#Cinderella used to be evil but she stopped doing that

[syxnewt]

I used to have a bunch of Barbie dolls with an extended storyline and one of them was the reincarnated and reformed evil voice that had been the big bad for a while and I named her Helen because it has the word hell in it hinting at her previous evil nature

[still-a-morosexual-help]

I find it really funny that Mammon is genuinely one of the kindest demons,

• He rarely loses his temper

• He was picked to look after a human because of this and so he's the only brother that never attacks or genuinely threatens MC

• He adopts some random 9yr old orphaned human, is determined to pay for all her needs until she's an adult, and lets himself be extorted by the witches just so they continue to look after her

• He forgives any slight against him if the person who wronged him says sorry

• He has put Luke's happiness & safety over money multiple times

• His whole reason for Falling was just so he could follow Lucifer & continue supporting him while he was suffering

• He gave a birthday present he received to a random demon who tried to hurt him because he figured that demon needed something to make him happy

• Even though Raphael doesn't see the good in him, he still wanted to help Raphael see the beauty of the Devildom

• He was worried about Simeon and ready to fight Michael on Simeon's behalf

• He tries to give up a prize he would have won for Asmo

• The thing that makes him initially reach out to MC in Nightbringer is seeing them being nice to Levi

• Levi describes him as a "jerk with a heart of gold"

• Levi says Mammon makes friends easily and isn't selfish

• He cares deeply about consent

• MC says he's "innocent & genuine"

• MC says Mammon has "always been kind" and the others don't disagree

• He says that angels, demons & humans are all people and shouldn't be treated differently because of what they are

• He gets upset because of the way Cinderella's family treats her because he thinks family should love each other, and it doesn't matter if they are blood related or not

• He cries during nature documentaries

• He's the one that takes the first step to make things normal with Belphie again after what happened in Lesson 16 despite the fact that he was the one who was most outwardly affected by MC's death and was mocked for it by Belphie

BUT

The only thing stopping him from doing a complete 180° and becoming a villain is that MC has decided to use their considerable power for chaotic neutral level hijinks and not chaotic evil level destruction

[merp-blerp]

Random things about Cinderella (1950) I noticed/want to say after doing a psych project on it

I love the foreshadowing they do with the clock striking midnight when Cinderella is startled by the morning clock and she says "Even he orders me around." I never noticed it that way before.

The reason why no one recognizes Cinderella at the ball is because A) she seemingly wasn't allowed off her stepmother's property, so no one in town had ever seen her before or since she was a child, and B) when she gets there the prince immediately introduces himself and dances her away from everyone. The duke even pulls a curtain to separate her and him from the guests so they can dance alone. Almost no one gets a good up-close look at her except the prince.

I've said before on here that I think the prince in this movie was meant to be more of a symbolic personification of Cinderella's freedom rather than a literal character, and I still think that. However, I find it interesting that everything we know about the prince is told through others, not him. He doesn't get to be known. The only person he ever even gets to speak to is Cinderella. He also has a bit of character (relayed by others). His father laments that the prince is growing farther away from him the older he gets, he avoids responsibilities, and suggests that he's a hopeless romantic. It's also worth noting that the prince has no idea the ball is for the purpose of setting him up with a wife. He supposedly was led by the king to believe it was a welcome home ball, as he was away from home before (the ball invitees don't seem aware either until the night after the ball when they do the slipper fittings). [EDIT: I forgot to mention that I sappily like to interpret this as Cinderella, his eventual wife, being the only one who ever truly knows him, as he assumedly isn't close to the king or anyone else, so this is reflected in the fact that even us, the audience, don't get to know him like Cinderella must. Probably not the intention, but it's cute.] He also doesn't have severe facial blindness, he probably would've recognized Cinderella without the slipper but A) it was the king who thought of the whole slipper-fitting idea; all the prince supposedly said was that he'd marry the girl who wore the glass slipper, and B) He is explicitly not the one to do the slipper-fitting. The grand duke does it. But even the grand duke seems to recognize her before she gets the slipper on (he saw her up close briefly while she ran away and chased after her).

Also, as Cinderella runs from the prince, the other maidens there crowd him, so he can't get to her to stop her, but they only stop him to converse with him about how "lovely" she is, not because they want him, which is kinda wholesome. Again, no one was there to try and marry the prince because no one knew that's what the ball was for to begin with except the king and duke.

Cinderella is definitely very kind, but she knows the treatment she gets from her family is not right. She speaks somewhat passive-aggressively about them when they're not around. I like that touch.

When her stepfamily teases her over her excitement that she could go to the ball because she's eligible, she asserts that she's still a part of the family. Even though she's being abused, it's a type of abuse where she thinks her family must value her in some way. I think when her sisters ripped her dress apart was the moment she realized she wasn't a part of the family after all and that she wasn't loved/valued.

Lady Tremaine was so different from other Disney princess villains at the time. Allow me to go on for a bit. Compare her to the evil queen or Maleficent (who are also great). They have a very booming presences and everyone knows they are monsters, it's just that no one can stop them until the end of their stories. But Lady Tremaine knows how to fool people by having a motherly disposition. Not in a nurturing way, but in a stern, tough “love”, almost “calm” way. She never yells at anyone (just raises her voice) or acts traditionally evil in the way the evil queen or Maleficent do. More bite than bark I guess. For example, when she lets the step-sisters rip Cinderella’s dress, she simply tells them to come along afterwards and tells Cinderella goodnight like a mother might, but without affection with it, like a covert dig; she doesn't visibly get cross with Cinderella, but what she’s doing is still abuse. Even Cinderella seems to see her as a mother in one way or another before the dress ripping (I don't think Cinderella ever calls her "Step-Mother" again after the dress-ripping she allowed her sisters to do). She's very covert in her villainy. A very good depiction of an abuser. The only other Disney villain I can think to compare her to off the top of my head is Scar from the og Lion King when he was around anyone who wasn't the hyenas, but even then he dropped the act eventually after becoming king. Lady Tremaine never really does.

I also like the detail that after the ball when trying to tell the step-sisters about the shoe-fitting, she asks Cinderella, “Where are my daughters?” excluding Cinderella from being her daughter even though she should be. She really only sees her as a maid.

Cinderella's pink dress has a lot of bows, and at the beginning of the film, we see her when she was younger and the dress she wore as a child also had bows and was in a somewhat similar style. Her childhood dresses were probably taken away by Lady Tremaine when her dad died. Makes me wonder if Cinderella redesigned her mom's dress with her dress from youth in mind, as she certainly hadn't worn a nice dress since she was a kid. And if so, what would that mean? Was she just feeling nostalgic? Or had her sense of style not matured since childhood because she had been made to wear nothing but rags for who knows how long? Is her only frame of reference to what her own personal style is based from her childhood dresses? I just think it's kinda intriguing. The pink dress always felt explicitly young for Cinderella.

Cinderella's voice is so cute. Not just her singing, but her voice in general. Ilene Woods, love of my life apparently.

People often complain about Cinderella marrying the prince the day after the shoe fit, but Disney's version never specifically states that the wedding is the day after the slipper scene, it just comes right after it. Who's to say how much time there was in between scenes. There are versions that do say that it was the next day, so I guess people conflate different versions together in their heads. This is why it's important to watch films with your brain on before criticizing them for things they didn't do.

I never thought too deeply of it, but when Cinderella sings the words "So this is love" she really is (re)learning what love is. It's a realization. She likely hasn't felt love from another human being since her father died. Or rather she thought she was loved in some way, but then realized she wasn't when her dress was ripped. So now, with the prince, she has a better understanding of what it's like to be properly loved. Imagine hating this girl. 🩵

[unsuredreamer]

is it possible for a Bridget x Reader where Red found out not only her mother's different personality in the past but also a has a childhood friend that both Bridget and reader has feelings towards one another is too shy about it but in the original timeline Reader was never mentioned because reader died in an accident that people assumed that it was Bridget fault because she is a monster and red also plans to prevent reader's death

Your Heart

Bridget Hearts 🩷 x reader

Kinda changed a bit but I still hope you like it!!!

Still open for more requests my loves ♡

"Bridget. You're better than this. I know that what happened was hard for you, but that was ages ago" Ella pleaded desperately trying to stop her ex best friend from taking over Auradon.

"Hard? It was excruciating, I relive it every day since" the queen coldly exclaimed.

"We all do. She was like a dream, but she is gone now. We have to move on Bridget"

"Don't you dare speak of her in my presence! You did not care back then." The Queen yelled out. "Now kneel" she gestured with her hand.

"I will never kneel to a tyrant"

"She's denied a royal order. What do we do about that, darling?" The Red Queen turned to her daughter smiling ear to ear. But don't let it get you. It's not the nice kind.

"Look, all you have to do is swear allegiance. Is that so hard?" Red butt in to Cinderella, she knew it was about to go down.

"If it means compromising everything I stand for, yes."

"Who are you loyal to Red? These strangers or your mother? Now make me proud for once" Bridget took a hold of Red's face, grinning like she was about to win. She was of course.

"Come on Bridget, even your daughter knows it's wrong, she can't do it" This sentence made something snap in Red, like a force pulling her towards the bad, a little devil sitting on her shoulder. But she felt vulnerable. Did she really want that? Her heart thumped in her chest."Treason! She's guilty of treason, and that means off with her head!" Wrong, it felt so wrong, to the point she felt dizzy, the whole world spinning.

"Exactly right, my dear! Off with her head!" The royal guards began walking the other queen, her daughter desperately trying to pry the others away. Red coming straight at her, her spinning head did not help in trying to take out the pocket watch and steadying her posture.

But she did, and what happened next was not what she expected..

~•~

"Now great! We traveled 20 years back in time! Fucking excellent Red" Chloe yelled, angered as her mother was just sentenced to death by the very girl standing beside her

"Calm down, little goody princess pop star. I meant to sent us back just a few minutes so i could take my mothers cards, but it took us here. I certainly did not mean to take you with me" Red remarked, thinking hard about why she ended up in this exact moment.

"Well, we're here now, so might as well undo whatever made your mom so evil" Chloe paced back and forth, clutching her sword tightly in her hand, something she did often while being stressed beyond heavens.

"And how exactly are you planning to prevent murder, Chloe?" The princess of Wonderland asked sarcastically. Because truly, how were they supposed to do it? They didn't know who did it, how, when, and where. It was all a mystery to them. It's like this death was completely erased from existence. No one mentioned it. After all, why would you reminisce such a sad and sudden death that became a start to many years of misery and tyranny of one of the cruelest rulers known of."We could at least, i don't know...try? My mom said it happened after a talk about flamingos?" What? Was she joking, really?

