at the desk, on which a laptop lay turned on. All eyes were now on the newly arrived guest.

"I feel like I've done something wrong." She confessed with a quiet laugh and sat down on the armrest of the couch. "What's up?"

Chan sent her an encouraging smile and changed the piece of paper that lay in front of him.

"It's about your lines."

"There's nothing to talk about." She replied immediately, suddenly no longer sleepy. "I don't want any, I just want to dance well."

"But-"

"Really, that would be fine. As long as I can dance well then-"

But she said no more, as Changbin put a small buttered roll into her mouth, a bag of which lay open on the couch between him and Han.

"Be quiet and listen. This is where Changbin did quite a long rap." Chan handed Ichi a piece of paper he had just removed from a small stack lying on his desk. "He said he'd like you to perform it."

"Me?" She looked immediately at Changbin, but he remained silent. She didn't want to make him uncomfortable, so she hastily averted her eyes from him and focused on the text on the piece of paper. "Wouldn't it be easier to divide it between me and Changbin? Or give it to Changbin in general? I don't think I can handle it, it's too important performance to experiment like this..."

"You can handle it." Changbin finally spoke up. "Your pronunciation is already really good, besides you're in good shape, you won't run out of breath, which you control well anyway. You'll succeed and we'd like you to do it. Okay?"

Chichi swallowed her saliva loudly, looking then at the guys then back at the piece of paper. Oh god...

"O-okay."

•••

Recording her rap lasted until 7am, she had already stayed in the studio with the guys, getting 2 energy drinks and big coffee. Changbin directed her, he even recorded for her as he rapped the part so she would know what and how. The boys were pleased with the result, but Ichi only felt growing anxiety and panic. She wasn't good enough to do it, not during something so important. Chan assured her that "when should they experiment if not now," but this did not appeal to her at all. Still, she did it so as not to let down the trust placed in her so much - yet inside she felt she was dying of stress.

The only thing that comforted her was the fact that, along with her part, the recording for the cover had been completed and she already had material with which to move on with her work on the choreography and visual part of the performance. In the whirlwind of all her work, she managed at times to forget the weight that had been placed on her shoulders. After another day and a second consecutive sleepless night, she was already able to proudly invite the rest of the members to the first presentation of the choreography and the first rehearsal. After consulting with Minho, she made a few modifications and rehearsals in the following days were already in full swing.

After one such rehearsals, the members went for a well-deserved break, which was actually lying on the floor together and catching their breath. Chichi wasn't as tired as they were, but she couldn't deny herself lying down between Felix and Jeongin. Maknae tapped her on the cheek with his index finger, to which the oldest member smiled instantly.

"I like your part." He said quietly enough that only she could hear him. "Don't be afraid, ok? Go ahead and do your job."

Ichi could have sworn that if he had added one more sentence she would have cried like a baby. She was afraid, terribly afraid. Raping not live, surrounded by people who made her feel comfortable was one thing, but doing it in front of so many people in front of the TV, in front of other idols with more experience than her, and that's when there's a win at stake... It was already a different thing. She didn't think she should do it. What if she gets the words wrong? What if her accent is heard somewhere and the situation with online hate happens again? She doesn't know if she is currently capable of going through something like that again...

•••

The last rehearsal had just successfully ended. The performance was tomorrow... Ichi turned off the recording she was playing from her laptop and applauded her members briefly.

"Very good. I'm glad we're very in sync, just as I asked. Otherwise the choreography would look very messy. Therefore, today let's have some nice meal, preferably meat, to gain strength. I’m paying."

Sounds of satisfaction went through the training room and boys thanked her with loud applause, then headed for the exit together. Chichi already wanted to follow them out, but after reflexively counting the members in front of her, she realized that someone was missing. She looked behind her and saw Lino, tying the laces of his sports shoes. She smiled softly at this sight and turned around, crouching next to him. The man raised his head, then eyebrow slightly.

"I know where’s exit." He snapped her lightly on the forehead, yet Ichi lost her balance in surprise and fell on her butt. She lowered her eyebrows.

"A person can no longer do anything nice for you without being victimized!"

"Don't cry, or I'll feel sorry or something." She laughed quietly while lowering her head, but Minho helped her up nonetheless. "Why are you so stressed?"

She looked at him unsuccessfully trying to hide her surprise at how quickly he saw through her... Although maybe it wasn't that hard after all?

"How do you know?"

"Your hands are shaking so much that if you put a knife and a potato in them, you would peel it whole after a few seconds."

Chichi didn't even know how to comment on it....

