#so in her mind shes modelling herself to be the knight to the prince ? ? ?

[asterroses]

im goign to make another wyllmancer bcus my druid is not sticking in my brain n taurus is lost in the abyss so . HES GETTING A GITHYANKI KNIGHT WIFE thank u for ur time

[sincerely-sofie]

What are some ideas you've wanted to draw/write but haven't?

Oh man. I've got so many. A handful of ideas include:

A semi-animated series titled "My Pal the Paladin" about a kidnapped princess and the final boss who join forces to track down the legendary hero who's failed to slay even a single mook months after the plot kicking off and yell at him for taking so long. It's based on my oldest original characters and has a lot of sentimental worth to me as a result. Idris, Pal, and Katherine are my babies. I've considered making it similar in production to Dingo Doodle's Fool's Gold series, but I haven't actually made it because I'm really nervous about it turning out poorly ^^; I'd love to post a pitch bible for it someday!

A gothic picture book tentatively titled "Cover the Mirrors" about a woman killing a monster that has haunted her since girlhood, and inheriting the curse that turned the monster from a normal man into his current twisted looks. It would end with the monster's appearance going from being seen as a Boogeyman figure that stalks kids who play outside after sundown while the original monster was around, to a vengeful beast that hunts people who prey on children once the woman inherits the curse. It would play with the idea of trauma giving you unique abilities to help those who have gone through similar terrors, while also warping you into something you can't recognize and find inherently repulsive. I haven't made it because I don't know how to render the painterly style I envision for it.

A mixed media visual novel titled "Cradlehead" about a woman who finds herself serving as the unwilling vessel for an eldritch entity that will destroy her mind when it finishes germinating within and exits her body. She has to escape the pocket dimension it trapped her in to develop within the optimal conditions in order to save herself. The visuals would incorporate clay, digital art, traditional art, 3D models, pixel art, and photography. The game would center around the woman's desperation as she tries to escape while her ability to perceive the new world around her decays more and more over time. I haven't made it because I doubt my artistic abilities to make something like I have in my head come to life.

An untitled magical girl webcomic about an unwilling magical girl with a giant bee familiar named Queenie and issues controlling her powers because of her insecurities. She feels bad about being a not very girly individual while surrounded by hyper-feminine young women who have a handle on their powers she could never dream of. It revolves around her character arc where she eventually stops worrying about meeting the arbitrary standards she imposes on herself to be "girly enough" and decides to just be herself, whoever that is, unlocking her true powers and entering her ultimate form during a climactic battle— taking on a design less like a queen holding a scepter like she'd been dreading, and more like a princely knight holding a stinger-like spear. Her rejection of others' expectations as well as her own helps the world-ending threat, a shapeshifting eldritch being that absorbs people into itself so it can become someone other than itself but is never satisfied with the new faces it obtains, to accept itself and stop trying to steal people's souls in order to find one that would make it love itself. I haven't made it because I worry if it would come across weirdly to the average viewer, as it deals with gender dysphoria as a subject in a very atypical manner.

[importantchaosgiver]

The Griffin And The Dragon:

Sadly, Unsurprising

Summary: (Y/N) can't get what happened with Daemon out of her head. So, she goes to someone who knew Daemon better...

Warnings: ✨Tension✨, smol kissing (literally, just one)

******

No One's POV

Another lovely Spring day came and went. (Y/N) stood in her chambers, looking out the window, fiddling with a lock of her hair subconsciously. She couldn't stop thinking about Daemon. Why did he kiss her? Why did he grab her like that? What made him do that when he was with Lady Royce? So many things going through her mind, it made her feel slightly overwhelmed. Because she didn't know Daemon. She had no clue if this was normal or not. Could she ask Rhaenyra? No, the girl hardly knew her uncle. And, even then, (Y/N) often had a strange sense whenever Rhaenyra spoke of Daemon. Guess she could talk to Lord Hightower. Hmm, best not. Otto Hightower didn't seem terribly fond of the princess. Well, guess there was always the king. The thought of seeing Viserys made her heartbeat quicken slightly. Which surprised even herself. She put a hand to her chest, feeling the slight faster pace of her heart. Then, she felt warmth in her cheeks. Was she... blushing? No, she couldn't be.

(Y/N) took a breath. She was just going to see Viserys quickly, that was it. It probably wasn't going to be any longer than a few minutes. She smoothed out her navy blue and silver dress, her hands interlocking and resting on her stomach as she held her head high and left her chambers, walking through the corridors. She remembered the way from a few nights prior.

She came to the doors and saw two knights of the Kingsguard outside. "I am here to see his grace," she said calmly. One nodded, bowing. He knocked on the door. Viserys' voice was heard faintly from inside, saying 'come'. The knight opened the door. "Princess (Y/N) Arcane, your grace," the knight said as she entered, curtsying politely. Viserys turned around from the model of the city rather quickly to see (Y/N) as the knight left the two alone. "My lady, this is certainly a surprise," he said with a kind smile. "I apologise for visiting on such sort notice. But, I have something of importance to ask and tell," she explained, nervously wringing her hands. He saw how nervous she looked and couldn't help but ponder what had made her so.

With a nod, he let her continue. "It is about your brother, Prince Daemon. I had an... encounter with him when Alcatrax got hit," she admitted. Viserys nodded. She was near Dragonstone, so that was no surprise. What was she getting at? "Unfortunately, one night... he came to me and... kissed me quite out of the blue. I wish to know, is this sort of behaviour normal? Because I was just as shocked upon learning he is involved with Lady Royce and still did it anyway," (Y/N) ranted, her cheeks flushing once again as she looked down.

Viserys was stunned. Daemon... kissed her. He kissed the princess?! "Do not worry, my lady. Unfortunately, this is not unheard of for him. It is, sadly, unsurprising," Viserys sighed, shaking his head, already disappointed at Daemon for such a thing. "I take it he was none too gentle either," he stated. (Y/N) nodded. "He... grabbed my leg quite firmly too. I managed to break free soon after. It is why I came to King's Landing so quickly afterwards," she muttered. Now, Viserys felt sorry for her a little. When one isn't used to Daemon's brash ways, it could be quite a shock. Viserys stepped closer to the princess. "I am sorry you endured that. But, you are safe here," he said, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. (Y/N) took a sharp breath upon feeling his hand. Her dress went off her shoulders, so she could feel his warm palm yet again, but much closer to her neck and chest. Her heartbeat increased tenfold.

No doubt he could feel the rapid pace. "Ehem, it is quite fine, your grace," she whispered, trying to hide her blush, but it was impossible at this point. Viserys felt her smooth skin. Slightly cold against his hand, but soft, like a peach. He became aware of the close proximity between them, tension rising with every second. (Y/N) was shorter than him, her head just coming to his chin. He looked down at her and couldn't help but notice her lips and her blushing cheeks. Did... did she like this? Being so close to him? His touch? Would it be worth a shot in trying? Perhaps he could make it a better experience than she had with Daemon. Of course, he wouldn't push that far if she didn't desire it. But he couldn't help but admit that he didn't blame Daemon. This princess was incredibly beautiful. Viserys moved his hand to lift her chin up, his eyes meeting her (e/c) ones. When (Y/N)'s eyes met his, she felt her breathing hitch. He looked at her with an emotion. One such emotion that made her both conflicted... and warm. "(Y/N), may I?" he whispered, leaning in subtly. With those words, all her words left her in an instant. Her knees felt weak, his gentle, soft spoken tone making her melt. So, instead, she just nodded. She closed her eyes, her breathing shallow. Was this really about to happen?

And, happen it did. Viserys closed his eyes as his lips met (Y/N)'s. And in that small amount of time, he felt like electricity shot through him. Warmth spread across him, the same for her. It felt so... new. It felt good. The kiss lasted for a split second before he pulled back. (Y/N) opened her eyes, her lips tingling from the brief kiss. She touched them with her fingertips. Did that just happen? She looked at Viserys to see he was looking at her. A smile upon his face. "I-I should go," she managed to squeak out, her voice barely audible. Without waiting for him to answer, she quickly left the room. Viserys watched her, his smile not leaving his face. He knew then and there what he was going to do. All he needed to do was send raven to Concordia...

******

Okay, so I think you can kinda guess where this is leaning towards. But, I've had a careful think through. And I'm going off what I've seen so far. I'm just trying to make it good. Enjoy.

[apexqueenie]

The Blood King (Bakugou x Reader, Medieval AU) Ch1

Synopsis: In fairytales, princesses like you got to marry handsome princes like your best friend Shoto, but you’re not living a fairytale. You find the harsh realities a punch to the face as you and Sho run away outside palace grounds and into the real world. But the harsh brings out the beautiful, and in your case, it took the form of the scarlet covered barbarian king, whose territory you disturbed.

A/N: This is the first long series that I’m writing, I hope you all enjoy!

Warnings: Swearing, a bit of violence (This is Bakugou lol), eventual smut (I’ll put a warning dw, totally skippable)

[Ch1]->[Ch2]->[Ch3]->[Ch4]->[Ch5]->[Ch6]

You didn’t know how much more badly a plan could go, but here you were, lost, wounded, and scared in the middle of the freaking forest, the sound of a very angry beast trailing after you. You tugged at the unconscious man on the floor, his head bleeding severely. He was losing too much blood and you couldn’t keep pulling him along without stopping the bleeding first. Your only option was to fight. How did this all start exactly? Well, it started when you decided to ditch your wedding.

***

In a daze, you pulled yourself from your slumber, rising to the sound of gentle knocks at your door. “Who’s there?” you mumbled, rubbing your eyes. 

You shivered slightly and crossed your arms, realizing that you had kicked off your blankets in your sleep. Your best handmaiden, Ochako, barged in, not even bothering to answer the question. 

“Good morning princess” she sang delightfully as she opened your large curtains, allowing the morning light to spill into the huge room. Ochako, although not being of royal blood, was a close friend of yours throughout the years. It was her job to serve you, but you loved her and treated her as your sister. 

“Chako, I told you (y/n) is fine when we’re alone” you said with a yawn.

Ochako hummed as she walked to your wardrobe, sifting through it for the perfect dress. “Ah, but you see your highness, we aren’t alone.”

Before you could question her, a familiar face peeked around the door, heterochromic eyes glancing around the room. “Hi” he says before entering the room and closing the doors behind him.

“SHO!!!” You yelled, launching yourself out of your bed to give your childhood friend a big hug. You haven’t seen him since last summer.

The both of your fathers were Kings of kingdoms who traded with one another, meeting in person once a year to discuss the details. While they both enjoyed a bit of drinking and chess, you and Shoto ran around the gardens barefooted with sticks in hand for fake swordplay. They were always about knights and dragons, and since there were only two of you, you took turns being the dragon or the knight. Princesses weren’t taught to practice swordplay, so Shoto took it upon himself to be your mentor. He taught you what he remembered from his private lessons, insisting that if you were to meet a real dragon like in your games, you would be able to fight it off. 

“But won’t you be here to protect me?” you asked, lowering your stick.

“Yeah,” he said, “but when we meet a real dragon, we’ll be protecting each other.”

Every year, you two would meet to run around the gardens, hiding from your handmaidens and butlers until meal time. Every year, you would shy a bit away from the games and start sparring for real, Sho providing the wooden swords to teach you what he’s learned from the top sword fighters across the continent. Every year your blades danced with his until the both of you could read each other’s movements with a single glance. And every year, you felt a growing affection for the boy that you were too afraid to bring up. 

The two of you talked about your home lives often, sharing stories and complaints about being “perfect” and a “role model” to your citizens. Shoto’s father constantly pushes everyone in their family to their limits, causing the Queen to go insane and burn Shoto, leaving a signature red scar on his left eye. While she was locked in the medical housing part of the castle, Shoto started to understand why his mother lost her mind and silently started to rebel against his father. Your father was similar, always correcting you and forcing you to practice perfect mannerisms. You were his first born, you were supposed to be the perfect example of what a future Queen was to be, especially for your younger siblings; the second born son barely of age to train by sword. If you were anything less, you were to be locked in your room until you had time to “reflect”, your maids unable to speak to you in fear that the King would hear and throw them in the dungeon. Your mother, being too vain to involve herself with any of her children, never saw any of you until your birthdays. She opted to drown herself in self-pampering every other day. Both of your lives were royal hell until “The Meeting”, where the both of you could forget about being perfect for a day.  

You wrapped your arms around Shoto’s neck and buried your face in the crook of his neck, the both of you clutching each other close. His body radiated its own heat, warming you more than the thin fabric of your nightdress could. You pulled away, realising he got even taller this year. 

“I missed you Sho!” you smiled.

“Likewise” he replied, slinging his sword from his back, only there was another object wrapped in silk next to it. “Did...anything interesting happen this year?” 

“Hmmm,” you pondered, walking to your vanity and grabbing a brush. “Well, Jinko is pregnant again.”

“Your mother?”

“Heh, she was never around enough to be a ‘mother’, she’s merely my birth-giver.” you snorted, combing your soft locks. 

“So, is that the fourth…?”

“Fifth.”

“Well then.”

“Yep, and as soon as she’s done pushing it out, she’ll ignore it 364 days of the year. Hell, Ocha was there more for me than my mother ever could be” you say, earning a small blush from the girl.

Shoto sighed, taking a seat on the edge of your bed and placing his sword next to him. 

“Anyways, what’s the meeting about this time?” you asked now moving onto cleaning your face.

“That’s… uh...well, I have to talk to you about something soon, but first, I brought you a gift” Sho said a bit awkwardly. He turned and handed you the silk wrapped object. You took it gently, afraid of breaking it, that was, until you unwrapped it. Your mouth dropped as you felt the silk fall off and onto the floor, completely forgotten as you held up the object in awe. In your hand was a long silver blade engraved with delicately curved patterns surrounding a single mother pearl at the center and down the blade itself. The hilt fit perfectly in your hands, the weight completely balanced. 

You were damn near about to cry. “Sho...its-”

“Get dressed so we can try it out” he smiles and hands you the sheath.

Giddily, you sheath your sword and headed to the dressing curtain where Ochako waited for you with a big smile. She seemed to have known about this whole visit because she held up a bit more of a casual dress, one that wasn’t as long as it normally would be. You never understood why you had to wear dresses as a princess, but it couldn’t be helped, you had no control over your clothing choices. Ochako however, had the power to hem the dresses for you so you could run with a bit more freedom. 

***

“Sho! I can’t believe you did this! How’d you manage to sneak this by your dad?” you ask once you are dressed. You moved to take the direct route to the gardens, but Shoto pulled you to a different route around. “Sho?”

“That’s the thing I have to talk to you about,” he said, peeking into all the rooms and hallways before entering, “I don’t want to run into anyone else right now.” He pulls you along swiftly until you reach the gardens, taking one last look around you before relaxing a bit.

“Hey, Sho, what the heck is going on?” you ask, lowering your voice.

The boy in front of you couldn’t look you in the eyes. He was worried about something, which was totally uncharacteristic of him. Trying to ease his nerves, you reach out and gently squeeze his hand, but he doesn’t respond back. Instead, he just sighs, finally about to say something.

“So...you know how we...always meet up every year?” he asks.

You nod, slightly confused at where this was going.

“Well, our fathers have been discussing…”

“Discussing what?”

“Something very.. special for next week-”

“My birthday isn’t for a couple of months”

“It’s not that-”

“Then?”

He turned his head and sighed. 

“...Discussing our marriage…” he trails off.

“Sho! Oh wow, This-this is great!” you beamed. You always thought about the day you’ll have to marry someone. Your role as a princess was to marry a prince, and become a beloved Queen to your kingdom. You dreaded that it would be for trading purposes, that you’d have to marry some pudgy old man so that your father could share more land, but you had the option to marry your best friend! Anyone would be delighted at the thought...anyone but Shoto.

Your smile quickly faded as you studied his face. He expressed a mix of guilt, awkwardness, worry, and something you haven’t seen before…was that fear?

“What’s wrong?”

He shook his head, still unable to look at you, “I can’t do this-”

“Is it too early still? Because it’s ok, we don’t have to-” The words stung, but you couldn’t let that get to you.

“No! No, that’s not it, it’s just that I can’t”

“You can’t what? Tell me what so I can help you.”

“I… I love you (y/n), just...not like that” he says, furrowing his eyebrows.

“What? Wait, what do you mean?” you asked, stomach dropping.

“I just mean that I, I don’t see you like that.” he said.

“So, I’m not good enough?” you shook your head.

“-No-”

You could feel the tears stinging in your eyes, “so...there’s someone else?”

He lets go of your hand to rub his arm in a nervous manner, “No, that’s not it either, I just don’t know how to explain it-”

But he was lying. You knew Shoto was a bad liar around you. It was bad enough that he couldn’t look at you, but even worse that he was taking steps away from you, slowly inching backwards in the opposite direction. He wasn’t trusting you with something and you didn’t know why, but your anger took over, and suddenly, you didn’t want to know why either.

“Well then, I’ll leave it to you to inform our fathers that this wedding won’t be happening, Todoroki.” you huffed. You saw the hurt in his face when you called him by his last name, but you could care less right now. You turned around and headed back to the castle, back to your room, and back to Ochako so you could cry in comfort. You kept your eyes trained at the ground, a silent message to all your servants to leave you alone. However, the message was left unknown to someone who didn’t live in the palace, someone like King Enji. 

