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minervacasterly · 4 years

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Queen Mary (I) Tudor -The Woman behind the Legend of 'Bloody Mary'

"As Mary continued to face Protestant treason she became even more ruthless, with the infamous burnings intended to eliminate what she perceived as a stubborn and destabilising minority. In our context we see Mary's actions as those of a fanatic. In her context she was eliminating fanatics, and of the most dangerous kind, incorrigible rebels against God and queen. But Mary also had to work positively, to build a future, and this unravelled in the face of her infertility and declining health. She failed in her ultimate duty to produce a child and this meant, once again, that the wider family was key to the future. Mary's preferred choice as her heir, was Margaret Douglas, could not compete with the claims of Henry VIII's second daughter and, as Elizabeth took note, it was the knowledge that she would succeed her sister that fueled the disorder and rebellion against Mary. With the loss of Calais in the last year of Mary's life it would be easy for her enemies to paint the young, Protestant Elizabeth's accession as a brilliant new dawn. It is as such that it is still projected. Mary remains associated with her late seventeenth-century sobriquet 'Bloody Mary', and an infamous recent advertisement for the London Dungeon depicted her face transforming into a demon-zombie. Elizabeth, by contrast, has been played in films by a series of beautiful actresses: Elizabeth is ever Cate Blanchett, fairy queen, to Mary's bitter, grey-faced Kathy Burke. Yet these sisters were neither simple heroines nor villains. Both were rulers of their time and we can only understand Elizabeth if we see, as she did, what the Tudor sisters had in common and how she could learn from Mary's example. Most significant for Elizabeth was the fact that Mary's Protestant enemies had sought to redefine the nature of a 'true' king. They argued that religion was more important than blood, or victory in battles -a true king was Protestant- and that all women were by nature unsuited to rule over men. Elizabeth's response was to offer her ordinary subjects a theatrical representation of herself as a 'true' ruler: the seeds of which had been sown by Mary herself in her speech during the Wyatt revolt, in which she is a mother who loves her subjects as if they were her children. Here was a female authority figure accepted as part of the divine order." ~Leanda de Lisle, TUDOR

"The blackening of Mary's name began in Elizabeth's reign and gathered force at the end of the 17th century, when James II compounded the view that Catholic monarchs were a disaster for England. But it was really the enduring popularity of John Foxe which shaped the view of her that has persisted for 450 years. Attempts to soften her image have been made, but their tendency to depict her as a sad little woman who would have been better off as the Tudor equivalent of a housewife is almost as distasteful as the legend of Bloody Mary. To dismiss her life as nothing more than a personal tragedy is both patronizing and mistaken. One of the main themes of Mary's existence is the triumph of determination over adversity. She lived in a violent, intolerant age, surrounded by the intrigues of a time when men and women gambled their lives for advancement at court. Deceit, like ambition, was endemic among the power-seekers of mid-Tudor England who passed, in procession, through her life. Pride, stubbornness and an instinct for survival saw her through tribulations that would have destroyed a lesser woman. Her bravery put her on the throne and kept her there, so that when she died she was able to bequeath to Elizabeth a precious legacy that is often overlooked: she had demonstrated that a woman could rule in her own right. The vilification of Mary has obscured the many areas of continuity between her rule and those of the other Tudors. Today, despite the fact that much more is known about her reign, she is still the most maligned and misunderstood of English monarchs. For Mary Tudor, the first queen of England, truth has not been the daughter of time." ~Linda Porter, THE MYTH OF BLOODY MARY

"Foxe's account would shape the popular narrative of Mary's reign for the next four hundred and fifty years. Generations of schoolchildren would grow up knowing the first Queen of England only as "Bloody Mary", a Catholic tyrant who sent nearly three hundred Protestants to their deaths, a point made satirically in W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman's 1930s parody 1066 and All That. Mary's presence in a recent survey of the most evil men and women in history is testament to Foxe's enduring legacy. But there is, of course, a different Mary: a woman marked by suffering, devout in her faith and exceptional in her courage. From a childhood in which she was adored and feted and then violently rejected, a fighter was born. Her resolve almost cost her her life as her father, and then her brother, sought to subjugate her to their wills. Yet Mary maintained her faith and self-belief. Despite repeated attempts to deprive her of her life and right to the throne, the warrior princess turned victor and became the warrior princess turned victor and became the warrior queen. The boldness and scale of her achievements are often overlooked. The campaign that Mary led in the summer of 1553 would prove to be the only successful revolt against central government in sixteenth-century England. She, like her grandfather Henry VII and grandmother Isabella of Castile, had to flight for her throne. In the moment of crisis she proved decisive, courageous, and "Herculean" -and won the support of the English people as the legitimate Tudor heir. Mary was a conscientious, hardworking queen who was determined to be closely involved in government business and policy making. She would rise "at daybrea when, after saying her prayers and hearing mass in private," she would "transact business incessantly until after midnight." As rebels thereatend teh capital in January 1554 and she was urged to flee, Mary stood firm and successfully rallied Londoners to her defense. She was also a woman who lived by her conscience and was prepared to die for her faith. And she expected the same of others. Her religious defiance was matched by a personal infatuation with Phililp, her Spanish husband. Her love for him and dependence on her "true father", the Emperor Charles V, was unwavering. Her determination to honor her husband's will led England into an unpopular war with France and the loss of Calais. There was no fruit of the union, and so at her premature death there was no Catholic heir. Her own phantom pregnancies, together with epidemics and harvest failures across the country, left her undermined and unpopular. Her life, always one of tragic contrast, ended in personal tragedy as Philip abandoned her, never to return, even as his queen lay dying. In many ways Mary failed as a woman but triumphed as a queen. She ruled with the full measure of royal majesty and achieved much of what she set out to do. She won her rightful throne, married her Spanish prince, and restored the country to Roman Catholicism. The Spanish marriage was a match with the most powerful ruling house in Europe, and the highly favorable marriage treaty ultimately won the support of the English government. She had defeated the rebels and preserved the Tudor monarchy. Her Catholicism was not simply conservative but influenced by her humanist education and showed many signs of broad acceptance before she died. She was an intelligent, politically adept, and resolute monarch who proved to be very much her own woman. Thanks to Mary, John Aylmer, in exile in Switzerland, could confidently assert that "it is not in England so dangerous a matter to have a woman ruler, as men take it to be." By securing the throne following Edward's attempts to bar both his sisters, she ensured that the crown continued along the legal line of Tudor succession. Mary laid down other important precedents that would benefit her sister. Upon her accession as the first queen regnant of England, she redefined royal ritual and law, thereby establishing that a female ruler, married or unmarried, would enjoy identical power and authority to male monarchs. Mary was the Tudor trailblazer, a politiccal pioneer whose reign redefined the English monarchy." ~Anna Whitelock, MARY TUDOR: PRINCESS, BASTARD, QUEEN

Furthermore, as the country shifted from Catholicism to Protestantism, people began to find it easier to vilify her. During the Victorian age, England was at its height. People would say that the sun never set on the English Empire, and as a result, there was a growing sense of nationalism. Previously beloved figures like Queen Elizabeth I, Kings Edward III, Henry V, among others, were no longer kings and queens for people to admire and look upon but national symbols of pride, who were almost god-like. Edward III's victories against the French, Henry V's conquest of France, Elizabeth's Protestantism and victory against Spain with the Spanish Armada and other Catholic rivals, were extolled, and glorified, while Mary I's foreign ancestry was looked down upon. Ironically, all of these monarchs were also foreign in one way or another. You can say that Queen Elizabeth I wasn't because her parents were English, but what about her paternal ancestry, or her maternal one? No matter which way you look at it, she had foreign ancestry as much as any monarch. In fact, the Victorian era's own monarch, was of foreign descent as well! Victoria wasn't even an English name. She was named after her mother, Victoria of the Saxe-Coburg clan who was German and she married her cousin, who was also German. It was very common for royals to marry other royals, which meant that their offspring would be of foreign descent. In Mary's time this wouldn't be a reason to look down on her, on the contrary, she could point to her royal ancestors, be they foreign or not, with pride as a sign of how much royal blood flowed through her veins, making her eligible to be her father's heir. But as it has been pointed out before, times change and with it, so does our view of every historical figure.

#Queen Mary I of England #Tudor History #16th century #dailytudors

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aer-in-wanderland · 4 years

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구미호뎐 | Tale of the Nine Tailed - Lost in Translation EP02

Back by, possibly not popular, but certainly very enthusiastic demand: my sister’s and my continued adventures in mistranslation and cultural subtext. You can find EP01 here. Buckle up and settle in for another monster post because, wow, a lot happened in this episode. Contains spoilers.

Prologue

We open with a sweeping view of Baekdudaegan as Yeon narrates about his past as the god who presided over it. For context, Baekdudaegan is the biggest and most famous mountain range in Korea, taking up an enormous swath of the Korean peninsula (to the extent that it’s often referred to as its ‘spine’ or ‘backbone’). So Yeon wasn’t lying when he said he was a ‘major’ mountain god. ;)

Yeon: You could say these were my Leeds Days. I was the master of Baekdudaegan, a mountain god who controlled the wind and rain,* and a gumiho who was, from the start, of a different caliber than the mongrel foxes you see in Hometown of Legends. ...Or, I was.”

[*Note: Can also be taken to mean ‘the natural elements’ in general.]

When Yeon refers to his ‘glory days,’ the term he uses is ‘Leeds Era’ (리즈시절). Originally a sporting term for the height of a footballer’s career, in Korean, the expression has come to be used to describe a person’s bygone glory days. The modern figure of speech (complete with English loan word) makes for a funny counterpoint to the Yeon we see on screen and recalls the mint-chocolate loving American TV show enthusiast we’ve known him as so far.

The other modern reference he makes is to Hometown of Legends (전설의 고향), which has been the title of numerous dramas and movies (1977-2018) centered around Korean myths and legends. This is basically the equivalent of an alien referencing the X-files. Overall, the narration serves to remind us just how modern our gumiho has become and clashes humorously with the visual onscreen.

Yeon’s above narration concludes with the first appearance of little Ah Eum, who immediately proceeds to pet the mighty master of Baekdudaegan as if he were her pet dog pfft (thus the ‘....or I was.’)

As an aside, tvN released some backstory information revealing that Ah Eum had gone to find Yeon in order to pray for rain. Which means she pet him in spite of that lol We also know from the past-life sequence in episode 10 that she had actually been warned never to venture anywhere near his mountain because a 1000 year old gumiho lived there. It’s almost as if her guardians don’t know her at all...

For anyone keeping track, Ah Eum uses banmal with Yeon from the very beginning. We find out why later. As a princess (even one who had been discarded), she’s used to outranking everyone around her and therefore speaking almost exclusively in banmal. To be fair, with her temperament, Yeon being a 1000+ year old mountain god probably just wasn’t enough to get him an automatic pass from her. Point for Ah Eum/Ji Ah character continuity.

Yeon: If I could rewrite* my past just once, I would return to this moment without hesitation. So that that child could never find me.

[*Note: Literally, ‘A/S my past,’ which I’m pretty sure has its roots in computer usage. So again, thoroughly modern vocabulary from the former master of Baekdudaegan.]

We transition from young to grown Ah Eum with a sweep of the Red Umbrella. According to tvN again, this umbrella was actually a gift from Ah Eum to Yeon, and it’s also the same umbrella Yeon still carries everywhere. It’s somewhat poetic, then, that it was this umbrella that lead Ji Ah to him. So, a meaningful item on multiple fronts.

Yeon: Some called it, ‘the scandal of the age that shook Baekdudaegan.’ To think, a mountain god who had given his heart to a human... Nowadays, it would have felt like a disciplinary hearing, but I didn’t care a whit. I liked her [presence] permeating my woods.

As you might have guessed, this love story ends in tragedy. Someone stole her life. Once she crossed the River of Three Crossings, I would never be able to see her again. I couldn’t hold on to her, but nor could I bear to let her go...so I resorted to abusing my power.

The BGM playing as Yeon narrates the ending of his tragic story is ‘The Parting at the River of Three Crossings,’ which I think of as the epic love theme of TotNT alongside ‘Sad Fate.’ Why do I keep mentioning the BGM? No reason, other than that it interests me. ;)

On a linguistic note, Yeon’s line, ‘Someone stole her life’ caught my attention from the first time I watched this due to his unusual usage of the word ‘life.’ Korean has multiple words for ‘life.’ The one that would typically be used in this context is ‘moksoom’ (목숨), which I think of as having the nuance of one’s life force. So to steal one’s ‘moksoom’ would mean to kill them. Instead, he uses ‘insaeng’ (인생), which is more like the life one leads. To steal someone’s ‘insaeng’ sounds more like a case of identity theft. As we find out later, that actually is what Imoogi did, and this hinted at that linguistically.

I’m not sure how well this translated, but the gesture of Yeon kneeling is both epic and heartbreaking. Kneeling is a very weighty gesture in Korea, so for Yeon to use his godly powers to freeze the very River to the Afterlife only to kneel and beg for one last moment with Ah Eum is just... It’s a momentous enough gesture for Taluipa, the ultimate stickler for rules, to make an exception and grant his request.

The fox bead: In Japanese lore, a fox’s bead is often akin to its life force, but that’s clearly not the case for Yeon. In Korean lore, fox beads are sometimes called ‘the treasure of a fox’s lips,’ since the bead is supposedly located within the fox’s mouth (and can thus be stolen/gifted with a kiss). Some tellings claim that someone who swallows a fox’s bead gains understanding of all things and phenomena in the universe, while others say they grant the bearer’s wishes.

Yeon continues his narration, describing how he’s encountered women with Ah Eum’s face over the centuries, but that none of them were her. For anyone interested, you can find my hot take on that here.

Okay, can we please have a spin-off of Yeon hunting down folklore monsters in Japanese-occupied Korea Gaksital (2012)-style?

Fun fact: Based on some of the still cuts they released, there was actually a deleted scene in which Yeon pulled the late-Joseon era Ah Eum look-alike aside, checked her for the fox bead, and then erased her memories. (And by ‘fun’ I mean, ‘why would you delete that??’)

“I’ve been waiting for you.” Iconic.

Fun fact: Lee Dong Wook picked this as the most memorable line of the drama due to it’s thematic echoing across multiple episodes.

On the topic of the tranquilizer, there was a deleted scene in episode 1 in which Ji Ah very openly 'borrowed’ it from Shin Joo’s vet clinic because she already suspected Yeon was a fox: fox fur, Fox Ridge... She was taking a pretty big gamble though since he’s not exactly your average fox.

It’s worth noting that Ji Ah doesn’t say she was ‘looking’ for Yeon (although she was, because she’s a go-get-‘em kind of girl); she says she was ‘waiting’ for him. I took this to mean she was waiting for him to return and make good on his threat to kill her (since, not only had she not forgotten, she’d been actively sticking her nose into anything remotely supernatural or unexplainable), at which point, presumably, she planned to turn the tables on him.

Episode 02 Title Card: I’ve Been Waiting for You

For anyone wondering how Ji Ah managed to get Yeon back up to his penthouse, apparently she told the security desk her boyfriend was drunk and boldly took him back up in the elevator (presumably with help) haha

Possibly coincidentally, Yeon’s first line to Ji Ah when he regains consciousness is the same as his first line to little Ah Eum: ‘Do you want to die?’ (minus the sageuk speak)

Ji Ah’s line, “I wouldn’t be sipping tea here if I was worried about that,” would more literally be: “If I valued my life, would I be sitting here drinking flower tea?”

Lol Ji Ah. “Want a cup?” is such a classy power play.

Sub: “After the stunt you pulled, you’re actually offering me tea?” Ha. Also, what Yeon literally says is: “You pulled that variety-esque stunt, and your next line is what? ‘A cup of tea’?” ‘Variety’ here is an English loan word meant in the sense of ‘variety shows’ (ex. Running Man or 1 Night 2 Days), though to my knowledge, no one has ever been tranquilized on one.

The following exchange was littered with enough small things I would have changed that I’ll just translate the whole thing here for reference:

Ji Ah: When a man and a woman have that level of physical contact, don’t they usually also drink tea or eat meals together, too? These days, the whole pure and noble act doesn’t go far.

Yeon: Whether it does or not, when you’re at a disadvantage, isn’t it considered common courtesy to come [to the table] having put aside either your pride or your self-esteem [i.e. at least one of the two]?

Ji Ah: Listen until the end before you determine who’s at a disadvantage.

Yeon: (Nodding) In exchange, if my thinking still doesn’t change, you’ll pay the price for having tested me.

Ji Ah: Price?

Yeon: Your sight (literally ‘eyes’). I’ll be taking your eyes that have seen what they shouldn’t have.

Ji Ah: Deal. (literally, ‘call’ as in poker)

Rang & Yoo Ri Crash a Funeral

In the off chance you were wondering why this is basically the only time we see Rang driving Yoo Ri and not the other way around, it’s because Yoo Ri is ‘in character’ as the daughter of a major conglomerate and wouldn’t be expected to drive herself if there was another person in the car. In Korea, there’s a whole code of etiquette around who sits where in the car.

Instead of ‘Lee Rang-nim’ the subs have Yoo Ri addressing Rang as ‘sir.’ That just strikes me as so distant and cold...

To my thinking, this scene was peak ‘Hoket-dan.’ It was nearly the same level of over-the-top campy as some of the old supervillains. If I’m being perfectly honest, I was worried at this point that Rang’s character would turn out to be equally 2D. Joke’s on me though, ‘cause this later became a hilarious character quirk when Sajang says to Rang, “It can’t be that you came to enjoy watching me die?” and Rang responds, “I love doing that! Look, I even brought popcorn. I even go about visiting funeral homes and stuff on purpose.” lol

Ji Ah’s Gamble

Okay, but Yeon actually took her up on tea haha I love it.

Subs: “So you’re a fox that’s pretending to be human.” The word they use here (and throughout the drama) is ‘doongap’ (둔갑), which is literally ‘to assume the form of.’ Unfortunately, there’s no verb in English that neatly conveys that, so this gets subbed a lot of ways. I’ve mostly been translating it as ‘transform,’ but that’s more properly ‘byeonshin’ (변신). Sometimes with translation, the best option still isn’t great.

It’s also worth noting that this is actually not what Yeon is doing here, since he sees those sorts of tricks as beneath him. Yeon is a cheon’ho; his human form is his own.

Sub: “What a lame reaction. A normal human being would scream...” More literally: “What kind of reaction is so lacking in sincerity? Generally, if [you’re] a human, I should at least get a scream...” Again, both ‘reaction’ and ‘scream’ are in English, and, somewhat humorously, Yeon uses the verb + juda (주다) form, implying he was hoping to elicit a scream with his reveal pfft

Sub: “No. I knew something like you would exist somewhere out in this world. I started directing a TV show about urban legends so I could catch you myself.” This is mostly fine, but what she says more literally is: “No. I knew something like you would exist somewhere in this world. In order to catch [one] myself, I buried my bones in a TV show about urban legends.” To ‘bury ones bones’ means ‘to devote oneself entirely to’ and implies more drive and dedication than in the sub. The subject is once again omitted, so she could mean Yeon, but I think she actually means ‘things like Yeon’ more generally.

Yeon’s line to Ji Ah when she asks him about their long ago encounter was subbed as: “I followed the smell of blood, and I ended up saving a little kid. But I can see that she’s very ungrateful.” I would translate this as:

Yeon: I smelled blood and followed it, and ended up saving some little girl (lit. young child), but now I see that that child is trying to repay a favor with enmity.

The expression Yeon uses here, to ‘repay a favor (eunhye) with enmity (wonsoo),’ is a common turn of phrase. It’s the Korean equivalent of ‘biting the hand that feeds you,’ or ‘repaying good with ill.’ Considering eunhye has actual consequences for Yeon, he doesn’t seem all that put out.

Lol Something about Lee Dong Wook’s delivery of Yeon’s line, “So you lost your parents...” reminds me of the Oscar Wilde quote: ‘To lose one parent may be regarded as misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.’

Sub: “I’m not threatening you. I’m taking my chances.” This should be: “You’re mistaken. I’m not threatening; I’m gambling.” This turn of phrase is rather clever in Korean since ‘threat’ (협박) and ‘gamble’ (도박) are only one syllable off. In terms of the subs, while ‘gambling’ and ‘taking my chances’ are similar on the surface, they’re different enough in nuance that I would consider this a mistranslation. ‘Gambling’ implies an informed, calculated risk, whereas ‘taking my chances’ gives the impression of improvisation and leaving everything up to luck.

The Funeral Parlour

This scene is Rang in a nutshell. I actually don’t have much to comment on linguistically, but it was definitely an important scene for establishing Rang’s MO and motivations.

Shin Joo & Yeon

Yeon and Shin Joo meet up at the ice cream parlour to debrief on the situation with Ji Ah, and it’s cute how Shin Joo is more indignant over what went down than Yeon.

Subs: “It’s like we exist to repay people for their kindness.” This has been grossly paraphrased due to lack of cultural context. His line is literally:

Shin Joo: It’s not as if we’re magpies meticulously repaying our eunhye! Geez, how long do we have to be bound by that sort of premodern contractual relationship?”

This is another Korean folktale reference, this time to the story of The Grateful Magpies. I elaborated on it a bit here.

