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the-algebra-thing · 2 months

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ok so if you couldn't tell I'm rewatching the howl's moving castle movie bc I want to be reading the book but I have crafts to work through for decorations for my friends bridal shower in two days. so I haven't got past chapter 5 in my reread but I put on the movie—in subtitles, which I've never done before, bc it was all I could find for free—and I am just a little mind boggled. firstly I didn't realize how staunchly on the side of the book I had become despite loving this movie so much for so many years, and secondly . I'm feeling. I don't know.

like I don't want to cry misogyny but it feels kinda shitty that while the book was about secrets and truth and selflessness and knowing yourself and trusting yourself and all that shit right, because. in the book sophie's image of herself as incapable and unworthy has little to do with her looks and a lot to do with her birth and her responsibilities and what she sees as her lot in life. and howl's image of himself as capable and worthy and beautiful and a lady-killer is part of a web of lies he layers on top of one another to keep himself from being afraid, which ends up leaving his conscience wrapped up in countless layers and barely visible to the naked eye. and eventually sophie learns she has innate magical power, embraces this and strikes out on her own, and comes to love howl in spite of what she tells herself is supposed to happen to her. and all of howls lies eventually run themselves out, and at the end of the book he's stripped of his defenses and has to learn to stand in one place and take what comes anyways. and he comes to love sophie without even thinking much about it, without his beauty spells at all.

in the movie howl is still a self obsessed freak but his Heart Of Gold is put on display immediately, and sophie's self-worth issues are displayed almost exclusively in her bitterness at not being beautiful while her unshrinking personality that's supposed to show itself when she gets spelled is completely back burnered. she has very little presence compared to the captivating and hilarious personality she has to offer in jones' book. in the movie she's very anxious following the transformation, instead of it registering mostly as the weight of the life she had assigned herself off her shoulders, and the complexity of her motivations that you experience through the internal monologue in the book is almost completely flattened into aw man . I sure wish I was beautiful. this is really scary that there's a spell on me. her bold temperament is displayed as somewhat of a second thought, while we get to watch howl be full of righteous indignation and tired wisdom at the state of the warring world outside. to be fair I'm only halfway through the movie but in terms of the books contents we're actually right where I left off in chapter five out of twenty one, and jones had no trouble at all establishing a really good framework for all that I've described by then. I'm so much more disappointed than I expected to be goddamn

#in unfathomable detail #howl's moving castle #howls moving castle #diana wynne jones

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ncterror · 6 years

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Jaemin | Prince!AU

Prince Jaemin, next in line for the throne, has been preparing his whole life for when that day comes

But he has had enough

With all of the accords and other royal meetings he’s attended just to build an alliance with the other kingdoms is more than enough in his opinion

He barely knows what it looks like outside besides the glimpses he manages to get when traveling to yet another meeting

There's been zero civilian uprisings in years & no pending wars, so Jaemin figures it’s now or never

So he & his other unknowing royal-friends (I’m sure you can guess who) make plans to sneak out this one day just to see what it’s like

And they love it

What's not to love?!

The town is bigger than they thought & everyone is so nice

It's also easy for them to stay undiscovered, being as the only time they’ve made public appearances was when they were much younger

(and those years sure do make a difference. no way can anyone immediately recognize them)

They make it a weekly thing, somehow always making it back in time

The outings include: sitting & listening (or dancing) to the music performed in the town centre, watching or listening to “the common peoples’ fantasy stories”, befriending the townspeople & the children that often mooch for sweets, and charm their way into getting food (leaving extra gold pieces secretly on their counters to show their gratitude)

When the others are away though, Jaemin still manages to go out, wandering a bit outside of the town sometimes

And that’s when he finds you

Your family has a shop a little on the edge of the town that sells a lot of random items

Books, carved figures, candy, craft supplies, etc.