You were cut off from the path to your room by the tall and heavily built man, his eyes cold and harsh staring at you from above. You stopped and immediately curtsied in respect, as you were representing your father every time you met with a leader of another kingdom. 

“Good morning, King Enji.” you said, giving him a well practiced ‘princess smile’.

He only grunted in response, nodding his head to the sword strapped to your back. “I see you received my son’s wedding gift, do you find it satisfactory?”

“Oh-the sword, right! It’s beautiful, your greatness. I am so humbly honored to receive such a gift.” you bow. You had completely forgotten it was there after what happened with Shoto. It was supposed to be a wedding gift, a sign of his love for you, but he didn’t love you like you loved him. You should be throwing this thing away, you should feel disgusted...so why did those words come out so naturally? Why did the sword feel so familiar? Hopefully Ochako could help you answer those. 

King Enji nodded in approval, motioning to some servants he had waiting out of your sight. “You have good manners, young one. Perhaps my son could learn a thing or two from you when it comes to respecting his elders.”

Two female servants took place besides you, awaiting further instructions from their King. 

“Your father has agreed to allow me to provide the dress, courtesy of the profits he helped me make last year. My servants will be taking your measurements, as well as note your likes and dislikes for the preparations.” he says before walking off.

All you could do was smile now. You couldn’t make your father look bad, even in front of servants. You continued to hold back tears as the handmaidens escorted you to your chambers.

So much for spilling your heart out to Ochako. 

***

The maidens were merciless, insisting that every measurement be as precise as possible. You tried to delay them, but your efforts were futile. They brought every bit of conversation back to the dress, and to the wedding plans you know you won’t have. Guards were installed in front to ensure no one came in or out until every inch of your body was measured to perfection. They measured your breasts and behind about five times over to ensure that “your best qualities were perfectly framed” for the wedding. Best qualities? Were you just boobs and ass for the future King? You sighed, still letting them continue their measuring. Shoto wouldn’t have cared…

No, he was Todoroki to you now, until he can give you an explanation. 

But...do you even deserve one?

As King Enji’s servants gave you a break to bring out supplies for your fitting, you walked over to the sword your “fiance” gave you, unsheathed for its glory to shine on your bed. He knew how you liked it, designing it to perfectly mirror you. He took note of everything you loved, remembering your style interests from whenever you two would talk for hours on end. You traced the flawless engravings on the blade itself, almost tearing up again. Turning the sword over, you saw the engraving on the bottom of the hilt, small, yet beautiful nonetheless. 

“Let’s protect each other from now on”

All the anger you felt before was gone, replaced by pure guilt.

He really did love you.

Just not in the way that you had hoped. 

You were being selfish, and you needed to make it right. 

Before you knew it, you were yanked back to the full length mirrors for more measurements. 

Both the measuring and interrogations lasted nearly the entire day with the servants drawing several designs and re-measuring you for each one. Of course, they didn’t accept a “that looks fine” or “this one is good'', so they continued to create new ones, each more extravagant and beautiful than the last. Evening came, and the maidens packed their materials to head back to their own kingdom. You thanked them sincerely for all their hard work and rushed off to say goodbye to Shoto until he disappeared over the hill and into the forest, like you’ve always done...except you weren’t.

You arrived to meet your father, King Enji, and Shoto in the main hall a little out of breath while they said their last goodbyes. King Enji broke his attention away from your father to give you a polite nod, acknowledging your presence. Your father noticed this and turned to give you a big hug, laughing heartily. 

“Can you believe it? You’re getting married in a week! I need to tell your mother straight away! She would be so proud.” he says, pulling strands of your hair behind your ear. 

“Yes, I believe she would” you smile. You weren’t in the mood to explain that she’d only use this as an excuse to out-fashion you on your own special day. 

Shoto hung his head in silence right next to his dad, still not making eye contact with you. You tried to pay him no mind and instead focused on building up your courage to ask something of King Enji in the politest way possible. 

When you got the chance, you squeezed out every bit of bravery left in your system to say “Erm, King Enji, is it alright if Prince Shoto stays?”, twiddling your fingers innocently.

The red headed man looked a bit taken back by the question, but he didn’t seem opposed to the idea. He snorted, waving his hand to Shoto, who stared at you with an open mouth.

“Ah, young love,” your father chuckled, and went to see his comrade out the door.

Without a second to spare, you grabbed Shoto’’s hand and led him to your room, closing the door behind you quickly. 

“(y/n), what are you doing?” he asked, watching you shove a chair underneath the handles of your doors. You had enough palace servants for today. 

You turned around and immediately threw your arms around his waist. He stood rigid with surprise before hesitantly hugging you back with a light grip. He was still confused from the fiasco earlier, but didn’t blame you.

“Sho....I’m so sorry, I should have understood.” you whispered. “I hope you could forgive me..”

He gave you a slight squeeze, “Of-course, (y/n). I’m sorry too, I-”

“Stop. You don’t need to explain anything to me. All we need to do is get this wedding cancelled.” you interrupt, looking up at him. “Also, I’m glad you didn’t say anything.” 

He looked relieved, giving you a soft smile. “Thanks, (y/n).” He pulls away from you and takes a seat on your bed next to where your blade still sat, unbothered. “But, I realized that if I were to tell my father, he’d assume it to be an insult no matter what I say, and end the friendship. with your people. Then he’d have me married off to someone else and make my life more hell than it already was. I’d rather be married to my best friend than a stranger.” he smiled.

You opened your mouth to say something, but the words escaped you. You were stumped. After all of this, it turned in your favor, but you didn’t want this anymore. 

You huffed and stood up abruptly, heading to your drawers and searching through them. 

“What are you-?” Sho trailed off, standing up with you. 

Finally, you found an assorted set of bags you use to collect things on your trips to the forest. With most of your years being devoted to molding you into a perfect queen, you haven’t used these for anything more than bringing home a pretty set of rocks in hopes that your mother would pay attention to you. Now, you were finding the biggest ones, planning to fill them with essentials to help you survive the woods. 

“We’re not going to do anything we’re forced to be into,” you said, “No matter what, our fathers won’t allow us to cancel this, but they can’t do anything if we’re not here.”

“(y/n), you’re not thinking of leaving are you?” he asked, worry apparent all over his face. 

You handed Sho a bag, staring him straight in the eye. “I’m absolutely thinking of that.” You grabbed a bag for yourself and shoved the rest back into your drawers. “We both have siblings who can inherit the throne, right? And if we disappear together and write a note saying something like “oh this is going too fast and we decided to take a break together in the mountains”- neither of our fathers could blame each other, so-”

“Hey,” Sho laid a hand on your shoulder, “we don’t have to do this. I told you, I really thought about this, and as long as it’s you, I’ll be happy-”

“No, Sho,” you said, shrugging off the hand and looking through your closet for extra clothes, “you can tell yourself that, but that’s not going to be true. I want you to be just as happy, and that’s not gonna happen if we go through with this marriage. Look, I know Ocha’s grandmother lives in a small town East of here, past the forest. If we can get there, we can rest and figure out what to do, ok?”

You looked at him for confirmation, his brows furrowed and his lips spread into a thin line. For a few seconds, he contemplated the terrible outcomes of your plan, but he knew you would just do this yourself if he didn’t come with you. 

Finally, he nodded before he could change his mind.

This probably wasn’t the smartest idea, but at least you were together.

[ice-cream-writes-stuff]

¤°~Ghost Marriage: Lovely Bride To Be?! Part 3°~¤

Previously... 

"STOP YOUR STEP!!"

At the end of the hall, Senior Vanrouge and Sebek were conversing with the ghosts knights. "They became angery just because of a mere joke I made about them. Such a bunch of narrow minded ghosts." Lilia jests with ignorance in his tone.

"Ugh, the guys from Diasomnia! Why did you bring these ghosts here?!" Ace yells out in fear. "You naive ghosts who dare to snarl at Lilia. I'll get rid of you guys!" Sebek said with very little amusement.

Present Time..

After the fight with the ghosts. The student's and Headmaster go to the field so ghosts won't bother them. Students who were also kicked out the school stayed at the field. "Ha...haaa. Ugh the sides of my stomach hurt so much." Ace tries to say as he and Deuce groan and grumble in pain.

"Ace, Deuce." A familiar voice spoke. "Ah, Prefect Roseheart!" The two huff out as they nod. Azul and Kalim stood next to Riddle, but Azul looks at the two with confusion. "Where is Prefect (Y/N)? Shouldn't you two be with her?" The prefect of Octavinelle points out.

The A-Deuce combo only shrug. "I think she got mixed up the crowed." Deuce says as he looks at the growing crowd of students. "How did you guys get put here?" Ace asks the three dorm leaders.

"We had gotten chased out by some ghosts that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Even though it was valuable time for the three of us to study together." Kalim responded, while Azul shot him tired glance. "Kalim. Shouldn't it be "valuable time where we teach you about studying."?" Riddle could only sigh and cross his arms. "We almost got Kalim to understand the question..!"

"When we stayed in class, a bunch of ghosts appeared. They chased us out while saying, "this will be the brides fitting room!"" Grim watched as more students came up to them. Telling the same tale. "Everyone who was kicked out from campus has already gathered around..!"

"It seems like the whole campus has been taken away by those ghosts." Deuce said rather calmly. Ace on the other hand was more shocked than calm. "Oi! Principal, what's going on!?"

Before Mr. Crowley could respond, Ortho decided to explain. "I'll be the one to explain. You see, yesterday..." Once the young Shroud told everyone of the events that occurred. Everyone went silent. The only person who spoke after Ortho, was Riddle.

"The ghost groom has been searching for his ideal princess. Then had chosen (Y/N) as his ideal bride... That's the idea, correct?" Riddle revised as his expression was oddly calm. "WHAT!!!!" The group of NRC boys all screamed in anger and fear, a lot of other expression as well.

"We need to save her!!" Ace says immediately after the video was shown. "What will happen to (Y/N) if she does marry the Ghost Groom?!" Deuce asks the principal with fret. Mr. Crowley casted his eyes downward, with a somber voice he said.

"If (Y/N) marries the ghost prince, that is the same meaning of signing a contract. Which will mean, once the wedding is over.. SHE WILL FOLLOW HER SOON-TO-BE-HUSBAND TO THE UNDERWORLD!!!" "EEEEHHH!!!" Everyone yelled out in shock.

Mr. Crowley continues: "I put my guard down because I never would of expected someone who meets the conditions of the prince and his ideal Princess would exist in this world." Headmaster Crowley said with dread in every word he spoke.

"(Y/N)... Is going to be a ghost..!?" Epel gasps out with fear. "We can't let that happen!" Jack gruffs out as he bared his fangs. Many others agreed at helping the female student from her impending doom.

"We need to come up with a plan then!" Ortho tells the group of fired-up teens. "How about we start talking with them? We can throw a party! I bet that the ghosts will definitely let (Y/N) go if we just explain the situation."

The young Al-Asim heir suggested to his fellow peers. Rook nods, agreeing with his classmates. "A truly splendid idea, Roi d'or." A slim smile crepts on Rooks lips, "though..." The huntsman drawls out, his eyes turn a bit narrow.

"Do you think you'll be able to persuade a groom who has been searching for his bride for so long?" Rook crossed his arms over his chest as he continues on. His voice hinting with amusement. "If I was in his place, I'd never let my beloved go."

Leona growls, "so our only option is to just beat those ghost into submission." Vil scoffed at Leona and his idea. "Have you forgotten that we all ran all the way out here because we couldn't do just that." The male model said sassily with a frown gracing his painted lips. "No matter what we did, we couldn't defeat all those ghosts."

The headmaster starts to speak, "they are truly a infuriating opponent to take on. We should avoid confrontation as much as possible." Lilia starts to ponder as Crowley squawked about. "Lord Sam is well versed in the ways of ghosts and things of a spiritual nature. Shall we go see what he has to say on the matter?"

"Lord Sam... Do you mean Sam from the student store?" Deuce questioned the old fae. Lilia hums, "I was acquainted with his great grandfather." Cater starts to laugh dryly. "I still can't tell when you're joking or when your being serious... Lilia."

"Then we must make haste to the student store!" The headmaster yells as he and the others rush to Sam's shop. As soon as the shop door closed, Sam greets them. "Yo, headmaster and little demons. Whay could you be looking for that brought you all here?"

Sam chuckles and shakes his head. "Kidding! I know you're looking for something to deal with that ghost groom, right?" Sam told the group of teens and headmaster. Riddle is perplexed by Sam and his words. "This speeds things up but it sounds like you knew we would end up here."

Sam starts to laugh once more. "My friends on the other side bring me all kinds of info." Soon Sam's voice quickly turns less cheerful. "But things are getting really dicey. Ghost are tied to this world by a really powerful "lingering attachment".

Sam explained more in depth on what he meant. How they still come back because of the "attachment". "And as long is it remains, they'll keep comin' back." Grim felt realization struck him like lightning. "That's why the ghost of Ramshackle keep coming back!"

"Bingo! Precisely. That's why ghosts are so hard to handle." Ortho asked how they can save (Y/N), saying there was no such item like that to get rid of the ghost permanently. Sam grins and says, "IN STOCK NOW!" Azul looks at Sam selection while Leona tsks.

"Groom and brides are especially quick to meet tragedy. So they turn into ghosts all the time." Sam then holds up a item, "to get rid of a ghost groom. You need the "ring of severance." Slide this ring onto the host's left finger while saying "I shall love you till death do us part." And it will forcibly send him to the other side."

"How could (Y/N) give this to him? She's not even here!" Vil said as he picks up the small ring. Crowley gasped as he remembers something about the ghost groom. "Hold on a moment, the ghost groom was a boy who loved a challenge."

"So if one of you asked for (Y/N)'s hand. He'll see it as a duel for her hand in marriage, you don't have to win. But you must be able to give her the ring and tell her what to say." Lilia giggles at the crows plan. "It'll be fun to watch the drama unfold by stealing someone's bride."

"We shall call this plan... "Operation, Lovely Bride To Never Be!"" The headmaster said confidently, "it's a bit long for a name." Ace mutters under his breath. "Now I must decide on who the grooms will be for his plan." Crowley exclaimed as the male students to crowd and shout. "I'll do it!" "Let me do it!" "As if!"

The headmaster started to sweat with nervousness stirring in him. The gleaming eyes of the students were scaring him! It was almost as if each student was ready to take a role as a groom by ANY means necessary. Which it seemed like the students were readying themselves for.

"Alright alright! Will do a vote! I will write down all of your names and put them in my hat. I'll choose four grooms for this operation. So that means four names will be drawn." Mr. Crowley says with a exasperated look on his face.

_________________________________________________________

(Y/N) sat in the far corner of the "fitting room." She held a blank expression as she looks at herself. She wore a beautiful wedding (gown/suit/ect) as her hair was spruced up and was placed into a (loose/ponytail/ect). A (white/gold/silver) tiara with a veil attached to it was on her head. (Y/N) wanted to rip the thing off her, but then the ghost would force the item back onto her head again.

Sighing and cursing under her breath. (Y/N) felt queasy, or maybe it was because she hadn't ate anything yet. This was all happening so fast! (Y/N) did not want to be married to this ghost groom. She hoped that her friends would find a way to get too her before the wedding started.

"Bleh..." The female utters as she looks at her bare feet. A knock was heard on the door as a soft "coming in" was heard. A slim ghost that wore a white suite appears in front of her. He was the nanny of the ghost groom.

"Come, my dear lady. Your fiance is waiting, he needs your help with decorations and would like your words on it." (Y/N) felt herself become stiff, but agrees. Playing along was her better chance of escaping her "wedding". "Of course," (Y/N) said politely as she walks with nanny ghost.

The two reach the cafeteria, now transformed with pretty decorations and tombstones. Along with dark blue flowers and white sheets cover each table. The nanny smiles at his prince with nostalgia. "It seems like only yesterday you were a small child. Trying to find follow your dream and find your dear princess. A dream you lost long ago with your life as well. What a cruel twist of fate." The nanny said as his voice started to crack.

"If only I had arrived at your room faster, I could of helped you escape..." The sweet prince smiles at his caretaker. "It is alright now, know need to bring up the past. Don't let all that stuff bring you down."

The young princes smile never faltered. "Besides, going through all that pain and sadness is what allowed me to meet (Y/N)!" His caretaker could feel his spirits lift at the princes words. "Oh prince Elias, you are always so courageous and strong."

(Y/N) could feel her heart cry at what she heard. She didn't know that... Breathing in a gulp of air, she slowly walks closer to the two. 'It's gonna be okay..' "You did a great job Elias." (Y/N) said as she gives him a small smile.

The ghost groom returns her smile tenfold as he looks at his bride. "My goodness, (Y/N)! You look just as beautiful as a.. Well beautiful than an' undead flower!" Elias said happily, (Y/N) giggles at his childish wording.

"Thanks." The caretaker gives the two a tender look. "You both are just perfect for one another. Prince Elias, we must get you ready before nightfall. You have to look your best for your princess."

The caretaker jests as he pushes the prince out of the cafeteria. "Wha- but I wanted to-!" "No sir, you must get ready. *Sigh* your still a stubborn little boy too." Elias waves at (Y/N), "I shall see you soon, my love!"