"I don't know myself. I don't think I'm capable of doing something like that. The rap is fast and long, apparently it was meant for two people, not one!" She called out immediately, feeling her voice breaking.

Still, she made no impression on Lino, as he only blinked slowly when she finished speaking.

"So?" Ichi opened her mouth slightly. What do you mean "so"?! "Chan is hardly ever wrong when it comes to music. If he or any of 3RACHA has generally decided that you should perform this particular part then you should do it. If you can't trust yourself then trust them."

Ichi listened to him carefully, a moment later lowering her gaze. If it were as simple as he says... Or maybe it actually is, only she is making it unnecessarily difficult for herself? After all, it's not like the whole performance is focused solely on her part, is it? It's not up to her to determine their to be or not to be... But then again, it's probably too crucial a moment of the song to ruin it?

"You're right." She said finally, feeling like she had been thinking about his words for ages. "Instead of thinking about how I shouldn't do it, I should do my best to do it and do it the best of my ability."

Minho nodded and patted her firmly on the back.

"And keep it that way. Now come on, I didn't waste precious minutes of my life on you so that now I can't eat properly."

Ichi stuck her tongue out at him and went ahead. What he said made sense, the question was did it actually calm her down?

•••

The day of the performance finally came. Ichi paced around the already prepared stage, warming up her voice and waving her hands, unable to stand still. With only a few minutes left, she could feel the stress rising dramatically within her, causing a huge heaviness in her stomach and a cold sweat on the back of her neck. She can’t do it, she can’t do it, she can’t do it...

"You can do it." Mumbled Changbin quietly, standing suddenly behind her. Ichi turned around instantly, taking a deep breath. "I know we have our backs to each other in the choreography, but if you feel the stress is getting to you don't hesitate and look at me, okay? Look at me, your biggest fan."

Ichi felt tears slowly flow into her eyes, disturbing her vision. She began to blink rapidly to get rid of them, and in response let out only a quiet "mhm" muffled by the gurgle formed in her throat by the stress.

The recording began. Chichi was able to concentrate fully on the dance and for a moment forgot about the stress taking over her entire body. It returned with redoubled force, however, when she and Changbin knelt in their positions while all attention was focused on Seungmin and Chan performing their parts. Ichi lowered her head. She felt like throwing up, afraid she would as soon as she opened her mouth. She sniffled silently without even knowing when she started crying. She can’t do it... She turned quickly to Changbin, who must have known all along that she was going to do it, because he was already kneeling facing her. He looked at her intently with eyes apparently filled with tenderness and a sincere belief that she can do it. But she only began to gently shake her head and repeat soundlessly "no, no, no." Changbin couldn't look at her tears. Had they made the wrong decision? Was Chichi really not ready for such a thing? No, he further believed she was. What she wasn't ready for was her self-esteem, which, by how low it was, had led her to such a state. Her part was just about to begin, he, she, Han and Seungmin slowly stood up. This was the moment when Changbin made a spontaneous decision for which he was ready to suffer any consequences later.

With one step, he bridged the distance separating him from Chichi and placed his hand on the back of her neck, with his other hand raising her hand with the microphone to her lips, squeezed by her so tightly that her fingertips turned white. Changbin began to rap with her, and their voices were in almost perfect harmony, despite the fact that they both had strong and distinctive voices. As Ichi entered slowly into the rhythm they moved away from each other, and their rap became more and more aggressive and filled with emotions, as if they had planned it from the beginning.

After the recording ended, all the members left the stage, with Jeongin and Ichi going last with their heads down. In their minds, both of them had ruined the performance. They were unable to look at themselves in the mirror, let alone in the eyes of those who had pinned all their hopes on them. What these poor two didn't know at the time, however, was that it was Jeongin's voice crack and Ichi's tears that added emotion to the performance, added to the pain caused by the broken heart - and that was the main premise of both the song and the overall performance.

《 ♡ 》

bonus - chichi's outfit

#stray kids 9th member #kpop addition #kpop added member #kpop oc #stray kids oc #idol oc #stray kids female oc #stray kids added member #stray kids addition #skz imagines #skz x oc #kingdom legendary war #kpop fake scenario #skz drabbles

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officialyourdailyinspiration · 11 days

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Daniel Brought to Babylon

1 In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. 2 And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the vessels of the house of God; and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his god.

