Tumgik
#i also often choose to believe these characters have escaped somewhere far away and are free
markiafc · 1 month
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a good suicide narrative is very important to me tbh!
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ayuki-ikuya · 3 years
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Fellow Piers simp with a trainersona here and a separate oc with Rai: ✨Go for it homie✨ Go absolutely ape! Tell us about her
OKAY
so I've tried doing research about Johto before writing about her since I have little information about Johto.
Johto is based off from Japan (it's more eastern qualities) while Kanto was a more westernized Japan (if you watched Geisha, it shows the transition from Japan transitioning to more western style after the war.)
So the name Katsumi was given. I believe her name meaning is "eternal beauty" but I'm not sure.
If I were to describe Katsumi, she'd be a Ninetales or a Fox. She has this air about her that draws her in, it's soothing even. But as she battles, she's more two faced than she seems, being more mocking and maybe even animalistic than her kinder self.
She does restrain herself from her more dark side, because a common rule as a maiko and geisha, is to always look and be pretty to capture the attention of others.
Katsumi is based off from the Kimono Girls in Johto, the Kimono girls are actually Maiko's as they tie their obi's sash long while normal is tucked in or tied short (same with a Geisha's) however, in Pokemon, they don't wear heavy makeup that way they can battle appropriately while still maintaining looks.
Since I'm basing Katsumi from Maiko's, she learns various arts, from dance to music to cooking. And of course, even when away from Johto, she still practices dancing (she prefers dancing over music) which has caught several pokemons attention in the past.
Her Johto team consists of:
Lucario
Gyrados
And Chansey.
Her Galar team will be:
Gyrados (from her Johto team)
Eevee (who will evolve into Umbreon)
Deino (who evolves into zwelious then Hydregion)
Munchlax (evolves into Snorlax)
Kirlia (evolves into Gardevior)
And Puncham (evolves into Pangoro)
I won't disclose when she catches them (which will be in the story I'm writting) nor their abilities and move sets. I can tell you that Katsumi favors Dark Types.
Katsumi makes her first appearance in the Gym Battle Opening Ceremony! Her exotic looks catching many of the people's attention.
Having to fight the Yell team since they were blocking Budew Inn, she does her first official Pokemon Battle in Galar with her Gyrados who swept them away with Twister!
Katsumi calls out her pokemon rather eloquently. Like, "Let's dance amongst the water, Gyrados", Katsumi is a lover of drama and theatrics, so she likes to put on a show which is apart of her two faced-ness.
If I were to place Katsumi as a Game Character, she'd be an Easter Egg and a very Hidden Boss. The main Characters wouldn't be able to fight her unless level 100 as the final boss is also level 100, meaning she's far more challenging than she looks in the beginning.
You'd be able to fight her in the tournaments after becoming a Galar Champion (beating Leon) but because she makes rare appearances, it's hard to fight her. If Leon and Katsumi ever get matched up, it usually ends in either Katsumi winning or a draw depending on ALL of your Pokémon level. (All 100 = Katsumi winning)
Her relationships would mostly be the children of the house she moved to as a tenant (which is in the same place for the Opening Ceremony hence why she hasn't caught any other pokemon in Galar yet)
Katsumi prefers pokemon over people. People means maintaining herself to appear appropriately and having to be more polite than she wants to do to etiquette. While with pokemon, she can bond with them more easily through being herself (her more rougher side).
As for her league cards, she has two special league cards which is dependent on which version you're playing.
Sword version is her more wild side, showing her face during her battles (more on Leon or Raihan's battle since her face shows more during their fight)
Sword version notes: seeing the ever so gentle Johto girl being fierce to rival Raihan is an odd sight, but pleasant to finally see a crack in her ever so pretty mask.
Shield version gets her more softer side, showing her dancing in a field without knowing about the picture.
Shield version notes: A picture that was taken in secret, you can see how gentle she is with how she stands, the pokemon around her watching her still form. How can someone be this elegant?
Her normal League Card is just the standard card but she angles herself towards the left (our left mind you) with her head angled towards the camera with a serene smile.
As for her relationship with Raihan and Piers, Raihan was intrigued by her, knowing the Dragon Type master in Johto, and seeing her appear on Pokegram every once in awhile (until she got Kirlia) sends a shiver down his spine since he can sorta get a feeling that she's hiding more than she seems.
Piers never met her, but has heard of her from Team Yell and Marnie when they met up in Spikemuth. When Katsumi appeared herself, he nearly choked seeing a "Pretty lil' dainty thing in this dump". his words, not mine. But because Piers oh so happens to be a dark type gym leader, Katsumi had immediately grew attached to him which shocked a lot of people.
Katsumi, the goddess from eastern lands, paired with THE Piers? The shock was an understatement.
Piers did appreciate her adoration to dark type pokemon though. And her need to be on the same level as him in battle as it was the Johto way to be fair.
If we wanna dive into the romance interests then:
Raihan is absolutely clingy to Katsumi and always wants to fight her. It's his way showing how devoted he is to her by challenging her to fights often after training and resting. And he hopes Katsumi would notice. If we went into a more NSFW style, Raihan is the epitome of clinginess. Because he's so tall compared to Katsumi, he'd use his jacket and put it over her, forcing her to either poke her head out to see or to try and escape which ends up him wrapping his arms around her. And when he does capture her, Raihan would drag her to a more secluded area and start marking her neck with bites and hickies. If he gets REALLY worked up (specially after a battle against Katsumi) he'd take his coat off, wrap it around her, tie the sleeves and then sling her onto his shoulder and with his long ass legs, he'd be heading to his apartment.
For Piers, he's not really affectionate or seen as affectionate, but he would often be near Katsumi whenever they were both free. Whenever he is affectionate he'd wrap an arm or two around Katsumi and bring her closer to him. For NSFW, Piers would be slightly clingy, but not as bad as Raihan since Piers is busy with being an artist (music artist btw) and training Marnie to be a gym leader. But whenever they're together, Piers would be resting his head on Katsumi's shoulder or head depending on their sitting position. Anytime Katsumi gets a call or goes to escape somewhere, Piers would grab a hold of her chin and kiss her rather passionately, which would leave Katsumi breathless since Piers literally has a long tongue, and he uses it. If Katsumi is still out of it (or continues to try to escape), Piers would take her to his place or to the campsite.
Katsumi has long black hair which reaches to her lower back, having four beauty marks total on her face, two right below her right eye (our left), one below her left eye (our right) and one at the right corner of her lips (our left).
(I think of drawing as a mirror, if you draw a character's face you have to think about the blemishes placement. If their back is to you, then it's both of your rights and lefts while facing each other is their left is your right and their right is your left. Sorry if it's confusing.)
She has black eyes (whenever in an intense battle, her eyes darken with no highlight making her appear soulless but it just means her facade is cracking) and thick eyelashes, her lips are painted red on her bottom lip while the corners of her eyes are touched with a rouge since she is a Maiko Trainer.
(I made up that Kimono Girls are Maiko Trainers, meaning they wear less makeup and have a battle/formal kimono, a traveling kimono and sleep wear. Normal Maiko's wears the standard makeup and wears more formal kimono's. Maiko trainers require to wear a sort of eye shadow at the corner of their eyes in replacement for the lack of white makeup on their face, it is to signal other Maiko's what status they are. If they wear red/rogue eye shadow, then they are an advance/master maiko trainer. If blue, then they are an intermediate. If pink then they are a beginner. Maiko trainers also have to wear certain color palettes to signal what stage they are which often correlates to their eye shadow. Since Maiko's in general wear lighter colors, they wear pastels or just a light shade.)
Katsumi wears a light pink kimono that fades to a light red at the ends of her kimono. Her obi sash being a deeper red while her obiage is white. Her nagajuban is red as per tradition, her pocchuri buckle is silver flowers, while her okobo shoes still maintains the red straps and still contains bells in them.
Fun fact about Maiko's, Maiko's are usually 16-20 years old mainly because Maiko's would choose to marry around that age, while Geisha's would have to retire or runaway (depending on time period) to marry. Geisha's aren't allowed to have a spouse, the most they can have close to a spouse is an escort.
THIS IS ALL FOR NOW! I'LL PUT UP SOME DOODLES ABOUT KATSUMI (WITH AN OCCASIONAL RAIHAN/PIER OR TWO)
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expensiveglasses · 3 years
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Charming Chapter One
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Summary: Prince Jungkook was as infuriating as he was beautiful. In line to one day be king, he requested your guidance in the ways of his people. In turn he will make you laugh, give your family fine gifts, and become an invaluable friend. Unfortunately, he will also make you fall in love with him. But the most unfortunate thing of all was his betrothal…to Snow White
Pairing: Jungkook x Reader
Genre: Fluff, Fantasy, Angst, Snow white/au
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 4538
Warnings: None for this chapter. Future warnings are TW: Major character “death” TW: Thoughts of suicide TW: Attempted suicide. Nothing is graphically described. Chapters will be noted when these things take place.
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It was during the spring that you felt the most content. Everything was reborn, blossoming from the frozen winter. The village came to life with music, new animals, and the sweet smell of fresh bread.
It had been this way since you were a child, no taller than your mother’s hip and only aware of how acutely you spurned the winter. With chapped fingers and lips, you watched bitterly as your friends, Peter and Else, played, squealing loudly as they threw snow at one another.
The three of you, friends since you could remember, filled to the brim with laughter, scraped knees, and all as plain looking as could be. This suited you fine, and there was little to disappoint you but short moments of impassioned arguments with your two best friends and a brief encounter with the very silly king and his very silly son.
As the only daughter (and indeed, the only child) of the villages master tailor, you found yourself often around the regal and ridiculous. So it was of no surprise when the king himself requested your father’s services and you were required to help him carry his materials to the castle where the king greeted you with his only heir, a son, wearing the silliest hat you’d ever laid eyes upon, a red feather sticking from the top.
You were as different as two people could be and with your simple manners and upbringing, you could not begin to understand the pomp and circumstance of such a silly little boy with rounded cheeks and a chest puffed much too high.
He strutted and flounced about the castle as a peacock would its park and the sight was all together ridiculous for your 9 year old eyes to behold. He’d called you peasant girl and remarked on your general lack of beauty and at 13 years old himself, you felt he had little to offer either, aside from a sizeable kingdom to trump the bed of straw and sheep’s skin you called your own.
For his 13th birthday, Prince Jungkook of Löhrenstein, would have a party, in which all the nobility and sovereigns of the land would be in attendance with their young princesses, and little duchesses, hoping to secure a treaty with his father, a contract between two kingdoms; a betrothal of a prince and a princess.
Of course, you would know nothing of this sort of formality or indeed the contracts of marriage. Your education was as broad as tending a home, carrying your father’s supplies, making flower crowns, and helping to herd the cows during the Viehscheid.
So, while the prince was living in a castle and throwing parties and sneering down his nose at near everybody, you were busy helping your father to sew his clothes. At least you could still play in the fields when the sun was high and warm and the flowers were just beginning to bloom.
And this was how you spent your years, watching as Else became beautiful and elegant, long brown hair thick and wavy, tied back in braids as she went to work in the village at her father’s bakery and you watched in quiet envy as all the boys took notice, bringing her fine milks and cheeses as tokens of their affection while you stayed plain. Even Peter had become mildly handsome as he grew into his gangly limbs, erasing the once mousy appearance for a broad shouldered, sun freckled young man.
You told yourself you didn’t mind so much that you were still plain while she was beautiful, but of course you did a little. To be poor but beautiful afforded you more than being poor and plain. Peter often told you that you were just as beautiful as Else, and while you were happy with the compliment, you knew it was because of his childhood love and devotion to you.
You believed that was why he chose to become apprentice to your father, to someday seek your fathers blessing for your hand. While you did not love Peter the way that he loved you, you could not deny the appeal of continuing with the comforts that you were already accustomed to. After all, you were the only daughter to the king’s tailor…that did afford you some small comforts. You supposed someday when he asked for your hand, as he inevitably would, that you would accept.
When you turned 18, however; there was a small gift from the gods, in the form of a late blooming. A glow to your cheeks and a blossoming of beauty. You were, of course, no Else, but you could certainly hold your own and found that you had more than just Peter as an admirer; much to his chagrin.
Perhaps that’s why you feared that any day now he would ask for your father’s permission to court you because then your path as his future wife would be decided. You were in a strange position as the daughter of the king’s master tailor. You were neither peasant nor nobility so while your ability to choose your spouse was more under your control, you were still held to the standard of your father and who he deemed fit to represent his family, and in turn, the kings.
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The sun had just risen to its fullest height, waxing hot as it commandeered the sky, blue and shivering with the heat. It was sweltering and crowded in the square; noisy with life. The baker’s wife was out shouting, calling attention to the freshly baked rolls sitting just passed the door of the bakery. Else stood beside him, batting her eyelashes and looking pretty; using charms her father could not to entice more customers and you smiled.
The sheep were drinking from the water trough in the center, surrounded by red and yellow poppies in full bloom. The clock tower struck one and you glanced up, eyeing the time wearily. You stood under the archway of a building painted green as a melon, hoping to escape some of the day’s heat.
A woman chased a boy from her garden, chickens flying around in aggravation and you peered after the child as he sulked down the lane, feet dirty and bare. “You hungry, boy?” You called and he looked to you, face caked with dirt from playing and a nod as answer. “Here.” You tossed him the apple you held in your hand and he thanked you, running back into the bustling of the town.
The crowd quivered with conversation and your attention was suddenly captured by the gossip of two young ladies as they passed you. “Yes, the king’s carriage has already left the castle. Apparently, the prince is to be fitted for a ball.”
“I wonder if we shall see him.” The other remarked and your eyes swung to the road, spotting the carriage, scarlet curtains billowing from the windows as it made its descent into town. You gasped, grabbing the skirts of your dress and dashing mad towards your home.
Your father would whip you if you were late. You ran through the fields, cutting through tall shrubs and across dirt paths. A childhood spent playing in this winding village afforded you the intimate knowledge of all its byways.  
You arrived at your home, gasping and covered in dirt and your mother came out, fussing loudly over your appearance, bustling you into the home and towards your room. Your father sighed loudly as you passed, eyes scanning your dress, soiled with the toil of your morning.
“This is no way to greet your king.” He remarks as your mother pulls you behind the wooden room divider, helping you to strip from your clothing and wiping you down quickly with a wet wash cloth.
“My dear, you are not fit to be seen!” Your mother scolded, washing roughly at your face and you grimaced, shivering in the chill of the room. “You knew they were coming today.”
“They are early.” You complained and your mother’s lips smacked in irritation.
“A king is never early. He always arrives exactly when he means to. You would do well to remember that, Y/N.”
Your mother helped you to dress in something new quickly, repining the last piece of your hair just as the crunch of gravel from the royal carriage wheels could be heard rounding the corner and the two of you rushed from the room and to the front door to wait with your father.
You took a deep breath, head bowed into your chest as you heard the carriage come to a stop in front of you. It was abnormal for the king to come to your home, far too busy with his royal duties to condescend to see a peasant, but his son and only heir had recently returned from…well, to be sure, you did not know where he actually had been, but rumor said he was poorly behaved and had gone somewhere far away to teach him the ways of a king.
This would not surprise you, were it true; he’d been a ghastly child. You could only imagine him now, in adulthood. Upon his return, his father had announced his desire to reacquaint his son with their kingdom and your father being his master tailor would receive the special privilege of his presence, it seemed.
The king stepped from the carriage first, and you watched his feet move towards your family.
“Your majesty!” Your father bowed and pleasantries were exchanged as the prince himself disembarked from the carriage.
You kept your eyes trained fast on the ground; the bottom of your dress already smudged with dirt from where you stood.
“My son,” The king announced and your father bowed once more, both your mother and yourself curtsying deep.
“You remember my wife and my daughter?” Your father said and it was now that you felt it was safe to lift your eyes from the ground.
“My, yes,” Said the king turning his gaze towards you, “you have grown well, girl.”
“Thank you, your majesty.” You replied, soft; bowing your head and he smiled, pleased.
“You remember my son?” He asked, pointing his hand to the figure by his side and you allowed your eyes to slide over to him.
It is unfortunate, in this life; that some people are just born with everything the heart could desire. Good fortune, health, money and comfort and to have all that and still be handsome? Well, truly life was unfair.
He stood tall, face angular with deep set brown eyes and rounded lips. You were under no illusion that he was anything but blessed by the gods. They must have looked upon him very favorably, indeed.
“Yes, your highness.”
The prince looked at you curiously, head curved to the side as your father beckoned them into your home and you watched the king and prince follow after him. You heated with shame as you entered after, watching the prince survey your home while your father and the king conversed.
He must think this was so beneath him; to stand in the home of a pauper. The floor, though it had been swept, was still covered in a layer of dirt and the furniture was old and matted, worn with use. You had more than others in your village, but compared to a king, this was true poverty. It must have seemed you had nothing at all.
“Florian, come look at these colors.” The king beckoned and the prince was quick to walk to his side, looking over the fabric your father had assembled as options for his ball.
“These are exquisite.” He remarked, voice low and serious. “I wonder, sir, my father says you will come to the castle tomorrow to prepare my clothing.”
“Yes, your highness, with my apprentice in training, Peter.”
The prince’s eyes flickered to you in surprise and you looked back down at the floor. “Not your daughter? I remember she used to join you when I was a boy.”
“Yes, my daughter would come to help me carry my things, but since I have acquired an apprentice, I have found that quite unnecessary.”
“I would very much like if you would bring her tomorrow, along with your apprentice, of course.” The prince smiled and you couldn’t help but look up in surprise.
“A woman?” The king laughed, loud and joyful and you bowed your head once more, flushed with shame. “What purpose would a woman have in a man’s business? She should stay here and help tend the home, Florian. Don’t be unreasonable.”
“I should very much like to have her return to the castle, for reminiscence sake, father. That is, if her mother can spare her.”
“Of course, your majesty.” She bowed.
“She can carry some of the fabric.” The prince smiled, eyes flickering to your bowed head, “like when she was a child.”
“You have a very strange sense of humor.” The king chortled and you closed your eyes, willing the humiliation from you. “Very well then, we shall see you on the morrow with your apprentice and your daughter. You know the time, I presume?”
“Yes, of course, your majesty.” Your father smiled, escorting them out the door and your mother and you stood in the kitchen, eyes trained on the floor.
So, it would seem he had not changed. Like a dog at his table, you had been summoned. So amusing, was it, to watch a woman carry fabric and needles for a man and stand in the background. Always to be seen, but never to be heard.
Your heart bled with the thought and you listened carefully as the carriage resumed its journey. Your father stepped through the threshold of your home and you could feel his eyes on the crown of your head.
“Now come, girl, there is no need to be so downtrodden.” Your father remarked lightly and your throat burned with emotion.
“Y/N.” Your mother said softly and you shook your head, turning to walk away.
“I wish to be alone.” You murmured, fleeing to your room.
The window was open, soft breeze fluttering through the soft white curtains, now dirtied from the dust of the road. You closed your bedroom door softly behind you, walking towards the window where you sat at your stool.
Laying your arm across the lip of your window, you rested your chin in the palm of your hand and sighed. To feel like a bartering chip in the world of men was difficult. To never be in charge of your own destiny. Destiny, for you, was to be nice to look at and the ability to spread your legs. You wanted more than that; wanted to be heard, wanted your thoughts and feelings to be considered.
A knock at your door called your attention and your mother stepped through the door, smiling softly. “It is an honor to be called back to the castle.” She remarked and you sighed once again, returning your gaze back out the window.
“Mother.” You frowned and she sat down on your bed. “You should understand…as a woman. We’re not objects to be played with.”
“My dear,” she tutted and you looked over at her. “Men are simple creatures, if they’ve nothing to look at, they don’t know what to do with themselves.”
You chuckled, sitting up straighter, hands dropping into your lap. “Then what are we to do with them, mother?”
“We guide them, darling. They like to feel useful, so we help them feel so. We know our worth, we don’t need to be reminded. Men, they need to feel powerful; what else do they have? They may be the head of the family, but we are the neck and they turn where we will it.”
“I have the feeling a prince would be harder to guide.” You smiled and she shrugged.
“Perhaps. It just makes it more fun; more of a challenge.”
You frowned, staring back out the window and into the forest just beyond your gate. The air rippled with heat and you watched as a rabbit hopped from your garden and into the shade. “I don’t want to go, mother.” You admitted.
Your mother’s fingers closed around your hand at the window and you turned to look at her. “My dear…I’m afraid you’ve no choice.”
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The morning was hotter than usual and your dress stuck uncomfortable to your back. Peter was thrilled at the prospect of meeting the king and you realized belatedly that he’d never met him before. As the daughter of the king’s master tailor, you were in a unique position within society; neither pauper nor noble.