Once the two were gone, the ghost soldiers take (Y/N) back to the dressing room. Before the door closed, (Y/N) asks them something. "Can I please have something to eat? I haven't ate in a few hours."

To be continued...

(Okay, part three was supposed to be the end of the series. But that didn't happen, so I'll do my best to make sure part four is the last installment. I really wanna get to work for the Halloween event for Twst and a bunch of other stories I wanna put on this account! But I have to wait until I finish part four. Thanks for reading!)

[dwellordream]

“…If young Eleanor experienced the worldly civilization of the south exemplified by troubadour poetry at the Poitevin court, she also had exposure to the Christian teachings that dominated court life in northern France. Like other children growing up in twelfth-century Europe, she saw all around her ever-present reminders of the power of the Church. The lives of Eleanor and the ducal family were punctuated by the liturgical calendar with its feasts and fasts; and the great festivals of the Christian year—Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost—called to mind the Church’s central doctrines. 

…Instruction in the tenets of the Christian faith would have formed an important aspect of Eleanor’s early education, conforming to the pattern for daughters in other medieval aristocratic families. A thirteenth-century guide to children’s upbringing sets down that the first thing to be taught to children is belief in God, and that they should learn by heart the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the Hail Mary, and the first two of the Ten Commandments. Little Eleanor would have learned to make the sign of the cross and to cross herself each night before going to bed. 

Mothers were charged with helping their young daughters to memorize these fundamental texts of Christianity, but nothing can be known of the role of Eleanor’s mother Aénor, whom she lost so early in childhood. Perhaps the motherless child’s godparents saw to her religious instruction. Once she learned her ABC, her basic knowledge of Latin would have enabled her to read devotional handbooks. She likely received a psalter for personal devotions in quiet moments alone, and her constant repetition of the psalms that she knew through public devotions in the palace chapel would also have aided in improving her skill at reading Latin.

Eleanor would have learned stories of the saints’ lives as part of her childhood religious education. Among them was Saint Radegonde, whose life foreshadowed one aspect of Eleanor’s own—a loveless marriage ending in separation. A Thuringian princess taken captive by the Frankish king, Clothair I, Radegonde was forcibly married to him in 531. It was hardly a happy marriage, and the queen found consolation in religious devotions. After her husband’s murder of her brother, she separated from him, dedicated her life to Christian devotion and founded the abbey of Saint-Croix; and on her death in 587, she was buried nearby in the church bearing her name. 

An important aspect of young Eleanor’s religious life was attendance at daily masses in the palace chapel, or in some nearby church, possibly Notre Dame-la-Grande. She would have occasionally confessed her sins privately to a chaplain in her father’s household, a pious practise gaining ground in the twelfth century, but that would not win the formal status of a sacrament until 1215. Surveillance of individuals’ morality was also fostered by a society composed of people living crowded together with no privacy either in isolated rural communities or in large noble households; both peasants and their lords prized group solidarity and frowned on any unconventional conduct. 

At aristocratic courts, those who violated customary norms of behavior inspired ugly gossip and risked social isolation or even banishment. They were expected to feel both guilt at being condemned as sinners and shame at their exposure to censure by their lord or lady and their noble companions. At the court at Poitiers, however, where Duke William IX had set the tone, behavioral norms hardly met the serious moral standard prevailing at the royal court at Paris, Eleanor’s future home. 

Early on, Eleanor encountered the medieval Christian mentality, largely defined by monks, that was suspicious of human bodily needs, especially sexual activity. Reforming moralists and theologians intent on enforcing priestly celibacy sharpened their attacks on the supposedly sinful nature of women, reinforcing the early Church Fathers’ pervasive mistrust of the gender and burdening them with guilt on that account. Christian teaching, however, held up the sinless Virgin Mary as the model for women, at the same time idealizing and anathematizing women, trapping them in double jeopardy. 

In discussions of Christian married life, moralists and theologians reinforced patriarchal traditions that stressed the wife’s duty to accept subordination to her husband and condemned women daring to challenge the masculine monopoly on power. Yet during Eleanor’s childhood, the Church had not yet succeeded in codifying the early Fathers’ misogyny into its later restrictive definitions of women’s roles. By the mid-twelfth century, canon lawyers would redefine women’s proper sphere to restrict their public roles more and more; they would dismiss Old Testament depictions of women acting as judges as the old law, no longer binding in the Christian era.

It was not only religious teaching that prejudiced males against females in medieval society, stripping from aristocratic women power in the public sphere that they had held in previous centuries, if only precariously. The classical scientific tradition taught in the schools also encouraged masculine superiority, teaching that males were more rational, more capable than females of overcoming their passions. Ideas about female anatomy at the Salerno medical school reinforced the clergy’s notion that women were “raging volcanos of sexual desire,” and scientific theories followed Aristotle’s finding that women were incomplete or imperfect males.

Another factor contributing to the reshaping of medieval notions about women’s proper place was a militarization of society as the aristocracy adopted the chivalric values of their fighting men. At princely courts, a bellicose environment often existed where rivalries between courtiers resulted in violent confrontations; and rude knights feared women who resembled clerics in their skill with non-violent verbal weaponry, using words and sexual wiles to engage in plots and intrigues.

Yet Eleanor, reared in a household under her sensualist grandfather’s influence, would succeed in escaping the feelings of guilt and shame that society expected to restrain women from pursuing their personal fulfillment. As a girl, Eleanor learned that previous dukes of Aquitaine were founders of some of Poitou’s most important religious houses, among them Montierneuf at Poitiers outside the old Roman walls, founded by Duke Guy-Geoffrey as recompense for setting aside his first wife to take a second one. 

Young Eleanor would have visited other monasteries with her father and his household as they circulated about the county, certainly Saint-Maixent, a house not far from Poitiers closely associated with the ducal family. On festival days, Eleanor would have viewed the precious relics of the saints housed in monastic chapels, and she would have heard accounts of miracles performed by the saints for the faithful who venerated their relics. This taught her and other Christians that God was active in the material world, not only in the past but in the present, continuing to intervene in people’s lives with miracles when they called on him or his saints. 

Little Eleanor was taught that eternal salvation was not easily attained, and that a Christian owed definite duties to God. She would have equated these obligations with the loyalty and service owed to one’s lord, a conviction held by most early medieval aristocrats. Any failure to carry out the duties owed to one’s lord, either an earthly one or the heavenly Lord, would mean taking steps to regain his goodwill. Just as the powerless in judgments before a medieval lord’s court needed an influential friend to intercede on their behalf, even more did the dead standing before the heavenly tribunal need a saintly intercessor. 

For the eleventh- and early twelfth-century nobility, “Salvation was a matter of negotiations with God represented by his ministers on earth.” Like other aristocrats, Eleanor knew the importance of purchasing the saints’ goodwill with gifts to monastic houses, and throughout her life she recognized the importance of monasteries for offering perpetual prayers for intercession with God and the saints. As a queen, Eleanor would be punctilious in providing funds for religious houses for prayers for the salvation of her living kin and for the souls of deceased ancestors. 

Eleanor would have grown up with an awareness of earlier duchesses’ special place in the sacred sphere. Some aristocratic ladies found in the devotional life of the Church a means of transcending limitations that society imposed on women, winning control over a corner of their lives. In an age of family solidarity, the wives and mothers of princes played an essential part in securing their families’ eternal salvation with their devotional practises, their friendships with holy men and women, and their patronage of monastic houses.”

- Ralph V. Turner, “Growing Up in the Ducal Court of Aquitaine, 1124–1137.” in Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen of France, Queen of England

[agent-cupcake]

Hey AC! I love your blog and was wondering if I could get your opinion on something. I've seen some people complaining that Ingrid and Hilda are treated by the fandom, with Ingrid stans saying that Hilda is also racist towards Almyrans (which, granted, she is) but doesn't get nearly as much hate about it as Ingrid does. But personally I feel like their attitudes and the way they react towards Dedue/Cyril are wildly different and Hilda generally seems less hateful/irrational about it. Thoughts?

This is... kind of a touchy topic... I like it though! It’s worth discussing, especially since I feel like it’s broke criticism to simply deflect blame onto a character in order to prop up another.  Full and obvious disclosure: I very much dislike Ingrid and very much love Hilda. That said, I don’t think it’s fair to compare them for the sake of which is worse. I fall into the trap of character criticism through comparison far too often and it's not really valid unless you can fully explore each character in their own right beforehand. Which is why, while writing this, I came to the conclusion that the ways these two characters are interpreted and the reason people view their racist tendencies differently has far more to do with the characters themselves than their actual beliefs.

From first impressions to subsequent playthroughs, this is pretty much how I feel about Ingrid: she brings up her hatred of the Duscur people and Dedue unprompted and uncontested several times at the very beginning of the game, putting it front and center to her character. This is important, it sets a foundational component for how I could come to view her. According to her introduction, she is honorable and respectful, a model lady knight trope. But, as mentioned, she's really racist. Literally standing around thinking about how awful it is that Dimitri would trust a man of Duscur because they are all bad people. Yikes. And nobody calls her on it. Again, this is very important for perception. People judge Sylvain for his bad behavior in a much more harsh way than they do Ingrid for her vitriolic loathing for another classmate who we have seen as nothing but respectful. It's weird. And then, despite the fact that her close friend Sylvain was able to reason out that it’s not possible for the Duscur people to be at fault for the Tragedy, despite the fact that the prince of the country she supposedly hopes to serve with unwavering respect and loyalty has made it clear that he does not believe that Dedue or Duscar are responsible for the Tragedy, and despite the fact that Dimitri, her close friend and the one most affected by the Tragedy (seriously, she lost a guy she might have married and he lost his best friend, mother, and watched his father be killed in front of his eyes) continuously insists that neither Dedue nor Duscur are at fault, she loudly and openly believes that the ensuing massacre of Duscur was deserved and Dedue is inherently culpable simply because of his race. Her motivations for this hatred feel even more cheap considering her dogged hero worship for Glenn was born out of the fact that she was promised to him, making the fact that she’d use his death as reason enough for the destruction of countless innocent lives even more unsympathetic in my eyes. I mean, seriously, she was around 13 and he was older than her, how close could they have truly been? Dimitri says they were in love, but she was a child. Abandoning my modern sensibilities about age of consent or whatever, kids at that age don't have the emotional or mental capability. Maybe this is just nitpicking, but I have a very hard time caring about that relationship. But, if her actual justification is because of what happened to Faerghus as a result of the Tragedy and feels duty-bound as a knight to find justice through the systematic destruction of the Duscur people, then it just circles back to confusion considering the future leader of said country doesn't hold Duscur or Dedue responsible. The importance of perception comes in because despite these paper thin excuses and her seemingly willfully ignorant hatred, she is never challenged on her racist beliefs. The reason she seems to change her mind about Dedue and consider that maybe excusing a genocide is wrong stems from guilt that Dedue continuously comes to her aid in battle at the potential cost of his own life. I can understand, to a certain extent, why she might feel the way she does. But, again, I have such a hard time with any justification when nobody that she's close to is even nearly as hateful as her, there is plenty of evidence (evidence that the people close to her have found!) to provide a very reasonable counterclaim to Duscur's guilt, and that none of that even matters when it would require her to openly contradict the prince of her country to make the claim that Dedue was in any way complicit in the Tragedy. Which would be fine if she wasn't established as the model Lady Knight archetype, which also brings us into Ingrid's moral high horse. Admittedly, I hate the Lady Knight trope. I have a significant bias against these types of characters. However, I really do think that this moral crusade is where she lost me completely. Without even a shred of empathy or self awareness, she lectures Sylvain about his shitty behavior even though their circumstances are at least somewhat similar and he has his reasons (bad ones, maybe, but ones worth understanding if she actually cares about him), she lectures Felix about not being interested in knightly endeavors (an aspect of his character that is born of the trauma she has appropriated), and she lectures Claude about behavior that is befitting of a man in his position. Not because she cares about the girls Sylvain is hurting, not because she thinks there are any grave stakes from Felix choosing to do his own thing, and not because she knows that Claude's behavior affects his ability to lead, but because she doesn't like these behaviors and thinks they should be fixed. Yet, at the same time, she believes Dedue deserved to lose his family, country, and culture based on his birth and nobody ever does anything to morally correct her, it is something she eventually is forced to acknowledge on her own. It's frustrating, infuriating even, that the game lets her get away with being so grossly hypocritical. And, all the while, she is being painted as sympathetic. Again, I have a hard time feeling sympathy for her about Glenn, and I certainty don't feel sympathetic towards her issues about marriage because there's never any actual tension there. Of course she won't be forced to marry, she's a Lady Knight. Beyond being unsympathetic, I also find her massively unlikable. Awful design, poor voice direction, food-loving-as-a-personality-trait, the fact that she's written as one of those stock "feminist" characters who hate makeup and girly things until it benefits them, and constantly butting in on other characters to give her opinion without taking any criticism herself are all aspects that I just personally dislike. Ultimately, Ingrid being racist is only a symptom of the many reasons her character is one of my least favorites. Most of these points can be countered by someone who doesn't take issue with the things that annoy me and to point out that Ingrid DOES get over her racist beliefs. It's not fair to say that she doesn't change but, for me, the damage was already done by the time she became tolerable so I still have a hard time appreciating her. My assumption would be that there are a lot of other people who feel similarly to me regarding their dislike of Ingrid so they focus on one easy character flaw, her being racist at the beginning of the game, as a reason to validate their dislike of her overall.

On the other hand, Hilda's racism isn't a main trait of her character. It's related to her overarching character flaws, but she doesn't bring it up unprompted and can actually be pretty much missed without the Cyrill supports. Like you said, Hilda does seem less hateful and irrational, it doesn't take willful malice and an active rejection of reason for Hilda to dislike the Almyrans, they pose a genuine and provable threat to her family and territory, seemingly senselessly testing the borders and throwing away lives for the sake of conquest. To be clear, her "you're not like those OTHER Almyrans" schtick is legitimately nasty. Her behavior is gross and condescending and it really underscores the fact that Hilda is ignorant, lazy, inconsiderate, and incredibly comfortable in her privilege. She accepts what she's been told at face value because she's too lazy to look into it further. Cyrill does tell her she's stupid to think that way, though. Which is satisfying because Hilda in those supports is insufferable, it really highlights the worst aspects of her character, dismissive, manipulative, and very selfish. However, for me, she's also very likeable. I'm not interested in going over my opinions on her like I did with Ingrid as I don’t feel it’s as important to my point but a few reasons I really like her is because I think Hilda has a fantastic design, cute supports, amazing voice work, and is secretly sweet in a way that absolutely tickles my fancy. I am sure many people do not agree with me, which is fine. Additionally, just as Ingrid grows out of her racist beliefs, so does Hilda. They both end the game as more tolerant and caring people. Still, for the same reason a person could argue that Ingrid is actually great and I'm being unfair, they could argue that Hilda is terrible and I'm too biased. That's fair and true..... but I think the fact that Hilda is more generally appealing in conjunction with the less obvious nature of her racist attitude makes people less likely to dismiss her as a racist in the same way they do Ingrid. Unless they dislike Hilda, in which case, it’s all fair game.

Anyyyways, a main takeaway from this is that I highly doubt people are truly arguing on the individual basis of who's more racist, but that they're engaging in the age old waifu war. As with many characters in this game, it's easier to argue moral superiority when you can't quite articulate what you like or don't like about a character. Or, even worse, when you're arguing opinion. Even now, as is clear by reading this, I am arguing my opinion of why I don't like Ingrid. Not because she's racist, but because of the character traits and writing choices that make her unlikable to me. I like Hilda because, flaws and all, I find her to be compelling and enjoyable. From the people that I know, at least, that is basically how the Ingrid stans v Hilda racism argument is structured, even if they dress it up in different language.

By the by Hilda never talks about how the Almyrans deserve to be wiped out. I think that probably sours a lot of people's opinions of Ingrid no matter what happened afterward but that’s fine we can just pretend that didn’t happen

[hauntedbythefanficsofmypast]

SuperChat September 1- Meeting/Cute

Masterlist

"You're lucky I love you Mari." Adrien said, leaning down to whisper in his adoptive sister's ear. Marinette snorted softly hiding her mischievous smile behind the champagne flute in her hand. "I hate these parties so much, but a promise is a promise. Everyone shall see your designs, modeled on my beautiful body." He let out a sniffle dabbing at his eyes dramatically. "Oh it's so hard being this beautiful, always taken advantage of even by my sister dearest." Marinette hit his chest gently with her hand as she struggled not to laugh.

Marinette had received an invitation to that Wayne's Charity Gala and knew this would be the perfect time to show off. Convincing Adrien to attend had taken a lot of sweets and bribery of buying him the latest gaming console. However he had agreed to come, so they were together at the Gala wearing Marinette's latest suit and dress combo. One she made sure was her absolute best. Adrien wore a navy blue suit with deep red tie and gold cufflinks. Marinette wore a deep red dress with a V-neckline and coordinating illusion mesh back. She had sewn chiffon on the shoulders and back in the same red that flowed to the ground forming a train. Together they made for a stunning couple and were gathering compliments all night, which amused the both of them greatly. Apparently it was unknown to Gotham high society that Adrien was no longer an Agreste but a Dupain-Cheng.