3 Then the king said for Ashpenaz, the chief of his officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal seed and of the nobles, 4 youths in whom was no defect, who were good in appearance, showing insight in every branch of wisdom, being thoroughly knowledgeable and discerning knowledge, and who had ability to stand in the king’s palace; and he said for him to teach them the literature and tongue of the Chaldeans. 5 And the king appointed for them a daily ration from the king’s choice food and from the wine which he drank, and appointed that they should be educated three years, at the end of which they were to stand before the king. 6 Now among them from the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. 7 Then the commander of the officials set names for them; and for Daniel he set the name Belteshazzar, for Hananiah Shadrach, for Mishael Meshach, and for Azariah Abed-nego.

Daniel’s Heart

8 But Daniel set in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself. 9 Now God granted Daniel lovingkindness and compassion before the commander of the officials, 10 and the commander of the officials said to Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has appointed your food and your drink; for why should he see your faces looking more haggard than the youths who are your own age? Then you would make me forfeit my head to the king.” 11 But Daniel said to the overseer whom the commander of the officials had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, 12 “Please test your servants for ten days, and let us be given some vegetables to eat and water to drink. 13 Then let our appearance be observed before you and the appearance of the youths who are eating the king’s choice food; and deal with your servants according to what you see.”

14 So he listened to them in this matter and tested them for ten days. 15 At the end of ten days it was seen that their appearance was better and that they were fatter than all the youths who had been eating the king’s choice food. 16 So the overseer continued to withhold their choice food and the wine they were to drink, and kept giving them vegetables.

17 And as for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and insight in every branch of literature and wisdom; Daniel even understood all kinds of visions and dreams.

18 Then at the end of the days which the king had spoken of for bringing them in, the commander of the officials brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar. 19 And the king talked with them, and out of them all not one was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; so they stood in service before the king. 20 And as for every matter of wisdom in understanding which the king sought from them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and conjurers who were in all his kingdom. 21 And Daniel continued until the first year of Cyrus the king. — Daniel 1 | Legacy Standard Bible (LSB) Legacy Standard Bible Copyright ©2021 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. Cross References: Genesis 10:10; Genesis 31:7; Genesis 39:21; Genesis 41:46; Exodus 23:25; 1 Samuel 16:22; 2 Samuel 14:25; 2 Kings 20:18; 2 Kings 24:1; Proverbs 10:22; Daniel 6:28; Matthew 24:15; Acts 7:22; Acts 10:14; Revelation 2:10

#Daniel's faithfulness #Daniel taken to Babylon #Daniel's wisdom #Daniel 1 #Book of Daniel #Old Testament #LSB #Legacy Standard Bible #The Lockman Foundation #Three Sixteen Publishing Inc.

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mahounomanga · 3 months

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Kurumi-tic Miracle

In the early days of the genre, it was relatively common for magical girls to have more open-ended power sets. Rather than having one or a few set applications, their magic could do just about anything. Since the turn of the millennium, most magical girls have powers designed for a specific task, such as fighting evil, but today I want to take a look at a character from the early 2000s whose powers can do anything she puts her mind to.

Kurumi-tic Miracle is a 2003 manga by Chitose Yagami. It stars a run-of-the-mill schoolgirl named Kurumi Nanami, who lives with her grandfather in the oddities shop he owns, together with her pet hamster, Momo. One day, while helping clean the shop, Kurumi discovers a mysterious magic stone that affixes itself to her wrist in the form of a bracelet. With this magic bracelet, any wish she makes will instantaneously come true. Initially she uses this power to pursue her crush, Naoki, but as the two gets closer, it becomes clear the magic stone has a bit of a history, and the potential to cause problems.

Kurumi-tic Miracle was serialized in Ciao magazine from the February 2003 issue to the April 2003 issue: a three chapter run. These chapters were compiled into a single tankobon volume on June 21, 2003 by Shogakukan under their Flower Comics imprint, along with a couple of Yagami's older one-shots. A digital re-release, also by Shogakukan, was made available on July 10, 2015. Official translations were released in Indonesian and Chinese, but not English. However, a fan translation by the group Da Gurlz Translationz is available for all five chapters, including both one-shots, and can be found on various unofficial manga sites.

The series was created by Chitose Yagami, a shoujo manga author who debuted in 2001 with Magical Project, a one-shot which was later included in volume 1 of Manga Mitaina Koi Shitai! a.k.a. Fall in Love Like a Comic, one of her more popular works which was even officially printed in English by Viz under their Shojo Beat imprint. Much of Yagami's work contains elements of romantic comedy, middle/high school slice of life, magic and the paranormal, and working in the entertainment industry, be it modeling, music, or manga. She is still active to this day, both professionally and on social media. Her most recent manga, a BL series titled Shoujo Manga no Hero ni naritai no ni Heroine Atsukaisareru Ore., began serialization in 2021 and is still ongoing. None of her works would get career-definingly popular, but Kurumi-tic Miracle was successful enough to land her her first autograph session, so that's cool. It seems she didn't do much adapting of existing work, save for contributing to a shoujo Inazuma Eleven anthology in 2011. That same year, her manga Oresama Kingdom (Kings of My Love) got picked up for a direct to video anime adaptation, running for 14 episodes of 11 minutes apiece until 2013. This was the only manga of hers to get an anime adaptation, and it got a Nintendo DS game too, also in 2011. This was the second video game based on a Chitose Yagami manga, the first being Kiss x Kiss for the GBA in 2004.

