charmingellie

[charmingellie]

andalasiasduke‌:

Duke nodded emphatically, too invested in trying to think of the perfect song to be too disappointed in himself for not thinking of ‘the perfect song’ in the list of things they needed. He almost suggested singing the same song Jimmy had, as sort of a non-subtle ‘how to do it better’ video without ever saying those words, but he’d be happier if they didn’t; the song had always been a bit stupid to him. Loving all of somebody wasn’t even remotely possible when there were always parts of people that needed improvement.

That was besides the point though. Right now they needed an epic song. An epic duet, as Ellie pointed out brilliantly. “You’re entirely right, as usual,” he sighed. “Singing a true duet also gives us room to play with the advantage of having two wonderful voices instead of one mediocre one, and built in harmonies and moments of connection are always preferable. That’s why I think we need something more emotional than Somebody to You and something a bit, well, more elegant than Ain’t No Mountain.” Duke pursed his lips and brought his finger to his chin in thought before remembering something and pulling his phone hurriedly out of his pocket.

“Strangely enough, I think I have a playlist that could suit the situation just fine,” he murmured, pulling it up. He’d made it several years ago, when he and Ellie were together, as a list of songs they could sing if they wanted to annihilate everyone at karaoke. “Most of these are true duets. The Time of My Life, Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, Endless Love of course, the classics….” he kept scrolling through. “And then newer ones like I’ve Got This Friend by The Civil Wars, No Air by Jordan Sparks, Lucky by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillait. Any of those spark an interest? Or at least a general direction towards old school versus new school love songs?”

Ellie was, quite frankly, impressed with the fact that Duke had a playlist of such songs ready on command. She didn’t spare a thought for whether it was in preparation for his own love story or not -- no girl in the kingdom besides her was worth this sort of pining -- and instead focused on the songs he was listing aloud for her, an eyebrow quirking in interest at some and her nose wrinkling with distaste in turn at others. “I’ve always thought that Lucky is so... insipid. The ‘friends to lovers’ trope seems to obsess over how lazy one can be during courtship, all because the two already are fond of each other! It’s ridiculous,” Ellie scoffed, vehemently against the song.

Others, though... Don’t Go Breaking My Heart was decent, aside from the line about acting like a clown. The Time of My Life might give her a chance to show off her lithe dancer’s body, if Duke was feeling up to the challenge. And Endless Love... Well, the insane amounts of talent they’d be able to display if they performed that almost took her breath away. “Perhaps we should write down our top three choices and see where our lists align,” Ellie suggested, finding that it would be less embarrassing if he read out that that was her preference, rather than her having to voice it herself. “Unless you’d like to voice your favorite here and now; I’ve already expressed my bias against the song Lucky, it seems only fair that you express at least one strong opinion of your won as well.”

[charmingellie]

andalasiasduke‌:

“You make it easy to remember,” Duke replied happily, relieved that he’d apparently gotten away with acting like he cared too much by listing out names. Complimenting Ellie was a much easier route, and it never felt like he was crossing a boundary; after all, exes or no, romantic interest or not, Ellie was every word for attractive no matter which way you spun it and she knew that she deserved the recognition. It would make their video far better than Jimmy and Maddie’s, and even as the thought crossed Duke’s mind he realized it meant he’d already mentally agreed to the plan before even letting Ellie make her pitch.

Still, that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to try to let her convince him, especially since Duke wasn’t sure there was a way to do this in a way that would flatter them both. Whether he wanted to do it almost didn’t matter as much as whether or not it would be a good idea for them publicity-wise, and he was just lucky he was brainstorming with Ellie, the other person on this planet who understood that as well as he did. Her first idea made him laugh though, and it wasn’t an unwelcome feeling. “Honestly? If it didn’t make us look ‘mean’ to the people who already think that we are? I would think it was great,” he admitted. “It’s what they deserve. We could also be a tad more subtle and go with a ‘this is what princes who want to be smooth but don’t know how look like’ caption to a recreation instead of calling them out by name.”