Adrien grinned at Marinette as she rolled her eyes he held up his champagne flute in a toast gesture to Marinette. "To making your dreams come true. I'm proud of you Princess, only twenty-three and one of the top names in fashion already." They tinked their glasses together and Adrien waited until Marinette took a sip before he spoke again. "Now if only you didn't use me to get there." Marinette turned sharply glaring at him and raised her arm to smack his shoulder. Adrien laughed loudly, moving back quickly only for her bad luck to kick up. He tripped over his own feet, he closed his eyes tensing up ready for the fall. Only for a strong arm to wrap around his waist catching him, the other one catching his champagne flute. Adrien opened his eyes wide in surprise, the first thing he noticed was stunning blue eyes, hidden behind askew glasses. He stared into the man's eyes unable to look away, until the man asked him a question. "I-uh. I'm sorry, I'm afraid I got lost in your eyes. '' Jon blinked down at the blonde in his arms, before snorting and helping Adrien stand up fully. He however did not remove his arm from Adrien's wasit.

"I really wasn't expecting that after saving you from ffalling.Do you use that on everyone that catches you?" Jon asked teasingly, his eyes sparkling. Adrien smirked, taking his champagne flute back from Jon.

"Only on knights with the prettiest eyes I've ever seen, so I've only used it twice." Jon quirked an eyebrow, leaning back slightly. Adrien was quick to note that Jon was a full head taller than him.

"Oh? So who do I have to be jealous of then?" Jon asked, and this caused Adrien to snort softly before taking a sip of his champagne finishing the flute.

"Well that would be my sister-in-everything-that-counts but blood. I still fimd it funny that she had the adoption papers ready before her parents even knew. She thw one that, ya know the very one that pushed me tonight." With that comment Marinette surged forward smacking Adrien in the chest repeatedly, yet descretly enough to not gain attention.

"Adrien Dupain-Cheng!" She whisper yelled, causing Adrien to tense and look at Jon.

"Uh-oh full adopted name." He whispered causing Jon to snort.

"I did not push you and you know that!" Adrien snorted grabbing her wrist gently and squeezing it slightly running his thumb again the back of her hand. "And don't think compliments will get you anywhere Mister! I did not forget what you said before you decided to be a clumsy kitten!" At that comment Adrien blushed slightly looking away as Jon smirked playfully at the nickname. Marinette turned to him smiling brilliant meeting his eyes, the smile and her eyes took his breath away. He could definitely understand that he stood under Marinette when it came to beautiful eyes. Her eyes were a beautiful mix of blue and grey, and if he looked close enough he was positive he'd find stars trapped in them. "Marinette Dupain-Cheng, I'm this idiots sister-in-everything-that-counts but blood." He looked at Adrien then back at Marinette before going back to Adrien.

"I respectful take my spot as second in the pretty eyes category. Your sister-in-everything-that-counts but blood clearly has me beat. She definitely has me beat as most beautiful person as well." He said causing Marinette to blush slightly. "I would love to see who comes out in a contest between her and my practically older brother Dick." Adrien and Marinette looked at him quizzical, but Adrien was the one to voice it.

"Practically older brother?" Both him and Marinette struggled not to smirk as Jon rubbed the back of his head witb his free hand. Marinette noted the his arm was still around Adrien's waist, causing her to narrow her eyes and observe him more. Jon was quick to note the look her was gettimg amd cringed on the inside, it was the look that he had come to see the most. Considering his best friend's entire family was detectives, that look ment that Marinette would probably know all his secrets by the end of the night. Though he calmed himself assured that Marinette would not discover him in one night, thats something only the Batfamily could do.

"Well my best friend, Damian, I've known him for years and know his brother in turn. Dick is the oldest, he is labeld as the most beautiful, even out of his sisters. Jason and Tim are the ones that represent Gotham the most. Jason represents the streets where you fight to survive while Tim the weathy where you do everything you can to help. Cassandra is the Princess and follows in her father's charitable footsteps. Stephanie isn't adopted in like the others but she is known as the Prankster. Duke isn't adopted in either he is a ward but he is a part of the family, he is known as the most caring and compassionate always donating his time to charity. Damian is the youngest he was known in school to be an Ice Prince, but no one can deny he is his father's son with a sharper edge. He doesn't associate with people that aren't worth his time. Luckily I am worth his time, I wasn't at first!" Jon said with a cheerful laugh, Adrien blushed slightly adding beautiful laugh to Jon's attractiveness meter. Marinette and Adrien made eye contact having a silent conversation together, which reminded Jon of the Batfamily yet again. He glamced across the room at said family standing and laughing together, he could even see a real smile on Bruce's face as he looked at his kids. 'Maybe Bruce's has another kid he doesn't know about. It would fit black hair, blue eyes, and adoptive tendencies, oh Damian would not like to find out he may have a blood sibling.' Marinette gave Jon amd tight yet polite smile once their secret conversation was over.

"Well Jon, I'd love to talk more, but I spotted a dear old friend across the room. You wont mind keeping my brother entertained would you?" Adrien smiled brightly at her words amd turned to look up at him with kitten eyes.

'Why is he so pretty. Why are these too the essence of beauty, it like the were blessed by gods.' Tikki and Plagg shifted uncomfortably in Marinette's purse and shared a look that screamed, who is thinking of us. Jon spared a glance at Marinette's purse, before looking back at Adrien. He was a little confused on why he could hear breathing from her purse, but he pushed it to the back of his head.

"It would be stupid of my not to agree, although I must ask for a short interview efore you both leave for the night. Ah. I never fully introduced myself, Jonathan Kent, I work at the Daily Planet. I'd love to do a piece on M.D. clothing." Marinette and Adrien shared a look before nodding in agreement, and Marinette was off gracefully crossing the floor to Selina Kyle. Although he tensed up at her whisper that he had, at first, assumed was to herself. He was wrong when he realized she was talking to him. In seconds he was terrified of the beautiful women walking away from them. The women that had discovered his secret quicker than anyone before. Of course it would be months of him and Adrien dating until he finally admited how terrified of Marinette he was. Marinette only smirked at him sipping her coffee, as Tikki gave her chosen a proud look from her small chair on the table. However Jon would never give up his spot in their family. He loved Adrien, now he just had to gain the courage to propose to him.

@superchat-september2k20

[johannstutt413]

(I can’t stop myself, have a horse)

When Nearl had asked the Doctor about her sister joining Rhodes Island, he hadn’t quite known what to expect; on the one hand, another Operator with even remotely the moral backbone as the Elite Operator everyone knew would be an immense help, but never in his wildest dreams would he have expected what happened on their first meeting.

“Come in,” he said, half-bored as he waited for her in his off- oh. “Ah, you’re...um...”

“Kazimierz knight, codename ‘Blemishine...’ Hehe, you must be the Doctor. Nearl told me all about you on the trip here. You can call me ‘Maria’ if you want~” After holding a straight face long enough to introduce herself by name, she’d slipped into a mischievous smile.

That’s where it all started - that damn blessed smile. He got out of his chair and, not knowing what to do with himself, bowed like he’d learned to do in Lungmen. “W-welcome aboard, Maria. Have- eh?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Doctor!” The younger Kuranta had giggled. “I couldn’t help myself. My sister said you fell to pieces around beautiful women, but I didn’t bring one with me, so...”

“Ah, r-right. I’ve been working with her almost since my return, haven’t I?” That was to himself more than anything, but as scrambled as he was, his brain retained it about as well as any other gibberish.

Maria managed to stop laughing, but the smile on her face was still enough to set his heart racing. “Hopefully I’ll have plenty of time to work with you, too! Although, I was curious about the Engineering Department-”

“I can take you there myself, if you’d like.” The Doctor slipped his keycard around his neck. “Closure and her group are rather close-knit, but anyone with an interest is welcome to talk at least.”

“Sounds great! Oh, but I promised auntie Zo- I mean, my other sister Whislash that I’d go see the training area with her after I introduced myself. You, um, won’t tell her I said that, will you?”

See, more gibberish. “I wouldn’t dream of it.” ‘You, on the other hand...’

“Thank you, Doctor. I’ve got to take a rain check on the Engineering Department trip, but I’d love to talk some more. See you!”

------------

“Maria?” Some time later, the Doctor found her hiding behind a pile of boxes in the Trading Post during his usual visiting. “Why are you-”

She grabbed his hand and pulled him behind the boxes with her. “Shh! Sorry, but I snuck in to hide from Zofia. Are you busy right now?”

“...Actually, I have an idea. She wouldn’t say anything about you being my assistant, would she?” He’d stopped losing absolutely all of his brain power in her vicinity over the past few weeks, which brought him back to his usual somewhat-scheming self.

“I don’t think she would.” Blemishine frowned. “But Doctor, I’ve never really done a lot of paperwork before-”

He shook his head. “I can do all of that stuff myself. At least for today, you can come help me with my coffee maker, but after that-”

“Say no more; I’ll have your coffee maker better than new when I’m done with it!” Without another moment of hesitation, she bolted from her hiding place, and still attached to the Doctor by the hand, they were off to his office.

‘This is perfect.’ Gears were turning all the way to the door. ‘As long as there’s something broken in my office, I can keep her with me instead of having her run around on missions like Kal’tsit keeps arranging. Oh, this is going to be great-”

The Kuranta squeezed his hand. “Doctor? I don’t have a key to your office.”

“Oh, we’re here already? Well, we’ll fix that today.” Swipe, click, door open.

“Kind of an old model, isn’t it?” She trotted over to it, immediately taking off covers and hatches with the pocket toolkit she carried with her. “What’s the issue with it right now?”

Oh, right. “It doesn’t heat up anymore, so it can’t start percolating. I’ve tried replacing the battery, but that didn’t work for very long at all.”

“Oh, gotcha! Well, I can fix that nice and easily, then. Let me just get to the heating element and- wait, no wonder it stopped working. Doctor, there’s a tea bag crammed where the power source connects to the rest of the machine.”

“Damnit, Nian.” He sighed, shaking his head. “Well, that’s an even easier fix, then. Sorry about that.”

Maria smiled at him - every time was just as radiant as the first. “Not a problem at all! I’ve been meaning to talk to you, anyway, so, um, if there’s not thing else you need me to do, I can stay.”

“Then, please, stay as long as you like.” The Doctor leaned on his desk; his heart was going into conniptions over this turn of events.

“That long?” She chuckled. “If you say so, Doctor. Can I ask you something a bit random?”

If she’d asked for the moon, he would’ve at least given it a shot. “Of course.”

“I know it’s been almost a month now, but most of the other Operators in my section are older, and I don’t really have anyone else to ask, so...When I got my second promotion, I made myself a new uniform.”

“The one you’re wearing right now, right?” It’d been a sudden change, but not an unwelcome one. “It’s absolutely stunning. You made it?”

For the first time that he’d ever seen, Blemishine blushed. “Uh-huh. It...You really like it?”

“Perfect to break waves in.” Shit, that’d just slipped out-

“You’ve read it?” Distance? What distance? No, she hadn’t been standing by the coffee maker; Maria had definitely always been no less than eight inches away from the Doctor. “That wasn’t a coincidence, was it?”

...Nope. “I heard you talking about it with Istina the other day, so I bought it.”

“Isn’t it a powerful story?” The Kuranta’s eyes were literally shimmering. “I know I never got to be a real knight, but because of that, there’s so much of the world I can see now. Besides, like my sister says, ‘To be a knight is to be the noble light that illuminates the land,’ so all I have to do is be that, and I can be like her...A true knight.”

“Do you need to be like her to be a knight, though?”

Now that was something she’d never been asked before. “Doctor?”

“Sorry, and no offense to Margaret, but why would you have to copy her when you can be yourself?” His eyes were the ones shining now, even if there was genuine confusion in them. “You protect your fellow Operators masterfully, and you hold your convictions closer to your heart than anyone else I know. You’re brave, mindful, attentive, and optimistic even in the face of seemingly unbreakable odds. Who cares if Kazimierz realizes that or not; you’re truly a knight in shining armor.”

“...So this is where you were, all this time.” Blemishine sniffed, wiping a tear from her eye.

The Doctor wiped the next one for her. “Who do you mean?”

“My Prince Charming.” She shook her head. “Margaret and Zofia both said it was just my imagination, but I knew; the way you cheer up so quickly when you see me, how hard you fight to give me what I ask for, all the times you got me out of something so we could tak.... Sorry, I’m just really happy.”

“Don’t let me stop you.” His hand was still by her face, but now his thumb was simply stroking her cheek. Her skin was softer than he’d expected-

-which was even more obvious when Maria kissed him, her pegasian eyes letting her perfectly read the room...

[laequiem]

She kills my self control - Chapter 12

/  Includes dialogue from The Cruel Prince Chapter 29

"Entering your brother's coronation, a mortal girl on your arm. It seems we once again share a lover."

He is trying to provoke me, or so I think. Does he want us to fight here? When I do not reply, he continues his mockery.

"How is she? I can only assume you two have been tumbling since I last saw of you."

"Surprising," I say, spinning a false narrative of half-truths, "very creative in her use of accessories."

cw: unhealthy coping mechanisms (alcohol, sex); physical abuse; nsfw

read on ao3  • previous chapter • next chapter  • all chapters

Chapter 12 - I believe in days ahead

Soon, it will be over. Balekin will be out of my life. The Grand General will watch over Elfhame until little Oak is of age, and I will be far, far away from this palace. 

If I never see Jude again, perhaps she will stop invading my every thought.

Still, as I walk into Hollow Hall with her arm tucked into mine, I feel as though, together, we could overcome any obstacle. I feel pride. I relish in the baffled looks of the Gentry, not caring if they are more surprised by their lesser prince being with a mortal or by me actually being here.

Jude is dazzling in her green gown, enough that I forget my own vanity. It matters not that the borrowed outfit I am wearing is drab, long as I am next to her. 

Amongst the gathered folk, the biggest vulture of them all spots me. I gracefully maneuver Jude towards the refreshments table, needing the wine to ground me as I face my brother. 

“Little brother,” Balekin says as he catches up to us, “I’ve sought high and low for you.”

I am convinced my eldest brother knows the effect he has on me. In his presence, I feel small. I am back to being the young boy who got kicked out of the palace by his other brother, vulnerable, wanting nothing more than to be accepted by someone, anyone.

I look at the drinks table, seeking something stronger than wine to burn my throat and keep me from spiraling.

“Doubtless so,” I reply with a cocky smile, “I turned out to be useful after all. What a terrible surprise.”

A battle of smiles and stares ensues. I refuse to lose. He won’t hurt me, right? He cannot. He needs me, and he needs me willing.

“And you,” he says, turning to Jude, “What have you to do with this? Leave us.”

I hope my panic does not show on my face. My mind races, trying to find an excuse to keep Jude around, when Madoc comes to stand next to his new ally. 

“Jude, you found him,” he says as he puts a hand on Jude’s shoulder. He turns to Balekin, “I hope you’re intending to reward my daughter. I am sure it took no small amount of persuasion to bring him here.”

Madoc's fingers dig slightly in Jude's shoulder. By the way Jude stiffens slightly, I know his touch to be more controlling than paternal. Still, has my father ever even touched me? I cannot remember.

“I will give her anything she asks for and more,” Balekin replies, as if I were nothing more than a lost pet given back to his master.

Jude pours two glasses of wine. I reach for one of them, but she gives the second one to Madoc. They clink their glasses together and drink. It’s the first time I have ever seen Jude drink.

I pour a glass of red wine for myself and drink the whole thing in one go.

“Take the bottle, I am prepared to be very generous,” Balekin tells me, “Let us discuss what you’d like, whatever you’d like.”

I have a feeling that if I were to leave with him, our discussion would be quite one-sided. “There’s no hurry, is there?”

“I think everyone would like to see the matter settled,” he replies coldly.

He speaks with that voice he uses when we are alone in his office. I will my face to keep the mask of indifference.

“Nonetheless,” I say before taking the bottle and sipping from its neck, “we have all night.”

“The power is in your hands.”

I clench my jaw ever so slightly. 

“After dinner, I will tell you my terms. But until then, I am going to enjoy the party.”

“I do not have endless patience.”

“Cultivate it,” I say with a small bow as I drag Jude away from both men.

I make towards the dining table, but I am stopped by delicate, blue-ish fingers.

“Where have you been?” Nicasia inquires.

The princess of the Undersea considers us with a look, wincing at our linked arms.

“Jude here made me her prisoner,” I say softly with a smile, “She ties very tight knots.”

“Good thing you finally managed to slip her bonds,” she replies.

I raise my brows. 

“Did I?” Do I even want to?

“Must you be like this, even now?”

Even if she betrayed me, I do not want her to worry. Not for me, not for anyone. And I do not want anything to happen to her. She puts her hand on my arm.

“Nicasia,” I say as I shrug her hand off, “Stay away from me tonight. For your own sake.”

I tug Jude away, ignoring the look Nicasia gives her.  I feel a sick kind of satisfaction at her blatant jealousy. She traded me after I offered her everything, let her feel as low as I felt.

Across the room, Taryn and Locke are staring at us. I hold Locke’s stare for a few seconds, and he does not look away. The childish part of me is tempted to stick out my tongue at him, but I settle for a wink.

“Part one completed,” Jude whispers, “We got here, got in, and are not yet in chains.”