Speaking of video games, this came up a lot in my research so I just want to point out that this series is unrelated to the 1997 Playstation game Kurumi Miracle, in which a young witch whose name is also Kurumi goes to an island to hone her magic by helping the local townsfolk.

Because Kurumi-tic Miracle is so short, it's difficult to recap the plot without giving spoilers, so if you'd like to go into the series blind, I advise you to do so before reading the rest of this post.

The manga starts off as a pretty straight forward slice-of-life romcom with magical hijinks, but the more we learn about the love interest Naoki, the clearer it becomes that something is amiss. He has a rather distinctive ring, and he seems very interested in Kurumi's bracelet. It turns out there is another magic stone, and the person who controls it wants them both to himself. The plot reveal is that this person is not Naoki, but his little brother, Satoru, who found the other stone by chance and became corrupted by its' power. He has bequeathed unto Naoki a fraction of that power for the purposes of collecting the other stone.

The magic systems in Kurumi-tic Miracle are really interesting to me. Because the scope of what they can do is so broad, the characters are limited only by their imagination, which gives us a stark contrast in how Kurumi and Satoru use their powers, despite those powers deriving from the same source. Kurumi's magic tends to be cuter, more harmless, and at times downright childish. Satoru's magic is scarier, emblematic of his ruthless attitude, and representative of a genuinely serious threat.

To pad out the tankobon release, two of Chitose Yagami's one-shots were included. The first, 2003's Dokitto Boys X Love (just Boys X Love in the fanslation), is sort of a comedy-of-errors in which a teenage girl accidentally switches bodies with her favorite male idol, and the two have to stick together as she learns his routine. It's not especially groundbreaking, but it's cute. The second is titled Otokomae!? Jajauma Musume, which I thiiink roughly translates to Boyish Selfish Girl. The fanslation uses the title I Love Tomboy. It was originally published in 2001 and according to Weblio was Yagami's second ever manga after Magical Project. It's a romantic comedy in which a tomboy attempts to become more feminine to win over her bully... which sucks. It sucks so bad. This one-shot is infuriatingly gender essentialist and sexist. A lot of effort goes into categorizing what separates girls from boys, all of it very stereotypical, and even though the resolution is that the protagonist is more comfortable being herself, the message is lost in all the steps it takes to get there. She does have some personal struggles with wondering if she's really a boy after all, and there's a plot twist that the elder sister figures who helped her throughout were actually crossdressers the whole time, so I'm sure you could read some queer subtext into this if you wanted to, but that is VERY clearly not what was intended. I hate it.

Taken on its' own, Kurumi-tic Miracle strikes me as a diamond in the rough. Most of the flaws I can point to in the main story could easily be alleviated if it were given more room to breathe. Three chapters just wasn't enough for me to get fully invested in these characters or their world. Despite this, the core concept shines through. This manga had some genuinely intriguing ideas about its' magic systems and how they can be applied for creative problem solving at a time when that modality of magic was becoming increasingly rare, despite the magical girl genre as a whole reaching market saturation at around this time. It's short and cute, even if it's not particularly substantial. It's very of a type, but if this is a type you tend to enjoy, I highly recommend checking it out.

#my posts #long post #Kurumi-tic Miracle #くるみちっく☆ミラクル #Chitose Yagami #八神千歳 #Ciao #shoujo #00s #By the way I just hit 100 followers! Thank you so much!