"Let's just look for our mothers for now."

And thats what they did, what brought them to this exact moment.

"Hey my love, how are these cupcakes you talked about?" A strange girl sat down on one of the benches in the school halls looking at Bridget, Red's mom, with such loving eyes just begging for an ounce of touch from the pink one. She must have heard her pleads as she sat down on her lap, throwing her arm around the others neck.

"They are great! I saved you one or two...plates" Bridget grinned. She could never do too little for the girl she was so desperately in love with. Although they claimed to be just bestest of best friends, too shy to admit they literally wore each other's hearts on their chests. "These flamingo feathers you went so out of way to get for me really turned out excellent as a topping." She smiled widely once again. Something you could never grow tired of. Her enchanting eyes and magical pink hair drawing you in.

"Who is that?" Red whispered to Ella, Chloe's mother.

"Y/n Cupid, Bridget's childhood best friend"

"Aree you sureee they are just that?" Chloe questioned as she smiled sheepishly. "It surely looks like more than that to me,"What a sight, seeing the cruel Queen of Hearts (who is now such a sweet and kind soul) be so lovey dovey with another person. That alone made Red's head spiral. Her mother was not mad evil? She was good-hearted? And she had a lover? That is something she would never grasp after all those years of fake smiles and cold orders.

"Mhm, they are. Although I strongly suggest them every day to make a closer move. They won't budge like stuck-up little kids."

"Well lovely, I will try not to eat them all in one sitting." You continued, taking Bridget's hand in yours, softly swiping your finger across her palm. Her breath hitched. It was something you'd done quite often, but even the slightest touch from you made her head dizzy and the goosebumps on her skin to pop instantly.

"Y-You, I" She stuttered out, nothing more coming in to her clouded mind, you giggled at her cutness, what resulted in you being hit by her in the head "Be careful, try not to turn into a flamingo, they are awsome but only one at a time sweetie" She kissed your cheek quickly, she was feeling bold, usually she'd just boop your nose or something. A kiss was a big declaration from her. She loved physical touch, she loved hugs, grazing or intertwining hands. But a kiss was something she preserved only for her one and only.

You were her one and only.

"Okay, it was nice meeting you, Red and Chloe, I'll be going now. I have a shit load of homework from Professor Merlin. Bye Ella, see you later B!" You sent them a kiss and dissappeared in the halls.

"Bridget!" The lovesick girl jumped upon her name being yelled out "She is so totally in love with you!" Chloe squealed, not being able to keep her excitement in, taking the princesses hands and jumping around."No, no. We are just friends. She would never look at me that way" Bridget sadly sighed, playing with her heart necklace she got from her 'friend'

It was a truly beautiful gift, just a necklace with a heart, but if you were to look at it from the other side. The necklace was made from silver, crafted by Hephaestus himself, the red heart was a gemstone made differently, it was a part of the glass heart of cupid.

Your heart.

You gave her your heart!?

How could she be so stupid not to recognize what a grand gesture of love it was?

You basically devoted your whole life to her, vowing to love her forever and always.

You gave her your heart...

"See, that's what I'm talking about!" Frustrated Ella butt in. "They act like a couple, but when you point it out, both of them are sooooo dumb to realize how the other is fe-" She could not finish because Red and Chloe were long gone. So was Bridget, even quicker.

As Bridget realized what an oblivious idiot she had been, she took a run after you, clutching the necklace in her hand. After a minute, she found you in the gardens.

The sight of your unconscious body made Bridget shiver, freeze, almost as if she had stepped foot on the Boomerang Nebula. She fell, her weak knees hitting the blood-stained ground. The once beautiful, white pebbles, turning maroon as the red liquid pooled out of the corpse.

A terrifying, horror like scream was all that could be heard...

No one would imagine a dead body with a spear shot right through the heart in the broad daylight while waking out on the school grounds. Hazed eyes, once full of life, staring longingly into the distance. And the strong grip of the hand, oh so soft, still remaining on the spear. The white button-up shirt peppered in small hearts growing more and more burgundy with each passing second.

She could not believe it. You were gone.

The love of her life

She could not stop the anger mixed with hurt and unimaginable sadness growing in her heart as she watched her lovers lifeless body. She threw a fit with the intention of hurting everyone in the mere distance. Luckily, no one was there to be hurt. Throwing her cards up in the air, shooting fires, and demolishing basically everything she could see.

Bridget broke down crying. There was nothing she could do to bring her life back, her life back.

As Chloe successfully shielded her princess from the fires and chaos thrown by her mother, Bridget fell on her knees once again. They stared at the scene before them.

They cursed themselves that they weren't able to stop the killing. They had failed.

Red felt absolutely terrible seeing her mother so heartbroken. She saw only the worst part of her. She never even thought there once was this sweet, kind, thoughtful, and such a loving princess within her. She wondered of all these good times she could have, with her other 'mom' too. As she was wishing she could've come sooner to stop this nonsense, however would she have done it, Chloe ran to her mom's younger version. Dropping on her knees just a couple inches away, wrapping the pink girl in her embrace. So strong, so comforting.

Bridget laid her head on her chest, sobbing uncontrollably, gripping Chloe's blue shirt so tightly she was most likely to rip it apart any second. That is truly what she needed, a warm presence holding her so she wouldn't go mad.

"Cry Bridget, I'm here for you," and that's what she did. She cried till she was out of energy to do so. She just stared in the distance, thinking of nothing. There was nothing left for her. She took ahold of her lovers hand, vowing to herself she'd never fall in love again.

And she'll keep your heart, just how you have kept hers.

Not all stories have a happily ever after, even if we try to change it

[kuroyuki-kokuyoku]

Random TCF Related Thought - Fairy Tales

In canon proper, we know that fairy tales do exist in Nameless 1, or at least, fiction geared towards children.

Well, I was reading some TCF React fics and found a hilarious moment where Heni!KRS was explaining fairy tales to Cale's kids and was shooketh to find out that Cale had butchered some of Earth's classic fairy tales into loosely-based-on stories (to put it gently) cuz apparently the "princess-in-distress" trope would not be relatable if every princess IRL they know could easily save themselves in a simailar or same situation. Therefore, Badass Action Girl!Princesses FTW.

Where am I going with this?

So my shower thought is that Cale one day decided to invoke his inner Brothers Grimm and published his own book series based off of Earth's classic fairy tales.

But here's the twist: He uses the Walt Disney versions but made every Disney Princess BAMFs.

Sorry, Mr. Walt Disney. Your own versions of Earth's classic fairy tales were a product of your time, but your 50s sensibilities won't fly when all of the princesses Cale knows can easily break a full grown man man in tiny little pieces, physically, spiritually, and emotionally. Besides, he wants little girls like On and Lily to have strong female role models to aspire to be even if it's in fiction.

Sleeping Beauty? Aurora is based on Roselyn. She finds out that she got cursed by Maleficent, who is a whole Dragon that her father had offended by failing to invite her to his unborn daughter's christening like he promised, so she threw away her status as crown princess to become a mage out of spite and break the curse on her own. In the end, she succeeds and managed to tracked down Maleficent to her lair. Maleficent is so impressed by her moxie that the Dragon took her on as an apprentice. By the time, Prince Phillip shows up hoping to slay the Dragon and take Aurora back to his kingdom so they can be married, the story is already over.

Beauty and the Beast? Belle is the village chief's daughter and the most beautiful girl in the tribe. Belle is a Tiger and Lion mixed-blood Beastman and also pining after the cute human bookworm named Adam in the next village over. Dorph the greater value Gaston can go fuck himself for all she cares. TLDR: Role Reversal AU and Belle is Dark Tiger!Alberu.

Cinderella? Cinderella is a secretly a Shaman. Everything is the same up until the whole dress ruining scene. After that, Cinderella invokes the spirit of Queen Jopis, stopped giving a shit, and turned the rest of the plot into a shitshow. Her evil stepfamily is given the OG!Brothers Grimm treatment.

Pocahontas? Everything is the same except the Powhatans are all Elves. Ratcliffe is the White Bitchless.

Hunchback of Notre Dame? The plot is the same, but Esmeralda is a Dark Elf, and Quasimodo is half-Dark Elf. Frollo is replaced by Adin just so he can fall off the roof a second time.

Aladdin? Jasmine is also a thief. She looted what should've been her dowry from the Sultan, her annoying suitors' wealth, Genie's lamp, Carpet from the Cave of Wonders, Aladdin's heart, and Jafar aka the White Hobo Looking's dignity and respect, not in that order, then whisked Aladdin off of his bare feet and away to her own personal kingdom. Basically, Cale reimagined her as Fem!Hong Gildong.

The Little Mermaid? Romeo and Juliet with a happy ending where Prince Eric is a Whale Prince and Ariel is still a Mermaid, and both their families got scammed into finally burying the hatchet by Ursula.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves? Snow White is a Dwarf too, and the plot is basically an otome where she has seven suitors from different tribes, and the Evil Queen (*couch*Elisneh*cough*) is, of course, the jealous villainess.

Brave: Everything's the same except Sayeru gets abused more than Mor'du in this book.

Frozen: Everything's the same except Prince Hans is swapped out for Sir Bernard cuz Hans the goodest butler doesn't deserve to be associated with scum.

Tangled: Everything's the same except it's Adin who takes a swan dive off of the tower.

Mulan: Everything's the same except the Huns are replaced by Arm.

[book--brackets]

The BFG by Roald Dahl (1982)

Captured by a giant! The BFG is no ordinary bone-crunching giant. He is far too nice and jumbly. It's lucky for Sophie that he is. Had she been carried off in the middle of the night by the Bloodbottler, the Fleshlumpeater, the Bonecruncher, or any of the other giants-rather than the BFG-she would have soon become breakfast. 

When Sophie hears that they are flush-bunking off in England to swollomp a few nice little chiddlers, she decides she must stop them once and for all. And the BFG is going to help her!

Graceling Realm by Kristen Cashore (2008-2022)

Graceling tells the story of the vulnerable-yet-strong Katsa, who is smart and beautiful and lives in the Seven Kingdoms where selected people are born with a Grace, a special talent that can be anything at all. Katsa's Grace is killing. As the king's niece, she is forced to use her extreme skills as his brutal enforcer. Until the day she meets Prince Po, who is Graced with combat skills, and Katsa's life begins to change. She never expects to become Po's friend. She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace--or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away . . . a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone.

Oz by L. Frank Baum (1900-1920)

Join Dorothy and her little dog Toto on the yellow brick road, as they set off to explore the magical Land of Oz. Can they find the Wizard, defeat the Wicked Witch of the West, and return to Kansas?

