#;OTP: Imperial Moonlight

[silviakundera]

silvia's drama watching queue for 2024: a somewhat random assortment of stuff that was rec'd and for some reason feels it might scratch an itch

in progress - started & I swear I'm gonna finish

* Empresses in the Palace - I'M DOING IT BABYYYYY. 9 episodes down. Yes, the emperor looks like your grandpa and so far has the personality of stale toast. But as long as I don't imagine him naked (no, grandpa, no! it's time for your nap!) then it has this vibe of those Masterpiece Theatre productions I watched as a preteen and I already am recognizing tons of famous tropes (some elements of Job of Imperial Concubine already 3x funnier). Also I appreciate a horror story with a high body count and we have 3 victims already 👌

* Derailment - Modern cdrama that I know is great. I'm 3 ep in, just gotta be in the right mood

* Legend of Fei - Wuxia; got distracted halfway through last year but love the 2 lead actors. Not their best work but still.

* Fireworks of my Heart - what if china did a modern Persuasion adaption but he's a fireman and she's a nurse, basically. kinda. idk man, it has those same vibes for me. I like both lead actors (yes I'm on the YY Can Act Sometimes, When He Feels Like It defense squad. fight me). I'm like 1/3 of the way thru, need to be in that melancholy romantic wallow mood. But mmm I do love second chance + pining.

* Secret Romantic Guesthouse - a wild kdrama appears! Historical drama about saving your inn from debtors by finding a missing royal & turning him over to be murdered. you know, just girlboss things. 💁 Some mystery, some romance. I like the FL. Not much slapstick humor or people screaming at each other so far, which will make me tap out. 4 episodes in and it's quite watchable. I'll probably finish.

not started

* The Left Ear because why not? teens being realistically messy 👌

* Go Ahead - so this may sound strange but I've been holding back on this one a long time, until my work hours were less insane & I can focus. Universally beloved, one of the top cdramas. I'll sink my teeth into this Modern in 2024.

* The Blessed Girl cause it sounds like my jam

* Fake It Till You Make It - modern romance that I've seen rave reviews for. Pretty confident I'll love it.

* Gone with the Rain cause dangermousie's posts seduced me. Costume drama.

* West out of Yeman/Parallel World - multi-verse modern with a lil sci fi? I love multiverse and time travel \o/

* Wonderland of Love - historical romance with generals and some court intrigue, a happy ending. On paper, my kind of stuff. But will I make it thru 40 ep depends on how much I vibe with the otp

Maybe

Choice Husband (12 eps romantic comedy, then turns into blood and manipulation? sounds intriguing)

Moonlight - modern workplace drama, editor/author. Reviews are mixed but I have affection for how cdrama scriptwriters will obsessively research a topic in the style of an AO3 fic writer. I expect to learn more than I ever wanted to know about the toils of being an editor.

Marry My Husband - I don't watch many kdramas but I turn up for tropey reborn every time. If they deliver on the promise of a ridiculous but entertaining romance revenge then I'm there.

[exclectical]

Mama

THEME: Kloktober 2023: OTP PAIRING: @chordsykat's Caj and Skwisgaar WARNINGS: Adult Content

==================================

Some things about stardom she would gladly show him. Thousand-count bedsheets. Hand-built pick-ups. Foie gras.

But then, there were some things she wasn't so eager to share.

"Not trying to kill the mood, but you might double-wrap." she said to him, her eyes dancing across his naked body. He felt she was sizing him up like they were about to fight. But they never fought. Not once.

"You's okays?"

"Yeah."

The pause in the air while she looked at him stopped him opening the condom.

"You're very beautiful." She said.

It was improbable that a celebrity of her caliber would think he was anything special. Her body was tight and toned, long and bronze. He felt spindly and sickly as the moonlight shone in on them from the tinted tour bus windows.

"You 'ave to be one of the best looking men I've ever laid eyes on." She said, emphasizing the point. "And now I'm sharing a bed wit' you. I am a lucky girl."

He blushed, thinking of how quickly he'd gone from a bit player in her opening band, to her friend, to this very moment. The memories burned through his consciousness. Nights of longing from afar turning to companionship. Her lithe form cutting against the red glow of the floor lights, of the two of them sharing the stage for the first time... her instinctive vocal inflection, his imperious guitar picking. He felt like they could conquer the world when they were together... and not just with music.

Now, to be on an equal terms and invited into her own bed! He felt her body press into his embrace, then she laid back, basking in the moonglow. The embodiment of her namesake. The imposing individual that was her stage personification giving way to how small she was, bare and exposed on the silky sheets.