“Yes, I believe the Roach called that ‘the easy bit’.”

Jude lets go of my arm.

"Don't go anywhere alone," she reminds me as she leaves my side.

Not a command, but it stings all the same. I nod at her and give her a forced smile. I wish the plan did not include 'leaving Cardan to fend for himself'. 

It does not take long for the vulture to find me. On cue, Balekin grabs my arm and pulls me along.

"Come, little brother," he says tightly, "let's have a talk."

He starts dragging me towards the room behind the throne. Shit. Where did Jude go? She must have known this would happen. Maybe Locke could help me, but he is way too far.

Then, I spot my salvation. Long, curling horns over a mop of brown hair. The exiled Alderking's son, Severin. I make a B-line towards him and start making small talk. How do you like it here? I hope the food is to your liking! Yes, it is a shame about my siblings. Dull, boring talk in the hopes that he will stay to chat for a while and not leave me alone with Balekin. When I fear the conversation starts to run dry, my brother eagerly joins in.

"It seems, Lord Severin, that we have a lot in common," my brother says.

"How so?" Severin asks.

"Certainly not for our choice in consorts," Balekin scoffs.

I laugh. It's not funny. Balekin's disgust for mortals does not seem funny for the Alderking's son either, who just stares at him blankly.

"Both of our fathers died and passed the crown to us," Balekin tightens his grip on my arm, "Perhaps you can teach me how you dealt with your grief and the responsibility of a new kingdom."

"Perhaps," Severin replies coldly.

Soon, too soon, we are interrupted by one of Severin's knights, the red-haired mortal girl.

"Seve—", she catches herself, "My Lord, we have an... issue. Ben is drunk, and it seems his singing has gathered quite the crowd."

I watch as Severin's eyes widen and excuses himself, following his knight. Once again, I am left alone with Balekin. The perfect opportunity for my brother to resume his threats. He grabs my wrist in his thorny palm.

"Have you enjoyed the party enough yet?" he growls.

"I remember saying after dinner," I retort with more confidence than I feel, "Perhaps I should also start serenading our guests."

"Careful, Cardan. I would rather have you willing, but I have ways to force your hand. I need you alive, not whole."

I tighten my hold on my bottle to hide my trembling hands. Jude would have a plan. I am not Jude. My usual technique, cruelty, does not work on the person after whom I have modeled it.

Thankfully, I do not need a plan as someone drapes their arm around my shoulders.

"There you are," Locke exclaims, "I've been looking everywhere for you!"

Balekin tightens his hold on my wrist, "Yes, he has made himself… hard to get ahold of."

"I go where the wine is," I hold my bottle up as proof and drain the rest of it, "Surely, you remember Locke, brother. He joined me in many of your delightful revels."

"Delightful they were," Locke praises.

"Will you forgive us, Balekin? It seems I have already finished my drink."

He jerked me towards him and hissed in my ear, "Don't try to run."

"Where would I even go? I  live  here," I remind him, "I will talk to you after dinner."

He lets me go and I drag Locke towards the refreshments, glad for an excuse to get away. It has been months since I last enjoyed Locke's presence, but his presence is definitely more appreciated than a beating from my brother.

I grab another full bottle, not bothering with a glass.

"I saw you arrive," Locke says with an insinuating grin, "quite a statement you are making."

"Whatever do you mean?"

"Entering your brother's coronation, a mortal girl on your arm. It seems we once again share a lover."

He is trying to provoke me, or so I think. Does he want us to fight here? When I do not reply, he continues his mockery.

"How is she? I can only assume you two have been tumbling since I last saw of you."

"Surprising," I say, spinning a false narrative of half-truths, "very creative in her use of accessories."

Locke raises a brow. He bought it. Good. After all, I learned to create falsehoods from the best: him. At the dining table, I see people are starting to sit down. I excuse myself and go take a seat at the table.

There is a lump in my throat. Have I been poisoned? It is entirely possible, seeing the quantity of alcohol I have imbibed without even testing it first, taking whatever bottle I can get my hands on. When I finally see Jude, I realize with dread that I was worried. She slips next to me as if everything was normal.

“There you are, how has the night been going for you?” I ask her as I watch the servant refill my cup with dark green wine, “Mine has been full of dull conversation about how my head is going to find itself on a spike.”

I grab my cup and lean back in my chair, watching the wine swirl and its golden specks glitter in the light. She does not answer me. Fine, then. 

“Have I told you how hideous you look tonight?”

“No,” she says coldly, “Tell me.”

I turn my gaze to her. I expected her to get angry, scoff or straight up ignore me. I wanted to provoke her-I certainly was not planning on actually telling her. Of course, looking at her, the lie dries in my throat. 

“I cannot," I tilt my head to the side and frown. “Jude?” 

Her makeup is still perfect, even with the light sheen of sweat coating her forehead. But there, on her jaw, a purplish discoloration. I clamp my hands under the table to prevent from reaching to it.

“There’s a bruise coming up on your jaw.”

“I’m fine," she snaps back.

Around the table, everyone is seated. Soon enough, Balekin gets up for a toast and I brace for the explosion.

[cknightleyart]

Purple Phire Princess

Part 1

In fire there are many shades, hues, and tones. Once a pond a moment there was a princess made of the royalist of purples. She was named Phire after her father who ruled over the Flareany. One day when Princess Phire was 13 she was allowed to leave the Royal Palace on her own.

"Dearest daughter of mine be mindful that not all is fare in Flareany... Not all you meet will have your best interest at heart. Many will try to steal your light. Don't let them." Warned King Phire.

"How can one steal what is me?" Asked the Princess. "Who's out there?"

"Not all Flarens burn the same..."

"My'Light you are needed in the Skilletem." The serf said with widen eyes.

"Excuse me dearest daughter... Mind my words." The King said as he rushed to the Skilletem.

Princess Phire mind her father's warning before she left the kingdom. The Palacesgards opened the gates for her.

"When will you be coming back?" The Palacegard asked.

"Afternoon... I will be heading to Crimsunbrix

To meet a friend." Said Princess Phire. "Her name is Mesa Mora..."

"See you soon, My'Light." The Palacegrad said as she opened the castiron gates.

While Phire and Mesa walked the Boulevard of the farmers market they found a Mage doing tarot readings. A Ocean blue Flareany with silver hair came out her Witvhes booth heated. "What you mean I shall cause my own misery? I want a better future. Give back thy coin!"

"The cards had spoken! The future ain't free. You see you started the prophecy." Exclaimed the Witvh.

The boy stormed off. "Don't waste your coin on her." He told the girls.

"Come one. Come two. Let she what my cards claim for you." The Mage pointed at Phire and Mesa.

Of course they got their reading done despite the boys warning. They walked in the booth and admire the crystals dangling from the ceiling. The crystals washed over them before they sat side by side. The neon pink lights from the Witvhes deafpunk-mask characters shifted while she put the tarot in the desk-shuffler.

Phire watched the machine. The Witvh asked them to pick a type of reading off the menu. Each reading listed had an emjoi that makes her deafpunk pink. Mesa picked the 5th typed to the top. "That a reading for Romantica..." The machine handed Mesa the deck. "Pick 10 cards. You can look at them. But I suggest you don't."

Mesa laughed. She looked at each card before picking her 10. She placed the rest in the deck and handed the cards to be tempted by the Mage.

"Romantica or Love; the unlighten ones call it, is more than sexual. Transcends the physical and emotional... Your master card is the Ace of Swords." She pulled out the card with a hand emerging from a cloud holding a long sword. "You are a strong girl who will grow into a mightier woman. You will find Callers of every nation trying to romance you... However, they will not last... Now each card you picked are the lovers you will lose." She drew the other nine. "The Knight of Wishes. The Princes of Wishes. The Fool. The Joker. The Warrior. The Twin Flame. The Devil. The Mortal. And The Chibi Sun... Be careful of the Chibi Sun 'cause it's upside down."

Mesa felt the ooogies. "How do I lose them?"

"Does it matter you lost them. Just don't make that miss step thinking you found the one. The one isn't in this draw. There no card for him."

Phire felt the ooogies too. Was nervous about her turn. Since she didn't care for romance; she picked the 3rd type of reading. She loved the name Epicventura. She watched the machine shuffle. She picked 3 cards blindly. The Mage interpret them.

"Father Time. The Tower. Blooming Moonflower... Your a royalty. Real in flesh, soul and mind. I can tell by your cards you time is now... You will face new challenges past generations had not foreseen. However you will live happily enough after the wrecking." Said the Mage.

"How come her fortune is nice? All my lovers are going to die...?" Noted Mesa.

"You picked what you picked. The cards had spoken."

The friends carried on to enjoy the market buying beans till dust hit. On the way back to the Palace they came across a white cat with purple eyes being attacked buy a flock of crows. Phire scared the flock away from the white cat.

"Damn those birds... They pecked him to death. We gotta get him to the Palace." Said Princess Phire. She took the cat to the Firesages and in moments the once dead cat was living.

"Thank you for re-animating me..." Said the White cat suprising the Princess, Mesa and Firesage.

"What you can talk? How can that be" Asked the Firesage.

"Just how you learned." Replied the cat then jumped off the table onto his feet.

"You can stand?" Said Mesa.

"Well I don't know how that's so interesting. You stand every day... Now I must be going. My Major will be pissed. Which way to Sayaity?"

"Sayaity?" The Firesage said."You're from Sayaity? You're a long long way from home. Your in Flareany Palace"

"My Majors not going to like this one bit." After some further explanations they learned the cats name was Markham. He wasn't always a white cat. Do to a curse from a Warlovk in Sayaity he been turned. His Major Zir.Clarence been trying to reverse the curse but need 4 ingredients across the globe. He got issued A-shard from the liberty Bell in Decline, the blood of a vampire from Rubikity, and while he was in Rubikity going to Qiwishstone he ran into the flock of crows.

"Qiwishstone isn't that far from Flareany." Said Princess Phire. "What you need in Qiwishstone?"

"You're Father will not allow you to travel that a ways..." Said the Firesage.

"I need the feather of a Phoniex." Markham said.

" We can't just let a cat of his size travel his own. My father will understand I am of age I could it's not out of the kingdom." The Princes declared.

She asked her father when he was his sweetest. It was always after he took off his crown in his Study. Of course he didn't want his daughter to travel at-all, but he saw the fire in her eyes. That same flame he had when he was her age. If he said no he know she will do it in spite. He allowed her with the company of Mesa, The Firesage, and The Palacegard.

After the Firesmith made the party their armory they where ready to travel. Princess Phire armory was made of white gold with copper finishing. She wore cat-like claws that was made Osedon crystals that matched her booths; it kept her flame in-check.

Mesa armory was made of stainless steel. She was given two daggers that looked like a snake.

The Firesage armory was made of Rose Quarts. She was given a staff made of cherry wood with a ruby crystal; that would amplify her spell-accuraty.

The Palacesgard was made of Bismuth. Her weapon was shield with the sigil of Blue Fire with gold wings.

Markham Of'Sayaity armory was a jumper made of leather. He was also given a so thin blade it was naked to the human eye.

The met in the courtyard. After the Firesmith showed his administration for his models he told them each item work best together. "- the stone made works best in the sun. The metal made work best at night. Work as a unit and you'll do fine. And most importantly don't give my Smithin' a bad name."

"We wont." Promise Princess Phire.

The journey began in Menthol; outside Flaerity.

In Menthol the party had no trouble making there way to Newer Goldity. There they heard whispers of a bird made of fire attacking the pigs on Old Mans Jinkans farm.

"You know that Jinkans is a character. Very queer... If you ask me. Did he make bacon. Fire birds are long gone." Said the city man.

"Where is this old man Jinkans?" Markham asked.

"Which Witvh cured you? It's been years since I talked to a talking cat. Where you from? Everyone knows that Old Man Jinkans live on Old Town rd." Replied the city man.

On old town rd the party found the farmhouse of Jinkans. There liad the blacken skulls of his stock of pigs.

"No Flareany can cast such a fire. It must be the Phoenix." Mesa said in delight. "I feel sorry for the pigs tho-but you know..."

Markham was ecstatic. "Soon I'll be no more a feline. Let's see if Jinkans can tell us where it went."

"Pipe down. We can't just knock on the door of a old man demanding information. We should of thought this out." Said the Palacegaurd.

"True. He just lost his stock. Imagine how he must feel?" Princess Phire looked at the brunt farm.

"What are you doing?" Shouted a boy from the farmhouse. He ran up to them holding a hoe as a weapon. "This is private property! Not a theme park! Nothing to see here!"

Princess Phire recalled that boy from the tarot reading. His silver hair was in box-braids and he was dressed in overalls. His Ocean fire was more golden do being in a new city. His light made hers blush.

The Palaceguard shield the Princess. The boy tripped on his feet, face planting into a mug pie. The party laughed.

"Stop that's not funny..." Phire said forcing herself to stop laughing. "Are you alright?" She rushed to help.

"Perfectly fine. I don't need your pitty."

"How dare you talk to the Princess like that?" Said the Palacegard.

The boy noticed her royal fire. "I don't care if she is the Queen of Makebelieve... This is still private property. You rule over nothing here. And if you did you rule over dead pigs." Said the boy.

"We are not here to rule. We must talk to your grandfather-" Markham said.

"Old men Jinkans isn't my grandfather. He's my uncle. His name is just Jinkans. I'm Jincode. This is Jinfarms."

"I read of the Jinkin. I'm and Princess Phire daughter of King Phire and this is my party. We came to help Markham Of'Sayaity get a Phoniex feather to undo his catattitude..."

"So where is your Uncle?" Asked Mesa.

"He's away getting more pigs." Jincode explanated. He told them about the horror he witnessed on the day the Phoniex caused. "It came down like wildfire. It went east. I thought Fire birds where extinct? I thought wrong."

"They stay to themselves mostly in volcanoes. There must be one nearby." The Firesage said.

"There is no canoes to the east. That bird must be dumb... Just mountains. The Golderhills." Said Jincode.

"It must be inactived." Princess Phire said.

Jincode joined the party to seek revenge on the Phoniex. They traveled east to the Golderhills. The smell of burning bacon came from a cave. To there luck they found the Phoniex resting on top a bed of blacken skulls of pigs.

The cave was cold.

That was good for the party.

"Go get your feather so I can end it's life." Whispered Jincode to Markham.

"Jobs indeed." Said Markham. He leaped stone to stone where the resting Phoniex poached.

"That's one cool cat." Said the Palacegard.

Markham sneaked a pinch at the tail of the Fire bird. Getting the feather woke up the Phoniex and She roars. Her roar sounds like crystal cracking and embers burning. She pushed Markham away making him fall. The Firesage uses her staffs magic to catch him. The feather on the other hand was lost.

"Sugar we need another feather!" Markham said.

"No we don't it's right there!" Princess Phire said pointing at the spot. The feather was caught between a rock and a hard place. The Phoniex made the cave heat-up.

The Firesage attacked the wild beast with her magic to make it go to sleep. Each try was missed. The bird attacked them with a fireball. The Palacegard shield them all. The bird swings down to attack and Mess cut her with her snake dagger.

Unfortunately she got hit back by a blast of embers.

"Mesa!" Cried Phire. "We gotta get out of here!" The cave became too hot for even the Flareany princess. Her party left to rethink there plain.

Back at the Jinkans Farmhouse Uncle Jinkans laughed at them. "What was you thinking? It's a bird made of fire. There's no way your going to get that feather. KittyCat, get use to being a feline."

"I can't just give up. Do you know how hard it is to be a talking cat? It would be worst if I waa black." Said Markham.

"Don't fear Markham... We just need research. Do you guys have a computer with Internet?" Phire asked and Jincode showed her the house PC. It was a old model made in 2021 but Phire knew how to work it.

"Sorry for the oldness... We're not technology inclined. My grandfather grew up on this computer." Jincode said.

After serfing the world-wide-web for everything under Phoniex and Fire Bird.

Phire found out they are weakest after dust. She also learned that on the night of a new moon their fire is at its coolest.

The following day they went at dust to try for the feather. Jincode still wanted to kill the beast despite Phire telling him no one ever killed a Phoniex in the stories she researched.

He insisted that he's going to make history out of herstory. She laughed and blushed. Making Mesa feel the ooogies.

"Do they really gotta flirt? I never seen Phire like this." Mesa said.

"You sound jealous." Markham said.

"Its like I'm yesterdays news." Mesa stated.

They gone inside the cave to see the fasting Phoniex on her nest of skulls. The echo on Jincode's kicking a rock woken the Phoniex.

She roars causing the earth to shake.

"Thanks a lot Blueboy!" Mesa said drawing her daggers. "That Witvh was spot-on."

"Why bring her up." Jincode rolled his eyes.

The bird attacked with a breath of cold ash.

The Firesage blocked the attack. She spelled a rock in her control and tossed it at the beast. The beast cried as the rock hit her.

She spat green fire at the sage. The attack hit her and she fainted from the foreign flame.

The bird took flight and tossed stars at the rest of the party.

Phire added the yellow light into her. Her inner flame roared a burning berry tone. She grew inside and was able to punch the Phoniex. She got three jabs in before her power-up went out. She was drain.

Mesa blocked the starts with her daggers who ate them. They where full and grew into a two dual swords. They gave her the ability to turn invisible.