Stardust by Neil Gaiman (1997)

Catch a fallen star . . .

Tristran Thorn promised to bring back a fallen star. So he sets out on a journey to fulfill the request of his beloved, the hauntingly beautiful Victoria Forester--and stumbles into the enchanted realm that lies beyond the wall of his English country town. Rich with adventure and magic, Stardust is one of master storyteller Neil Gaiman's most beloved tales, and the inspiration for the hit movie.

Inkworld by Cornelia Funke (2003-2023)

One cruel night, Meggie's father reads aloud from a book called INKHEART-- and an evil ruler escapes the boundaries of fiction and lands in their living room. Suddenly, Meggie is smack in the middle of the kind of adventure she has only read about in books. Meggie must learn to harness the magic that has conjured this nightmare. For only she can change the course of the story that has changed her life forever. 

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine (1997)

At birth, Ella is inadvertently cursed by an imprudent young fairy named Lucinda, who bestows on her the "gift" of obedience. Anything anyone tells her to do, Ella must obey. Another girl might have been cowed by this affliction, but not feisty Ella: "Instead of making me docile, Lucinda's curse made a rebel of me. Or perhaps I was that way naturally." When her beloved mother dies, leaving her in the care of a mostly absent and avaricious father, and later, a loathsome stepmother and two treacherous stepsisters, Ella's life and well-being seem to be in grave peril. But her intelligence and saucy nature keep her in good stead as she sets out on a quest for freedom and self-discovery as she tries to track down Lucinda to undo the curse, fending off ogres, befriending elves, and falling in love with a prince along the way. Yes, there is a pumpkin coach, a glass slipper, and a happily ever after, but this is the most remarkable, delightful, and profound version of Cinderella you'll ever read.

The Witches by Roald Dahl (1983)

This is not a fairy-tale. This is about real witches. Real witches don't ride around on broomsticks. They don't even wear black cloaks and hats. They are vile, cunning, detestable creatures who disguise themselves as nice, ordinary ladies. So how can you tell when you're face to face with one? Well, if you don't know yet you'd better find out quickly-because there's nothing a witch loathes quite as much as children and she'll wield all kinds of terrifying powers to get rid of them.

The Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan (2010-2012)

Since their mother's death, Carter and Sadie have become near strangers. While Sadie has lived with her grandparents in London, her brother has traveled the world with their father, the brilliant Egyptologist, Dr. Julius Kane.  One night, Dr. Kane brings the siblings together for a "research experiment" at the British Museum, where he hopes to set things right for his family. Instead, he unleashes the Egyptian god Set, who banishes him to oblivion and forces the children to flee for their lives.  Soon, Sadie and Carter discover that the gods of Egypt are waking, and the worst of them--Set?has his sights on the Kanes. To stop him, the siblings embark on a dangerous journey across the globe -- a quest that brings them ever closer to the truth about their family, and their links to a secret order that has existed since the time of the pharaohs.

Discworld by Terry Pratchett (1983-2015)

In the beginning there was… a turtle.

 Somewhere on the frontier between thought and reality exists the Discworld, a parallel time and place which might sound and smell very much like our own, but which looks completely different.

 Particularly as it’s carried through space on the back of a giant turtle.

 It plays by different rules. But then, some things are the same everywhere. The Disc’s very existence is about to be threatened by a strange new blight: the world’s first tourist, upon whose survival rests the peace and prosperity of the land.

 Unfortunately, the person charged with maintaining that survival in the face of robbers, mercenaries and, well, Death, is a spectacularly inept wizard…

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor (2011-2014)

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.

When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

[riddlerosehearts]

okay, i'm going to elaborate on what i said about how you can't convince me that deuce spade isn't directly inspired by jim hawkins, because i can't believe i haven't seen anyone talk about it before:

yes, i know deuce is a card soldier. everyone who's ever played twst knows this. however. many of the characters seem to take inspiration from multiple characters and multiple movies. lilia is one of maleficent's armored minions but also has elements of the three fairies, vil is the evil queen but kind of played the role of hercules in book 6, ortho has parallels to both pinocchio and baymax, the cater cinderella theory is a thing, etc.

one of yana toboso's favorite disney movies is treasure planet, so it is not at all implausible that she took inspiration from it for one of her characters.

they're both raised by single mothers. we know nothing about deuce's father iirc, and all we know of jim's father is that he left one day when jim was little and never came back.

deuce used to be a diligent kid who studied hard but became frustrated with his grades not matching the effort he put in, so he stopped trying and became a delinquent.

jim is a smart kid who used to be curious and sweet, but after his father left he changed. he became a delinquent who was failing in school and frequently got in trouble with the police.

jim goes for joyrides on aircrafts called solar surfers and is skilled at building and maintaining them.

deuce goes for joyrides on blastcycles/magical wheels and is also skilled with machinery.

deuce talks about how one day he overheard his mom on the phone with his grandmother, in tears and saying that she must've been a horrible mother because of how deuce turned out. then when he got his letter from NRC he decided he wanted to change so he wouldn't hurt his mom anymore.

in treasure planet, there's a scene where jim overhears his mother talking to dr. doppler about how she's at the end of her rope with jim's behavior and doesn't know what to do anymore because she feels like she's tried everything. then he decides he wants to make things up to her by finding treasure planet.

by the time we meet deuce, he's already cleaned his act up and decided to try and become an honor student so his mother can be proud of him. the end of treasure planet implies that jim has enrolled in the interstellar academy that captain amelia wanted to recommend him to, and in fact the canceled sequel was going to focus on jim's time there.

[shoobiie]

Cinderella's Castle Has ONE MAJOR FLAW

Very very spoiler-filled stream of consciousness below the cut:

Obviously, I sing my praises for 99% percent of the elements of this show. The cast, the costumes, the music, and so on. Starkid really knows how to make a banger musical. 

However, there was one glaring flaw that I just can’t overlook. The main character does not do ANYTHING. Okay, so that’s a hyperbole, but it’s closer to the truth than I would like. Throughout the narrative of Cinderella’s Castle, Ella is a passive onlooker in her own story, only moved by the whims of other characters. She lacks agency and a definable personality. 

Let’s review: Ella spends most of the first act at the beck and call of the Stepmother and Stepsisters while pleading repeatedly with other townsfolk and nobles to take her away from this life. She doesn’t dare to run away on her own; instead, she relies on the kindness of others to get her out of her situation. She asks an old friend to save her, and he refuses; she asks the prince to save her, but he doesn’t, and when someone finally does give her an opportunity to escape, they are killed. What does Ella do after that? After losing two of her only friends and her best shot at freedom? Nothing. She just goes back to obeying the Stepmother. The only time I can recall that Ella makes a decision for herself is when she spares Sir Hop-A-Lot. It is decisive inaction, which isn’t much, but I’ll count it. 

She accidentally summons the Fairy Queen, and when asked what she wants most, she says, “Revenge”. I was starting to get hopeful at this point that maybe this is where we’d see a turn in the narrative where Ella begins to stand up for herself and stop relying on others. However, when she attends the ball, it’s clear that she doesn’t have an actual plan and is just kind of going along with it as the prince tries to woo her. When asked if she wants to be queen, she says she doesn’t know. Then, she has a whole song about realizing that she will accept leadership if it means defeating the stepmother. I’m not sure why she couldn’t just want to be Queen. I’ve found that often women characters are punished for being ambitious and for desiring power. But if she has no intention of abusing her power and instead wants to use it to protect the people from harm and bring evil to justice, why can’t that be something she aspires to? Does a reluctance to be powerful mean that someone is a better leader? I think it’s worth pondering. 

Of course, her plans to marry the prince are foiled by the stepmother, and Ella is attacked! What does she do? She stands there and watches! No attempt to fight back or diffuse the situation. When she loses the slipper and her magical protection, she returns home. I’ll ignore how stupid that decision is because I do think it is necessary for the plot, but it does exemplify exactly how passive Ella is. (Passive here is being used as a literary term, not just a character trait.) Moving right along, The Stepmother discovers Ella’s deceit and cuts off her feet. What does Ella do? Fight back? Nope. Try to persuade or trick the stepmother? No. Maybe try to appeal to her stepsisters to help her? No. She just wails, bleeds out, and dies.

I didn’t even realize she’d died when I watched it; I just thought she’d passed out. It was such a pathetic ending for the character. She didn’t DO anything. Of course, she comes back later, thanks to the Fairy Queen’s magic. She doesn’t save herself or take any actions that lead to her ultimate revival; it all happens because of luck and other characters. She does kill the Stepmother. Returning to life wearing armor and practical boots instead of slippers, she looks like a warrior. So again, I was disappointed as her coup de grace was literally just standing there as the Fairy Queen’s magic ultimately kills the Stepmother. The problem here is that in her own story, Ella is completely replaceable. There is nothing about Ella on which the story hinges. Any other woman could have done what Ella did and be the Fairy Queen's vessel of starlight. 

This stands in stark contrast to a character like Grace Chastity, who, while flawed and misguided, was an incredibly active force in her own narrative. Grace repeatedly makes strong decisions that move the story forward, like trying to kill Max, trying to cover up his death, going on the run from the police, and making the ultimate sacrifice. It’s easy to list Grace’s character traits: pious, stubborn, self-assured, annoying, etc. The list goes on and on. She’s terrible, and I love her so much. If I were to try to list Ella’s character traits, I’d say she’s hopeful, just, kind, and naive. This interpretation doesn’t add anything new or exciting to Ella. As someone who has seen at least five different versions of Cinderella, I was expecting this version of her character to be more interesting than Selena Gomez or Hilary Duff, but I can't say that she was.

In Cinderella (2015), Ella is a very passive character, but it works with the themes and motivations of the character. Her motto is ‘have courage and be kind,’ highlighting the fact that it takes strength not to stoop to the level of your tormentors. She doesn’t want revenge; she simply wants to live a life surrounded by the same kindness that she shares with others. And that’s valid! Not every woman needs to be a warrior. Sometimes, unrelenting gentleness can be a heroic enough trait to make a character memorable. 

But in Cinderella’s Castle, she is a muddled mix of motivations. She wants revenge, but she doesn’t take action to get it. She dresses like a warrior and talks like a warrior but never fights. She was raised to be a noble and ends up as a queen, yet we never see her use diplomacy to get what she wants. And she doesn’t use cunning or creativity either. 

I will credit Jeff Blim for using the songs to add some life to Ella’s character. “Step on Your Grave” shows us just how passionate Ella is about getting revenge. “Last For Ever” talks about painting and dreaming of a better life. I don’t know if the painting aspect of the song should be taken literally since there are no other mentions of Ella being interested in art as far as I know. But it does give us an indication that Ella is someone who spends her time thinking about the future and what she thinks it should look like. 