He let her lead the dance. She guided his hands over her breasts, down the lines of her ribs, and further still. He was blundering, undisciplined and too fast with his fingers, but she let out a moan of such urgency he could only feel driven to push further.

"I can bare no more skin. But you are welcome to my soul."

"Yous doesn't hast tos."

"I mean it. It's not somet'ing I give to just anyone."

She touched his face. She kissed the hollow of his sternum and drew her tongue from there to his collarbone.

Something in the way she let him fumble and be imperfect made him feel more exposed than he felt in his nakedness. But it was different. It was oddly comfortable. Growing up, he was always taught that perfection was necessary. His mother wouldn't have it any other way.

To be loved, you had to be perfect.

His mother would know, too. Serfetta, in her youth, had it all... and she lost everything the moment she conceived him. Her body was forever changed as it carried a child to term and her life after his birth was even more difficult to manage with another mouth to feed. He had made her suffer because he had made her imperfect.

Or had he?

It was raw and dirty to be allowed to touch someone a little too rough. To have them respond in a way that gave room for mistakes and stranger still, encouraged them. The human spirit in conflict against divine rigidity. It was alluring, obscene, intoxicating.

They didn't even manage to get one condom on before their joined fever crashed into an explosive coupling and a frantic, needful climax.

"Oh, mama..." He whispered.

She took a deep breath, nuzzled his forehead and gave it a kiss.

The moment was over, but she held him in a way that said something else was only just beginning. He'd hoped so, at least. He hoped he hadn't disappointed her.

"Give me a minute to catch my breath. It's rare that someone beats me so completely in the area of stamina."

He blinked and was shocked to see they'd been at it for over an hour. Hard to believe but time had lost its place in the heat of their passion. She curled herself around him like a leopardess.

"I want another shot at impressing you." She said with a wink.

THE END

==================================

Finished in time for my second Kloktober ever! 😘

[bloodsplatteredmoon]

" Shinjiro, I hope you have a wonderful day. Happy birthday."

@empathielumineuse

[~☪~] Shinjiro’s expression softened as the red headed beauty approached him, and wished him a good day while going through his birthday.

She knew full well of how he felt about this day, since he shared many of his secrets and a lot of his past with her, including the circumstances of today when he was born and what led to him being brought to the Institute with Aki…

“Thanks, Mitsuru.” He nodded to her gently. “Was gonna go watch a movie today to get out of the house. If you’re not too busy, you’re welcome to join me.”

[elfyourmother]

YOTSUYU for the character opinions meme <3

How I feel about this character:

WIFE. I am fiercely protective of Yotsuyu, for a lot of reasons, but I identify with her very strongly as an abuse and rape survivor who was also the scapegoat in the family, and that’s probably why I can’t be rational about her tbh. It’s definitely why I’m so angry about how she was done in canon. This game is generally pretty good in terms of avoiding offensive tropes with antagonists but managed to cram a million of them in Yotsuyu (ofc the evil Dragon Lady got that way bc she was raped and abused). That I love her so much is despite all of that, and seeing the potential in her as a character, and said feelings of protectiveness. I want to give all the good things she deserves. And no I don’t especially care that she did awful things as viceroy. She was a product of her society, had no choices, and could only ever end up the way she did tbh. I don’t blame her for any of it, any more than I blame Estinien for his murderous hatred of dragonkind.

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

Gisele obvs. But mostly therapy.

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

Gosetsu all the live long day. Their extremely unlikely surrogate father/daughter relationship sincerely warmed my heart and honest to dog reminds me of me and my dad--I was also a scared, fragile young survivor who was taken in by a loud old warrior type who’d lost his own kid years ago. Gosetsu’s heart is even bigger than he is, and they were each exactly what the other needed. That he showed her compassion and did his best to protect her despite literally being tortured by her at one point speaks volumes about who he is as a person (I also think maybe he thought he deserved it a little, but I think he’s good at hiding the guilt he feels). And it was compassion she really never had before, from anyone.

But also...Zenos, weirdly enough. He was probably the one man she ever met in her days as an imperial who didn’t treat her like shit. I also absolutely believe they fucked in her short story, at least in Gisele’s verse. For those who haven’t read it, it takes place when she’s working as a courtesan in the brothel and spying. Zenos was there and she tried to get him drunk, seduce him, get him to let his guard down so he’d talk. But he was his typically bored and anhedonic self and nothing she did worked. Some goons came in and tried to kill him, he made short work of them, but during the scuffle some of their blood splattered on her kimono and he finally had a...reaction, after which there was basically a fade to black. The scene was left extremely ambiguous as to how it ended, deliberately so imo (it fits the general MO of the writing in this game to leave these things open-ended), but there’s no other way I can read it. We know battle is the only way he feels anything and he was acting extremely horny for lack of a better term when he saw the blood on her (bc weirdo).

