#Callisto and Penelope show their love for one another in many ways

[eloise175]

Domestic Headcanon

The multiple languages of love:

Callisto at one point sat down and learned on a whim how to say ‘I love you’ in 20+ languages to express his undying love for Penelope better, because simply put, one language isn’t enough to explain what he feels for her. He’s also aware of the fact that his wife is able to understand what he’s saying most of the times because she speaks a handful of languages, and the adorable blush that dusts her cheeks never fails to make him smile.

Penelope will never get used to Callisto’s incessant love-bombing, and the actual lengths he’d go to express how much he loves her, it tugs at her heart strings in the best way possible. It’s an indescribable sensation, but if she were to word it out, Penelope would say that it’s like a bunch of butterflies swarmed her stomach, alike the feeling when he first kissed her.

Callisto also took it upon himself to learn about flower-language, and what each color and flower represents.

First and foremost, the red roses are never missing, he likes to think that Penelope will always associate their color with his eyes.

This stems from one time when she left him a neatly written note in his office for their anniversary, where at the end there was the mark of her lips in red lipstick, with a rose of the same shade attached to the paper; Callisto kissed the mark left by her lips without hesitation.

Carnations of deep color are also very present, because while it is true that love is the sentiment that burns the brightest of them all, Callisto cannot help but feel a deep sense of admiration every time his wife takes the lead as Empress.

She has the final say in things, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. He couldn’t care less about what other people think of him, but Penelope’s opinion is the one that truly matters. He knows she’ll always tell him the truth, no matter what.

Orchids bring back memories of the earlier stages of their relationship, when Callisto would shower Penelope with an endless pile of expensive gifts after learning that she had a penchant for jewelry and such.

The fine silks of the dresses he’d gift her were imported from different countries and manufactured with the outmost care, befitting the woman of his heart. In the box, on top of the silks, there would be two orchids of a color similar to the one of her hair, their stems tied together by a white ribbon with golden threads sewn in.

Their presence standing for luxury and refinement as well as a beauty unlike any other.

Even after their union as a married couple, when Callisto commissions new garbs for his wife, two orchids that are meant to symbolize the two of them are left on top of the garments as a callback to those days.

Later on, the number of the flowers growing with every addition to their family, increasing by one for each little miracle that blesses their lives, bringing them into parenthood and its joys.

After a while, Penelope taught Callisto how to make flower-crowns, and now every occasion is good to make them for her. Penelope is somewhat jealous because he shouldn’t be allowed to be this good at making flower-crowns, not better than her that’s for sure.

However she cannot stay irked for too long because the way he places the carefully made crown on top of her head with that specific gaze, where it looks like he just fell in love all over again, melts away all the previously built up irritation.

Later on Callisto will start making flower-crowns for their children as well, and Penelope can feel her heart swell the longer she watches them, especially when their kids try to replicate said flower-crowns.

[kuroneko1815]

Shatter me with a kiss or spare me my heart

Welcome to another instalment of El’s bedtime stories. This didn’t work and she proceeded to remain awake for another two or three hours. Anyway, this was based on the Descendants 3 song ‘one kiss’ that she sent me, so I guess kind of sleeping beauty. @eloise175 please go to sleep on time, or at least pretend to sleep after I send you a ficlet.

Penelope stared at Callisto, sleeping peacefully and deeply. Too deeply that it was unnerving. One would think he was dead. With the slow breaths he took, his pale countenance, and the slow beat of his heart. She was unused to such a quiet and still Prince. If anything, he was how she often wished him to be when he vexed her so.

‘Twas a curse from one of his enemies, they declared. Though she knew it was none other than his wretched, miserable, shrivelled up old stepmother who had long since chased away the emperor from her bed with her odious looks and personality that had caused this curse.

They all thought their relationship to be false and full of artifice, as though they had only put on a show. But she knew her feelings ran deep, as the saying goes ‘the course of true love never did run smooth’ or something of the sort. And Penelope loved him, loved her handsome, valiant, gentle, magnificently irritating lover of a dragon prince to the very depths of her soul and more. She would kiss him awake if only she knew it would work. If only she had any certainty that he felt even the barest of feelings for her other than amusement and fondness.

If he felt even the tiniest bit the way she had, she would kiss him true and break this curse. For surely her love would be enough to fill up what love lacked from him? But she was afraid to find out, to know, that she was nothing more than a whim and a moment in his life.

Outside those doors she knew Sir Porter waited to see his liege awake. She could walk out and lie, say that it didn’t work and let him sleep on forevermore, let her live with the delusion that he loved her and all she needed to do was gather her courage.

Or she could kiss him now. She could shatter it all, her delusions and her heart and kiss him to put an end to this farce and walk away from him and everything that reminded her of him. Let some other woman try their chance at being his true love, let her kiss be what woke him, her love be what healed the man broken by war and death.

She tried to imagine living her life in that delusion, that uncertainty always looming over her, that what if? Even if she walked away, she would never move on unless she knew. A broken heart she may have after this, she decided as she leaned closer, but at least she would have closure. Let this be the last then. “I love you, Callisto Regulus.” She said as she gathered what love she had in her for him, this insurmountably vast ocean whose depths were untold, fathoms and leagues unmeasured and unexplored, and put it all into one gentle kiss as she let what sadness linger in her eyes and heart, let a tear or two fall as she pulled away from her unresponsive prince.

So that was it then. She straightened herself. “Goodbye.”

And just as she’d walked two steps, a hand reached out and pulled her back, down she fell on to the bed and onto his chest, stunned and dazed as she looked at those piercing red eyes of the man who held her tenderly.