You’d had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting both the king and his son and you didn’t particularly care for either. “Imagine the palace, Y/N.” Peter sighed, eyes distant and smile pleasant as he threw an arm around your shoulder.
“I don’t need to imagine it.” You huffed, pushing his arm from your shoulder and readjusting the wrappings of fabric in your arms. “I’ve been there, remember?”
“Yes, I do. You never told me much about it, though. Always so secretive.”
You watched as he paused, tucking the edges of the tarp back around the rest of the fabric on the cart before resuming the journey. Your father walked steadily in front of the two of you.
“It was never a secret; I just didn’t particularly enjoy my time there.” You said carefully, eyes focused on the back of your father’s head. He’d beat you if you misspoke of the king.
“Yes, you did mention the prince was rather…interesting.”
“It seems nothing has changed.” You hummed softly, staring down at your feet, dusted yellow from the road.
“Then why are you coming today? If you dislike the prince, why come?” Peter questioned. The castle came into view, large and imposing against the backdrop of the mountains. White brick stood tall, the spires topped with a deep blue and for a moment you allowed yourself to admire the view.
Though the people within the castle were not to your taste, the palace itself was beautiful. Draped on every side by the mountain range and a large lake nestled in its cove, it was one of life’s true pleasures, gazing at its majesty.
“I think you will find, Peter, that I don’t have much of a choice. The prince requested his dancing monkey.” You replied, the words bitter on your tongue.
Your father called Peter forward and you spent the rest of the walk in silence, listening to the creak of the cart’s wheels as they cracked over rubble and dirt. Your mother had attempted to make you look pretty today, though you could not think why; presentable should be good enough for any man who wasn’t looking to choose a wife.
Your hair had been done and pinned beautifully, your most beautiful dress resting against your skin. It was certainly nothing to a noble, to be sure, but it was not unpleasant to look at and flattered the shape of your body.
It was hot, though, unbearably so, and you suffered dearly under the harsh rays of the late spring sun. Your mother insisted beauty had a price, but you weren’t quite sure why you were being asked to pay it.
The shade of the drawbridge was a welcome relief and you pulled a handkerchief from your bag and mopped at your face and neck. You didn’t need to offer the prince anymore reason to mock you.
You were escorted to the kings fitting rooms where you gently placed the fabric from your arms on top of what your father and Peter had carried from the cart. You patted at your neck once more as you watched Peter’s eyes scan the room excitedly. Absently you wondered if your father had taught him how to behave when the king was in the room.
Your father motioned you over and you slipped your handkerchief back in your bag and went to stand by his side. It wasn’t long before the king entered and you curtseyed deep, eyes trained on the floor.
He and your father spoke loudly as introductions were made and you could practically feel Peter vibrating from where he stood. He was excited, at least. You resisted the urge to pat at your cheeks, flushed with heat from the walk. Your throat felt like sand, dry as you swallowed and you wished more than anything for some water.
The men spoke noisily as they congregated around the fabric and it was decided that the king would be fitted first. You waited quietly as your father began his measurements, your fingers bunching tight in the fabric of your dress.
The room was overly warm, large windows allowing the sun to enter liberally and you felt yourself wilting in the heat. Voices muffling like you were under water, you watched as the gold, cerulean and cobalt of the room became nothing more than puddles of grey before fading into black.
.
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Your brow felt cool, wet with the brush of a damp cloth and your eyelashes fluttered open, taking in the surrounding room.
Deep mahogany filled your vision, blue and white canopy drapes traveling the length of the rail. Walls painted in beautiful scenery drew your gaze and you reached up to feel the cloth against your brow.
“You’re awake.”
You inhaled sharp, turning to find the source of the voice. You were surprised to find the prince sat beside you, a basin of water resting on a table next to him and a small smile as greeting.
“I’m sorry to have startled you.” He said softly and you lowered your hand, attempting to sit up. “Please remain as you are, Y/N. You need just a moment to recover.”
“What happened? Where am I?”
“You are in one of the spare bedrooms in the palace. It seems you over heated and became faint.”
You closed your eyes tight, shame filling your breast. It was one thing to faint in general, but in front of the king and his son. Mortification was a bitter friend.
“Where is the doctor?” You asked carefully, peaking one eye open and glancing around the room. The prince smiled watching as your gaze flittered everywhere but him.
“I asked him to step outside for a moment. I wanted to make sure for myself that you were well.” He replied, watching your brows furrow in thought.
“Why is that, your majesty?” You pondered, looking up at him and he removed the cloth from your head, soaking it back in the basin before wringing it anew and placing it back against your brow.
“We are old friends, are we not?”
He stared down at his lap, seemingly unsure himself of his statement and your mouth parted in surprise. “You would consider us friends, your highness?”
The prince smiled, wry, before chuckling with a shrug. “Perhaps friends is too liberal of a word. I know I wasn’t the most…pleasant to be around when I was a child. I was selfish and cruel and it’s why my father sent me away. I’m very sorry to have ever been cause for discomfort.”
He paused to gauge your reaction but at the moment you weren’t sure what to think. It had seemed so unlikely to ever receive an apology and now that you had it, you weren’t quite sure what to make of it.
“I was hoping we could begin again…become real friends.” He admitted.
“Please pardon my confusion, but I find myself very surprised. Why would you wish to be friends with a pauper, your majesty?” You finally asked, looking over at him and his smile was gentle, gaze shifting to the open window, the afternoon’s breeze composing a dance among the curtains.
“You are not a pauper, YN” He said, watching as a small starling landed on the balcony, head twisting side to side as it chattered excitedly. “But even if you were, I would still wish to have your friendship. It is my father’s intention to make me king someday and after so many years as a selfish child, I am ashamed to admit that I know nothing of the people in my kingdom. The sorrows, the trials, the joys…I want to be a good king. I want people to know they can depend on me to help, even if I’m not perfect or don’t always have the answers. I want my people to trust me.”
You watched the starling yourself now, hopping across the wood of the balcony, a song puffing his chest wide. “And you think I can help you with that?” You asked softly, watching as the bird resumed flight and soared into the distance.
The prince looked back down at you, reaching his hand out to press against your cheek and you flinched. “My apologies, I only meant to see if your skin was still flushed. May I?”
You nodded, watching as his fingers extended back to your face, the back of his hand pressing gently across your cheek and neck. He hummed, retracting his hand and smiled. “Your temperature has reduced. How are you feeling?”
“Better.” You admitted, “Though I would love to have some water.”
“Yes, of course, I will have some fetched for you. Can I help you sit up?”
He held his hands out for you and you allowed him to pull you gently into an upright position. The world spun for a moment before settling and he moved to the door, calling for a water.
“As an answer to your earlier question,” he said, coming to sit across from you once again and you watched as he set the cloth and basin further away from the bed, “Not only do I wish to make amends, but I want to learn about my people and my kingdom and I believe that spending time with someone who knows the kingdom so well could only benefit that cause.”
“Spending time with me?” You questioned before pausing as a maid entered the room, handing the prince the water before leaving the room once more, door closed tightly behind her.
“Here,” he said, handing you the water which you took happily, clear and cool to the taste. “Yes, spending time with you. Getting to know all about you and my people.”
He paused to allow you a moment to think and you took the opportunity to finish your water, staring down into the cup once you’d allowed it to settle in your lap. It seemed unreasonable to refuse his offer if he really was trying to make a change.
The kingdom could only benefit from having their future king know them and care for their wellbeing. Perhaps the prince would make a very decent king after all, not the tyrant you’d assumed as a child.
“What say you?” He asked gently, holding his hand out for your glass and setting it on the table with the basin.
You looked up at him with a nod, smile tucked in the corner of your lips. “Very well. I can’t see how it would hurt. I will do as you request, your majesty.”
“Wonderful.” He smiled. “And please, call me Jungkook.”
.
.
You guys! Welcome to my page. I’m so happy you’re here and I’d absolutely love to know what you think of my new series! Go ahead and leave a cheeky comment, my loves   😘 See you soon!
Chapter 2
Copyright © 2021 by ExpensiveGlasses. All rights reserved.
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taeken-my-heart · 4 years
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Charming Chapter 1
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(Banner by the incredible @xjoonchildx​ ! Thank you so, so much. I love it!)
Summary: Prince Seokjin was as infuriating as he was beautiful. In line to one day be king, he requested your guidance in the ways of his people. In turn he will make you laugh, give your family fine gifts, and become an invaluable friend. Unfortunately, he will also make you fall in love with him. But the most unfortunate thing of all was his betrothal...to Snow White
Pairing: Seokjin x Reader
Genre: Fluff, Fantasy, Angst, Snow white/au
Rating: NC-17
Word Count: 4538
Warnings: None for this chapter. Future warnings are TW: Major character “death” TW: Thoughts of suicide TW: Attempted suicide. Nothing is graphically described. Chapters will be noted when these things take place. 
~~</3~~
It was during the spring that you felt the most content. Everything was reborn, blossoming from the frozen winter. The village came to life with music, new animals, and the sweet smell of fresh bread.
It had been this way since you were a child, no taller than your mother’s hip and only aware of how acutely you spurned the winter. With chapped fingers and lips, you watched bitterly as your friends, Peter and Else, played, squealing loudly as they threw snow at one another.
The three of you, friends since you could remember, filled to the brim with laughter, scraped knees, and all as plain looking as could be. This suited you fine, and there was little to disappoint you but short moments of impassioned arguments with your two best friends and a brief encounter with the very silly king and his very silly son.
As the only daughter (and indeed, the only child) of the villages master tailor, you found yourself often around the regal and ridiculous. So it was of no surprise when the king himself requested your father’s services and you were required to help him carry his materials to the castle where the king greeted you with his only heir, a son, wearing the silliest hat you’d ever laid eyes upon, a red feather sticking from the top.
You were as different as two people could be and with your simple manners and upbringing, you could not begin to understand the pomp and circumstance of such a silly little boy with rounded cheeks and a chest puffed much too high.
He strutted and flounced about the castle as a peacock would its park and the sight was all together ridiculous for your 9 year old eyes to behold. He’d called you peasant girl and remarked on your general lack of beauty and at 13 years old himself, you felt he had little to offer either, aside from a sizeable kingdom to trump the bed of straw and sheep’s skin you called your own.
For his 13th birthday, Prince Seokjin of Löhrenstein, would have a party, in which all the nobility and sovereigns of the land would be in attendance with their young princesses, and little duchesses, hoping to secure a treaty with his father, a contract between two kingdoms; a betrothal of a prince and a princess.
Of course, you would know nothing of this sort of formality or indeed the contracts of marriage. Your education was as broad as tending a home, carrying your father’s supplies, making flower crowns, and helping to herd the cows during the Viehscheid.
So while the prince was living in a castle and throwing parties and sneering down his nose at near everybody, you were busy helping your father to sew his clothes. At least you could still play in the fields when the sun was high and warm and the flowers were just beginning to bloom.
And this was how you spent your years, watching as Else became beautiful and elegant, long brown hair thick and wavy, tied back in braids as she went to work in the village at her father’s bakery and you watched in quiet envy as all the boys took notice, bringing her fine milks and cheeses as tokens of their affection while you stayed plain. Even Peter had become mildly handsome as he grew into his gangly limbs, erasing the once mousy appearance for a broad shouldered, sun freckled young man.
You told yourself you didn’t mind so much that you were still plain while she was beautiful, but of course you did a little. To be poor but beautiful afforded you more than being poor and plain. Peter often told you that you were just as beautiful as Else, and while you were happy with the compliment, you knew it was because of his childhood love and devotion to you.
You believed that was why he chose to become apprentice to your father, to someday seek your fathers blessing for your hand. While you did not love Peter the way that he loved you, you could not deny the appeal of continuing with the comforts that you were already accustomed to. After all, you were the only daughter to the king’s tailor…that did afford you some small comforts. You supposed someday when he asked for your hand, as he inevitably would, that you would accept.
When you turned 18, however; there was a small gift from the gods, in the form of a late blooming. A glow to your cheeks and a blossoming of beauty. You were, of course, no Else, but you could certainly hold your own and found that you had more than just Peter as an admirer; much to his chagrin.
Perhaps that’s why you feared that any day now he would ask for your father’s permission to court you because then your path as his future wife would be decided. You were in a strange position as the daughter of the king’s master tailor. You were neither peasant nor nobility so while your ability to choose your spouse was more under your control, you were still held to the standard of your father and who he deemed fit to represent his family, and in turn, the kings.
~~</3~~
The sun had just risen to its fullest height, waxing hot as it commandeered the sky, blue and shivering with the heat. It was sweltering and crowded in the square; noisy with life. The baker’s wife was out shouting, calling attention to the freshly baked rolls sitting just passed the door of the bakery. Else stood beside her father, batting her eyelashes and looking pretty; using charms her father could not to entice more customers and you smiled.
The sheep were drinking from the water trough in the center, surrounded by red and yellow poppies in full bloom. The clock tower struck one and you glanced up, eyeing the time wearily. You stood under the archway of a building painted green as a melon, hoping to escape some of the day’s heat.
A woman chased a boy from her garden, chickens flying around in aggravation and you peered after the child as he sulked down the lane, feet dirty and bare. “You hungry, boy?” You called and he looked to you, face caked with dirt from playing and a nod as answer. “Here.” You tossed him the apple you held in your hand and he thanked you, running back into the bustling of the town.
The crowd quivered with conversation and your attention was suddenly captured by the gossip of two young ladies as they passed you. “Yes, the king’s carriage has already left the castle. Apparently, the prince is to be fitted for a ball.”
“I wonder if we shall see him.” The other remarked and your eyes swung to the road, spotting the carriage, scarlet curtains billowing from the windows as it made its descent into town. You gasped, grabbing the skirts of your dress and dashing mad towards your home.
Your father would whip you if you were late. You ran through the fields, cutting through tall shrubs and across dirt paths. A childhood spent playing in this winding village afforded you the intimate knowledge of all its byways.  
You arrived at your home, gasping and covered in dirt and your mother came out, fussing loudly over your appearance, bustling you into the home and towards your room. Your father sighed loudly as you passed, eyes scanning your dress, soiled with the toil of your morning.
“This is no way to greet your king.” He remarks as your mother pulls you behind the wooden room divider, helping you to strip from your clothing and wiping you down quickly with a wet wash cloth.
“My dear, you are not fit to be seen!” Your mother scolded, washing roughly at your face and you grimaced, shivering in the chill of the room. “You knew they were coming today.”
“They are early.” You complained and your mother’s lips smacked in irritation.
“A king is never early. He always arrives exactly when he means to. You would do well to remember that, Y/N.”
Your mother helped you to dress in something new quickly, repinning the last piece of your hair just as the crunch of gravel from the royal carriage wheels could be heard rounding the corner and the two of you rushed from the room and to the front door to wait with your father.
You took a deep breath, head bowed into your chest as you heard the carriage come to a stop in front of you. It was abnormal for the king to come to your home, far too busy with his royal duties to condescend to see a peasant, but his son and only heir had recently returned from…well, to be sure, you did not know where he actually had been, but rumor said he was poorly behaved and had gone somewhere far away to teach him the ways of a king.
This would not surprise you, were it true; he’d been a ghastly child. You could only imagine him now, in adulthood. Upon his return, his father had announced his desire to reacquaint his son with their kingdom and your father being his master tailor would receive the special privilege of his presence, it seemed.
The king stepped from the carriage first, and you watched his feet move towards your family.
“Your majesty!” Your father bowed and pleasantries were exchanged as the prince himself disembarked from the carriage.
You kept your eyes trained fast on the ground; the bottom of your dress already smudged with dirt from where you stood.
“My son,” The king announced and your father bowed once more, both your mother and yourself curtsying deep.
“You remember my wife and my daughter?” Your father said and it was now that you felt it was safe to lift your eyes from the ground.
“My, yes,” Said the king turning his gaze towards you, “you have grown well, girl.”
“Thank you, your majesty.” You replied, soft; bowing your head and he smiled, pleased.
“You remember my son?” He asked, pointing his hand to the figure by his side and you allowed your eyes to slide over to him.
It is unfortunate, in this life; that some people are just born with everything the heart could desire. Good fortune, health, money and comfort and to have all that and still be handsome? Well, truly life was unfair.
He stood tall, face angular with deep set brown eyes and rounded lips. You were under no illusion that he was anything but blessed by the gods. They must have looked upon him very favorably, indeed.
“Yes, your highness.”
The prince looked at you curiously, head curved to the side as your father beckoned them into your home and you watched the king and prince follow after him. You heated with shame as you entered after, watching the prince survey your home while your father and the king conversed.
He must think this was so beneath him; to stand in the home of a pauper. The floor, though it had been swept, was still covered in a layer of dirt and the furniture was old and matted, worn with use. You had more than others in your village, but compared to a king, this was true poverty. It must have seemed you had nothing at all.
“Seokjin, come look at these colors.” The king beckoned and the prince was quick to walk to his side, looking over the fabric your father had assembled as options for his ball.
“These are exquisite.” He remarked, voice low and serious. “I wonder, sir, my father says you will come to the castle tomorrow to prepare my clothing.”
“Yes, your highness, with my apprentice in training, Peter.”
The prince’s eyes flickered to you in surprise and you looked back down at the floor. “Not your daughter? I remember she used to join you when I was a boy.”
“Yes, my daughter would come to help me carry my things, but since I have acquired an apprentice, I have found that quite unnecessary.”
“I would very much like if you would bring her tomorrow, along with your apprentice, of course.” The prince smiled and you couldn’t help but look up in surprise.
“A woman?” The king laughed, loud and joyful and you bowed your head once more, flushed with shame. “What purpose would a woman have in a man’s business? She should stay here and help tend the home, Seokjin. Don’t be unreasonable.”
“I should very much like to have her return to the castle, for reminiscence sake, father. That is, if her mother can spare her.”
“Of course, your majesty.” She bowed.
“She can carry some of the fabric.” The prince smiled, eyes flickering to your bowed head, “like when she was a child.”
“You have a very strange sense of humor.” The king chortled and you closed your eyes, willing the humiliation from you. “Very well then, we shall see you on the morrow with your apprentice and your daughter. You know the time, I presume?”
“Yes, of course, your majesty.” Your father smiled, escorting them out the door and your mother and you stood in the kitchen, eyes trained on the floor.
So, it would seem he had not changed. Like a dog at his table, you had been summoned. So amusing, was it, to watch a woman carry fabric and needles for a man and stand in the background. Always to be seen, but never to be heard.
Your heart bled with the thought and you listened carefully as the carriage resumed its journey. Your father stepped through the threshold of your home and you could feel his eyes on the crown of your head.
“Now come, girl, there is no need to be so downtrodden.” Your father remarked lightly and your throat burned with emotion.
“Y/N.” Your mother said softly and you shook your head, turning to walk away.
“I wish to be alone.” You murmured, fleeing to your room.
The window was open, soft breeze fluttering through the soft white curtains, now dirtied from the dust of the road. You closed your bedroom door softly behind you, walking towards the window where you sat at your stool.
Laying your arm across the lip of your window, you rested your chin in the palm of your hand and sighed. To feel like a bartering chip in the world of men was difficult. To never be in charge of your own destiny. Destiny, for you, was to be nice to look at and the ability to spread your legs. You wanted more than that; wanted to be heard, wanted your thoughts and feelings to be considered.
A knock at your door called your attention and your mother stepped through the door, smiling softly. “It is an honor to be called back to the castle.” She remarked and you sighed once again, returning your gaze back out the window.
“Mother.” You frowned and she sat down on your bed. “You should understand…as a woman. We’re not objects to be played with.”
“My dear,” she tutted and you looked over at her. “Men are simple creatures, if they’ve nothing to look at, they don’t know what to do with themselves.”
You chuckled, sitting up straighter, hands dropping into your lap. “Then what are we to do with them, mother?”
“We guide them, darling. They like to feel useful, so we help them feel so. We know our worth, we don’t need to be reminded. Men, they need to feel powerful; what else do they have? They may be the head of the family, but we are the neck and they turn where we will it.”
“I have the feeling a prince would be harder to guide.” You smiled and she shrugged.
“Perhaps. It just makes it more fun; more of a challenge.”
You frowned, staring back out the window and into the forest just beyond your gate. The air rippled with heat and you watched as a rabbit hopped from your garden and into the shade. “I don’t want to go, mother.” You admitted.
Your mother’s fingers closed around your hand at the window and you turned to look at her. “My dear…I’m afraid you’ve no choice.”
~~</3~~
The morning was hotter than usual and your dress stuck uncomfortable to your back. Peter was thrilled at the prospect of meeting the king and you realized belatedly that he’d never met him before. As the daughter of the king’s master tailor, you were in a unique position within society; neither pauper nor noble.