Yeon: “It’s old-fashioned but romantic. And it's also a fox’s dignity.” ‘Romantic’ here is the French loan word ‘romang’ (로망). In contrast to the English ‘romantic’ (which is also used), ‘romang’ is used to refer to ‘anything marked by the imaginative or emotional appeal of what is heroic, adventurous, remote, mysterious, or idealized.’ ‘Dignity’ could also be translated as ‘grace of character.’ Yeon’s preoccupation with style/swagger/dignity is enough of a recurring theme (and occasional joke) that it features in his character profile.

For anyone keeping track, Shin Joo refers to Ah Eum as ‘Ah Eum agasshi.’ ‘Agasshi’ meaning ‘miss’ or ‘lady.’

Shin Joo’s line is subbed, “Does she bother you?” but it should be: ‘Does it bother you?’ where ‘it’ refers to the fact that Ji Ah so closely resembles Ah Eum.

Sub: “I’ve seen tons of people who looked like her for hundreds of years.” It’s actually not ‘tons of people,’ but ‘a couple’/‘several’ over the course of hundreds of years. Let’s be honest, people as pretty as Jo Bo Ah just aren’t born every day. ;)

Yeon’s line may be overly blunt, but it’s sweet that he calls Shin Joo, ‘Shin Joo-ya.’

Back over to Ji Ah. The way this scene suddenly switches from sentimental to horrifying is great. I also like that it’s unclear when she fell asleep. The boundary between reality and unreality is as blurred for the viewers as it is for Ji Ah, and it leaves us with a similar sense of disquiet.

In case it wasn’t already clear, it’s the tooth on this skull that leads Ji Ah to Eohwa Island. She sees a skull with an identical tooth in the news and goes to investigate.

Afterlife Immigration Office

LOL Hyeonuiong briefing the newly departed on death via powerpoint is hilarious. The powerpoint reads: ‘A Guide to Hell for the Dead, Presenter: Hyeonuiong.’ The red sigil on the right bears the characters ‘十王’ (the Ten Kings), so I guess this is an official, Afterlife-approved slideshow. heh

Side note: I’m impressed with the way this show seamlessly shifts between genres. We went from emotional to creepy to funny without it feeling forced or jarring (or at least, it didn’t to me).

The powerpoint (complete with webtoon) continues cheerily: “Hell! What is the Afterlife?” / “The 10 Types of Hell.” pfft Who made these slides? Whoever they are, point to them.

Subs: “You know King Hades, right?” WOW This is bordering on cultural whitewashing if you ask me. This should be King Yeomra (aka King Enma). He’s one of the Ten Kings of the Afterlife, and quite arguably the most famous.

The sub here says Taluipa is Yeomra’s older sister, which is understandable since the antiquated word Hyeonuiong uses (누이), doesn’t specify older or younger. We find out in the final episode, though, that Taluipa is actually Yeomra’s younger sister. As far as I’m aware, this is not part of the original lore.

Lol Yeon being a drama king: “I’m going to take revenge! Thanks to her, my obligatory military service has already gone on for 600 years~!” (You’re not fooling anyone, sir)

“No way! A man’s hair is his life! My red-brown...” Fun fact: It was actually Lee Dong Wook’s idea to make Yeon’s hair red-brown, both as a nod to him being a fox, and to give him a more otherworldly look.

Why do the gods keep saying reincarnation is random when everyone we see reincarnated kept their face??

‘Oh my god” lol Watching kdrama characters react in English never gets old. Possibly because there’s something exaggerated or overdramatic in the conscious decision to use English instead of Korean.

A++ response from Yeon. I saw something going around to the effect of, ‘this show really just said love is love,’ and I love that. Point to the writer.

The BGM here is once again ‘Thread Rings.’ Given where it keeps being used, I’m fairly certain they’re somehow related to Ji Ah/Ah Eum... (So I guess there actually is a reason I’m paying attention to the BGM ;p). Lee Dong Wook just disclosed the behind the scenes scoop on the rings in his latest VLIVE.

This bulgasari is such a mild-mannered person. Like Shin Joo, he calls Ji Ah ‘PD-nim’ and speaks politely and deferentially.

Not for anything, but I really liked Jo Bo Ah’s delivery of Ji Ah’s line, ‘I saw a corpse.’ Her little mannerisms really sold Ji Ah to me as a person and not just a character.

Bulgasari: “That dream, can you sell it to me? I want to play the lottery.” In addition to the concept of symbolism in dreams, Koreans also have a common notion that dreams can be bought and sold. It’s funny, though, when you consider he’s probably just planning to eat the dream.

I love whenever Taluipa calls Yeon, ‘Yeon-ah.’ She’s normally so prickly that it’s notable when she's affectionate. Also, seeing as Yeon is older than 95% of our characters, there aren’t many who might address him like this with the affectionate diminutive.

Heh, Yeon refers to Ji Ah’s favor as a ‘civil complaint.’

When Yeon asks Ji Ah for her parent’s times and dates of birth, what he’s actually asking for is their ‘saju’ (literally, ‘four pillars’). You can find my explanation here.

The Snail Bride

Bok Hye Ja: “It’s the first time he’s brought someone (literally ‘a person’).” Normally this would mean, ‘it’s the first time he’s brought a guest,’ but in this case, I’m fairly certain she means, ‘it’s the first time he’s brought a human.’ ;)

“I won’t ask you to understand.” This was another exchange that made me love Ji Ah. I found her frank and sincere apology refreshing.

On a personal note, I loved watching Yeon recalibrate his estimation of Ji Ah in this scene. And it was also a scene in which viewers got to recalibrate their impressions of Yeon. Yeon is feigning indifference, but he makes a point of asking after Ji Ah’s feelings, which is not insignificant. It’s also in sharp contrast to what we’ve seen of Rang so far.

Oh my gosh, THAT PUFFBALL DOG (and it’s name is Bean-ie) XD

Minor detail, but where did Shin Joo get his necklace? Wait. OH MY GOD. Shin Joo is the Aquaman of TotNT. Yeon gets to be Batman and Superman rolled into one and Shin Joo’s power is that he ‘talks to fish animals.’ Dead.

Lol Ji Ah watching Yeon eat. I feel like this is a running joke. In the tales, gumiho notoriously eat people’s livers, so seeing him eat normal food must be a bit eye-opening.

The text description for Shin Don was left untranslated in the version we’re watching but it reads: In A History of Goryeo, there’s record of Shin Don, a monk from the time of King Gongmin’s reign (1351-1374 C.E.), having been an old fox.

Subs: “Is it true that the monk of Goryeo Dynasty was a fox?” Us: ‘Yes, the one monk in all of Goryeo and for all of Goryeo. Guess he’d have to have been a fox in that case.’ This should probably have been translated as: "So then, Shin Don...is it a fact that the Goryeo monk Shin Don was a fox?”

Ji Ah: “Oh my god.” heh

Do You Really Want to See It?

Wait, they walked all the way from Insadong to Digital Media City? Okay, this is one of the (few) pitfalls of being fairly familiar with Seoul. Sometimes it’s really obvious when two locations don’t connect and then it pulls me out of the drama. I think we’re supposed to believe that the Snail Bride is in the vicinity of Ji Ah’s broadcast station, seeing as her team are lunchtime regulars, but the the two neighborhoods are nowhere near each other.

Yeon’s line in the subs here is: “A. I’m a busy man. B. We may currently be living in the same world, but there is a big difference between where we come from.” Personally, I would have translated this as: “Firstly, I haven’t got that much free time. Secondly, we may be unavoidably living mingled together, but the world I belong to and the world you belong to are incontrovertibly different.”

Subs: “Those who got a peek at my world ended up going crazy or dying young.” More literally: “In the past, there have been those who got a glimpse of the world’s secrets. Well, most of them either went mad or had their lives cut short.”

Minor detail, but Ji Ah’s response subbed as: “I don’t care. I’ll stay out of your way. Just don’t disappear.” should more literally be: “Just don’t disappear from my sight (lit. ‘from before me’).”

The sub on Ji Ah’s line here reads: “She (Sae Rom) and I both had nightmares.” What she actually says is: “Me and my hubae also had nightmares,” meaning that she (Ji Ah) and Jae Hwan had nightmares in addition to Sae Rom. Which is why Yeon refers to them as ‘contagious’.

Okay, is it just me, or does LDW look exceptionally unreal in this scene?

Bulgasari

I’m not familiar with the actor who plays the bulgasari (pretty sure he’s a new face), but he did a great job making his movements uncanny here. The firey CG effects are fun too.

Heck yeah! Yeon sure knows how to make an entrance. Seeing as how he instructed Ji Ah on what to do, I’m pretty sure he was there the whole time......show-off.

Once again, I’m digging the fight scene underscored by ‘The Uninvited.’ I would happily watch an entire series that’s just Yeon and Ji Ah solving supernatural cases and hunting down baddies who disturb the peace.

The Smirk™ XD I’m 90% sure this was another LDW ad lib.

Lol Yeon. Subs: “Really? Then am I the jerk here?” More literally: “Really? Then I guess I’m the only bad guy, huh?”

On a linguistic note, the bulgasari speaks to Yeon in old-timey speech, once again playing up their mutual identity as creatures of lore.

It’s only at this point that, prompted by Ji Ah, Yeon finally reveals the bulgasari’s identity. This is accompanied by a brief chyron telling us that they appear when the world is in disorder, and Ji Ah supplies that they eat nightmares.

To elaborate a bit, bulgasari are one of the better known Korean creatures of lore. There are two different sets of hanja for them: (bulgasari 不可殺伊 ‘can-not-kill’) and (bulgasari 火可殺伊 ‘fire-can-kill’), which explains why, depending on the telling, they’re either un-killable or only die by fire. In traditional lore, feeding them metal makes them grow larger and stronger, which, while not the case in TotNT, is probably what inspired the coin-gobbling.

Subs: “Yes they are especially fond of broadcasting studios, which are packed with people. Eating metal reveals their true identities.” That subtitle went a bit sideways. It’s not that they like broadcast stations in particular, but crowded places like broadcast stations. So it should read: “They like places with lots of people, like the broadcast station, and if you feed them metal, they reveal their true colors.”

Okay, Yeon’s line that’s subtitled as, “The hostage will answer,” is more literally: “Hey, hostage. Try answering me.” It’s worth noting that, while he calls her ‘injil-bun’ (injil = hostage + bun = the polite word for a person), he’s still speaking to her in banmal, so he’s once again being cheeky.

It’s taking some license, but I would translate Yeon’s question to Ji Ah here as: “In this moment,* what exactly can you do other than rely on me to save you?” which is essentially what he means. [*Note: literally, ‘at this timing,’ and once again, ‘timing’ is in English.]

We get a series of short scenes lining up some of the side characters who will become our key players on the island: the fisherman find the severed head, Ji Ah grills Detective Baek about the case, and Rang approaches Pyung Hee with his usual devil’s bargain pitch. I didn’t really notice anything here that I think is important enough to the central plot or characters that it’s worth commenting on (especially given how massively long this post is already), so I’m just going to call it good and move right along. ;)

Pfft I definitely wasn’t expecting the bulgasari to be literally chilling in Yeon’s freezer (not that he had a choice). This is somewhat interesting given they’re typically thought to be weak to fire, not ice.

Subs: “I’ll die even if I tell you where he is.” More literally: “Whether I die in this way [by Yeon’s hand], or that [by Rang’s], it is all the same.”

Brother Complex

Sub: “Don’t even think of hurting her.” More literally: “Just try touching one hair on her head.”

Oh my gosh Rang’s face ㅠㅠ This was the first time I felt Kim Beom really got to display his acting chops in this role, and boy, was I glad to see it. This was also when I knew Rang was going to make me cry.

Yeon: “You’re acting like this because you lack affection.” The expression Yeon uses is ‘aejeong gyeolpip,’ which literally does mean ‘affection lack/want/absence,’ but I would have translated it as ‘affection-starved,’ since saying Rang ‘lacks affection’ could also be interpreted to mean Rang is incapable of expressing affection.

Yeon: “Why’s that?” Lol Lee Dong Wook. Also, this one line is cheekily in polite speech.

Subs: “Just because of a woman you gave up your position as a mountain spirit, left the mountain, and you even...” More literally: “Just because of one mere human woman you gave up your position as a mountain god, turned your back on the mountain, and..!!”

Yeon: “Yes, I know. I even abandoned you.” Rang-ah~ ㅠㅠ I recently received an ask as to whether or not I believed Yeon had truly abandoned Rang, which I answered here.

Oof, Yeon giving Rang advice as an older brother. In Korea, nagging is seen as a sign of affection. You may recall Ji Ah was very excited for her dad to nag her about her boyfriend in episode 12.

Sub: “You crazy fool.” Rang literally calls his brother a ‘michin nom,’ ‘michin’ meaning ‘crazy.’ ‘Nom’ is a pronoun that, depending on how it’s used, can mean anything from ‘guy,’ to ‘jerk,’ to ‘bastard.’

Sub: “I don’t need to know.” Actually: “There’s no need [for you to tell me].” The two are subtly different. Yeon’s saying he’ll find out on his own, not that he doesn’t want to know.

Fun fact: Kim Beom said in his script reading interview (before they started filming) that he was a bit worried about his onscreen dynamic with Lee Dong Wook because, while Rang has to hate Yeon, LDW is a hyung that KB likes so much in real life. What a cutie.

We cut briefly over to Ji Ah on the phone with Jae Hwan, asking him to look after Sae Rom while she chases down the skull lead.

As an aside here, Ji Ah calls Sae Rom, ‘Kim-jak’ (short for ‘jakga,’ meaning ‘writer’). In Korea, it’s common to refer to someone by their role or title. This might indicate distance, but Ji Ah’s shortening it makes the term familiar and speaks of their camaraderie. In the subtitles, this has become, ‘Ms. Kim,’ which is oddly distant given their frenemyship.

The Island

Is it just me, or does it feel like there should have been a scene here explaining how and why Yeon came to be on the boat? I’m assuming it got deleted due to time constraints, but I feel like it was needed.

Pfft The way Ji Ah pops up from behind Yeon, cutting comically into the dramatic shot of Lee Dong Wook’s windswept profile + BGM was great.

In case it wasn’t already apparent, Kimite patches are used to alleviate sea sickness, so this is further undermining the mood of a second ago haha

Yeon’s line is subbed: “I’d like to keep it to myself,” but this should more literally be: ‘Let’s each work individually/play it solo.’

Sub: “No, thank you.” What Yeon actually says: “Hard pass.” hahaha (Literally: ‘I’ll immediately/urgently decline,’ but tonally, ‘hard pass’ is closer).

The subs have Yeon’s line as: “You need to be careful what you pay attention to.” I would have translated this as: “If that’s the reason [you’ve come], go back. You mustn’t recklessly lend an ear [to such things].” His tone and phrasing are both surprisingly gentle.

Subs: “My guts keep telling me, that this is a very suspicious combination.” Well, my guts keep telling me, that this is a very suspicious sub haha I would have translated Yeon’s voiceover as:

Yeon: The same boat...the same island...a woman with the same face as that girl. My instincts speak to me relentlessly, telling me there’s something amiss about this combination.

Pfft The contrast between Ji Ah's dismount from the boat and Yeon’s.

Lol Yeon’s ‘excuse me’ was totally rude

For the record, from the moment Yeon sets foot on the island, he speaks to everyone in banmal. That’s bad form towards any stranger, but it’s especially rude considering their age. Sure, Yeon’s way older, but they don’t know that.

Ji Ah mouthing “What?” in English haha

Yeon clocking the effectively creepy villagers. Turns out the right BGM and camerawork can make anything creepy. Point to the director.

Settling in on the Island

Ji Ah’s line subbed as, “I thought you didn’t want to be involved,” should more properly be: “I thought you just said we should each play it solo?”

Yeon’s line is similarly mis-subbed as: “I changed my mind. Don’t let it bother you.” What he actually says is much ruder: “I’ll do what I want! Butt out.” Which explains Ji Ah’s affront heh

Lol Yeon walking right in front of the camera. Anyone who has ever had a pet recognized this moment.

I love how Yeon is being completely tactless and insensitive but then grudgingly course-corrects when Ji Ah glares daggers at him.

Fisherman (subs): “It gives me a bad feeling in my mouth.” Excuse me, what? haha The line is: “The more I think about it, the more it bothers me.”

Lol Ji Ah: “In the documentaries I watched, they say digging holes is your speciality” (complete with digging gesture).

Fun fact: Ji Ah blocking the way with her leg and Yeon burrowing under it was something Jo Bo Ah and Lee Dong Wook came up with themselves. Ji Ah’s line was scripted, but I’m nearly positive Yeon’s comeback of, “Burrowing is my speciality,” was an ad lib by Lee Dong Wook. Once again, casting Lee Dong Wook is the gift that keeps on giving.

WAIT. Subs: “You can’t go.” / “Borrowing is my specialty.” Hahaha What even? Cheon’ho Lee Yeon: professional mooch.

The way we then cut to Yeon ‘burrowing’ into a freezer of ice cream is just perfect. Point to the director.

Once again, Yeon is talking to all the village elders in banmal.

“You have a terrible service mentality.” pfft

OH. Ji Ah’s response to the misogynistic fisherman is just A++

Her line here is literally: “Oops, I’m afraid I’m overflowing with ‘jeong.’” ‘Jeong’ (情) can be a little hard to translate. It literally means ‘emotion’ or ‘affection,’ but the way it’s used linguistically can be a bit complex. The sub here was: “I’m afraid I was too generous,” which I actually think is pretty decent. The turn of phrase in Korean though, using the word ‘overflowing’ while over-pouring on the man, made her response doubly witty.

Hah. I love the way Yeon just raises his eyebrows when he comes out of the market and spots her.

Subs: “How dare a witch from outside come here and...” He actually calls her a ‘michin nyeon’ meaning ‘crazy bitch,’ so the line is: “Crazy bitch, where do you think this is that you dare...”

Ji Ah’s line that begins, “If you’re going to hit me...” is just SO great. We stan (1) queen.

Subs: “Nice. You’re tough.” This is a bit hard to translate. Yeon’s line is literally: “Oh~ What ggang is like this?” ‘Ggang’ can be translated as ‘guts,’ ‘tenacity,’ or ‘persistence.’ Naver dictionary describes it as: ‘a personal trait found in one who never gives in, when put in whatever difficulties,’ which is so spot on for Ji Ah. I might approximate this as: “Woah~ Just how gutsy are you?”

The way he's just like, ‘I approve. Here, have a shikhye~’ is mildly adorable. Did you buy that for her, Yeon, or were you planning on having two but decided she’d earned one? haha

Ji Ah’s response is equally great. The sub says: “That was nothing.” which isn’t a bad option for a subtitle, but what she literally says is ‘saesam-seureopge’ (새삼스럽게), where ‘saesam’ means ‘now? at this point? after all this time?’ So she’s basically saying, ‘You’re bothering with that observation, over that little stunt, after everything else you’ve seen me do?’ haha

“I plan to mooch off of you as much as possible.” Pfft I love how Yeon actually moves to stand behind her just to underscore the point. That’ll be Lee Dong Wook again.

Wow, these are some sketchy old people.

Subs: “People aren’t the only ones with eyes and mouths.” What he actually says is, “Are people the only ones with eyes and ears?”

The Forest Spirit

Wow, the lighting in this scene is just A++ Point to the lighting team (or is that just natural? It feels almost too pretty to have just been natural).

I was too distracted by Lee Dong Wook to notice the first time, but Ji Ah’s face when Yeon shushes her is great haha

On a linguistic note, this scene is one of the few in which Yeon code switches to archaic speech as he’s addressing the tree spirit. It’s the linguistic equivalent of him putting on his ‘mountain god’ hat. (He still speaks to Ji Ah normally, though).

We cut briefly to the mudang (shamaness), and I’m sorry, I know this is a traditional way of speaking, but it always makes me laugh because it’s so over-the-top.

The spirit addresses Ji Ah as ‘agasshi,’ which would be strange if she was actually a modern young girl, but makes sense for a spirit who’s at least 600. Overall, it helps to remind viewers of her supernatural-ness.

Yeon telling Ji Ah she did a good job is so cute. I feel like they’re rapidly becoming a quirky tag-team duo and I’m 100% here for it.

Mudang: “His body returned to shore before his head did! Your father!” This line was explained in the backstory collection.

Okay, the mudang needs to dial it back like 10 levels here.

Possibly just me, but Yeon swatting the air with his hand as he peers into the cave struck me as vaguely fox-like.

Minor detail again, but the chyron here is subbed as ‘Jangsansa Cave.’ It’s actually ‘Jangsan sagool,’ not ‘Jangsansa gool.’ ‘Sagool’ is written with the characters 蛇窟 meaning ‘snake hole.’

Lol Yeon freezing mid-motion when Ji Ah tells him to stay put. That is 110% Lee Dong Wook’s sense of humour. Praise the drama gods for Lee Dong Wook - this show wouldn’t have been half as fun without him.

Fun fact: This cave is actually intimately tied to Ah Eum’s past with Imoogi and the story of how she came to be his ‘bride’ (read: sacrifice). I translated the tvN description here. I actually think this was fairly important information, so it’s a shame it wasn’t covered in the drama.

Sleepover with a Gumiho

When Ji Ah asks Yeon why he’s insisting on staying at Pyung Hee’s, his response is subbed as: “I have my reasons.” This is more properly: “You don’t need to know.”

Sub: “We don’t eat that crap!” Yeon’s line doesn’t have a subject, but this should properly be: “I don’t eat that crap!” We know from Yeou Nui that some gumiho in this world actually do eat liver.

