The Winged Servant - 8
Content warnings: life threatening situations, sword fighting (written by someone who knows nothing about it), minor character death (not super graphic but does have some description), royal whump, whumpee is sooo desperate for validation, let me know if I forgot anything!
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Get it together.
Stay on your feet, and stay behind me.
Get through tonight.
Stay on your feet.
Get through tonight.
I was not a soldier. The princes weren’t either, but they’d spent their recent years becoming agile in a way that I’d spent the recent years getting trained out of. I wasn’t supposed to flinch away from things, wasn’t supposed to react to things. My job was doing what I was told, and thinking it through later.
“If someone aims a weapon at you,” Prince Ryan was saying, “then you do your best not to let that weapon touch you. Should be simple enough. Can you do that?”
I nodded slowly. “Um- Your Highness. I can- yes, but, uh, you have trained me not to react to weapons.”
He frowned. “I am giving you a direct order to ignore that training for the given moment.”
“Yes, Your Highness. Just-” Just, it wasn’t exactly my first instinct to get away anymore. “I just don’t think I will be very good at it. My apologies, Your Highness, I don’t mean-”
“For fuck’s sake, Onyx,” the prince snapped, and I shut my mouth. “Yeah, I know about your training. Just follow me and try not to get hurt. Can't you manage that?”
I nodded again. “Yes, Your Highness.”
“Good.” We'd split up from everyone else, wandering up two staircases and through a dark hallway. Prince Ryan seemed to know where we were. “What we're doing here tonight is overthrowing an idiot who thinks he has more right to the crown than us. It shouldn't take long, because again, he's an idiot. The country is weak, now, under his rule. But he's going to try to kill us anyway, and all you've gotta do is avoid the people trying to kill us.”
“... Yes, Your Highness.” The country shouldn't be under someone else's rule. It should be under the Queen's rule. That's what it had been under, forever, since as long as I could remember, right? Sixteen generations back. Her Majesty, of course, and her father before her. And his mother, and her uncle.
Prince Ryan stopped abruptly, and I didn’t notice quite fast enough to keep myself from running into his back. He spared a glance at me, rolling his eyes before poking his head around the corner. “God, Onyx, stop thinking so much. We have more important things to be doing.”
“Yes, Your-”
The sound of footsteps echoed in the hallway ahead of us, and we both fell silent. “Stay here,” the prince breathed, “until I explicitly tell you to move. Don’t talk, don’t move, don’t breathe too loudly. Do you understand?”
I nodded, too frozen to think of a proper response, and he turned around just in time to see two guards turn the corner.
The prince had the obvious advantage—the guards hadn’t expected anyone to be here. He didn’t waste any time, shoving his sword through the throat of one guard and knocking the other flat on his back.
The guard coughed and started to raise his shield, but hesitated for a moment. “Ryan?”
Prince Ryan blinked, but quickly recovered his composure. “If I stab you, you will not die quickly. Stabbing doesn’t have a high mortality rate, but the blood loss will get you eventually. Unfortunately, the time in between the stab and the death won’t exactly be fun for you. Stay quiet, and maybe we won’t have to do that.”
“But- but I-”
The prince slit the throat of the guard.
As was… his right. Of course. As a member of the royal family, his right was to do whatever the fuck he wanted, just- this was the third person tonight that I had watched die. And that was fine because I could be a good servant, I could, I could let this happen.
Get through tonight, Prince Ryan had told me. We’ve gotta get through tonight.
I could do that, couldn’t I? I was a good servant, he’d told me that so many times, I could be a good servant and shut up and stop thinking and do what I was told.
“May I assist you with anything, Your Highness?” I didn't say please, because I wasn't supposed to beg, wasn't supposed to want anything enough to beg for it, but I would've liked- I would have been happy to help. Good servants didn't have likes, but I would’ve been happy to help. Happy to serve the royal family. Happy to be given a task so that I could focus on that instead of the bodies on the floor.
Prince Ryan pulled at the edge of the guard’s shirt, using the fabric to clean the blood off of his sword. He ignored the blood pooling on the floor, soaking into his pants. I let my mind wander for a moment, considering whether or not I’d be able to get rid of the stain.
Probably not. There was- god, there was so much blood. The prince’s hands shook slightly as his sword was resheathed. Barely a few hours ago, those hands stroked my hair while Prince Ryan told me what a good boy I was.
Good servants didn’t have likes and didn’t have wants, but selfishly, I hoped that he would give me an order, a use.
“Just… hold on for a minute,” he said eventually. “Let me think. Lucas shouldn’t- um, the guards shouldn’t have been here. Cardan’s neutralizing the guards. Or… he’s supposed to be.” He let out a long sigh. “Except he probably isn’t, because it would kill him to listen to anything I say. Okay. Okay. I can still fix this.”