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lilithism1848 · 7 months

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Atrocities US committed against EUROPE

In late 2019, CIA agent Anne Sacoolas hit and killed a British teenage pedestrian named Harry Dunn with her car, while she was driving on the wrong side of the road, near the RAF Croughton base in the UK where she and her husband (both CIA agents) worked. After the Foreign and Commonwealth office rejected Anne Sacoolas request for diplomatic immunity, Anne fled the UK on a US Air Force plane. Both the US and UK governments lied to the Dunn family, saying that she was a US diplomat, and hid the fact that she had fled for months. In October, the Dunn family visited the White House and met with Donald Trump. According to Seiger, Trump tried to buy off the couple, promising them that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was “standing by ready to write a check.” Trump reportedly blindsided the Dunns, telling them that Sacoolas was in the other room waiting to meet with them. The couple refused the offer, demanding her extradition. Sacoolas’s lawyers have stated, “Anne will not return voluntarily to the United Kingdom to face a potential jail sentence for what was a terrible but unintentional accident.” As of February 2020, the extradition request is at an impasse, while at the same time the UK is complying with Julian Assange’s extradition to the US. RAF Croughton base houses agents from the NSA and CIA, and is famous for being exposed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden for forwarding information from German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone to the CIA. On march 2021, the US admitted that sacoolas was a CIA agent.

In 2003, the CIA kidnapped Italian milanese Imam Abu Omar, took him to Egypt, then tortured, including rape, genital electro-shock, and resulted in him becoming deaf in one ear, in the Imam Rapito Affair. On 23 December 2005, a judge issued a European arrest warrant against 22 CIA agents, but the US hasn’t responded.

In 2002, GW Bush signed into law the “Hague invasion act”, IE the American Service-Members’ Protection Act, which gives the US: “all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release of any U.S. or allied personnel being detained or imprisoned by, on behalf of, or at the request of the International Criminal Court”.

In 2001, due to the passing of the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act, the US was forced to disclose the full extent of its collaboration and protection of nazi war criminals.

From March to June of 1999, After Serbs refused to acquiesce in the break-up of their republic, the US and NATO began bombing Yugoslavia killing ~500 civilians, leaving thousands homeless, destroying bridges, industrial plants, public buildings, private businesses, as well as barracks and military installations.

In February, 1998, A US marine core plane flying wrecklessly below regulations, cut a cable supporting aerial cable cars at a ski resort near Cavalese, Italy, killing 20 people, in the Cavalese Cable Car Disaster / Massacre of Cermis. The pilots destroyed the plane’s tape, and were found not guilty. Italian prosecutors were outraged that the US refused to forgoe the NATO treaty that gives all jurisduction to US military courts. By February 1999, the victims’ families had received USD $65,000 per victim as immediate help by the Italian government, which was reimbursed by the U.S. government. In May 1999, the U.S. Congress rejected a bill that would have set up a $40 million compensation fund for the victims. In December 1999, the Italian legislature approved a monetary compensation plan for the families ($1.9 million per victim). NATO treaties obligated the U.S. government to pay 75% of this compensation, which it did.

In 1995, the US conducted a campaign of airstrikes called Operation Deliberate Force, as part of an intervention in the Bosnian civil war.

From the 1950s-90s, the CIA and NATO ran a series of clandestine networks, headquartered in Rome, Italy called Operation Gladio. Its purpose was supplying aid (primarily money and weaponry) to right wing paramilitaries to attack left-wing movements, and carry out assassinations and bombings, as well as funnel money to centrist political parties. It had operations in Belgium, Finland, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Turkey, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Austria. In Italy, the group had 600+ members, and carried out car bombings during Italy’s years of lead. In Germany, it included former Nazi SS members—Staff Sgt. Heinrich Hoffman, Lt. Col. Hans Rues, and Lt. Col. Walter Kopp. CIA weapons caches are still being discovered in all the countries above.

Throughout the 1980-90s, the US, with the aid of the IMF and NATO, actively destabilized and aided in the breakup of Yugoslavia, with the goal of weakening and destroying the last surviving socialist bloc in Europe. These include stirring up ethnic tensions between the member countries, economic warfare, and military intervention. The Reagan administration in a 1982 secret memo, advocated “expanded efforts to promote a ‘quiet revolution’ to overthrow Communist governments and parties,” while reintegrating the countries of Eastern Europe into a market-oriented economy. In November 1990, the Bush administration pressured Congress into passing the 1991 Foreign Operations Appropriations Act, which provided that any part of Yugoslavia failing to declare independence within six months would lose U.S. financial support, demanded separate elections in each of the six Yugoslav republics, and mandated U.S. State Department approval of both election procedures and results as a condition for any future aid. In 1991, Yugoslav Army chief Veljko Kadijević stated: “An insidious plan has been drawn up to destroy Yugoslavia. Stage one is civil war. Stage two is foreign intervention. Then puppet regimes will be set up throughout Yugoslavia.”