“Heard of the Chinese liver fluke?” Ha. Yeon literally says ‘kan distoma,’ i.e. ‘liver distomiasis’ or ‘liver fluke’. While there was a well-known outbreak in China, it isn’t inherently Chinese. There’s a Korean word for it too (간흡충), but once again, Yeon opts for the loan word, adding further humour to the gumiho disavowing liver consumption - for health reasons, no less pffft

The BGM playing as Yeon sees Ah Eum in Ji Ah is once again ‘Parting at the River of Three Crossings.’

Bok Hye Ja’s line to Shin Joo is subbed as: “He went to the island to find this reincarnated girl?” The word she uses is actually ‘gakshi,’ which is an antiquated word generally meaning ‘bride’ (as in ‘the Snail Bride’), but it can also just mean ‘young woman.’

For the record, the Snail Bride speaks to Shin Joo in banmal, who speaks to her in jondaetmal

Shin Joo: “Contrary to how he looks, he’s the devoted type, after all.” Et tu, Shin Joo?

Shin Joo’s line is subbed: “As if that’s a good thing,” but I would have translated it as: “Romantic, my foot!”

Sub: “At least once in our lives we come across that one person we want to give our lives to.” This should be: ‘risk our lives for.’

Sub: “I won’t ever devote myself to love. My goal will be to protect Mr. Lee.” Actually: “I won’t ever risk my life for love. I’m going to protect Lee Yeon-nim!”

“Well that can also be called love, can’t it?” Thank you for this, Show. I know some people think TotNT champions romantic love above all else, but I simply don’t agree.

When Yeon checks Ji Ah again for his fox bead, the BGM playing is once again ‘Thread Rings’

I love how they did the CG on whatever is happening with Yeon’s powers here. I would have loved to have gotten more of an explanation of the fox bead and its powers (and Yeon’s, for that matter), but alas.

I love that Yeon tucks Ji Ah in even after re-confirming (or so he thinks) that she isn’t Ah Eum. It was important to me that he came to like and appreciate her for herself before learning that she was, in fact, his lost love.

Morning on the Island

Ji Ah wakes to find Yeon gone, the blanket tucked around her, and her expression tells us she’s onto him: sure, Yeon can be a grump, but he’s also a complete softie. heh

Yeon is, once again, talking to the elders in banmal. Why do I keep mentioning it? Because no matter how many times I see it it’s still funny.

Okay, Lee Dong Wook has this way of pointing at things with his entire arm that I find ticklish. Yeon ends up coming across like a petulant child. On a cultural note, in Korea, pointing at people like this is considered impolite.

Yeon dangling the ginseng behind Ji Ah as extra incentive pfft Wild ginseng can be massively expensive in Korea (on the order of hundreds of dollars), so this is actually a very effective bribe.

Also, can we take a moment to appreciate that Yeon woke up before dawn, and, instead of going back to sleep, went into the mountains to hunt for wild ginseng, then set about using it to bribe the elders into answering Ji Ah’s questions for her. Entirely of his own accord. Like I said: softie.

Side note: Lee Dong Wook’s eyebrows are working overtime in this scene and I’m honestly a little jealous.

The newspaper Jae Hwan finds at the library is dated August 13, 1954, which Ji Ah immediately recognizes as having been just after the Korean War (if you’ll recall, this is when the forest spirit told them something ominous had come to the island).

This newspaper is actually really cool. You can see how, in the past, Korean newspapers used a lot of hanja in addition to the phonetic hangeul, similar to modern Japanese. The headline reads, “Headless Corpse, Discovered on Eohwa Island, Investigation Hits Dead End.” (頭 없는 屍身, 漁花島에서 發見, 捜査迷宮으로).

Okay, to be honest, this final scene - absent the extra context given in the next episode - made me question Ji Ah’s smarts again. I wondered why she was chasing down the clearly unstable guy just to question him, but it makes sense once you know she meant to warn him his life was in danger.

As usual, Yeon knows how to make an entrance. Cue ‘Gumiho’ theme.

Yeon stopping when Ji Ah tells him to never stops being satisfying.

The BGM playing as we cut over to Rang is ‘The House of Ghosts.’

Okay, those shots of Thirsty and Hungry were full-on horror movie and I actually kind of like it? I never watch horror as a genre, but for some reason, I found I missed this spooky element when it dropped out of the later episodes.

Oh, I like that Yeon went and made her a poultice. Very ex-mountain god of you, sir.

“Long time no see, Lee Yeon.” Iconic. And creepy. I love the attention to detail Jo Bo Ah displays in the difference between how she acts Ji Ah vs. Imoogi. Imoogi’s voice is higher pitched, and gives off more of a loose-cannon feel compared to Ji Ah, who speaks in a lower, more grounded tone.

Sub: “It’s me. The person you’ve been waiting for.” Imoogi literally says: “It’s me. That thing you’ve been waiting for.” This is obviously a big clue since normally one wouldn’t refer to oneself in such a way. It also reflects the fact that, unlike Terry-Imoogi, Jimoogi perceives no value in Ji Ah herself. (Yes, I call Ji Ah-Imoogi ‘Jimoogi,’ and sadly, no, I didn’t come up with it).

Yikes, Jimoogi tracing Yeon’s face was all menace and zero cute. Point to Jo Bo Ah.

Boy, this show really knows how to make an exit.

Blue Mooooooooon!! The guitar (bass?) riff is just so catchy.

And that concludes Episode 2. Thank you to everyone who commented on the first one. If not for your encouragement, I probably wouldn’t have continued. I also genuinely enjoy hearing from people, so send me your thoughts! This is a weird, unprecedented mashup of a live reaction post, behind the scenes info, and detailed language and culture notes, and I’m still learning how to balance the three. Your feedback is always welcome.

I’d also like to take a moment to credit my sister, who, in addition to weighing in on a lot of the translations, is also the chief researcher and fact checker for these. I, meanwhile, am in charge of bad jokes and snark. I mentioned before that these take longer than you might expect, but it’s really true. The time we spend watching the episode is actually the least of it, and as much as I enjoy them, they are a huge time suck.

So. This is what I’m going to do. If you’d like to see more of these, or if you enjoyed this, or if you’ve enjoyed any of the translations or commentary or whatnot I’ve been posting recently, please consider buying me a coffee. If you follow the link, you can buy me a $2 cup of virtual coffee. I’ve never done this before, but I’ve decided to give it a try. It’ll help me to gauge how much interest there is, and, possibly more importantly, it will help me to justify all the time haha. If and when I’ve established there’s enough interest, I’ll proceed with Episode 3. ;)

#tale of the nine tailed #totnt #lost in translation #구미호뎐 #kdrama #korean language #korean culture

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sheadre · 3 years

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Aurora Borealis (Jiang Cheng x Reader) Part 6

Summary: Zhu Ran'En (Reader) the imperial princess, was sent into exile for a crime she did not commit. Meeting Jiang Wanyin, the Yunmeng Jiang sect’s leader was not just a chance meeting. Their fates were written in the stars however, her relations to the royal family will never let her live in peace. How will she manage to save the kingdom while trying to keep Jiang Wanyin away from the snakes of the royal family?

Word count: 2538

Previous chapter - Series Masterlist

Jiang Wanyin stood in front of the closed doors of the infirmary. His back tense, posture rigid as he stood there with his arms crossed in front of his chest. He stood like a statue ever since the healers brought the princess inside. The dark shadows over his handsome face reminded Wei Wuxian of the thunder storms over the sea. The Yiling Patriarch was worried for Zhu Ran’En as well but knew that he needed to stay composed.

No one explained to him how the princess ended up in the middle of the battlefield but decided to wait with his questions. As Wei Wuxian remembered of the plans, the princess should’ve stayed behind to not draw attention to herself. Hanguang-Jun slid his hand onto his lower back without others noticing it, making Wei Ying turn to his lover with a reassuring small smile.

“It will be alright, Lan Zhan” he said more for his own reassurance. His lover only nodded quietly. Both of them grew fond of the princess as she brought a new dynamic into their lives. He enjoyed her company compared to the strict rules in Gusu. She was mischievous and playful, always ready for some light teasing when Jiang Cheng was around.

“How will anything be alright, Wei Wuxian?! Nothing will be alright!” Jiang Cheng growled angrily. “She shouldn’t have been a part of the plan, she should’ve stayed inside-“

“But she didn’t” came the voice of Xiao Pei from behind them. Wei Wuxian remembered how Zhu Ran’En described the general and called him Xiao Pei but his real name was Pei Xiu. Wei Ying heard people talk about the general because of his grand achievements on the battlefield. The man was quite handsome, tall and regal especially wearing the fine clothes of a high official. His eyes looked at Jiang Cheng like he wanted to run his sword through the sect leader’s chest. “For the time being I decided to not ask who is to blame for her injuries, but once she recovered, I will find the one who hurt the imperial princess.”

“General Pei” Wei Wuxian quickly greeted the man politely bowing to him. His smile was far from genuine but held no malice. Yet. He couldn’t help but feel that something was off about the general. “The healers said that the Princess will soon gain consciousness.”

“I would say that it is nice to meet you, Mo gongzi, but I would have to lie then” Xiao Pei replied coldly and walked past him without giving him a second glance. With his reputation, Wei Wuxian wasn’t surprised that another person treated him this coldly. Most people thought it was disgusting and unbefitting to have a lover from the same gender. Though, he was surprised the general knew his name – or rather the true owner’s name of the body he was in – without him introducing himself.

“General Pei, you cannot just go in there” Jiang Cheng spoke up when the man tried to barge into the room where Ran’En was being treated. Wanyin was clearly shaken up and worried, Xiao Pei only added oil to the fire with walking around Yunmeng like he owned the place. Wei Wuxian wasn’t really surprised, the man was royalty with him being the emperor’s brother’s grandson. No one used the title prince when they were talking about him though, Wei Ying having no idea why.

“You may be the sect leader of the Yunmeng Jiang sect but you have no authority over me, Jiang Wanyin” the man hissed out before turning back to the door and walking in closing the door in their faces. Jiang Cheng seemed to be about to burst into the room and drag the general’s ass out, however, Wei Wuxian decided to interject before the general would behead his brother for insolence.

“A-Cheng! Come, come! You cannot do much here right now, let’s wait for the princess to wake up!” Wei Ying grabbed his brother’s arm and pulled him over to another corridor. Wanyin pulled his arm out of his hold when they were far enough and hit the wall angrily. Disciples and servants ducked back to other corridors and rooms when they saw how irked their chief was.

“This is all my fault” Jiang Cheng gritted out as he leaned forward. Wei Wuxian knew how his brother was blaming himself over her highness’ injury but it made his heart not only sink with pity but fill with hope for his brother. Jiang Cheng deserved to be happy and he knew that the princess was the perfect match for his brother.

“That arrow was not fired by you, Jiang Cheng” Wei Ying protested.

“Could’ve been as well fired by me! She insisted on helping us making me let her run into the middle of the battlefield just because she knows some tricks! I sent her into danger! I shouldn’t have let her-“

“She knew what she was doing” Hanguang-Jun spoke up suddenly. “Ran’En was ready to take that risk.”

Wei Ying looked at his lover a little surprised by how casually Lan Zhan was talking about the princess, using only her first name. He noted to himself to question the mighty Hanguang-Jun about that later.

“By the way, when were you two planning on telling us about the change of plans?” Wei Ying crossed his arms in front of his chest. Jiang Cheng sighed tiredly averting his gaze from both. For a few minutes, the Yiling Patriarch thought his brother would stay silent when he finally spoke up telling them about all of it. His eyes widened in shock at what the princess agreed to. He read notes about the dark dragon back in Gusu’s library. It was a legend or supposed to be. The legends say that if the dark dragon emerges, the world is in great danger. Then suddenly, a servant approached the three of them with her head bowed and back hunched slightly.

“Sect leader, the princess is awake and asked for the three of you” she bowed to them but by the time she raised back up, they were nowhere to be seen.

Your PoV.

You woke up slowly, head fuzzy and chest hurting but you knew you were no longer in danger. The smell of medicine and clean sheets indicated that you were in the infirmary. You blinked a few times to clear your vision and gasped as you accidentally moved your torso making the wound hurt. You’ve only been hurt like this once when there was an assassination going wrong and you were in the way of the assassin.

“Ran’En!” a familiar male voice called you worry lacing his words as he spoke right next to you. “I was so worried, Ran’En…”

“Wanyin… where is Wanyin?” you asked weakly. You had to know what happened, you had to know if you were successful. The hand holding yours squeezed your fingers tightly at your request.

“It is me, Pei Xiu” your old friend spoke softly though his tone was restrained like he was holding back his emotions whatever they were. You turned your head to him as carefully as possible and smiled at him weakly.

“Xiao Pei” you greeted him. “I was worried that Lili wouldn’t reach you in time.”

“I came as fast as I could” Pei Xiu replied but you could easily tell that something was off about his expression after your mention of Lili. “I have much to tell you about the palace-“

“Where is she? Did she come back with you?!” you asked forcing yourself to sit up as you demanded an answer from the general. Your heart was beating in your chest loudly as your worry grew with every minute. Pei Xiu lowered his gaze from your (e/c) eyes making your heart clench in pain.

“She was caught by the Second Prince’ personal guard, Cao BaiXian after she reached me. Before he could get to torture her, she… she committed suicide.”

Silence fell on the two of you as you struggled to keep breathing. Tears ran down your cheeks as you sat there feeling useless. You promised to protect her, you promised to give her a good life, safety. It felt like an endless line of people you grew close to will inevitably fall to their death because of you. You were the reason she’s dead and the world can only blame you for her death.

You didn’t even register Xiao Pei’s strong arms circling your form, pulling you tightly against his chest. His familiar scent made your heart ache even more. You missed the simple days back when you were a child, when you still had your mother, when you had the time of your life hiding from the maids and servants who tried to chase you down and make you return to the classes you hated. Xiao Pei was the only one who treated you like a friend back then.

“Tell me what happened in the imperial palace since I left? Is it bad? Can we do anything?” you asked after a long silence. Your own voice sounded to you lifeless and dull, just like how you were feeling.

“Many things happened though I managed to keep Crown Prince safe but our days are shortening in number” he started with his eyebrows furrowed. After your friend told you everything there was to tell, you nodded silently.

“Xiao Pei… I need some rest” you spoke softly and patted his hand over yours. “I will see you once the healers let me out of here. Until then, please rest well and take care of Wanyin.”

“Wanyin? You never mentioned in your letters that you got on first name basis with the sect leader…” Xiao Pei’s tone was strange but you just chuckled weakly and shook your head.

“I like to tease him with acting like we’re familiar, it is amusing to see his dumbfounded face” you replied suspicious of your friend’s behavior. You noticed his intentions back in the palace but due to the two of you being blood related even if not closely, you still felt off about it. Not repulsed or disgusted but it didn’t feel right. You never encouraged his feelings and never called him out on it. “I will be fine, don’t you worry!”

You smiled at him trying to tell him that your conversation was over. Xiao Pei sighed and nodded leaving you alone. A minute later, a servant girl entered the room with new bandages and warm water to wash your wound and redress it. Once she finished, you grabbed her wrist drawing her attention to yourself.

“Could you please ask the sect leader to visit me? It is important” you smiled at her gently and let her go when she nodded. Her form slipped out between the doors and disappeared from your sight. You closed your eyes trying to relax some even though the feeling of dread. Something was off about your old friend, something made the hair on the back of your neck stand.

Were you strong enough to withstand the fight? Were you enough to stop the demise of the kingdom? No… none of that. You had to stand strong, you had to fight and never give up. You were trusted with this power for a reason. You got this power because of the Heavens finding you capable of solving the problem.

“Ran’En!” his voice interrupted your thoughts. His familiar voice sounded worried as the sect leader burst through the doors. You turned to Wanyin as much as you could and smiled at him gently.

“I’m here, Wanyin” you said quietly reaching out for his hand. Jiang Wanyin knelt down next to your bed, looking at you like you were a miracle. You wanted to be reckless, you wanted to be the little girl who died the night your mother was killed, the one who just wanted to live happily and find love. You wanted to grab his cheeks and pull him into a kiss, a promise of love and trust. Instead, you squeezed his hand reassuringly. “I’m here.”

“I was so worried about you, your highness” Jiang Wanyin said bowing his head. Your eyebrows furrowed and quickly reaching under his chin, you lifted his face so you could look him in the eyes.

“None of it was your fault, Wanyin” you said firmly.

“You wouldn’t be injured if I wouldn’t have let you-“

“Stop being like that! You’ve done nothing wrong! I wanted to help and did just that! I am quite proud of the fact that half of the enemy’s army was eradicated by just me!” you huffed as you clicked your tongue.

“Ah, so your highness is fine enough to boast about her achievements already!” Wei Wuxian quipped playfully making you chuckle mirthfully.

“Wouldn’t you do the same, Wei gongzi?” you teased back with a grin but then sighed heavily as a frown appeared on your features. “Though I called for you because of another reason. The first part of the plan is over now that the rebellious generals are captured. We have to execute the next part.”

“Are you ready to be a national hero, A-Cheng?” the Yiling Patriarch asked his brother but all of you knew that even though his words were playful, his tone was not. You could tell he was worried for the sect leader just like you. You were throwing Jiang Wanyin to the wolves with this plan but you needed to get back to the palace.

“Have you started spreading the rumors? We need to gain Wanyin a lot of fame by the time Xiao Pei would get back to the Imperial Palace. We need the emperor to hear about the brave and heroic Jiang Wanyin” you turned to Wei Wuxian who nodded but haven’t failed to notice how red the sect leader’s ears were becoming.

“When will your maid arrive back?” the Yiling Patriarch asked curious however, at the sight of your pained expression that oozed regret, he closed his mouth and looked to Lan Wangji who up until now stood silently further behind.

“She was killed after she gave my letter to Xiao Pei” you replied with your hands clenched into fists. “However… I have no idea why but have a strange feeling about it.”

The men stayed silent making you uneasy. Were they suspicious about your old friend? Could they feel the same strange feeling about him? You sighed tiredly which immediately drew their attention, alerting them about your state and so they quickly left you alone to rest. Before Jiang Cheng could stand up, you grabbed his hand making him look back at you.

“Never let your guard down, Wanyin” you said. “Once we arrive to the Imperial Palace, you will have to manage on your own for most of the time.”

“Mnn…” the sect leader nodded and left the room. You had to wait patiently for your time for now. Even if you were suspicious about Xiao Pei’s words and actions, you had to not act rashly. Every word, every action, every expression, you had to control from now on until the second prince and your cousin couldn’t do anything else but die or flee.

To be continued…

#romance #fluff #mo dao zu shi #the untamed #jiang wanyin #jiang cheng #jiang cheng x reader #wei wuxian #lan wangji #wangxian

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imaginedhaven · 4 years

Text

Rules of Engagement: Chapter One

Link to Masterpost

Aelin Galathynius snarled at the door she had just slammed behind herself, exposing delicate fangs that had been gracing her features for the past several weeks now. At this point she could understand the need for at least enough training for her powers to not manifest in the way they had, but to make it a condition for her to inherit the throne, when the laws Darrow had referenced had been unenforced for generations?

“You can’t say this was entirely unexpected,” came a delicate feminine voice from behind her, and Aelin whirled around before relaxing as she saw who had spoken. “I mean, truly,” her friend Lysandra continued with a careless twirl of the sleek brown curls she had chosen to wear that day, “burning down the entire western gate in the image of a bird does present a bit of a problem in our relations with the town and with our neighbors, does it not?”

Aelin smirked, though she had a feeling Lysandra would see through the feigned expression. “Aelin of the Wildfire summoning a phoenix to rescue her from the city guards certainly does send a message that I am not to be trifled with, doesn’t it?” Never mind that she had not deliberately chosen the form of the flames, nor in fact consciously summoned them at all.

“See, I’ve studied the descriptions in the old books, and I don’t think it was a phoenix,” her friend said lightly. “I couldn’t say for certain what type of bird appeared in the flames, but phoenixes always had a longer neck in the legends. Almost like a swan,” she added.

Aelin couldn’t help a laugh as a swan’s form suddenly replaced that of her friend, and she sat beside it on her bed. “Shifting into a swan hardly proves your point about phoenixes, Lysandra,” she said dryly.

Before she could say anything else about it, Lysandra had shifted back into the form she had been wearing earlier. “This entire conversation is a distraction, and you know it,” the shifter accused. “I think you’re truly angry that he chose to hide his decision from you until the day before your new trainer is due to arrive from Doranelle, so that you wouldn’t have time to find a way out of it.”

Aelin sighed and ran her fingers through her own golden waves, allowing the nervous gesture only because she was speaking to her most trusted friend. “I don’t like it,” she admitted. “We’ve avoided attracting the Fae Queen’s attention for so long now. How do I know this trainer isn’t under orders to just take me back?”

“You say that as though you would have no means of finding an escape. That doesn’t sound like the Aelin I know. Besides,” Lysandra continued, “abducting the Crown Princess seems like an order few monarchs would risk. Not to mention the risk of transporting you on any ship, without more control over your abilities.”

“That assumes the Fae have no protections against magic,” Aelin snapped.

“Hardly,” drawled Lysandra. “The western gate was well-defended, after all, and look where that got it.”

Aelin had to admit to herself, if not out loud, that her friend had a point. The gate had been warded, and had stood against multiple attacks, and she had burned through it without a thought. Honestly, that was the realization that had shaken her the most. Rather than concede the point out loud, though, she continued on. “We’ll just have to keep an eye on this blood-sworn whoever-he-is,” she declared. “I won’t leave my home against my will again, regardless of any relationship the Queen may declare between us.”