You’d had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting both the king and his son and you didn’t particularly care for either. “Imagine the palace, Y/N.” Peter sighed, eyes distant and smile pleasant as he threw an arm around your shoulder.
“I don’t need to imagine it.” You huffed, pushing his arm from your shoulder and readjusting the wrappings of fabric in your arms. “I’ve been there, remember?”
“Yes, I do. You never told me much about it, though. Always so secretive.”
You watched as he paused, tucking the edges of the tarp back around the rest of the fabric on the cart before resuming the journey. Your father walked steadily in front of the two of you.
“It was never a secret, I just didn’t particularly enjoy my time there.” You said carefully, eyes focused on the back of your fathers head. He’d beat you if you misspoke of the king.
“Yes, you did mention the prince was rather…interesting.”
“It seems nothing has changed.” You hummed softly, staring down at your feet, dusted yellow from the road.
“Then why are you coming today? If you dislike the prince, why come?” Peter questioned. The castle came into view, large and imposing against the backdrop of the mountains. White brick stood tall, the spires topped with a deep blue and for a moment you allowed yourself to admire the view.
Though the people within the castle were not to your taste, the palace itself was beautiful. Draped on every side by the mountain range and a large lake nestled in its cove, it was one of life’s true pleasures, gazing at its majesty.
“I think you will find, Peter, that I don’t have much of a choice. The prince requested his jester.” You replied, the words bitter on your tongue.
Your father called Peter forward and you spent the rest of the walk in silence, listening to the creak of the cart’s wheels as they cracked over rubble and dirt. Your mother had attempted to make you look pretty today, though you could not think why; presentable should be good enough for any man who wasn’t looking to choose a wife.
Your hair had been done and pinned beautifully, your most beautiful dress resting against your skin. It was certainly nothing to a noble, to be sure, but it was not unpleasant to look at and flattered the shape of your body.
It was hot, though, unbearably so, and you suffered dearly under the harsh rays of the late spring sun. Your mother insisted beauty had a price, but you weren’t quite sure why you were being asked to pay it.
The shade of the drawbridge was a welcome relief and you pulled a handkerchief from your bag and mopped at your face and neck. You didn’t need to offer the prince anymore reason to mock you.
You were escorted to the kings fitting rooms where you gently placed the fabric from your arms on top of what your father and Peter had carried from the cart. You patted at your neck once more as you watched Peter’s eyes scan the room excitedly. Absently you wondered if your father had taught him how to behave when the king was in the room.
Your father motioned you over and you slipped your handkerchief back in your bag and went to stand by his side. It wasn’t long before the king entered and you curtseyed deep, eyes trained on the floor.
He and your father spoke loudly as introductions were made and you could practically feel Peter vibrating from where he stood. He was excited, at least. You resisted the urge to pat at your cheeks, flushed with heat from the walk. Your throat felt like sand, dry as you swallowed and you wished more than anything for some water.
The men spoke noisily as they congregated around the fabric and it was decided that the king would be fitted first. You waited quietly as your father began his measurements, your fingers bunching tight in the fabric of your dress.
The room was overly warm, large windows allowing the sun to enter liberally and you felt yourself wilting in the heat. Voices muffling like you were under water, you watched as the gold, cerulean and cobalt of the room became nothing more than puddles of grey before fading into black.
~~</3~~
Your brow felt cool, wet with the brush of a damp cloth and your eyelashes fluttered open, taking in the surrounding room.
Deep mahogany filled your vision, blue and white canopy drapes traveling the length of the rail. Walls painted in beautiful scenery drew your gaze and you reached up to feel the cloth against your brow.
“You’re awake.”
You inhaled sharp, turning to find the source of the voice. You were surprised to find the prince sat beside you, a basin of water resting on a table next to him and a small smile as greeting.
“I’m sorry to have startled you.” He said softly and you lowered your hand, attempting to sit up. “Please remain as you are, Y/N. You need just a moment to recover.”
“What happened? Where am I?”
“You are in one of the spare bedrooms in the palace. It seems you over heated and became faint.”
You closed your eyes tight, shame filling your breast. It was one thing to faint in general, but in front of the king and his son. Mortification was a bitter friend.
“Where is the doctor?” You asked carefully, peaking one eye open and glancing around the room. The prince smiled, watching as your gaze flitted everywhere but him.
“I asked him to step outside for a moment. I wanted to make sure for myself that you were well.” He replied, watching your brows furrow in thought.
“Why is that, your majesty?” You pondered, looking up at him and he removed the cloth from your head, soaking it back in the basin before wringing it anew and placing it back against your brow.
“We are old friends, are we not?”
He stared down at his lap, seemingly unsure himself of his statement and your mouth parted in surprise. “You would consider us friends, your highness?”
The prince smiled, wry, before chuckling with a shrug. “Perhaps friends is too liberal of a word. I know I wasn’t the most…pleasant to be around when I was a child. I was selfish and cruel and it’s why my father sent me away. I’m very sorry to have ever been cause for discomfort.”
He paused to gauge your reaction but at the moment you weren’t sure what to think. It had seemed so unlikely to ever receive an apology and now that you had it, you weren’t quite sure what to make of it.
“I was hoping we could begin again…become real friends.” He admitted.
“Please pardon my confusion, but I find myself very surprised. Why would you wish to be friends with a pauper, your majesty?” You finally asked, looking over at him and his smile was gentle, gaze shifting to the open window, the afternoon’s breeze composing a dance among the curtains.
“You are not a pauper, Y/N” He said, watching as a small starling landed on the balcony, head twisting side to side as it chattered excitedly. “But even if you were, I would still wish to have your friendship. It is my father’s intention to make me king someday and after so many years as a selfish child, I am ashamed to admit that I know nothing of the people in my kingdom. The sorrows, the trials, the joys…I want to be a good king. I want people to know they can depend on me to help, even if I’m not perfect or don’t always have the answers. I want my people to trust me.”
You watched the starling yourself now, hopping across the wood of the balcony, a song puffing his chest wide. “And you think I can help you with that?” You asked softly, watching as the bird resumed flight and soared into the distance.
The prince looked back down at you, reaching his hand out to press against your cheek and you flinched. “My apologies, I only meant to see if your skin was still flushed. May I?”
You nodded, watching as his fingers extended back to your face, the back of his hand pressing gently across your cheek and neck. He hummed, retracting his hand and smiled. “Your temperature has reduced. How are you feeling?”
“Better.” You admitted, “Though I would love to have some water.”
“Yes, of course, I will have some fetched for you. Can I help you sit up?”
He held his hands out for you and you allowed him to pull you gently into an upright position. The world spun for a moment before settling and he moved to the door, calling for a water.
“As an answer to your earlier question,” he said, coming to sit across from you once again and you watched as he set the cloth and basin further away from the bed, “Not only do I wish to make amends, but I want to learn about my people and my kingdom and I believe that spending time with someone who knows the kingdom so well could only benefit that cause.”
“Spending time with me?” You questioned before pausing as a maid entered the room, handing the prince the water before leaving the room once more, door closed tightly behind her.
“Here,” he said, handing you the water which you took happily, clear and cool to the taste. “Yes, spending time with you. Getting to know all about you and my people.”
He paused to allow you a moment to think and you took the opportunity to finish your water, staring down into the cup once you’d allowed it to settle in your lap. It seemed unreasonable to refuse his offer if he really was trying to make a change.
The kingdom could only benefit from having their future king know them and care for their well being. Perhaps the prince would make a very decent king after all, not the tyrant you’d assumed as a child.
“What say you?” He asked gently, holding his hand out for your glass and setting it on the table with the basin.
You looked up at him with a nod, smile tucked in the corner of your lips. “Very well. I can’t see how it would hurt. I will do as you request, your majesty.”
“Wonderful.” He smiled. “And please, call me Jin.”
~~</3~~
OK, here’s the latest series! I’m unsure of how many parts this will have, at least three. I hope you enjoy it and please send in your feedback, I’d love to hear your thoughts <3
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Copyright © 2019 by Taeken-My-Heart. All rights reserved.
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mythandlaur · 4 years
Note
Oh-- and also Klug, why not?
Send a character’s name to receive four different headcanons
Klug - Puyo Puyo
realistic: Klug doesn’t require the Record of Sealing to cast spells, but it enhances and acts as a focus for his magic, and its inhabitant’s taught him some of their magic as well; Vis Attrahendi/Gravity Strike is one of their own spells (as it’s the exact same animation as Strange Klug’s Hydrangea). Klug’s come to rely on the book as just a bit of a confidence crutch, and its inhabitant has reluctantly allowed him to use it as a grimoire where he’s copied down some of his more pertinent and complex spells (the pages of the book itself are blank, and Aya can ‘write’ in it themself and manipulate its contents. They do occasionally hide or mix up Klug’s notes to get a rise out of him).
while it may not be realistic it is hilarious: As Aya can choose who can hear them at any given time, they tend to act as Klug’s personal peanut gallery, much to Klug’s consternation--while trapped in the book, they tend to act like more of a harmless trickster and general little shit than they actually are. On days when they feel particularly chatty, Klug can often be caught getting into petty arguments with absolutely nothing--and sometimes, Aya will specifically engineer this so that someone catches him and Klug has to fumble to explain himself without revealing that the book is alive.
heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends: Well, I would say something about how he doesn’t actually know where he’s going with his life or know who he is besides ‘the best’, but according to a recent translation of his vocal theme, that’s apparently canon. Let it be known I called him being on the fast track to gifted kid burnout five months ago.
So instead...the incident with him being possessed by the Record of Sealing has affected him far more than he’s willing to tell. The experience left Klug with claustrophobia (he will have outright panic attacks in small, dark spaces, or if he’s somewhere he feels he’s trapped and can’t escape). He’s also still mad at Sig and Raffina for leaving him behind (the former moreso than the latter--Raffina was to be expected, pretty much). As much as he tries to tell himself it doesn’t matter, he’s used it as justification to push himself further away from his classmates, because they clearly don’t care about him and he doesn’t have to care about them either. Even Amitie leaves him behind on her crazy adventures--not that he wants to be a part of those or anything!
If 7 is to be believed, this all only adds to the doomed path he’s heading down leading up to the day he graduates...
unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own: Klug is autistic. He has a lot of trouble understanding how to properly “solve” social situations, which he tries to make up for with his own brashness and mainly talking about himself because he can’t possibly get that wrong; he has poor control of his volume and is unsure of what to do with his hands if he isn’t holding the Record of Sealing, which he uses as something of a stim; he has trouble understanding and empathizing with the emotions of others, or realizing when he’s said something hurtful, though he’ll pretend that that’s exactly what he meant to do; both astronomy and astrology are his special interests.
Also, he’s secretly jealous of Sig’s apparent ability to just not worry about things, because Klug worries about absolutely everything, so much, all the time.
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stabletwooriginals · 4 years
Text
CHAPTER THREE: Guidance
LittlePip wakes up to a brand new day. Which she never experienced before and we get some fun observations from her about.
I knew this was coming but I’m so relieved LittlePip finds one of Rarities dresses in perfect condition inside a locked chest.
The comment, that the dress is the prettiest and most cheerful thing she has seen since leaving is striking to me. She has had one terrible string of bad luck so far, but there are amazing things still waiting to be found.
Which is undercut somewhat by her discovery of the dead cats hung over where she slept. Absolutely terrifying. That doesn’t seem just for shock value, as it preoccupies our (and LittlePips) mind as she accidentally activates a land mine. Oops.
Watcher making his first appearing here, giving LittlePip life saving advice.
Raiders attack again. And we get LittlePips naive interpretation of grenades through a childhood memory of someone bullying her. This explains to us why she focuses on throwing the granade back next… killing her first pony.
We don’t get a lot of rumination on that yet though, as we get a scene break and LittlePip has managed to sneak out of Ponyville. What are these segmenting parts called, actually? Is it “Dinkus”? That’s a fantastic name.
The retelling of escaping Ponyville sounds like a stealth sequence in any video game, which I find amusing.
After a brief first encounter with a Bloatsprite - the mutated version of the Parasprites from the show - we reunite with Watcher and LittlePip get’s to have her first friendly conversation so far. (You might wanna count Velvet at the very beginning, but that’s up to you.)
“A friend.” I raised an eyebrow. “Okay, a passing acquaintance. But one that doesn’t mean any harm.”
This back-paddling is interesting. Why isn’t the “Friend or Foe” distinction enough here? My interpretation is that FoE takes friendship quite seriously. Since it is adopting “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic”, in which friendship is the key to change the course of history, just the word “friend” has a lot of worth and meaning that can’t just be thrown around lightly. We don’t know it yet but the core mechanics of MLP, namely friendship and the Elements of Harmony, are still intact in this story.
Finding my apple, I levitated it up. “Thank you. And thank you for the warning about that… thing in the ground.” “Mine.” I blinked. “Y-you want my apple?”
I just want this on here.
We get some info on the Bloatsprite - mainly it’s name and that it is the result of something called Taint. Which, uh– and Watcher’s name. He is not a Spritebot himself, but located somewhere else and just hacks into them to interact with remote places of the world.
Finally he gives vital advice any newbie RPG player can use: Find better gear, learn about the world and make some friends! What? Yes, there it is again. Friendship.
For guidance LittlePip returns to Ponyville. Watcher told her a copy of the Wasteland Survival Guide should still be at the Ponyville Library. Twilight’s home! (Remember, we’re sticking strictly to the first season.)
I was convinced The Wasteland Survival Guide was a reference to an older piece of post-apocalyptic fiction, but nope, it seems to come from the famous quest line in Fallout 3. At least, that is what dominates the search results when I try to google it.
Quite some time is also spend on the horrific decoration, namely desecrated ponies. Mutilated and in pieces, stuck to the walls and hung from the ceiling. These displays of gore are reminiscent of how Super Mutants tend to gather in places with such bloody decorations in Fallout 3. That game reduced the Mutants personality from a faction, as they were in the previous titles, to little more than orcs. Which is a shame, as they mostly exist as canon fodder now. And help us get over killing them, it shows us with lootable sacks of gore that they deserve it.
The raiders here get painted in the same light and fulfill a similar role. As clear bad guys and somewhat as cannon fodder. Their psychology never gets explored much beyond “the Wasteland drove them mad”. They often even have ridiculous cutie marks, implying they have been born into being raiders and that being cruel is their special talent. Which, besides painting the saddest existence, is a shame, since they clearly form groups among themselves, can talk just fine and are/were, by all accounts, just ponies like anyone else. Except, they’re not. They have gone insane, mind you. They live in their own shit and sleep under fresh, dripping intestines. Because they’ve gone mad, you see!
My point with all that is, that the excessive gore in this scene takes away from my immersion, as it raises questions with no answers, and raiders holding slaves and killing ponies (without putting their corpses on display), again, would be fine enough to convince me of their evilness.
Watcher was playing LittlePip a little, as he knew it was also where a couple slaves are kept in cages. One of them is implied to have been sexually assaulted, which - while still despicable - at least makes more sense for raiders to do than the gore fest described earlier.
LittlePip glancing over the bottle caps the first freed slave offers her without a second thought is a fun touch.
Then a fight breaks loose!
I hadn’t just killed a pony–these raiders had given up any right to the title! These were not ponies, they were sick monsters that needed to be put down!
Which implies choice. Something I can’t imagine, choosing to be a raider like this, but fine. I’m sure plenty of FoE side stories go more into detail with raiders, FoE itself seems mostly comfortable portraying them as orcs most of the time. Until it doesn’t. But we will cross that bridge when we get there.
I didn’t realize until that moment, but I was mad! The pure evil of this place had shaken me to the core… and my core was furious!
Regardless of my feelings towards the raiders, Littlepip’s reaction to them has always been inspirational to me. I know, it leads to… problems later on. But joining in with unbridled rage of LittlePip is cathartic in ways I haven’t yet seen replicated somewhere else.
(what do you know, they do shoot with their tongues!)
Figuring out how horses shoot firearms is… it’s own entire discourse I am not very interested in. But it’s fun to see what ideas FoE brought to the table. And it’s even more fun to see high quality concept art of tongue-triggered pistols for the Fallout: Equestria fan game Ashes of Equestria.
The fight is fun, with brisk and clear descriptions and punctuation of humor (“Shouldn't you ponies be smarter than this? You live in a library!”).
LittlePip gets shot but finds the Fluttershy branded medical box. Love that decision. Also our introduction to healing potions – they work like Stimpaks from Fallout, but are actually more believable because magic actually exists!
I was even more pathetic with melee weapons than I was with guns.
Love that RPG progression being set up here.
It was a zombiepony!
Don’t be mean to ghoul Ditzy Doo. Don’t ever be mean to ghoul Ditzy Doo.
I can’t really place the note about why someone might need binoculars in a library. I assume it’s a MLP reference but I’m lost on that one.
After another short lived meeting with mines the fight is over and LittlePip decides to loot the bodies for armor. The bloody, tattered armor. To be fair, it is the best armor she has come across so far and we do stuff like this in RPGs all the time.
She finds bottle caps again and chooses to ignore them this time. Great tease. Love it.
She finds and identifies radigator meat. I’m not sure she should know their name at this point, but whatever. The narrative framing allows it.
Lastly, she confronts the sniper that has been on the balcony of the library the entire time. Here we get a better glimpse at AngeryPip, surprising herself with her audible confidence and malice. It feels like a different character, but since this is portrayed as a extreme situation this seems more adrenaline fueled to me, rather than pathological.
Leaving the library, LittlePip has a combat shotgun, an assault rifle, a revolver (which gets lost in the next scene), a knife and now a sniper rifle. Impressive for this early in the story.
An alert flashed on my PipBuck. Checking it, I discovered that it had labeled the gazebo in front of me: The Macintosh War Memorial.
First, harrowing. Love it. Secondly, I love the inclusion of the gazebo, which has to be the one we can see in the show. It’s cool to see how many elements of the show actually made it in here. Pretty unobtrusively too.
The Memorial specifically names Big Macintosh and his sacrifice. It’s obviously unclear how much of the story was prepared in advance, but the way the war started 200 years ago must have been among that. We get to learn later what Big Mac’s role in the war was.
And we end with LittlePip picking up “The Wasteland Survival Guide. By Ditzy Doo…”
Level Up! New Perk: Bookworm. Kinda nice how we went to the library this time, got a book out of it, the quote at the beginning was “Books! I’ve read several on the subject.”… So, this one feels more than earned.
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julienschuester · 4 years
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Julien was not the greatest when it came to time management. He tried to stay on top of his responsibilities as best he could, but he knew himself. He knew he had to pick and choose his activities carefully in order to do any of them well. That was why typically, he stuck to high school musical theater which only had productions in the fall and spring. Winter was his open season and he chose to fill with hockey and show choir...typically. 
The decision to audition for Into The Woods had been made in haste by one Julien Schuester. As he approached the theater that the Lima Players operated out of in time for his audition slot, there was a nagging feeling in his belly that he would come to regret this. Nonsense, he thought to himself. He was seventeen now. Sure, maybe when he was a freshman and even when he was a sophomore, he struggled to maintain a good balance. But now? He was an upperclassman. He had a grip on his schedule. He was doing a pretty good job managing glee club, school and having a girlfriend. He’d been able to handle himself during Grease too. He knew that adding hockey and a community theater production to his schedule would cause a bit of a strain, but he could do it...right?
Right!
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Auditioning for a Lima Players production was admittedly a tad more intimidating than auditioning for a WMHS production. Even though Julien wholeheartedly believed that he earned his past leading roles because of his hard work and talent rather than who his dad or brother was, there was still something scary about knowing he wouldn’t be auditioning in front of his brother. What if his success so far was just because of nepotism? What if he wasn’t as good as he thought he was? 
Julien ditched his self-doubt at the door and walked into the building with a smile and his shoulders squared. He was a master at faking it until he made it and he would not let his onslaught of nerves get in the way of his performance. He chose to be positive about this whole situation. It was like Ivy said—he hadn’t done a Lima Players production since middle school, so he was like fresh meat to them. He was prepared. He’d spent a lot of time rehearsing at home and in the choir room, getting pointers from Dan and his dad, and he’d even practiced his monologue and song in front of Finn and Wren a couple of times. He was confident that he was going to make a good impression. 
Julien was sitting in the lobby, resume and headshot in hand, when a casting director emerged from the auditorium doors and called his name. He stood up with a friendly smile, handed the woman his paperwork, and made his way to the stage. Into The Woods was a fun show with lots of parts—all of them good. Julien had spent a lot of time mulling over which role to go for. The Baker was obviously the best role. It was the true lead in his eyes. And then, of course, there was Cinderella’s prince and Rapunzel’s, too. “Hi! I’m Julien Schuester,” he greeted with a wide smile once he found his light center stage, “and today, I’ll be performing an arragement of ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ from The Wizard of Oz and ‘Home’ from The Wiz.” A breath. “I’ll also be performing a monologue from the film Silver Lining’s Playbook.” 