But I’m sticking him in the non-romantic part because obviously it would be terrible and he’s firmly WoLsexual imo. But as big a weirdo as Zenos is, and is batshit crazy as he is, he does value his underlings insofar as much as they are useful. He doesn’t care if they’re ethnically Garlean or not. He doesn’t care about anything but purely pragmatic reasoning. Can you do the job or no?

And when he was mad at her it was because she had failed in his eyes. That was probably the most genuinely positive relationship she ever had up to that point, as sad as it sounds (and gods is it sad). 

My unpopular opinion about this character:

Yotsuyu absolutely deserved better than what she got in canon, and is infinitely deserving of the treatment Fordola got, if only because of her backstory, and I will never not be angry that not only did she not get it, but that we had to sit and watch her be gaslit and re-traumatized, then violently murdered by one of her primary abusers. Under the Moonlight is by far the nadir of this game’s writing to me because it wasn’t only bad, it was actively offensive. Again we are shown that abused women don’t deserve anything but villainization and death.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.:

That she had better writing, and that she got to live and heal. She does in Gisele’s canon, and is hanging around the Scions helping Tataru with the books (but she pointedly does not consider herself one). Hien calls her his conscience and her story drives him not to just rebuild Doma but to make it a better society than it was, so that nothing like that ever happens again.

[starcunning]

Day Fourteen, Stargazing

Your OTP stargazing. Where are they doing this? Are they out camping? Are they sitting on a rooftop? What constellations are they looking at? From the 30-Day OTP Challenge.

It did not surprise her when he stormed out of the Mushroomery. Oh, it hurt—not the sharp hot pain of injury but the pervasive slow ache of a lifelong ailment—but it did not surprise. She did not follow after, leaving Alphinaud to weather Matoya’s rebuke alone. What would be the point? Thancred had heard enough from her; he would not now hear more. But when he did not return at nightfall, Shasi made the decision to go and look for him.

Shasi liked the hinterlands; under better circumstances she was more than happy to hike along the Thaliak and climb the Abalathian peaks. But, things being what they were, she could only feel the marsh give underfoot and feel the oppressive weight of the stone overhang above.

The boards marking out safe passage through the mire had weathered to silver; she followed them north to the foot of the ruined bridge. From there she could see the tower of Idyllshire, the nautilus shell of Sharlayan shining like a beacon in the night. The sky was pricked with stars, and she saw one streak from the zenith toward the cloud-wreathed peaks along the western horizon.

One was supposed to make a wish at such times, Shasi knew, but her heart was too heavy for youthful superstition. And anyway the things she wanted were beyond the power of stars to grant.

She did not see Thancred as she climbed the hill toward the Answering Quarter. Shasi doubted she would, if he did not wish it, but she had to hold on to the slenderest hope. Otherwise she would have to grapple with the idea that Thancred’s tenure with the Scions—and his place in her life—would not survive the loss of Louisoix and Minfilia. He could be malms from here already, Shasi thought. We would never find him. The thought made her want to put her head in the Thaliak and scream.

That was not an impulse she could afford to indulge, and so she turned her gaze toward one of the nearby spikes of basalt—Abalathia’s Teeth, she’d come to call them. The surface of them was gritty to the touch and irregular enough to climb. Perhaps not in these boots, Shasi thought, and kicked them off into the grass.

The stone was cool beneath her fingers as she stretched and reached, pulling herself up by her arms until she found a foothold. It was not meditative in the least, groping for purchase in the light of the gibbous moon. But that had always been the appeal—when one had to focus on the next handhold, there was no time to think about anything else. Soon she was climbing with confidence, her tail swinging behind her to counteract the momentum of her body weight. The spike of rock tapered as it rose; when she could wrap her arms around the column, Shasi could see over the rooftops of the Sharlayan colony and the evergreen trees scattered before her.

The night had deepened to a velvety darkness; the sky here was flooded with stars she had never been able to see in Ul’dah. It reminded her, briefly, of her months in the Sagolii; then she remembered being small, standing on mountaintops on the other end of this range, in a Gyr Abania made insurmountably distant by time and imperial intervention.

She was not there now, Shasi reminded herself. She was in Dravania. She was looking for Thancred.