He rose to his feet. “Alright. Same plan, I’ll just have to take care of the guards myself. Fine. Fine. You know what? Keiran’s the type to let his castle get understaffed on a Monday night. I bet we won’t even run into any more guards on the way. This will be fine.”
I winced as more footsteps sounded in the hall.
Prince Ryan’s sword flew toward the noise, coming to a stop at the throat of Prince Cardan.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Prince Ryan said, not moving the sword away.
“Oh, like I’d let you have all the glory of killing Kieran. Come on, let me through.”
“I’m taking him captive. I’m not killing him, and neither are you.”
“Mom said you could if you had to. I’ll make something up. Besides, we’ll kill him by the end of the week anyway.”
Prince Ryan was starting to look bored. “You are supposed to be neutralizing the guards. Please do that.”
“It’s actually a very boring job, just waiting for guards to show up. And honestly, it’s easy enough that Onyx could do it.” Prince Cardan leaned slowly away from his brother’s sword as he talked, but it followed closely, pressing further into his neck at the mention of my name.
“Are you sure that this is the hill you want to die on?”
Prince Cardan smiled confidently, even as a bead of his blood ran down his neck. “You make it sound like you’ll be killing me yourself.”
“Don’t tempt me. Can I interest you in doing your job for once instead, so that I can go back to doing mine?”
“You’re no fun.” Prince Cardan pulled his own sword out, knocking away his brother’s. “I’m the better fighter anyway.”
“What, because you can hit harder? That doesn’t make you better.”
“It does in a situation where all I have to do is hit hard.”
He swung at Prince Ryan, who dodged effortlessly. “We both know who’s going to win this, Cardan. You’re rash, impulsive, and careless. On top of all that, you’re predictable. You’re much more interested in hurting others than you are protecting yourself, which means that each time you try to attack-” He sidestepped a thrust and whacked Prince Cardan’s torso with the flat side of his sword. “You leave yourself completely open. That slip-up could have meant your death. I don’t have time for play-fighting.”
“Yeah. Me neither.” Prince Cardan waited until his brother had turned around to lunge toward him, letting his sword dig a gash into Prince Ryan’s arm.
“What the fuck, Cardan? All I ever ask from you is listen to what you’re told, and you stab me for it?” Prince Ryan’s voice raised, and I flinched as the other prince matched his volume.
“Yeah, well, I won! So let me go kill Kieran.”
“You won? Really? You are so fucking petty. We weren’t fighting for who gets to kill Kieran! I was proving a point. And even if we were fighting, I won! You played dirty because you’re a sore loser!”
“I wouldn’t have done that if you’d just let me kill Kieran! We’re going to kill him anyway. I don’t understand why you’re being such a whiny bitch about doing it at exactly the right time and by the right person’s hand!”
“Oh, this is my fault now? If you’d just neutralized guards like you were supposed to- like you agreed to, then the plan would be going along just fine. If you’d neutralized the guards like you were supposed to, they wouldn’t have had to die!”
There were more footsteps. Not loud, not close, but loud enough. Close enough. And both of the princes had dropped their swords in favor of arguing with each other.
“Your, um, Your Highnesses-”
“Stay out of this, you stupid bird,” Prince Cardan growled at me, and I nodded quickly.
“My apologies, Your Highness.” I pressed my back up against the wall as the footsteps got louder.
~
taglist (let me know if you'd like to be added/removed): @kaleidoscope-of-thoughts @toyybox @rainydaywhump @risk606
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╰┈➤ SHUFFLE AU
DESTINATION POINT (DP)
the Leo/need adjacent unit, composed of Ichika Hoshino, Airi Momoi, Ena Shinonome, and Minori Hanasato.
☆ a girl who's lost her friendships, and three others searching for their worth.
about the group's name:
♡ originally, i had "from here to there" in mind, but someone from the Discord gave me the name "destination point" and i thought it was much better, so i went with that. ♪
about the SEKAI:
♡ the Train SEKAI. no one knows when it left, or where it's going - just that it never stops. it's the perfect place for those who feel like they're lagging behind. just close your eyes and let yourself be carried away, right? but maybe there's something you can do…
starts with a Miku and a Rin. the former's hardworking and talented, but the latter struggles - Rin is somewhat influenced by Ena's (and, to a lesser extent, Airi's) jealousy towards others.
•
Ichika hasn't managed to rekindle her friendship with her friends, and she's not doing particularly well. At one point, she meets Airi - who just quit being an idol. The two start talking and become friends, at which point they end up forming a band together. Airi wants to try finding a place where she could finally be taken seriously.
