#IDK why I always descend into melodrama with these things

[gogogoats]

Pirate!Gunther AU

As promised for Aura on the JatD discord.

The sloppy summary of my pirate!Gunther AU that I would like to write someday but probably never will.

TW: slavery

Gunther is tasked with escorting one of his father’s ships on a long (6+ month) voyage. Theodore/the King agree to it because it will be a character-building experience for Gunther and the kingdom owes Magnus lots of money soo. Gunther isn’t really keen but he knows he has no choice and no one cares so he just has to suck it up. All he knows is that they are picking up a highly valuable cargo and he must guard it until it is delivered, then the ship can return home. Jane and the others are just like ‘well it’s only six months/it’s an adventure!’ and aren’t reality worried. 

So Gunther sets off, eventually gets his sea legs and stops feeling sick constantly and starts to enjoy the taste of freedom. This is a new ship with an entirely new crew, none of the familiar faces Gunther has come to know over the years, and they mostly leave him alone. 

A few months after his departure, word arrives at Kippernium that the ship and all hands have been lost at sea. Jane wants to organise a search party but Magnus is strangely refusing to help, saying there’s nothing to be done, and the King doesn’t have the resources. She flies out to sea on Dragon to search a few times but with no information on what direction to go and her responsibilities doubled at the castle without Gunther she ultimately has to give up. 

Many years pass and Jane, now a knight, is on night-time guard duty at the gate when a stranger approaches. She can tell from his walk that he’s a sea-farer, and he says his ship is in port and leaving early morning but he had hoped to see the castle and dragon he once heard about from a boy lost at sea. 

Of course Jane thinks of Gunther and immediately starts questioning the stranger, who tells her that might have been the name of the boy he knew briefly, but he was taken by pirates and is long dead. The stranger asks about Gunther and his father, and Jane tells him that Magnus died of ill health several years ago. A new merchant family live in his house now, and with no heir left the kingdom took possession of his properties and was freed of their debts. They tried to continue his trading business, but his ships were often targeted by pirates and the fleet greatly reduced. The stranger is quiet. Jane wants to know more about what happened to Gunther but he is reticent and sticks to the shadows. Eventually he agrees to tell her a story if she doesn’t ask any more questions. Jane agrees. 

The ship Gunther was on was enroute to pick up slaves, Magnus’ new money-making scheme. He wanted Gunther to act as guard because he was loyal to his father and Magnus didn’t want his new venture to be widely known. The slaves were loaded into the hold one night while Gunther slept, and the ship was back out to sea before he realised. He was upset and disgusted of course but the crew of the ship ignored him and wouldn’t turn around. Ultimately Gunther decided that if he was to guard the cargo then he would do just that, and protect them from the ship’s crew and make sure they were being fed enough. This didn’t make him popular with the crew and the slaves didn’t trust him, but he spent most of his time in the hold with them, trying to bridge the language barrier. He wasn’t allowed to let them out of their cages and the hold grew increasingly pungent, but he couldn’t go enjoy fresh air and freedom on deck while captive humans suffered below. Of course this all took a toll on his health, so when the ship was attacked by pirates one night there wasn’t much he could do about it. 

The ship and the cargo were taken and the crew put to death. Gunther was knocked out and woke up chained in the scullery of the pirate ship. He was put to work as a kitchen hand/deck hand, and it was days before he began to piece together what was going on. Half of the pirate crew remained on board the merchant ship with the slaves who were now freed to move around the ship. The pirates were mostly freed slaves themselves, from all different countries, races and languages. While they were always looking for merchant vessels to plunder, they would take the time to free any slaves they found and offer them two choices, join the pirates or be left at the nearest safe harbour. The pirates always killed slaver crews, and Gunther was only left alive because some of the slaves spoke in his favour, and the pirates needed a new cabin boy. He wasn’t treated kindly by the pirates who had little sympathy for the son of a slave trader and his already failing health was made worse by hard labour.

The stranger told Jane he was a freed slave who met Gunther briefly on his journey to safe harbour, and Gunther told him stories about the distant kingdom with a gentle King and a dragon that was tamed by a girl with wild red hair. “They will be searching for me,” Gunther would tell the stranger. He died before the man left the ship, his body thrown to the sea, his existence erased. 

The stranger prepares to leave, his story told, and Jane becomes upset, wanting to know his name. 