Of course, all of this needs to be taken with a grain of salt. I only saw this show once, nearly a month ago. The rush of seeing it live meant that I probably forgot some key moments, and I could not hear most of the lyrics for the songs since the band was rather loud. However, I have been listening to the demos to get a better idea. I am hoping that on the rewatch, I’ll find more moments of agency from Ella or lines that give me a better indication of her character.

I’m really sad that Bryce wasn’t given a character as memorable and badass as she deserves. That being said, Bryce’s performance did breathe so much life and likeability into Ella. I just hope that in the future, especially if Starkid does more fairytale retellings, they don’t shy away from making strong decisions that change the main character from the original fairytale. If the stepmother can be a literal troll, then Cinderella can be a clever, manipulative, revenge-driven diplomat born and raised to assume power with grace and poise.

[shizukateal]

Grimm Variations - Episode One Review: Cinderella

Ok, starting with the heavy hitter aren't we Grimm Variations? Really have that much confidence in yourself in spite of your kinda ugly art direction? Ok. Alright. I see how it is.

GATHER 👏 ROUND 👏 CHILDREN 👏 LET'S 👏 TALK 👏 ABOUT 👏 GOOD 👏 VS 👏 BAD 👏 SUBVERSION 👏 SLASH 👏 DARK 👏 TAKES.

This is actually a pretty fascinating example, since it has both cases simultaneously.

(sorry for the shitty gif, I don't know how to reduce size without sacrificing quality)

Let's start from the beginning: This version of Cinderella takes place somewhen at the intersection of the Meiji and Showa Periods in Japan, which is to say in the Roaring 20's. Instead of our usual protagonist, the story centers on Makiko and Sawako, our prospective Evil Stepsisters, as their mother Tsuruko, a former geisha, marries Viscount Otawara, who has a single daughter: Kyoko. Kyoko enthusiastically welcomes her new family with open arms, even gifting precious things to her new sisters, who clearly love the luxuries of the social ladder that they've climbed. However things take a turn for the dark as Kyoko starts manipulating everyone around the house with wounded gazelle gambits to convince them that her sisters are mistreating her and usurping her place. The story thus becomes about Makiko and Sawako going to the ball (hosted by a count's son) to try and escape their Evil Little Stepsister.

There's also some background stuff at the start of the episode about the brothers grimm and that little girl Charlotte up there, who appears as a living doll of Kyoko's, but since none of that is explained here we're just gonna focus on what this dark take says thematically about the tale of Cinderella.

Right from the beginning the overturn starts when the first scene makes it clear that Cinderella's dad holds all the power in the relationship with the Evil Stepmother, whereas the Grimm and Perrault versions make her the one wearing the pants. It's never explicitly stated in either of them, but it's natural to infer that the Stepmother is of a higher peerage than Cinderella's Dad to explain how she would hold power over him and his daughter when trying to rationalize the story, and it's a common plot point in adaptations. However, this alone a subversion does not make. After all, if you read trashy romance in aristocratic settings (like I do), you know that it is extremely common for social climbers to be presented as sniveling usurpers, who get arrogant and greedy and turn into bullies the moment they have a modicum of luxury and rank in spite of their Inferior Manners (unless they are the protagonist of course). Lots of Cinderella stories follow that formula.

And that's exactly what Kyoko uses against her stepsisters.

Makiko and Sawako are stupid. If their unrefined manners are forgivable and a simple matter of environment and time, the way they openly slobber over and covet the riches of their new house makes them no favors. When they think one of the servants stole jewelry from them (and it was a piece that Kyoko had given them at that) they immediately get angry and physically aggressive towards a person whom they were equal in rank perhaps mere days ago. It takes them too long to stop and realize that hey, no servant would openly flaunt a piece they'd stolen from their master, so maybe something else is afoot, but by then it's too late. The other servants of the house can no longer trust them, so of course they continually take the side of the poor, defenseless little mistress Kyoko.

The tale so turns into an interesting mix of one-part hitchcokean aristocratic horror-thriller, impulsed in part by the flaws of the protagonists, and I'd say around a quarter-part view into the hypocrisies of class. Makiko and Sawako's refusal to engage with the servants with respect and compassion, trying to act the rank they've ascended to, cuts them from a support network, even as they are handed wealth and luxury. However it is undeniable that because of their lowly origins and etiquette people view them with scorn, distrust, and antipathy, a fact that is driven home when they are the ones who get mean whispers and comments upon entering the ball. They don't stop from being victims in the narrative just because they aren't likeable. By contrast, Kyoko may wear old plain clothes and do house work, but because she's nice to the staff and is seen as the legitimate blood heir, everyone looks at her with compassion and chucks her unnaturally cheery disposition towards her circumstances to good breeding, to the point that she gets away with poisoning her stepmother for years until she dies.

Likewise, at the scene of the ball the sisters fail spectacularly at captivating their prospective Prince with their uncouth behavior, so all our Cinderella has to do is be pretty and make a scene in front of everyone for things to take its predestined course. Tsuruko dies that night thanks to her stepdaughter forcibly feeding her one last cup of bleach before she leaves. And even though everybody witnesses the sisters grieving over their mother's corpse, nobody has sympathy for them the next day, when Makiko becomes the head of the family at Kyoko's (clearly secret) behest. The moment the Prince appears and declares his intention to marry Kyoko, Makiko and Sawako are expediently given the boot to the ass and thrown out of the house. Thus both of them are forever expelled from aristocratic society... and forever free from Kyoko.

Cinderella has followed her usual course of ascending to a higher to a social strata while reclaiming her lost position thanks to the intervention of a powerful man... But it's the Evil Stepsisters who have escaped an abusive situation by leaving the comforts of status behind, which goes very specifically against the message the original story gives. What's more this is due to their own character development: they knew that Kyoko would sabotage them if they tried to escape her via marriage, so they baited her into pulling a stunt and deliberately sabotaged their own chances with the Prince so that he would take her away from them.

THAT, my guys, is actual subversion. THAT is commentary. It's impeccably brilliant...! Or at least it would be were it not for the biggest flaw in the story: Cinderella herself.

Near the end of the first act the sisters try to warn their mother about Kyoko's nefarious acts. Of course, she doesn't believe them. After all, she asks outloud, what does Kyoko get out of acting like that? It seems that the scriptwriter didn't realize that asking that question explicitly in dialogue would put it at the forefront of the audience's thoughts before the whole thing went into print.

I mean the script makes Kyoko talk about her family being her precious "dolls" or whatever but that explains absolutely jackshit when her attitude is so inconsistent. Keep in mind, this Cinderella kills her own dad when he unwittingly threatens to disturb her status quo and starts the second act by saying out loud that she fears the situation she's created might end, but after the sisters do succeed in suckering her she just goes "oh well :) thems the breaks" and it's implied she'll move on to torturing the Prince for shits and giggles and that's it.

Alas, however, I must be fair and truthful in my final assessments. I came into this series expecting vapid edginess and mediocrity and while it hasn't exactly disappointed on that front, it has just enough thematic juice to move into the tier I was most afraid of: trash but still good enough to be frustrating. Join me next week for more suffering if it keeps up this way.

[kanzakurawrites]

Do you have any headcanons about the other parents of the VKs?

YES

Evil Queen used Evie as a servant for most of her life, only stopping when she realized how dirty Evie was getting

Cruella tried to train Carlos with a dog whistle and a spray bottle - but with the water on the Isle being so dirty and likely toxic it caused Carlos to get sick. While Cruella didn't care about that, she didn't want to get sick, so she stopped with the spray bottle, and then with the whistle after finally realizing that he couldn't hear it. (The Isle made her a lot more unstable)

Jafar has tried to arrange marriages for Jay with those on the Isle who might be able to have wealth in Auradon, such as the Evil Step-Granddaughters and the Queen of Hearts daughter, but it never worked out. He's tried multiple times to pair Jay off with Mal.

Gaston takes his boys out "hunting"... make of that what you will.

Gaston also managed to bribe one of the Auradon guards to bring over some chickens and a rooster so each of his boys, and himself, can have five dozen eggs a day.

Hans is actually a pretty decent father. If you ignore the fact that he's taught his kid(s) all his manipulation tactics. That aside, he's also taught them how to read, write, mathmatics, history, etiquet, etc.

Smee loves his kids, but he isn't exactly always there for them. Because of this, Sammy took care of his brothers growing up more than his father did.

Anastasia is a good mom. Along with taking care of her own kids, she takes care of a lot of the orphans on the island. And Dizzy has practically become hers.

On a similar note, Drizella is not a good mother and has A LOT of children, all girls. Some of her girls are as high-strung and rotten as she is, but the younger ones (like Dizzy) have become little "Cinderella's".

Surprisingly, Lady Tremaine tried to stop it, but never succeeded.

Ursula taught Uma all the Greek myths and legends, and would repeatedly tell her that one day they'd get off the island.

While he's an amazing father to Celia, Dr. Facilier wasn't the greatest dad to Freddie and does regret it (even if he won't admit it)

Like Hans, Captain Hook made sure his kids knew how to read and write. He also taught Harriet and Harry how to read maps, create maps, as many constellations as he could remember (many drawn out on paper), swordfighting, and pretty much everything that goes along with being a pirate. (He would have taught CJ, but after his wife's death he pulled away from her - CJ looks the most like the siblings mother)

Mother Gothel treats Ginny like a maid, but isn't the worst parent. The worst she's done is drag on Ginny's appearance to make herself look better (which is bad, but on an island of villains, better than a lot of kids get). Somewhere in her, she might love Ginny, but at the end of the day Mother Gothel is an incredibly selfish woman.

(A similar headcanon that can also be true is that Mother Gothel is actually Ginny's grandmother, and Ginny is Cassandra's daughter only Cassandra willingly let her mother raise Ginny in order to protect her as Cass isn't the most popular on the Isle)

The Huntsman has taught his kids everything he knows and they do animal control - they can't really harm the original hyenas who were thrown on the Isle, but they can take care of the never ones.

Morgana kept having children in hopes that eventually one would transform while under the barrier, but it never happened. Over the course of twenty years, she managed to have 15 children and had to open up her own school.

Edgar lives quietly in his very run down apartment in the square where he and his son run an animal grooming business. With how many "evil animal sidekicks" there are, it goes surprisingly well. He has to leave the room whenever a cat comes in, though, so Eddie does a lot of the word.

Yzma tends to conduct very dangerous experiments in her attempt to do magic.