As much as Julien secretly wanted to be a Prince and as fun as it would be to be Cinderella’s prince if Ivy got Cinderella...he knew in his heart of hearts that he wasn’t the obvious choice. Not when there were chiseled and annoyingly charming guys like Davis Goolsby who unfairly looked like an adonis. So ultimately, he decided to go for the Baker, as written on his audition sheet. He was open to any role, of course, but that was what he felt best suited for and no one had told him differently. Once he’d finished his introduction, Julien took a small step back and gave his accompanist a nod to start playing the song. He closed his eyes and took a grounding breath as the piano swelled. 
When all the world is a hopeless jumble And the raindrops tumble all around Heaven opens a magic lane
Julien sang with an earnestness from the very first note. ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ was a song he held very close to his heart ever since childhood—one his dad sang to him and his siblings often. The decision to combine it with ‘Home’ was simply to showcase his range, both emotionally and vocally, and because he liked the way the songs spoke to each other. Into The Woods was a literal journey from start to finish, so he wanted his audition piece to reflect a similar energy. 
When I think of home I think of a place where there's love overflowing I wish I was home I wish I was back there with the things I been knowing
As the song reached its crescendo, Julien squeezed his eyes shut and sang out the words with all his might. He knew this piece like the back of his hand at this point, so he allowed himself a little freedom to get lost in it and riff away. Julien tried to channel the Baker’s determination into his performance. He was a misguided character who was a bit simple, sure, but he was loving and loyal too, which Julien found he could easily relate to. At the end of the day, he was the hero of the story. Julien believed he had what it took to portray that. After the song hit its peak, Julien’s demeanor softened as he gazed out at the directing panel with wonder in his eyes. Julien had a youthful energy that came through clearly when he slowed things down for the final verse. When he belted out the final line of the song, he did so with every ounce of fearlessness that he could muster.
Why, oh why can't I?
Julien made it look effortless to hold his last note but was admittedly a bit breathless when he finished his song. He gave the pianist a grateful nod for following along and not screwing him up and after giving himself a moment to regroup, launched into his monologue. His choices were a bit erratic, but Julien found the parallels between the monologue and the plot of Into The Woods to be kind of funny. He hoped that subconsciously it would aid in the director seeing him in that role. As Julien performed, he really tried to capture Pat’s energy—a broken man going through marriage troubles and desperately trying to fix it. The drawback to Julien choosing a monologue like this was that he had a boyish charm at his age that was hard to escape. Would the audience really believe him as a man?
When he wrapped up his monologue, Julien found his light again and clasped his hands in front of his chest as he bowed his head with a satisfied smile. He’d given it his all and that was all he could really do, wasn’t it? “Thank you,” he said, nodding gratefully to the folks on the panel before exiting stage left with his pride in tact and his head held high. 
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thesunnyshow · 4 years
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Name: reya
Writing Blog URL(s): @chu-ni
Age: 19
Nationality: african-british
Languages: english, swahili, korean
Star Sign: libra
MBTI: enfp/entp (it always changes lol)
Favorite color: purple!
Favorite food: i really love chicken burgers
Favorite movie: princess and the frog
Favorite ice cream flavor: vanilla!!
Favorite animal: elephants
Go-to karaoke song: fancy - twice
Coffee or tea? What are you ordering? caramel frappe with whipped cream, in general i prefer tea though
Dream job (whether you have a job or not)? secretary general at the UN….or an author
If you could have one superpower, what would you choose? making anyone agree with me and do what i want them to do
If you could visit a historical era, which would you choose? ancient egypt!!
If you could restart your life, knowing what you do now, would you?.....no.
Would you rather fight 100 chicken-sized horses or one horse-sized chicken? neither if i could lmfao but i’d go for 100 chicken sized horses
If you were a trope in a teen high school movie, what would you have been? the nerd who’s actually really pretty after she gets a cool makeover 
Do you believe in aliens/supernatural creatures? im not sure about aliens, but i definitely believe in ghosts and spirits.
What are some small things that make your day better? when i can have moments to myself to enjoy my own company. or when someone asks me what i want to eat and they bring it for me 🥺
Fun fact about yourself that not everyone would know? uhm…...probably the fact that i write fanfiction lol..but outside of that! i sing in the shower. and i talk to myself a lot.
What fandom(s) do you write for? nct dream currently, but in the future i want to expand to other groups!
When did you post your first piece? 17th of June 2018.
Do you write fluff/angst/crack/general/smut, combo, etc? Why? i can never write just one genre. predominantly i write fluff with a dash of angst for spice simply because i love a story that has an issue and then having that issue be resolved for a happy ending. when i started my blog i was 17, and so i said i wouldn't write smut. now that i'm older im feeling more and more comfortable writing suggestive content at the very LEAST.. so maybe in the future i might write smut, who knows? i like writing fluff because i like making people feel good, but i like adding angst to it because i feel like the contrast between the two is very *chefs kiss* to me.
Do you write OCs, X Readers, Ships...etc? i only write x readers!
Why did you decide to write for Tumblr? i first got tumblr when i was 13 years old and i was a fresh kpop fan lmfao. i wanted somewhere that shared my interests. of course i discovered x reader fics on here and i was in awe, i guess of how much power writers had in contributing to fandom content and keeping readers satiated. i’d always loved to write and so i’d always wanted to start my own writing blog, and for 2 years i did write for other blogs! it wasnt until 2018 that i finally took the leap and decided to start my own, because i wanted to impact people's emotions and take them on a journey through my writing.
What inspires you to write? what inspires me….teen movies, music!! music is a big one for me, and also the books that i read. i also grew up playing otome games so the plots and writing from those influence my writing a lot.
What genres/AUs do you enjoy writing the most? i really enjoy writing royalty!aus as well as exes!aus. i love to do them cause they require me to build a world and with royalty aus specifically i love weaving together bits of political intrigue, or arranged marriages, etc. its so much fun!!
What do you hope your readers take away from your work? that if this world is too rough or too much, you can always escape from it. it might not be physical, but immersing yourself in a universe that's entirely different for a little while can help soothe you.
What do you do when you hit a rough spot creatively? usually i try and take breaks. the problem with that is that my breaks can go on for longer than i’d like and im trying to fix that. so my other solution is to read read read!! read as much as i can, or go back to books that i loved. ask myself what i liked about the writing, what are some parts that i thought were amazing examples of good writing - i note them down then see if i can apply that to my own work. another thing i do is take a break from writing my longer, fleshed out works and write blurbs! blurbs are a great way for me to write but not feel like its tedious because i don't have to spend as much time on them and it gets me into the groove of writing without feeling stressed out.
What is your favorite work and why? Your most successful? my favourite piece of work is miscommunication. it took me months to write that, even after i lost all the work halfway through, and its the longest piece of work i have written so far, so its kinda like my baby. my most successful is candy jar. its also the work i owe my blog exposure to - it was the first piece i published, and it was also the first piece of writing i did in around 4 years.
Who is your favorite person to write about? i don't have much out for them, but i really enjoy exploring mark’s and jeno’s characters. they're people, but in my work i enjoy analysing them and judging how they’d act in different contexts.
Do you think there’s a difference between writing fanfiction vs. completely original prose? the only difference for me is that fanfiction (depending on the fandom) has some of the stuff fleshed out for you already, such as the world its in. if youre the type to write AUs then the only thing you already have is the characters - the planning, the writing, the drafting, and everything else is still the writer's responsibility. therefore there isn't much of a difference between the two for me.
What do you think makes a good story?  a good story, to me, is one that takes me on a journey. it could be any genre, but i like to feel immersed and connected to the characters and the world in it. also aside from the obvious, like good grammar, a good story feels natural to read. i don't feel like skim reading half of it.
What is your writing process like? my writing process consists of me getting inspiration - usually from a song, or a film or a book ive read or a game ive played - i note down my idea and who i want the story to be about, and then bullet point the whole story, with some snippets of particular dialogue i want the reader or the other person to say at certain scenes. i then open another document ( i have a writing app on my phone, called werdsmith, so i use that!) and set a word count goal i want to hit so i can track my progress and start writing the fic, with fleshed out language and exposition. when im done (usually after a couple weeks up to a few months, depends on the length of the plan) i read through it to fix any mistakes, then i transfer it to docs so i can read it again and italicise any areas i feel need it.
Would you ever repurpose a fic into a completely original story? i...don't think so. mainly because the original fiction i read and would like to write for myself is predominantly fantasy, whereas the fanfic i write on my blog is usually non-idol, normal fics. 
What tropes do you love, and what tropes can’t you stand? im a SUCKER for enemies to lovers, royalty ofc, “and they were roommates”, and i think superhero aus are really cool but there isnt enough of them :( idol/you as member aus....not feeling her… also abo/werewolf/vampire aus….not feelin em
How much would you say audience feedback/engagement means to you? a LOT. a HUGE amount!! i said before how i like giving my readers somewhere where they can immerse themselves as an escape, even for a short while. hearing about how my work affected them, made them feel, makes me feel less insecure about what im writing and thus more confident to publish it.
What has been one of the biggest factors of your success (of any size)? i’d say reblogs. and also putting out more content. when i first uploaded candy jar i went to my one of my favourite writers (jaeminlore) and asked her if she'd be okay with reading it and giving feedback. to my surprise she loved it and her reblogging it to all her followers is literally what gave me a bunch of followers all of a sudden who loved what i’d written. to keep that momentum i created more and more content, and while i haven't uploaded as often as i've wanted to or written as much as i’d wanted to, i can say i have a good amount of work on my masterlist for people who are looking for more to read.
Do you think fanfic writers get unfairly judged? 100%. fanfic has an unfair reputation for just having bad writing and cringey fics (and i feel like this is because of the way society views the demographics who predominantly consume and create it), when in reality i feel like those who write fanfiction are extremely talented and selfless people. they're on the internet creating content for free for people to enjoy and like any other work of art they're putting time and effort into it. i think it should be respected. any form of art is going to have its good and bad sides.
Do you think art can be a medium for change? hmmm….yes. i feel it can be a way to reflect the thoughts of people and also be a way to inspire people to do more.
Do you ever feel there are times when you’re writing for others, rather than yourself? sometimes. sometimes i feel like i'm forcing myself to write because i feel like if i don't then people will forget about me or they’ll forget about my blog. while what i choose to write about is for me, i feel like the speed of my writing and what im writing isn't to the quality i want it to be cause i feel like i gotta get it out for people to read.
Do you ever feel like people have misunderstood you or your writing at times? i've never felt that way!
Do your offline friends/loved ones know you write for Tumblr? only 2 of my friends know, and i only told them like. a week ago!
What is one thing you wish you could tell your followers? i wish you guys would message me more! i'm quite a sociable person, and i’d love to have regular anons who talk to me 👉🏽👈🏽
Do you have any advice for aspiring writers who might be too scared to put themselves out there? i think one common thing amongst all writers is that we write what we want to read. so don't feel like nobody's gonna read your work, cause somebody will. you gotta act like your work is top tier even if someone says it isn't - always write the best you can, and just do it! like don't even give yourself time to overthink it, write that fic, make it look pretty, upload it onto tumblr and do not be afraid to ask your favourite fic writers to read your work once its up!! i’d be happy to read and give feedback for any fic writers as well so don't feel afraid! 
Are there any times when you regret joining Tumblr? ive been on here for 7 years….i grew up on this site lmfao. but i don't think i regret joining tumblr once.
Do you have any mutuals who have been particularly formative/supportive in your Tumblr journey? shes not very active anymore and i miss her very much but user hyuck-s was so supportive and i love her!!
Pick a quote to end your interview with:
she believed she could, so she did.
BONUS ROUND: K-POP CONFIDENTIAL 
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Fjorester moments episode 83
At this point, it’s hard to deny that our lord and savior, Travis Willingham, keeps feeding us whenever all hope seems lost and I just wanna say how blessed I feel for it! 
In this, the anniversary of the underwater kiss, we got fed!!!!!
So, let’s dive in to see the cute little moments these dorks shared:
Jester, to Beau: And you’re pretty willful. He kept asking for somebody willful.
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Fjord: Jester, you’re also very willful. 
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Jester: No, I’m not. I’m very docile.
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Everyone: *loses it*
LISTEN THO HE IS JUST GOING OUT OF HIS WAY TO COMPLIMENT HER AT THIS POINT in the most awkward way possible too but like i will definitely take it 
he didn’t have to say it like that all soft and impressed 
Jester: Fuck me, it didn’t work but Beau won’t be able to lie.
Fjord, immediately: Good idea casting it, though. 
LISTEN MR WILLINGHAM PLEASE
Jester: *polymorphs*
Jester: *deciding who to carry*
Fjord: 
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I know this was mostly because he’s a curious dumbass who really wanted to go through but it’s very cute.
Jester, after talking to Halas: Wait. Did I tell him my name? Did I? Did you guys remember me telling him my name?
Travis: I like your freckles.
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Laura, in character as Jester: Thanks.
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Marisha: I know, aren’t they cute.
Sam: They are so... awesome.
Laura, still in character: Thanks, you guys.
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LISTEN I KNOW IT WAS MOSTLY TRAVIS TALKING ABOUT HER DISGUISE
BUT ALSO SHE KEPT REPLYING IN CHARACTER SO THIS MOMENT NOW LIVES IN CANON AS WELL
fight me
Both of them walking to the trapped devil to talk to him was great too!
Mostly because:
a. Jester is 90% of Fjord’s self-control so as soon as she was curious he wasn’t going to restrain either
b. Jester had already started a conversation with him and want to believe Fjord, being more charming and cunning, wanted in to make sure she wouldn’t get in trouble
c. I think Jester empathized with the Devil’s sadness and isolation, and it wouldn’t be a long shot to say maybe Fjord did too.
Later in the dragon room
we got what i seriously did not expect
honestly
i did not see this coming
Fjord: I realize the last time we were in here you were in quite a pinch. You almost... died. And I think it’s remarkable that you helped Nott... not die.
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Jester: Yeah, well, she helped me out a lot too the last time we were here so
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Fjord:
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Jester:
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Fjord: I’m glad you’re here.
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HE CAN’T EVEN LOOK HER IN THE EYE BECAUSE HE’S THINKING ABOUT THE BLUE DRAGON AND HE STILL FEELS SO GUILTY OVER LEAVING HER BEHIND 
CAN YOU BELIEVE
TRAVIS REALLY BROUGHT THIS BACK 40 EPISODES LATER
Jester: Thanks, Fjord.
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Jester: I’m glad you are too.
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Fjord: Come a long way.
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HE IS NOT JUST TALKING ABOUT THE M9 AND THEIR POWERS OKAY HE’S TALKING METAPHORICALLY ABOUT THEIR RELATIONSHIP AND HOW FAR THEY’VE COME TOGETHER. WHICH IS WHAT HE MEANT WHEN HE SAYS HE’S GLAD SHE’S HERE. HE’S GLAD SHE’S PART OF HIS LIFE. HE’S GLAD SHE’S STILL ALIVE. HE’S JUST THANKFUL FOR HER. BYE
Jester: fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck
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this is the funniest possible reply in the middle of a very sweet heart to heart and it killed me lmfao
Fjord: I’m ready to go back.
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Jester: Me too.
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Fjord, softly: Alright.
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LISTEN OKAY HERE’S THE DEAL
THE WAY HE SAYS IT SO QUIETLY 
It’s like Fjord is ready to end the conversation here. He said what he wanted to say, he let her know that he remembers what happened, that he cares, that he’s glad she’s alright. 
Even the way Travis shuffles a little... it mimics stepping away, letting the moment go.
and that’s when Jester picks it up.
(and this is why i don’t understand how people interpret her as not responding to his attempts during this conversation)
she opens up
SHE OPENS UP YOU GUYS, SHE’S VULNERABLE, SHE ADMITS TO FEELINGS OTHER THAN HAPPINESS IN A WAY THAT IT’S SO HARD FOR HER
and for him too
it’s all about the VULNERABILITY for them and their arcs and here she makes the move to open up and it’s so understated and yet so big!
Jester: but... i kinda don’t want to go back to all of the bad stuff. I just want to, like, go back to happy stuff.
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Jester: This was kind of a nice escape, you know?
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Fjord: Yeah.
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Jester: I could see why someone would get addicted to living here.
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Fjord: Or, at least, visiting often. 
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Jester: Yeah.
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Fjord: Alright.
Jester:
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LOOK AT THOSE LITTLE SMILES OH MY GOD I CAN’T BREATHE
okay okay okay but also lemme bring the meta:
HEY REMEMBER THE LAST TIME THEY HAD A ONE ON ONE TALK BEFORE THE SWORD YEET
how they were talking about a part of Fjord wanting to “leave it all behind” and how she understood the desire to “just go somewhere quiet and disappear and hope that it never bothers you again”? 
This feels like a call-back to that, right?
Like it’s a theme for them.
Also, my Mercer senses are tingling and I feel like, perhaps, Jester WILL be given that option at some point... maybe if they deal with the dude that wanted her dead in Nicodranas and she could actually stay home? Or maybe the Traveler will offer to take her away somewhere else??
I feel like the choice will come, and Jester will need to choose between her escapist desires and her friends and their mission to save the world.
Idk just a thought. 
Also, though, with both of them sharing that sentiment, I can also picture them retiring at the end of the campaign —or during a year break— somewhere nice and quiet and happy. Together. 
Also, though, his offer to “visit often” feels like a nice middle ground. Like he’s telling Jester that she doesn’t have to pick or give something up. Or like he’s afraid that she might leave, which is extra painful when you remember that he just said how glad he is that she’s here. 
Anyway, this is getting rambly but I have a lot of thoughts and i wanna know what you guys’ are!
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who-talks-first · 4 years
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The Skywalker Legacy documentary confirms what I was already fairly certain was true.
I don't need to go in-depth for you Bendemption fans. I know you picked up on all the little things after the death of Kylo Ren.
But I just want to go over this a bit because, while I maintain that Kylo Ren didn't deserve redemption, if it HAD to be done, this was absolutely the best (only) way it could have happened, and I really respect Adam's performance and all JJ's attention to detail.
The metaphorical (and literal?) death of Kylo Ren and rebirth of Ben Solo don't need to be explained. But the inclusion of which gives us such a tangible, real, tactile setup for his redemption. It doesn't happen here. This is just the catalyst that lets it happen.
Harrison Ford's uncredited cameo is so beautiful. It makes this scene possible. I think it's meant to be intentionally vague, but I personally feel that Leia sent him through the Force. Memory, Force Ghost, regular ghost, guilt vision, whatever - Leia made sure her son saw it.
And from then on, with the rebirth of Ben, we get to see the man he could have been. Brave. Strong. Feeling. I don't know how they do it, but his entire affect AND appearance change. The way KR holds himself, how his hair falls is entirely different from those of BS. And it's impressive acting and makeup/wardrobe. Ben's hair is... dare I say it? Fluffy. Where we all mocked Kylo for his nasty greasy Snape hair. Something about Adam's face, even when he's fighting, feels more natural, more relaxed.
You know what? In 15 minutes of screen time for BS, I actually like him. Meaning, if he had been a character in movies instead of KR, I would have liked him and rooted for him along with the other heroes. He even looks more youthful. Instead of the 40 year old appearance in TLJ, Ben looks like he's 25 (a little closer to the character's actual age, I think). And I think that's good filmmaking that all those things can be made apparent * just like that.
Anyway. I want to focus on some details. There's probably something to be said about the costume change - from the hard, rigid armor of KR to the, uh, is that a sweater? of BS. When did he have time to do that? How'd he get off Endor? I have other questions about that escape, but that's not the focus of this discussion.
Anyway, I seen all the GIFs where scenes with KR mirror the behaviors his parents (like the Solo Slide). But I think that as Ben, we really see him channel his parents.
This is the most obvious one to me:
Han in TFA at Maz's castle/Ben arriving on Exegol (some kind person already GIFed it for me)
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That's very deliberate given that these are both JJ's films.
Now this may not be as intentional as I think, but it's obvious to me. Leia training with her brother /Ben answering the knights' challenge
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That casual, wide stance? I dunno. It feels like something he picked up from his mom like he picked up the other thing from his dad.
All this stuff just let you see and feel what was taken away by Snoke and Palpatine. He could have been a good man, strong fighter for the light, a Jedi like his mother before him and her father before her. It gives you that sharp contrast of what you lose when you choose the dark.