Ena's invited by Airi, and Minori - who had failed auditions recently - ends up inspired by Ichika's kindness, Airi's drive and Ena's determination, which is how she joins. (Haruka completely gave up on being an idol; something Minori is saddened by.)
In my mind, Ichika plays the guitar; Airi, the drums; Minori, the keyboard and Ena, the bass.
-
IDEAL HEAVEN! (IH)
the MORE MORE JUMP! adjacent unit, composed of Mafuyu Asahina, Emu Otori, Mizuki Akiyama and Shizuku Hinomori.
☆ an up-and-coming idol group that combines cuteness and sophistication.
about the SEKAI:
♡ quite similar to the Empty SEKAI, but with some idol influences - a broken stage with no one in sight. there's no bright lights, no colorful props. nothing. that SEKAI both comforts and pains Mafuyu.
home to a lone Miku. sweet, hopeful, but genuinely crushed by the pressure she's feeling.
•
Mafuyu's mother wants a perfect child. idols are very frequently represented as being perfect - so, she decides that her daughter should become one, too. Mafuyu's not keen on the idea, but that's her mother; she's obedient, so she goes along with it.
Shizuku still quit Cheerful * Days, but instead of stopping altogether she ends up with Mafuyu. Emu wants to make people smile, but no one ever came; Wonderlands × Showtime was never a thing. so she decides to become an idol instead, even if it means she'll never bring back the Wonder Stage to its former state.
Mizuki's half-dragged into IDEAL HEAVEN! by Emu, who saw them looking with interest at idol merch. after bringing them to meet Mafuyu and Shizuku, Mizuki ends up accepting - the idea of wearing cute clothes and being called cute doesn't seem too terrible.
-
READY MADE SUCCESS (RMS)
the Vivid BAD SQUAD adjacent unit, composed of Haruka Kiritani, An Shiraishi, Shiho Hinomori and Akito Shinonome.
☆ two street musicians chasing after their dream, and the two girls they brought with them.
about the SEKAI:
♡ the Street SEKAI. weirdly, it seems Haruka's idol background has somewhat influenced its appearance.
its inhabitants are Miku, Meiko and Len. this Miku is levelheaded, but it seems like there's something holding her back from going all-in...
•
after quitting being an idol, Haruka is invited by An to join her.
An's never met Kohane, and she never found a partner. Haruka is hesitant for a moment before deciding to give it a shot, though she keeps struggling with singing.
Shiho tries getting more experience, meets Akito. no one really knows how these two ended together, but they both have a similar drive and take music very seriously.
eventually, they all start working together. Haruka deals with her guilt and, while she doubts she'll become an idol again, she's mostly made peace with what happened.
-
STARLIGHT ☆ EVERMORE (S ☆ E)
the Wonderlands × Showtime adjacent unit, composed of Tsukasa Tenma, Saki Tenma, Kanade Yoisaki and Toya Aoyagi.
☆ a strange troupe of people who aim to help others through their performances.
about the SEKAI:
♡ still very much Tsukasa's, so it's the Wonderland SEKAI. [kanade goes there for the first time and dies. alas, they're still a shut-in and this place is simply too colorful for her poor eyes.]
starts with a Miku and a Kaito, though this version of the former uses far less onomatopoeias.
Tsukasa figures he needs to show the world how much of a star he is himself, and he drags his siblings into it (with varying degrees of willingness).
a part of Saki still wishes she could be in a band with her friends; she's only somewhat managed to repair her friendship with Ichika. but she's still happy to do something fun and lighthearted after all her struggles.
Toya's very excited to do something with Tsukasa and his siblings. he also gets to stick it to his dad, which, honestly - is a bonus.
out of the three, Kanade is obviously the most hesitant about the whole thing. but she sees Tsukasa's drive to make others happy, something she shares with him, so she ends up agreeing.
Kanade is… slightly healthier physically on account of the stubborn people looking after her, as well as all the exercise she does she does as part of Starlight ☆ Evermore. mentally? eh… we'll get there. i need her traumatized to be interesting. <3
-
LONELY SYNDROME (LS)
the 25-ji, Nightcord de. adjacent unit, composed of Nene Kusanagi, Rui Kamishiro, Honami Mochizuki and Kohane Azusawa.