There was a figure standing at the cliffbank over the Thaliak; his hair and tunic seemed pale in the moonlight. Shasi tried to keep an eye on him as she began her descent, just as slow and measured as the climb.

The grass was cool, and felt soft under her feet after the scraping of stone; she could not bear to put her boots back on, and so she carried them instead. Shasi could hear the buzz of insects and the call of night birds, and the rush of water as she approached the cliffs. She held her breath and tried to listen for the sound of her own footfalls, stepping lightly as she dared.

He heard her anyway, at least well enough to turn back and look at her. The surprise made her drop her boots; they fell with a hollow thud against the loam. “What is it?” Thancred asked. “When you didn’t come back, I …” Got worried? How childish. “I thought I should come looking for you.” “I’m fine,” Thancred told her, turning away from her. He cast back his arm and whipped it forward. A moment later she saw a splash of white in the river below. “I don’t think so,” Shasi said, stepping up beside him—to his right, the side of his face not covered by his bandanna. She crouched, feeling in the grass for a few stones of her own. “Nobody would blame you for that.” “I always wanted to visit the colony,” Thancred said. “I thought perhaps she’d like to see it too.” “I thought this was Sharlayan,” Shasi said. “It is. It was. Part of it, anyway,” Thancred murmured. “They abandoned it around the time I left for Ul’dah … from the motherland. I never got to see it. And now I never will. Nor her.”

Shasi sighed. She turned her face away from the nautilus beacon, but there, in the water, was the vast bubble enclosing Alexander. The water inside seemed still, even as the wider Thaliak flowed and whorled around it like a vast island. “I’m sorry,” she said, because of all her options it seemed the best. “Perhaps …” “Don’t,” he said softly. “There’s nothing to be said that can make this feel better.” “I know,” Shasi admitted. “How could you?” “I’ve lost people … I don’t want—what I mean to say is—” she said, fumbling her way around a confession of love he wasn’t ready to hear and she wasn’t ready to give. Shasi sighed, turning her face away as she felt the pricking of tears. “You were coming back, weren’t you?” “Eventually,” Thancred admitted. He lifted his chin, looking up at the stars. “You’ll see her again,” Shasi promised. “Whatever it takes.” She tipped her head back, mirroring Thancred’s posture, and found her vision slightly clearer for it, her tears brimming unshed as she returned the silent regard of stars.

[bloodsplatteredmoon]

“Aragaki?”

@frozenexecutioner

FIRST FIVE ASKS GET A KISS!

5/5

[~☪~] “It’s good to see you, Mitsuru… I hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long.” Shinjiro was standing in front of the blazing haired Empress now that he had emerged from the arrival gates.

A familiar knowing smile had appeared on his old friend and partner’s lips as she seemed amused by his words now that they had seen each other again since his departure to Paris in order to get his Culinary Arts degree.

“Well, I would have expected you to arrive a lot later, but considering you managed to finish your two years early, I am impressed you didn’t keep me waiting for your return longer.” Crossing her arms, her smile was seen on her lips which still carried the color of scarlet lipstick.

Shinjiro couldn’t help his little snort at that… seems she still had that razor sharp wit no matter what the situation called for… that was okay… it was a part of her that he had fallen for a long time ago.

“The sooner the better in this case… cause now that I’m back, I can finally do this.”

“Hmm? I… don’t think I follow…” That usually strong stance and composure his beloved Shining Empress usually carried seemed to break into that of shock when Shinji suddenly got down on one knee, and got a hold of her hand, allowing duffle bag to topple onto the ground beside him. “Shinjiro…?”

“You deserved someone who wasn’t falling apart around you, Mitsuru… and that person wasn’t me a few years ago… but… I think I’m more capable to stand by you and even fight by you if need me…”

Her face was beginning to burn in reflection to her Arcana of the Sun as she found there was a ring brought out into view that bared two emeralds around a diamond.

“Will you marry me… Mitsuru Kirijo…?”

She couldn’t help the tears that were beginning to bubble up in her eyes as the other had done something that she never thought he would finally be able to do…

But his response was pretty obvious when she jumped into his arms, and pressed their lips together deeply…

Even if in the midst of all of this, a chorus of loud claps was raining through the airport around them. She at least allowed the embrace to part for a moment, as she lifted her hand, allowing him to carefully slip the engagement ring on her hand.

“I would be honored… Shinjiro.” She smiled, allowing their foreheads to press together.

[bloodsplatteredmoon]

" Shinjiro, I have missed you."