The idea had left him smiling - it was exactly the brand of petty he liked which was also unfortunately why he knew it was the brand of petty most people didn’t like, at least not coming from him. Her second idea was more on brand with how he wanted them to be perceived: kind, generous, adorable, and available. “You know what, Ellie? I think that might just be perfect. You and I singing a Happy Valentine’s Day to Auradon shows off our talents and our big hearts. And our good looks, of course. Everyone will wish it was them we were personally singing to!” He got more excited the more he thought about it, and he pulled out his phone to write down a list. “What would we need for the video aside from hair and makeup, and a camera crew?”

Success. Ellie knew that she shouldn’t turn everything she did into a contest that she was attempting to win, but this moment in particular had felt like one with the highest of stakes, and Duke acquiescing put a spring in her step that hadn’t been there when she’d stomped towards him minutes ago to complain. Clapping her hands together just once, so that she seemed like someone ready to get down to business rather than someone immature enough to visibly celebrate their small success, Ellie stated simply, “Why, the perfect song, of course! With talents such as ours, it of course won’t take us too long to ready it, but making sure that our song choice is flawless will be the true test.”

She hated to admit it, but All Of Me had been incredibly moving and romantic, despite how irritating she found Jimmy Dubois and his entire act. She and Duke would be hard pressed to top one of the most romantic songs of the last decade, and for the briefest of moments, she considered proposing they repeat the song. Their talent level could certainly surpass Jimmy, and there was something so much more romantic about turning a love song into a duet, a song where both loves demonstrated the intensity of their feelings. Only... she wanted this to go well. She wanted public perception to be a smash, both for the chance of Ellie earning admiration for herself and for the sake of continuing to have Duke in her good graces, so that there would always be future endeavors such as this one to look forward to. Singing the same song as Jimmy and making him look bad seemed like it would accomplish neither of those goals.

“I think we should sing a true duet,” Ellie declared finally, arching an eyebrow at him as if daring him to interject and disagree. “While it would show the breadth of our talent if we demonstrated our ability to take a romantic song and split it into parts for the both of us, there’s something already magical about a song that was written with the express purpose of a man and woman expressing their love for one another by singing in turn. There are modern songs of the variety, like Somebody to You by the Vamps, and there are classics like Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, though the slang pains me to sing -- and there are a whole gamut of things in between. Surely we’ll find something incredible in no time.”

[charmingellie]

andalasiasduke‌:

Duke didn’t blame Ellie’s smile for not being 100% of the way real; these options were less than desirable. In a way they were hardly options, which was perhaps a rude way to think about people, but Duke himself had had a similar moment when he’d tried listing out the remaining princesses in the land, with the loosest definition of the word ‘princess’ possible. True, they had genetics and breeding on their side unlike commoners but that was the one difference. Even worse were the crown princes and princesses who 'forgot’ they were royalty and seemed to want everybody else to forget it as well. It was disgusting, truly. He and Ellie were some of the last of the real royals in Auradon - why should it be their job to wrangle the others into acting accordingly? Weren’t they do enough by holding an example?  

Listing options was the least he could if he didn’t want his conversational partner falling into a pit of panic, but as soon as Ellie shrugged it off and suggested perhaps making a list for Duke if she had nothing better to do, he blushed. Duke hadn’t been playing, but it felt like he’d been caught showing his hand somehow. Ellie was good, embarrassing him when there was nothing to be embarrassed over. Casual, quick, always on her feet - how had another prince not snatched her up yet? It would always remain a mystery. “You’re adorable for thinking I don’t already have a list of my own,” he tried, “but unfortunately it’s about as tempting as yours.” A smile came out of him, a real smile that wasn’t meant to be manipulative or confusing or anything but a smile. It was kind of funny, that they were in the same boat. Maybe they’d always have too much in common.

Was that a bad thing, though? Duke loved himself, after all. And in turn he had an affection for Ellie that went beyond mere pleasantries, although was it the sort of affection that would lead him to serenade her on the holidays? Maybe not. He cocked his head to the side and grinned, striking one of the many poses he’d cataloged. “Well, I think I fit the classification of royal male friend,” he started, “and we all know I can sing better than anyone else who’s serenaded somebody today. I guess what it boils down to is what I’d get out of it. Having the whole of the kingdom think that I’m still hung up on my ex is hardly the best way to find my next beloved, so the question lies: how do we rebrand this so that it makes both of us seem desirable?”