Lysandra grinned. “What if he’s coming to win you over and satisfy the other rule the Regent invoked?”

Aelin growled at the thought of it. “Then he’ll fail. The marriage clause is the one I have longer to find a way around, and I will not tie myself to someone blood-sworn to another simply to appease an old man clinging to what control he has left.”

“You might as well look at the options,” her friend pointed out. “Who knows, there may be someone on his list that isn’t so bad. You had to know a political marriage was in your future at some point.”

She had known it for years, though she had hoped she would be able to find someone on her own at least. If she wasn’t to marry for love, the least the world could do for her was allow her to choose someone she actually liked while adhering to the most important of the eligibility requirements.

After all, she had seen where love matches led before, and she had no desire to experience anything like her parting from—

No. That wound was still too fresh, though nearly an entire year had passed. She doubted she would ever truly be able to think his name without a jolt of pain. Best not to start down that path.

Aelin took a breath, hoping it looked more like taking a moment to think than the steadying movement it was. “We’ll look over the options together, when the others have returned. I have until my birthday to announce who I choose to court, and I intend to take as much time as I can ensuring that I’m not making the worst decision. The Regent can wait a week.”

Lysandra nodded and stood, gracefully smoothing her skirts. “Shall I see what can be found about the eligible candidates?”

“Please,” she replied. “I’m certain Darrow has listed their qualifications, but I know you can find out more about what they’re actually like than he would bother telling us. Any rumors you can find could prove useful.”

The shifter grinned, and Aelin noticed that Lysandra had elected to borrow the sharper canines of her current form. “Then I’ll get to work,” she said as she let herself out of Aelin’s rooms.

Aelin waited until she heard her friend’s footsteps fade completely before allowing herself to fall face-first onto her mattress. What had she gotten herself into?

For most of her nearly twenty years of life, she had known of the power that burned inside of her. It would’ve been hard for anyone to ignore that her fingertips had once had the tendency to spark when she was irritated. But she’d thought she’d had the power well enough in hand to go on continuing to ignore it for as long as it took. Her parents had impressed on her from an early age the importance of keeping a hold of her emotions, lest she lose control of both her temper and the fire that burned inside of her. She hadn’t had an incident in almost a year now, and given what had happened then she had allowed that the outburst was understandable.

Aelin sighed. One of the last conversations she’d had with her mother, before she and Aelin’s father had both passed on into the Afterworld, was the true reason she feared this Fae trainer.

“I need you to understand this,” Evalin Galathynius had whispered from the bed where she would breathe her last. “You know by now that I have been avoiding sending you to Doranelle, or taking you there to visit, since you were born. You must know why.”

Aelin had frowned, but before she could say anything her mother continued on. “The Queen there, our aunt, will claim to want to meet you. Likely she will claim affection as a member of your extended family. It is all lies, Aelin. She knows what lies inside you, my dear, and she will seek to either smother or control it. I want you to live a life free of all of that, like the life your father gave me. So I want you to promise me that you will not set foot in Doranelle. Can you promise me that, Aelin?”

Aelin shook her head, as if to attempt to dislodge the memory. She had promised, of course, and her mother had passed on not long after. Darrow had made noise about sending her off to study her magic, she recalled, though nothing had ever come of it. Perhaps she had had a similar conversation with him. At any rate, she had successfully hidden the signs of most of her magic ever since, with only a few slips. It likely hadn’t seemed truly necessary to him until now.

This trainer that the Queen had personally selected had sworn a blood oath to her, and the message he had carried and then sent on before him admitted as such. If he had been ordered to take her back with him, he would have no option but to either do so or perish in the attempt. Unless the Queen remanded the order, of course, but that seemed unlikely.

She had fought before, of course, and if this were any other male she would be less concerned. However, she had never come across a Fae warrior before—much less one of sufficient power for the Queen to send in her place. She knew he would be faster than any of her previous foes, should he become one himself, and more powerful. If he were to be her trainer in magic, he would likely be strong in either fire magic or a power that would nullify what she did.

She would have to slip away, then, if it came to it, and pray that she could stay out of his grasp until the Queen decided the search was no longer worth the effort. Luckily, she was used to escaping unnoticed.

~*~*~

The next morning Aelin awakened with a sigh of relief at her deadened senses. She must have finally shifted back into her human appearance through the course of the night, what little Fae blood she came by through her mother’s line finally relinquishing its grasp. Reaching up and feeling the rounded tips of her ears, she smiled. While she personally didn’t mind the heightened senses, the pointed ears and fangs stood out. Perhaps she would feel better about the shift if she had any control over when it occurred, but as it happened without her wishes she could only feel resentful.

She knew she would be expected to make a formal appearance at the reception for their guest from Doranelle in the afternoon, and dress appropriately for the occasion. However, that was hours away and she refused to spend all day in formal dress for him when he wasn’t even going to be here to appreciate it. Instead she donned a pair of dark brown trousers, pairing them with a linen undershirt and a tunic the green of her family crest. Hardly appropriate for court, but she could get away with it for a morning stroll in the gardens.

Quickly tying her hair into a braid and then into a knot at the nape of her neck, she looked around her rooms for wherever she had tossed her boots the previous night. She found them neatly tucked away in the corner, which must have been Lysandra’s doing, and quickly tugged them on, supple brown leather reaching just below her knees.

A quick stroll down the stairs and a single hallway led her to a small courtyard, populated with flowering bushes and a few small trees. With a smile, she settled below one of these trees and gazed up at the sky.

After a few minutes of gazing up at the clouds she noticed a bird circling in the skies above the courtyard. She stood to try to get a better look, and soon a hawk was spiraling down to rest in another of the trees nearby. While that was certainly out of the ordinary, it was certainly possible that this was either Lysandra or a messenger who had missed its destination. Aelin decided to test her theory, and carefully lifted her arm, hand curled into a fist.

Her suspicions that this was no wild bird were confirmed when the hawk flew to her instead, head tilting as it inspected her. This close, she was reasonably certain this was a white-tailed hawk. Not typically used in the palace, but it wasn’t impossible that this was someone’s lost pet. The possibility still remained that it was her friend, but the hawk pecked at her hand when she went to inspect it for the telltale mark Lysandra could never completely rid herself of. “Hey now,” she said quietly. “Has no one told you yet it’s rude to peck people like that?”

In response the hawk fixed its gaze on her, and she couldn’t help a slight shiver. There was an intelligence there that was certainly not to be found in a wild bird. Without breaking its stare, the hawk deliberately pecked her again, this time between the eyes. “Och!” she cried, startled. “Needy little thing, aren’t you? Where did you come from, anyway?”

It clicked its beak and held out a leg, to which she noticed a tiny scroll was affixed. A messenger, then. She slowly reached up with her other hand and detached the scroll. Once she had done so, the hawk took off, circling once around the courtyard before lighting on her shoulder. Once there, it dug its talons in slightly harder than strictly necessary before taking off again and disappearing into the sky.

How rude, she thought. It must have been Lysandra after all, taking a rare opportunity to tease her when she would be able to get away with it. Perhaps she had information, either about Darrow’s list or about this new guest.

Aelin carefully unrolled the scroll and read the short message it contained.

I don’t care if you decide to miss on the formalities. In fact, it would give me an excuse to avoid them as well. Your training begins at dawn, and I expect you to not be late.

The note was signed in characters Aelin recognized from the Old Language, though it had been years since she had read anything in it. She would have to take it back to her rooms if she wanted to translate it, though given the content of the note she could only assume it was from their newest guest. Lysandra must have met him, and granted her the minor reprieve of not having a court event to meet him herself.

It was just as well, she thought. She could do without meeting him in a formal setting anyway.

She returned to her rooms, only to find a tall, broad-shouldered male waiting for her there. Aelin grinned at the familiar waves of golden hair that came to his shoulders, and when he turned his gaze onto her she was met with eyes that were a mirror of her own, the blue eyes with an outer ring of gold they had both inherited through her mother’s line. “You look fit to burst, cousin,” she said. “Did you have a particularly good sparring match this morning?”

Aedion Ashryver stood from where he had been lounging on her chaise. “Of course not,” he replied. “You weren’t there to hand all of us our asses with your knife skills.”

Aelin laughed. “I was busy.”

“That’s a lie,” her cousin said with a snort. “You’re avoiding everyone. You know, you could’ve warned me about who was coming.”

“You know as much as I do, or so I thought,” she replied. “Some male from Queen Maeve’s court, probably some pretentious Fae male with his head so far up his—”

“I’m going to stop you now before you say something you regret,” he cut in. “She sent Rowan Whitethorn to come train you.”

Aelin knew he would notice the lack of recognition on her face. “I fail to see why that would make me regret anything I could say.”

“He’s one of her most powerful and most trusted commanders,” Aedion replied, awe clear in his expression. “He and the other five of her blood-sworn. I’ve been hearing stories about them since we were children.”

“So I’m to train with one of your heroes, then,” she sighed. “I fail to see how that would make him not pretentious.”

“I heard he once killed a man using a table,” Aedion said in response.

“Exaggerated, surely,” Aelin yawned.

Her cousin scowled. “Are you sure you’d like to find out?”

“What, did he squash him like a grape?”

The look on Aedion’s face told her that he hadn’t heard the details of the story. She allowed him to sputter for a few moments before taking pity on him. “We’re due to start training at dawn tomorrow, apparently,” she said as she showed him the scroll.

Aedion read it over quickly. “It’s almost like he knows you. So tell me, what was your devious scheme to get out of this event, before his messenger said he would prefer to rest rather than have a drawn-out court dinner so soon after his long journey?”

Aelin laughed. “Feminine problems usually work. You know Darrow would never question it.”

“That’s almost boring, for you,” her cousin grinned. “Probably for the best that he called it off instead, then. I would hate to be disappointed in you.”

“Please,” Aelin demurred. “As if you could ever be disappointed in me.”

And as the two cousins continued to discuss their most recent guest, Aelin could have sworn she heard a fluttering of wings outside the window. When she looked, though, there was nothing to be seen.

~*~*~

As night fell in Orynth, Celaena Sardothien tugged on the hood of her cloak to ensure her braided hair was hidden. The motion also protected her face from the rain that had descended on the city earlier that evening, not that she minded the elements. She had more important worries at hand.

She would have to be careful, she thought as she stalked through empty streets, blending into the shadows thanks to her dark clothing. The incident at the gates, where the princess had lost control several weeks ago, had the guard on high alert. Luckily, she was used to escaping notice when she wanted to. Her prey would never see her coming.

It had taken her weeks to track him down, this man, and longer still for him to return to the city after the incident. Her sources indicated that he would be returning soon, though, and she intended to greet him.

Celaena had no problem with spies ordinarily. They were a part of running a country, she knew, and in any case it was easy enough for an assassin to evade them most of the time. If this man hadn’t betrayed Sam, she would have no quarrel with him. But he had.

Two corners away from the warehouse he used as a base of operations, Celaena pressed herself against a wall and took several deep breaths. My name is Celaena Sardothien, she thought to herself, and I will not be afraid.

She couldn’t deny, however, that this target meant more than any she had ever tracked down before. This man could tell her who precisely he had reported to, all those months ago. She intended to find out everything he knew before ending his miserable life.

It was the least she could do for the way he had contributed to her lover’s death.

She allowed herself a moment to recall the way it had felt that night, when she had found him in the apartment they had come to share. The way a fire had started in her heart, only to be suppressed by ice creeping through her veins as she took in each detail. The broken window, the open book, the signs of his final struggle.

The way his blood was pooled on the floor beneath the bed.

Not yet, she had told herself. That still remained true to this day. She needed to keep her calm. Ridding the world of the grunts who had done the job was all well and good, and she had done that with each one she had tracked down. But she needed to track down the man who had given the order before she could let it all go.

Before Celaena could fade away into the countryside, never to be heard from again.

One more deep calming breath, one more reminder to herself, and she slipped down the alley. The warehouse was dark, as it had been for almost a month now, but perhaps one of the spy’s underlings had slipped something into the rooms for when he returned. She had found several such pieces of information already. A look couldn’t hurt.

The front door was locked, as it had been every time she had wandered this way. The window over the man’s desk had a crack in it, though, and just as before she slipped a slender hand in and undid the latch before hauling herself into the room.

It was dark, but she couldn’t risk a candle as she searched. It was more critical than ever that she not be discovered, now that she was so close to answers. She had her suspicions, of course, but she needed proof before she could move against the man she suspected.

It wasn’t every day, after all, that an assassin took down her master.

But she was getting ahead of herself. Before she could do that she had to find the connection between the Assassin King and this spy.

The steady rain escalated into a torrential downpour as Celaena crept through the man’s office, but she paid it no mind. The rain would only help mask her movements, keeping all but the most loyal guards ducked away under eaves and alcoves.

As she rummaged through his desk, she bit back a quiet snarl. Nothing. This had been a waste of a trip, and she had been a fool for risking it. She caught herself before slamming the drawer shut, though, and quietly closed it instead. No point letting herself get caught now.

A quick glance around the room told her nothing had been left out of place to indicate that she had been here. The gloves she wore would keep all but the most skilled trackers from finding anything of her here. It was time to leave.

Reaching to where a dagger was strapped to her thigh, Celaena carefully pulled it free. This was going to be the most risky part of the evening, the leaving. She wouldn’t be able to tell for certain that she was in the clear until she had already hauled herself out of the window, due to the location.

Sure enough, when she had closed the window behind her she turned to see a cloaked figure standing at the end of the alley. Without any hesitation she flung her dagger in its direction, only to freeze when the figure snatched her dagger out of the air.

No man could have done that. She had gotten too good at throwing. That could only mean that the figure before her was not a man at all, but Fae.

Shit.

Celaena had mostly avoided attracting the attention of the Fae, in part because there were precious few in residence in the city and in part a deliberate choice. Fae were stronger and faster than men, with better senses. It was likely this one already had her scent, and she was already running out of time to act before she was caught.

The river and the sewers were both too far away. This Fae, a male judging from the height and a warrior judging from the breadth of his shoulders, would catch her well before she could lose him in other scents. She would have to cause a scene instead, lure him away from the alley and keep him occupied until she could slip away.

Slipping the hood of her cloak back just enough that he could see her smile, Celaena strode over to him, every inch the old friend reuniting. “I wasn’t expecting you until next week!” she said, loudly and brightly enough that the guard two streets away would’ve heard conversation. She grabbed the male by the elbow and hoped that she had surprised him enough that he would move with her.

Either she had or he was humoring her, for soon they were walking down the streets together, her hand still in the crook of his elbow in a parody of a gentleman walking his lady home. When she chanced a glance up at him most of his features were still shrouded by the hood of his cloak, but she could make out the glimmer in pine-green eyes as well as the scowl that graced his face. It looked as though he had worn the expression naturally for quite some time, and she recalled it was quite possible that he was centuries older than her. Not someone who would play along for any great length of time, then. She would have to give him the slip quickly.

She gave a thought to attempting to snatch her dagger back from where he had hidden it in the folds of his cloak as they walked, but quickly dismissed the idea. Speed was going to be of the essence, and the less notice she gave him the better chance she had of escaping.

They came upon a bridge soon enough, and Celaena took it for the opportunity that it was. Making as though she had dropped a ring, she flung herself over the ledge of the bridge, fingertips clinging to the stone until her feet made contact with the narrow passage below. She took a deep breath and slipped into the icy waters, making sure to stay submerged until the next bridge. From there, it was easy enough to slip into the sewers that sprawled beneath Orynth.

Celaena started to run and didn’t stop once she got into the system of tunnels. The Fae chasing her may have the advantage of speed and strength, but she knew this city like the back of her hand. She would not be afraid, and she would not be caught. Not tonight.

Sure enough, by the time she slipped into her own room she had lost her pursuer, and she allowed herself a soft sigh of relief. She was safe, at least for another night.

She would have to be much more careful in her search, though. She could only pray that the Fae she had met was not someone sent after her, and would lose interest soon enough.

Quickly shedding her black garb and donning a simple nightdress in its place, Celaena slipped into her bed, where she would pretend to have been the entire night. Despite the excitement of the night, or perhaps because of it, sleep found her easily.

For the first time since Sam had died, the eyes that followed her in her dreams were not dark. No, they were a bright, piercing green.

#rules of engagement #rowaelin #haven writes

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histoireettralala · 4 years

Text

Henri III deserves better than his reputation.

@microcosme11 who was interested in knowing more about Henri III.

***

Henri III was the last Valois king of France (19/09/1551-02/08/1589) and certainly among the kings whose reputation was the most tarnished. You could say it was trashed by the black legend his enemies quickly wove around him: weak, effeminate, cowardly, treacherous, immoral... This is how he was depicted for centuries. For decades now, however, historians have worked to rediscover a misjudged king and rehabilitated a complex personality who was at odds, in many ways, with the expectations of his century. Henri III had above all a high idea of royal authority, and a modern conception of the state. In particularly difficult circumstances, he managed to avoid the wreck of the monarchy.

This post will try to be a quick summary of the circumstances of his reign, of his real qualities and personality, of the origin of the "black legend", and of his legacy as a king.

When the future Henri III was born, he wasn't destined for a crown. He was indeed the fourth son of Henri II and Catherine de Medici. Titled Duke of Anjou, he was given a thorough and refined education, as befitted a true prince of the Renaissance. His master Amyot, the most reputed of his time, was able to cultivate qualities that would make Henri a brilliant and eloquent prince " one of the best speakers of his era."

Henri was also Catherine's favorite child. He was good looking, smart, fashionable, an excellent swordsman. Aged only 16, he became Lieutenant General of the Kingdom, and he would soon prove his valor in the battlefield in Jarnac and Moncontour. Elected King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lituania under the name Henryk Walezy, his reign wouldn't last long - his brother Charles IX died without an heir and Henri immediately left Poland for France.

He was crowned on February 13, 1575, and two days later married the beautiful and smart Louise de Vaudémont, a princess of Lorraine, close to the famous and very influent House of Guise.

France was then in a very difficult situation. The Kingdom was divided and devastated by the wars of Religion. The warring parties were backed by foreign powers and France's political and economical condition suffered.

In the late XVIth century, the great lords of the Kingdom still acted like sovereigns of their own in many ways - the feudal order hadn't yet given way to the future absolutism (which would be the later creation of Richelieu and Louis XIII IMHO, in reaction precisely to the Great Lords' excessive capacity for nuisance). Henri III couldn't afford to overtly dismiss or displease them.

He had to stand up to three main parties: the Malcontents, the Protestants (leader: Henri, King of Navarre, his distant cousin), and the Catholics (led by the House of Guise). He knew that the restoration of peace and concord meant he had to get into everybody's good graces- a perilous proposition in such times. His whole life, Henri would have to find a balance. Nobody would be grateful for that. Mindful of his duty and his role as a mediator in the kingdom, he worked to establish the royal authority as effectively sovereign.

He would find enemies everywhere.

He was well spoken, soft spoken, elegant and well mannered: he would be mocked as weak and effeminate. He was clever and always favored diplomacy over shows of brute force: he would be despised for it and depicted as an immoral, cowardly prince. He wasn't as easily accessible as his predecessors: the Great lords didn't like that. When he got closer to the Guise, to appease the most radical Catholics, the Protestants rebelled. When he leaned towards Henri de Navarre, the League reacted violently. The balancing act harmed his reputation.

With the help of his ever present mother Catherine, he initiated a rapprochement with Henri de Navarre while supporting his brother's (François, Duke of Alençon) plans in the Spanish Netherlands: Protestants and Catholics coming together to face a common enemy (the Habsburgs) ? Excellent. That's a lesson Henri IV would remember.

Henri III was, in spite of his rather frail health, a hard worker. In 1584, after seven years of relative peace, strenghtening of the royal authority, and an intense legislative work, he was still childless - and his brother and heir François d'Alençon died of tuberculosis.

This was a great upset in the game.

Because the new heir was Henri de Navarre - leader of the Protestant party. Which of course was unacceptable for the Catholic opinion. Paris, who chose the Ligue, was dangerously agitated.

What a stroke of luck for Henri de Guise!

What was named then "La Guerre des Trois Henri" opposed three parties, not two. Although he was apparently allied to the ultra Catholics Guise, Henri III took care not to burn his bridges with the Protestants. The Habsburg support of Henri de Guise wasn't to his taste, and he didn't like the ambitious Duke. And if Navarre (whom he esteemed) was to lose entirely, Guise would become too powerful.

Guise was the first to move; exasperated by the King's caution, the Duke entered Paris in open defiance of the King, with the population cheering him on. Fearing a coup d'Etat, the King sent his own troops to Paris, and what happened was the famous "Journée des Barricades" (Barricade Day), on 13 May 1588.

What happened next ? Henri III took a terrible decision: for the peace of the Kingdom, for France to subsist as a State, for his authority to be maintained, Henri de Guise was to disappear. And there was a way to lure him: afraid that the King would sign peace with Navarre, Henri de Guise went to negotiate with Henri III in Blois. On December 23, Henri III had Henri de Guise assassinated by his own Guard, as well as his brother the Cardinal de Lorraine.

Was the King's opinion and attitude unclear before ? That's cleared now. But as for peace ? Never. The powerful Ligue lashed out in rage . The hatred was open. There were outloud calls of Death to the Tyrant.

Henri III would never see the Ligue destroyed: on the 1st August 1589, a fanatic monk by the name of Jacques Clément would stab him to death.

