#i could see him being a kickass photographer in a world where he got to grow up normal -- taking after his parents and his Uncle Jimmy both

[four-color-words]

Chris having his daddy's little curlicue brings me no end of joy

I really don't like that they speed-aged him to push this weird romance thing that wasn't a thing for pretty much any other iteration of Nightwing and Flamebird, but I do like the idea of him growing up to look more like Clark. He should get to have that.

[snusbandxknifewife]

Photo Fic 2: Electric Boogaloo

Ok so this is the sequel to the first fic I ever posted on this account. (If you wanna read that one first, click on the photo fic tag at the bottom.) I think it’s cute as hell and I’m soft about it so 🥺 Jude and Cardan wanting to take pictures together makes me 🥺🥺🥺

~~~~~~~~~

In the year after Cardan and Jude took their very first photos in a photobooth, photography became a bit of a fascination in Faerie. Jude didn’t intend for it to happen, but what royalty does tends to become the fad in the kingdom.

It started when they’d bought a Polaroid and began to take pictures of one another, eventually amassing so many that they’d dedicated an entire hall to photos of them. It was both of their favorite place in the entire palace, where they both went to see the other smile and drown in happy memories.

Then a servant had left a door open and a visiting dignitary had seen inside. After that, word quickly spread around the kingdom of the King and Queen’s portrait hall: the place where they’d managed to capture pieces of real life. Jude and Cardan had sighed and agreed to throw the doors open, allowing people to tour the wonder.

(Of course they’d continued to take dumb photos and risqué ones too, but they were much better at hiding those. Jude was insistent that only the dramatic or kickass photos get sent to the hall.)

They’d graduated to a better camera and they’d started to send requests for Vivi to print them. As the photos got bigger and more detailed, the people of Elfhame grew more impressed. All over the kingdom, tinkerers and witches and everyone in between began trying to craft devices that would capture photos in ways the mortal devices couldn’t. It had become a fierce competition, one that amused both Jude and Cardan.

Now, on Cardan’s birthday, the entire kingdom was watching with bated breath. The Living Council had announced a competition to find the best camera creation and, in addition to all the gifts people were bringing for the king, the great hall was full of photographs. The king would be choosing the most realistic picture, and he’d also be awarding the most beautiful one.

Jude sat on her throne, her red empire waist dress floating down to her feet and glittering in the light. She’d worn it at Cardan’s insistence; since he’d announced that their subjects would undoubtedly be taking pictures of them and he wanted his wife to shine just as much as her.

Beside her, Cardan smiled and greeted the family of a soldier from the Court of Termites. Bomb took their gift and stacked it on a table to the side of the royal dais. The picture they brought with them is a gorgeous rendering of a hill overlooking a lake at sunset. It appears to be painted, the work of an extremely diligent artist who had undoubtedly spent days getting everything right.

The photos people came with weren’t all actual photographs, most were art pieces, but it made Jude smile. She couldn’t help but feel proud at the fact that she’d inspired her kingdom to try something they’d never really focused on before. At least she knew she wouldn’t have to keep going to the mortal world to get pictures with her husband. She’d be able to stay in Faerie, safe in what she was familiar with, and she’d still be able to capture important moments in her life.

Still, she’d had to go to the mortal world to get the gift she wanted for Cardan. She’d done that a few times in the past year—her husband’s favorite had been the pinup shoot she’d done about five months prior—and he had a habit of rotating the framed pictures of her he kept on his desk.

She knew she’d have to stop eventually, so she took all her chances while she still had them. She was glad that the timing of this one has worked out.

Time passed and she played the dutiful queen and adoring wife, dancing with Cardan and eating to her heart’s content, greeting her subjects and accepting gifts that didn’t come with any strings attached.

Cardan watched her over the top of his chalice, grinning at how effortlessly she swayed across the floor. With her head held high and her shoulders back, she commanded the whole room without a word. His wife was gorgeous, she was his everything.

Eventually their people became antsy, looking around at the pictures hanging all around the hall and wondering who would be announced the winner. Members of the Living Council were interviewing everyone who’d put in an entry to find out how they made their picture as Cardan led Jude to look at each piece. They’d make the decision on the most beautiful picture alone, and they’d take the Living Council’s input on the best camera entry.

Jude’s favorite was definitely the picture someone had turned in of a revel from a few weeks back. It had been outside, everyone barefoot and dancing until the sun had long come up. The picture showed a dance floor lined with faeries in all manner of dress, watching on as she and Cardan danced. Her dress that night had been a spring green piece with a dangerously low back and skirts that danced around her ankles. Her husband, shown smiling as he swung her around, had a ruffled shirt open low on his pale stomach and breeches of forest green.

Cardan’s favorite was a picture put in by a guard, one that showed his wife dressed in fighting gear as she practiced out in the gardens; her hair sticking to her skin and her face fierce as she lunged towards her sparring partner. He always adored little reminders of how deadly his wife was, loved to see glimpses of the creature that he’d managed to tame, the one who’d tamed him in turn.

They retreated to their thrones to deliberate as Cardan opened gifts. The whole hall went silent, watching the king’s reaction to each parcel. While gifts had to be freely given, everyone knew that those who gave the best gifts would be looked upon favorably.

Jude watched the room for threats as her heart began to race. She knew that the last gift Cardan would open would be the one from her. She’d made sure that Bomb arranged everything that way.

She’d worked her ass off to keep her gift a secret from him. Cardan had been a pain in the neck for WEEKS, trying to catch her in a slip up. She had to engineer a diplomatic mission for him to go on just so she could sneak away to the mortal world and she’d threatened a few lives to keep it from him. Thankfully, it would all be over in a few hours.

