#his praise of mantel's work validated it in some ways

[fideidefenswhore]

Never ended up adding this, but: 

I don’t believe DM ‘woobified’ Thomas Cromwell, but I see some sort of marriage of narrative in his own biographical apologism & the depiction in Mantel’s series and its adaptation that filed off some his sharper, less palatable, edges, including the TV adaptation (if not literal marriage, then certainly a feature now of this sort of Cromwell-focused subgenre/...fandom?). It’s Cromwell holding a kitten that we see, not Cromwell introducing a bill for the utter abolition of sanctuaries, Cromwell gently scolding an imperious Anne who insists Thomas More should be tortured ( ‘we don’t do that, madame’), rather than Cromwell as the orchestrator of the rather torturous executions of John and Alice Wolfe. In so many of these scenes, the characters opposite Cromwell feel like strawmen-- an irony, from an author that so often derided that infamous author of so many strawmen arguments where he came out the moral and intellectual victor, himself...

I also don’t think the criticism of misogyny as it concerns AB’s character in this series, the original source material nor the adapted TV series, is proportional to how eye-watering it was (dismissed because she’s so auxiliary, maybe...?). There is literally a scene where Anne tries to facilitate the seduction (and probable rape) of a teenage girl (presumably inspired by a dispatch of Chapuys in which he does not even report that there’s any rumor of this plot, just that he believes she might do so, that it is the goal and potential method of the isolation), as Cromwell stands on in silent, long-suffering, morally reproving judgement (which emerges as a pattern, another scene later or before is him being the calming voice of reason as she squawks in outrage at the wording of the Act of Succession). Paired with the absolute Mary Sue gender-equivalent of this character (in TMATL, even his own daughter-in-law wants to fuck him), it’s just nauseating. 

[cutiesaeran]

MCYooSeven thoughts!

Alright so I’m being forced to face the fact that the odds of me actually writing this - as much as i want to - are extremely low considering my lack of energy lately, my kids being sick, me getting sick, busy life, etc, so here are some mcyooseven thoughts I have floating around my noggin today. I’m thinking this will be a two-part post, this first part is mostly YoosungxMC buildup. The second part will focus on them bringing Seven into the fold.

This is pre-game, so Unknown hasn’t hacked and placed MC in the messenger yet. It takes place shortly after Rika disappears, and the “MC” is my OC Summer - a college student at SKY. Summer is there to get her teaching degree and aims to teach ESL someday. :)

They don’t have any of the same classes currently, but Yoosung has seen Summer around because she’s kind of hard to miss. She’s got an undercut that she keeps exposed on the left side, her candy cotton hair kept to her right side by a braid serving as her part. She’s usually seen in black skinny jeans and some sort of band t-shirt, sporting a leather jacket covered in patches and pins on the cooler days. She’s got a hoop in her nose and a star on her lip, her messy makeup somehow working with the ‘I just rolled out of bed’ vibe she has going. She’s also only 4’9”.

But since he keeps to himself mostly, she hasn’t really noticed him.

However. She is a huge video game fanatic and plays LOLOL in her free time - which isn’t much, because she works part-time in a cafe and actually focuses on her school work. Still, against all odds, she landed herself in the ShootingStar server and would be remiss if she didn’t know who SupermanYoosung is. While she’s not #2, she proudly holds her mantel as #10 because it’s hard to keep her life in check and that position, so anyone who has something to say can eat her entire ass.

Anyway. That’s that. Onward.

It’s a particularly bad day for Yoosung, but he’s at school. Well… for the last half of the day, at least. It’s rainy and gloomy and he’s stuck in his dark, moody thoughts as he’s rushing from one class to the next, not paying any attention to where he’s going until he slams into something. Staggering back, he’s horrified to find Summer on the ground, half-drank iced mocha covering her clothes and her umbrella crumpled beneath her. He barely manages to stutter through an apology before she stops him, holding up her hand and standing. She insists it isn’t a big deal - can’t bring herself to be angry at this blushing, obviously upset man - and makes a wry joke about needing a shower anyway. He ends up insisting she take his umbrella, saying she could return it some other day. When he says his name, she raises an eyebrow and says with a smirk, “Thanks, Star Prince,” before trudging onward. Yoosung’s left in shock; no one's ever called him that before.

Later that night, he’s telling everyone who will listen about the girl with the rainbow hair.

A few days later, Summer manages to track him down to return to umbrella. He’s spent this time amping himself up, trying to work up the courage to ask her out. (Of course a girl as cool as her would never like a guy as lame as him, but he can try). He’s sweating and nervous and his face is all the wrong colors as he tries to mumble an invitation, but again, she cuts him off - this time with a chuckle. He’s so cute, she can’t say no to an innocent boyo who’s trying so hard. She gives him a day (Saturday) and a time (3pm) to meet at a cafe she frequents (not her workplace), scribbling her phone number on a very shocked Yoosung’s hand before walking away with a “Later, Star Prince.”

A date. He’s got a date! He spends the night gushing about it, missing all of the subtle signs indicating Seven’s sadness.

The day comes, the date goes pretty well. Summer spends it teasing him kindly, enjoying how easy he is to fluster. But she’s taken by how undeniably sweet he is, and fascinated by the shine in those galaxy eyes when he’s excited. There’s something blocking the starlight within him, keeping him from lighting up the world. She’s sure it has something to do with that deep sadness she saw in him that first day.