In 1967 in Greece, the CIA installed Georgios Papadopoulos in a military coup, a CIA agent and former nazi collaborator, as the military ruler of Greece. He’s seen today as an relic of authoritarianism , xenophobia, and anti-communism. 1 Phillips Talbot, the US ambassador in Athens, disapproved of the military coup which established the “Regime of the Colonels” (1967–1974), complaining that it represented “a rape of democracy”—to which Jack Maury, the CIA chief of station in Athens, answered, “How can you rape a whore?

From the 1940s - 60s, the CIA provided an average of $5 million annually in covert aid towards financially supporting centrist Italian governments and using the awarding of contracts to weaken the Italian Communist Party’s hold on labor unions. It was also involved in bombings and assassinations as a part of Operation Gladio.

In 1956, Radio Free Europe (a CIA funded propaganda outlet) broadcasts Khruschev’s Secret Speech, which played a role in the Hungarian revolution, and also hinted that American aid will help the Hungarians fight. The US fails to provide any military aid to Hungary in their ensuing conflict with the Soviet Union.

From 1948 onwards, the CIA under Allen Dulles developed a program of media manipulation called Project Mockingbird, having major influence over the media, including >25 newspapers. The usual method was placing reports developed from intelligence provided by the CIA to cooperating or unwitting reporters, or employing media directly as American assets.

In 1948, the CIA corrupts the elections in Italy, where Italian communists threaten to win the elections. The CIA buys votes, broadcasts propaganda, threatens and beats up opposition leaders, and infiltrates and disrupts their organizations. The communists are defeated.

From 1948 onward, the CIA implements Operation Bloodstone, similar to Operation Paperclip, where the CIA actively sought out nazis and collaborators living in Soviet controlled territories, to work as spies in the USSR, US, Canada, and Latin America. Many of those who were hired as part of Bloodstone were high-ranking Nazi intelligence agents who had committed war crimes.

In 1947, in Greek civil war and ensuing right wing military junta of 1967-74, Truman and the CIA provided money, 74,000 tons of military equipment, and advisors to support anti-communist Greek dictators with deplorable human rights records. Support for right-wing dictatorships in Greece and Turkey were funded and sold under the Truman Doctrine, an anti-soviet foreign policy platform, despite the fact that it was Yugoslavia who provided support to the Greek labor movement rebels, and not the Soviet Union.

In the post-war period, while the USSR carried out de-nazification in East Germany, in West Germany many Nazis were kept in power. One study revealed that more than half of the leadership of the West German Justice Ministry were former members of the Nazi party, including dozens of former paramilitary SA members. Several former Nazi Generals, including Adolf Heusinger, and Hans Speidel, went on to become generals in West Germany, and then NATO.

During the invasion of Sicily in July 1943, eight unarmed Italian civilians, including an eleven year old girl, were killed by U.S. troops.

US soldiers killed 73 unarmed Italian and German prisoners of war in Santo Pietro, Italy on July 1943. The survivors were then shot at close range, directly through the heart.

The Rheinwiesenlager (Rhine meadow camps) were a group of 19 US prison camps built in the Allied-occupied part of Germany to hold captured German soldiers at the close of the Second World War, holding between one and almost two million surrendered Wehrmacht personnel. Prisoners held in the camps were designated Disarmed Enemy Forces and not POWs, to avoid international treaty regulations. Throughout the summer of 1945, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was prevented from visiting prisoners in any of the Allies’ Rheinwiesenlager. Visits were only started in the autumn of 1945, at a time when most camps had closed or were closing. During their visits, the delegates observed that German prisoners of war were often detained in appalling conditions. They drew the attention of the authorities to this fact, and gradually succeeded in getting some improvements made.” Between 3,000 to 10,000 died from starvation, dehydration and exposure to the weather elements because no structures were built inside the prison compounds.

A study by Robert J. Lilly estimates that a total of 14,000 civilian women in England, France and Germany were raped by American GIs during World War II. It is estimated that there were around 3,500 rapes by American servicemen in France between June 1944 and the end of the war and one historian has claimed that sexual violence against women in liberated France was common.

In 1952, the CIA recruited nazi scientist Emil Augsburg, who was involved in an SS think for planning the final solution, and protected him from war crimes accusations.

In July, 1945, the predecessor to the CIA, the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS), under the name Operation Paperclip, rescued and recruited 1,500 Nazi scientists, engineers, and spies. These included Reinhard Gehlen, Hitler’s master spy who had built up an intelligence network in the Soviet Union, SS intelligence officers Alfred Six and Emil Augsburg (who massacred Jews in the Holocaust), Klaus Barbie (the “Butcher of Lyon”, who was used by the US to further anti-communist efforts in europe), Otto von Bolschwing (the Holocaust mastermind who worked with Eichmann) and SS Colonel Otto Skorzeny (a personal friend of Hitler’s). The policy of collaboration with nazi spies was deemed necessary to counter the threat from the USSR.