Cardan opened all manner of magical gifts: cloaks meant to make the wearer invisible, doublets of impenetrable spider silk, jewelry that helped you understand and speak other languages. Everything he was given was gorgeous and unbelievably expensive.

Everything except for one thing.

Cardan was just about to grab the parchment from Randalin that announced the best camera so they could make their announcements when Jude stopped him.

“Cardan, you’ve got one more gift,” she gently announced and his brows furrowed. One, Jude was hardly ever gentle and two, he had opened everything he’d been given.

Bomb walked up and handed Jude a box, one made of lush purple velvet and wrapped up in a bow of the cleanest white satin.

“What on Earth?” Cardan tilted his head to the side as he accepted the gift, his long fingers wrapping all the way around it as he tried to weigh it to guess what was inside.

“Consider it my entry into the photo contest,” she grinned, only confusing him more.

He pulled the bow off and the entire crowd watched closely. Some were intrigued, others were angry—nobody had been told the queen would be submitting a photo—and others were just being quiet to avoid the ire of the royal family.

When Cardan took the top off the box, he found a picture frame upside down and he snorted. It was just like Jude to prolong the drama.

Jude grabbed fistfuls of her fluffy tulle skirt and bit the inside of her cheek hard enough to make it bleed. She knew that she’d have to explain what it was and that was making her nervous enough to shake.

She’d debated for hours if she should give him his birthday gift in private or if she should do it at his party. Eventually, at the insistence of Vivi and Heather, she’d taken the plunge and decided on a public announcement. She knew everyone would find out eventually.

“It’s.....a photo?”

Jude snorted at Cardan’s evident confusion as he looked at the black and white fuzzy picture, no larger than his hand. She’d put it in a pretty white frame, one that she would eventually write a name on.

“You’re right, my love,” she agreed. “It’s a photo from the mortal world. You see, mortals have figured out how to take pictures for medical purposes. They can use special devices to see inside the body.”

He looked to her, delicately clutching the frame in one hand. She fought the urge to laugh at how he still hadn’t put two and two together. Out in the crowd, faeries were tittering amongst themselves, trying to figure out what their queen has given their king.

“Is this a photograph of you?” He turned back to the picture, gripping it in both hands again and turning it like a different angle would make it make more sense.

“Sort of,” she shook her hand in a so-so gesture. “I’d say I’m the background of the photo. You should be focusing here.”

She walked over and pointed, her nail with its unchipped purple paint tapping against the glass over a strangely shaped white blob. Cardan naturally leaned closer to her, as he always did when she got near, one of his arms wrapping around her waist and pulling her close as he tilted his head and squinted his eyes.

Silence stretched out for a few more seconds before Jude, near giddy with mirth, stepped away from her husband.

“Maybe it’ll help if you know where the photo was taken,” she offers as she grabs the frame from his hands. Cardan, his mind still swimming with possibilities, allowed her.

Then, as his wife turned the photo to face him and drew it back so the frame was flush against her lower abdomen, his jaw dropped.

If she was the background, and the photo was taken inside the body—

“Jude, gods above, how long have you known?” Cardan’s eyes welled up with tears and he fell to his knees, his hands coming up to cup his wife’s hips and his thumbs running over where the frame covered her stomach.

Just that quickly, her throat closed up from emotion and all she could do was nod. Cardan grabbed the frame from her and tucked it against his heart as he pressed his face into her skirts, trying to kiss her stomach and hide his crying all at the same time.

Some faeries had put the clues together and were watching with gaping mouths, unsure of what to do as their king hugged their queen.

Then, Jude pulled Cardan to his feet and she turned to the crowd. “The gift I present to my king and husband is the first photograph of our child, which grows inside me as we speak.”

And, just like that, the entire hall erupted with celebration. Most of their subjects had grown to love their new king and queen and, even if that weren’t the case, a pregnancy was always cause for celebration among the fertility-challenged fae. A royal baby, especially so early on in both the king and queen’s rule and their marriage, was unheard of.

Randalin—who looked a bit annoyed at not being informed of the royal pregnancy before the court was—led the partygoers in a toast, one that Cardan happily joined in. Beside the beaming king, Jude raised her glass of water in solidarity; no wine for her for a few more months.

“How long?” Cardan asked her, near giddy with excitement.

“The doctor said twelve weeks,” she whispered back, wrapping her arm around her husband’s hips as they raised their glasses again. “I’ve suspected for a month or so. I should’ve known sooner, but my first missed period was during that last uprising attempt, so I was a bit distracted.”

Cardan held out the photo and Jude pointed out the body parts that were already forming. When she told him that she’d be going back, that he’d be able to come with her and hear their baby’s heartbeat while it was still inside her, he nearly began to bawl again.

“When do we announce the winners?” Jude asked, thinking back to that gorgeous picture of them dancing.

“I can’t think of anything more beautiful than this.” He held up the photo of their baby and Jude blushed, elbowing his side and telling him to be serious.

Cardan told her that he was being serious and she bit her lip, looking down at the photo she’d already stared at so much.

The party would grow into a week-long celebration of the new heir; a practice run for the celebrations that would rock Elfhame when the child was born. Eventually, both the faeries who made the two pictures Jude and Cardan had enjoyed the most were made aware that their works were hanging in the royal picture hall and another faerie who’d made the best camera was given a job by the Living Council and they became the first official royal photographer.

Elfhame would grow to love photography, all because of a mortal queen who wanted a picture with her husband.