For some reason, Duke already having a list of his own, without any input from her at all, made Ellie feel as though there were a pit in her stomach. It must be a fear of being left behind, Ellie quickly rationalized. After all, it did seem that many of her princess counterparts were a bit thirsty, settling for the first boy to show any attention to them at all. After all, Princess Marley had recently gotten back together with that wretched Dylan Donati, and her own sister had belittled herself by dating the help! Jace was a kind soul, but he certainly wasn’t fit to date a princess. And yet Adelaide had lowered herself in a way that Ellie never would. And of course any thirsty princess would be blessed to land a prize like Duke rather than some half-trained barely-prince, but it still felt preposterous to her, that he would have a list at the ready and would probably easily be able to sweep one of them off of their feet at the drop of the hat, while Ellie waited. And waited. And felt like she was waiting for an eternity.

“I am adorable, thank you for remembering,” Ellie said casually, as if none of her worried thoughts had happened at all. She waved them away like they were nothing, though deep down she was quite sure that they would come back to irk her later, when she was alone and allowed to wallow away from watchful eyes. “And viewers will certainly agree that I’m adorable, when we figure out the right way to frame your serenade.” Ellie stroked her chin lightly, her fingers barely ghosting across her skin so she wouldn’t leave the area she’d touched with any kind of of lingering oils from her hand. She needed to truly think on this, because the first idea that she’d had was truly... ridiculous. Something that Duke was sure to laugh off, but she hated to seem as though she weren’t quick-witted and like it was taking her too much time to come up with a plan. And so, she spilled her idea anyway, trying to cast it off as something light and humorous lest he think it was foolish.

“It would be beneath us to do a mockery of their moment, wouldn’t it? To specifically announce that we’re recreating their outing, but showing them the ways in which they can improve in the future?” Ellie said tentatively, her idea expanding as she continued to speak. “Or perhaps we can pass it off as an act of kindness and sing together. We can frame it as a Valentine’s gift to the kingdom, so that the messaging can be a  bit more subliminal and a bit less direct. We want to share our talents with the world -- but it reminds people that we’re very worth being sung to, and shows them the bar which they need to reach when they decide to make their efforts, since we’re both supremely talented and they have to hope to be at least half that worthy if they wish to have designs on us in the future?”

[charmingellie]

duke, ben, liam, sebastian, kion, mateo

SEND 6 PEOPLE AND I’LL TELL YOU WHO I WOULD:

Finally! A group of princes like I deserve.

do the sexy love™ with: @kinglyben, after he sees the error of his ways and marries someone like me instead of Mal.

sacrifice myself for: @andalasiasduke, a loyal and true friend.

kick: Kion. He’s a bit... youthful and immature.

take to prom: Sebastian.

abandon in jurassic park: @mateobjorgman. Doesn’t he enjoy ugly green things?

push off a bridge: @liamdubcis, the impostor prince.

[charmingellie]

margaery, chad, anthony, abby, dizzy, ava

SEND 6 PEOPLE AND I’LL TELL YOU WHO I WOULD:

My “family.” How unoriginal. 

do the sexy love™ with: Anthony is the only possible answer of the bunch!

sacrifice myself for: @margaerycharming​. My baby sister deserves the world.

kick: @dizzy-t​.

take to prom: Chad. There’s no shame in being escorted by your brother when he’s the most suitable male in the whole kingdom!

abandon in jurassic park: Ava. 

push off a bridge: @abigailtremaine.

[charmingellie]

zevon, victory, anthony, harry, nuka, dante

SEND 6 PEOPLE AND I’LL TELL YOU WHO I WOULD:

What an absolutely abhorrent group!

do the sexy love™ with: I suppose while he is my step-cousin of sorts, Anthony Tremaine at least has decent breeding. And we’re not blood related in any form, so he’s the only... possibly touchable one in this group.

sacrifice myself for: No. My life’s worth far more to me than any of theirs are. 

kick: Kicking is un-ladylike. 

take to prom: Anthony Tremaine’s certainly the only one who knows how to dance, so I suppose that he’ll have to do double duty!

abandon in jurassic park: @zevonchanca, @vicwestergaard, and Nuka.

push off a bridge: Dante and Harry both prefer the sea, anyway. Seems fitting that I should return them to it!