The Stabbington Brothers have raised their children together, so the Stabbington Cousins are really more like siblings. With that said, the brothers have been determined to raise children who will become better thieves than Flynn Rider, and better fighters than themselves. The fighting has gone good, but the they're never satisfied with the Cousins thievery thanks to Jay always managing to beat them.

[phoenixs-fandoms-and-writings]

A Ball That Will Change Lives - Chapter 2

Fandom: Harry Potter (Marauders)

Pairings: Royal!James/Bodyguard!Lily/Regular!GN!reader

Characters in this chapter: James Potter, Lily Evans, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Pandora Lovegood, Regulus Black, Evan Rosier

Plot: You're being 'raised' by your evil stepmother and stepsisters. Upon receiving the invitation to the royal ball, you and your stepmother and stepsisters all get ready for it. You go through the clothes left by your parents, but will they actually let you go? And if they do, who will you meet?

Notes: Inspired by the fairytale ‘Cinderella’ but is a polyamorous version.

I am anti-JKR and her beliefs, so is this account.

Masterlist - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 - Epilogue

I do not give permission to anyone to repost or translate any of my stories. I also do not give anyone permission to feed my stories through AI or to be posted to any third party website or app. If anyone sees any of my work posted anywhere but here or my AO3 (simplyreflected), then it has been posted without permission.

Read on AO3 here.

The gif does not mean the reader has a gender. It’s a point to the magic in the chapter.

The day of the ball arrived, James and Lily were helping each other get prepared, every now and again, James would kiss Lily before telling her, “you look so beautiful, my love.”

“Thank you, my Prince,” she smiled, when she finished getting ready, she turned to him. “Do you know if Padfoot and Moony will be at the ball too?”

“Of course, they will be,” he told her. “According to them, Padfoot wanted to go so they could flirt with everyone they could and make Moony jealous.” He smiled to himself. “Moony in his words, will be with us, in case the people start swarming me.” The smile fell. “I would hope they wouldn’t do that, but we’ve never had people in the castle for anything like this, so we’ll find out soon, I guess.”

“If it does, Remus, Sirius and I will be there to stop it, alright?” Lily looked at her love. “We are there to protect you if you need it. Now, take a deep breath in,” Lily guided him with this, and he followed. “Now slowly release it.” She released a breath and he did as well. She looked down at what he was wearing, “you look dashing. I’m so proud of you and will continue to be, even if you don’t find anyone else.”

He smiled at her, “you always look beautiful, my angel. Tonight, you look stunning.”

There was a knock on the door and when Lily opened it, she revealed his blood brother, Sirius and their friend Remus.

“We weren’t going to let you go down alone,” Sirius told them. “Are you ready?”

Lily said, “yes,” at the same time James said “not quite.”

Lily was confused, “what do you mean? You look perfect.”

“I wasn’t talking about me, my love. I meant you, you may look stunning, but you forgot your shoes.” He smiled before he went over to the closet, pulling out a shoe box. “Sit on the bed. I’ll put them on you.”

She did as she was told as Sirius and Remus watched James take the shoes out as he knelt in front of her. He lifted one of her legs and placed it on his knee as he put her shoe on, kissing her knee, before she placed it back on the floor and he did the same with her other leg.

Once her feet were on the ground, he knelt before her, holding out his hand, “Will you please accompany me to the ball?”

She took it as he stood up, both of them turning to Sirius and Remus, taking a deep breath, before saying to the room as a whole, “let’s go.”

——————

You were so excited the whole day, you would get to go to the ball and maybe you would find a way to change your life. When time came, your stepmother told you that her and her daughters would be getting ready for the ball and to stay in your room.

You disappeared from their sight, not realising how she’d told you to stay in your room. So when you put the finishing touches on your outfit and you finished your hair and makeup, you made your way down the stairs.

“Wow,” you heard from one of your stepsisters. “That’s it. I can’t go. He won’t choose me.”

You smiled and asked politely, “do you like it? I don’t want to go for him, but I would like to make you proud. All of you. Maybe talk one of you up if I talk to him.”

However your stepmother got angry and slapped you, making tears form in your eyes as you fell back slightly as she screamed, “NO, YOU WON’T BE GOING!” With that, she ripped your sleeves, and your step sisters joined, ripping other parts of your outfit. Your stepmother then grabbed your collar and threw you in your room, locking the door. You went over to the window after you were able to get up, watching as they went off in their carriage.

It would take too long to fix your outfit in a way that would look as good as it had. And you certainly wouldn’t get it done in time to be able to get anyone to help you get to the palace.

You tried to pick the lock, even with it being on the other side, but it was no use. However, you heard the lock unclick and the door opening. You looked up, terrified, until you saw a beautiful blonde woman standing before you and she seemed to be glowing, now you were just confused. As she moved, you saw what looked like wings.

“Hello,” you almost whispered, your voice cracking after all the crying.

“Hello,” she sounded confident. “My name is Pandora. I’m your fairy godmother, though I’ve been watching over you for a while. I’m trying to be more of a guardian angel for you. Do you know anything about fairy godmothers or guardian angels?”

“A little, not very much as I’m not allowed to read very much,” you told her. “My stepmother thinks I’ll get ideas and rebel against her.”

“You already want to though, don’t you?”

You nodded.

“How would you like to go to the ball? I know your life will change if you do go.”

“How? My outfit is ruined and I have no way of getting there,” you almost started crying again.

She was thoughtful, “but you do want to go?”

“Of course,” you were frustrated, until you looked at her, calming down almost instantly and asked, “can you help me?”

“Yes,” she held out your hand and just before you disappeared from the room, you heard the door close and lock again.

When you reappeared, you were in the front yard, which was closed off from those outside by a huge fence, so no one could see in. Pandora let go of your hand and took a few steps back.

“Sweetheart,” Pandora said and you thought that her voice was so beautiful. It sounded so melodic. You could listen to it forever. “I’m going to use magic and create you a whole new outfit, but I need you to do something for me.”

Your voice was quiet as you asked, “what is it?”

“I need you to think of the most beautiful outfit you can think of,” she paused, letting you come up with it. “Have you got it?”

You nodded, hoping what you had would look as wonderful as you thought. You watched as she waved her hand and a gust of wind came up and wound around you. When it fell, you were wearing exactly what you wanted. The fabric was beautiful and soft to the touch. You had tears in your eyes, as you felt the material.

Pandora asked you, “would you like to see yourself?”

“Yes, please,” you whispered.

With that, she waved her hand again and a full length mirror turned up, you looked at yourself. You looked incredible. You felt incredible, but there was something missing. Shoes, you weren’t wearing any.

You looked up at Pandora who smiled, waved her hand and you didn’t feel the ground under your feet anymore. When you looked down, you saw really beautiful shoes that matched your outfit.

She waved her hand and a few matching pieces of jewellery appeared. One that you loved was a ring that appeared on your right hand. It was stunning. You hoped you could keep it when the night was over.

“You have until the strike of midnight,” Pandora told you. “When the clock strikes twelve, the magic will wear off. Right now, no one except the royals and people of nobility will recognise you. To everyone else, you will look like a noble person yourself.”

You smiled as she picked an apple off a tree nearby. She placed it on the ground before she took a step back. Again, she waved her hand and before you was a beautiful carriage. With another wave of her hand, two men appeared.

“These are two of my friends,” she said as she smiled. She introduced them to you, motioning to the dark haired one, “this is Regulus. He will be your footman.” He bowed to you, before Pandora motioned to the blond man. “This is Evan. He will be your driver.” He bowed to you and you smiled and waved at both of them, before turning back to Pandora. “Remember, the magic wears off at midnight. Now, go and have fun. Keep your mind open to all possibilities.”

[sparklewrites1]

To Kiss a Prince

Xenk Yendar x Reader

About: a Cinderella inspired xenk yendar fic

Warnings: barely any romance. Very evil step family members. Kissing.

A/n: I HATE THIS SO much that I cut it off early. But I'll write another xenk fic soon.

A/n: toe mules aren't as ugly as they sound.

Word count: 4.3k

-

“You will not ruin this night for your sister!” Your step-mother shouted. She gripped your forearm tighter as she approached the cellar door. She took a key from a pouch that was attached to her waist. She inserted the key into the lock and turned it. Within the span of five seconds, the door was opened and you were thrown inside. Before your body could even hit the ground, the door was slammed shut behind you. “This is a very special night for Camille, and I will do everything in my power to keep you away from the ball!”

“Just one hour, Priscilla. Give me one hour to spend at the ball! I won’t even talk to anyone!” you begged through the barred window of the door.

“My answer is final! You will not go to the ball!” She yelled. 

“You won’t even have to pay for my clothes! I’ll wear my mother’s old gown!”

“Actually,” A wicked grin grew on her face. “Camille will be wearing it.”

Your heart dropped. Camille, your arrogant and foolish stepsister, wearing the only possession from your mother that you had left. Just then a plummy voice piped up from atop the stairs.

“Mother.” It was Camille. A smirk was on her lips as she neared the bottom of the steps. Your mothers golden dress was on her body.

“She looks gorgeous, doesn’t she?” Priscilla turned to you, with a smug expression on her face.

“Take it off.” Your voice shook as you commanded furiously.

“Ok.” You were taken aback by Camille’s response, confused as to why she agreed so fast. But before you could think any further, Camille brought her hand to the shoulder of the dress, she tightly gripped the fabric, and tore it.

“No!” You cried.

 “Whoops.” She taunted. Before lowering both of her hands to the skirt of the dress and completely detaching the fabric from the top half of the dress, leaving her in only her hooped petticoat.

“Stop it!” You screamed

Camille didn’t listen, she only continued tearing at the dress until she was finally satisfied with her work and took off the entire thing completely and threw it on the floor, she was only wearing her petticoat and corset now. She giggled as she trod back up the stairs, and left the room. 

Your sobs echoed through the empty wine cellar as you sunk down on the floor.

“This is what happens to insolent girls who don’t listen.” You heard Priscilla’s footsteps fade away until the room was completely silent, aside from the sounds of your sniffles and cries.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. All you wanted to do was go to the winter ball. Everyone in the region who came from noble blood was invited. Despite how your stepmother and stepsister introduced you to others. You were still the daughter of a duke. You were the lady of your house, but unfortunately, when you were a child, your stepmother and stepsisters came along and took titles of duchess and lady before your father died.

That was why you were in this situation. A week ago you had tried to ask your Priscilla if you could accompany her and your stepsisters to the ball and she immediately refused and claimed she would rather be wearing servant's clothing than be seen at the ball with you.