Then Ben and Rey both squaring up to fight Palpatine and then he straight up removes Ben from the fight completely. That's important. It makes sure there's no misunderstanding that this is Rey's fight. No one else can fight it for her or take it away from her. Kylo Ren said "that saber belongs to me" but the truth is Rey earned it. But I digress.
TROS builds up how strong Rey is in the Force throughout the movie, showing her ability to transfer life. Something it appears she learned on her own.
So when she falls. And it's made clear that she is dead. (Her body doesn't immediately disappear, however, and I think there's another discussion to be had on why that is!)
And Ben hesitates. You can see him wonder if he can do it.
He puts his hand on Rey and transfers far more than "a bit of life". Already drained by his and Rey's life-forces being used to revive Palpatine, it takes everything that is left in him. But he is also pulling Rey back from somewhere she hadn't yet pulled anyone with her own technique. Is Ben more powerful in the Force than she? (I don't think so, but I think in another life he could have been) I think Ben only knows all or nothing. It's part of how he got here in the first place. Perhaps he could have brought Rey back from the other side without using all his strength. Perhaps not. We'll never know.
Now I do not approve of the kiss. I don't even know how to begin discussing my feelings on it. But maybe it was necessary to include it just to pacify the Reylos (as if the redemption arc wasn't enough).
But the smile. The smile is so important. We've not once seen Kylo Ren happy anywhere in the series. I don't think anything he could ever achieve would have made him happy. But Ben, maybe even aware that he is about to meet his end, is so happy that she is alive, that he succeeded in saving her, that she defeated Palpatine, (that she is in his arms?) and he finally smiles and again we see the man that should have been. It's bittersweet. As relieved as I am to see Kylo Ren perish (because, like Darth Vader, after taking so many many lives, saving only one is not enough to live a free life) I am saddened to see Ben Solo die. There's probably a conversation to be had on how anyone can be tempted by evil. I dunno. I'm not a philosopher or anything.
Anyway. My sister, who is not really a Star Wars fan but who often understands storytelling far better than I, informed me that Leia was essentially possessing her son for the duration of the redemption arc. That's why her body doesn't disappear until Ben dies. That's why he fights like her, understands Rey's techniques better, can heal like that... I don't know if she's right, my sister. I don't think it's all Leia cuz I'll be damned if she kisses Rey on the mouth.
And then my bf informed me that Ben became a part of Rey when he disappeared into the Force. That's why his ghost didn't appear later. I don't know how I feel about that. I def don't know how Finn and Poe are going to feel when Rey tells them both this. I can't imagine wanting to smooch your gf after you find out that Hitler's wannabe poser grandson is possessing her. I mean.
Okay I've been writing so long I've lost what little coherency I started with. I'm so sorry.
But I just wanted to share my thoughts on all this with you guys. My main point is that if the redemption of Ben Solo had to be included in the film, I genuinely believe that it could not have been done better - from a storytelling standpoint AND with regards to the performance itself! - than they did for TROS. My hat is off to JJ and Adam, really.
(oh and his insistence on doing all his own stunts? Adorable.)
(I'm cool for discussion on the topic, but I have neither the time nor the energy to fight any Reylos about this and anyone trying to start drama gets the ol' Instablork.)
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5hining-aus · 4 years
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SHINee’s Disney Movie Plots
Disney Anon requested a little something for their birthday and while I was thinking of what to write, I came up with an idea. If the SHINee members had their own Disney films, what would the plots be? This was the result, hope you like it!
Onew
He lives in a town known for having a high population of heroes
You know, the kind of people who always end up being the only ones who can fix the main conflict in their story
Anyway, Jinki isn’t one of those chosen ones, he’s a baker
He really doesn’t mind being normal. Sure, a grand adventure sounds fun, but he’s quite content running his little bakery in the town square
Besides, a lot of the heroes end up becoming jerks anyway
But one day, something weird happens: all the heroes have disappeared
Everybody in town is worried, but nobody does anything since “they aren’t heroes”
Eventually, Jinki decides that enough is enough and that someone has to do something, so he closes his shop, packs some food, and sets out to find a way to fix things
Along the way, he encounters many obstacles, but he keeps moving forward, using what he has available to him to solve the problems and eventually saving the day with the help of the friends he met along the way
The general tone of the movie would be fairly lighthearted, with the characters occasionally poking fun at tropes that are usually found in “chosen one goes on an adventure to save the day”-type films
Moral: You don’t need to be a hero to do the right thing OR Everybody can be a hero
Jonghyun
He’s a Prince who is going to become King soon
There’s one problem though: he has no clue what he’s doing
Actually, that’s not entirely true. He’s been taught how to be a King since the day he was born, he knows exactly what he’s supposed to do
He’s nervous. The fate of his kingdom rests on his shoulders, but he doesn’t think he’s ready
More accurately, his advisors don’t think he’s ready, and their beliefs are influencing Jonghyun and making him believe that he won’t be a good King
Eventually, he gets so filled with fear that he tries to run away
The thing is, he grew up in a palace, with servants to help him with pretty much everything. He’s never been out on his own, so he doesn’t get far
A kind elderly shopkeeper finds him huddling somewhere during a rainstorm and takes him in for the night
They have a heart-to-heart talk over some warm food (you know, as you do with complete strangers) and Jonghyun finally lets out everything that he had been holding in for so long
The shopkeeper reassures Jonghyun and gives him some advice that convinces him to return home and claim his rightful place on the throne. His reign has a shaky start, but King Jonghyun quickly becomes one of the most beloved monarchs in his kingdom’s history
Moral: Change is scary, but if you trust and believe in yourself, then you can do anything
Key
Kibum is from a small, perhaps not-so-well-off place, but he manages to get a scholarship to one of the top schools in the country.
Obviously he jumps at the chance to go to this school, but once he’s there, he feels a bit embarrassed because of where he’s from when compared to his classmates
Key starts lying, telling people he’s from another, “fancier” place
He makes friends, but it’s quite clear that some of them are only his friends because they believe that they’ll benefit from it
Eventually, people ask Key more questions about his life before attending that school, so, instead of coming clean about where he’s actually from, he lies more
It gets messy and his story starts to get confusing
Eventually, he slips up and gets found out. His “friends” pretty much abandon him, but his actual friends, while upset with the fact that he had lied to them for so long about so much, do forgive him
Moral: Be honest with yourself, and be honest with those around you. Be who you are because those that mind don’t matter and those that matter don’t mind
Minho
It’s your classic ‘Prince and the Pauper’ story, with Minho being the pauper
He works in the Royal Stables, tending to the animals, mucking stalls, making sure the horses are fit to ride, all that
He loves his job, he really does, but every so often, he imagines what it’d be like to be royalty
He gets to find out what it’s like soon enough though
The Prince returns home for his coronation after spending a few years abroad, and he and Minho are shocked to discover that they have very similar faces
That’s when the Prince, who had always wanted a way to escape his royal life, gets an idea
Minho and the Prince switch lives for a few days, experience everything that they want to experience, and then switch back before anybody notices
It’s the perfect plan
Or so they thought
The Prince learns fairly quickly that, when you’ve lived in luxury your whole life, manual labour is very difficult. The scrubbing, the scraping, the hauling, the brushing, it’s exhausting. Plus, there’s this one horse that he swears just has it out for him (her name is Muffin and she is Minho’s absolute favourite)
Meanwhile, Minho enjoys his first few days living as the Prince, but then he has to take care of some princely duties, and finds out that it isn’t all relaxation and fun. Nobles are horrible. And the lessons on how to be a proper King are almost worse
The duo agrees to switch back earlier than originally planned, having had enough of each other’s lives, and having a new respect for each other
Moral: The grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Also, don’t pretend to know what someone’s life is like until you’ve been in their shoes
Taemin
Taem is a magic user who attends a school with other magic users
Now, at the beginning of the movie, Taemin...isn’t the most skilled member of his class
His teachers and his family all say that he’s just a late bloomer, but they’ve been saying that for years and he’s starting to think that he’ll never bloom at all
His classmates don’t help either. A lot of them bully him for not being great at magic
It also doesn’t help that everybody in his entire family is known for being very strong, very capable magic users
He’s constantly getting compared to his brother and cousins and he HATES it
His classmates gave him the nickname ‘Magic Hands��� as some sort of cruel joke
That may also be a good name for the movie
Part of him wants to quit, to leave school and just live a life without magic
But another part of him wants to prove all those jerks wrong
He chooses to do the latter, and begins practicing whenever he can
There’s a cool Rocky-esque training montage and then it’s the end of the school year
The school’s year-end Magic Showcase is going on and Taemin decides to sign up
It’s his turn on stage. The room is quiet and everybody is looking at him
He begins to panic, but then one of his biggest tormentors is all like “Look at Magic Hands, isn’t even pretending that he can do magic” and just starts heckling him
At first, Tae is mortified and about to run off the stage, but then he decides that if the people want Magic Hands Taemin, then they’ll get Magic Hands Taemin
He pulls himself together and casts his magic, causing every light in the room to go out
The usual group of jerks are about to start teasing him again, when somebody points out that something’s happened to the ceiling
The ceiling, which was once a plain old ceiling, was now covered in thousands of glittering stars
Everybody oohs and ahhs and then, with a wave of his hand, Taemin makes the stars explode, and it pretty much starts raining glitter
Taemin’s family is proud of him, his teachers are proud of him but, most importantly, Taemin is proud of himself and all he accomplished
Moral: You may not be naturally good at something, but through hard work and dedication, anything is possible
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starswallowingsea · 4 years
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Skyjacks and One Piece could exist in the same world
I made a post a few weeks ago about how Campaign Skyjacks and One Piece could exist in the same universe and I finally typed out my ideas. I’ll probably update this as I get more of them but this is also just a work in progress! 
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Okay so for people who don’t know, there’s islands in the sky in the One Piece universe that have been visited by the Straw Hats canonically 
And also in Skyjacks, people used to sail the seas and then shit happened and now everybody is an airiner or however it’s spelled bc the wiki pages for campaign aint shit 
SO ANYWAY in this theory, the events of One Piece would happen long before the events of Skyjacks because mostly everyone in One Piece is still on the physical earth in-universe 
And once Luffy reaches Laugh Tale (because, let’s be real, he’s gonna do it there’s no way he’d get this far and NOT do it) word spreads about where he went on his journey and the parallels between his and Roger’s last journey 
And people who have met Luffy and co or who have heard about them because they live in a place they visited want to go visit some of these other islands that Luffy went to and the most popular is Skypiea bc why wouldn’t you want to go see a sky island 
And the Skypieans aren’t happy about this at first because hOLY SHIT THAT’S A LOT OF PEOPLE and they like keeping to themselves lest another Enel type incident happens or people disrespect the Upper Yard or any other part of their culture which is completely reasonable 
But people sneak in anyways because we all know everybody would be curious about it and the poneglyph that’s up there that Roger Oden wrote on so in the end, Skypiea opens up but there’s a lot of restrictions on what tourists can do there and only some of it is actually enforced 
And as time passes, people begin to think that stuff from the Golden Age of Piracy was just a bunch of stories and that it was all exaggerated and turned into fairy tales or myths or smth like that. Pop culture stories 
So a lot of time has passed and there’s been conflict between the blue sea and the white sea/the earth and the sky and a bunch of people end up moving to the sky to escape most of the conflict because people from the blue sea don’t like to fight up in the sky where the atmosphere is thin 
And then because people will be people, there’s a bunch of new people in the skies who want to become pirates and become like Luffy and some even wear fake straw hats (that also begs the question of if Luffy will choose someone to succeed him and pass on his straw hat like Roger and Shanks did or not but that’s neither here nor there right now) 
The stories told about the Straw Hats are fairly accurate but nobody believes them because now almost everyone who would have known him would be dead so there’s no way to verify them, but it’s a fantastic story so of course it lives on 
And then our Skyjacks characters show up! Jonnit would probably be the most in to the stories because of how fantastical they are and it’s what he grew up hearing from his family and playing with his sister 
Also the signature wings that Sky People had in One Piece become not as common but you’ll still see people with them around. It’s a recessive trait but because everybody in Skypiea had it, you wouldn’t have been able to tell 
So obviously when all these people who don’t have wings show up the gene pool gets a huge new set of input 
Same with their hair growing into antennae, but that’s also more of a stylistic choice for some than others 
Somewhere on the ship there’s a copy of the Straw Hat tales that someone published, but it was under an anonymous name so nobody knows who wrote it (Robin did) 
Also wrt the Church of the Slain God, Urogue was one of the earlier monks for it, although that’s before the God worshipped became “dead” and came after people 
Gable probably wandered around Skypiea at some point since they are so old, and actually might have been in Sky Island when the Straw Hats and/or Roger was there and met both of them, although they don’t dare say anything like that now 
They also kept track of Luffy’s journey when they realized it was taking a similar/the same course as Roger’s, although, again, they don’t tell anyone that they know this because they were alive at the time 
Travis’ race of changelings probably originally came from Earth and some of them would have migrated to the skies at some point 
And since giants, fishmen, mermaids, and the long arm/leg/neck tribes all exist canonically in the world of One Piece, changelings aren’t that much of a stretch 
Travis is also Really Old, and probably ran into the Straw Hats as well, in bars where he would challenge them to games of Illimat under different names each time
Also tried to steal Nami’s watch once and she destroyed him and he learned his lesson for about 20 minutes 
He also doesn’t talk about how he personally knew the Straw Hats because it would put him in a lot of danger 
Dref? He doesn’t believe in the stories and passes them off as bullshit kid’s tales and doesn’t expand on that 
Secretly? He wishes he had a Devil Fruit like Brook’s to bring Orimar back to life and not have to hope the magic he’s been using keeps up 
Also Devil Fruits, iirc, aren’t super common in the sky so they’ve also become stuff of legends to the new sky citizens. It’s rare for someone to have a devil fruit power in the sky now 
And without water to take away their powers, those who do have Devil Fruits might not realize that water is the common weakness they all share since they don’t encounter it that often 
Other small things from the Straw Hats made it into the pirate crew like snipers having sun related symbols to “honor Sogeking” and have Usopp’s god-like accuracy on everything 
Okay I think that’s all I have for tonight but that’s a lot of words dang. Feel free to add your own things to this too!
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darkling-er · 5 years
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Far Cry 5 ( or more like OCS) AU
Victorian au
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Takes place in England, around 1880. London's sreets are ruled by a gang called Peggies. It's been almost a decade since they took over the railroads, factories and bigger trader corporations. But a new gang started forming in the nights, called the Resitance who want power and getting out of the hands of the Peggies. Meanwhile people around town want to stay out of the gang wars, with more or less success. Strange things happen at night, and there's talk of a stranger around Whitechapel's streets...
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OC's Role:
Adam Roberts - The Ripper
He's an avenger of the night, or maybe a sadist, no one really knows the Ripper's motives
He hates women, easy women in particular
He likes the attention from people after a while, but he won't lose himself to the media and he'll keep focuse on his plan
By daylight he seems like a fine gentlemen, as fine one can be these days
He doesn't care for the gang wars much, but if they cross him in any way, he'll get his revenge
Jericho Winters - The Rookie
She's a new member to the Resistance, she spies on the Peggies as a double agent
She was reluctant at first joining the gang, but she wants to keep her little brother safe and rescue him from the other gang
Rhea Jessop - The Nun
She's been part of the church for a long time
She gathers information about the Peggies and keeps the Resitance well informed in their plans and activities around Whitechapel
She helps taking care of those in need and making sure there's a safe house for everyone at St. Mary Matfelon's
dr. Malcolm Callum - Outcast Scientist
He's not a member of the medical society anymore due to his experiments and having no regard of following rules - rules of man or God that is
Nowdays he's handing out illegal prescriptions to people who need it.. And people who pay for it
His tragic childhood and failures led him to abuse drugs, and making bold decisions about trying out his own experimental medicines
It's all because he lost someone close to him... But not for long, not if he can finally help it, he just needs some money to fund his idea... And some fresh corpses
Tabitha Myers - Escaped Child Slave
She was 'took in' as an orphan by the Peggies
She was only used as a slave, making her work
The older men liked her the best...
She escaped by mere luck and tries to avoid any of the gang members in case one of them recognises her and would want to take her back
Trinity-Hope Johnson - Lady of the Night
She's been living on the streets since her parents died
As a woman she wasn't allowed to learn or work properly so she did what every girl could do around Whitechapel
She hates her job and childishly wishes someone would fall in love with her and take her away from this awful place to somewhere in the country side
The other girls make fun of her because of that
She's mostly afraid of the Peggies as they often come and go and they like to be aggressive, except for one returning customer maybe
Adriel Hamilton - Hustler
He's kind of an aloof character
He's part of the Resistance but people think he would leave them in any second
He's kind of insane, and he knows it
Most people are weirded out by him or annoyed
He seems like he can't hurt a fly but anyone messes with him or his associates and skulls are gonna break
His skills are in selling the worst junk for money
Thomas Enderby - Priest
He's the priest at St. Mary Matfelon's
He's been sent there to keep an eye out for any Resistance spies amongs the church
He's a true believer of God, but he will always choose his loyalty for the Peggies
He's a drunk so his information gathering skills are pretty dull
Noah Winters - M̴r̵.̴ ̸H̸y̶d̷e̸
He has a debt that he owes to the Peggies so he works for them
It was either being a pet for their experiments with drugs or his family being murdered
It's not like he ever cared for his own mental or physical health ever
He sometimes has to beat people up for debts, which he also hates
And there are times when he can't remember what's he's been doing
He tells himself it's the guilt making him forget
Or maybe one of the drugs... No they didn't do much to him other than hallucinate sometimes
E̶x̸c̷e̵p̶t̷ ̴f̴o̵r̷ ̸o̷n̷e̸
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tags: @onl-you I'm gonna update this later but have this for a while and feel free to add with your ocs I can't wait 👀 also please ignore Adam and do write Emmanuel as the Ripper I'm really interested like wgfwhjsfah
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charliethepsychic · 4 years
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Hi there! Can I have a reading on my personality? I’m on a self discovery and I’m not sure who I am anymore. Others told me to just relax and it’s not important — but I don’t see it like that. It’s difficult. Thank you for your help! M, Leo
Hi there! Sorry for the delay!
I have some time and this is a big question so I decided to do this horoscope spread that came from my tarot’s booklet I’ve been wanting to try! Hopefully it will give you a nice amount of detail. I recommend you look into your actual star chart as well, it certainly helped me with my self-discovery and if you have the time, compare with this spread. Both of us are leos, that’s why it feels so important to us imo
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You got a LOT of swords in your spread, which tells me you’re a fighter and like to take things head-on.
Card 1: Aries/Self. Your thoughts and feelings and your perspective.
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Ten of Wands reversed. This tells me you’re someone who tries to take on everything yourself, even at your own expense. I would guess you’re empathic and often take on the emotions of others as your own. In its forward position this card shows someone who has mastered time management and delegating, and is immensely successful once they find the power within. I believe you can get there with some self care!
Card 2: Taurus/Resources and Money. Your financial situation and attitude.
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Eight of Swords. This represents traps we build for ourselves, so you probably have some limiting beliefs when it comes to finances. These days, most people do. Some examples would include being unable to make decisions in the workplace or ask for promotions, or believing that you’ll always make only what your parents did and no more. The good news is we can always get ourselves out of traps we build ourselves, especially when we reach out to others for help.
Card 3: Gemini/Communications. This is how you communicate with others as well as how you recieve news and any travel you might do.
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Strength. I love this card here especially for a Leo Sun. This means you’re a great communicator and can lead and act with courage even in situations that are difficult for you, and that you’re generous and giving with others and recieve information with an open mind, even when its not good news. This tells me you have strong internal convictions and faith that drive your relationships. People probably adore and look up to you!
Card 4. Cancer/home. This regards your feelings on family, parents and loved ones.
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King of Swords. This is a very strong and wise character. The booklet says directly “embodies the individual who is witty, funny, logical, extremely knowledgeable and charming.” You’re probably driven more by logic and reason than emotion, and are someone your family and loved ones can always rely on whether they need advice or to raise their spirits. I’m not sure how old you are but I see you at some point being the head of the household in your family life, and all the other members looking at you very fondly with a lot of respect.
Card 5: Leo/Pleasure, Romance and Creativity.
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Five of Pentacles reversed. This represents coming out of a time of poverty and hardship and learning through strife how to truly stand on your own. Because of the position of this card I imagine your greatest success in pulling out of the financial obstacles from before will come out of your love and creativity, and that this success will be one of the greatest pleasures in your life. If this is starting to sound more like predictions than personality, it’s because our struggles often make us who we are. This also may be something you’ve already experienced.
Card 6: Virgo/Health and Work
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Six of Swords. This shows you have no hesitation walking away from work situations where you are not valued or are under-utilized. You won’t tolerate mind games or drama and would rather face the unknown and cut your losses than be somewhere that is not right for you. I think this trait will serve you well overall, though it might lead to a few fraught journeys.