"This King was a good prince, if he'd met a better century", would write the chronicler Pierre de l'Estoile upon his death. In spite of his peculiar personality and the outburst of hatred he aroused, Henri also showed his qualities.

He had been raised in a humanist background and would protect the world of literature (Montaigne, Du Perron, Desportes); he was rather to be found working in his office with his ministers rather than on the battlefield. Although, when he had to, he was steadfast and brave in battle.

He was smart and usually able of compassion towards his adversaries.

He had faith, and his misfortunes made him find a refuge there. We know he even went on a spiritual retreat into a monastery for a while.

His contemporaries described him as a man who loved women - which was overlooked because he never granted any of his lovers a title of official mistress. He had for Marie de Clèves, Princess of Condé, a platonic, but deep passion, and the depth of his mourning after she brutally passed away in 1574, stunned the Court.

He married Louise de Vaudémont for her charm and her wit rather than for politics.

But in spite of this, the image we've had of him for centuries is indissociable from his "mignons" - effeminate youths clad in excentric outfits and wasting their time in frivolous games. He was painted as homosexual (and therefore despicable) based on pamphlets written by radical leaguers, radical calvinists, Malcontents. The high nobility didn't appreciate his "new ways", the refining of clothes and manners, the new court practices. The Ligue used against him a virulent propaganda, along with calls to rebellion and real campaigns of calumnies. And when he died, the change of dynasty didn't allow for a better, more impartial image to be offered. Queen Louise and the Duchess of Angoulême tried in vain to dispell this ambiguous image. The real culprits were'nt even be punished (Jacques Clément however perished).

And yet. He was the one who wanted concord and national unity in a country torn by wars of religion (he lived four of them). His long and unthanked political action allowed Henri IV to end half a century of cruel civil war.

Was he weak ? It is true he bowed to the many pressures of the Great lords. But he always took back control.

Cowardly ? He wasn't vainglorious. And he proved his personal courage, in the battlefields of his youth as well as at the time of his death (he fought off his killer).

Frivolous and immoral ? He loved pleasures, arts, and feasts. But he also was anxious about his soul and salute.

In the difficulties he had to face, he managed to rule and to leave France a considerable legislative body of work (Code Henri III).

What are some positive aspects of his reign ?

He launched loans to stabilize finances, he reduced the taille (tax), ensured the protection of cities, created offices, taxed luxury, taxed the clergy, revived the textile industry, revised farm leases, created fines for fraudsters, created a body of health officers and an assistance service for the needy and the orphans; he undertook the administrative reorganization of the kingdom, maintained the unity of France by overcoming the worst of wars, both civil and religious, and retained royal legitimacy through a regular transmission of power to Henri IV.

He held on his principle of royal authority and modern conception of the State. He maintained.

I agree with Pierre de l’Estoile.

“Décrié”: condemned, castigated, reviled.

Sources:

Wikipedia

https///www.histoire-pour-tous.fr/histoire-de-france/1481-henri-iii-le-dernier-des-valois.html

Pierre Chevallier: Henri III, roi shakespearien, 1985

Michel Pernot : Henri III, le roi décrié, 2017

Jean-François Solnon: Henri III: un désir de majesté, 2001

#my posts #xvi #henri iii #i'm not a historian #of course i'm far from telling everything this is just a quick defense of a man who deserves better than this sordid notoriety #i'm not saying he was flawless either #but for once he can get some credit #thanks @microcosme11

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e-louise-bates · 4 years

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I’ve said for a while that Star Wars needs to embrace the idea of a multiverse--ever since changing the Expanded Universe to “Legends,” they’ve ignored this wonderful opportunity to tell a thousand different stories about the SW universe. Or universes.

Even if they don’t embrace it, I have. I’ve already decided that there is one Alternate Universe out there where the Rogue One crew didn’t die, but lived and went on to run a dozen more secret operations for Mon Mothma and then retired to live happily as a family together.

I also insist that there’s an AU out there where the prequels make sense--at the very least, where Padmé doesn’t die and lives long enough hidden on Alderaan for Leia to remember her (this is the least of my complaints about the prequel trilogy, but yet, it still annoys me).

And while I think, in general, the sequel trilogy did a good job with storytelling, it still makes me sad to think of the miserable lives my favorites from the original trilogy ended up having. So I am coming up with my own idea for sequels, and chief among them is that the Han-Leia-Luke-etc generation sees freedom won and peace achieved in their generation; their children’s generation enjoys that peace; in the third generation people have gotten slack and THAT’S when evil rises again.

In this AU, Han and Leia marry and stay together and have five kids. Yes, five. Their eldest is a daughter, named Breha, after Leia’s adoptive mother. As the oldest child of Alderaan’s princess, Breha is named heir to rule the Alderaanian Remnant, and when Leia steps away from her role as princess to lead the New Republic instead, Princess Breha becomes Queen Breha Organa Solo. Except since she is so young, she needs a Regent to act for her, and that’s how Han becomes responsible for finding a new planet for the Alderaanians and stands as their representative in the new Senate, and eventually has to set up a new government for them. (Lando finds all this HILARIOUS.)

Breha has some Force ability, but not enough to become a Jedi; as she grows she develops her skills enough to give her an edge in diplomacy and politics, but that’s it.

The next three children (still haven’t come up with names for them) are all force-users and train with Uncle Luke. At least one of them is a hotshot pilot as well. One probably becomes Leia’s right-hand person in her role as Chancellor. The other is an adventurer and explorer, always out looking for new Jedi for Uncle Luke.

The fifth child, also a girl, is strong in the Force but has no interest in being a Jedi; she inherits the Millenium Falcon and is Han’s right-hand person, being even better at fixing mechanical problems and keeping the hunk of junk flying than Han and Chewie are. Luke tries his hardest to lure her to training, but she learns just enough to safeguard against falling prey to the Dark Side, and calls it good. She’s remarkably stubborn--Leia says she gets it from Han, and can’t figure out why everyone laughs when she says that.

Leia also chooses not to become a full Jedi, because she feels her abilities and talents are better employed serving the galaxy through politics, and being a Jedi would only limit her. She does train with Luke, and she develops remarkable control over the Force, but she is not a Jedi. By choice.

Luke initially starts off wanting to rebuild the Jedi Academy and recreate the Jedi Order exactly as it had been, Mr. Idealistic that he is. He ends up encountering Ahsoka Tano and her apprentice, and Ahsoka rather sarcastically points out that the Jedi Order allowed Palpatine to rise to power and through their arrogance and blindness doomed the entire galaxy, so maybe he might not want to emulate them so exactly? Luke thinks about it, and decides she’s right: it’s time for a different, better Jedi order to rise. Ahsoka agrees, but tells him she’s too old to get involved with this, and suggests to her apprentice that she work with him instead. Her apprentice--a woman with fiery red hair and green eyes named Mara Jade [there is NO WAY I’m building a SW AU that doesn’t have Mara in it] is Not Impressed, but decides to give it a try.

Mara’s backstory is that she was found as a child by the warlord of a planet in the Outer Rim, who raised her to be his personal assassin and to use her Force abilities to harm others. Ahsoka rescued her and re-trained her, but she’s still all sharp edges and sarcasm with a boatload of guilt she’s trying to unload. She Does Not Like Luke. Until they fall in love and get married, of course.

Luke and Mara have three children: Owen, Padmé, and Beru (Luke wanted a fourth so they could name him Anakin; Mara didn’t think it fair to saddle any child with that burden) [I like the idea of them naming one of their children Ben, but first the Legends and then the sequel trilogy took that name, so I’m staying as far away from that as possible. Maybe Obi-Wan visited Luke in a vision and said under no circumstances were any of them to use that name; he had a bad feeling about what might happen if they did.] All three are strong Jedi, though they all take on different roles within the new order Luke and Mara form.

Lando never marries but ends up sort-of accidentally adopting a bunch of different kids, mostly as a result of them adopting him first (something Han takes great glee in teasing him about), and continues to be a loyal friend to the New Republic. Wedge is leader of Rogue Squadron, of course, and eventually ends up marrying Iella Wessiri [as with Mara, she gets to travel over from the Legends universe], and of course there are Ewok jokes.

So they build a strong New Republic, they establish peace, they enjoy peace, and not until their grandchildren’s generation does a new evil start to rise ...

(Have I figured out how the grandchildren’s story will go? Not yet. It will involve Rey and Finn and Poe and Rose, and possibly even a Kylo, though a grandson, not a son, but it wouldn’t follow the exact storyline of the sequels. I still don’t know what the storyline would be, though. But as you can tell, I’m having lots of fun imagining the filler for in between.)

#star wars #alternate universe #c'mon disney #if marvel does it star wars can do it

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writingonesdreams · 4 years

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Between Spirits and Humans p.2

Part 1

Setting: An alternate apocalyptic world ruled by magical beings, where humans are almost extinct. The earth is tired, dark and dry and the only liveable places are the forests controlled by rather unfriendly spirits.

Synopsis: Two sisters, trying to survive, stumble on a grumpy but almighty shape-shifting spirit. Their meeting might save the dying world they share.

After his fight with Acacia he was at a loss of what to do. He wasn’t sure how humans mended their conflicts. Spirits fought their feuds out or ignored them for a couple of centuries until they faded into nothingness. None of those would work with her for obvious reasons.

Besides he wasn’t sure he wanted to reconcile. He wasn’t in the wrong after all.

Yet he felt this weird pressure in his chest and the tension in the air he really didn’t want to think too much about. They were in his forest, so they should at least have the decency not to be angry with him, right?

Kye avoided them for a couple of days, confused by the responses of his human body. By the emotions that weren’t all that pleasant anymore. Between his desire to see them and his resolution not to until...he wasn’t sure what he was waiting for.

But their absence in his days weighted on him in a particular way, one he was very much not used to feeling. To escape, he took on one of his favourite raven forms. Small animal with smaller scale of emotional perception - just instincts and images he could lose himself in, forget what his much more advanced mind wanted to think about.

Maybe that was why he didn’t question where his wings carried him. He perched on trees that grew closer and closer until he found himself on a familiar clearing.

“Look, sister, who came!” The younger girl’s voice sounded close.

And so happy, welcoming.

“Oh great.”

The older girl’s voice was more...annoyed? The raven’s mind didn’t distinguish between tones that well.

Flopping down from the tree, he hopped warily nearer. His instincts were telling him to go, to follow the call to draw closer.

Reaching the soft blanket where the girls were sitting, turned his head sideways, clapping his beak in curiosity.

“Kye! We didn’t see you in so long. How have you been?”

He didn’t understand everything about that sentence, but the warmth of it sickered through, so he hopped to her, until he was perched on her knee. Her small clumsy hands went right to his features, stroking him in a obtrusive but not entirely unpleasant way.

He lost himself in this moment, thankful his human form wasn’t around to feel all the complexity of the situation. Skipping from one leg to the next, croaking on occasion as the girls talked, their stances relaxed, he felt comfort and sense of rightness he dearly missed.

Until he found himself sitting in Acacia’s lap, wings fluttering and croaking until she dived her fingers into his thick black feathers.

“This is a weird way to apologize, you know.” She said, but her tone was softer than before. He didn’t want to ponder who was supposed to apologize to whom anymore.

The beauty of the raven’s mind was not to question things, when they felt right.

###

Acacia has taken to show him other human creations. Books she carried with her despite their weight, poetry on pages so old they could fall apart any minute. So fragile, all these creations. So diverse in their expression, in the art.

She told him about her favourite songs, the ones she learned from her mother or heard in passing a village. Told him about old legends and famous stories about beats and demons from forests, about princes and princess and magic.

Kye realized even more now she loved the human world. Or maybe she was fascinated by everything, her mind open, her eyes curious if not as wide as her sister’s. Not as naive.

There was darkness sometimes, lurking in the corners, memories she resented or suppressed. Human world wasn’t all beauty after all.

But then, the spirit world wasn’t either.

###

“You want to do what now?”

“Stop being so dramatic. We haven’t gathered for four centuries now, it isn’t a bad time.”

“Well, yes but...you always insist that visiting and gathering has to have a purpose and a problem to solve. Excuse me, for being surprised.”

“I would have excused you being more excited.”

Wes grinned at that. “I am. If for nothing else, then for the shock of your brothers, when I tell them of the invitation.”

His brothers. He didn’t see them for so long now. All grown up dragons with scales in various rich dark shades. Kye didn’t feel anything special about having them, their existence was something to be accepted not felt. But after spending so much time with the sisters, he was curious about seeing them again. How it might feel different this time.

“Your perspective changed. And they always followed your lead.”

Kye nodded at the white spirit. He was the oldest of his clan, so it was only logical. If there were any implications to this, they both omitted to elaborate.

###

“You really have to try this.”

“No, I really don’t.”

Acacia held her arms stretched open to him. “Come on. Don’t you trust me?”

She has lately got into the habit of educating him into more and more of human habits and rituals. Kye was sure she was scheming something again.

Reluctantly he stretched his amrs to the stubborn human girl with shiny hair and eyes sparkling with mirth. Nike sat down opposite them as if something really magnificent was about to happen.

Acacia guided one of his hands on her shoulder and the other on her waist. She brought them so close his breath hitched in his chest in shock.

Then her lips parted and she started to sing. Softly at first as she made the first step, leading him into the unfamiliar movement, but bolder when he followed. The melody he knew from listening to her and Nike when at night, but never heard as a whole, never so loud and clear. It was melodic, filled with vigour and little gentler passages. Lively and yet thoughtful, nostalgic about a world that once was and how it could be again.

Kye didn’t take long to recognize the repetitive patterns in the steps – he would know what to do the next time.

###

„You want to leave?“

„No! Of course not.“ she cleared her throat, stringing her hands together in uncharacteristic gesture. „Leaving sounds so fatal. I just want a little visit.“

He wasn’t sure what to think of that. „But the conclave is in a few days.“ Kye was looking forward to it, to introducing them, to showing her spirits could be welcoming too. If she wasn’t there to see it, why was he doing it again?

„We would be back by then.“

He turned his gaze sharply towards her in time to see her snicker at him.

WE. Acacia wanted him to come with her. The tightness in his chest loosened at the realization, but he still frowned at her.

„Spirits don’t fare well with human settlements.“

„You won’t go there as a spirit either.“ Her whole face was brightening at this point, in a flare he found hard to resist.

„And who will watch over Nike?“

„Wes offered himself.“ Kye glared at the general direction of the white dragon spirit’s territory as if he could feel his annoyance through the trees. When did these two get acquainted? He couldn’t picture a more troublesome combination.

“Come on, it will be fun! I haven’t seen any people in so long! And I want to show you all the cool stuff humans can do – songs played on instruments, carvings into clay instead of wood, all the things that can be done with metal…”

Their desires mirrored each other. He understood then, and maybe that’s what decided for him.

###

Being outside of his forest felt wrong to him. Leaving the safety of the trees, of the familiar borders and his trademark magic covering everything, he felt strangely exposed and disconnected. He wouldn’t have gotten very far if Acacia wasn’t holding his hand.

Kye tried not to let it show in light of her triumph as she resolutely dragged him in the direction, where land turned from green to colorful and trees grew in formations instead of natural distances.

There were very little humans left, but they still left their touch on the earth however they could. Cultivating their fields, planting plants for food, shade and cover.

The houses in the village were tightly hanging on each other for support and the amount of smoke was rare – as if not all households could afford it. The streets were dusty and humans on them were sickly and ragged. Kye thought he knew how humans differed from spirits by watching the sisters for so long, but Acacia stood out even here.

The spring in her step and delight in her face were hard to miss, drawing attention.

Maybe too much attention.

The human that jumped at them from behind the bridge is quick and unhesitant, with a knife pointed at her back. Kye reacted before he thought, catching his hand, the knife falling from the thief’s grasp.

The thief cried out, furry and redness in his eyes.

Even for survival they act on emotion. This wasn’t a cold-blooded calculated attack. Acacia wasn’t richly dressed or carrying anything of much worth. And yet he jumped, reacting to strength, spark and life.

Kye felt pity for the poor creature for charging to such wasteful death. For not being able to put the danger together, when reaching for something that wasn’t his to take.

The thief wailed as the crushing pain of his hand brought him to his knees.

Acacia reached for him then, touching his shoulder lightly. “It’s okay. Please don’t hurt him.”

Now that was logic he didn’t even remotely understand. When someone attacked something precious of yours, you had to put him in his place. You had to attack back, or they wouldn’t stop coming.

And this man knew the rules when he jumped, Kye was sure.

But Acacia’s eyes were bleeding with emotion, so the spirit let him go.

###

“I’m sorry.” She said quietly, looking away.

Kye chuckled at that. “He attacked you and you apologize to me?”

“That you had to see that side. They are desperate and poor, many have to go for months without feeling properly seated.” She didn’t disown them, no matter how much they betray or hurt her. He wondered about that, this loyalty, this compassion.

“I’m glad I went. Makes me feel a bit closer to you.”

She raised her head to him in question.

“We are more similar than I thought. Territory, survival, power – you also fight for those between each other.” Acacia looked away again, her face contorting.

“We have done that for centuries until there was too much land to divide. We have fallen into a truce, but we have given up on many things you humans cling to.” He thinks of the hatred in the thief’s eyes. It wasn’t to steal food, it was to steal what little brightness he saw.

Irrational.

A spirit would never act on such a reason. Never would have let an emotion like that creep in. Wouldn’t have felt anything.

He looked at the bright girl at his side.

A regular sprit wouldn’t have known what to be jealous of.

###

Seeing all the spirits that came scowling and glaring, if he really didn’t have anything better to do than wake them up from their slumbers was surprisingly funny.

They were all suspicious. They all questioned. What was going on?

But none dared to say anything on Kye’s territory. The oldest black dragon was the strongest in his forest, and they couldn’t compare in power, age or experience.

But Kye didn’t see them in just those terms only anymore. They weren’t just threats or annoyances. They were all similar, living, breathing, wondering what they should do with all the time they have been given. And he found himself feeling for them.

Especially the youngest of his brothers, Hec, only few centuries old, looked like a child. Reminded him of Nike so bad and yet he didn’t know how to reach out to him, how to bridge the years of ignorance. Something had to be done differently to change this.

So he did what he felt like doing instead of what he thought.

He brought Acacia to the conclave. Nike hanging right on her toes. If the spirits weren’t scandalized enough before, they were now. Humans on a spirit conclave, the audacity.

When he stopped to introduce Nike to Hec and the little girl eyed the grim looking spirit with a child’s face, he could see a range of emotions – from shock to disturbance to frustration to wonder and curiousity. It felt somehow right.

And when he took Acacia’s hand and danced with her the way she taught him, no one even dared to breathe. If they wanted to protest, the sight of Wes silenced them. The white dragon spirit was the only other one measureable in size with the black one. And he was grinning, his approval given.

Kye danced and dared and smiled that day, amused and shaken and somehow hopeful, seeing all the movement at play.

###

She was surprised how at home she felt with them. In their human forms they didn’t feel so foreign, even though she felt the pressure of their presence as something tangible in the air.

In Kye’s arms though she felt secure and her curiosity won over her fear. The spirits could be so human when they wanted. Maybe they weren’t so different after all, just like Kye said.

Or maybe she was changing.

Wondering past the forest borders the next day, Acacia tried to analyze every face and voice from the conclave, burn it into her memory. It was special even if it was so tense and quite. She enjoyed it, didn’t feel out of place. How was that possible?

At first the forest has been about survival, but it grew into a home and she loved everything and everyone in it. It was the opposite with the human village she visited last time – the reek of desperation and spiteful anger felt so foreign and wrong to her now. She should have moved on long ago, should have struggled, cast away bit more of her consciousness and ideals to keep a child safe. Was it alright if Nike didn’t grow up among her own?

But what would she lose, really? She would have had to change, transform beyond her age and innocence. Adapted to the challenges of the human world. Or died. Neither sounded appealing.

Seeing her play with the spirit boy, even if he was a another kind of being with a completely different age and maturity – it was heartwarming. If Nike could play and smile like this and grow up safely, what was the harm?

Maybe she shouldn’t have to feel to guilty for wanting to stay.

When she felt insecure and torn like this, Acacia wanted to be alone. To escape the forest’s constant surveillance, the possibility of never being lonely, to sort herself out. So she kneeled down in the middle of the thin wilted sunflower field and sang.

Sang her heart out, stringing words together as they came to her, melodies she invented on the spot or combined from the old she knew.

She closed her eyes and spoke her soul to the earth.

When she opened them the sunflowers surrounded her. They grew! Grew higher than her, thickly around her, as if wanting to drink more of her voice.

The joy of such a miracle mixing with disbelief she ran through the field and tried again. Everywhere she touched, melody on her lips, the flowers responded, raised, reached out to the sky to meet her.

She felt the tears as she run and sang until she couldn’t find her voice anymore.

###

“How? How is this possible?” Kye was pacing around in circles by the boarders. He kept his voice low the whole day, pretended to be calm and knowing when the girls asked him for an explanation. But at night he needed to talk and Wes was always there to listen.

“She has been around you a lot. Your magic sickers into everything inside the forest. Doesn’t it make sense it lingers on them too?”

“But she is human! Having spirit magic…”

“Many things have changed with your meeting, Kye. She woke you up. You gathered the spirits. Now they are moving, visiting, restless to be doing something again after centuries of monotony. You two break the rules all the time,” the light haired spirit chuckled, “not that I am complaining.”

Kye stopped then, leaning his hand on a tree bark, feeling light-headed. “But her humanity…”

“Has influenced you as well. You are going by a name now. You invite your brothers for gatherings and play with kids. You have become so very human yourself.”