@empathielumineuse

[~☪~] Shinjiro gave off a gentle breath as he reached and laid a hand gently over Mitsuru’s, as he pressed his cheek against her palm, “I missed you too, Mitsuru…”

[bloodsplatteredmoon]

✿

send me a ✿ and i’ll generate a number.

@niflheimqueen

11: gentle kiss

[~☪~] “Are you able to stand?” The scarlet empress looked to her side as she was doing her best to support Shinjiro after he was slowly beginning to recover from a Shadow fight, his arm draped around her shoulders to help keep his balance for the moment.

“Yeah… I think so…” He mumbled, as his head was nuzzling lightly against her shoulder, soon feeling her move a bit from his touch. It was his first mission as one of the Shadow Operatives… with Akihiko taking some time off because he was going through training under Kurosawa to be a cop, one of the first people that Mitsuru could call for these missions without much waiting time in case it was an emergency was Shinjiro.

“Wounds are already healing, it’s good to see that Castor is being kinder to you in the present day.” She mused to him, gently squeezing his hand.

“It definitely took a lot of struggles, but yeah, I am too.” Lifting his head, he allowed their eyes to meet up, silver gleaming into red.

Seeing they didn’t have too much distance between them, he leaned close to her, and pressed a kiss against her warm lips that always had a certain tinge of icy chill to them from her element… he could see she didn’t mind since pressure was returned to his lip’s touch.

“So happy to be alive, I get a kiss. I am alright with this result.” A teasing tone was present in her voice, as she chuckled a little once they had separated from the loving gesture.

“Oh be quiet…” He mumbled, though he was still smiling.

[bloodsplatteredmoon]

"Now, I know you don't like to draw much attention to it.." she murmured, leaning in close and draping her arms over his shoulders, looking up to him with a coy smile. "But you can hardly expect me to ignore your birthday entirely." She leaned up on her toes and tenderly placed her lips to his. "Your present is downstairs with Koromaru, but.. let me make a fuss, just for a little while, mm?"

@niflheimqueen

[~☪~] Shinji glanced up as Mitsuru made her presence known, and he couldnt help a small sigh that left him as she mentioned his birthday. But he simply found himself resting his arm around her as she stood in front of him, and they shared a small kiss together.

“I guess that’s fine… there are only a few people who seem to make this day better for me… you’re one of them.” He mumbled, seeming willing to head downstairs with her.

[bloodsplatteredmoon]

Dear Mitsuru,

Send me “Dear ________” and I’ll write a letter from my character addressed to that person.

@niflheimqueen

[~☪~]“Writing to Mitsuru...” He mumbled softly... he always felt awkward trying to do anything for the red haired queen... but it had been a few days since she had to go back home to Iwatodai to handle some business and slowly clean up the mess of what happened during the P1 Grand Prix... she had remained as long as she could before cause of the police being on her ass about everything, and making sure he got out of the hospital alright.

His Regen abilities did half of the work so it’s why he got out as quickly as he did, but... it left him with a lot of thinking to do.

And now he was trying to put it all onto paper.

----

‘For Mitsuru,

It hasn’t been as long as the last time since I have seen you, but I had something important to get out there, and I couldn’t really say much during our recovery, your interrogations, and finally getting out of the hospital...

We both met because of the Dark Hour, Personas and Shadows, and it’s because of that we ended up watching our destinies collide... only now we finally reunite once more because of Personas and Shadows, and things have changed from when we were teenagers stumbling through high school.

 We both started walking our paths, and through letters and photos, we have been able to know what our life has been sending our way, but it’s much more of a difference to finally see each other again in person, like we did a week ago in the Midnight Channel.

But I rather enjoyed it. Talking to you without the interference of a phone’s signal, reaching and holding your hand, and seeing you smile when we talk... things until now I didn’t realize I missed.

As I mentioned before, the possibility of me coming back to live in Iwatodai, where all the memories including our battles, the clash with Ikutsuki, and things I still have to share with you, I wouldn’t like it, but... I would come down there to the sole purpose of seeing you again.

Because if it still has one good thing about it, it’s that you are around.

And to finally give you an answer, regarding the idea of having me join the Shadow Operatives, even if just in the ranks of the Auxiliary Unit, I would like to accept the offer. 

The Shadows will never truly go away if I don’t stand up and do something about it, as its been proven after my move to Inaba, and incidents at the Bonds Festival and the P1 Grand Prix.

And I never... NEVER wish to turn on my TV and see the others... see you being turned into another’s prisoner again.

So if you need my help or anything in the future, don’t hesitate to call me.

I’ll be there for you this time.

If you believe that I can.

                                           --- Shinjiro’