“No questions,” he reminds her. “The boy you knew is gone. Tell your king to run dragon flags on his ships and they will be left alone.”

He leaves, and Jane must remain at the gate. She heads to the port as soon as her shift ends, but the ship is long gone.  

Out at sea, the stranger has removed his cloak and hood, and gives orders as the captain of the ship. They take down the merchant flags and run up their pirate blacks. His first mate asks after his night ashore. “The merchant is dead,” says the captain. “His line is done. They will do no more harm.”

The captain is called all number of things by the people he robs and the people he helps. By his crew he is simply called ‘captain’. Once, in his distant past, he was called Gunther, but that name died with the boy who wore it, when another pirate captain learned he was educated in language, reading, numbers and combat and had been kind to slaves. He gave the ailing boy a chance, which grew into a different kind of apprenticeship than the one the boy had known. A new life, an atonement, call it what you will. His old identity was shed and he became ‘the boy’ who one day eventually became ‘captain’.

A vast shadow passes over the ship. A giant green dragon, and a fire-haired knight on its back. The captain looks up as his crew yell and clamour. His black hair waves like a banner in the wind and his grey eyes meet the dragon riders’ green ones. They share a moment before she touches the dragon’s neck and they turn, rising as they go, back towards the mountains of their home.  

The captain watches them go. 

[silviakundera]

Perfect Marriage Revenge 11

Evil step mommy as actual supervillian confirmed. This actress deserves some special award, idk what it is but let's make one up and give it to her asap. She's glorious. Transcendent!

lmaooooooooo forever. She kidnapped that Sun Jin artist. So he wasn't mentioned 100x in vain.

All of a sudden police just descend and have all of the evidence out of nowhere. Hilarious. No one is worried about these pesky details in an OTT melodrama. TBH I'm majorly disappointed that they didn't find a way to repurpose the school auditorium for that police station.

Finally we get the reveal that they're both reborn! I'm glad they didn't make us wait until the last episode. "How could I tell you that I'm the one who killed you?" Delicioussssssssss

Evil Brother continues to be not only that family member who is always a drag at parties, but also a really crap boyfriend of convenience and MOSTLY IMPORTANTLY still the absolute worst at buisness. I like that he's not just corrupt but absolutely shit at this. He's not even suave and calculated about operating a 'cost of doing business' lean mean lawsuit triggering machine. So messy. smfh

omg when it cuts to them having The Important Company Meeting and it's in a thinly disgused living room I LOVE THESE SET DESIGNERS. Yes DO THAT. Make that 10K budget work for you 👏 👏

I really was gonna shade grandma for planning to sit back for 2 years to see just how much her evil grandkid can manage to destroy the company, since, you know, construction of facilities that humans use lol. But then she actually admits she fucked up and feels guilty about ~losing her way.

You know, I even feel a lil sympathy for Evil Bro here because they straight up turned him over to the feds with no shame. Look you KNOW if the nice brother had been caught out, no one would have turned him over for prision times just like that. This is what happens when you make things awkward and unpleasant at family dinners from age 11 to 25.

Sadly, the reveal about his past with her in the 1st life was super underwhelming. Like, to the point where it undercuts the emotional core of the pairing for me. I really expected (assumed) that he was pining for her in the original timeline and had multiple brief encounters with her that were meaningful to him but she didn't pay mind to. So that he was torn up about her married to someone else. But this felt... kinda bland to me? He really liked her painting. But when he found out she was the painter he... nothing came of that. Then he's a dick to her at the gallery. And he kills them both in a car accident. Suddenly when he meets her reborn he realizes he's in love with her? 🤔 Sorry but WHEN? WHY? I'm not feeling it. If it was love at first sight, I'd want to feel that agony & longing in the flashbacks. If it wasn't... how, buddy? idgi. I mean, whatever. This is not a show to inspire deep thoughts and that's fine. It's just a pivotal moment that left me cold. alas.

I do like the mysterious fortune teller. THE POWER in their hands.

Of course there's a baby, which guarantees she at least won't die. Now in the finale either he'll be a tragic sacrifice to save her from the brother or bro will die to fulfill the 1 life. You know that reveal of his feelings origination left me cold because I'm not feeling super pressed about it. wow ML you really salted your game here. You have episode 12 to make up for it. tick tock!