Card 7: Libra/Partnerships. Your views on legal partnerships, marriage and contracts.
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Five of Swords. This deals with the effects of failure. I would guess you don’t have a particular fond view of contracts and marriages and that some failure or death in this aspect has affected you profoundly. You’ve given up on such institutions entirely. A parent divorce is a popular one for this attitude. I see you having less formal or traditional partnerships instead, so you never feel trapped or too committed. Same goes with work, I don’t see you signing partnerships or contracts with a big comapany, you prefer to master your own fate.
Card 8: Scorpio/Sex, Death and Money. This particularly involves inheritence and major changes.
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Nine of Cups reversed. You may become complacent with success, and take achievement for granted. It also indicates that relationships may die out after the honeymoon period. You might veer slightly into pleasure seeking or using people rather than investing deeply into relationships, and I’d guess you might prefer casual over long term partners. The good news is that this card forward is all about health and success, so once you do reach that turning point and find a person or passion worth investing in you will have no trouble enjoying the spoils after such effort!
Card 9: Sagittarius/Far Horizons. This is distant travel, philosophy, education and your hopes and dreams.
(I’ve reached the image limit ☹️)
Knight of Cups reversed.
This goes along with you being much more ruled by logic than emotions. You might ask a lot of advice but rarely follow through, and be disconnected from your passions and dreams, or overindulging in escapism. You keep a bit of distance from others. This might leave you sometimes feeling numb and despondent. This is also common in empathic people, when connecting to others feels like too much.
Card 10: Capricorn/Career. Your long-term job prospects and ambitions and attitudes for career.
Six of Pentacles reversed.
This shows an over abundance of generosity to the point of extravagance. You may also throw much more of your energy into work than it deserves and mismanage certain resources. Overall you’re the life of the party and bosses will love you for how hard you work- but over-giving is not sustainable indefinitely. You give recklessly.
Card 11: Aquarius/Friends. Your social life.
Ace of Wands reversed. This shows a blockage in your potential for creativity and friendships, maybe connecting to others feels a bit pointless right now, and you’d rather keep to yourself. I’d take you as someone who is generally introverted, but a great friend once you open up to someone. You choose your people carefully, but you might block out a few too many people that you’d otherwise get on with.
Card 12: Pisces/What is hidden. This is your unconscious fears and blocks as well as repressed secrets.
The Sun reversed.
This means you have a lot of creative and emotional energy you’re keeping under wraps. It also indicates you might “fly too close to the sun” or get so ambitious it becomes self-destructive, which plays along with a few other cards we’ve gone through. You’re someone often regarded as “too” too smart, parties too hard, etc and might burn yourself out.
Overall, you sound like a super cool person. I know a lot of the cards sound negative at first but what I’ve gathered is that you’re a leader and firey personality who is willing to give their all for what they aspire to. You’re logical and collected. You might have some, we’ll say emotional congestion because you don’t like to deal with your emotions and that can make it a bit difficult to find and achieve your dreams, but I’ve worked through similar things and in time I think you will too. Was a pleasure doing this reading!
Hi there! Can I have a reading on my personality? I’m on a self discovery and I’m not sure who I am anymore. Others told me to just relax and it’s not important — but I don’t see it like that. It’s difficult. Thank you for your help! M, Leo
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choicessa · 5 years
Text
On top of the world (Damien x MC)
Pairing: Damien x MC (Nia Park)
Words: ~ 3600
Summary: Stood up by her best friend, Nia decides to confront him but will she be ready for the confession Damien has for her?
Note: Written for the prompt Holidays/Vacation for @mariamulroney March Challenge. Thank you sooo much for hosting my dear! <3
Permatag: @the-everlasting-dream @drakewalkerwhipped​​ @tmarie82 @mariamulroney
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters here, just borrowing them. All rights go to Pixelberry Studios.
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„You know what? I have an idea! Once a year we’re gonna choose one place to visit, from all around the world and go there!”
“What do you mean ‘go there’?”
“A trip! One week trip with sight-seeing, eating traditional food, having fun! What’d you say?”
“Once a year, huh? Deal!”
The idea was quite simple.
Pick a country, buy tickets, pack, go, have fun, return, repeat. And ohhh, Nia loved every single part of it. The hours spend on picking up the right place, long evenings before the laptop screen, searching through the pictures and trip advisors, trying to choose the perfect one to visit. And then another days, hesitating between airlines offers, sleepless nights on incognito mode, comparing the prices, until finally picking the perfect one and with satisfaction reserving the seats. Then this time of waiting, the excitement bursting in her chest, whenever she remembered that just in a few months, then weeks, then days, she will pack her suitcase, take a cab to the airport and sit on the board, ready for another trip, for another adventure. And then the night, right before the departure, all of her clothes scattered around, dozens of lists of things to take and her, kneeling on the floor in the middle of the chaos she created, trying to fit it all in one small suitcase and the relief and pride when she was finally finished, the lock closing with a click and her luggage waiting proudly by the door. Then the ride to the airport, a quick kiss to the cheek as a greeting, when she was meeting her best friend there, until finally, arm to arm, they would go to the check-ins, pass the security control and at last sit on the board, seatbelts fasted, her heart beating like crazy in her chest when she could hardly sit without moving, awaiting the moment of the take off. Ohhh how much she loved that feeling in her stomach, when the plane was starting, gaining the speed, her whole body pressed into the seat from the overload, a grin on her face, widening even more when she could see the grimace on her friend’s face, him not being a fan of the feeling she loved that much. And then the views, mountains, seas, clouds; her head spinning like crazy and a photo camera in her hand, taking dozens, hundreds of pictures, always looking for the perfect shot, much to amusement of him, just sitting with a glass of whiskey in his hand, with eyes closed praying so that the flight would end soon. But when plane touched the ground again, only then the real fun begun… The days spent on long walks and trips, seeing as much as they could, taking pictures, drinking coffee, eating local food, her snapping pictures of him without warning and him hating her for that. Long days filled with laughter, fun, happiness and always the pain of knowing that it will all end soon… Yet it was always worth it, the memories they were making, the photos she made her photobooks from, the stories they were telling their friends – it was all worth it in the end. And Nia always loved it all.
 But not this year.
 Not when he didn’t show up…
 She was standing by the window, her eyes scanning the plane standing outside, the one she was supposed to be on right now and her heart ached, seeing how the doors slowly closed and soon the machine started to move, driving away, to place on a proper runway, ready to take off. Her left hand was still clenching the tickets, so hard that her knuckles were white and her right hand was gripping the suitcase, the only thing still helping her to stand when she knew that without it, she would just fall and lay there, not having strength to get up.
 He didn’t come… Her best friend stood her up and didn’t come…
 She knew something was wrong from the first time she tried to call him and he didn’t pick up. The rational part of her brain tried to calm her down, telling her that maybe it was just a small delay, that maybe he was on his way right now and he simply couldn’t pick up the phone. So she waited, one minute, five, ten, half an hour. And she tried to call him again and again and again, leaving dozens of voice messages, with each one of them her voice being more serious and panicked. Maybe something happened to him? Maybe there was an accident and he was hurt? Minutes turned into hours, time passing so slowly, when she could just sit there, helplessly waiting for any sign from him, not knowing what to do… The check-ins were long closed, the last boarding already announced and she was ready to just run there, knowing that they both still had a few moments to go, that they still could make it, when she got a message. With trembling hands she opened it, just a few words in it, in that moment making her heart stop.
 “Sorry, I won’t make it… Something came up, I’ll explain later…”
 The whole world seemed to stop around her, the time suddenly freezing when she could just stare at the text message, re-reading it over and over again, some part of her not believing in what her eyes were seeing. No, it was impossible, he truly wouldn’t do it… But yet he did, no matter if her heart was telling her otherwise. He didn’t show up and she could just stand here, helplessly, watching the plane taking off in the far distance, the one that was supposed to take them to Spain, the one supposed to take them for another perfect holiday… Nia took a deep breath and looked at the screen of her phone, for a moment hesitating if she should answer, until finally she shoved it into her pocket. Part of her wanted to cry, cry over this one missed opportunity, knowing that her chance and her money were gone but also there was this other part, filled with anger, wanting nothing more but to punch Damien right in the middle of his face, shove the plane tickets down his throat and let him know how she felt about him leaving her like this. And what about all of his promises of trips together? What about all those nights they spent on planning? What about his idea? Did it really mean so little to him? That one message was supposed to make her feel better? Taking a deep breath she straightened her back and she slowly made her way towards the exit, knowing exactly where should she go right now...
 ~  ~  ~  ~  ~
Damien Nazario moved his head back, leaning it against the back of his chair, a deep sigh of regret escaping his lips when he pressed the ‘sent’ button on his phone, a message he was working on for the last half an hour finally ready. With his brows furrowed he threw the phone on his desk, rubbing eyes with his hands.
  It sucked. It all sucked…
  Their plan was simple at first. Choose a country from all over the world, plan a trip and just go there. And oh, it worked so well for the first four years… First year they went to Rome, Nia’s unfulfilled dream of visiting The Eternal City finally coming to life. He could still remember her excitement, when with wide opened eyes and a map in her hand she practically dragged him all over the city, insisting on showing him everything. Second year they went to Greece, once again Nia’s idea, who spent too many time watching live transmission from Cordonia’s palace, swooning over prince Liam and his hard time on choosing the right candidate for his future wife. And since Cordonia was just a one trip from Greece… Let’s just say Damien couldn’t persuade her not to go… Third year they finally compromised and she agreed on a trip to Australia. Ohhh how much fun they had, riding through the deserts, seeing the Ayers Rock with their own eyes, spending a few magical days in Sydney, the one none of them will ever forget… Last year they chose Egypt and he could rant for hours about the pyramids, temples and sarcophagus they have seen, the only thing he could complain about was this terrible, unbearable heat… And then when the fifth year in row came and Damien realized that he couldn’t go on another trip because something, somewhere along the way… Changed. No. He has changed… He couldn’t put on finger on a certain moment, he couldn’t pick a situation that led to that, he wasn’t even sure how did it happen, but he knew one thing – he fell in love with her.
Yes, he, Damien Nazario, always claiming himself to be the most rational being on this planet, managed to fell in love with his best friend. How? He had no idea. When? He couldn’t tell it either. But he knew that whenever she smiled, he just wanted to smile as well, corners of his lips lifting up almost against his own will; when with a huge grin on her face she was looking around, admiring yet another relic, all he could think of were her beautiful eyes, shining with wonder and he wanted nothing more but to look right into them and drown in them… When she grabbed his hand, innocently, dragging him across the streets to show yet another temple worth seeing, he could feel his heart beating like crazy in his chest, his fingers wanting nothing more but to lace with hers, holding her hand in his and that one time, when strong wind was unraveling her hair, all he could think of was to reach out to her, brush away her curls, move his thumb across her cheeks, simply having to know how her soft skin would feel under his touch… Ohh and her lips… Her tempting full lips, always smiling, so often brushing his own cheek in an innocent friendly kiss, yet only leaving him wanting more, wanting to press his own lips to hers, needing to feel their touch, their taste, needing to know how her kisses would be…
He was trying to fight with it, he was trying to fight with the stupid urges of his naïve heart, trying to tell himself that it was just a crush, just loneliness talking, wanting something else, wanting something more… But when every time she came over, planning another trip, and he could think about her and her only, he knew that he was deep and madly in love with her. But for her he was nothing but a friend, a good companion who was willing to join her on her escapades so how could he go on another trip, when the way he was seeing her has changed? How could he go again, how could he innocently pose for the photos, sleep with her in one room, pretend that her every single touch didn’t mean anything when it would be all just an act? He couldn’t and he didn’t want to, so even if it meant breaking her heart – he just had to…
This decision and the message he had sent were one of the hardest things he had to do in his life… Oh, he could practically see her face, when she would notice the text message, whole range of emotions crossing her face… Smile, when she’ll be thinking it’s a stupid joke; then surprise, when she’ll understand that he meant it; then disappointment, regret, and finally anger… His brows furrowed even more, just at the thought of hurting her like that but he didn’t see any other option…
He looked at the whiskey standing on his desk and sighed again. How could he made the oldest and biggest known mistake and fell in love with her? How could it ever happen and what was he supposed to do with it right now? He wasn’t sure if he was sitting there for minutes, or for hours, just looking hollowly at his phone, still anxiously waiting for any response, any text message from her, yet the one that never came…
 And then he heard a knock on his door.
It took all of his willpower to stand up and as soon as he opened the door, he realized it was another mistake he did today…
“We need to talk, Nazario.” Not waiting for an invitation, Nia passed him, a suitcase still in her hand when she walked right into his apartment.
“What are you doing here? I thought…”
“You thought what? That I will go on board and just fly away without you?” She snorted, with her hand showing the move of a starting plane.
“Well, yeah?”
“Great! Just send the message a bit earlier next time so I could be on time for the boarding, okay?” She smiled sweetly at him, yet her eyes were shooting daggers.
Damien didn’t answer, he just kept on opening and then closing his mouth, knowing damn well that no matter what he would say, it wouldn’t be enough…
“What the hell were you thinking!?” She screamed. “What. The. Hell. Were. You. Thinking. When. You. Sent. Me. This. Text.!?” She emphasized every word with a hit to his arm, when she kept on punching him.
“I’m sorry, Nia, I just… I couldn’t go, okay?”
“Ohhh, I see… Whiskey is a better companion than I, I guess?” She raised her brow, looking at the glass standing on his desk.
“It’s not what you think…”
“Oh, isn’t it? Then enlighten me! Pleeeease!”
“Nia…”
“I was waiting for hours at the airport, like an idiot, waiting for you to show up! I was worried that maybe there was an accident, that maybe something bad had happened. And you what!? You were just waiting till the last minute to tell me you won’t come!? When you were sitting here, with the bottle of whiskey!?”
“Nia…”
“We had it all planned! If you didn’t want to come with me, then you could have just told me!”
“It’s not like that, I wanted to go…”
“So why the message? Why did you stood me up?!”
“Because I couldn’t go, okay!? I simply couldn’t!”
“Why? Because I am so repulsive to you? Because you couldn’t stand the sight of me anymore?”
“No, Nia, I just…”
“So what was it!? Don’t you think I deserve to know!?”
He opened his mouth again, before closing them, suddenly not knowing what to say to her. She was standing in front of him, furious, her beautiful face twisted in grimace and only then he realized just how much he did hurt her… He was naïve idiot who thought that running away from her, running away from the problem was the best idea when the truth was, he needed to face it, he needed to tell the truth and let her decide…
“I once promised to my best friend that I will go with her, every year, on a trip.” He said, coming a step closer towards her. “And I did keep my promise, for the last years. I went to every trip, I had fun, always hoping you had some as well, but… But this year… I realized that you’re not my best friend anymore…” He finally blurted out, seeing how her eyes widened in a  shock.
“What?” She wanted to scream, but all of the air and strength escaped her and it sounded more like a silent whisper, when she blinked several times, not believing what she was hearing.
“I can’t keep my promise any longer, I’m sorry…”
“Why? Because you started to hate me?” She snorted, regaining her composure.
“Hate you? No! Because I started to love you…” He smiled, his soft gaze meeting her surprised eyes.
If she was surprised before, now she looked like a statue, eyes wide opened, unblinking, mouth agape, when she could just wordlessly look at him, now taking a few shy steps towards her.
“Somewhere along the way… I… I can’t really explain that, Nia, I can’t really tell you why, but… You’ve became so much more than my best friend… And… That’s why I can’t keep my promise any longer…” He shook his head, sighing.
Did he just make a fool of himself? Did he just destroy everything they had, just with one stupid confession? Could he be such an idiot for admitting to his feelings? But when she was standing there, right in front of him, full of anger, so hurt because of him, he knew he couldn’t lie to her anymore, he couldn’t pretend his feelings hadn’t changed and most importantly he couldn’t hide it any longer… So he could just stand there, heart beating like crazy in his chest, looking at her still shocked face, patiently waiting…
“Why… Why didn’t you tell me?” She asked, her throat suddenly dry.
“Because I’m a coward?” Damien snorted, shaking his head. “I was afraid that if I will say anything, it will destroy our friendship and that… That would be the biggest regret of my life…”
“You wouldn’t lose me, Damien…” Something softer appeared in her eyes when Nia took a step closer towards him. “You could’ve told me, you know?”
“There was no point…” He shrugged. “I thought it was just a crush and it will go away so we could go back to what we once had and…”
He stopped abruptly when Nia suddenly threw her head back and started to laugh.
“Now what’s so funny?” His eyes squinted dangerously. “My feelings are sooo amusing to you?”
“No, it’s just… You’re an idiot, Nazario.”
“I am what?”
“You’re an idiot!”
“Why? What have I done!?”
“You’re an idiot for never telling me how you feel before…”
“Why? What would it change?”
“Everything! We would go on this Spain trip like we planned, I wouldn’t storm here and scream at you and…”
“And what?”
“We wouldn’t have to wait for so long…”
His eyes widened at the realization, when after a long moment he finally understood the meaning behind her words. Wait, did it mean…
“Nia, you…” He gulped, trailing off when she stepped closer, stopping right in front of him.
“You could’ve just told me, you know?”
“I thought… I wasn’t sure if…” He finally took a deep breath and stopped his ramblings, his eyes meeting hers and Damien smiled, unable to contain his joy anymore, his sight moving across her face with adoration, the one she never has seen before in his eyes.
With no words he took another step closer towards her, their bodies almost touching and he reached out to her, his trembling hands grabbing hers, squeezing them gently.
“Sooo… what does it mean for us?” He asked silently, his thumb slowly stroking the top of her hand.
Nia shrugged, a smile once again playing on her lips.
“I don’t know yet…” She admitted. “I guess… Let’s just give it a shot and see where it’ll take us…”
“I can live with that.” Damien smiled, suddenly raising her hands and placing a kiss on each one of them, his gesture causing her to smile even wider. “Soooo… what now?”
“Now, Nazario… You’re going to kiss me…”
He didn’t answer. Instead he just smiled and grabbed her waist, pulling her closer, until their chests collided with each other. He could hear a sharp gasp, escaping her mouth at his sudden movement and Damien smirked to himself, his arms closing around her body in a tight embrace.
“If you say so…” He murmured, before leaning down and capturing her lips in a kiss.
All of his dreams and thoughts about kissing her were nothing compared to reality… Nothing, compared to their mouths matching perfectly, meeting in equally perfect kisses, when his lips moved against hers and she could only give in, answering them with no less eagerness. Damien pulled her even closer, one hand still on her waist, the other moving higher, placing behind her neck, when he dipped his fingers into her hair, thinking that once he had known the taste of her kisses, he will never have enough… His lips were warmer and softer than Nia ever imagined and her hands reached out to him, grabbing his hair and pulling him closer, almost desperately, when she didn’t want to end this, not then, not ever. He wanted that moment to last forever, they both wanted it, her body locked in his arms, her hands around his neck and she, warm, soft, melting in his arms, responding to his kisses.
His eyes were still closed, even when she pulled back, trying to remember the feeling of her lips against his, trying to memorize that exact moment, finally being a reality, not just a fantasy of a tormented heart.
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me earlier… We wouldn’t have to miss our trip…” Nia sighed.
And as soon as she said that, Damien’s eyes suddenly widened, a realization hitting him in that exact moment.
“Maybe we don’t have to!” He exclaimed.
“Mhmm?”
“We can always try re-booking it!” He smiled when he saw her lips lifting in a grin. “We can catch the first plane tomorrow morning!”
“Damien Nazario, sometimes you are a genius!” Nia stepped on her fingers, pressing a kiss to his lips. “So come on! We have to pack you and go!” She almost run to his room and Damien smiled, shaking his head when she started to look through his clothes.
“I love you, you crazy girl…” He murmured under his breath, so she couldn’t her him. “Wait a minute… When you said about me being a genius… Why only ‘sometimes’?” He asked, out loud.
Her laugh was the only answer he got and he shook his head once again, joining her, his gaze softening as soon as he looked at her.
 They could have been going on yet another trip but the real adventure was just beginning…
83 notes · View notes
izanyas · 5 years
Text
and the calm is deep where the quiet waters flow (13)
Rating: M Words: 8,700 No warnings.
[Read from prologue]
and the calm is deep where the quiet waters flow Chapter 13
The handful of coins which Wei Wuxian stole from Lan Wangji soon became obsolete.