He’s totally smitten, and they agree to another date. And another. And another. Soon, Yoosung can brag that he has a girlfriend and she’s happily keeping him under her arm, wanting to both protect him and help him grow. They’re opposites but in the best ways.

Their first kiss happens on the third date. They’re walking in the park at night after catching a movie. Yoosung stops to watch the stars and Summer’s taken by the look on his face; hopeful, longing, and so, so beautiful. When he notices her staring, he flushed a lovely red and she grins, grabbing his shirt and yanking him down to press their lips together. It’s everything he always dreamed of and nothing like he imagined; soft but insistent, sending fireworks shooting through him and when they part, he has the goofiest grin on his face.

For a while, he asks permission before kissing her and she just rolls her eyes, teasing him but always saying yes. She jokes, but it’s actually really nice to be treated like a human for once.

They take things decently slow, Summer content with making out without expectations and Yoosung happy with how things are. He’s scared to move too fast and ruin things, his inexperience a bane in his mind. She’s always there to coach him, to help when needed. But she’s the first to make a move sexually after a particularly intense make-out session that has them grinding. He stops the kiss and holds her in place, trying to hide under his hair because he’s embarrassed. It doesn’t take much for her to figure out he was close to orgasming, and so she goes into full-out tease mode:

“Do you want to come?”

A nod.

“Can you tell me what you want?”

He tries, but words are hard when both your face and crotch are on fire.

She’s experimented a bit with praise already and has found how susceptible he is, so she decides to try something.

“You’ve been such a good boy for me. You deserve a reward. Do you want me to reward you?”

Another nod.

She starts kissing his neck, fingers under his shirt. “Tell me if it’s too much, okay?”

It isn’t, and soon enough her Star Prince is coming apart in her mouth. Once he recovers, he insists on returning the favor and she ends up riding his fingers, gently coaching him through where to touch and how.

He’s a quick learner, she finds.

Six months into their relationship finds him at the door to her apartment. It’s maybe a week after he lavished her in the most ridiculous amount of gifts for dating for half a year, but of course, Summer soaked up the attention.

Today, though, something is wrong. She can tell the moment she opens the door, hair mussed from sleep and in a tight tank top and sweats. His shoulders are slumped more than usual, his eyes rimmed with red and lacking any life. She ushers him in, worried, and sits him on the couch, tucked in a blanket and with hot chocolate. She sucks at comfort, always has, but that doesn’t mean she won’t try.

It’s Rika’s birthday.

Yoosung’s mentioned her, of course, spoke about her as someone he admired, even mentioned her death. But he’s never dove fully into the subject, always too scared that showing that side of himself would send Summer running. But today he can’t, can’t hide it, can’t be alone. And so he spills. All of his worries, paranoias, anger. She lets him talk until the words are gone, then holds him when he cries. Hushes him when he apologizes. But it isn’t until he make an offhanded comment about how “he’s just being dramatic, that’s what his friends tell him” that she gets angry. Very quickly the entire atmosphere of the room changes and she’s facing him, cheeks cupped in her hands as she tells him that every single thought he has in valid. These feelings? Valid. The anger toward V? Valid. His suspicions that Rika isn’t really dead? Valid. Whether or not he’s right doesn’t change the validity of how he’s feeling, because he’s feeling it and he’s allowed to feel things. She’s ranting and raving and going on about how amazing of a man he is and that these “friends” aren’t really friends if they’re so unsupportive, not even noticing how his facial expression shifts from surprise to shock to utter adoration, so caught up in making him realize that it’s okay to feel like this sometimes. Grief is different for everyone, anyway, and who has the right to tell him he’s grieving wrong if what he’s doing isn’t hurting anyone? (Well, technically, the video game habit hurts himself but he’s been studying more, since he can use it as an excuse to hang out with her)

Which is why it’s a surprise when he kisses her in the middle of a sentence, hard, his arms wrapping around her to pull her into his lap. He’s filled with grief and sadness but also love and a feeling of acceptance - something he hasn’t felt in a long, long time. The combination is making everything else feel so much more intense and he can’t find the words to tell her how much he appreciates everything she’s done and said for him, so he chooses to let the kiss do the talking.

Passionate, longing, and mildly desperate, the kiss hits Summer like a brick. The longer it goes on, the more those hands roam and she finds herself wanting, but she refuses to take advantage of him. So she pulls back several times to make him pause, barely able to hold it together at the way he looks at her - equal parts desire and love - but asking him if he’s sure this is what he wants. And each time she’s met with a smile way too soft for how charged the air is between them, a gravelly voice somehow still managing to sound utterly lovestruck as he tells her he’s never wanted anything more than to show her how much he loves her.

And for the first time in her life, she makes love instead of just being fucked. It’s every bit as amazing - if not more - and she could just melt under him with how he treats her like a goddess.

Fast forward a few weeks. Yoosung hasn’t forgotten the remark she made about his friends and decides he wants her and Seven to meet. Yeah, he’s a bit of an ass sometimes but he cares about him, right? And besides his parents and sister, Seven is the most important person in his life. So he manages to talk Seven into letting both of them come over. Seven’s… surprisingly hard to convince, a plethora of excuses flung out about why he can’t (and shouldn’t) hang out with them together, each one tough to fight but Yoosung manages. It’s weird that Seven’s so adamantly against it, but Yoosung figures maybe he’s just a bit busier than normal. They won’t take much of his time.

Summer isn’t thrilled, either, still holding the lack of support against this “friend.” But. She’ll give him a chance.

To be continued. :)