Markham hid behind a stone with Jincode from the stars. After watching Phire eat more falling stars. Jincode thought he could do the same. He let one hit him.

Feeling the light settle in him his silver hair burned Pacific blue. He felt a rush that he never felt before and his thought rushed. He started throwing fire jabs all over.

He hits Mesa making her faint. She became visible after the hit.

"Watch where you tossing those hits!" The Palacegard remarked as she dodged the stars. She used her grafuling-hook to move closer to get a feather. Next to the nest she noticed a six giant topaz egg. "Sugar Honey Ice Tea!"

The Mother Phoniex attacked her.

She fainted.

"We gotta get the Heynow-Out-of-here!" Princess Phire used the last of her flame to cast a bright light so Jincode, Markham and herself to wakeup the fallen party to evacuate.

Uncle Jinkans felt to bad to laugh at them. He gave each of them a special elixir to heal 100 percent. After they where healed fully he laughed. "-So she's a mommy. Your not getting that feather..."

"We just need to think outside the box." Princess Phire said.

"Is it really that bad being a cat?" Asked Mesa. "You can die a cat or a human. Dying a cat you might get treated better. Humanity can be messed up. Think about it... You can have a nice shoes box that coast way less than a casket."

"You might be right?" Markham the Cat said.

"Don't give up! We came this far. I am not a Quicker! We are not Quickers!" Princess Phire declared.

Her party cried.

Phire went hard at work doing more research on Phoniex. She learned of the Legend of the Queen and The Phoniex. In her study she read that by nature the bird isn't destructive by nature but brings life. The Queen in the Legend kissed the bird and let it burn her so she could become the Phoniex.

Phire found that half bizarre. "I'm not doing all that..." She said to the site. The Legend was typed in 1995 by some man named DJ Big R. Back in 95 the Humans where still leading what was Wi-Fi. So she took the story with a grain of salt.

"You need to get some sleep. Your light is dimming, girl." Mesa worried.

"Okay. I will hit the hay." Phire turned off the computer and went to sleep.

Two days later the party was ready to take on the beast. This time Princess Phire had a idea. This time they would wait for the bird to leave when the sun was rising The Phoniex left to search for stock to feed its fire. Phire knew it would need to get more food since their last encounter with her.

Once the party saw her leave the cave the rushed into the cave.

"Still want to get your revenge?" Teased Mesa.

"Shut up. Revenge is foolishness." Jincode said.

(End of part 1)

[sphinxsmuses-archived]

ooc: Alt. Verses/AUs!

Fire Emblem Three Houses Ai: Ai Malificia is a Golden Deer student. A little shy but friendly and kind to all, Ai mainly focuses on magic, studying Reason and Faith. She can be seen in the library or the courtyard but especially the greenhouse with all the flowers. Ai loves flowers, especially pink roses. She also has a twin sister who has run away from home that she hasn’t heard from in a long time. The two were dotted on by their overprotective parents as both had Crests.

They feared what could happen to the two and though Ai didn’t mind, her sister had enough and decided to run away. Ai was sad for days until she heard about the Monastery. It took some convincing for her parents to let her attend as a student but finally they let her go. Now on her own, Ai strives to do her best and learn to be a healer in order to help others.

Goddess Ai: Ai is kind-hearted, gentle, soft-spoken, nature goddess who loves flowers as well as relaxing activities like painting or reading with tea. She is quite naive about the world though, only knowing little from books and hasn’t been outside much due to worrying that there is danger out there. Ai is sweet and could possibly never harm anyone no matter the danger she may end up in.

Fire Emblem Three Houses Diana:

Diana’s mother is a noble knight of Faerghus, retired now after having a child, her father a Monk who used to be an adventurer. Diana would hear stories from both about serving the kingdom and seeing the world. Though adventuring around the world seemed fun, she decided to strive towards a path of being like her mother. At first she trained under her when young, then when old enough was accepted into the Academy under the Blue Lions house.

Knowing Dimitri is the heir to the throne, Diana tends to sway to training her hardest to impress him since she is aiming to be a knight of his someday once she graduates. Her hardworking and studious nature has some students frowning upon her, thinking her an overachiever, while others admire her.

Tsareena Gijinka Iyumi (A Pokemon Gijinka version of Iyumi where she is a Tsareena. Prissy and can seem stuck up but is actually willing to help others. If you’re charming and caring, her personality flips and she becomes a lot more friendly and adoring.)

Genshin Impact Iyumi: Iyumi is a Electro Fatui mage on the prowl for someone cute she can call hers. To most she acts vicious and snobby, ready to electrocute them should they get on her nerves. But should she find the someone she wants, she becomes more adoring and flirty, chasing after them until she can have them. Which can turn into an aggressive chase should the other not want her.

Iyumi is a talented Fatui mage from Snezhnaya, obeying the Tsaritsa though sometimes goes off on her own in search of someone to play with and be her lover should they catch her interest. However her aggressive behavior and the fact that she is a Fatui has scared multiple people off, making her a bit hot tempered and grumpy towards others.

One Piece Xia: Xia started off on an island of rich folk and snobs. She was given  everything she could have asked for except one thing. Freedom. Her parents were terrified of the outside world, even of some of their own neighbors thinking they would try something drastic to get their fortune. She was kept inside for the most part, couldn’t make friends, could barely even set foot outside. It drove her crazy. She could take  care of herself! Nothing would harm her. She tried every way she could  to break free of the cage she was in. And then, she finally saw her  chance when a pirate crew came to her shores.

The crew fell for her charms and looks and made her captain, blinded by their lust for her. Though she had never been a pirate or captain, she led them on one mission, to simply go place to place and have the fun she could never have when she was held like a  captive bird back home. Knowing how easily her small crew succumbed to  her wishes made her decide to branch out and use it more against others. Obtained the Inu Inu no Mii: Fox Model fruit on her travels.

One Piece Kyana: Kyatana or Kyana as she prefers to be called lived in a humble town. Days were peaceful, all thanks to the Marines. Or so she was told by her parents. She listened to stories of famous Marines and saw them as heroes, desiring strongly to be one. She read as many books about them as she could, trained herself to at least wield a sword, and anxiously waited for herself to be old enough to join. Along the way to getting recruited however, she had some hiccups. As a child, she found a strange fruit that bullies were hiding and she decided to take it for herself, thinking they didn’t deserve it. She ended up being chased and in the middle of it all, swallowed the fruit as fast as possible. At first nothing happened. Then a burst of flame came from her. Her parents weren’t the type to give up though and made things work out, even if they weren’t sure what to think about their daughter’s new abilities. But they knew everything had been an accident. They encouraged her to train her new abilities and keep aiming to join the Marines. That was nine years ago and now much older, Kyana was ready to be recruited, feeling like she had control over her flames. Has the fire fruit.

Demon Iyumi: A demon AU for Iyumi where she is a demon princess wanting to find her king and become a queen! Though her stuck up, snobbish attitude tends to scare away others. However, if she has interest in you, her personality switches and she’ll be nice and adoring towards you, possibly even flirty. Though watch out, when she sets her eyes on someone she wants, she’ll do anything to get them. Also has a Disgaea verse where she is a wannabe Overlord!

Goddess of Darkness Iyumi and Goddess of Light Miyuki: Twin goddesses with not only polar powers but polar personalities. Iyumi is a snob and a bit of a brat, seeing herself as above all others (especially mortals) though secretly wants to find someone to love (and dominate over) and has a secret soft side as well. Miyuki is sweet and kind and has a very sympathetic heart, willing to help any mortals she comes across that are in trouble. Though she is also quite gullible and naive. The two bicker at times but try to work with each other.

Angel Miyuki: Miyuki or Miyu is a young angel of heaven. She watches over humans with great curiosity but also a sense of duty to protect them. She is quite interested in the mortal world and wishes to visit it one day. Though she is no warrior, she wishes to use her healing abilities to help anyone in need. Miyu cares a lot for all living things and sympathizes easily with others’ struggles, even demons and fallen angels. The innocent angel only wishes to help whoever in need in whatever way she can. Face claim: Nasse from Platinum End

Fairy Miyuki/Miyu: Miyu is a friendly fairy that lives in the forest. Since people who come there sometimes get lost, if she finds anyone with such a case, she tries to help them in any way she can to find their way out and be happy. She feels sorry for them and also as someone who was born in the forest, finds it her duty to help those who don’t know the area well. Miyu is however naive and desires to help everyone even if they might have hidden intentions, and is rather innocent in nature. She could never hurt anyone even if they were to try and hurt her.

Fate Series Emilia: Emilia is from a family that has some mages, but none of them have participated in the Holy Grail Wars. When she was born, they decided she would be the first to participate once she was sixteen. It sent her family into a feud, some saying that she was much too young to join the Holy Wars, others saying she would be old enough to handle it.

Her family is counting on her to summon a strong Servant like Saber and carry their wish on her shoulders, a wish to make their family famous with a name that will go down in history. But Emilia decided on another wish. Realizing how deadly the Holy War was, she decided on the wish to never have it happen again so no one else would be forced to participate like herself.

Pokemon Sword/Shield Diana: Diana is a trainer from the Galar region, aiming to become champion and quite strong already. Because of her knight themed team, she’s been called Lady Paladin by random trainers. Her team consists of Aegislash, Sirfetch’d, Escavalier, Bisharp, Gallade, and Ninetails.

She is friendly but serious in battle and can seem stuck up. But she loves her Pokemon and is loyal to them and her friends, willing to throw herself in a fight to protect someone.

Final Fantasy 15 Diana: Diana grew up wanting to become a knight like her mother, her father a black mage she met on her travels. She was granted her wish when she showed great prowess in sword fighting and magic and was determined to do anything to protect her country. When trouble was heard brewing from the kingdom of Insomnia, Diana decided to start her journey as a knight early despite not being officially recognized as one and is traveling with her family friend turned her guardian, a moogle named Vico. Now she helps whoever is suffering under the empire and hopes to meet the prince one day to help him as well.

Club Singer/Information Broker Xia: Set in a time of gangsters like Al Capone, Xia is a infamous club singer, beautiful and willing to sell information she gathers from the patrons there for good amounts of money. She may be willing to pull other favors as well if there is something interesting for her to gain.

Villain Kyana: Kyana is a villain, her parents both villains but are rather comical about it. She is as well, coming up with catch phrases, monologues, and nicknames for the heroes who go against her. She never murders or kidnaps anyone, rather steals jewels or other cliche villain things.

[emma-what-son]

How Sir Philip's son cast a spell on Emma Watson: The super-woke Harry Potter star and the playboy son of the disgraced Topshop tycoon - it's hard to think of a more unlikely romance, writes ALISON BOSHOFF

One can almost see her eyebrows raised in quizzical disdain. Hermione Granger would surely disapprove.

Pictures emerged this week of Emma Watson, the serious-minded Harry Potter actress and eco-warrior, hopping out of Sir Philip Green’s family helicopter in Battersea, South London. Curious, some would think, given Emma’s long-standing war against fast fashion, that she would accept a lift from the fallen King of the High Street.

More curious still, however, is that Emma, 31, has apparently been enchanted by Brandon Green, Sir Philip’s 28-year-old son, whose longest relationship to date seems to have been with a Belarusian bikini model. Could there be a more unlikely romance?

Aside from both being awash with money —Brandon is an heir to a £2 billion fortune, while Emma is said to be worth about £59 million —they appear to have almost nothing in common. Yet according to a friend, a certain magic is in the air.

‘Brandon has been wooing Emma,’ says one source. Another says: ‘They are an item, although she hasn’t met the family yet.’

Emma, who once mused about being ‘self-partnered’, has certainly had more suitors than her single status would have you believe.

At 17, an early boyfriend was rugby player Tom Ducker, but her most serious romance seems to have been with another rugby player — and fellow Oxford student — Matt Janney, with whom she broke up in 2015.

Then there was another Oxford student, Will Adamowicz. The relationship lasted from 2011 to 2013.

She was then seen out and about with actor/producer Roberto Aguire, whom she first met in 2005 on the set of Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire. She also seems to have a particularly weak spot for young tech millionaires, as she has dated at least three of them, most significantly U.S. entrepreneur William ‘Mack’ Knight, whom she split from in late 2017 following a two-year romance.

Then came a six-month love affair with handsome Glee actor Chord Overstreet. They broke up during the summer of 2018.

She was then spotted sharing cocktails with tech CEO Brendan Wallace, a New Yorker, now 38, who is co-founder of a venture capital fund. By summer 2019 she was rumoured to have moved on to another tech millionaire, Brendan Iribe, CEO of Oculus.

She most recently split from her boyfriend of two years, businessman Leo Robinton.

It’s a longer list of amours than you might expect for someone who claims to be ‘self-partnered’, but then Emma is a woman who solemnly examines her life.

‘The boyfriends or partners I’ve had have generally made me feel really cherished. They have built me up,’ she said.

Quite how Brandon — who featured in Tatler’s ‘most eligible’ list in 2014 and was once caught patting Kate Moss’s bottom — fits into Emma’s orbit of admirers, remains to be seen. Although, like Emma’s other admirers, he does have a job running a tech investments company.

So who is this handsome young man — and what does Emma see in him?

Born in 1992, he was raised in Monte Carlo with big sister Chloe. His mother, Tina, is resident in the tax haven and was the ultimate owner of the Arcadia group, which went into administration last year. He went to the principality of Monaco’s International School.

To say his was a gilded upbringing would be an understatement. A source in Monaco says: ‘All the time he was growing up, the Greens would never fly commercial, always in their private jet.

‘They have a private chauffeur and in the family penthouse at the Roccabella building in Monaco there are uniformed maids standing to attention in every room just in case someone needs something. That’s the lifestyle Brandon was born into and has always thought was completely normal.’

He and Chloe have the use of the 109ft yacht Lionchase — Sir Phil has the 295ft Lionheart —which is moored in Monaco in the winter and cruises around the Med all summer.

I’m informed that his mum will pick up ‘seven-figure’ boat bills for the pair of them at the end of the season without blanching.

Brandon’s 2005 Bar Mitzvah caused a stir. It was held at the Grand-Hotel du Cap-Ferrat, with entertainment provided by Beyonce, Destiny’s Child and Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli. There were 300 guests over three days, all hosted by Sir Phil, who was then the boss of Topshop, BHS and Dorothy Perkins, all part of the Arcadia group.

When he was younger, Brandon seemed to be happy to join Chloe in a celebrity-packed party lifestyle. Locals say he was ‘practically living in Monaco’s Sass Café and partying until dawn every morning with a bevy of models’ in his 20s.

Kate Moss — a friend of his father — spent much of her 2011 honeymoon break with Jamie Hince on board his yacht and they got on famously. In 2013 he was spotted playfully groping Moss’s bikini-clad bottom while on holiday in St Barth’s. At the time he was 21.

When she was 21, Emma Watson had been famous for a decade and had just finished making the Potter films.

While Brandon found life one long, joyful party, she was struggling introspectively with having money and acclaim. As she recently said: ‘I’ve often thought, I’m so wrong for this job because I’m too serious.’

She felt physically sick when she found out how much money she had earned from the Potter films, and considered not renewing her contract to complete them.

Following stellar A-levels, she took an English degree at Brown University in Rhode Island — over five years, due to disruption from filming.

Brandon Green doesn’t have a degree. There was some idea that he might buck the family trend and go to university, but Sir Phil told an interviewer at the time: ‘It’s up for discussion,’ and evidently it was decided that was not the right path.

Instead, he spent years learning the ropes of the fashion business with Sir Philip and working for Arcadia.

As the BHS scandal raged in 2016 — after Sir Philip sold the company to a bankrupt, with a hole in its pensions provisions — and the company went bust, Brandon was sent to host a table at the Met Gala Ball in New York in his father’s place.

For three years, he was also a regular at the Topshop show at London Fashion Week, sitting with model Jourdan Dunn and chatting to Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour.

He began to go to Cannes, again as part of Topshop’s presence at the film festival, and to attend the Amfar charity gala on the arm of girlfriend Maryna Linchuk, a Victoria’s Secret model who towered over him.

But when Chloe became more involved in the family business and started designing shoes, Brandon stepped back from the spotlight.

They are a close family, all the more so since the woes that beset the Arcadia Group and Sir Philip before it collapsed. In fact, this seems to have acted as a wake-up call for Brandon.

A source said: ‘Once Philip fell from grace so badly, all the A-list celebrities and many of the world’s elite dropped the Green family completely. It really shook them up.

‘There was a party in Monaco that a family friend threw for them in the middle of the BHS pensions scandal. Brandon looked around aghast and said to Tina, “We don’t know anyone here!”

‘They felt the world hated them. Philip would fill his days doing laps of Monaco on foot with his bodyguard and personal trainer. Tina would busy herself in her art gallery or with her interior design business. There were a lot of tears; it was an awful atmosphere for the staff and for the family.

‘Brandon could see how transient popularity is and how big A-list stars had been using them for free holidays on their yachts for years. The whole experience sparked a “woke-over” in Brandon.

‘He got very interested in biodiversity and saving the oceans. He does a lot of charity and advocacy work with both Monaco’s Prince Albert’s Foundation and Princess Charlene’s Foundation. He is a trained deep-sea diver, he is very into fitness and gets involved with galas and charities that help the planet. He does frequent beach clean-ups and whatever he can to help.