“But I can’t be more human than this.” The power of a spirit of his caliber would be too much for a human form to contain. He could shift forms, but he needed to be himself as well, needed to use all the magic bursting out of him. They both knew it. “I can’t be with her that way,” the black dragon whispered, the thought too painful to say out loud.

The white dragon spirit eyed him in concern, before replying.

“She will have her own choice to make.”

###

Kye explained to her the best he could. That they have affected each other, how his magic sank into her, made her more like him every day. Every touch and every step closed between them made her less human.

Acacia wasn’t angry or sad. She rejoyced at this power to sing life into things. All the things she could do with it as she got stronger! To call for rain for the dry lands, for warmth to return where dragon magic didn’t reach.

Selfless and emotional as always. It never stopped amazing him.

He lingered by the tent the girls set up for themselves in the coming autumn. Inside he was relieved she didn’t resent him, didn’t reject being closer to him.

And then he heard the crying. “You will leave me! You are going to leave me behind and become a spirit to be with Kye!”

The words pierced through him like an arrow.

“No! Of course not, Nike! I’m your big sister, alright?” Acacia’s voice broke as she shuffled, reaching for the smaller shadow. “I won’t leave you. Everything I have been doing was to protect you.”

“How will your stupid magic help me?”

“When the world gets warmer, it will get safer to live in too. People are capable of horrible things when they are unhappy. But the more content they are, the kinder they become. This is a miracle, Nike.”

“No, this is your excuse! If you did only what was good for me, we would have left months ago! But you stay for him. And you will abandon me for him.”

Nike hiccupped and moaned and Acacia hugged her tightly, her own voice shaking. “I won’t leave you,” she promised.

“Ever?”

“Ever.”

Kye sank to his knees behind the tent and felt like crying himself. He could never ask that – never could he see the sisters separated.

###

Years went by.

When the spirits woke up, they stirred the energy and magic around. The world started to wake up, taking deep breaths in a long awaited age of spring.

Nike let her coat slide open, smiling to herself. She traveled from village to village, singing to nature, reading from hands of people that grew stronger with the blooming fields. Never did she forget to visit the forests as well, many dear friends among the dragon spirits playing there.

She wasn’t scared – she was a grown woman after all. And she had a role to fill behind the witch that could sing nature to life before her.

The first witch that bridged the gap between humans and spirits. It’s her favorite tale to tell it.

How her big sister fell in love with a sleeping dragon. How they learned from each other, helping to heal their world back to life.

It’s a great story. She was there.

When they ask where her sister is, she tells them she is with the spirits now.

They look at her ruefully. Talking in past tense, like she is gone.

But Nike knows better. Acacia was always there for her, until Nike grew strong enough not to need her anymore.

Having a spirit for a sister isn’t so bad, when she is alive and well.

Nike knows and forges on, with peace and love in her heart. The world is hers to take.

#writeblr #creative writing #amwriting #mywriting #violetvineyard #writeblr community #writers on tumblr #fantasy #spirits #spirits au #short story #part two #between spirits and humans #between spirits and humans p2 #short story au #wip: 5th Magic #my wip #wip au

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sormikbigbang · 5 years

Text

Masterpost

We’ve come to the end of the SorMik Big Bang 2019! Before we move on to the master post for 2019, we would like to express our sincerest thanks to all of you. It has been a wild ride and us mods couldn’t thank our participants enough for being such lovely people to work with. There’ll also be a feedback form the participants can fill in! The link will be distributed through email and shared in our discord server. We would like to know how you think about us and how you would like us to improve through our feedback form!

If you missed your chance this year, don’t worry, we’ll be back again in 2020! Do stay tuned for some exciting information on where this event will be going next year!

Without further ado, here’s the master post for all entries of SorMik Big Bang 2019!

Masterpost

(Announcement: Not all artists/writers have posted their works yet, so this masterpost will be updated gradually as they post until everyone has posted.)

As Soft as Feathers by Kagaminekupcake | Art by Melly Mel (still yet to be posted) & KimmySnacks

Ranting: Teen And Up Audiences

Summary: Two kingdoms lay near one another, and with the queens sharing a friendship, they thought it only natural to continue the friendly relations through their successors. Prince Sorey and Prince Mikleo grew up, therefore, spending their summers together and sharing memories over the pages of dusty novels. However, upon Sorey’s near coronation, Selene informs Mikleo that she plans to betroth him to a princess of another land. Mikleo argues heatedly with her before storming out of the castle, but he was never seen afterwards. All Sorey could find in the rain was his circlet- a prized possession he knew Mikleo would never leave behind. Maybe the swan he discovers in the forest in the following days can give him a clue as to where Mikleo has gone…

Fanfic still yet to be posted by Dola625 | Art by mallowkey

Ranting: General Audiences

Summary: Luvdisc love fortune has set its sight upon a pair of childhood friends who need just an extra push with tons of water, a sunset and of course Mikleo and newly smitten Luvdisc.

La Fragilité Des Grues en Papier by Naminette | Art by Kinsdura

Ranting: Mature

Summary: Was it possible that his mother's tales were true? A sacred mountain where the Kamis' sanctuary lay. Away from the human world they lived in. Wings adorn their back, divine beings that were one with nature. This is were Mikleo place was, where he would be safe and happy. Until years after a plague broke into the village in the valley and a young human had no choice left but to seek the gods' help without knowing how it would change Mikleo's world.

Everything you left behind by Strikedawn | Art by Retto

Ranting: Teen And Up Audiences

Summary: After his uncle's death, Mikleo is forced to run away from his office for the weekend and tend to Camlann, Michael's old manor and his own childhood home. The house has seen better times-- Mikleo definitely won't be able to sell it like this.

(Does he even want to?)

But his uncle's metaphorical ghost isn't the only thing within those walls. There is Lailah and Zaveid, who have made of Camlann their house as much as Michael did. There is Sorey, with his lovely smile, his pure intentions, and his love for the decrepit house. They are everywhere in the house, making it theirs, making Mikleo feel... things. Mikleo definitely won't be able to sell the house like this.

(But then again--does he even want to?)

Demons, Mysteries, and Feathery Celestialness by Sage | Art by Oliver Niko & Vonderer

Ranting: Teen And Up Audiences

Summary: Sorey is a cop. When his current case turns out to involve elements both demonic and angelic, he suddenly finds himself both in over his head and with a new partner. Neither he nor the angel Mikleo are particularly happy to be saddled with each other. Can they work through their differences to solve the case?

Moon Phases by Melly Mel | Art by Raine

Ranting: General Audiences

Summary: "The Sun has long fallen in love with the Moon and has done everything in his reach to conquer its heart, but the timid and stubborn Moon has always rejected it, afraid of these feelings. Time will teach that one cannot simply ignore such a strong and true love for so much time."

A story that tells how Sorey, the sun prince, falls ill for love after so many years trying to conquer the love of Mikleo, the moon prince, who’s not willing to believe him and misunderstand everything.

Fountain of Youth, the Elixir of Eternal Life by MegumitheGreat | Art by ZYO

Ranting: Explicit

Summary: At Lailah's request, Sorey and Mikleo take a break from their adventure and go through Pendago Shrinechurch's library. Coming across a legend titled "Shelanoir's Forest", they find themselves trapped within its pages and living the roles of the characters inside.

Resonance and Resistance by Eachainn | Art by Illium

Ranting: Mature

Summary: After eight years apart, Mikleo is more than ready to pick of the threads of the hopes and dreams that they had left drop when Sorey had left for Pendrago. But things are rarely that easy, especially when the Shepherds are involved. After all, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a Shepherd in possession of a good resonance must be in want of a seraph.

A Sormik Regency Era AU

Chasing Dreams by RoyalDelirium | Art by Mewnia

Ranting: General Audiences

Summary: And this is where their tale begins, they did not really know what would await them out there, but they had dreams to chase and questions to answer. As long as they were together nothing could escape their grasp.

The Best Tour by Spectrum-sanctuary | Art by ArdentKnight & Unko (still yet to be posted)

Ranting: Teen And Up Audiences

Summary: In the archaic city of Ladylake where there are more canals than brick pathways, boats called gondolas are the major mode of transportation and location of work. The most renowned of these occupations are those who guide tourists around the romantic and historic marvels of the city while rowing the gondolas, the gondoliers.

Seventeen-year-old Mikleo is among them, renowned for not only being young but also graceful and skilled with the oar. When he meets the newly-arrived student Sorey in the city, his usual life among the waves and ruins transforms into a tale of adventure and excitement... and perhaps even love.

The Gang Crashes a Party While in Drag by Pengiesama | Art by Nami & Minstrels

Ranting: Teen And Up Audiences

Summary: Sorey and the crew investigate reports of a black market trafficking ring, and zero in on a particularly nasty noble at the center of it all. Luckily, said noble is opening his chateau to host a masquerade – the perfect opportunity to get close. Unluckily, the Shepherd’s fame has spread wide, and Sorey needs a disguise to make sure he’s incognito.

This is achieved by the obvious solution, and that's to disguise him in a dress and pass him off as Rose's sister. What could possibly go wrong?

Sir Sorey and the River Dragon by Treya-barton | Art by Kishi

Ranting: Teen And Up Audiences

Summary: Sir Sorey is a curious, gentle knight from the kingdom of Ladylake ruled by a fair and beautiful Queen. One day she is approached by a village with news that they are being plagued by a dragon that is blocking their access to a river they use for trade. Sir Sorey is sent on a quest to investigate this dragon in order to resolve the villager's dilemma.

The Benefits of Being Impulsive by FortunesRevolver | Art by Aimi

Ranting: General Audiences

Summary: It had all started out of sheer spite -- Sorey’s own bizarre desperate need to prove to his grandfather that he wasn’t that impulsive. Really, if he really wanted impulsive, Sorey could be impulsive. Or, maybe, somewhere deep down, he’d just wanted to talk to the really, really pretty boy sitting by the pool with stunningly white hair who just happened to be holding a copy of his favorite book series ever.

Art by MegumitheGreat (Their writer wasn’t able to get to finish due to personal reasons, but still asked MegumitheGreat to post their art anyway because it’s so cool!)

Trust, Betrayal and Beyond by Sabi | Art by Mikleohno

Ranting: Teen And Up Audiences

Summary: A long time ago, the country was separated into two factions: the Lotus faction and the Lily faction. Both factions had opposing ideals, which resulted in a war that lasted for decades. The war finally ended when the Lotus faction killed the Lily faction’s leader, thus bringing peace back to the land. Our story takes place a century later, focusing on Mikleo, the prince of the kingdom, who is doing everything he can to repair this country, as well as his new servant, Sorey, whose background is shrouded in mystery.

Eyes on the Horizon by Oliver Niko | Art by Siciel

Ranting: Mature

Summary: Mikleo is a nobleman kept captive for the magic he possesses. Sorey is a pirate, his crew determined to grant freedom to those with said magical capabilities.

The two are brought together not by this alone, but also by their similarities; the goal to do whatever it takes to protect Rolance's people from its corrupt emperor, and find the truth behind their missing mothers along the way.

The Color of Twilight by Luneath | Art by Succu (still yet to be posted)

Ranting: Teen And Up Audiences

Summary: “Ever since that day, Sorey has been looking for something. Desperately, yearningly, painfully. It's like chasing after a dream that’s hiding underneath his eyelids, almost there but not really. Just within reach, but could never be grasped fully. It’s like running after a figure — a blurred one, tinted blue, who owns half of his soul; his heart and his life. But he can’t remember. He knows, but never for sure. He just feels his heartstrings being tugged, but never to where or by whom. The more he tries to make sense of everything, the more he realizes it would hurt more to never find whatever’s — whoever’s gone. The only thing that gives him hope is the writing on his palm, tattooed in elusive curves that makes him feel warm and safe and nostalgic and a little like breaking. What’s written there, the meaning and the purpose — he doesn’t understand it at first. Not until some time. But even then, he swears he’s going to find whatever it is. And when he does, he’s never letting it go ever again."

[A Kimi no Na Wa (Your Name) AU featuring time travel, fluffy angst, switching bodies and switching lives, plus true loves and true names.]

Fanfic still yet to be posted by Miranda | Art by Okke (still yet to be posted) & Narain Yuna

Ranting: Explicit

Summary: Clergyman!Sorey x Non-Believer!

Mikleo The heavy wooden doors opened and closed with an echo throughout the chapel, all but empty save for the decorative lanterns with the names of the twelve apostles lining the pillars leading up to the alter, the hand-carved plaques in the right-wing hallway depicting the Stations of the Cross of the same number donated by the generous family, and the overwhelming but whole-fully welcomed presence of Him which he felt.

Sorey loved getting to do this-- well, he loved pretty much every aspect of his stay here as part of his training, but this was probably one of his top favorites: waking up to the early morning sun and say his morning prayers, picking some berries from his little garden as part of his breakfast before freshening up, and coming down to the church before Gramps arrived to start the day. He wasn't sure what made him want to say another morning prayer in the chapel when there was no need whatsoever. Perhaps it was simply just seminary habits or wanting the chapel to feel less... big? Lonely?

Or dusty?

He chuckled at the thought and shaking his head, and joyfully continued to walk towards the alter. Thinking back to his childhood, it use to be a dark green stone like the rest of the flooring. In it's place now was a white marble with gray veins scattering sparingly here and there. Gramps wasn't sure who thought it was a good idea, and Sorey didn't really pay it much attention.

As he approached the alter and began to kneel, pulling out his mini prayer booklet from his pocket, the front double doors opened and closed yet again. Hm, strange, Sorey thought for a moment. Normally Gramps doesn't come in this early since traffic from...

When he turned around to greet the wise old man who practically raised him from birth, Sorey was taken aback to see a young man with long dyed hair, faded black skinny jeans, and a somewhat revealing white and blue sweater with a v-neck that fell to show the side of his collar bone. Wait, was it dirty...?

It could've been the way he seemed to hold himself together-- just barely and could hardly seem like he wasn't shaking. It could've been the way his eyes, a deep blue from this distance, almost pleaded for mercy and safety. It could've just as easily been the way the light hit his unblemished face, his aquamarine tresses...

Sorey knew, deep down, that he would never forget this moment. Someone or something must have whispered something to his heart or to his soul that day, to never let this memory go.

Fanfic still yet to be posted by Mogseltof | Art by Lynxlantern & Ammerynth (still yet to be posted)

Ranting: Mature

Summary: Since he was young, Sorey’s been friends with the curious, withdrawn sailor everyone in his seaside town avoids. Now he’s an adult, struggling to find material for his research, but his withdrawn friend has recently been made captain of his ship, and Sorey is offered the opportunity he’s been looking for -- the chance to get out of his town and see the places he’s actually researching. But Sorey has another reason to want to be out on the sea; they say there are mermaids in the waves, and Sorey has to know if his memories ring true, or if he imagined the boy in the river so many years ago. However, the voices of the dead sing loudly from the deep, and the captain is hiding something that may get them all in trouble.

We hope you enjoy the masterpieces made by our talented participants! See you again next year!

#Sormik #sormikbigbang2019 #toz #tales of zestiria #masterpost #sorey #mikleo #fanfic #fanart #mod post

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petertingle-yipyip · 5 years

Text

Where Happiness Begins - Peter Parker

Chapter Five - Don’t Throw It Away

//WHB Masterlist //

//Series Inspo: @cxptain-capsicle @stuckonspidey // Series Tags: @writingsbychlo @mc225g @fandom-princess-forevermore @peterparker-glee-other @olliekookie @rosegoldhome @chubsluda @missmulti @eternaleviee @freerebel @disgustangg //

Word Count: 4,427

Pairing: Peter Parker x Stark!Reader

Summary: It seemed like everything was going good with Y/N and her new friend, Peter. But Peter makes what could be the biggest mistake of his young life. Even though Y/N warns him, don’t throw it away, does Peter do it anyways?

“How was the internship?” Ned asked happily as he plopped down next to Peter at their usual lunch table.

“It was cool.” Peter answered, carefully choosing his words. He knew he couldn’t tell Ned about what the internship exactly consisted of, but he could be vague. “I met Tony Stark and his daughter.”

“You got to meet Tony and Y/N Stark? They’re like, living legends!” Ned said with excitement. “Did you see their suits?”

“I caught a glimpse of them.” Peter shrugged. “They’re working on some cool stuff.”

“Awesome!” Ned exclaimed quietly.

“Yeah, and Y/N said most of the work would be done at home but I could call her if I ever wanted to work at the facilities. It’s kind of an on-call deal as to when I’ll be here or there.”

“You have her number!?” Ned practically shouted.

“Keep your voice down!” Peter hushed him. “She said to call when I need something.”

“Dude, just call her.” Ned said to Peter. “You’ve been staring at what I assume to be her phone number forever.”

“I can’t just call her for no reason!” Peter argued. “She told me to call if I need anything. And I don’t need anything at the moment.”

“Well you need to talk to her. And this is getting embarrassing.”

“She hasn’t reached out to me since I last saw her. Do you think maybe she doesn’t want to talk? Maybe it was an empty gesture.”

“She wouldn’t have given you her phone number if she didn’t want to talk to you.” Ned sighed in disappointment. As much as he loved Peter, he knew his friend was a dumbass. “Maybe you should start texting Y/N instead of whoever else you’re always texting.”

“I don’t text anyone!” Peter defended quickly, suddenly anxious that Ned had seen something he shouldn’t have.

“That’s the problem, Peter!” Ned sad, throwing his hands forward. “You’re not texting anyone! You have Y/N Stark’s phone number and you’re not doing anything about it. She’s a genius, dude. Smarter than you even. And you’re letting this opportunity fall through your fingers.”

“I’m not losing anything.” Peter shook his head, turning his attention elsewhere while Ned continued to talk. It’s not that he didn’t want to talk to Ned about you, but he knew he couldn’t talk to Ned about you the way he wanted to. He wanted to talk about how powerful you really were, how when you’re in your suit you act like you’re unstoppable, and how if he didn’t know any better he’d believe you were. Maybe he did believe that after all.

“What is she like in person? Is she funny? Sarcastic? I bet she’s confident, just like her dad. But not she rules the world, just like she knows she’s badass. I mean, she’s the youngest Avenger. She has to have some confidence, right? Nah, she definitely has to know sh-”

“Did Liz get a new top?” Peter interrupted Ned.

“Liz?” Ned asked, confused by the sudden change in topic. “No, we’ve seen that before. Just never with that skirt.”

“Should probably stop staring before it gets creepy though.” Peter said dreamily, momentarily forgetting all about Y/N and being sucked back into his crush on Liz.

“Too late.” Michelle announced from the other end of the table. Both boys turned to her quickly. “You guys are losers.”

“Then why do you sit with us?” Ned asked carefully while Peter made a gesture of offense.

“Cause I don’t have any friends.” She answered plainly. “Besides, how are you going to stare at Liz while talking about Y/N Stark?”

“You heard that?” Peter asked in a loud whisper.

“I’m pretty sure everyone did.” She replied using the same tone. “You’re not very quiet, Parker. If you have her number, just use it. What’s the worst that’ll happen?”

The bell rang after that comment, sending all of them to their classes. Peter tried to push through the rest of the day like normal. Finish class, go to decathlon practice, go on patrol. That’s the way his days always went. But for some reason, he couldn’t stop thinking about what Michelle had said at lunch.

How are you going to stare at Liz while talking about Y/N Stark?

It wasn’t like he was talking about you in any way other than a friend. You two were friends, right? New friends, but still friends. You had saved him a few times in Germany, and he helped take care of you afterwards. Cause that’s what friends do. That is what friends do, right?

The day seemed to drag until he finally got to decathlon practice. Peter didn’t want to quit and bail on the trip to DC, but he also knew he had to stay and be Spiderman. He had to make sure you and Mr. Stark didn’t regret giving him the suit. He had to take his responsibility as Spiderman much more serious now.

“Let’s move on to the next question.” Liz said to his other teammates. “What is the heaviest naturally occurring element?”

Peter wasn’t really listening to anything after that. It was obviously Uranium. He had to focus on explaining why he wasn’t going to Washington with his team.

“Peter… It’s Nationals.” Mr. Harrington tried to reason with the boy. “Is there no way you can take one weekend off?”

“I can’t go to Washington because if Mr. Stark needs me, or if Y/N Stark needs me, then I have to make sure that I’m here.” Peter said carefully.

“You’ve never even been in the same room as Tony Stark.” Flash commented from the back. “Let alone the same room as Y/N. She’s a total babe, no way she’s hanging with you.”

“Wait, what’s happening?” Peter’s teammate spoke up from the stage.

“Peter’s not going to Washington.” A teammate said from the floor.

“What?” The first teammate said as Abraham rang his bell. “No, no, no, no, no, no.”

“Why not?” Abraham asked.

“Really?” Liz asked sadly. “Right before Nationals?”

“He already quit marching band and robotics lab.” Michelle added casually, causing everyone to turn to her. “I’m not obsessed with him, just very observant.” She defended herself.

“Flash, you’re in for Peter.” Liz said over his shoulder, giving Peter one last look.

“Oof, I don’t know. I gotta check my calendar first. I got a hot date with Black Widow coming up.” Flash retorted, giving Peter a look.

Peter had to bite his tongue to keep from snapping on Flash and exposing his secret. He remembered the joke you made on the ride back to the states. He let a small smile grace his face as he thought of your laugh, your smile, your bright and hopeful eyes. He couldn’t believe how lucky he was to have you in his life.