☆ hidden behind avatars, these citizens of the web tell stories online.
about the SEKAI:
♡ the arcade SEKAI.
this Miku is shy and withdrawn, though she one day hopes she'll be able to break out of her shell, just like Nene.
alongside her is Luka - she has a bit of a teasing attitude and a catlike personality, but she always does her best to boost Nene's confidence.
about the group's name:
♡ syndrome refers to a group of symptoms - i paired it with the word lonely because i felt like it represented the atmosphere of an arcade.
you're connected with people who share your interests, but at the same time, you're sort of separate from them. surrounded by people, but utterly alone…
•
Nene's social anxiety hasn't gotten better over the years. since she never joins Wonderlands × Showtime, she doesn't learn how to fight her stage fright.
but, she finds an alternate solution; using an avatar online. it's less stress-inducing, and it lets her pursue acting, in a way - it's not what Nene wants, but it's close enough. she figures she could be satisfied with that.
Rui ends up figuring out what she's doing, and asks if he can help. Nene doesn't really have any reason to say no, so they start working together.
as for Honami and Kohane, they ended up on Nene's channel by pure accident. but her performances quickly became a comfort to them, since they were struggling at the time (the former because she no longer had her friends, the latter because of her lack of confidence).
unfortunately, ignoring your problems only goes so far, and eventually, her feelings give birth to the arcade SEKAI.
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☕
The live action Scooby-Doo movies?
I did not see this ask until RIGHT now (first time on desktop since crab day, second time since Nov 5 2020 [which was DOUBLY experience since I got my phone taken the same day]) so I'm going to assume this ask got eaten on mobile because tumblr, HOWEVER you poked a bear with this ask anon (as I'm sure you knew when asking) SO without further ado: my Scooby Doo live action opinions
So when you say 'live action Scooby-Doo movies' I'm assuming you're talking about the James Gunn films, starting with Scooby-Doo (2002) followed by Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, just due to like, generally popularity and also the fact that I have actually seen those films. However shoot another ask if you wanted me to include Curse of the Lake Monster in this (because I will if anyone cares and turn this into a live-action scooby dissertation, i'd just need to like. watch the movie first) But anyways where I'm going with this is that this post is about the Gunn movies aka the ones with SMG, Freddie Prinze Jr., Linda Cardellini, and ofc our #1 man, Matthew Lilliard.
Okay so my take on these movies is... complicated. I wouldn't say it's as complicated as my feelings towards SDMI, because I watched the live actions way less as a kid and generally care less about them, but still no matter how much shit I throw at these two movies there are parts that I generally like (even love) that stops me from totally condemning them wholesale. Like the fact that these movies are FUNNY! There's so many moments from this duology that are just beyond iconic "like, that's one of my favorite names!" the whole thing with Scooby in the dress at the airport, ET. CETERA (like I can go on!)
The Gunn movies are genuinely SO fun and I can 100% see and understand how they've stood so well in the public view as a representation of Scooby. HOWEVER, this is where you start to see my problems with them. For the general American, (because that is the audience I'm familiar with) ESPECIALLY millennials and younger, who happen to make up the majority of both people on this site AND people I talk about Scooby with in real life, these movies, and the elements they introduced as "quintessential scooby tropes" are the base of their understanding of the Scooby franchise, along with likely some miscellaneous WAY episodes and maybe SDMI.
Which is where I get pissed off. In the pushing of the narrative of "breaking away" from the Scooby norm, Gunn basically invents (aka totally makes up) an idea of what classic era Scooby was like, cementing an idea of classic Scooby into the public mind that is totally disingenuous and just straight up false. For example, in attempting to portray Daphne as having taken strides to be seen more seriously in solving mysteries and defending herself, it pushes the narrative that in the classic era she WASN'T taken seriously, and only existed as a damsel-in-distress prop of a character, which is just not true??? Like yes, Daphne is clumsy, that's a part of her character, and her friends (because, fun fact, the gang ARE friends) joke about it sometimes because that's what friends DO. Framing that in some kind of sexist "that's all she does" lens is just total bull, especially as gang members fall into secret passageways/get lost etc. in WAY ALL THE DAMN TIME because that's how the plot functions! Like are we calling Velma ditzy for losing her glasses every other episode? Of course not, and Fred falls into passageways all the time, not to MENTION Shaggy and Scooby and all they get up to. Also one last thing on the topic of Daphne, like this idea of her mystery solving skills not being respected by the gang is just so supremely bullshit it amazes me sometimes, especially when she was the LEADER (or leader adjacent) through pretty much all of her appearances in the 1980s [Not that James Gunn could look at '80s era Scooby without spitting on it, but I digress]
AND THIS IS JUST DAPHNE! Like the perceptions pushed towards Fred (and Velma, but mostly Fred) through these movies are just as bad! Like okay, with Fred---In these movies Fred is just an asshole. I hate Gunn Movies!Fred. I mean yeah he can be funny but it's almost always so mean! Almost nothing makes me madder than a mean Fred by the way. If he's putting other gang members down (even halfway, like with his whole "dorky chicks like you turn me on too" line, which... ew) then to me something has gone very, very, VERY, wrong in your basic understanding of Frederick Herman Jones as a character. Like he's the cheerleader! He puts himself in between his friends and danger! He loves nets, and traps, and Elvis impressions, and wrestling, and the trapeze, and cars, and most of all he LOVES sharing the things he loves with his friends! (Sometimes to a bit of an extreme. No one wants to hear about your net facts, Fred) And the live action movies just don't understand that at all. And I know there's maybe something to say I suppose in that some of those aspects of his characterization hadn't been "established yet" by the time "Scooby-Doo" came out in 2002. But it's there if you look. For Fred Jones, being the leader means being the caretaker, (he's the Mom friend what can I say) and any version where he's cruel and arrogant and just DOESN'T CARE about his friends in the way he's shown to in the Gunn movies is just so far from Fred to me it's not even funny. And what makes it even worse for me is that this (or at least something similar) is the idea of Fred that has really spread to the popular culture. Just the "leader", the jock that makes the rules, the one that [insert X adaptation here] finally gave a personality and made interesting (something that has been said more times than I can count for pretty much every gang member, save Shaggy and Scooby).