‘It’s all very low-key, as he doesn’t want to be seen to be doing charity work for PR. But he’s been getting Tina to donate a hefty amount of money to charities that help save the planet too, saying they should do some good with their huge fortune.’

A second source says it is now Brandon, rather than Chloe, who is the apple of Tina’s eye, and he who is seen as the one who will eventually turn the family’s public reputation around.

A friend says: ‘He is very disciplined, intelligent and keen on study. He reads a lot, he travels a lot. He’s polite and well-mannered. Whatever he does, he embraces it fully. His parents are proud of him.’

His hobbies include skiing, at which he excels. He trains almost daily and took part in a gruelling cycling and swimming charity event last year for Princess Charlene of Monaco’s charity, going from Corsica to Monaco.

The friend adds: ‘He eats right and doesn’t drink or party — he is a very nice young man.’

How Brandon came to meet Emma, whose woke credentials may prove challenging for his family, is somewhat unclear, although it is believed his newfound interest in charitable ventures may have steered him her way.

Last year Miss Watson joined the sustainability committee at Kering, the owner of top fashion brands such as Gucci. She was labelled ‘Hollywood’s queen of ethical dressing’ by Vogue.

She has been taking a break from acting after appearing in the 2019 film Little Women but remains an active advocate for ‘race and gender justice’ via various charities. In 2014 she became a UN Women Goodwill ambassador, and she also ran a feminist book club, Our Shared Shelf, on Twitter.

She loves writing poetry, jigsaws, cats and nights in.

Her first purchase with the Potter millions was a ‘brick-like’ Toyota Prius. She said: ‘It’s sensible and boring, like me.’

Not that Emma is as staid as she says. In conversation with Gloria Steinem at an event in London in 2016, she revealed that she subscribes to a sex education website called OMGyes.

It’s a far remove from the days when she was cast in the Harry Potter films at nine years old, having been found via the theatre club she attended. She only completed filming the last Potter when she was 20, in June 2010.

Sources who knew her in the Potter days say her father Chris’s influence was paramount, even though she lived with her mother in Oxford.

The experience of growing up on Potter was so constricting and stressful, when the cast and crew held a ‘wrap party’ at Harry’s Bar after the final set of reshoots in 2010, she didn’t attend.

She said in 2017: ‘It’s something I’ve really wrestled with. I’ve gone back and quizzed my parents. When I was younger, I just did it. I just acted, it was just there.

‘I was finding this fame thing was getting to a point of no return. I sensed that if this was something I was ever going to step away from, it was now or never.’

Post-Potter, her films have been generally low-key. It is said she turned down the La La Land role that brought Emma Stone an Oscar.

Her £3 million London home was selected after she viewed it over Skype, because she can come and go unobserved.

That’s not to say her life is in any way normal: her social circle includes fashion figures such as Antoine Arnault of the LVMH dynasty, she has been the face of Lancome perfume and launched a collection with the ethical fashion label People Tree.

The question now is, will Emma finally find lasting love with a most unlikely Green?

[bourgeoishellion]

I rant about a manga I read

I’ve been crying over +A no Tachiichi by Geni Yuu for the past few...hours. That’s actually quite a few literal hours I’m talking about, and I will never divulge the exact number because at this point it’s a long tantrum. 

I love this manga, and I will stand by it till the end of time. I reread it with tears in my eyes and sobbed even harder the second and third time. So, listen to the synopsis:

Satoki Houma is an imaginative girl who enjoys shoujo manga. She has long comes to terms with the fact she will never be the type of girl that is the heroine of a manga purely because she isn't pretty, and she has decided she prefers to watch events unfold rather that get involved in any case. However, in the perfect shoujo manga twist, one day she gets dragged to an alternate world where the people have summoned a Holy Maiden to save them! Except so did her classmate, Haruka Toudou, who fits the exact model of a Shoujo Protagonist. Naturally, Satoki is overlooked for Haruka except it's not Haruka who has the powers of the Holy Maiden they wished for. What will Satoki do!?

Okay. It actually sounds pretty basic, cliche, and it’s the summary I tend to think, oh. . . one of those. Boring, but maybe it’ll surprise me.

I’ve been reading too many of the same kind of isekai manga lately, the overpowered and overly justified protagonist has been getting old. But this...

This is exactly what I’ve been looking for for ages.

Obvious spoilers for the ending, which is all I’m really going to rant about because I need to get this cry out or else I’m never moving on with my life...

So, Spoiler Alert: Satoki ends up returning to her own world.

That was one of the things I was looking for in an isekai. And I’ve never been more sad to have found such a perfect manga that could grant me this.

Satoki finds out that while she has stronger powers than Haruka (due to her imagination), she has a more limited fountain of power to draw from. So she can create all these fantastical, marvelous weapons, but Haruka can only create what others imagine (or something like that. It’s later explained she can also utilize this thing called memory, but what even is that? lol). 

However, the more she creates, the less “mana” she has, and it can’t replenish itself.

Haruka, on the other hand, as the true Holy Maiden, has an unlimited source of mana. 

So, in the end, Satoki really wasn’t the Holy Maiden. She really did trip into this other world. The Priestess tells her that the only thing keeping her in the world is the mana she has, and that once it runs out, she’ll return to her own world. 

And this is great news, really! Satoki has always been left out, always been just a little less important, hasn’t made so many good friends that she would overlook the pros of going back home, nor does she believe she would leave a lasting impact on the minds of everyone she met in the story. So, overall, the fact she can go back home is a positive!

Right. 

Right!?!?

NONONONONONONnodnONAFNSLDL;KJ.

Sorry, I’ll try to be a little less shaky from now on...

See, she ends up with enough mana to create a useless small thing, so the “final battle” has to be fought alongside Haruka, so that with Satoki’s imagination and Haruka’s unlimited power they can defeat the enemy!

It’s a great plan. Satoki has been forced to pretend to be the Voice of God for a while now, so she even has the important minor role of declaring Haruka the Holy Maiden (it’s a whole thing). 

After declaring Haruka “The One,” mid-battle, while they are still being attacked by both a bloodthirsty demon king and a power-hungry prince AT THE SAME TIME, Satoki decides to peace out.

And it makes a lot of sense. She does tend to be surrounded by blunders, she really should take the opportunity to leave while she still can! So she has a wonderful goodbye scene with Haruka and gives her a paper mache sword that is shiny (which is all she can do with the power she has left). 

That was wonderful. Great moment. Now, just wait for whatever will take her home to take her hom-WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, HARUKA IS NOT THE ONLY TEARFUL GOODBYE YOU HAD TO GIVE!

But of course, Satoki is a fucking idiot, she couldn’t have realized that, yes, other people wanted to say goodbye to her! They would have loved to have a moment to talk to her, to say their farewell, thank her- ugh. 

So, the mage Miva and the fake Maiden Luce are obviously who I’m talking about here. 

I fell in love with Luce the moment she appeared in the manga (relatively late) because she was so obviously taken with Satoki. While everyone often had something/someone more important than Satoki (even Haruka was more preoccupied with her love life), Luce made it clear that Satoki was important to her! 

Sure, she was taking the minimal (it was actually pretty big though!) risk by taking Satoki’s side against the prince, but it was for her! She was important to her! She and Satoki were friends through and through. 

But the dumbass thought that Luce was just taken with how much of a pretty boy Miva was. Oh yeah, she’s totally into the stupid mage she just stared down and not totally loyal to you. 

And Miva. Oh, Miva...

Lemme just...rehash what happened from the moment Satoki summoned that stupid paper mache sword.

She said goodbye to Haruka and they did the friend thing.

And then Miva grabbed her shoulder, because she just did something stupid. He straight up asks, “Why did you make such a weird decision!?”

And we have to respect that, for once in this miserable joke of a journey, she made a fucking choice of her own volition, no advice, no suggestions, she chose this herself. She thought it through and decided...hey. This is when I want to go.

So, Miva is obviously a little messed up here. Satoki is leaving. Like, right the fuck now. She didn’t tell anyone she was going to do this, and now there’s no turning back!

Before the battle, Miva had told her that he wanted to talk to her. He wanted to tell her something. But now, there’s no god damn time, she’s on the verge of leaving forever. 

And Miva is trying his damnedest to talk to her but...they’re in the middle of a fucking war. 

The Prince orders their arrest and death or whatever, so they have to dodge that shit. 

And as they do, Luce drags Satoki down to the floor and let’s her know she is the worst best friend in the history of best friends because What the fuck? “You were just gonna leave without saying goodbye? Was I the only one who thought we were friends?”

And what a time to find out your friend is your friend (even though its been obvious from the first chapter she appeared in and even though she has told you several times in direct fashion that you should be more decisive for your own good, which is something only your friends have done, ugh-)

Anyway, Luce and Satoki get a somewhat half-assed goodbye, but it’s still nice. For the last time, Luce tells her to grow a spine and not depreciate herself.

Miva comes back, and he has something to say. But oohhh, look, the king is over there, Satoki has to know if he’s on their side or naw even though she shouldn’t care, she’s not staying long enough for it to matter!

Miva does a quick explanation but “Anyway, [he] has something to tell [her]!” but oh wait, demon king is throwing shit at them now, fucking duck. Miva saves her life with magic and time is running short, honestly, it’s kind of amazing Satoki is still here at all. How much lag does this magic have?

Satoki’s worried about the ongoing battle around her, but Miva grabs her arm and pulls her in. 

“Wait...WAIT!!!” Please, Satoki, just- hear him out, please...

He let’s her know in too many words that this whole speaking mess is a mess because she chose such a stupid time to go home! I just...lemme write this out, okay, his dialogue fucking kills me...

“It’ll be fine, just listen to me!! Look! It’s because you’re trying to go home at a time like this that things keep getting in the way! We can’t even talk like this! Properly!”

“Talk?” she asks (YES TALK).

He has hold of her arm, and he pulls her in to TALK PROPERLY but.

Her arm...disappears. Her hand is gone. She’s going. He’s out of time.

He stared at the spot where her hand is supposed to be while she says the stupidest thing, “Oh, you’re right! I’m sorry, I forgot to thank you properly...” 

The silly mask she was wearing to speak in public cracks and breaks apart, which confuses her. 

“...We really...don’t have any more time to talk now, do we?”

Why is she so worried about her mask, why can’t she look at his face? He looks so fucking devastated, and it’s actually the most emotion we’ve seen on his face since chapter one, listen to him.

“I never said anything because I didn’t want you to become spoiled and dependent on me,” a justifiable fear, but it’s hitting hard, “but you’ve really worked hard. More than enough-” She has, maybe he should have had more faith in her, however, he probably did everything just right.

An explosion behind them. Battle’s still going as he speaks, she’s obviously not paying attention.

“Well...your work...” he says.

It’s always been about her “duty” when they speak, they’ve never spoken about anything else. 

The knight wants to step up to fight the demon dick, and Satoki is worried about that obviously bad idea, and she yells at him not to do that. She is not. Listening. He’s still talking...

“...your work...isn’t what’s important...” She’s not listening. 

“What? Oh no, Roswald-san, you can’t! You have to-” She’s not listening.

“...what is important...” She’s not listening.

“I’m telling you not to go!” She’s not even part of the same conversation. 

Miva looks on, obviously giving up on telling her anything. There’s too much going on. She’s so easily distracted. Her hand is gone, she’s disappearing for good, and she’s not even paying attention to him. 

“Satoki,” he puts his hand on her head. She finally looks at him, she finally listens. He smiles at her for the first time. “You did well.”

“MAS-”

And then she’s in her school hallways, absolutely alone.

“-ter. You smiled...” 

She’s back. She meets up with her normal high school friends again. 

The End.

This fucking killed me. This is actively killing me, right now. It’s so fucking unfair. Miva and Luce deserved so much better, but Satoki never even thought about them. God dammit. 

This calls for another hour of sobbing uncontrollably. There’s absolutely nothing else after this. We left mid-battle, Miva had the saddest farewell and even Satoki admits that was an unsatisfying way to end things, but I expected it. I was expecting it to end like this ever since we found out she could go home, but it doesn’t make it hurt any less. 

This is just the sort of protagonist she is, it was done so well, and it sucks...

This is actually it. The End. She has the manga in her hands, so she probably knows how things sort of ended up for Haruka and maybe even Miva and Luce, but we don’t. We don’t even get to know what Miva really wanted to tell her, though I have a guess...

Satoki is just a bit more decisive, but is otherwise unchanged and has returned to her world. Miva and Luce never got to see her again. 

I know for sure that if they could have chosen who of the two “Holy Maidens” they would have preferred stay, Haruka would not have been their choice. And that makes me so sad. 

The worst part is, there really is no reason it would have been better for Satoki to stay. This is actually the best possible outcome. I just wish...they’d had more time.

This is an unpopular manga. It’s been read by few people, and many of the people who read it were disappointed in the story because it had a premise that implied the cliche, yet it ended so. Anticlimactically. 

So, there really is nothing after this. Not even fan content, it’s so short and unknown I think there’s actually only two fanfictions (one in spanish, another a crossover, neither what I need right now), no fanart, no doujinshis, nothing. It’s over. It’s done. It was perfect, the. End. 

It’s exactly how it was supposed to end.

I’m so sad.

I’m probably going to draw something tomorrow. Maybe I’ll start and never finish a fanfiction. Maybe I’ll just let it go. 

[nobodyfamousposts]

Felix July - First Kiss (Felix Culpa)

@felixmonth

When Felix had his first kiss, it had been an overall unnoteworthy affair. He would be surprised if anyone remembered.

Which was naturally why every detail of it was imprinted in his memory like cheap and ugly-looking stamp haphazardly placed on a child’s hand.

It had been for a photo shoot. He honestly didn’t even remember what specifically it was for. Something promoting a charity? Or a school? He remembered standing stiffly in this horrendous suit that was itchy, ill-fitting, and all too stiff. He remembered it was hot and much too bright—summer maybe? The air was hot and muggy, which only made the suit worse. And there was that girl—that stupid vapid brat of a girl who would insist on holding his hand no matter how little he did to reciprocate or how much he tried to pull away.

He was all of 9 years old, if he remembered correctly. And he hated it. He hated being there.

They were taking pictures and Felix wanted nothing more than to get it over with and go inside where it was cool and he could finally get some water. But the girl he was partnered with kept wasting time with her obnoxious voice and inability to follow simple directions, making the whole thing last longer than it needed to. No one seemed to notice or even really care. He was hot and dizzy, and looking back he was sure he had probably been suffering some manner of dehydration and heat exhaustion.

Then finally it was the last shot and Felix was relieved. Just one more, he had kept telling himself. Just this one last thing and he could go home and sleep in his room.

He remembered the girl’s loud voice all too close to him again calling out his name and out of reflex pulled his hands to himself to protect them from her grasp. He realized too late that it wasn’t his hands she was aiming for as he felt two sweaty palms grabbing his cheeks and a face mashing against his own in what he was afterwards informed was supposed to be some semblance of a kiss. Her lips were dry and while it may have simply been his childish imagination, even to this day he described them as being like plastic.

He heard a shutter go off. Followed by cheers. Like this complete invasion of his person was something to be happy about.

He was left confused. Dazed. Not out of awe or love but out of dizziness and panic because someone just grabbed him and forced her lips on his own and he wasn’t even coherent enough to know if he was okay with that or not. Nobody had mentioned a kiss in the pictures. Nobody had told him this would happen!

Felix was nine years old and had just been kissed. And all he wanted to do was push the little offender away and hide somewhere.

He remembered looking around in confusion, hoping someone could explain to him. But nobody did. They all just smiled at each other with big grins like this was expected or perhaps a nice surprise that none of them saw any problem with.

Everyone was so proud. “His first kiss!” One commented, not that the individual should have known or that it was anybody’s business in the first place.

They cooed and oohed and ahhed like it was something adorable and sweet and romantic before promptly forgetting about the whole thing and moving on to whatever else was unfortunate enough to catch their fancy.

But for Felix, the gross feeling remained. It lingered, even. That stale plastic feeling that remained on his lips no matter how many times he wiped and rubbed them. No matter what he did, the feeling never went away.

Even when he went home, it was still there. He washed his face a good three times to no effect. And he didn’t understand it. He was nine. No one had spoken to him about it or asked how he felt. And he could only reason that maybe it was because they weren’t supposed to? Or that it was something he was supposed to know and deal with? Maybe this was normal and that was why nobody talked about it?

So for a time, he was convinced that he had an allergy to kissing and made a note to avoid doing it again in the future.

He’d developed a bad habit of biting his lip after that. No matter how many times his parents or agent or photographers insisted he stop—because heaven forbid Felix bruise his precious lips, or worse, get an overbite! It took a good while to break himself of the habit, and that was only because of the constant interference of the adults he was forced to work with to stop him.

It all only furthered his dislike of people.

___________________

An ornate door slammed open as Felix barged into the beautifully but rather out datedly beautiful room.

“Marinette!”

He might have been relieved when he saw her, if it were not for the way she barely responded to him, instead remaining stationary at the window seat and oblivious to the world.

Felix groaned. Because of course the akuma had gotten to her as well.

Of all the stupid things—!

Why? WHY did Rossi have to go and mess up the theater performance?