You had tried reasoning with her. You reminded her that you were also a lady of the house. But she simply ignored you. When you tried asking again during dinner, the words she told you were,

 “I’ve grown tired of your nagging, {Name}. If you ask me again, I will take away your supper privileges for the rest of this week.”

After that conversation you waited until the night prior to this evening. And when you asked Priscilla at supper, she took the handkerchief that was placed next to her plate, and used it to lightly dab at the corners of her mouth. After that she got up from her seat and sauntered over to you, she grabbed your plate that had barely been eaten off of, and left the room without a word. You could only assume she had taken it to the kitchens to be thrown away.

Then there was this evening, when she had finally lost it on you and threw you in the wine cellar.

And now here you were on the floor of the dark and frigid room, mourning the loss of your mothers dress.

You tucked yourself into a corner with your back against the wall. You brought your knees to your chest, trying to generate some heat to keep yourself warm in this unpleasant area.

You used your knees as a cushion for your head, despite how uncomfortable it was. You closed your eyes in an attempt to fall asleep, you just wanted this nightmare to end as fast as possible.

As you tried to drift into an unconscious state, a knocking sound echoed throughout the room.

You lifted your head and looked towards the door to find a familiar face.

“Genevieve!” It was your other stepsister, Genevieve. She was so much kinder than her sister and mother, she always shared her food with you in secret when Priscilla took your dinner privileges away.

You jumped up from the floor and scurried toward the door.

“What are you doing here? You should be with Camille and Priscilla.”

“Did you actually think I would leave you in a wine cellar?” She smiled at you. “Look what I have.” She said in a sing-song voice while dangling the key to the wine cellar in front of the barred window.

Before you knew it the door to the wine cellar was open and Genevieve's arms were wrapped around you.

“I know you still want to go to the ball, and I know what Priscilla and Camille did to your mother’s dress.” She frowned. “That’s why I got some help from an old friend of mine.” She grinned.

“What do you mean?” You queried. Just then an oily voice with a french accent spoke.

“She means she came to me for help.”

You looked towards the stairs to find a man who looked like he was in his twenties, leaning against the wall. He was wearing a jumpsuit covered in sparkles and frills. And his brunette neck length hair was in a neat bun. 

“Who are you?” You questioned him suspiciously.

“I am one of many names and places!” He shouted. You and Genevieve flinched at the sudden outburst. “But you, sweet Madame, can call me Axel.”

“How are you going to help me? My mothers dress is completely destroyed,” Tears brimmed in your eyes. “And I doubt you could fix it before the ball has ended.”

“Repeat that last part for me.” He coaxed.

“My mothers dress is completely destroyed?”

“No, no the other part.”

“I doubt-”

“You doubt me?!” He bellowed. “You are a fool to doubt and underestimate my skills!” He shouted. “I will show you what a mastermind of fashion can do!” He reached into the pocket of his jumpsuit and pulled out a large glass orb that looked like it was filled with mint green fog. He raised his arm and swung it towards the floor, releasing the orb from his grasp in the process.

The glass orb landed on the dress and exploded into a million pieces. The green mist that was inside spread over the entire area and left you and Genevieve coughing and gasping for air. Once the mist cleared, in the place of your mothers dress was an extravagant golden ball gown, the neckline and bodice were white and decorated with golden accents, below the bodice was a long, golden, bouffant style skirt.

“How did you do that?” You stared at Axel with an incredulous expression on your face.

“It does not matter! Hurry up and put it on!” Genevieve exclaimed, while gently pushing you towards the dress.

“This skirt though, it is too long for me to wear, I’ll be tripping over the fabric all night.”

“You can use my extra petticoat, now go!” She gave you one final push as you grabbed the dress off of the floor and ran up the stairs, passing Axel, who gently grabbed her arm before she could go any further.

“You’re not wearing those shoes, are you?” He inquired, referencing the dirty flats on your feet.

“They are all I have.”

“Oh.”  he murmured. His eyes shifted down to the shoes. “I guess I could work with these.”  He turned his eyes back up at you. “Take them off.”

“Pardon?”

“The shoes. Take them off and give them to me.” You bent down and pulled both shoes off of your feet. You then handed them to Axel, “Thank you.”

“What am I supposed to wear at the ball if you have my shoes?”

“Just go and get dressed!” Genevieve and Axel both shouted.

-

Genevieve and Axel were now in the living area, waiting impatiently for you to come out from your bedroom. Genevieve was bouncing her knee nervously while Axel scoffed for the umpteenth time.

Just then the sound of a door creaking and soft footsteps were heard. 

There you were standing in the doorway of the living area in all your beautiful glory.

“You look gorgeous.” Genevieve beamed.

“You think so?”

“I know so.” 

“You were always my favorite sister, Viv.” You hugged her.

Axel cleared his throat. You and Genevieve parted from your hug and turned to him. He outstretched his arms, and in his hands were a pair of white toe mules embroidered with gold.

“For the pretty lady. I fixed your shoes.” he stated.

With a grin you took the shoes from him and swiftly put them on.

“Thank you, Axel. For everything.” You looked at Genevieve. “And thank you, Genevieve.”

“You’re welcome.” Axel smiled. “Now both of you go! You have a ball to attend!” He pushed you both toward the front door. “I already have a carriage outside waiting for you, so don't worry about that.” You and Genevieve stepped outside and saw an all white carriage waiting for you at the end of the path. “Have fun girls!” He waved you goodbye as you walked down the stone path.

You arrived at the carriage and the door was opened for you by a footman. You and Genivieve sat down in seats across from each other. And less than a minute later you were moving. You watched through the window as your manor became smaller and smaller, until it was finally out of sight.

“I still cannot believe that I am actually going to a ball.”

“Have you never been to one before?”

You silently shook your head. A moment of silence passed.

“Well, I will help you navigate your very first ball!” Genevieve piped up. She leaned towards you and grabbed your hand. “I will make sure you have the best night of your life.” She smiled, and you returned the gesture.

But your joy shifted into fear as a terrifying thought entered your mind.

“Camille and Priscilla, how will we avoid them?” You frowned. Genevieve sat back in her seat and pondered for a few seconds.

“I will stay with them, and I will keep them from spotting you.” She decided. “That way, you will be able to thoroughly enjoy your night.”

“Oh, Genevieve. You are the greatest sister I could ask for.” You leaned forward and captured her in an embrace.

-

After a fairly short ride, the carriage came to a slow stop. You took that as a sign that you had arrived at the royal castle. 

The footman opened the door for the both of you once more. Genevieve stepped out first and you followed close behind.

“How long do you think we can stay?” You turned your gaze to her.

“Mother usually is in bed by midnight, so I’d say we could stay until 30 minutes before midnight.” You nodded in agreement.

As you neared the gates, you noticed that the area was completely empty, save for a few guards who were scattered around the castle.

Once you were inside, it only took you about five minutes to find the ballroom, which was already full of guests from around the region.

Genevieve went inside first. She whispered something in the ear of the master of ceremonies.

“Lady Genevieve of the House of Blanchard!” The man announced.

Your heart was pounding in your chest as you passed through the large doorway. You turned toward the master of ceremonies and whispered a fake name in his ear.

“Lady Josephine of the House of Allard!” He announced.

You let out a shaky breath as the large crowd came into view. Heads turn in your direction, and you hear a few murmurs coming from the people. 

Your anxiety lessened as you spotted Genevieve successfully distracting your stepmother and stepsister.

You sauntered down the stairs. When you made it to the bottom, the crowd seemed even larger.

You let a shaky breath out as you observed the room. There were so many people, most of them you didn’t recognize, although a small amount of them you had seen around town when you were younger.

You took a stroll around the room, greeting people and making small talk as you passed them. After about thirty minutes you started to feel overwhelmed by all the conversation, so you went into a corner of the colossal room that was less crowded.

You stayed there for the next few moments, watching as couples danced to the elegant music that was played by a large band that was located in the corner across from you. You watched as people gossiped and laughed with each other. Your heart couldn’t help but ache at the sound of it. Oh, how you wished for a life full of joy and laughter. How you wished to have friends you could visit everyday. How you wished to have a home of your own that you could host get-togethers in. How you wished for someone who you could open your heart to, someone you could lay next to every night and converse with into the early hours of the day. How you wish you had someone to hold you in your darkest hours. Oh, how you wished for something that at least resembled true happiness .

But a life like that was out of your reach. You would never find love, You would never have close friends. And you would never have a home of your own. You accepted that fact long ago.

You couldn’t help but lower at the sight of everyone's joy.

“Are you alright?” A smooth voice spoke from beside you.

You turned towards the source and found a tall, handsome man, his face showing a hint of worry.

“I am fine.” You lied. “I am just… Anxious.”

“Is that why you are crying?” He inquired. 

You placed a hand below your eye and sure enough, there was a droplet of water on the tip of your finger.

“Oh.” You searched your general area for a handkerchief and found none. That was until the man next to you held one out for you.

“Here. It seems like you need it more than I do.”

You gently grabbed the handkerchief from his hands, and dabbed the area underneath your eyes.

After you were finished, you went to hand the handkerchief to him but he politely refused.

“I have others, that one can remain in your ownership.”

You mumbled a thanks and continued to grasp the handkerchief.

“What is your name?”

“I am Josephine of the House of Allard.” You lied.

“I don’t recall a ‘House of Allard’. Are you from this region?”

“Yes, I live in this region. My family is not exactly popular.” You lied once more.

“Is that so?”

You nodded. You silently gulped as his eyes scanned you for a second, then he opened his mouth.

“Would you like to dance?”

You momentarily froze. Dance? Did you know how to dance? You never recalled taking any lessons, so it was safe to assume you didn’t. You looked toward the crowd, the dance everyone was doing didn’t seem to be too complicated, but you doubt you could memorize it. You turned back toward the man.

“I don’t know how to dance.” You nervously explained.

“I will teach you.” He held out his hand for you to take.

You hesitantly place your palm in his and he led you to the middle of the ballroom. A new melody started to play. You nervously stood in front of the man, one hand was on your hip, the other was still grasping your hand. You placed your other hand on his shoulder, and the dance began.

You tried your best to follow his moves, and although you did graze the tips of his shoes once or twice, you did surprisingly well.

As time went on, it felt like you two were the only people in the room. You slowly, but surely memorized the steps to the dance that you are now aware is called, ‘The Varsovienne Waltz’.  You and the man moved gracefully across the ballroom floor. You observed the way his golden brown skin glowed under the bright lights that were scattered around the room, his short locs were swept to the side of his head, and his gorgeous brown eyes stared deep into yours.

As the music slowed and you continued swaying with the man. You started to notice the stares that were placed on the both of you. You let your gaze lower to the ground as your face grew hot. Were you two being watched the entire time? If so, why?