~~~~~~~~~~

Hnnnnng pregnancy announcements are so cute lol

Tag list: @cardan-greenbriar-tcp @hizqueen4life @slightlyrebelliouswriter23 @thewickedkings @aelin-queen-of-terrasen @cheekycheekycheeks @queen-of-glass @b00kworm @doingmyrainbow @andromeddea @jurdanhell @thesirenwashere @sweetlyvillainous @clouds-and-peonies @clockworkgraystairs

[recentanimenews]

Bookshelf Briefs 3/26/19

Anonymous Noise, Vol. 13 | By Ryoko Fukuyama | Viz Media – I’m not quite sure if the artist is going for “being happy in love damages your creativity” or “being with the wrong guy damages your creativity,” but either way I’m not wild about the fact that Nino is having trouble singing again after her confession to Momo. Yuzu’s forceful kiss is not really helping there, either. That said, it certainly helps keep up the potboiler aspect of this. I was more interested in Kurose and An, as even if she’s clearly a “last-minute pairing” addition, I like her style, and honestly Kurose is better off with her, though we aren’t there yet. Add to that the fact that the volume runs short so we can have another of the author’s early short stories, and it’s only an okay volume. – Sean Gaffney

As Miss Beelzebub Likes, Vol. 5 | By Matoba | Yen Press – We get a lot more of Sacchan in this volume, and that helps explain why the anime expanded her role as well. Clearly she’s more popular as a blushing mess than she is as a violent stoic, and so that’s what we see here, as she clearly likes Astaroth but his playboy tendencies and her self-image issues torpedo any chances. As for Mullin and Beel, anime-watchers will no doubt recognize the cherry blossom chapters, but they’re sweet, and also help to give a bit of backstory to Pandemonium, which is getting to be less “Hell” and more “we’re moving to the next town over” in terms of wars with God. Still as light as a feather, but cute and sweet. – Sean Gaffney

Candy Color Paradox, Vol. 1 | By Isaku Natsume | SuBLime – Onoe is a journalist working for a weekly magazine and he’s less than enthused when he’s assigned to partner with Motoharu Kaburagi, a photographer whom he considers his rival. Worse, it appears that Kaburagi has never even noticed him. When they go out on assignments together, Onoe keeps screwing up and eventually becomes downright incompetent at his job after he realizes he’s attracted to Kaburagi. Kaburagi notices, of course, and somehow finds Onoe’s tsundere-tastic protestations to the contrary endearing, so ends up falling in love with him. The parts of this volume I liked best were the few pages where they’re working together successfully and getting scoops, but now that they’re officially a couple, I’m pretty sure journalism is not going to be the focus. I’ll give it one more volume at least to see how it goes. – Michelle Smith