Usually, patrols were fairly simple. Stop a mugging. Help an old lady across the street. He even helped someone get their bike back. He had given directions, and someone even bought him a churro. Until the ATM robbery. That night was so intense Peter wasn’t sure if he remembered it right.

There were weapons he had never seen before. He wasn’t sure he was going to come out of there on top. But he was Spiderman. He had to. That also happened to be the night Ned discovered Peter’s secret. Peter had to explain everything, which only gave him more stress than keeping his secret. He was scared that if Ned knew, he’d be in danger. But no one knew that Ned knew. So Ned would be okay, right?

He had to call you that night.

He held the phone to his ear as he laid in his bed that night. Instead of falling asleep or catching up on homework, he just stared at the ceiling and talked to you. “Hey, Y/N.” He smiled when you finally answered.

“So what are we calling this, exactly?” You asked your dad as F.R.I.D.A.Y. showed you blueprints for a new Spiderman suit. You were finally able to start easing back into your normal activities. You were medically cleared of your concussion, your ankle had dulled to an ache when you stood on it for too long, and your fracture and ribs were still healing. Movement of your upper body was less painful and you could breathe deeper without a sharp sensation.

“I don’t know. Iron Spider?” Tony shrugged, sliding across the lab in his desk chair to be by your side. “Has a nice ring to it.”

“And what about the suit we just gave him not too long ago?” You questioned, leaning on your dad’s shoulder.

“I have a new upgrade every so often. Same goes for the kid. You could also upgrade your own suit as often as you like. You just don’t.” Tony shrugged again, pushing you off by your forehead. “You designed his sensory filters so you’re on that first. Pull up your old designs and upgrade them.”

“I don’t even know how I did them, honestly.” You said, scrolling through the projected files to find your Project Parker files. “I’m pretty sure F.R.I.D.A.Y. did most of the work.”

“Well, figure it out.” Your dad with an eyeroll. “I’m staring to doubt if you’re really my daughter.”

“Haha, very funny.” You said sarcastically. “How am I supposed to upgrade these? I mean, just how clear does he need to see?”

“You know him better than I do, Y/N/N.”

“Yeah, but the upgrades are your idea.” You muttered. “Besides, Peter said they were perfect as they are.”

“Either way, they have to be redesigned.” Tony waved a hand dismissively.

“And why’s that?”

“New mask means new aesthetic design means reconfigured to a new shape.”

You and your dad spent hours flipping through designs. Some of them were nonsense scraps, things that you knew were unfathomable in the few hours you had to put it together that night, but now could be played around with. One of your personal favorites were the four additional appendages that are multi-functioned. Some things needed an overhaul from the start, something you weren’t happy with when you gave him the suit in general.

“Can we change the color?” You asked suddenly.

“Blue and red was your call, doofus.” Tony laughed.

“I know, but if he’s the Iron Spider now, shouldn’t his colors match if not coordinate with Iron Man?”

“Incoming call on Ms. Stark’s cell phone.” F.R.I.D.A.Y. announced before your dad could answer.

“Who is it?” You asked, not letting your attention shift from your past designs.

“Petey.”

“Petey?” Your dad asked with wiggling eyebrows. “Since when do you call him Petey?” Tony laughed.

“Answer it please. And put it on speaker. Thank you, F.R.I.D.A.Y.”

“Of course, Ms. Stark.”

“Hey, Y/N.” Peter said, the smile evident in his voice.

“Peter Parker, as I live and breathe. I was starting to think you didn’t want to talk to me.” You laughed lightly, noting a small flaw in the mask design. “What’s up?”

“Nothing much. Just thinking.”

“About?”

“There’s a trip to Washington this weekend with the decathlon team.”

“Cool. Take lots of pictures.” You said aimlessly, expanding your lens designs.

“I’m probably not going.” He chuckled nervously.

“Just go to Washington, kid.” Tony interjected.

“Mr. Stark, hey. Hi. How- how are you?” Peter said quickly.

“I didn’t get a ‘how are you’ and I’m a bit upset about it.” You teased.

“Look, we said keep your extracurriculars up. Didn’t we?” You asked, him humming an ‘mhmm’ in response. “That includes decathlon.”

“But what if something happens here?” Peter asked as he wandered aimlessly around the room. “I mean, I’ve been texting Happy but he’s been ignoring me.”

“Yeah, we know.” Tony laughed. “He’s been sending us screenshots of your messages. Congrats on the churro, by the way. Anyways, listen kid, we didn’t bring you with us to Germany for you to sit here and obsess over things you don’t even know are going to happen.”

“Dad’s right, Pete.” You agreed, swiping your design towards your dad. “Are you using the new nanotech for this suit? Cause if so, we could use nanite lens instead of expandable?” You asked Tony before turning attention back to Peter. “You can’t sit here and put your life on hold because of Spiderman, because of this internship. Your team is depending on you, aren’t they?”

“I guess. I mean, Flash is gonna stand in for me. And- and Mr. Harrington understands.” Peter tried to reason with you.

“So that means Mr. Harrington is very disappointed but knows he can’t force you to go.” You shook your head. “Peter, you’re brilliant but also so dumb.”

“Hey!”

“It’s true, kid.” Tony agreed. “Are the lenses retrofitted?”

“Custom cut. Mask was fit to the lens.” You shook your head. “Go to Washington. We’ll handle whatever is going on that you don’t want to leave for.”

“There’s nothing specific.” He tried to defend himself.

“Yes, there is. You’re a terrible liar.” You smiled slightly.

“No, I’m not.” He argued. Your silence was enough pressure and he caved. Sighing heavily, he continued. “There were these guys tonight, and I think they had like, alien weapons.”

“We’ll look into it.” Tony said carefully, looking at you with an interested but confused look. “Go to sleep, Peter. We’ll talk later. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

“But don’t do anything he would do.” You joked.

“There’s a small gray area. And that’s where you operate.” Tony explained.

“Night, Petey.” You said, directing your focus on how to reconfigure the fit of the nanosuit versus the original. “How is this going to work? The mediums are completely different, there’s no way to transfer the program.” You asked your dad, who leaned over to see what you were looking at. Tony reached over your shoulder to touch and adjust your designs, but you smacked his hand away.

“Night, Y/N.” Peter said softly before hanging up. He knew you and your dad would look into it, but he also couldn’t sit by and do nothing.

As the week went on, things with those ATM robbery guys escalated. Peter met a guy with wings, chased the guys, found out they were selling the weapons, and decided on going to Washington. Only Peter wasn’t going to Washington for the decathlon. He had put a tracker on one of the guys and saw that’s where they were headed. He had to go and do something. Even though Mr. Stark told him to not worry about the guy with the wings when he had fished him out the lake, Peter didn’t have it in him to let something this big go. It was happening in his own neighborhood. It was his job!

“I thought you didn’t want to go to Washington.” You said when Peter answered the phone as he rode the bus with the team. “What changed your mind?”

“You did?”

“Are you asking me or telling me?”

“Telling you?”

“Why did you bring the suit?” You asked plainly. “You’re going for decathlon. You don’t need it.”

“I just didn’t want May to find it if I left it.” Peter lied.

“Hmm.” You paused, thinking about whether or not Peter would be telling the truth. “So I’m not going to see any news stories about Spiderman in Washington?”

“Course not. Don’t be silly, Y/N.”

“I’m trusting you, Peter.” You said through a sigh. “Don’t make me regret it.”

“You won’t.” Peter smiled in relief. He wasn’t completely sure you’d believe him but he was glad you didn’t question him anymore.

Later that night in the hotel room, Peter and Ned had the suit laid out on the bed. He had connected the suit to Ned’s computer, while Peter had a flashlight in his mouth as he tried to find the tracker. Ned sat with the laptop, watching the programs and code display themselves on the screen.

“Peter… Why are we removing the tracker from your suit?” Ned asked casually as Peter worked.

“Uh.” Peter said before taking the light from his mouth. “Because I gotta follow these guys to their boss before they move again. And I don’t really want Mr. Stark to know about it.”

“What about Y/N? Why not tell her what you’re doing and she can talk to her dad?” Ned suggested.

“Y/N wouldn’t want me to do it either.”

“So you’re lying to Ironman now? And his daughter?”

“No, no, no. Not Lying.” Peter tried to explain. “They just don’t really get what I can do yet.”

Carefully, Peter peeled the tracker off the fabric. “Gotcha.” He said triumphantly as he held it up. “Alright, have fun tracking this lamp.” He said, sticking the tracker to the nearest lampshade.

Meanwhile, you were eating dinner with your family when this was happening. A small beep in your bracelet drew your attention.

-Tracker removed from Project Parker suit. Immediate maintenance required. Last known location: Washington, D.C.-

“What the hell?” You mumbled, swiping the notification away. You’d look into it later.

Back in Washington, Peter wasn’t quite done toying with his suit.

“There’s a ton of other subsystems in here.” Ned commented, scrolling through the code.

“Hmm?” Peter mumbled. He had remembered something you had said about there being more to what the suit could do but he never really gave that much thought.

“But they’re all disabled by the Training Wheels protocol.” Ned snickered.

“What?” Peter said quickly, jumping to see what Ned was seeing. “The Training Wheels Protocol?” Suddenly, he remembered something you had said in Germany.

Once the Training Wheels are off, I’ll show you what that suit is really capable of.

“Turn it off.” Peter demanded, now offended, He knew there was more his suit was capable of, but he never thought he had needed training wheels.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Ned shook his head with a small laugh. “I mean, they’re probably blocked for a reason.”

Peter groaned before pushing himself up and climbing onto the other bed. “C’mon man. I don’t need training wheels.” He huffed and jumped in a circle on the bed. “I’m just sick of him treating me like a kid all the time. It’s not cool.” He pouted.

“But you are a kid.” Ned countered.

“Yeah, a kid who can stop a bus with his bare hands.”

“Peter, I just don’t think this is a great idea.” Ned tried again. “I mean, what if this is illegal?”

“Look, please. This is my chance to prove myself.” Peter said, kneeling by Ned’s bedside. “I can handle it, Ned, come on.”

“I really don’t think this is a good idea.” Ned told his friend.

“The guy in the chair.” Peter whispered, hoping it would be enough to convince him.

“Don’t do that.” Ned breathed with a shake of his head.

“C’mon.” Peter pushed.

Ned hesitantly sighed, but deactivated the Training Wheels protocol. The suit flashed, blue lights running the seams. A new alert was sent to your bracelet, interrupting dinner yet again.

“Again?” You scrunched your eyebrows.

“What’s the issue?” Tony asked, gesturing to your flashing bracelet.

-Training Wheels Protocol has been disabled at off-site location. Confirmation required. Stark Industry Key Identifier not entered. Immediate attention required. All systems are now active.-

“You’re kidding.” You mumbled as your bracelet flashed an alert. “I’m going to kill him.”

“What’s wrong, hon?” Your mom asked as you shook your head.

“Huh? Oh, nothing. Just a notification. Can I be excused for a minute?” You asked her and your dad.

“Sure.” Tony nodded. “Make sure you come back. It’s your turn to clear the table and do dishes.”

“Yeah, yeah.” You waved your hand before stepping into the hall.

“Y/N, oh my gosh, hi!” Liz answered your call. “I haven’t heard from you in forever!”

“I know! Sorry, everything has just been so busy around here.” You laughed lightly.

“I bet. With the new internship you have set up with Peter. That was really cool of you to do that for him, by the way.”

“Speaking of Peter, he went with the decathlon team, right?”

“Yeah. I think he’s still in his room. The rest of us are at the pool.”

“He didn’t wanna go with you guys?” You asked, checking the tracker on Peter’s suit. It still said the hotel. “Or did you not invite him?”

“Of course I invited him.” She said, hearing a hint of annoyance in her voice, annoyed that you’d even suggest she’d leave him out. “He just hasn’t come down. Why?”

“He’s not answering me. I thought maybe he was with you guys.” You shook your head again in disbelief. “It’s not important. I can talk to him when he gets back.”

“Well, maybe Ned can get a hold of him. Here, let me hand him the phone.” She said. Before you could protest, you could hear muffled voices within the transfer.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y., I need you to record this conversation with Ned Leeds. Discreetly, please. Send the file to my Project Parker folder. And keep it locked. My passcode only.” You said quickly. The system beeped and the recording began.

“Hi, Ned Leeds?” You asked when you heard a male voice through the phone. “Y/N Stark. How’s Washington?”

“Holy shit.” Ned sighed.

“Yeah, listen. I need to talk to Peter. He’s not answering my calls.” You said plainly.

“Well, the thing about that is- He’s not really around right now.” Ned said nervously.

“What do you mean, not around?” You pressed.

“Well not like he’s gone. He’s here. In Washington. With us. He’s just busy?”

“Busy doing what? I swear to God I will go to that hotel right now and beat the information out of you myself, Leeds.” You said, your patience running thin. “You’re going to tell me what that boy is up to. Everything that you know, do I make myself clear?”

“He’s just stretching his legs, getting the hang of some new resources.” Ned hurried. “He’s not doing anything wrong.”

“Then why are you so nervous?”

“I’m not nervous!” He replied quickly. “And Peter is fine. He’s just upgraded his old programs.”

“Upgraded?” You paused for a moment, wanting to check something. “Hold on, Ned. Don’t go anywhere.”

“F.R.I.D.A.Y., I need to see Peter’s live feed. Send me the video from the Baby Monitor protocol.” You said, watching your phone show you what Peter was seeing. You saw him in an old storage building, where scraps from the past battles were stored. You watched as he filtered through different web options, vocalizing small questions and comments as he went. “Son of a bitch.”

“Uh, Y/N?” Ned said, pulling your attention back to him.

“Did you know?”

“What?”

“The suit, you moron. You two are bunking together. Did. You. Know?” You asked carefully. You could feel the anger bubbling in the pit of your stomach. You were beyond pissed.

“Yeah, I knew.” He said hesitantly.

“Did you help?” You challenged. “That’s a complex, multi-million dollar suit. It’s not something that can just be hacked whenever. So I’m going to ask one last time. Did you, Ned Leeds, help hack the suit?”

“It may have been from my computer.” He slowly confessed. “I told him it was a bad idea. I didn’t want to do it but he kept saying I was his guy in the chair. I told him it was probably illegal, and now we’re going to jail. Aren’t we? Oh my god.” Ned said in a panicked voice.

“You have better have a good explanation as to why before I kill you both.” You hung up quickly before dialing Peter.

“Would you like me to save the audio file, Ms. Stark?” F.R.I.D.A.Y. asked as you waited for Peter to answer.

“No, just delete it.” You sighed. “Ned doesn’t need to get dragged into this more than he already is. He obviously didn’t want anything to do with it. Peter’s the one to blame.”

No answer.

“Peter Parker, I know you are not ignoring my calls. I know you are not that stupid.” You said plainly. “And if you are, you are going to be in deep shit with my dad. You’re lucky I got the notification that the suit was tampered with and not Tony. Actually, I know you’re not ignoring me because I saw your feed. You’re in a goddamn Damage Control Deep Storage Vault. God, Peter, how could you be so stupid? So disrespectful? So irresponsible. And you had the audacity to bring your friend, Ned, into it? How stupid are you, honestly. And to top it all off, Ned didn’t want to hack the suit. He didn’t want anything to do with it and yet here we are, two notifications from your suit interrupting dinner.

“That is a multi-million dollar suit and you’re taking it apart like it’s a toy. Maybe it was a mistake to let you keep the suit. There was absolutely no need to take it with you to Washington and you know that. Trying to make sure May didn’t find it, my ass. Now, you’re ignoring me, with a highly advanced, highly equipped piece of Stark tech, doing God knows what with it. Why did you need to do it, Peter? Why? What are you trying to prove?

“I swear to God, the moment you are home with Aunt May, I am going over there and I’m taking that damn suit back. I guess you weren’t ready for that kind of power. I’m serious, Parker. Did you even think about the consequences of what tampering with that suit could mean? What if what you were doing had damaged the suit? How were you going to explain that to me and my dad?

“There’s no way to explain how the tracker had been removed and the Training Wheels protocol was disabled. Those things have to be physically altered. I made it that way on purpose, that way someone had to do something about it. You had to earn the freedom and liberties that that suit has to offer. But you went ahead and took it into your own hands and toyed with the suit.” You had to pause to take a deep breath. You had been talking so much and so fast that your mouth had gone dry.

“Look, I’m pissed. Tony is going to be even more pissed when he finds out. And I’m not keeping this from him. I hope you didn’t expect me to. You really disappointed me this weekend, Peter Parker. I seriously cannot believe you’d be so stupid.” You spoke slower. “Call me once you’re back. We need to talk.”

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mleighlikes · 4 years

Text

M’L Instants #36 ~Moons~ :)

Hey there lovelies, this months Instants were a lot of fun for me. What I did was take the names of some of the solar systems moons and found out the definitions of their names as well as there mythological origins for these short poems. I hope if you missed them then this collection will be fun for you to check out. Have a great day my friends :) .

Ganymede...

Beautiful youth come here be glad, for your purpose fits into the Gods plan.

From the land know as Troy a lad of great body and mind.

He pleases the Supreme God sitting on Olympus a mountain high.

Taken up made to pure the heavenly wine, given a gift immortal never to be lost to ravish of age.

Forever beautiful forever thine.

Europa...

On far as the sun begins to set upon the land.

A young woman more than her mere virtue a princess desired by he who is on high.

He who seeks her company hides as a bull if only to see the beauty in her wide bright eyes.

In time they become one a union made divine.

All in the open, no longer any need to run, to be a shy lie.

Callisto...

Nymph of the land air or sea, beauty not unknowingly belonged to such a being.

Already betrothed to another yet sought due to the desires of another.

Behind the back kept in secret they meet, those two not meant to be a pair.

A creature most lovely forced in to a curse to live in punishment as a bear.

Still unsafe from wrath on high.

Placed among the stars Ursa Major is the price paid within a beauty laid crime.

Titan...

Come to me child, union of Heaven and Earth

Great beings for a time, rule the very elements they were born from

In turn give birth to the lands and seas to the lush and arid

Colossus is your might, place down your will create the world in your image

Fear you in life, morn you in death

Your ways not long for a world such as savage as this

In time over thrown by your youth, the fear shifts from the old order to the new

Enceladous...

One thought to be birthed through Earth and Sky an ancient power over steps it's bounds

A giant massive in rage and power taken on by the next generation in the hopes of making things better

A being made to stand then to fall to it's knees in shame and dis-pare for its alliance to the side of brute existence

Struck down by the thunder of he on high made to lay waste under the ground, life without fault as a mountain crushing it under foot…

Tethys...

One of two seas taken as a daughter wife in the times of Earth and Sky

From her river there will flow the streams, lakes, and ponds

Within them will be born even more of the water of this world in the oceanids and more

Life flows from a mother to her children then from them to the rest of being on and on throughout the rest of times existence...

Despina...

Birth from the union of the sea upon the ocean.

A young woman a goddess perused by a higher being.

She takes on her natural for, not being That of a woman but of a mare.

Still seeking her, he who is great takes on the form of a stallion...

Left with child a mystery was born

One in truth as well as one in fantasy...

Galatea...

Born of a carpenter King

Hands mold, sculpt, chip away at the ivory

A form comes into being, she who is milky white stands before he

So entranced by his creation, soon becoming the object of his longing

Goddess of love soon takes pity upon he making his love a reality

Once together, a union not to break

Soon true birth, a daughter these two lives create…

Halimede...

Lady of the brine

Daughter of the old sea

Housed as one among a collection

Creatures that embody nature wild and free

A sister a daughter a spirit set free

One nymph among many calling those near to the sea...

Titania...

Greatness of a fairy Queen, we'd to her love

Yet in time another catches her eye

A young changing given a crown, made to be her joy

This is not the norm, a rival in kind makes her sleep

When she wakes her heart now in karma’s grasp

Eyes fall upon he with the head of a donkey

Her heart swooned, in time the spell will break

The glory of a fairy pale moon...

Oberon...

Noble King with the spirit of a bear

His queens light has been taken from him

Her heart longs for another, is rage builds

He seeks to punish all parties

To sleep his love must fall, he seeks aid

A potion from a loyal servant and all Now goes his way

When she wakes her disgrace complete

The Kings pride restored in a whisper and an evil scheme dream...

Umbriel...

Hidden in shadow, a crime takes place on a love

Times are proper, any defilement is cause for punishment

Only to have a simple lock of a loves hair without consent

One has snatched, grabbed, carried off what did not yet belong to anyone other than it's barer

Grief come down and smite thee

Tears of joy turn to streams of sorrow

The shadow is now ones home

The shadow will take one's soul

Vega...

Found a home among the western sky

Lyra said to be the spirit within the lyre of Orpheus

Sad was the song of a love lost, sad was the trial of trying to reclaim a life from death

As the song played God nor man could turn away

Vega placed among the stars still resonates as the harp star today...

Polaris...

Look to the North, it's the brightest point in the night sky

Tales that say it's the end of a spike around which the world rotates

Myths and legends call it the peg that holds the world together...

What ever your fancy look to the night heavens and you'll find it there burning bright

Guiding the world from dusk to dawn through the darkest nights

Luna...

King of day sky rises and rests after his rein in the day as the Sun of dawn

Queen of night rises and rests after her rein in the night as the Moon of dusk

Divinely embody the spirit of the moon

Worshiped in times of being full or new

Shining pale is her light, just bright enough to see the world through the darkness

image: google.com/ moons of space pics

Let me know what you think and pass the thought along.