[charmingellie]

abbyskane‌:

do the sexy love™ with

sacrifice myself for

kick

take to prom

abandon in jurassic park

push off a bridge

@charmingellie​ @zevonchanca​ @nadiaazar​ @weseltonsdarcy​

send 6 characters/people and i’ll tell you who i would:

[charmingellie]

andalasiasduke‌:

Duke fought the urge to bite his lip, impressed at he was at Ellie’s facial control. Had she always had a mastery of the many muscles in the human face on par with working models of today? No, that was impossible. He would’ve noticed, as that was something he himself worked on daily. The only answer must have been that Ellie was maturing, and gracefully too. The realization that she was only getting better with time made him wonder, for a brief moment, if they’d been too hasty in cutting it off. If they’d never broken up, they would’ve been together a long time by now and they’d undoubtedly be the power couple of Auradon. Had he made a mistake, not wanting to get engaged so early?

But then she spoke and he decided he’d made the right call after all. How silly of him to doubt himself, he was always right. If Ellie thought grooming a commoner was even a possibility, she wasn’t ready for marriage. “Absolutely not,” Duke blurted, grooming his eyebrows with his fingers like he did when he felt a head-ache coming on. “That shouldn’t even be a last resort. If anything, there are near-royals that can be groomed. Like one of the Triton cousins, surely there’s a male one somewhere in the throng. Truth be told, I’m not a fan of merfolk, but at the very least they received the proper etiquette growing up. Or the Koenig boy, even if he’s a bit of a lump on a log. Similarly, there’s Ralphie’s son - again, a bit of a lump, but a lump with potential. Or a Dunbroch son - Queen Merida’s brothers have children, don’t they? I know they’re all very bottom-of-the-barrel and not in line for any thrones any time soon, but they have the grooming. All you need to do is pick the one with the most potential and make him fall in love with you so that he tries his darnedest to win you. And the making him fall in love with you part will be easy,” he promised. “It’s the selection that’ll tax you.”

“Of course, those are all long-term plans,” he allowed. “If you’re looking for a short-term fix, someone to serenade you today, there probably isn’t one. Unless of course you have a royal male friend who would reap some benefit from it as well.” Duke let that last sentence hang as delicately in the air as he could, keeping an unassuming look on his face. A grand romantic gesture for his ex would make people think he hadn’t moved on and that he wasn’t an option - if Ellie had a way to eliminate that problem for him, though? He wouldn’t mind helping her out. For old time’s sake, of course.

Oh. Hearing all of Duke’s ideas, she realized perhaps she was being overdramatic after all, thinking she’d have to resort to commoners. Breathe, Ellie, she reminded herself. Just breathe. She smiled at him, thinking that the falseness of it would have been masked from anyone else in the kingdom, but he could see through her unlike any other. If anyone was going to realize that her eyes didn’t match her lips, or that there was a pinched manner about her cheeks, it would be Duke. Her smile didn’t grow any more real as he listed options, either; they were plentiful, but all of them filled her with dread. They’d take so many improvements, so much training and worst of all, she’d have to lay so many traps to even hook them in the first place. She wanted someone to notice her now, without all of the hard work that should be reserved for servants and peasants behind her designs. Ellie didn’t want to make her life happen, she wanted it to be something effortless and magical that happened to her.

“Yes, well, I suppose all of those options do merit consideration,” Ellie said dismissively, as if Duke hadn’t just done her a great favor, shaking her out of her frenzy and listing a great many options worth consideration for her. “And perhaps I can come up with a similar list of princesses for you, although I do hope you’ll understand if that’s not my highest priority. After all, none of the eligible female royalty has publicly snubbed available princes by making a show out of wooing remarkably rich garbage lately.” Because even when they cared about each other, they’d always cared about themselves more, hadn’t they? That was how she and Duke operated, and she couldn’t seem too interested in his well-being. Not more interested than she was in her own, at least; it would be highly embarrassing should he feel that she still cared too much for him. 