But unbeknownst to you, among the sea of people, there were two sets of eyes that placed their glares upon you.

“Is that who I think it is, Genevieve?” Priscilla questioned.

Inside Genevieve was panicking. She was supposed to keep Priscilla and Camille occupied, and she was successfully doing so! That was until events took a turn for the worse, when you and the prince himself were seen waltzing in the middle of the ballroom. Genevieve tried her best to keep her sister and mother from looking, but the large crowd gathering around you two drew their attention. And now here she was, trying to come up with an explanation as to why you were dancing with the royal prince.

“That is not her. I swear. I left her in the cellar.”

“She's lying, mother.” Camille’s jade green glare was placed on Genevieve.

“Don’t you think I know that.” Priscilla snapped. She looked towards Genevieve once more. “Genevieve,” She started. “This is a very special night for your sister. It is supposed to be your sister who is dancing with the prince. Not the unwanted orphan who we give shelter to.” She placed both hands on Genevieve's shoulders. “Now I want you to go over there, Grab {Name}, and bring her to me, so that I can have a ‘talk’ with her.” She commanded.

“I won’t.” Genevieve responded.

Priscilla took in an irritated inhale. “And why won’t you?”

“Because they are gone.” Genevieve tried to contain the small smirk that was growing on her lips.

Priscilla turned her eyes back to the center of the room, and sure enough, you and the prince were nowhere to be found.

“Where has she gone?!

-

You and the man were sitting on a stone bench in the castle gardens. After the dance, you had told him that the stares were making you anxious, after that statement, he had told you that he knew a place where you could both respite. He had led you to a private garden that was hidden behind the castle, and taken you to a stone bench that sat in front of a small pond.

“Should we even be here?”

“It’s alright. I have access to this location for a reason.”

“And what is that reason?” You slightly leaned towards him.

“I will tell you, but only if you tell me your name.” 

“I have already given you my name.”

“I know that there is no ‘House of Allard’. I want your real name.”

“My name is, {Name}, of the House of {Last Name}.”

“{Last Name}? As in Duke{Last Name}?”

“He was my father. But he died long ago. Now I live with my stepmother, and stepsisters, who are also of noble blood, and they are here tonight.” You said with a bit of sadness in your tone.

“Are they?”

“Yes. But I do not want to talk about them now.” You declared. “But now, you must tell me about yourself, to make it fair.”

“Alright. My name is Xenk. Xenk Yendar. I am the prince of this kingdom, and this is my private garden.”

Your jaw dropped. There was no way you were sitting next to the actual prince of Quisritis.

Oh no.

Oh no.

You danced with the prince! You stared into his eyes meaningfully! (?)

This wasn’t supposed to happen. You were just supposed to come to the ball, enjoy yourself for a short time and leave. What you weren’t supposed to do was get friendly with the prince.

There were so many things going on in your mind at the moment and you couldn’t process them all, you wanted to say something but you couldn’t even think of the right words. So you said the first thing that came to your mind.

“You’re fucking lying.”

Your hands flew to your mouth. You jumped up from the bench, and as quickly as you got up you dropped down to your knees in front of him.

“I apologize to Your Highness! I did not mean to say such vulgar words! I ask for your forgiveness!” You pleaded.

“There is no need to apologize. I appreciate your honest words. Now please, can you get up?” He awkwardly requested.

You rose from your spot on the ground and stood in front of him. 

“Sit down, please?”

You sat.

“You should not have to apologize for speaking your mind. In fact, I implore you to speak it right now.”

“Now?”

“Yes, now. Whatever you are thinking, I am interested in hearing it.” He smiled.

“Well, I think that… You are very handsome, and I think your taste in flowers is impeccable.” You picked at your nails, waiting for a response. (I'm crying this is so ew.)

“Thank you.” He smiled. “And my taste in flowers, why do you think that?”

“I was observing the pond, and I noticed how you had pink dahlias and lavender hydrangeas next to each other. Although other people would find it strange, I feel that the similar shapes of the flowers compliment each other. Also, I know that it was you who changed your family crest from a purple clematis to an iris. A purple clematis symbolizes royalty while an iris symbolizes hope, which leads me to suspect that you purposely chose the iris to show that your rule means hope for the future.” You rambled.

“You are observant. I admire that.”

“I don’t consider myself observant. I just pay attention.”

“Is that so?” he tilted his head slightly.

You nodded. Looking up at him through your eyelashes. You noticed how his eyes went down to your lips for a split second. You tried to ignore it, but you couldn’t. You leaned forward and so did he. Your noses were touching. His lips were grazing yours. Just as the final move was about to be made, Chimes of a bell echoed through the air. You turned your head towards the clocktower and your heart dropped when you saw the time.

It was midnight.

You were supposed to have left thirty minutes earlier, but you had gotten sidetracked when you were with the prince. You turned back towards him, grabbed the side of his face and pressed your lips against his in a hasty fashion, after a good second or two, you pulled back.

“Apologies, my prince, but I must be going!” Before he could respond you turned around and ran away.

 You sprinted through the large halls of the castle until you had finally gotten to the exit. You saw your carriage and footman still waiting for you at the end of the path, but Genevieve was nowhere to be seen. You could only assume she went home with Priscilla and Camille. 

When you got to the carriage, you practically jumped inside. Instead of waiting for the footman to get the door, you grasped the handle and closed it yourself.

You huffed as the carriage started moving. You weren’t in the clear just yet, but for now you could relax just a little bit. As you got in a comfortable position, you felt a strange sensation. You felt carpet rubbing against your foot. You pulled your skirt back and sure enough, your shoe was gone. You groaned, already knowing Axel wouldn’t be too happy to hear about losing your brand new toe mules. But that was the least of your concerns.

You arrived at your manor after what felt like hours, even though the ride had to have been twenty minutes max.

You stepped out of the carriage and rushed toward the entrance of your manor. When you opened the door all was quiet. You ran to your bedroom in the attic and quickly changed out of your gown, and into your pajamas. You gently took your gown and shoe into your hands and hid them in the loose floorboards under your bed.

You got in your bed and pulled the covers over yourself, hoping to fall asleep before Priscilla and Camille were home, and you eventually did.

Meanwhile, a certain prince stood on the steps of his castle, holding a golden slipper…

[sm-writes-chaos]

I’m going to complain about Descendants rise of red because I’m so disappointed and frustrated with the writing and I need to talk about some of it. This will probably make no sense if you haven’t seen it. (It just came out today and it’s already the worst.)

Long Rant incoming

There's a lot of movies that are bad.
Usually because it's just not good, or it's 'meh', or not original or creative enough. 
But this, Descendants Rise of Red was DOWNRIGHT TERRIBLE. (NO IM NOT EXAGGERATING)


They didn't just not try, they didn't bother to put ONE SINGLE BRAIN CELL in it.
Everything down to the music, story, costumes, hair etc. 
But I'm not even going to touch on that because those are whole other cans of worms. I'm going to dig into the story can of worms because I'm more knowledgeable on that.

First of all the pacing was nonexistent. 
The beginning was messy and unfocusing, the middle was building up to many possible scenes but ultimately was proved useless by the anticlimactic and too quick ending.

They built up to settings and scenes like Castlecoming, but never showed it because the conflict was resolved before it could even happen.

Characters were wasted by being merely name drops and things to point out like 'oh look it's the young version of the character we know from when descendants at least had descent plot progression!'

And the character, oh the characters...it's a travesty.

(The plot is that the queen of hearts has taken over Auradon and her daughter and Cinderella’s daughter go back in time to stop it, back to a time before the queen of hearts become evil because she was pranked once.)

They build up (again!) a big horrible thing that happened to the Queen of Hearts and then don't even reveal it in an exciting way. Revealing it in two lines of dialogue almost at the very beginning. And it wasn't even that terrible, it's not enough to explain how her personality took a COMPLETE 180.

If they revealed later that there was more to it, then that reveal would've been fine! But they didn't!!

Bridget (the queen of hearts) mentioned she was homeschooled, as her daughter also is, so maybe there's some generational trauma there. But they never mention it again! They could've included the queen of hearts mom to explain her sudden shift in behavior but no, public humiliation is enough to MAKE SOMEONE BECOME A DICTATOR OBSESSED WITH CHOPPING OFF PEOPLES HEADS.

I thought maybe betrayal from a loved one would've been enough because she CONSTANTLY reiterates that 'love ain't it.' But guess what, NO.

It was an established bully that caused her public humiliation, when it would've made more sense for Cinderella to be the one to have been part of the prank because they were close. (A friendship they hardly bother to show by the way.)

And speaking of Cinderella, at first I didn't understand why we were choosing to focus on her abuse and why it was such a shock to HER DAUGHTER. Wouldn't she have told her??

But never mind that, it was shown and focused on because her daughter Chloe had to learn that everything isn't black and white. That bad things happen to good people and that good people don't always follow the rules.

A MINDSET THAT WAS NEVER PREVIOUSLY ESTABLISHED BY THE WAY

So I was very confused until another terrible song made me realize that's what they were trying to do, a very shoehorned in lesson.

Then there's the biggest plot hole to EVER PLOT HOLE.

They find out the bully gang is going to turn Bridget (the queen of hearts) into a monster during the dance (Castlecoming, which we never get to see!), using a spell from the 'Sorcerers Cookbook.'

They never explain that the bully gang is going to steal that cookbook because during (another terrible!) song they see the recipe, so I thought they already had it!

But when they steal the cookbook it curses them because it's 'in the wrong hands.' SO HOW DID THEY EVER USE THE COOKBOOK TO PRANK BRIDGET IN THE FIRST PLACE IF THE BOOK IS ENCHANTED???!?????

I thought this was going to be a plot twist where it turns out the bullies aren't actually the ones who pull the prank. No. Nope. Not at all.

It all ends there and every conflict is resolved and it ends with a reprise of another terrible song!

CAN YOU SEE HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS MOVIE?

(There's so many more terrible writing choices but I can't think to think another second about this movie.)

Actually never mind I have more

JUST. JUST SHOW THE FRICKING DANCE. Have the prank happen, have them see it. Have us learn why it specifically affects Bridget so much and have Cinderella be involved in the prank. (Or the head of it, why not.)

Bridget had planned a ‘signature dance’ for the dance, don’t let her do it because of the prank. Then at the end when everything is resolved and their back in the future HAVE HER DO IT THEN FOR CLOSURE.

