#in service to the king

[sleepytypewriter]

“Let's promise to be friends!” Kaz blurted as the voices got closer. “We can keep helping each other.” Kaz looked earnestly at her, almost frightened of what she might say. A look of a boy that didn’t have any other friends. Inej nodded, “Okay.” “The deal is the deal?” Kaz grinned, sticking out his hand for her to shake. Inej took it and gave it a firm shake. “The deal is the deal,” she echoed.

read chapter 1 of you’ll love me at once(the way you did once) on ao3

[original version here]

[tariah23]

Oh…. Well, it’s over for Crunchyroll I guess

[hopeymchope]

[nelkcats]

Surprise check

When Deadman panicked and rushed to call him during an important meeting, Constantine thought it was a ghost thing, he doubted it was anything really important so he ignored it for a few minutes.

What he didn't expect was for Deadman to inform him that his boss was coming to visit in a few hours (because apparently ghosts had bosses). The poor guy was in a panic, apparently it was the first King in charge in centuries that cared and he was coming to "make sure everything was in order".

Constantine didn't know what to expect; a King who demanded that humanity bow at his feet and the ghosts rule? One who hated it when Deadman got involved with humans and sent him away? A tyrant? It was clear that no ruler had ever been good, according to his ghost friend, so he had low expectations.

He reported this to the League, who took a high alert posture. An hour later, Wonder Woman was reviewing with everyone how foreign royalty should be treated when they heard Captain Marvel laughing with someone in the break room. Deadman was also mysteriously missing.

Constantine peeked in but all he could see was a teenager conversing with the Captain and strangely, the ghost. He was about to tell the boy that he needed a permit to enter the Watchtower when Deadman spoke up.

"I didn't know you were so interested in games, King Phantom, or that you were so good on them"

Then, John noticed the ice crown on the boy's head and his strangely sharp teeth, along with his toxic green eyes.

"Flattering me won't help you in the review" the teenager quipped "remember we're still waiting for Dan to find out if everything here is...balanced."

Constantine realized: The King was a bloody teenager.

[baldchristianborle]

our lord and savior trisha paytas is killing the british royal family one by one

[suchawrathfullamb]

I love how unapologetic mads is about his crush on hugh like "yes he's so tiny, he's the dessert, handsome man, cute ears, I would keep him in a small fridge and cherish his body for a long time and smoke those ears" *stares at the dancy-ass so much bryan decides to change the plot and make the show gay*

[snurtle]

I've been thinking about the templars lately. they were promised honor, virtue, told that they would be charged with protection of the innocent... And then those same people are systemically exploited and abused, abuse others because they're taught to regard everyone else as either sheep who need to be lead or potential threats. Never equals, except in their brothers/sisters-in-arms. They act as the guard-dogs and military arm of an entirely different organization that they're only a functionary member of but have no governing say in. Even the chantry aren't their equals- they function as the templar order's supervisors! And all this isolation and closing of ranks ends in disability, addiction, death, and abandonment by the system they spent their bodies in service of.

To top that off, retaliations against them just confirm the paranoia they were taught to embrace. It's probably a long hard road to get out of that hole.

Like, listen. the dichotomy of mage vs templars is a satisfying and easy one, but the system is tearing them apart too. have you ever heard of a retired templar?

at the end of it, mages and templars need to unite against the real threat. the chantry.

[gunsatthaphan]

🫡🫡🫡

[judesidepiece]

Something that I love about Jude and Cardan is they actually raise hell for each other. In other books, characters will often make these grand declarations of love and say things like 'i would burn the world for you' or destroy everything for you or whatever, but with Jurdan, they don't rlly say stuff like that to each other, they just do it. Like Cardan signing off a peace treaty allowing the undersea to attack the land and risk war to get Jude back, going against his morals and killing Madoc's guards when they were taking her, or Jude letting Snardan poison the land as long as possible because she was searching for a way to bring him back.

[sleepytypewriter]

Kaz, dapper in his suit and hat, was looking up at her as if she was magic. She could tell that he was holding his breath as he watched. Something in her stomach dropped. She felt her footing become unsteady on the wire. She tried correcting it but the next thing she knew she was falling down, down, down. The crows circled around her high in the air. She no longer was their friend in the air. She heard Kaz call her name and a sharp pain shot through her arm.

read chapter 4 of you'll love me at once(the way you did once) on ao3

or read from the beginning

[hinamie]

i'm a week late to the party but i too have been personally victimized by Them

[fake-married-my-dead-fiance]

I started watching Kdramas this year and I do a lot of literature analysis in my normal life, so I found it really fun to find the tropes that were unique to this genre/culture that were different than what I find in Hollywood TV/movies and novels. I started with Alchemy of Souls and I was kind of amused looking back, because I never thought the SML had a chance with the FL but if I had known how strong the "they met as children and therefore DESTINY" trope is, I probably would have thought they would get together for sure!

Here are some of the unique tropes I've noticed:

-Leads meet as children and therefore DESTINY (What's Wrong with Secretary Kim, 100 Days My Prince, It's Okay to Not be Okay, Castaway Diva, The King's Affection, Sh**ting Stars, Destined with You, subverted in Alchemy of Souls)

-Reincarnation, which happens a ton but of course for the same reason Western media is littered with Chosen One/Saviour plots (played with in Alchemy of Souls and Extraordinary You, straight in Destined with You, Tale of the Nine Tailed, Moon in the Day, My Demon, The Story of Park's Marriage Contract... so many)

-Guy (usually) buys the girl shoes and then puts them on her. They also usually make a joke about her running away. (Tale of the Nine Tailed, 100 Days My Prince, Extraordinary You, Castaway Diva, King the Land, subverted in The King's Affection and The Forbidden Marriage)

-Guy (usually) gives/brings the girl an umbrella to protect her from the rain. I LOVE THIS TROPE, symbolism for protection and shelter gets me (straight in My Lovely Liar, King the Land, Tale of the Nine Tailed, Extraordinary Attorney Woo, subverted/played with in Alchemy of Souls, Business Proposal, Doom at Your Service, Castaway Diva)

-Not sure if this would count as a trope, but unique to the genre because we don't have formal speech in English and especially not in Canada where I live (we've basically started just going first name with everyone) I love it so much when the main characters use informal terms with each other for the first time. The subtitles don't always translate this well, but I know what the honorifics sound like and I'm all, "She didn't use "Mr." that time it's serious now!!!"

Anyway, are there more? I'm probably not catching them all!

Edit: Definitely some sort of trope around characters finding wild ginseng to solve a problem.

(I've only been watching Korean dramas by the way, I'm sure some of these tropes are shared by other dramas from China and Thailand. I just found the comparison with English language TV interesting.)

[tampire]

So true Also when the non canon ship becomes canon:

[nyarumitsu]

for some reason i've always been anxious about how capcom might approach aa7 if it even is in development because they can do just about anything to the game and no matter what it's gonna be true canon at the end of the day... not like i'm not used to ignoring canon anyways. but it's sort of terrifying one of my worst thoughts was what if they gave edgeworth a wife or female love interest in aa7 which is like TRULY HARROWING. it kind of haunts me until the official aa account decided to post this... during pride month.

LIKE WHAT IN THE WORLD! FUCK YOU MEAN NARUMITSU TOPS😭😭😭😭 THANK YOU! now i don't need to worry about narumitsu having weird forced love interests thank you, capcom. happy pride month!

[alliebirb]

FOXY GRANDPA AND THE MYSTERY LADY!!!!!!!!!!!

[cyanideoreo]

This dynamic was everything to me.