#mlinstants #mlps #moons of space set #greek mythology #questions #thoughts #conversations #poem #poems #poetry #poetic #interworld #much love #patreon #twitter #facebook #instagram

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kaialone · 4 years

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Spirit Tracks Translation Comparison: Intro

This will be a comparison of the original Japanese version and the US English localized version.

Specifically, this will cover the intro cutscene of the game, detailing its backstory.

You can also watch this cutscene for yourself in English and Japanese. If you want, you can check out the EU English version, too.

For the comparison, the usual points apply:

Bolded is the original Japanese text, for the reference.

Bolded and italicized is my translation.

Italicized is the official NOA translation.

A (number) indicates that I have a specific comment to make on that part in the translation notes.

As you read this, please keep in mind that with translations like these, it’s important not to focus on the exact literal wordings, since there is no single “correct answer” when it comes to translations.

Rather than that, consider the actual information that is being conveyed, in which way, and why.

The Backstory:

これは遠い遠い昔… 人がこの地に生まれた頃の物語

This is a tale from long long ago... From the age when people were born in this land.

This is a tale from long ago. It's the tale of the first settlers of this land.

神の御名において治められし大地は安寧のなかにありました

Ruled in the name of a God, (1) the land was at peace.

In the beginning, the people followed the spirits of good, and all was peaceful.

けれどもその穏やかな時は突如として失われたのです…

And yet, that time of tranquility suddenly came to an end...

But that era of peace soon came to an end.

闇の権化魔王の襲来…多くの命が奪われ大地が焼かれました

An incarnation of darkness, the Demon King, invaded... Many lives were lost, and the land was burned.

The evil Demon King rose to power, destroying everything in his path.

全てを支配せんとする魔王はついに神にも戦いを挑んだのです

The Demon King was close to seizing control of everything, and at last challenged the God as well.

The spirits of good had no choice but to face him in battle.

魔王と神の戦いは永きに渡り幾度も繰り返されました

For a long time, the battle of the Demon King and the God kept repeating over and over again.

The war that ensued seemed to last an eternity, and much blood was shed.

永遠に続くと思われた争いの果て神は遂に魔王を討ち果たしました

At the end of their seemingly everlasting struggle, the God finally slayed the Demon King.

Finally, the spirits subdued the Demon King, though they could not destroy him.

しかしその神もかつての絶大な御力を失ってしまったのです…

However, that God had also lost their once tremendous power...

Their powers were greatly depleted.

神は残された御力で魔王の魂を闇の床に葬り…

With the power they had left, the God buried the Demon King's soul in a bed of darkness... (2)

With their remaining power, they buried the Demon King's spirit in the ground.

彼の者が這い出ることがかなわぬよう塔を建てられました

To ensure that he would never crawl out again, they built a tower.

They built shackles to imprison him, and a tower that acted as a lock.

塔を要に魔を縛る封印が施されそれは今も大地を覆っています

They fit the tower with a seal that binds demons. It covers the land to this day.

These shackles cover the land to this day.

全てを終え力尽きられた神は天界に戻りになりました

After all was done, and with their power exhausted, the God returned to the heavens.

With their power drained, the spirits of good returned to the heavens.

神も魔も去ったこの大地は今私達の手に委ねられています…

This land, left by both the divine and the demonic, has now been entrusted to us...

Suddenly bereft of both demons and spirits, this land was entrusted to us.

Translation Notes:

What I translated as “God” is 神/kami in Japanese. This can also be translated as “Gods”, but I have my reasons for going with singular instead, which I will explain in more detail below.

What I translated as “bed” is 床/toko in Japanese, which does mean “bed”, among other things, but in a loose sense that can also refer to something like the floor and the ground.

Comparisons & Thoughts:

Since this scene establishes the basic foundation of the entire story, which has seen some minor changes in English, there is a lot to talk about here, even if the text itself is short.

First of all, there are multiple points I want to go over regarding the divine entity which ruled the land in the past.

In the English version, they are called “the spirits of good”, but in many other language versions, they are called “the gods”, which is a closer translation of 神/kami, the word used in the Japanese version.

I want to point out that, depending on the context and one’s definition of what counts as a god, 神/kami could actually be translated as “spirit” or “spirits”, too.

However, in the case of the Zelda franchise, there are already creatures called “spirits” in the English adaptations of the games. These are called 精霊/seirei in Japanese, a word which more unambiguously translates to “spirits”. They include characters such as the Light Spirits in Twilight Princess, or Link’s spirit companions from Phantom Hourglass.

Because of this, translating 神/kami as “spirits” in this game here does conflate them with the previously established spirits in a misleading way.

It’s possible that they didn’t go for “gods” in English to avoid religious connotations, which is a bit of a bigger concern for a handheld title, since those are assumed to have a younger general audience.

But they actually do have at least one mention of the word “goddess” in the English version, and also feature the word “demon” a bit more prominently than most Zelda games.

So it’s not entirely clear.

For all we know, it could simply be that they came up with this idea of “Spirit” being the general theme of their localization (Spirit Tracks, Spirit Train, Spirit Flute, Zelda being a spirit), and thus went with “spirits” for branding purposes.

The next detail I need to address about this divine entity is the fact that I chose to translate 神/kami as the singular “God”, rather than the plural “Gods”.

You see, the Japanese language doesn’t truly have distinct singular and plural. Thus, any noun could be translated as either, and the only way to know which to go for is by knowing the context.

When it comes to the Zelda franchise, normally the obvious thing would be to translate 神/kami as plural, since this universe canonically has multiple deities, major and minor ones.

And these usually appear in groups too, like the most prominent gods in the franchise, the Three Golden Goddesses themselves.

But, as I was looking through the Japanese text of Spirit Tracks, I never came across anything that specified whether the 神/kami from its backstory was supposed to refer to multiple deities or a single one.

Once I realized that, I went back and noticed that the pictures in this intro cutscene actually seem depict a single entity fighting the Demon King:

If these were meant to be multiple deities, it feels like they would have depicted them as such here, but they didn’t.

So, while this isn’t concrete evidence that it was a single deity, I have never seen any evidence that it was multiple deities either.

For me, these pictures push the odds slightly in favor of it just being a single deity, so I have decided to go with that.

There is not much to truly go on, but given what little we have, I do believe this is the more likely option. I also think this ultimately fits slightly better with a few story details that come up later.

Going with the singular “God” does give me a few other problems, though.

Just as Japanese lacks a true plural, it also lacks things such as articles and capitalization.

Because of that, I might need to go with “God”, “a God”, “the God”, and so forth in my translation, depending on the context. And I’ll also have to make a choice when to capitalize the word or not.

Just be aware that in Japanese the word would always just be 神/kami, completely unchanged.

Additionally, the Japanese language also only rarely makes use of third-person pronouns, especially gendered ones. That’s just how the language works. As a result, the gender of this deity is never clarified either.

I decided to go with they/them pronouns for them in English, rather than to assume, but please note that this is just my translation choice.

In the Japanese version there simply aren’t any pronouns used for them, and that’s not an unusual thing.

These sorts of choices are always unavoidable when translating something from Japanese to English, so please be aware of them.

This is one of the many reasons why one should not take a translation’s wording exactly literal.

This next point isn’t related to this cutscene specifically, but I still wanted to mention it.

A little bit of trivia regarding this deity:

They don’t seem to have a specific given name, but in recent Japanese media I have seen them be referred to as 光の神/Hikari no Kami, which means “God(s) of Light”.

The earliest official instance of this term being used that I could find was actually in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS. It was also later used in The Legend of Zelda: Encyclopedia.

I have seen it float around online a lot earlier than that, but I have never been able to find the original source for it.

As far as I am aware, this title does not appear in the game at all, at least I have never seen it anywhere.

If you happen to know where this title originated from, by all means, let me know!

With all that covered, we can move on to the more direct comparisons for this cutscene.

There is a very notable difference right at the start:

This is a tale from long long ago… From the age when people were born in this land.

This is a tale from long ago. It’s the tale of the first settlers of this land.

In the original Japanese version, it’s established that the events of this tale first began during the time when “people were born in this land”.

This makes it pretty clear that this tale involved the native population of this land.

In the English version, they instead say it’s the tale of “the first settlers of this land“.

This is quite misleading, as it gives the false impression that this tale is about the Hyrulean settlers, who arrived to this land 100 years ago.

Even if one were to argue “first settlers” could refer to previous settlers, the people described in the tale were clearly supposed to be natives of the land in Japanese.

This is no minor change, and from what I’ve seen, it led to a lot of confusion about the game’s backstory among English-speaking fans.

There are quite a few people who seem to be under the impression that Tetra and her crew would have fought the Demon King, but in reality, this conflict is supposed to have taken place many years before the Hyrulean settlers even arrived.

It’s a history that is unique to this land and its original native population.

This would also somewhat change the implication of this tale being told to Link. If you imagine it to be the story of the Hyrulean settlers, it’s Niko just telling Link about something that occurred in their recent history.

But as a tale that precedes the Hyrulean settlers, it’s Niko passing on knowledge about the history of this land prior to their own arrival.

This also happens to be one of the instances I know on top of my head where the EU English version has a more faithful translation, instead saying it’s the tale of “the first people of this land”.

Going forward, there are a few things to say about the battle with the Demon King as it is described here.

In Japanese, the Demon King is called 闇の権化/yami no gonge, “an incarnation of darkness”, which I feel might be interesting for people who want to speculate.

But I’m not sure if we are supposed to take this part literally, or if it’s just a poetic way to describe him.

The English version goes with a non-literal interpretation, adapting it as “The evil Demon King”.

A minor detail, but the Japanese version states that the Demon King went to challenge the God himself.

The English phrasing leans more towards it being the spirits of good who challenged the Demon King, but it’s a bit ambiguous.

Most interesting to me personally is the part where the Japanese version states that the battle between the two “kept repeating over and over again.“

The battle is stated to have been incredibly long in either version, but something about this phrasing here makes me imagine a conflict that keeps flaring up again and again across centuries.

Maybe even something slightly similar to the recurring conflict between Link and Ganondorf in the old Hyrule?

It’s a minor difference, but still one that affected my mental image of these events.

Finally, in Japanese it’s outright stated that the God “slayed” the Demon King, which is presumably why he was reduced to a soul.

In one sense, he died physically. It’s just that when you’re a Demon King, that doesn’t mean you’re out of the picture just yet.

The English version tones this down a notch, simply stating that the spirits “subdued” him. They even go as far as to´clarify that the spirits “could not destroy” the Demon King.

This actually will be a recurring element in this localization. For some reason, they seem to avoid this story detail.

Another little bit of trivia here:

This Demon King, whose actual name we learn later on, has the honor of being the first “Demon King” ...in English.

In Japanese, the titles “Demon King” and “Great Demon King” were frequently used for Ganon/Ganondorf already, but they were always translated as something else in English, like “King of Evil” or “Prince of Darkness”.

But with Spirit Tracks, they finally let this term be used.

He is still kind of special in Japanese too, since he’s the first one to be called Demon King who is not Ganon/Ganondorf, so let’s give him that.

And the last bit I want to compare directly is this part:

To ensure that he would never crawl out again, they built a tower.

They built shackles to imprison him, and a tower that acted as a lock.

They fit the tower with a seal that binds demons. It covers the land to this day.

These shackles cover the land to this day.

The differences here are simple.

In Japanese, the train tracks are a part of the larger “seal” that binds the Demon King, but in English they are made out to be like actual “shackles” that directly hold him captive.

At this point in the story, this seems like a fair interpretation of what the tracks probably do, but later in the game we will get a more detailed explanation that differs from the English version.

Like I mentioned in the Introduction part, this change is most likely to elevate the importance of the tracks in the game’s lore, to fit with the English game title being “Spirit Tracks”.

Minor changes like these for the sake of branding aren’t unusual, from what I’ve seen.

All in all, the localization in this cutscene suffers a bit when it comes to accuracy, due to some changes they probably had no choice but making.

The story changes regarding the tracks is something that affects the whole game, naturally.

It’s an overall minor change, just a slight alteration of how this Demon King prison functions, but something the deep lore analysts among you might want to keep in mind.

Arguably, this change also causes some ever so slight plot holes later in the story, but mostly if you want to be nit-picky.

My biggest gripe in this scene is the “first settlers of this land“ line, especially since the EU English version has an easy fix for it.

It’s just a few little words, and yet they drastically change the implied context of this scene.

And I know for a fact that it has been misleading English-speaking fans for years, so I think it’s fair to say that this is a notable difference.

However, those aspects aside, this cutscene is well-written in English.

It’s faithful to the Japanese version in a way that isn’t too stiff, they did a good job of localizing the text in a general sense, and handled the changes they made well enough.

I’m still somewhat astonished they were able to have mentions of demons, the heavens, and even get in the line “much blood was shed “, which was not this violent in the Japanese version.

I know technically none of these are completely new to English Zelda, but still.

Anyway, that’s all for this part, feel free to proceed to the next one!

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#legend of zelda #the legend of zelda #spirit tracks #tloz #the legend of zelda spirit tracks #the legend of zelda transations #spirit tracks translations #my translations #spirit tracks comparisons

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argentdandelion · 4 years

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Ways to Salvage the Dragon Egg Princess With a Sequel

(Originally posted on Pillowfort two weeks ago.)

In a previous analysis post on The Dragon Egg Princess, it was made clear how messed-up Koko's identity conflict was. Koko was raised as a human princess, but later discovered she had hatched from a dragon egg, was the last of the dragons, and was now expected to become "a dragon". Supposedly, she had to become "a dragon", including assuming dragon form, because it was her true self or "destiny". The book's conclusion, given its build-up, was unsatisfying and only made sense if there was off-screen child abuse forcing Koko into a particular identity.

However, The Dragon Egg Princess can still be salvaged with a better-executed sequel.

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A Few Book Flaws

Remauld (Koko's magic teacher) and the namushin (forest spirits), as my analysis makes clear, are one of two things: some variety of “misguided” or “overzealous”, possibly blended with obliviousness or patronizing attitudes, or simply...immoral.

Some of the flaws of the previous book are how neither the namushin nor Remauld are ever acknowledged as bad or flawed in any way. In fact, not one person even dislikes them. Secondarily, the namushin (including their magic council representative, Zaki) and Remauld have pretty flat characterization and motives, a likely casualty of the book having too many characters and too little time to develop characters that would logically be better-developed or important. Most of Remauld's characterization is "wise magic teacher who admires dragons and pushes Koko into her "destiny"". The namushin are simply "kind, helpful forest spirits popular among humans that have a habit of simply appearing on the scene", and are so underdeveloped one never even sees their direct dialogue.

Furthermore, Koko's whole pressure to assume her "destiny" as a dragon, "represent" dragons, and be the princess of dragons seems pointless when she's the only one left. Dragon culture exists only as a fossil, so who would acculturate her? Who would she rule over?

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The Bad Guys

Due to their questionable motives and ways of going about them, Remauld and/or the namushin could be perfect antagonists for a sequel, and the new role would theoretically help develop their personalities. Luzee, the evil fairy antagonist of the first book, isn't exactly a fleshed-out "round character", but even she has more characterization than most of the good guys, exempting the protagonist, Jiho, Koko, and arguably the bandit leader Micah (who felt largely superfluous to the book, anyway).

Namushin

The cataclysmic war which ended in the death of all dragons (barring Koko) was initially caused by humans being afraid of supernatural creatures (including dragons) and attacking them, and Luzee secretly stoking their fears to gain more power. Koko outright mentions, just once, the cause of the first war as one reason people might not want to be a dragon. Based on this, and the fact over nations don’t have big magic forests like Joson (fantasy-Korea, basically) and have very little if any magic or magical places left, the Namushin could have a motive to attack humanity.

Although one could write them as wanting to kill all or most of humanity, the most internally consistent motive is wanting to kill those people of other nations who haven’t been incorporated into the Nackwon’s armies and are associated, even loosely, with the destruction of magical areas. Or, they merely want to restore the magic forests of the other nations, at all costs, as quickly as possible, with no care for what humans suffer and die in the process. (the spirits and spirit vines from The Legend of Korra could be a good parallel.)

They might want Koko because dragon magic could uniquely accelerate the process, or Koko would be useful to scare off their human enemies, and they believe they have Koko’s loyalty.

It’s mentioned the Joson people don’t have their own special sections in the Nackwon’s human armies: they’ve already been integrated into the general forces of the Nackwon because they are “magic, just like the Nackwon”. (something like that…) Therefore, the namushin could very well exploit Koko’s status as the princess of Joson to get the entire Joson nation as allies or give themselves political legitimacy quickly.

Remauld

Luzee initially tried to drain Queen Nanami (the queen of the dragons)’s brother for power, but he turned back into his dragon form and fled. He’s not mentioned outside a brief explanation in the magical viewer. Remauld said dragons were his friends and seems really enthusiastic about it. What if Remauld was Queen Nanami’s brother, who’s been in human form all this time? What if he felt like, as the only dragon left, he had to be a de facto parental figure for Koko and thought her human parents inadequate for the task? What if he didn’t want the pomp and restrictions of being the ruler of dragons, or was too much of a coward to confront Luzee if it could be avoided?

There’s also the possibility Remauld was Queen Nanami’s mate, which would have similar characterizations. Dragons can shapeshift into humans, but what about vice versa? Koko can shapeshift leaves into toads, among other magical features, so it’s plausible that Remauld is skilled enough to change his very body, or Queen Nanami changed his body herself. It’s stated dragons breed rarely, and they were lucky if one egg was laid per year.

Hundreds of years ago, Queen Nanami had to give a dragon’s egg to the powerful fairy Luzee as a source of magic so she could protect them against humans, before her turn against the Nackwon entirely and attempt to kill all dragons. Knowing the urgency of creating a dragon’s egg, Nanami may have chosen a shapeshifted Remauld to bypass whatever reproductive difficulties had, because a half-dragon's egg made quick was better than a full-dragon's egg too late to be useful.

Perhaps Remauld never told Koko that he sired her egg because he was ashamed that he, a lowly (compared to dragons) wizard who idolized dragons, had to be her father. Perhaps he wanted to maintain what he thought was a comforting illusion Koko was a full-blooded dragon, who only hatched weirdly because of a “dragon’s instinct to survive making it appealing to its caretakers” (his explanation for why Koko hatched as a scaly humanoid that quickly became indistinguishable from human). If Koko’s father was a magic-human, one could easily blend Koko’s identity conflict into a more coherent dual-species theme of uncertain or mixed identity.

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Koko With Actual Subjects?

If Koko had actual subjects, her identity would be a lot more important, so Koko learning of some other dragons is a good idea for a sequel. Perhaps the namushin never found them because they live in the other nations, and their data-collecting is spotty in the nations that don’t have magic forests. Perhaps it’s hard to tell a dragon in disguise from a real human unless they’re using magic, and it takes a lot of luck to perfectly observe a candidate at just the right time. However, the dragon-folk are fully aware dragons don’t exist as a separate culture or faction any more, or their loyalties are to human rulers, or they think of themselves as “humans who can turn into dragons” rather than the reverse, so they think Koko has no authority over them.

Koko initially assumed she was special and necessary because Joson loyalty allegedly had a trace of dragon’s blood, and the Namushin (evasively) told her she was related to Queen Nanami. Perhaps, five hundred years ago, some dragons defected from the dragon military and hid as humans. (perhaps in nations other than Joson---a good excuse to explore those in the next book) Because humans so feared supernatural creatures and dragons, they hid their true natures for many decades, even generations. They told their children who grew up among humans they had exceptional magical ability (or even the “unique ability to turn into dragons”) because they were descended from the illegitimate children of Joson royalty, who, yes, had traces of dragon blood, which were especially obvious in some people by sheer luck. Since the Joson royals sure don’t want word of indiscretion getting out (especially if the dragon-humans still live in Joson) and will use force to maintain secrecy, they should keep their unique abilities secret.

These “humans who can turn into dragons” would be an interesting foil for Koko. They would delight Remauld, frustrate him, or both. They would provide Koko an alternate identity option she hadn’t even considered under the yoke of crushing expectations/child abuse. And since Koko is not only “a dragon”, but also “a dragon princess” and “princess of Joson”, she may very well be a poor choice to represent these “dragon folk” as a whole, because she shares little in common with them. The “dragon folk” might not even be (or look) Joson in their human forms. However, one could also present them as second-generation or even twentieth-generation immigrants from Joson, only distinguishable from their neighbors at all because of their preference to interbreed with other dragon folk. (It’s unclear how long it takes for dragons to breed, or whether their human forms affect generation times.)

The above idea might allow something thematically similar to, “the only Tsimshian (Native American tribe with the lowest or second-lowest population) in the nation, who was adopted by Caucasians, and who figures Tsimshians are extinct, is brow-beaten into identifying as Tsimshian in the ‘purest’ way for Magic Reasons and is conflicted about it, but then realizes there are modern Tsimshians with very different backgrounds and identity expressions a few states away and must grapple with her identity again”.

One could probably combine “Remauld and/or the namushin are villains” with “Koko learns of humans-that-can-turn-into-dragons” into the same plot. Perhaps the namushin flush out the “Dragon Folk” in the process of restoring other nations’ forests/attacking other nations, or basically expand their tree-based “satellite vision” into other nations now that the immediate threat of Luzee is gone. (Luzee breaking out would make the Namushin’s projects pointless, after all; she would simply take over the world again and probably kill all namushin)

#Analysis #Books #Fantasy Books #Fantasy #Identity Conflicts #Identity #Literary Analysis #Meta #Dragons #Writing

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