It was not such a problem for food. Game was aplenty at this time of the year, and soon enough Wei Wuxian had acquired a new bow to hunt with. When afternoon lingered over the mountains and the sun disappeared behind ensnowed summits, they both hunted together for their meal of the night, or the following day. The demonic arm Lan Wangji oft took out of its sealing pouch had no care for such things as roads or mountains; it pointed straightforwardly toward the rest of its body, forcing them to back away sometimes and take long, solitary detours through the wilderness. It was good to plan ahead for their meals.
There encountered very few villages. They saw only one bigger town, and chose not to stop in it for the night. Occasionally a farmer saw them pass before their house and offered them someplace warm to sleep in exchange for labor and company; more often than not, they took a closer look at Wei Wuxian and rescinded their offer.
Only once did they sleep inside someone else's house. Wei Wuxian was silent as he declined to help with food and offered to fix a wall of the garden shed instead; the old man who had invited them in shrugged his shoulders without word and sent him there, calling for his grandchild in a soft voice.
As he worked next to the girl who smelled of sweet liquor, Wei Wuxian finally relaxed. He slept for once without waking.
Sleeping together with Lan Wangji, outside in the cool nights of spring, soon became a habit. If Wei Wuxian had expected the Lan sect heir to put up a front of outrage at the thought of such impropriety, he was relieved to find that none of it came true. Lan Wangji never said a word to him as they settled for the night. Perhaps, like Wei Wuxian, he considered that sharing a cave during heat made such worries worthless.
On they went through the countryside, village after village and mountain after mountain. In the vast green valleys neighboring Lanling's territory, Wei Wuxian hunted rabbits for food. He cooked them over the fire and watched with something like humor as Lan Wangji refused them, sticking to rice and fruit and vegetable soups.
"If you had come to Yunmeng with me when we were young," he told him in jest, "I would have made you eat meat."
Lan Wangji's face betrayed no hatred for the idea, though his voice was deep and even. "I would have recognized the trick."
"You wouldn't have," Wei Wuxian laughed. "How lucky for you that I am a little wiser today. I know how terrible such a thing is—truly, there are days I look back and wish to slap myself across the face, Lan Zhan."
Lan Wangji watched him then with peaceful-looking eyes. He seemed to enjoy when such nostalgia struck Wei Wuxian; sometimes, he seemed to hate it too.
They didn't speak often. Not like this, not answering each other. Lan Wangji was a man of very few words, and those words were hard-earned, thought through, before ever leaving his mouth. He looked almost delicate in his efforts to be placating and follow Wei Wuxian's moods. Wei Wuxian himself could stand silence just fine after those years in Yiling—most of which he had spent inside the bloodpool cave in-between visits from Wen Ning and Wen Qing, barely hearing the sounds from the village outside settling for morning or night—but he found himself commenting on the people they met, on the landscapes they encountered. He spoke at length about a flower on the side of the path which he remembered Wen Qing using in her concoctions. He brightened at the sight of some birds, fat enough for a meal but too quick for his arrows. Those defeats, he took in good stride with Lan Wangji watching him.
Wei Wuxian realized after a week had passed that he looked forward to unclothing the haunted arm and seeing which way it pointed. He found that it was relief he felt upon knowing they were on the right track; he understood without saying so how Lan Wangji had saved him by offering to travel with him.
If he had been left to his own devices, dead-and-back and unknown to all, he had no idea what he would have done. He knew not where he should go.
The nights they spent in inns were perhaps the least enjoyable of the lot, he found. Though his back and behind were grateful for the relative softness of beds and pillows, and though waking up to warmth and a meal he didn't have to prepare himself was a relief, the presence of others was a hindrance more often than not.
The omega girl in Dafan had been something of a rarity, he realized the first time an innkeeper referred to him as Lan Wangji's omega.
"A room for you and yours?" she had asked, an alpha woman smelling of tilled earth, her brimstonescent husband standing not far behind and sending glares Wei Wuxian's way.
"Two rooms," Lan Wangji had replied.
Two rooms. The words echoed through the half-empty dining room as if carried by immense voice, and odd looks turned their way, inquisitive or even angry.
But Lan Wangji was a cultivator. His flowing robes seemed to repel dirt as they did dark energy, unlike Wei Wuxian's which were stained every way by the long days of travel. His very presence, his apparent wealth, his status all carried power. The scorned innkeepers dared not refuse his money—they dared not defy him.
"Lan Zhan," Wei Wuxian said as they sat at a far table and waited for food to be brought to them. "Will you tell me what has changed?"
Lan Wangji was silent. Wei Wuxian could tell that it was not out of a need to refuse, however.
"I learned that omega houses were outlawed ten years ago," he continued. "But I don't know why."
Lan Wangji said, "Lianfang-Zun outlawed them."
"Lianfang-Zun?"
"Jin Guangyao."
Jin Guangyao. Wei Wuxian had heard that name spoken in Jiang Cheng's voice only days ago, he recalled. He remembered wondering about it then.
"I don't believe Jin Guangshan allowed this easily," Wei Wuxian declared with a shake of his head. "Not with how he opposed me for years. I'm assuming this Jin Guangyao is one of his children?"
"Jin Guangshan is dead. Lianfang-Zun has been the leader of Lanlingjin for ten years."
"Dead?" he exclaimed. "How?"
For some reason, Lan Wangji's face tensed at his question. He shook his head wordlessly, the tips of his ears turning bright red. Wei Wuxian was not otherwise interested in the old alpha's death, so he did not press on.
The last time he had seen Jin Guangshan in person was at the bottom of the Burial Mounds, with the man spitting vitriol to him, calling him thief and deranged. Wei Wuxian thought privately that the world was well-rid of him. The state of Mo Xuanyu's life and body only made his vengefulness stronger.
"Jin Guangyao," he said softly. "This Lianfang-Zun, I wonder the sort of person he is."
"He is my brother's sworn ally," Lan Wangji replied. "As was the former Nie sect leader."
Former… then Chifeng-Zun was dead, too.
Wei Wuxian was not so glad to hear that. Nie Mingjue had been straightforward, fair in his own way, though he had only trusted in Wei Wuxian's abilities, never in his character. Wei Wuxian's memories of that day in the Nightless City were steeped in mud, but he knew that Nie Mingjue had not been present among those who wished to kill him.
He supposed one could trust Lan Xichen to choose the right brothers-in-arm.
"I still can't believe the sects allowed it," he said, bracing one palm against his cup of wine and sending a quick prayer for Nie Mingjue's soul. "Is this Jin Guangyao so powerful?"
"Some refused," Lan Wangji said succinctly. "Those he could not convince, he brought war to."
Wei Wuxian tried to picture what such an alpha could look like.
Lan Wangji must have read the curiosity on his face, for he went on, "Things had changed. There were not as many fights about it as you think."
Wei Wuxian wondered what it said about him that his heart squeezed with resentment.
All along, then, any sect leader could have stepped up and put an end to it all. All it would have taken was a word from one of them to guarantee freedom to those whom Wei Wuxian had to keep safe at the price of his reputation and health. How many days had he spent guarding the entrance of the Burial Mounds after Jin Guangshan had left that time, keeping himself awake with Wen Qing's drugs, making sure to bar entrance to those who would claim human lives as property?
"What about Lan Qiren," Wei Wuxian said hollowly.
"My uncle," Lan Wangji replied in something like kindness, "changed his mind long before Lianfang-Zun's order was carried out."
Wei Wuxian drank from the cup in his hand. The wine spread on his tongue almost as bitterly as the scent-masking paste.
That first night in an inn made them wary. They preferred the open night to civilization after that, keeping the path open before them as they followed the direction the arm gave them. They started using names for it so as not to make it struggle inside the pouch at Lan Wangji's waist. The arm seemed to feel when they spoke of it as of a corpse, a haunt; it jarred the spell on the pouch, tried to escape their hold when they took it out to make sure they were going the right way.
Night after night, Lan Wangji played Tranquility on his namesake guqin. Night after night Wei Wuxian took the bamboo flute and accompanied him, making his song softer and kinder despite the bluntness of the instrument. He tried many times to carve it into a better, more tunelike shape. He missed the smooth, black length of Chenqing, and the notes it could produce which never failed their task.
Traces of livinghood became sparser as the second week came to an end. The arm was taking them somewhere dangerously close to the Unclean Realms where Qinghenie dwelled—where Nie Huaisang lived, Wei Wuxian supposed, if no alpha heir was found to sweep the succession from him. This would also be something to see, he wondered. A beta sect leader.
Three nights later, the arm stopped pointing anywhere specific. It squirmed and fought and rolled in on itself, panicked or angered, driven to madness with proximity. Lan Wangji forced it back inside the sealing pouch without playing at all.
"So the rest of our dear friend is somewhere around here," Wei Wuxian said.
Lan Wangji gave a short hum in answer. He stopped at the entrance of the village they had reached, and Little Apple stopped by him without the need for orders.
It was a small thing, this village. A couple hundred inhabitants at most spread over less than forty houses, with an inn at its center which could host no more than ten guests if they chose to keep tight and squeezed together. Wei Wuxian was not surprised to find the same hatred in the eyes of those who looked at him there that he had known fifteen years ago. They welcomed Lan Wangji with wariness and watched Wei Wuxian with suspicion, as if scared that he would suddenly go feral and try to kill them all.
Those fears would not be so unfounded if only they knew who he was.
Still, money was money. The sight of Lan Wangji's purse was enough to convince the innkeepers to give them two rooms for the following nights, and with great weariness, Wei Wuxian allowed sleep to find him without eating dinner.
He woke up with all the smells and sounds of dawn.
"Let me sleep, Mo Xuanyu," he muttered with a twisted smile, rubbing his eyes against the too-bright light. "Of all the unfairness in your life, the greatest has to be that you woke so often before noon."
He washed himself clean of the previous days' dirt in the wide bucket set at the other side of the room. The nippy water finished waking him up, and he was wide awake by the time he made it out of the room and then out of the inn.
Lan Wangji was nowhere to be seen, but the smell of sandalwood clinged to the door next to his, indicating that he must still be inside. Wei Wuxian made his steps quieter so as not to warn him of his presence.
Down the stairs, a few guests were seated and talking over hot broth and warm liquor already. They watched Wei Wuxian walk toward the exit like hawks. Wei Wuxian tried not to pay attention to the aches that tension brought out of his back and shoulders. His hand stayed firmly clasped around the unnamed bamboo flute.
Once outside, he felt the same thing which he had when they arrived: some kind of energy absorbed by the soil and plants around, different than the resentment he could wield but not so far out of his reach. He had not told Lan Wangji of it yet, and had no idea if the Lan sect heir had felt it too when they arrived. He wanted to examine it on his own.
Wei Wuxian boiled water from the river to take the moonless tea. He sat near the bed of it as he swallowed down the disgusting beverage, wishing not for the first time that something could be made to turn the taste of it sweeter and trying to narrow down the location of the odd energy.
It felt a little like the goddess in Dafan had, and yet not at all similar.
A few minutes later, he could pinpoint it as coming from the woods which seemed to spread over a mile behind the village. Wei Wuxian put out the fire at his feet and washed the cup in the river.
He was unhurried as he walked toward the edge of the forest. Most of the village's inhabitants were now busy with their daily activities, some working the fields around and others mounting donkeys and horses to go wherever they needed to. Wei Wuxian had left Little Apple in the shed beside the inn. Judging by the animal's tenacious will to stay with him, he did not worry that he would flee.
How odd. Wei Wuxian had never been very liked by animals before, nor had he ever liked them very much.
He stood for a long time by the first trees of the forest once he had reached them. He was completely alone now, too far away from the small houses for anyone to bother with him, but it did not explain the silence of the place. Like in Dafan mountain after the goddess's first cry, it seemed all life had fled from the woods. Leaves fell into the wind without so much as a sound; he could hear no mice scurrying through the bushes, no deer or bears rustling the well-tread earth.
He brought the bamboo flute to his lips.
The music which he had used to calm Wen Ning in the mountain weeks ago came to him more easily this time. It filled him with quiet as he played, calling with kindness rather than urgency this time. He needn't turn around and watch for a sign of Wen Ning approaching; the ground did not shake, not this time, and Wen Ning's footsteps only rang with the softest rustle of chains.
Seeing him in daylight was different. Wei Wuxian doubted that many would have fled or cried out in fear at the sight of him, still and quiet like this, looking helplessly at his master.
The ache in his heart was familiar, too. "Wen Ning," he called. "Have you been following us?"
There was no answer. Wen Ning did not seem to have regained the consciousness which Wei Wuxian so painstakingly gifted him in the past, though his eyes were less empty. He almost looked as if he wished to speak.
Wei Wuxian stepped closer. Wen Ning gave no sign of danger or disquiet when he was touched, not even when Wei Wuxian turned his frail wrists this way and that to examine the thick metal chains locked around them.
"Who did this to you?" he asked without expecting a reply.
The chains were heavy, locked in place by sturdy bracelets made of the same iron. If Wen Ning had been alive, his skin would have chafed under them until it bled. As it was, Wei Wuxian could still see sign of wear on it, as layer upon layer of epiderma had peeled away.
He sighed and dropped Wen Ning's hands. "At least it looks like whatever spell was put on you is going away," he told him. "I hope it is gone the next time I call you, my friend. I have so much to ask you—so much to tell you."
The first would be, I'm sorry. But Wei Wuxian did not want those words to be spoken while Wen Ning was unable to hear them.
How he wished to speak with him. How he longed for the company of someone who had known him during those years in Yiling—of someone who would perhaps know what had become of the village there and its inhabitants.
"I wonder if you can feel it too?" Wei Wuxian asked out loud, taking a step closer in-between wide-trunked trees. "I haven't felt something like this in a long time. It reminds me of the Stygian Tiger Seal."
Not quite steeped in darkness but not quite wholesome either—that was the sort of energy that the Seal had suffused when not in use, the weight which Wei Wuxian had carried so long upon himself for fear of someone using his inattention to steal it.
Yes, the Stygian Tiger Seal should never have existed in this world. Wei Wuxian wondered with a shiver that he had ever created such a thing to be used, that he had ever been so foolish, so careless. So blind to the dangers of what he was doing.
These dangers seemed much less nebulous now.
He smelled sandalwood on the wind. "I will call for you again," he told Wen Ning. "Go, and keep following us, but stay hidden. Don't let anyone see you."
He briefly touched the side of Wen Ning's face. Mo Xuanyu was so much shorter than Wei Wuxian had been that the gesture made him feel like a child reaching helplessly for his parent.
With another trill of the flute, the Ghost General disappeared between the trees.
Wei Wuxian waited for Lan Wangji to join him patiently. It wasn't a minute before white robes appeared at the turn of the road; Lan Wangji was dressed as regally as ever, white and spotless against the bright sunlight, his black hair flowing behind his back gently.
"Lan Zhan," Wei Wuxian greeted. "I apologize for not waiting for you."
"No need," Lan Wangji replied succinctly.
How odd to see him so accommodating, so free of the confrontation which had plagued their younger years. After what had happened at the inn in Dafan, Wei Wuxian expected to find Lan Wangji loath to address him.
He laughed to chase away his embarrassment. The memory still made him queasy. "Can you feel this energy?" he asked. At Lan Wangji's nod, he added, "It seems to be coming from inside the woods. I wonder what we'll find."
"A haunted castle."
"A haunted castle?"
"A villager said."
Wei Wuxian stroked his chin. If these woods were haunted, then it was possible that the arm did come from here. But how had it traveled from here to Mo village on its own?
Unless someone had planted it there.
But why Mo village, Wei Wuxian thought as they walked into the woods, such a small place, without any political strongholds or greater sects in its vicinity? Gusu was too far—if the mastermind has wished to harm the Lan clan, they should have set the demonic corpse in Caiyi Town or even at the entrance of the Cloud Recesses.
"Will your clan be fine without you, Lan Zhan?" he asked in the deep silence.
Lan Zhan stared at him with some confusion on his face.
"Without you," Wei Wuxian pressed. "Won't they be in trouble without their sect leader?"
"My brother is there," Lan Wangji replied.
Wei Wuxian batted the air with one hand at the mention of Lan Xichen. "I am talking about you, Lan Zhan, not your brother."
"My brother is our sect leader."
Wei Wuxian paused in his steps.
What little sounds the forest emitted around them muffled even further. Lan Wangji paused as well next to him, his face devoid of any inflexion of frustration or shame.
"But you," Wei Wuxian stuttered.
Lan Wangji stayed silent.
Try as he might, Wei Wuxian could not form a coherent thought. He stared at Lan Wangji until he was certain that the other should start prickling, should turn away in annoyance as he once would have done, but Lan Wangji did not. He said nothing. He bore Wei Wuxian's rudeness as one would just punishment.
"You are the Jade of Lan," Wei Wuxian said at last. He tried to keep his voice even, but shock, he thought, must be painting his words inquisitive. "You are—you were always your uncle's favorite. The greatest talent your clan has ever known. Your brother is a beta."
He had made direct mention of status on purpose, but not even this breach of propriety broke Lan Wangji's composure. "My brother is a fair leader," Lan Wangji simply replied.
"You think me so gullible."
"I would not lie to you."
"You were a better marksman and cultivator than your brother before you reached maturity," Wei Wuxian said, grabbing onto anger so as not to linger on what those words evoked in him. "I can see no reason why you would be replaced in the heirline."
Lan Wangji's answer was long in coming. Eventually, he admitted: "I made a mistake."
Wei Wuxian remembered, then, the angry words which had come out of Jiang Cheng's mouth in Dafan. You make a grave mistake if you still think us equals.
"You fell from grace," he recited. "Jiang Cheng said that."
"Yes," Lan Wangji said. "But that was not the mistake I made."
Wei Wuxian almost asked him what he meant before thinking better of it.
There must be a reason Lan Wangji was not forthcoming with his answers. Shame perhaps, or perhaps this was a clan secret, not something he should be telling outsiders. Judging by the faces that those two Lan juniors had made and the title they used on him—Hanguang-Jun—they must not have known about it either.
Of course Jiang Cheng had seen no need for such propriety, Wei Wuxian thought dryly. And he should know better than to pry as well.
"Well," he said. "I suppose this is one problem we do not need to think about."
"Had I been sect leader," Lan Wangji started.
He paused. Wei Wuxian watched him frown at the ground and shift back and forth on his feet almost imperceptibly.
"Had I been sect leader," Lan Wangji said. "I would have made you the same offer."
He met Wei Wuxian's eyes after that, blinking his long and dark lashes slowly, before turning away.
They walked for hours without finding anything. The woods here spread over flatter land than in Dafan, and they were sparser too, less lush and tricky to navigate. The trees stood wide apart, their trunks thick and solid, their canopy spread thinly. Golden sunlight filtered in through the leaves and shifted onto the dry ground. These were woods that animals should be running through, Wei Wuxian thought, woods made for hunting and meditating, and yet there was no sign of life, human or otherwise. Only the two of them and that strange shiver of energy.
Lan Wangji was the one who figured it out. He pointed wordlessly to an oddly-shaped root in the ground which they had noticed already near midday; it looked somewhat like the back of a turtle, shelled and domed over the ground, as if ready to let the head and feet of the animal out.
"Yes," Wei Wuxian muttered. "We are going in circles."
"Not lost," Lan Wangji said.
Wei Wuxian nodded. "I would have noticed if we took a turn we already knew. This is the work of a barrier."
The sun would set soon. They decided to head back toward the village for the night.
The streets seemed strangely subdued when they made their way to the inn. Whatever few villagers still roamed the streets did so quietly, hunched in on themselves or conversing in low voices. Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji received more looks, if possible, than the night before.
They found the reason for what waiting for them inside the inn.
Nie Huaisang had not changed overly much in the years since Wei Wuxian had seen him. Even draped in softer silks than Wei Wuxian had ever seen Nie Mingjue wear, he still looked like the classmate he had met in Gusu during their understudies, down to the embroidered fan he hid his face behind and the very faint snowy scent clinging to him. At the sight of Lan Wangji stepping over the threshold, Nie Huaisang rose from the table where he had been served tea and bowed at the shoulders.
"Hanguang-Jun," he said with urgency. "Oh, I couldn't believe when I learned of you being here—if I may be so bold as to ask for a favor…"
His words died when he met eyes with Wei Wuxian.
Or rather, Wei Wuxian thought as he watched him try to inhale very subtly, as he looked for confirmation of what Mo Xuanyu's appearance inferred.
"So it is true," Nie Huaisang said. "I never thought… Well, I suppose it is only normal—Xichen-ge never said anything of you finding a, a—"
"He is not mine," Lan Wangji said.
His tone could almost be called frosty. What little irritation Wei Wuxian had mustered at the now-familiar misunderstanding vanished under dry humor.
Lan Wangji had not commented upon the situation thus far, but even he had to find offense in others suggesting that he was traveling with an unmated omega with this purpose in mind. Especially one who had made such improper advances upon him.