Even if at times she wondered if she did. Times like now, when all of his royal options had seemed loathsome to her ears. Times when her face lit up delightedly at the implication that he’d still sing for her. Times when she had to hold herself back from lighting up with true enthusiasm, and remind herself to stay measured and regal rather than open and honest and free. “And where might I find one of those?” Ellie asked, her voice with a hint of amusement as she looked towards Duke. Curse him if he turned out to mean someone else, but for now, she was hopeful that they’d get the chance to show off for the kingdom just how much better than they were than their peers, at least this once more.

[charmingellie]

andalasiasduke‌:

Duke closed his eyes and nodded along as Ellie said back his theories in her own words. It was such a pleasure listening to somebody who actually got it - he himself would’ve been just as appealing a conversational option if correctness was all he wanted, but talking to an ex was far more socially acceptable and less likely to get one called crazy than talking to oneself. And Ellie always ended up elevating his ideas as well, which he could hardly complain about. Genius needs company, after all. “Oh, a trial run, that makes way more sense,” he agreed. “They’re just friends, so she’s the perfect person to practice a grand gesture on, somebody who isn’t so grand herself.”

He smiled at the way their conclusions seemed to ease Ellie. If he was being honest, it seemed silly to him for her to be wasting head space on someone like Jimmy Dubois anyway, who was royal by birth but hardly royal by nature. A prince wasn’t just the title, after all; it was also the breeding and the behaviors. Did he really have room to be trying to lecture her on that though, when breeding and behaviors should have led him to make the ultimate romantic gesture with Ellie back when they were together instead of wimping out? No. And anything he said would’ve likely sounded like a catty ex, which wouldn’t be good for his image. His brow cocked at the mention of Ellie on the receiving end of a gesture and had to know, “Who exactly do you plan on fulfilling that prophecy for you?” For a moment he considered that maybe she had a secret boyfriend but that idea was preposterous. Ellie, like himself, would never be able to keep that a secret. “Just out of curiosity, of course. Because I hate to say it, El, but royals around here are getting paired off as if there was a flood coming.” He hated saying it for himself as much as he hated saying it for her. There simply weren’t as many princesses around for the taking as there used to be.

A younger Ellie might have raked her bottom lip through her teeth at his question, but this older, more mature and refined Ellie would never dare do something that might undo her perfect lip care. Instead, she kept her face completely even, not letting anything wrinkle or furrow or move out of place in the slightest, although Duke’s question had her unnerved. She’d certainly tried making lists of eligible princes in the past, but he was right -- the names on said list were dwindling, more and more being crossed out all the time. And though she could say that they hadn’t been the right prince for her until the cow’s came home, where was the right prince for her? Liam Dubois was an Isle kid, a prince in disguise; his brother was currently under discussion, but he wasn’t set to inherit a kingdom, nor was he particularly refined. Mateo Bjorgman? Taken. The Koenig boy? A possibility, but he wasn’t around nearly enough to dote on Ellie to the extent that she wanted. The truth was unavoidable -- Ellie might have run out of options.

“Am I going to have to groom a commoner?” she whispered in horror, her face finally shifting as her eyes widened in horror. She looked at Duke, expectantly; solving problems caused frowning and wrinkling and stress, things that didn’t suit her at all! She wanted someone else to magically make this conundrum went away, but now her terrified question was out in the open. If she was going to let her ex-boyfriend see her vulnerable in such a way, the least he could do was try to solve her problem for her... Or perhaps step up to the plate and volunteer himself after all, at least as a backup. 

[charmingellie]

andalasiasduke‌:

Duke wasn’t surprised when Ellie showed up with a phone in her hand and anger in her voice; it was the “season of love”, after all, where unworthy people paired up to flaunt their togetherness in the face of people far more deserving. That’s why he’d preemptively chosen to be on a self-declared ‘social media cleanse’ for the month, but that just applied to his phone - Ellie’s, on the other hand, was fair game. He took it from her so he could hold it up closer to his face, squinting to better see what was going on. He needed new contacts, these old-prescriptions ones were making life unnecessary difficult. “Oh goodness, just watching this gives me second-hand embarrassment,” Duke muttered, lowering the phone back to Ellie’s height so she could take it back. “My guess would be that he’s thinking the correct thought that short boys have very slim pickings.” 