Log Horizon: The West Wind Brigade, Vol. 11 | By Koyuki and Mamare Touno | Yen Press – “The operation was a success but the patient died” would be a good summary of the final volume of West Wind Brigade, as Kuroe is able to revive and save everyone, but the cost is very high. It’s a surprisingly serious ending to what has been a relatively light-hearted spinoff, so it makes sense that the actual ending is a festival with everyone trying to get Soujirou to take them around. This whole thing taking place in the first five or so volumes of Log Horizon, there’s not really a lot of plot-advancement it can do, though we see Shiro at the end, despairing about Soujirou’s harem and also talking about the nature of the world they’re in. This was fun. – Sean Gaffney

Love in Focus, Vol. 1 | By Yoko Nogiri | Kodansha Comics – I did very much enjoy this volume, for those worried about a “Vol. 1” appearing in Bookshelf Briefs; it’s just I don’t have much to say about it. It’s cute. It reminds me a lot of Shortcake Cake, though the dorm situation is most likely why. Mako is attending a high school far from her home due to its photography club, and bonds with a sullen dark-haired boy with a secret past and her childhood blond-haired friend who “sees her as a sister,” except that’s totally not true. A love triangle is in the works, though as with most of these series the final result is pretty obvious from the get go. It’s only three volumes, though, so I’m happy to read more of it. – Sean Gaffney

Love Massage: Melting Beauty Treatment, Vol. 1 | By Toki Sunazuka | Kodansha Comics (digital only) – Honestly, I don’t know what compelled me to read this. It’s exactly what you would expect, going by the cover. Shiho Sannomiya is a lonely office worker who is surprised when handsome Haruki Toudou shows up when she schedules an in-home massage. She immediately begins sexually fantasizing about him, which makes it awkward when he’s transferred to her workplace. Dreams become reality when they immediately start making out. Various interruptions prevent them from doing the deed, including a note from another female client that leads Shiho to feel foolish for feeling special. But not to fear, for Haruki has immediately fallen in love with her! Everything happens swiftly and with zero depth whatsoever. I shan’t be reading volume two. – Michelle Smith

Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, Vol. 34 | By Shinobu Ohtaka | Viz Media – I avoided reading this for a while as I knew what was coming. Yes, Sinbad has a plan, and that plan involves mind-controlling everyone into being totally fine with being killed and “reborn” in a better world. This unfortunately includes Morgiana, though at least she seems to be fighting it off. It does not include Judar and Harukyu, however, who were too evil to be affected, apparently. And so now they have to go battle Sinbad, which means conquering all the dungeons that he conquered when he was younger. This is pretty much the last arc of this title, so it makes sense that we’re back to dungeon crawling after so long. I do wish Morgiana could be part of it, though. – Sean Gaffney

Skip Beat!, Vol. 42 | By Yoshiki Nakamura | Viz Media – After the last couple of volumes showed Kyoko’s growth as an actress, it makes sense that here we see she has a ways to go. In particular, her concentration is very touch-and-go, and almost loses her the role when she gets distracted. Thank goodness for Moko, then, who saves her butt, though she has to endure a little bit of devotion afterwards. It’s a kickass moment for her, but the cliffhanger worries me—I suspect we will not be seeing the Kyoko/Momo show we’ve all been waiting for. Still, there’s some fantastic acting here from Kyoko, as well as seeing how far an actress will go to win a role. Skip Beat! doesn’t come out as often anymore, but I’m always waiting for it. – Sean Gaffney

Sword Art Online: Girls’ Ops, Vol. 5 | By Neko Nekobyou and Reki Kawahara | Yen Press – This was popular enough to get a second arc, so we get a new character, a complete newbie whose friends seem to enjoy fucking with her because she’s pretty gullible. Fortunately, she runs into our heroines, who help to set things straight. They also run into an old face from SAO… or rather from SAO Progressive, who hasn’t met the main cast here but is very familiar with Kirito and Asuna. And they’re going to need all the help they can get, as they’ve got to take on a new quest that has another group wanting it far more… enough to pay big money for it… or just beat them up for it. This isn’t as sweet and fluffy as it was before, but it’s lots of fun. – Sean Gaffney

Total Eclipse of the Eternal Heart | By Syundei | Seven Seas – Go For It, Nakamura! was one of my favorite manga released last year, so I was very excited when another of Syundei’s works was licensed. Be warned, though—the two volumes are vastly different in tone. While there are a few adorable and heartwarming moments to be found in Total Eclipse of the Eternal Heart, it is still very much a horror manga. If anything, the incongruity of its charming elements actually contributes to the underlying unease and disquieting mood of a story about serial killings, reincarnation, revenge, and corrupted love. It’s a blood-soaked and disturbing tale, and deliberately so. Admittedly, the dramatic climax does bring the volume to a rather abrupt and somewhat unexpected close, but overall Total Eclipse of the Eternal Heart is horror that is both effective and affective. I very much appreciate the creator’s versatility and sincerely hope to see more of Syundei’s manga translated. – Ash Brown

By: Ash Brown