The place that everyone goes to and is guaranteed to leave with whatever nicknack they find

Jaemin finds it so fascinating that he ends up there every time

And you’re sometimes left to manage & sell the items, so the first person he sees is you, reading a book at the front counter

You looked up to smile & greet him and he smiles back ten times brighter, walking in and immediately becoming fascinated by one of the figurines on one of the front tables.

But you keep your eyes on him a little longer because he doesn’t look familiar to you

Most of your customers have been regulars for years & the only new people that come in are probably the visiting relatives of said customers

So you were curious....and also a bit enamored of his bright & happy personality (...and his features ofc)

The first time in the store though, he had called for your attention, but on nothing in particular. He just asked for your opinion

He’d ask, “do you like cats or dogs better?”

And you’d probably say that you preferred (insert animal of choice here), but that you didn’t mind either

So he would pick up both the cat and dog figurines and would smile at you again, saying he’d just take both, and would bring them to the front to be bought

You didn’t bother ask why he wanted your opinion and ended up buying both anyway because he looked content with his choice

And after he bought them, he’d still linger around, looking at the other side of the store he didn’t get to

After another 30 minutes he’d leave, but not before saying “Thank you for your help today, …”, anticipating knowing your name

It would take you a moment before you realized, quickly telling him “Y/N! Nice to meet you, …”

But instead of telling you his name, he waved and said “nice to meet you too! Please, have a great evening” and would rush out (probably not noticing that it had gotten so dark so quickly & had to be back to the castle very quickly)

That wasn’t the last time you saw him, of course.

He came in again the next day, receiving a questioning look from you (as you were worried he wanted to send back what he bought)

But Jaemin just wanted to ask you about the book he saw you reading the day before

You explain a little to him & offer to let him read it if he’s interested

(and he gladly accepts it)

He tries to hand you gold coins & you deny them, saying that this was a gift from you to him

And he’d laugh before “giving up” and thanking you again, saying goodbye

(once your back was turned though, he left the pieces on the counter and ran out)

That would happen just about each time he visited the shop, being every other day since then, according to your other family members (on the days you weren’t working)

“That lovely boy was here again this afternoon” “He wished for me to tell you that he said hello” “What is his name? I want to properly thank him for being in such support of the store!..or in you?”

That last part would make you choke a little, laughing it off as being “ridiculous! he’s just very kind!”, and because you haven’t gotten his name

The next time you see him though is in the town centre with his friends (that you’ve also never seen a day in your life in the kingdom)

He spots you almost immediately & waves you over excitedly and the others turn around to look at you coming over

They all smile at you, once again, very brightly as Jaemin introduces you.

“Y/N, these are my friends?”

“Oh, Y/N! He talks so fondly of you ever since you-” Haechan (probably) would start to say, but would be silenced with a secret “elbow to the rib” move from Jaemin who still looks forward, smiling at you

(you catch that though)

“Yes! It's a bit odd that you all know my name though & I still don’t know his.” you said, pointing at Jaemin

He faked it out with a look of momentary confusion, before suddenly realized that he didn’t tell you his name

“That's right! Well, my nickname is after the prince, Jaemin. A lot of people say that they think I look like him!” he’d try to cover, somehow getting the others to go along with it

You go along with it too, telling him “its fitting, though you’re probably more handsome than he is”

Resulting in a once-in-a-lifetime reaction of “I actually don’t know how to respond” from Jaemin himself (and he’d finally break out of it when he hears Chenle say “he’s not” from the back)

So ignoring the others now, he excuses himself from them and says he’ll meet with them later on, inviting you to walk with him if you’ weren’t busy

You gladly accept, of course

The both of you wander around aimlessly, talking about so many different things

He mentions the book & how much he likes it, thanking you again for letting him read it (also adding how the main character reminds him of you in some way, which made you smile shyly to yourself)

You both find a bench by a lake & he’d ask a lot more questions about you, your family, the town, etc

When he asks you about the town though, you get a little confused, thinking he’d know stuff about the people & stores

And you ask him how long he has lived there

He pauses for a little before answering with just “a while, but it doesn’t feel like I really have”