An alternate idea popped up and his face lit up, certain that it made sense and would make Ellie feel less spurned. “Or we all know how little the Dubois boys take anything seriously, it could very well be a joke video. That’s why he had to sing it to someone who clearly doesn’t fit the bill. It could also explain why he’s adding all of those ridiculous runs.” He scoffed a bit at that last part - the truth was that anyone with ears could hear that Jimmy was great, but Duke was too busy thinking that, had he sang the song, it would be a million times better. His recent male-version of Ariana Grande’s 7 Rings had tested well on AuraTube, after all. Why did any of his male peers even try?

And this was precisely why Ellie had turned to Duke for such a crisis. Other people would have told her such ridiculous things, like that it was selfish to want to take someone else’s happiness away from them, or to think she deserved it more than they did. Or worse, they’d try to rationalize that the heart wanted what it wanted, as if a heart had any business wanting some stupid commoner when someone as sophisticated, refined, and royal as Ellie was available. Her breathing steadied as Duke rattled off possible reasons that this could have happened to Maddie when nothing of the sort was happening to Ellie, and finally she clicked off on her phone screen to give Duke her full attention instead.

“You’re right, of course -- I have heels that would certainly make me taller than he is, and the runs were certainly tacky and too try-hard. And with someone like Maddie on the receiving end, well, it must be a joke. Maybe it was simply a trial run and he was trying to make sure that his performance would be well received by someone better.” Ellie was really just repeating Duke’s words, but hearing them come from her own voice, as if she had thought of them first, certainly made it feel more viable. And it certainly made her feel more at ease. “Well! Good, that’s settled, then. This is all just a ridiculous farce, and people will forget about it by tomorrow, when the next grand gesture pops up. And perhaps said grand gesture will be for me,” Ellie added pointedly. She didn’t know if she wanted Duke to perform said gesture, just so she could feel paid attention to again, or if she wanted him to use his connections to other princes to make something happen. She just knew she was entirely sick of spending February alone, and even sicker of waiting for people to come to their senses.

[charmingellie]

Ellie was fuming. She’d been staring at this ridiculous InstaRoyal live video for what felt like an eternity, unable to believe that it was real. A perfectly eligible prince, wasting his time on a commoner? Again? There was only one person she knew would understand her frustration, and so she’d stormed off to find her ex-boyfriend, waving her phone frantically in Duke’s face the second she found him. “Have you seen this?” she hissed, unable to believe it. How was she still alone while ratty-looking tomboys like Madison La Bouff had princes knocking down their doors? “What is James Dubois thinking?”

@andalasiasduke

[charmingellie]

TEXT 🏰 JELLIE

Jace: Well, I wouldn't exactly call it insignificant-- I think wedding anniversaries are actually quite romantic, don't you?

Jace: You're certainly right. Maybe to prevent confusion, she should have a different title instead. Is there a word for 'daughter of the chief'? If not, they should come up with one.

[charmingellie]

Text 🌹 RELLIE

Ray: I don't think so, I mean even under the love spell I never really expected her to return my feelings. I think it was more like me worrying about which parts of the song she didn't like and then taking them out before she could possibly object to them.

Ray: Well, that is both good and sad because watching you and Chad fight over Anthony would have provided me with a much needed laugh. "Losing his mind?" I mean Penny's pretty awesome, I don't think falling in love with her could be considered losing your mind.

Ellie: How very considerate of you, then. Interesting how you seemed much more aware of yourself during the love spell than most.

Ellie: Penny is a dear friend, of course, but I'm certain she could never REALLY take anyone's affections away from my sister.

[charmingellie]

So this is love.

[charmingellie]

disney animation meme | 1/3 sequels: cinderella III: a twist in time.

[charmingellie]

Cinderella (1950)

[charmingellie]

Why, it’s like a dream. A wonderful dream come true.