“And where were you to go, Princess?” He asked, voice hoarse from sleep and disuse. It had taken days for her to get the message and rush to his side after all. “I’d not given you permission to leave.”

“Your highness! You’re awake!” She cried happily, arms lacing around his neck. It mattered not that he couldn’t say it. Not yet at least. For she at least knew what he felt for her with the breaking of the curse.

Seriously though, if you have any idea how many plot bunnies, WIPs, and half finished chapters, stories, or instalments I have, you’d understand why I haven’t posted anything big recently. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this. Stay healthy and safe everyone.

[bvnga-aprikot]

a rant about DIOEFV (SPOILERS)

EDIT 11/17/2020: FOR THOSE OF YOU READING, THIS SPOILS THE SIDESTORIES OF DIOEFV, SO PROCEED WITH CAUTION  

so this post will probably trigger a lot of people, i’m not saying that i hate these characters and all but i just wanted to let this out of my chest for a while. these are full of my personal opinions but if i miss some important facts here please let be know i’ll gladly appreciate it. i would like to say more but for now i’ll leave it at that. 

Trigger Warning: mentions of abuse and toxic behavior

For a very long time, i was and still really pissed with golden boy (Callisto btw, the ML). Yes, i personally think that he’s one of the better options and i have a good time seeing him interact with Penelope. To be honest he lightens up the mood after their first meeting. And although i find it a bit cringey at times, it’s a nice contrast to DIOEFV’s supposedly dark plot. Basically, thumbs up for those fun interactions.

But what i’m going to talk about is his his behavior, specifically towards Penelope in the first half the side stories. To be honest with you, i had such a terrible time dealing with him and let me tell you whyyyy.

Actually it’s more or less like complaining to literally no one so to the few people reading this, um have fun getting offended with my opinions. 

Okay so starting off this little rant, we have the beginning of the Side Stories. Now in the beginning, their interactions were fine, they were. Yeah Golden Boy was overprotective of Penny and all like but nothing there. HOWEVER as the side story progresses Callisto gets more possessive I- the reason i’m talking about this now is because I had I trusted him as a male lead. Ever since seeing the Hunting Competition Arc I was looking forward to Callisto and his relationship with Penelope and this is what he shows us after they're in a relationship?! And I mean like an official one they're like at this point in the story they were getting engaged and soon married and blah blah blah you get what I mean. I'm just recalling this from memory and what I've read and heard from the side stories but to give you an example of how possessive he was,  this madman f****** isolates Penelope after she defeated a f****** cult.  If that sounds familiar to you, that’s literally what Derrick and Iklies wanted to do to Penelope  if they got their way (aka ended up with her). Okay, this man was a hypocrite, next!

Next we have their interaction after Penelope managed to escape the palace. She went to the Eckart dukedom (i forgot why i haven’t read the side stories in a long time), reunites with the people there and then we get to Derd**k. Man that was one hell of a reunion cuz the guy had the audacity to tell her not to marry Callisto (who even though i’m ranting abt now is just- dude why are you still trying to control her like that?!) and begs to her like a worthless piece of shit. That is where Callisto comes in, Derrick exits out of the room AND THEN we finally got Penelope confronting him about his behavior towards her. Honestly i wished Penelope did more than belittling the shit out of him and pulling his hair, but overall that scene was pretty satisfying because WE GOT THIS MF HYPOCRITE WHO FINALLY ADMITTED TO DOING HER WRONG.

But in all honesty? Is that all he got?? Just her threatening to leave him if he did that to her again??? Cuz if i were her i would’ve challenged him into a duel, kick his balls both metaphorically and literally, and move into another country where i can be a rich single lady not worrying about her love life (if you don’t know in the novel Penny got reaaaalllly rich). Okay i’m getting too indulgent there but anyways back to the rant. Obviously this type of behavior is UNACCEPTABLE in many ways. It can become emotionally abusive just confining your partner into a place they don’t want to be in. And no, i’m not saying Callisto doesn’t love Penelope, it’s just that being in love is NOT a justification to do that to your partner whatsoever.

Okay maybe I should not put the blame all on him. Personally, I also think this is my fault.  I mean there were red flags everywhere. Callisto literally just got back from a war so he's not really in the best shape or form to interact with people. Secondly, this guy is obviously a madman. He's not afraid to torture people, and unless Penelope’s telling him not to kill people in front of her,  I'm pretty sure this guy would not hesitate to commit a whole ass genocide. We see that with what he did to Delman, the country where Iklies came from, maybe it's implied that it's from the emperor's orders but he still did it. And let's not forget that first meeting, the first meeting that set things off in their relationship and the one we are most familiar with. Yeah just because he was not in the mood for talking to people does not excuse his actions towards a noble lady (he almost slit her throat despite not having the intention to kill her).

In the end, despite becoming better and actually giving Penelope the space she needs (finally), those actions are still very impactful in many ways, and can cause much harm towards your relationships with people even if you truly love and care about them. Honestly a good example of this can be Allendis from The Abandoned Empress. He loves Aristia very much but the way he does so becomes very twisted, so far as to getting jealous when she gets new friends and wanting to isolate her. I would stay here and talk about how Callisto and Penelope’s relationship developed after that whole debacle, not every relationship is perfect in any way but i think if i’m motivated enough i’ll try to make a separate post about it someday.

For those of you who want to know where to read the side stories, i hate to say this but almost all of the translations have since been deleted due to the hunt. I still don’t know if most of them are still up but there might still be some translations remaining on it’s Novel Updates forum.

Have a nice day or night or whatever timezone you’re in now and here’s another low quality meme i made for this post:

- Sav