His stomach squirmed in remembrance.
"Yes," Nie Huaisang let out faintly. "Well, if—if I may ask you for something. Is there a room we can borrow to speak privately?" he asked the unkind tenant across the room.
With very bad grace, the man led them to a small parlor at the other end of the inn. The walls there were moist with rain, the wood eaten throughout. Wei Wuxian laid his fingers over a corner and thought he could break their structure apart with a shove of the shoulder.
"Lan Wangji," Nie Huaisang said nervously once they were alone. His gaze kept flickering toward Wei Wuxian, as if he expected him to excuse himself and leave any second. Wei Wuxian sat down in front of him and sent him an even smile. "Ah, I'm sure you have an idea of why I am here."
"It is about the barrier in the woods, isn't it?" Wei Wuxian asked.
Nie Huaisang did not hesitate long to answer. "Yes," he admitted. "I was about to write Xichen-ge for advice, since he knows about it already… It is somewhat of an embarrassment."
"A clan affair," Lan Wangji said.
"Indeed. I need to ask you… both of you, to be discreet."
Lan Wangji nodded silently. Wei Wuxian tapped his fingers atop the wooden table, eyeing the surprisingly firm grip Nie Huaisang had over his delicate fan.
"You have heard, I suppose, of the castle in the woods," Nie Huaisang said.
"Heard of, yes," Wei Wuxian replied. "But we were not able to approach it."
"In ordinary circumstances, I would order you to leave it at that. This place is sacred for Qinghenie—not somewhere anyone but the sect leader should know of," he pressed, almost imperious. "But now, not even I can access it."
Wei Wuxian frowned. "What sort of place is it?"
"A burial site. Somewhere reserved for the leaders of the clan."
Wei Wuxian stopped running his fingers against the table.
Nie Huaisang suffered their stare with only the lightest of blushes. "You know of my clan's saber techniques," he told Lan Wangji. "You know where they came from."
"Butchery."
"Yes. Yes, butchery."
The Nie sect was famous for two things.
One was the harsh environment in which they dwelled—harsher, some said, than Qishanwen's desert city. The Unclean Realms were said to stand in the midst of endless marshlands, where travelers got caught in mud or bit by poisonous snakes if they strayed too far from broad roads. Wei Wuxian had never seen them in person. Looking at Nie Mingjue all those years ago, he had thought he could understand how such a man could grow out of fighting a constant battle against water and earth, but Nie Huaisang's delicate manners and frail character always made him believe that such stories were made up. After all, how could someone who grew under such conditions be scared of Lan Qiren?
The second and perhaps better-known thing was Qinghenie's saber techniques. Wei Wuxian had seen it in use when he and Nie Mingjue fought side by side one eventful day of the Sunshot Campaign. He had glimpsed Nie Huaisang's own saber when the Wen sect had forcefully gathered them all to indoctrinate and stolen their weapons.
It had been taken, like Suibian, by Wen Chao.
His fingers felt cold. He rubbed them against his mouth both to warm them up and chase the taste of dirt from his tongue, understanding a second too late that Nie Huaisang had started speaking again.
"... ancestor's sabers are great weapons, great weapons indeed," he was saying almost fearfully, "but their power comes at a cost. It is no secret now that most of my clan's leaders fall victim to qi deviation from handling them for too long."
Wei Wuxian wondered if such a thing had happened to Nie Mingjue. If the famous Chifeng-Zun had, like his ancestors, fallen victim to the gluttonous appetite of his weapon of choice. Nie Huaisang did not offer any further information on the topic.
"Those weapons cannot be destroyed," Nie Huaisang said. "You have to understand that what I am telling you is a secret of the utmost value—if others knew, many would try to come and steal those weapons." He took in a shaky breath. "They cannot be destroyed or sealed in the common way," he went on. "For centuries we have 'buried' them like we do our leaders. This burial site is the haunted castle you heard about."
"I suppose you do not simply mean that the sabers are left underground," Wei Wuxian said.
Nie Huaisang shook his head. "Indeed, young master…?"
"Mo Xuanyu."
"Young master Mo. Indeed, they are not buried. These weapons are as alive as fierce spirits, and once forged and used by masters with enough strength, they cannot be sated. They need to keep feeding."
Wei Wuxian had an idea what sort of food Nie Huaisang was speaking of.
"Please do not think that we treat this tradition lightly or murder innocents for the sake of it," Nie Huaisang urged, confirming his thoughts. "The corpses we bury we there belong to criminals who would have been hanged or beheaded anyway. It is better for everyone to let the sabers feed on their resentful energy than to let them come alive and attack the living. The barrier keeps people from wandering inside the burial grounds."
"And now," Wei Wuxian said, "you cannot get in either."
Nie Huaisang nodded, pathetically desperate.
So this was the kind of sect leader Nie Huaisang had become, Wei Wuxian thought, watching him bargain one-sidedly for Lan Wangji's help. Helpless to fix his own clan's problems, hanging as always onto someone else's robes and begging for help. He had been like this as a student with Wei Wuxian, and Wei Wuxian had no doubt that he was like this with Lan Xichen, whom he still addressed as an older brother.
He was never made for the role, after all; he was weak of character even if he had not been born beta, and any way his older brother should have stayed alive much longer. Nie Huaisang should never have worn the mantle of sect leader. It was a shame Nie Mingjue had not left behind a more worthy heir.
Still, Wei Wuxian had never disliked Nie Huaisang. He still remembered the day the boy had watched him spar with Jiang Cheng in the Cloud Recesses and shyly offered to be his opponent for a turn.
No one else back then had wanted to speak with him, let alone risk the shame of harming or touching him. No one except Nie Mingjue's cowardly brother and Lan Wangji himself, who had never sought combat with Wei Wuxian, only suffered his insistence to disrupt peace and retaliated.
"We will help, sect leader Nie," he declared.
Nie Huaisang looked at him incredulously. To Wei Wuxian's surprise, he did not seek Lan Wangji's approval and simply replied, "Thank you!"
It was not long afterward that Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian stood outside the inn, watching Nie Huaisang climb onto the greenish blade of his saber and elevate into the nightly air. Soon the glare of his weapon was lost amidst stars and moonlight, and he vanished entirely.
"He couldn't even stay to make sure we finished the job," Wei Wuxian commented airily. "Oh well, Huaisang was never very brave."
"You do not disapprove."
"I don't. I've always liked Nie Huaisang. Call it sentimentality, if you wish, but I do want to help him. And our dear friend must want us to go to these graves anyway."
Lan Wangji did not reply with words. Instead he nodded his head in understanding and stepped into the inn again, Bichen shining softly at his hip under the pale moonlight.
Wei Wuxian was struck that night with the thought that Lan Wangji had never offered to have them travel by sword. Surely following the arm's directions would be easier when one could fly over mountains and ravines or cut through dense forest, and they could have in two weeks assembled the body instead of simply reached a piece which might not make it whole, but Lan Wangji had never offered. The thought did not even seem to have crossed his mind.
It could be that his propriety would suffer from such close contact. Wei Wuxian himself knew not how he would have reacted to it; the cold from earlier had not vanished from his hands and instead crawled up the length of his elbows and arms till it reached his shoulders, till it rested at his throat. For the first time in many years, the face which haunted his dreams was not skinned and eyeless, but whole. Haughty and arrogant and smelling of firesmoke.
He slept fitfully. Dawn came upon him with the chill of sweat on skin and the knots left behind by nightmares. His stomach rolled emptily through threats of nausea. His mouth tasted of dirt and dew-wet grass.
Lan Wangji and himself walked back into the forest after a bout of breakfast which Wei Wuxian barely touched. The heightened energy in the air seemed to make the day colder, as if this were fall and not spring, and humidity from the river clinged to Wei Wuxian's clothes, making them stick to his skin like sweat. During the first hours of day he tried his best to cut through the barrier, playing with Lan Wangji to push it away, to make it traversable. None of their spells worked. Soon, Wei Wuxian was shivering, his teeth clacking with the cold.
Lan Wangji frowned at him as they took a break, midday brightening overhead. "We should go back," he said.
"This is too frustrating," Wei Wuxian answered. "I will figure it out."
But then he could not think at all, for the loud sound of a dog barking reached them.
Wei Wuxian could have felt shame over his own reaction, he supposed, if he had not been too busy hiding behind Lan Wangji's back and chasing away memories of being run after and bitten by mutts for scraps of food. Lan Wangji himself seemed not to mind that Wei Wuxian stood behind him just shy of actual touch. His scent mixed with the sound of childhood memories, with the endless cold through Wei Wuxian's body, with the very taste of the air around, weighed down by water and sunlight.
It was a childish reaction to a very inconsequential fear, something Wei Wuxian ought to have been rid of as cleanly as he had been rid of regret the moment he first fell into Yiling, coreless and abandoned. He watched Jin Ling call for his beast with his heart in his throat and shook Mo Xuanyu's body with all the strength of that painful, unmarred golden core, until he was certain that no fear showed upon his face. He clenched his hands into fists so that they would stop trembling.
"Mo Xuanyu!" Jin Ling exclaimed at the sight of them, his dog now grabbed by the collar and panting excitedly by his feet. "What are you doing here?"
I could ask you the same thing, Wei Wuxian thought.
He had no time to voice it before someone else called, "Did you find him, A-Ling?"
Another figure emerged from the wide gaps between the trees.
Short and slender and barely different than the last time Wei Wuxian had seen her; though she was not grieved now, though her face and robes were free of the blood which had drenched the starved soil of Qishan's Nightless City; her hair bearing the same twin breads that Jiang Cheng had taken to wearing after Jiang Fengmian died.
Jin Ling was almost taller than her. The hand she put on his shoulder was bare but for Zidian glinting on her index finger.
"Of course I found him," Jin Ling mumbled.
Jiang Yanli smiled at him. She pinched his cheek; he spluttered and reddened and threw Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji panicked, embarrassed looks. "Hanguang-Jun," she called after freeing her son. She bowed and added, cold as ice, "My brother told me he had the displeasure of meeting you recently. I did not think our paths would cross."
Lan Wangji nodded stiffly towards her.
Wei Wuxian wanted to steel himself for her attention, but the second she looked at him, he knew any effort he could spend would be fruitless.
"Mo Xuanyu," she said. "It is good to see you well."
A-Xian, he heard as an echo, a memory moving before his eyes of lotuses and hot summers, of her arm knocking against his as they walked side by side.
"Madam Jin," Wei Wuxian replied.
For the first time since waking up in that shed after Mo Xuanyu's sacrifice, he bowed.
She was still staring at him when he straightened his back. The dog, which has yelped affectionately at her when she appeared, now emitted another bark of excitement. Wei Wuxian did not think he managed to conceal his shiver as much as he wanted to.
Jiang Yanli's fingers curled around the animal's collar. "A-Ling heard of odd sightings in the area," she said. "Is this the reason for your presence, Hanguang-Jun?"
"Yes," Lan Wangji replied.
"I see. Then we shall leave you to it."
"Mother—"
"They arrived first, A-Ling," Jiang Yanli reprimanded. Her eyes had not left Wei Wuxian. "I doubt master Lan will share his findings with us, and I know better than to compete against such a talented cultivator."
Wei Wuxian looked at Lan Wangji. To his surprise, Lan Wangji looked back and said, "I won't share."
Jiang Yanli nodded as if she had expected it. She whistled at the dog to order it to follow and turned around, Zidian catching light on her hand like a gem. "Come now," she called to her son. "We'll sleep in the village."
"It's not fair!"
"If your uncle heard you speak like this, he would scold you, you know. Do not think I won't just because Lianfang-Zun likes to spoil you rotten."
Jin Ling moaned and grumbled loudly enough to awaken all the dead in those woods. He followed her with dragging feet, the peony sewn at the back of his uniform flickering under lights and shadows.
Only when they were gone did Wei Wuxian relax. Only then did he allow himself a short, empty laugh, rubbing a clammy hand over his face.
"Wei Ying," Lan Wangji said.
"I'm fine." The words ached as they pushed past his lips, but they were not a lie. Not fully. "I was surprised, that's all. I never thought we would meet so many acquaintances in one day."
He smiled for good measure, letting his hand drop again. Lan Wangji said nothing more.
He stayed closer to his side as they searched through the afternoon again. His knee brushed Wei Wuxian's when they sat to play against the barrier, the pace of his music unhurried and yet a little shakier than before. When the sky darkened with the promise of night and they decided to head back, he walked right by Wei Wuxian's side.
The arrival of more strangers had done nothing to quiet the villagers. Once again they suffered looks and even the odd comment or two, little as they cared about those. Not even the weight of Lan Wangji's purse could stop the innkeeper from glaring at them this time.
It made sense, Wei Wuxian supposed. He had hesitated upon entering the inn, wary of seeing Jiang Yanli again—wary of hearing Jin Ling's voice—but they must have both gone up to their rooms already. In the small dining room, he and Lan Wangji were the only guests.
Wei Wuxian was not surprised to find sleep evading him for endless hours.
He did not linger on the memories and thoughts trying to plague his mind. There had been no time to in the short few days before he died, and he had no desire to allow Mo Xuanyu's core to sharpen them to clarity and make him relive them as he had stupidly let happen when meeting Jin Ling.
Those who had died then could not be brought back, not even by his hand. Not even if they had wanted to.
He felt morning approach before he saw it. He rose from the bed, still-dressed and entirely sleepless, crouching by the water tub to wash his face and hands. He was of half a mind, he found, to call Wen Ning again. To call him and walk with him to the barrier in the woods and have his only friend—his only weapon—once more fight his battles for him.
The latter was out of the question. Checking on Wen Ning's condition, however, was not a bad idea. Wei Wuxian closed the door to his room silently and made his way down the stairs of the inn. No one was around any more this early before sunrise. He boiled water for moonless tea and drank it as scalding as he could.
Outside, the air was colder. The weight of the haunted sabers' spirits seemed to want to push the soil down till it crumbled underfoot, seemed to want them all to fall into an abyss and break apart, buried and forgotten as they were. Wei Wuxian wound his cloak more tightly around himself and walked into the shed by the side of the inn. The door of it opened with a small, creaking noise, and inside he saw Little Apple's head rise alertly.
"Hello," he called to the donkey, chuckling.
Little Apple was a quiet animal. Wei Wuxian had not heard him bray or seen him panic since he had stolen him in Mo village. He acted for all intents and purposes as if Wei Wuxian had always been his master. Now he bowed his head to let Wei Wuxian pat it and scratch between his long ears.
"I'll be making some noise in a moment," he said. "Don't be scared of my guest, now."
The donkey looked at him with deep and soulful eyes.
Before Wei Wuxian could grab the bamboo flute from his waist and put it to his lips, loud barking echoed through the village.
He froze. It must be Jin Ling's dog, he thought in a panic, for he had not seen or heard any other dogs here and the sound of it was similar to earlier during the day. Uselessly, he looked around to defend himself, stumbling on a pile of wood and making it crash loudly against the ground.
Immediately, the barking came closer to the shed. Wei Wuxian realized with horror that he had not closed the door behind himself. No sooner had he noticed that the dog itself barged in, running toward him and barking loudly.
"No no no," he cried out, backing away as quickly as he could and making more things fall in the penumbra, "go away, back off—"
The dog bit at the hem of his pants and pulled, making Wei Wuxian trip and his heart leap up his chest. That same chest became heavier with the dog's front paws; Wei Wuxian smelled its breath in his face, felt the cold tip of its nose brush his chin and heard its barking as if they were drums inside his ears—piercing, deafening, pouding like a headache.
His eyesight whitened in sheer, irrational fear. He stopped breathing altogether.
Then the dog's weight was pulled off of him. He heard through the dizzying rush of his own blood the sound of a voice scolding it, was even aware enough to place its familiarity, but his shaking was such that he could not find footing enough to rise. When he managed to gasp in enough breaths to chase the fog from his mind, a great, acute ache had spread through his entire torso.
Jiang Yanli stood at the entrance of the shed, dressed in warmer clothes than she had worn during the day and holding the mutt back by the collar around its neck. She struggled with it for a moment longer—the beast truly looked mad, barking and drooling and shaking every way—before she managed to throw it outside the shed and close the door behind it firmly.
She sighed, wiping her trembling hands. Wei Wuxian pressed a fist over his chest in hope of containing his panic.
For a long time, neither of them spoke. They breathed and breathed until at last the dog outside quieted.
Then Jiang Yanli asked, "Are you well?"
Wei Wuxian nodded. Realizing how dark the shed had become after she closed the door, and that she probably could not see him, he said: "Yes."
"Good, that's… that's good."
It was a different kind of dread he felt upon hearing her move his way.
Her steps did not drag. She had always been more elegant than either he or Jiang Cheng cared to be—Jiang Cheng because he had no obligation to, Wei Wuxian because he did—and so her feet were light upon the dirt floor, almost inaudible. Her clothes brushed against the enclosure where Little Apple was kept.
She stopped when her boots brushed the tips of his own. Even in the darkness, her gaze weighed on him as heavily as a mountain.
"You're not Mo Xuanyu," she said.
Wei Wuxian could not look at her. Not her face, not the rest of her body either, as he found his eyes avoiding the length of purple robes covering her legs and falling to the floor instead.
"I met Mo Xuanyu," Jiang Yanli went on. Her voice was shaking. "Madam Jin often called for his company before he… before he left Golden Carp Tower."
"I hope she is well," Wei Wuxian answered.
Jiang Yanli laughed. It sounded hollow. "I had my doubts when A-Cheng brought A-Ling back to Lanling and told me what happened," she went on. "I don't think he realized. He was so angry at letting a demonic cultivator go, and he had never heard of Mo Xuanyu, but I did. I knew—what he said—Mo Xuanyu could not have done that."
Wei Wuxian thought of the bloody array in which he had woken. He thought, not for the first time, that despair could push anyone into doing anything.
"You didn't do anything to convince him otherwise either, did you."
"Madam Jin," Wei Wuxian said, "I think you are mistaken."
"Don't call me that." Her voice moaned over the words, pleading. "You never called me that, even after I married Zixuan."
She hadn't wanted him to.
She kneeled slowly by his side, one of her legs pressed to his own. "I had doubts," she said, putting a hand at his shoulder. "It's why I insisted on accompanying A-Ling here, after I heard that Lan Wangji had been sighted, even though I knew it was a fool's dream. But now, I am certain."
Her hand squeezed Wei Wuxian's shoulder and then pressed closer to his neck, sliding behind him entirely to tangle in his hair. It was warm and soft as he remembered, despite the calluses that swordwielding had raised across her palm.
"I think," she said shakily, "that I should be apologizing to Lan Wangji on my knees."
"Shijie—"
"A-Xian."
She crushed his body against her and buried her face in his neck, wetting it with her tears and her deep, shaking inhales. "You smell like before," she cried. "It is you, it is you, oh, A-Xian."
Wei Wuxian could count the number of times he had been hugged since his parents' death on the fingers of one hand. Most of those had been from Jiang Yanli; once had been Jiang Cheng; the last and only time he had been hugged by someone not family, it was in Qishanwen's omega house, with Wen Yueying's small arms locked so tightly around his hips that he had feared she would break them.
None of those embraces came close to making him feel how this one did.
"A-Xian," Jiang Yanli cried again and again into his neck, shaking so violently that he thought she would fall and make him follow her down. She weeped even harder when he wrapped his arms around her too—when he squeezed her against his front until there was not an inch of room between them anywhere, until he felt every breath she took as if they were his own.
The dog outside barked loudly again, making him tense in a spasm. Jiang Yanli hiccuped softly and patted his hair, saying, "It's okay, I'm here, I'm here—"
He was nine years old again in the circle of her arms, fallen from the very tree he had climbed, deathly afraid of displeasing the people who had taken in him and fed and clothed him.
"Shijie," he said, unsurprised to find his own eyes wet. He crushed the tears against the top of her hair.
There were so many things he wanted to say to her, needed to say to her. There was nothing he deserved less than to be held in her arms after he brought her nothing but ruin, nothing but grief, in his carelessness and arrogance. He had harmed her, he thought, feeling with his fingers the deep scar atop her right shoulder which climbed up the side of her neck under the cover of her hair. He had abandoned her, abandoned Jiang Cheng and his own clan. He had stolen her only dream from her and then crushed it down to dust—he had orphaned her son and made her a widow.
He should be asking her for mercy. He should be offering her his head. He should be bowing as Jin Zixuan had before his last breath left him.
Instead he held her and said nothing at all, allowing her to hold and touch him as he never allowed anyone, breathing in her river-like scent, crushing her sobs against him. Darkness lightened around them with the coming of dawn and they sat, pressed together, into the dirt and dust, amidst broken straw and heavy animal scents.
There was nowhere else Wei Wuxian wanted to be.
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