You just nod because you’re a little confused, but you don’t want to keep questioning what he means

After a little more time passes, you remind him that he has to meet with his friends again & his eyes go wide as he laughs a little, quickly getting up (bc they’re all probably a lil mad. they’re afraid the guards will start a search if they’re not back in the next 30 minutes)

But before he leaves, you tell him that the festival is coming up in two days & if he wants to experience more in the town, he should go

“Only if you’ll be there?” he asks

You confidently say “of course!” and he flashes another smile before running off to find his friends

But you let out the deepest breath when he’s gone, wondering how exactly your crush developed so strongly over the course of a few weeks when you only talked to him sparingly

Jaemin wonders the exact same and he feels a little bad

He doesn’t want to hide his identity from you anymore, and he feels so trusting of you already

So he plans to tell you during the festival

And when that day comes, he’s excited, but incredibly nervous

What if he gets caught this time? What if you get into trouble for being with him? What if you see him differently once he tells you?

Managing to calm down his thoughts after a while, he leaves through his regular route

Finally spotting you as he made his way through the crowd made him feel even better

You were cheering on the juggling act that had just finished

He made his way over, tapping your shoulder & smiling while apologizing for being late

But you tell him not to worry because there’s still so much time left

Without much thought, you grab onto his hand & lead him over to a man doing caricatures

(hes a lil flustered but says nothing, for obvious reasons :’) )

And most of that afternoon was spent with the both of you leading each other to different areas for games, food, and other activities

You would be collecting a souvenir from each place for him & when he asks why you don’t keep any of them, you just reply simply with “I have plenty. Haven’t you seen the shop?”

Jaemin didn’t think too hard on the fact that you were both still holding hands, but when he was aware, his brain was fixed on it

He figured that it was now or never, so he asked if you both could actually go to your shop to talk where it was more private, being as everyone would be outside the whole day

The walk there was a little quiet since he was working out scenarios in his head of the whole situation, once again

And when you finally get there, he lets his hand fall from yours & you kinda lean your head to the side, waiting to hear what he has to say

“I really shouldn’t hide this from you anymore...and I’m being completely honest, okay? I really am the prince, y/n, and I trust that you won’t say anything to anyone...and I like you a lot, which is why I’m telling you all of this now so I’m sorry if this is all a shock to you right now” he says all a little too quickly, but you understand everything

“I like you too” you say, trying not to laugh at his other confession. “And secondly, you’ve made it a bit obvious that you’re the prince, Jaemin. I’m happy you actually told me now though.”

So he stands there, full of joy and confusion.

“When did you know?”

“Well, the constant deposits of gold pieces was sign #1, cause you’re loaded. Then, the fact that you fit every single description of ‘the prince’ I’ve heard throughout my life really made it obvious. And the little ‘My friends nickname me Jaemin’ thing confirmed it. No one does that.” you tell him as he scratches the back of his neck out of slight embarrassment

“I was that obvious? Do you think anyone else knows?”

“Just as long as you don’t tell people your “nickname” is Jaemin, you’re safe”

And just like that, he’s back to his bright, smiley self

He takes your hand again, but pulls you in closer to him

Then he suddenly leans down a little, pressing a soft kiss on your cheek & then thanking you for not telling

Now is your turn to be at a loss for words, only smiling and nodding as he led you out of the shop now to spend a little more time at the festival with a newly established relationship

The sun was setting quickly though, and you already knew his routine

You walk with him just before the town limits hits the palace grounds

Before he crosses over, he turns back to you with glittering & hopeful eyes & asks “Can I see you tomorrow?”

And you reply with “You know where I’ll be”

//for my Jaemin anon, <3 I hope you liked this! Thank you, once again, for requesting & helping me get inspired :’) also this is so long I apologize

Masterlist

#nct AU #jaemin au #nct dream au #nct dream scenario #nct dream #jaemin #na jaemin #prince!jaemin #nct scenarios #nct imagine #nct dream imagine #royalty au

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