In February 1945, 527 airplanes of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) dropped more than 3,900 tons of high-explosive bombs and incendiary devices on the city of Dresden, Germany, killing ~25,000 civilians.

In the summer of 1942, the US turned away a series of ships of Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany. Most notoriously, in June 1939, the German ocean liner St. Louis and its 937 passengers, almost all Jewish, were turned away from the port of Miami, forcing the ship to return to Europe; more than a quarter died in the Holocaust.

Ben Urwand revealed how the Nazis’ man in Hollywood Georg Gyssling censored and rewrote film scripts to remove scenes and dialogue that criticised the Nazi regime. He also repeatedly removed references to the suffering of Jews in post-WW1 Germany. The DOD continued this policy after the war, helping rehabilitate Germany’s image and cover up for anti-semitism. Before 1939, Los Angeles authorities were impeding antifascist Jewish groups while letting Fascists in Hollywood run amok.

In 1926, the House of Representatives and Senate, at the request of Fascist Italy, voted to forgive 80.4% of Italy’s WWI war debt.

The US maintained a policy of neutrality during the rise of Hitler and Mussolini, discounting the rise of anti-semitism and European fascism. It was not Hitler’s attacks on the Jews that brought the United States into World War II, any more than the enslavement of 4 million blacks brought Civil War in 1861. Italy’s attack on Ethiopia, Hitler’s invasion of Austria, his takeover of Czechoslovakia, his attack on Poland-none of those events caused the United States to enter the war, although Roosevelt did begin to give important aid to England. What brought the United States fully into the war was the Japanese attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941.

In the 1936-39 Spanish civil war, the Roosevelt administration sponsored a neutrality act that had the effect of shutting off help to the Spanish government while Hitler and Mussolini gave critical aid to Franco, aiding yet another fascist victory in Europe. American President Richard Nixon later toasted Franco’s “firmness and fairness”, and, after Franco’s death, he stated: “General Franco was a loyal friend and ally of the United States.

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theragamuffininitiative · 4 months

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Okay tell me ALL about your fairy tale retelling WIP, I am most curious!!

hi hi hi!

Brief lil disclaimer here: I wrote this story as my nanowrimo project back in erm 2021 and have barely looked at it since. (working on that!) Everything I am about to say is based on my memory of how the story was working at the time and a couple glances at my documents tonight - and if I say something in this post that I like better than what I originally had, I will run with it. XD

Right then!

Tsarevitch Ivan, the Firebird, and the Gray Wolf is a Russian fairytale classified as a 550 on the ATU folklore index (a fact I sprinkle in not to be pretentious but bc I recently discovered the index and it is fascinating). This basically means the story revolves around catching a mystical bird, sometimes a phoenix, and involves a princess, usually a horse, and some supernatural animal helper. In my retelling, I also take from the Grimm Brothers' The Golden Bird version.

As you know, I fell into the intrigue of this tale when visiting an art museum displaying Vasnetsov's A Knight at the Crossroads, which is a reference to this tale. Now, Vasnetsov also painted Tsarevitch Ivan on a Gray Wolf:

And it's just so????!

In my retelling of this fairytale, our hero is a bit of a simple boy. He is content with simple things and a simple life after his near-death at a young age to a mysterious wasting disease spreading across the land - a madness that robs the infected of sleep and appetite until they go insane. The only cure is the fruit of an equally mysterious tree. Ivan fears his healing may have not been complete, for he has not felt the need for sleep or food the way he ought to ever since.

When fruit begins to disappear from the closely protected tree, the threat of losing the cure drives Ivan into action. An enchantment of sleep shields the thief from being captured. Here, Ivan's curse is a boon, as he alone sees a great golden bird steal the fruit. Although a great company set out to capture the bird, Ivan becomes separated from them and lost. At an ancient crossroads that promises death in every direction, he meets the Wolf, the instrument of the crossroads' doom. When the Wolf unexpectedly takes Ivan to find his missing companions, they discover the whole company has fallen to the madness - Ivan's brother among them.

It is no disease, but a curse.

Ivan, now with the Wolf, seeks aid from his best friend, the Princess Evolett, who was to be wed to the prince of the neighboring country and seal a treaty of peace between them. But all is not as it seems in these foreign lands, and Ivan must work with the Wolf to capture the golden bird, protect the fruit tree, rescue Evolett, heal the madness, prevent war between the two kingdoms, and defeat a dark enchantment for good - if the Wolf, the madness, or a multitude of other enemies don't kill him first... [ramble continued below the cut]

I love, love, love playing around with the fairytale motifs in this story.