It shouldn’t have mattered that Marinette had gotten the role of the Princess for the play, and to be fair, the girl hadn’t even wanted the role. But Adrien had been selected as the Prince—which Felix was inclined to believe might have have more to do with either some sort of behind the scenes bribery or that the Director had just been intelligent enough to figure that he would get more attention and notoriety by having the male model as the star. Either due to her own infatuation with the boy or because she knew full well what would likely happen with just about anyone else in her place, Marinette chose to keep the role. The Director was overall rather pleased, and the two seemed to do rather well in their practice together.

But Felix knew neither Bourgeois or Rossi were happy with the decision. He also know that at least one of the two was bound to try something to sabotage the play.

Unfortunately, Felix had put his money on Chloe, given her previous antics during Clara Nightingale’s music video. He hadn’t counted on Rossi pulling a particularly vindictive stunt and damage the set and costumes. Or that she would try to blame Marinette to try to get her in trouble.

They were just lucky the Director hadn’t bought her story, but it did still cause a major setback for the play and the Director WAS still rather upset about the whole thing. And that was all that was needed to create an akuma.

A reality-warping akuma of all things, and one with the power to recreate his “masterpiece” in the real world. So far, he’d managed to change the other students into a legion of knights and summon a dragon—though Felix had been pretty certain there wasn’t supposed to be a dragon in the story. Then of all things, the man had transformed the Bourgeois hotel into a castle.

One with a tower.

And stairs.

WHY did there have to be so many stairs?

How Felix had managed to break into the place was a mystery. WHY he had done so was an even greater one. He was fairly certain he had lost his mind somewhere in the midst of the day’s antics.

Except that wasn’t it and he knew it. No, he knew the real reason he had forced his way here instead of doing the sensible thing and hiding out until Ladybug and Chat Noir could defeat the akuma and return things to normal.

It wasn’t even the stairs—though heaven knew his legs no doubt hated him after trekking up to the top floor. No.

It was that he was only there trying to rescue her because she had taken a hit trying to distract the akuma from him in the first place.

Stupid guilt.

Stupid akuma.

Stupid Rossi, wherever she was. No doubt hiding somewhere safe and watching the madness unfold.

“Marinette!” He hissed, grabbing her arm. It was cold. Was she supposed to be this cold?

Dull blue eyes stared at him blankly.

“Marinette, we have to go!” Quickly. Before the akuma returned.

But she didn’t respond. If anything, she appeared altogether rather unconcerned with his warnings or even the fact that he was there at all. Which was particularly concerning, given the aforementioned AKUMA on the loose.

“My Prince will be coming soon. I must wait here for him.” Her voice was as empty as her eyes.

“Snap out of it!”

But she refused to move. She merely remained sitting in place by the window, either unaware or unconcerned with where she was, the akuma attack, or the current state of things.

That settled it, he realized. She was clearly under the akuma’s control. It made sense. Knowing Marinette, if she had been herself, she no doubt would have found a way out of here herself by now.

For a moment, Felix questioned if he shouldn’t simply try to force her to leave with him, but she was clearly under the Director’s control and fully intent on obeying whatever commands he had given her. He could attempt to carry her out, but even assuming she didn’t fight him, she would be little more than dead weight as she was—and that wasn’t including the extra weight from the dress and accessories she was now adorned with.

He would almost say she looked pretty. Almost. The outfit was clearly based on her design for the original dress, but when the akuma managed to grab her, it had altered the entire thing—making it more extravagant than it needed to be and with extra accessories. The mask seemed to fit her face perfectly, mostly pink but with extensive silver engravings. In turn, the headpiece she now wore was also made of silver and inlaid with pearls. The dress was pink and silver, and also adorned with a multitude of pearls and silver leaf engravings.

It was beautiful. But he couldn’t help but feel it had looked better when it had been her own.

He shook his head. Now wasn’t the time for this. He had to get Marinette out of here.

Felix glanced around the room, but there appeared to be nothing of use. Part of him idly noted that this was likely once Chloe’s room. He might have found it humorous if he wasn’t already stressed and focused on greater concerns.

He had to get Marinette out of there.

But how…?

He started running multiple plans through his head. Questioning the logistics and tactics of whether to try to simply pull her or force himself to carry her out when a certain…other thought came to mind.

It was a play, after all. One based on a fairy tale, if he recalled.

Now, Felix was well versed in books and tales enough to know how the fairy tales of old truly tended to end. But most people weren’t generally as aware—usually caught up in the Disney stories and happy endings. The Director, for all that the man took his art quite seriously, certainly appeared to be one of them.

And how did most people think fairy tales ended.

He groaned at the realization.

Why had Adrien had to go and disappear on him?

“Marinette, please!”

She remained unmoved.

Felix wanted to throw something.

Where was that blasted boy when he was needed? He had told the other blond they needed to get to her together, but the next thing he knew, he was alone and Adrien had just gone and run off somewhere!

At least Chat Noir had arrived to help, for all the good that did. But Ladybug was nowhere to be found. And while Chat could take down the akuma, he could do nothing to purify it or undo the damage caused if Ladybug wasn’t there.

They needed Ladybug. And if she was already taken down, then he needed another way to save Marinette.

‘True Love’s Kiss breaks any curse!’ He remembered the way his mother had intoned the words when she used to read to him. The way Rose had so naively insisted the same and how the Director had smiled in agreement.

It’s a reality-altering akuma. And if it can make reality work how it wants…

Felix groaned again in frustration.

This was why he had tried to bring Adrien here! Any fool could have seen how much Marinette adored him. And if this was supposed to follow the story, she needed to be kissed by her true love!

It was Adrien! It had to be!

And the idiot should have KNOWN that!

How could he remain unaware as to how the girl felt? Was he really that oblivious? Or was he simply trying to ignore it out of some perceived politeness?

Felix didn’t know. He really didn’t care. He just…

He just wanted Marinette to wake up.

A kiss to break a spell, right?

He caught himself biting his lip.

“I’m sorry.”

She merely continued to stare at him.

No, not even at him but through him.

And somehow…for all that he hated touch and especially kissing…

He hated that look on her more.

That damn blank look. Like a doll. Expressionless and empty…

Marinette Dupain-Cheng was always vibrant and full of life.

It was…one of the many things he admired about her.

He reached out slowly. Her eyes didn’t even seem to register his movements.

She should never look like this.

He took her face in his hands—her skin cold to the touch.

She should never feel like this.

He lowered his face to hers, eyes closed tightly and apologies screaming in his head.

Contact.

Her lips were soft. Smooth.

Warm.

He hadn’t realized how warm she could be before.

He pulled back, barely grazing her lips with his own as he waited.

There was a shuddering breath that he was sure wasn’t his. A gasp. The feeling of air on his skin.

And blue eyes. Shining and lovely.

“Felix?”

[princesssarisa]

10 facts about Shana and her mother Darika. Plus the full OC interview with each of them :)

Here they are! Shanna, the “Beauty” of my wlw Beauty and the Beast retelling (which still lacks a definitive title, though I intend it to include the word “rose”), and Darika, her mother.

Shanna 10 facts 1. She is 14 years old during the story’s prologue, 17 when the main plot starts, and 19 by the end.

2. My facecast for her is the late Israeli singer Ofra Haza (best known to some of us for providing the voice of Moses’s mother Yocheved in The Prince of Egypt) when she was very young.

3. She’s mixed race. Her mother’s ancestors were white pseudo-Europeans, while her father’s came from a Middle Eastern-inspired culture. Both practiced the same Judaism- and Shamanism-inspired religion, though. She’s her world’s equivalent of a Jewish person who’s half Ashkenazi, half Mizrahi.

4. Her name is partly a variant of the Yiddish “Shaina,” meaning “beautiful,” and partly an abbreviation of the Hebrew “Shoshanna,” meaning “lily” or, more significantly, “rose.” It has nothing to do with the Hebrew “shana,” meaning “year” – they’re just almost-homonyms.

5. Unlike most traditional Beauty and the Beast Beauties, she’s the eldest of three sisters, not the youngest. Her two sisters aren’t wicked, but they are a bit of a handful because they’re so young, and she’s had to be their responsible caretaker. She plays that role well – her little sister Zuri sooner calls for her than for their mother when she needs help – but it’s kept her from fully exploring her own potential, which she finally does get to explore during her time with Liriel, the lady beast.

6. Her personality is very much like Disney’s original animated Belle: bookish, sweet, emotional, full of dreams, yet intelligent and strong willed too. She’s more socially awkward than Belle, though, and unfortunately, she also has the self-doubt of Robin McKinley or Megan Kearney’s Beauties. Unlike Belle, she’s internalized the idea that she’s odd and oversensitive, so she tries to act like a “normal” down-to-earth villager, until the year she spends with Liriel makes her realize her worth just as she is.

7. She’s an aspiring author and poet. At age 13, before her family fell into poverty, she wrote a play based on the popular story of the heroine Lady Yasfira, portraying her as more flawed and dynamic than in most retellings, giving more sympathy than usual to the “evil” queen who opposed her, and portraying them as having once been friends. (Think either The Prince of Egypt or Wicked, or both.) The play was never performed at the time, but years later, with Liriel’s encouragement, she fine-tunes it, and then they perform it together for Liriel’s animal servants – this plays an important role in their growing feelings for each other.

8. She rarely lets herself get angry, but when she does, she can verbally annihilate you.

9. She realized she was bisexual at age 11 when, after her first crush on a boy at her school ended, she developed a new crush on a girl. She probably realized this more quickly than most real-world bi girls do, because the setting, Zalina Island, has no homophobia. She never acted on her crushes, but only out of shyness, not because she saw anything wrong with liking girls.

10. Despite her gentle personality, she’s not especially femme: she’s more soft butch, or maybe futch. She dislikes dresses (fortunately, Zalina Island has no taboo against women in pants) and generally wears just one or two feminine articles, like a shawl or earrings, with otherwise boyish clothing.

Interview (as she would answer it around the middle of the story)

What did you want to be, when you were a kid? There were so many things I wanted to be at different times. A queen, a princess, a duchess, a prophet, a traveling bard, an actress, a shepherdess, a farmer, a lady knight, a prime minister, a priestess, an acrobat, a cook, a kitchen maid, a dressmaker like my mother, a merchant like my father, a doctor, a midwife, a goldsmith, a fairy… and eventually, I realized that the one way to be all those things was to be a writer.

When did you know you wanted to be a writer? As soon as I was old enough to realize that stories didn’t come out of thin air, but where written by people. I wanted to do it as soon as I knew I could.

Who inspires you? My mother, my father, and a wide array of fictional heroes and heroines.

If you got to choose, where would you like to live? With whom? I’d love to live in a castle. I try not to care where I live as long as my family is with me, but my dreams of living in some splendid beautiful place never seem to die. I wouldn’t want it unless my family was there too, though.

Which item would you never give away? My journal, where I write down my secret thoughts, poems and stories.

Tell us about the biggest mistake you made in your life. Until recently, I might have cited the time I forgot to write an important history essay for school because I got lost in writing my play Yasfira and Anefri. Or else the time I lost my temper with my three-year-old sister Zuri and hurt her feelings so badly that she ran away and was missing for over an hour. But now, there’s no doubt that my worst mistake was asking Mama to bring me back a unique flower if she could find one on her trip to the city. Who would have thought a flower would cost so much?

Did you ever fear for your life? Yes, the moment when I saw Lady Liriel for the first time, after I followed Mama back to her lair – half wolf, half dragon, and entirely terrifying – and even more so, when she sniffed the air and I knew she smelled me hiding there.

There’s people who say you’re strange. Do you have any comment on this? I’m afraid it’s true. So often my imagination feels more real than the real world, my mind flies off to places that no one else believes exist, my emotions swell and crash like tidal waves no matter how much I try to swallow them and put logic first, I’ve always asked too many questions, and I feel less alone with only my books, paper and pen than I do in crowds of people.

Tell us something about you that nobody knows. Well, not many people know how strange I am anymore. I’ve learned to copy Mama and pretend to be as sensible and down-to-earth as she and our neighbors are, instead of spewing my feelings and dreams the way I used to. If the villagers knew about my romantic fantasies or the stories and poems I write in my head, they would laugh or scold even more than the people in the city did when I was small. 

What would make a perfect day for you? A few hours spent reading, a few spent writing, and maybe a trip to the theatre in the evening, with people who understand me and let me feel free to be myself.

Darika 10 Facts 1. She takes on the father’s traditional role in the Beauty and the Beast story. Her husband was a merchant, but he died in the same shipwreck that destroyed his merchandise and left the family impoverished. But a few years later, she learns that one of his ships survived after all, has to travel to reclaim its cargo, but gets lost in a forest… and we all know the rest. Recent BatB retellings have put a lot of effort into answering the question “What happened to Beauty/Belle’s mother?” in interesting and poignant ways. To be different, I thought “Why not make her mother the living parent?”

2. My facecast for her is the New York City Criminal Court judge Rachel “Ruchie” Freier. Not that I know much about Judge Freier, but her face look right for the character.

3. At the beginning of the story, she’s 35 years old. By the end, she’s 40.

4. She was born in a small, poor village at the base of the White Pine Mountains. Her parents died when she was a baby, so she was raised by her grandfather and her older sister, who have since died too. 

5. She worked as a seamstress in the village until she met and fell in love with a wealthy young traveling merchant from an elite port city. Despite the disapproval of his social circle, they married. After his death, she took their daughters back to her home village to start a new life.

6. Her impoverished upbringing and family tragedies have toughened her. She takes a very practical, hardworking, no-nonsense approach to life, tries to teach her daughters to do the same, and is calm and resolute in the face of hardship, focusing on “What are we going to do about it?” She sometimes loses patience with her daughter Shanna’s dreaminess and sensitivity, which makes Shanna, who adores and idolizes her, feel inadequate and weak.

7. Inside, though, she feels just as deeply and intensely as Shanna does. Her love for her family is limitless and she’s actually very dependent on Shanna, who fills the role of the family’s nurturing caregiver more than Darika’s temperament lets her do.

8. One thing she and Shanna have in common, which Shanna learned from her, is strong integrity and deep compassion for others. For her, the best part of being rich was all the good she could do for the poor, while the hardest part of becoming poor again was having so little to give to those even poorer.

9. Her sewing is more than just her job – it’s an art. She embroiders the clothes and quilts she makes with all kinds of colors and unique designs. The vibrant images she creates are an outlet for the emotions she doesn’t express.

10. Her personality is inspired by assorted beloved literary heroines, both classic (Jane Eyre, Elinor Dashwood) and modern (Tamora Pierce’s lady knight Keladry of Mindalen). For all their differences, and though they’re much younger than Darika, all these heroines are quiet, practical, dignified, staunch in their integrity, deeply caring and passionate on the inside, and yet with masks of stoic self-control that they only drop when intensely provoked. I like those heroines and admire them, yet sometimes their popular role model status annoys me, because it’s hard for a highly sensitive, naturally effusive person to act like them. So Darika pays tribute to them, but the story will also emphasize that her daughters don’t need to be like her.

Interview (as she would answer it around the middle of the story) What did you want to be, when you were a kid? A forest sprite or a good witch. I had a wild imagination in those days, before the real world tamed it.

When did you know you wanted to be a seamstress? When I first learned that the flowers and birds on my childhood quilt hadn’t sprouted there by themselves, but were embroidered by my mother, and that the storytelling tapestries that hung on the village temple walls were sewn by other villagers in the same way. I wanted to create beauty like they had, and to tell stories through pictures, while at the same time creating useful things for others: clothes, blankets, handkerchiefs, etc.  I think I willed my own talent for sewing into being to do just that.  

Who inspires you? My older sister Shanna; the namesake of my daughter. We lost our mother very young, so she took on the role of mother for me, and every day her love and strength have inspired me as I’ve raised my own children.

If you got to choose, where would you like to live? With whom? I would live in a clean, elegant, comfortable house with my daughters, a servant or two, and my husband, if only I could bring him back.

Which item would you never give away? My wedding ring.

Tell us about the biggest mistake you made in your life. Three of them, one directly after the other. First, when I was lost in the Great Forest during a storm, I took shelter in what I thought was an ordinary cave. Then, when I found that the inside looked like a castle, I should have turned and left; even then I knew that such an enchanted place would be dangerous. But I was cold, wet, and afraid I would die if I went back out into the storm, so I stayed. Last but not least, when I discovered the greenhouse garden in that castle-cave, I crept in and picked a rose as a gift for my daughter Shanna. Who would have dreamed a single flower would cost so much?

Did you ever fear for your life? I feared for my life when I was lost in the storm, but even more so when I came face to face with Lady Liriel. I’ll never forget the sight of her matted fur and vampire-bat fangs as she glared down at me.

There’s people who say you’re cold and stony. Do you have any comment on this? They don’t really know me.

Tell us something about you that nobody knows. Very few people fully know me, not even my daughters. I play the role of the calm, practical peasant woman, but it’s only skin-deep. Shanna thinks all her wild passions and romantic dreams came from her father, but really she inherited them from me too. My grandfather knew the secret me, and so did my sister, and my husband. But they’re all gone, and as I’ve buried each of them, I’ve buried those aspects of myself more deeply.

What would make a perfect day for you? A quiet day of embroidery by the fire at home, with my daughters all near me and all happy.