And I haven't even touched on Velma, and how they gave her a bit of a early 2000s smart superiority girl complex against Daphne, plus the whole makeover thing and etc. etc. The Gunn Movies are pretty much what would happen if you took someone who hadn't seen Scooby since they were 7 years old (and honestly had a pretty negative outlook against it then) and tried to "fix" it, only his memory was so bad he just made up problems (and threw in a good helping of early 2000s style sexism with it) convincing pretty much the entirety of the popular culture that said problems exist and that Gunn was absolutely brilliant for fixing them (and then bringing up said "problems" whenever anyone wants to talk about Scooby) and this entire rant has been without even fucking MENTIONING what is probably the reason you, anonymous tumblr user sent this ask in the first place, to I, Swishy "Scrappy Doo Redemption Arc" Broke-on-books (dot tumblr dot com), which is his HIGHLY SUCESSFUL and utterly sadistic character assassination of my number one man, Scrappy Doo.
And I am going to try my damnedest here not to get totally into my highly passionate opinions over what James Gunn did to Scrappy in the first of his Scooby movies and how thoroughly it has pissed me the fuck off because I have been writing this post for over an hour now and if we start to really get into my feelings on this topic it will certainly be a couple of hours more but like. That Fucking Bitch. I give James Gunn personally a solid eighty-five percent of the blame for making my life as a Scrappy Doo fan UTTERLY unbearable with this stupid fucking movie alone, and just his Scrappy crimes would honestly be enough for me to say that I hate this movie, not even considering the numerous Scooby crimes I've been talking about here for the past million paragraphs, but the part about this movie that makes me the MOST mad the most pissed off is that it's actually a good fucking movie. James Gunn wrote two hilarious and entertaining movies that have become beloved in the popular culture for their successes in that arena, while at the same time pissing all over the core themes and messages of the franchise of which it was based, that of friendship.
TLDR; The Live Action Scooby Doo movies (written by James Gunn) are highly entertaining and fun pieces of media to watch, and are widely loved by the general public and looked at with fondness and nostalgia because of that. However, as a hardcore Scooby Doo fan (writing that phrase sounds so ridiculous but oh well) the existence of these movies and their impact on the popular culture can be extremely frustrating (despite any personal nostalgia said fan may have) due to their spreading of a misinformed picture of what "typical Scooby Doo" looks like. This picture is especially frustrating due to the fabrication or exaggeration of problems present in classic Scooby (such as sexism in regards to the girls), as well as giving more ammunition to other problems in Scooby fandom (such as oversexualization, and sexualization in general, which no one wants to see in regards to their children's cartoons, like HONESTLY.) Discussions of sexism and sexualization in Scooby (both of which ARE present and are issues, although not at their worst in WAY) can often lead to an overlooking of the issues that are very present and clear in WAY and have continued since then with far too little resistance (I'm 100% talking about the racism here) HOWEVER that topic deserves at least a dozen posts of its own that I am no way informed or qualified enough to even begin to think about writing. The Gunn Movies are frustrating to many longtime Scooby fans because of these reasons, but for me, and fellow Scrappy Doo fans there is also the added aspect of the demonization of Scrappy Doo in the live action movies and the affects that has had on the popular culture as well, making it uniquely inhospitable to like or enjoy the character of Scrappy. End post.
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