For example, the original fairytale has a very episodic, repetitive sort of scavenger hunt that Ivan is forced into. I messed with it a lot to give the different elements their own, interconnected importance: the tree is a magical cure, the bird has magical elements of its own, the golden cage from some versions of the tale is a metaphor for the princess's imprisonment, the inns are not merely symbolism for laziness but traps laid by a powerful enemy to serve a dark purpose, and nothing is as it would seem - least of all Ivan or the Wolf.

The characteristics for Ivan specifically came to me while watching Mal in the first season of Netflix's Shadow and Bone.

I really love Mal's stubborn tenacity, fierce loyalty, and simplistic personal goals in the face of all the complexity and conniving of everything around him. Since this fairytale showcases a "simpleton" character, I wanted to show that character at their very best.

Also! I love writing Ivan and the Wolf. Ivan's plucky, irreverent sense of humor set against the Wolf's stoic, utterly dry and cold attitude is so much fun to play with. 👏

(tried to credit the images by link, not sure if that worked)

Excerpt from Ivan meeting the Wolf:

Then the wolf made a guttural, whining sound from the back of its throat, a sound which rolled forward out of its mouth and formed into four distinct words. "Will you kill me?" Ivan stared at it. Having never met a wolf before, he couldn’t say with absolute authority that they did not speak, but he also thought that if they had, someone might have mentioned it to him once upon a time. This one, however, most assuredly had spoken. He supposed he should have asked it to repeat itself, or even agreed with the sentiment and at once lifted his weapon. Instead, he considered the question posed to him. "I don't think so," he said in the end. "Not unless I have to.” He didn’t add that this was because he didn’t think he could beat the wolf if he tried. There was something else at work here, as he had feared, and he needed to find out what the game was. In his head, he noted that this creature was not merely a wolf, but the Wolf. The wolf made another noise, and this sounded like a quiet, “Ah, then.” “What will you do if I come down?” Ivan ventured to ask. The Wolf blinked lazily. “I have deprived you of your mount,” it stated. “I have come to take you where you must go.” That didn’t sound promising, although slightly better than admitting it wanted to gobble him up. “Are you fae?” Ivan called to it. He felt he remembered something from his father’s stories that the fae had to answer truthfully the questions you asked them directly. “I am not.” Enchanted or a liar, then. A wolf given the tongue of man. It also seemed to think something like a man, though its tone was distant and cold. “How can I trust you?” he asked it. The Wolf stared at him, not responding, and cocked its head. So maybe not the thinking of a man. Maybe the concept of trust was foreign to it still. He tried something less abstract. “Are you going to attack me?” “That is not my purpose,” said the Wolf. “There is an inn, a long distance from here. You have strayed from the path and it took me some time to find you, but I can lead you there, through ways horse hooves cannot tread, before the Wood grows dark.” “Is leading me to the inn your purpose?” “It is.” “Why?” The Wolf had to think about this, and Ivan thought again that it didn’t seem to be comfortable with questions that involved reasoning beyond cold facts. “The crossroads demand a price from everyone who passes through them. The price is set by your choice and you have chosen. Now I will take you where your path leads.”

Yes, I'll take "uneasy partnerships founded on enmity but sealed in friendship" for $500, thank you.

A messy music playlist I haven't touched since NaNo writing: here It's a story of family, loyalty, honor, and simple truths more powerful than any deep enchantment. 🥺😭

Excited to write Evolett more, she is a spitfire and impressed by no one (even when probably she should be, for her own good lol). Ivan's father was an adventurer in his own day, and I love writing little nods to his offstage capers - there's an invisibility cloak!

Ivan's brother is kind of a jerk. 🙈 But hey, still family. And he's less of a jerk than the guys in the old fairytale ok. 😅 Probably.

Ok, I feel like that's a pretty boring ramble, but I have tried to type this up about five different times so here we are! I have shed tears over Ivan and the Wolf, and lived in the nonsense from the random old woman running the dilapidated inn next to the one that breathes enchantment, and sketched out the borderlines between kingdoms and the unseen shadowy arm reaching across borders to ensnare them all, and written a lot of dog jokes. I love this one, I can't wait to get back into it. 😊

Thank you for asking and letting me ramble! 💛

#i have tried to type this up like five times #and it's been one of those weeks where i'm just constantly falling asleep #so we compromise and i stayed up so i will be falling asleep all day tomorrow at work instead lol #thanks for the ask!#kanerallels #wip: the madness and the golden bird

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