MAYBE EVEN DONT CHANGE THE PAST SO MUCH AND RESOLVE THE LAST CONFLICTS IN THE PRESENT BECAUSE PEOPLE CHANGE AND YOU CABT PREVENT THAG AND MAYBE TOU SHOULD HAVE A NICE LONNG MOTHER DAUGHTER TALK

Maybe Cinderella was jealous of Bridget because she wasn’t frickin abused and maybe charming liked her so that’s one motivation for her to do the prank, albeit an overused one, or maybe she was just pushed so hard by her stepfamily that the bullies were able to manipulate her into doing it.

ANYTHING OTHER THAN EVERYTHING THEY DID IN FACT JSUT DELETE THE WHOOE MOVIE ITS A LOST CAUSE YOU EERE RIFHT RED

I’m going crazy save me please at this point I’ll just be rewriting the whole thing I’m like actually disgusted with this writing I don’t know how this got approved no I do it’s for MONEH THAT TERRIBLE MOUSE not to mention that it’s extremely disrespectful because they said they wouldn’t make any more descendants after Cameron Boyce died and they HAD THE AUDACITY TO SHOUTOUT CARLOS LIKE ‘this is what he would’ve wanted’ NO ITS NOT BURN IT

the best they did was cast Brandy as adult Cinderella just give her the rest of the movies run time PLEASE ITD BE SO MUCH BEGTER

[not-poignant]

Birthday Spotlight - Crielle ferch Fnwy

[18 April - Aries]

Crielle ferch Fnwy is the matriarch of the An Fnwy estate, a beautiful, evil Machiavellian supervillain who has been manipulating the Seelie Court and her family for tens of thousands of years, while giving the appearance of being a perfectly loving Seelie fae who only cares about truth and justice.

Mother of Gwyn ap Nudd, and aunt of Efnisien ap Wledig, Crielle is actually only rarely seen in stories, but has an explosive impact regardless, due to the trauma she inflicts or causes others to inflict on our main characters.

‘You’re not mine. You may have stolen from our family legacy, you may have parasitised our reputation, you may have even exploited and ruined the things about our appearance that make us – not you – beautiful. But you are not, you have never been mine. If you felt a short, sharp shock when you came into the world, my darling, it was my hands around your throat while your father tried to pull me off you. ‘Imagine, if you will, my dear, reprehensible thing. Imagine the first time you came back to me after we sent you away to play with Efnisien. Oh you were only twelve or thirteen? What a lovely idea that was. And Efnisien had you for hours. I told him to use knives. He liked them so, and he didn’t think he’d be allowed. So precious. And I heard the distant echo of your screams like a faint, familiar melody all throughout my day. A time when they stopped because he gagged you perhaps? Or your voice gave out? Tsk. He is – was – so crude. But still...effective. And do you remember? Oh, my creature, imagine it... ‘You came home hours later, hours after Efnisien. You were broken and cut and bleeding and so, so ruined. And you stumbled into the house, and there I was waiting for you. Breathless, actually. And you stared at me as though I would – what? – tell you that Efnisien had crossed a line, gone too far? Do you remember what I did?’ ‘You smiled at me,’ Gwyn said, his voice rough and rusty.

Game Theory

Game Theory: Introduced as the manipulative, evil, and cruel mother of the King, Crielle starts off with Cinderella stepmother vibes, until you realise that Gwyn's her only son and she can't stand him, favouring his cousin Efnisien instead. A torturer, abuser, schemer, and conniving Machiavellian figure, she ultimately has been puppeting the Seelie Court for thousands of years, and is the cause of Gwyn attaining, and then losing, his Kingship.

It's safe to say that Crielle has never been the Most Valued Player of any story.

The Court of Five Thrones: While Crielle only has a very brief appearance in this story, her presence is felt throughout. We find out more about her feelings towards Gwyn, through journals he discovers in her house after her murder at Augus' hands.

The Drawn Bead: In a story that explores Gwyn's first love, Crielle is there as a forbidding, tormenting figure, ruling Gwyn's life with an invisible, oppressive kind of terror.

The Curse: The only story which features Crielle's perspective, we see her as a child, a teenager, an adult, and learn about her dangerous proclivities, how her family did and didn't deal with them, and the depth of her love for a select few people, a love that she gave to Gwyn right up until the moment he was born.

Fae Tales – Alternative Perspectives: Crielle is only here briefly, but we see more of her dialogue with Gwyn, and more of Augus' perspective about her.

Underline the Black: Crielle here emerges as a cruel villain to Efnisien, in a flipped/reversed narrative where Gwyn is her beloved child, and Efnisien is nothing more than a neglected science experiment. Efnisien's life is at the mercy of Crielle's whims, and she puts him first in Hillview (an institution) to put him out of sight and out of mind, but as soon as he causes too much trouble for her, she won't hesitate to strike him down.

The Spoils of the Spoiled: In which Crielle even in the human world as a human herself proves that she can be just as evil as ever. Ruler of the household, torturer of Gwyn (and later, we learn, Efnisien), and clearly involved in corruption and organised crime, Crielle lives her best life in this story until Gwyn tries to legally emancipate himself from the family.

Falling Falling Stars: In the follow up to The Spoils of the Spoiled, Efnisien - previously thought of as the beloved and protected 'adopted' child of Crielle's - reveals over time the verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse he suffered at her hands through therapy sessions with Dr Gary. Over time, we realise that no one is safe from her influence.

Crielle is very 'classically' beautiful, with blonde hair that has a slight wave in it, that generally falls down to her shoulders. She has azure eyes, a shade of blue almost never found among humans (even when she's human). She wears only enough make-up to accentuate her eyes and perfect lips, and maintains a very 'natural' effect to her beauty. It looks effortless and perfect enough that many who are experienced with beauty routines know she puts a lot of time into her appearance.

Crielle is asexual, sex repulsed, and aromantic.

Crielle is common fae, and while she's affected by the curse that Olphix cast upon the family, I like to think she'd still be pretty awful.

Born into a family in which some members are predisposed to sociopathic behaviour, Crielle was one of the worst and was not encouraged by her parents to be the way she is. Many people assume that she was abused into her evilness, but she wasn't.

To me, the concept or alienness of someone who is as evil as Crielle simply because she was 'born that way' is very fascinating to me.

Incredibly intelligent and perceptive, her few weaknesses are around the (few) people she loves and the way she will indulge them, as well as anything that threatens her reputation.

In Game Theory, when we finally realise that she is at the centre of Gwyn's devotion, standing there watching his humiliation, reacting in disgust to being called 'Mama' in a moment of vulnerability from her own son.

In Falling Falling Stars, Efnisien calls Crielle, and it becomes quickly clear that she holds no love in her heart for Efnisien when she calls him a 'ghost' and reminds him that ghosts are very easy to kill, making it clear she still wants him dead, and only inertia/disinterest is keeping her from following through because she'd already killed him once.

Always really fucking evil and irredeemable.

Frankly dies a lot.

Always a bit of a mad chemist. In Fae Tales she is a literal chemist and inventor of many different poisons. This has carried over even in to her human incarnations where in the Spoils universe she uses her knowledge of science to cultivate, create, or acquire poisons and viruses and bacteria to insert into Gwyn's food. And carries even more strongly into the Underline universe, where she runs one of the most successful synthetic hormone companies in Australia.

Visibly stunning.

Cares a great deal about reputation.

Usually loves Efnisien. Underline is the first series that has flipped the narrative so that Gwyn is beloved and Efnisien is loathed.

Kind of disdains her husband, who has no power over her.

Crielle is a real figure in Welsh mythology, though she was never meant to be an evil figure. Nor is she Gwyn's mother in the mythology. A sign of just how intensely I've bastardised everything for my own purposes.

She is good friends with the Ratcatcher of Hameln.

I wanted Crielle to be an example of how you can't expect that someone perfectly beautiful is a good person. I also really wanted to write a woman villain. I felt like a lot of woman villains at the time that I was seeing or reading were often written as petty or just in ways that made them somehow 'weak.' The appeal of Crielle is that she's an extremely effective villain and the only thing that stops her is her death (with the exception of Falling Falling Stars).

Despite how awful she is, I really love her! I'd write her more, but she's too strong and powerful lmao and she ruins my character's lives too much.

Crielle's colours for me have always been cream, yellow, white and blue. It's hard to imagine her wearing anything else.

‘How perfectly disgusting,’ Crielle purred. ‘A little worm has learned how to use the phone. I thought I had a caterpillar once, that would turn into the most beautiful butterfly, but it turns out the only thing my sister’s loins are good for, are despicable little worms.’ ‘D-Do you hate me now?’ Efnisien whispered. Crielle laughed lightly. ‘Oh, oh, my darling, I don’t hate you.’ A moment of hope, strong and bright, a sudden dawn inside of him. ‘I feel nothing for you. As far as I recall, I killed my nephew, and you are nothing more than a ghost.’

Falling Falling Stars

[vaguely-functional-directions]

I am fixing the 4th descendants movie backstory:

Instead of a school that all the kids go to, they're attending a festival in the week before cinderella's ball takes place. They do not all come from the same kingdom, but each fairy tale is from it's own land

The 'villain kids' group meet there and are never referred to as villains because they have not done their crimes yet.

Bridget is from cinderella's kingdom and is still friends with cinderella, and the same thing with the cupcakes happens to all the not-yet-villains and they still decide they need to get revenge on her so they team up

The whole thing leads up to the ball, where cinderella attends after her fairy godmother (who she has never met before) gets her all dressed up

Red and Chloe still learn about the prank and figure that bridget is turned into a monster/troll or whatever and that is the experience that makes her evil

They act as guards for bridget, keeping her safe from the not-yet-villains. But they made a mistake in what the plan was.

At the ball, there is some potion that gets put into the drinks that turns everyone else into monsters, and because bridget was not turned into one due to red and Chloe stopping her from drinking anything without first checking for spells, she gets blamed for it

(Merlin had arrived and magicked everyone back to normal)

She is arrested and banished into the world of wonderland forever; out of sight, out of mind. Then in a montage it is shown how being cast out in exile alone hardened her and she had to fight for survival, eventually rising to become the evil queen of hearts.

Cinderella at the ball is distraught about what happened to her friend, and the prince notices and comforts her. Cinderella's own story takes place from there and they fall for each other

Chloe and red realize that their own actions actually helped the not-yet-villains plans come true, so they use the time travel clock thing to go back in time again and that time, actually do stop the whole thing from happening.

As they travel back to the present, there is another montage showing the new version of events that happens since their interference in the past, and the present. Bridget is selected as a group from the kingdom to go on a mission into wonderland to bring the world's closer together. She moves there permanently and is eventually becomes an elected official, and still gains the title of the queen of hearts

The end

Also, uliana's name is morgana. As is should be.

[lirarey]

See you again (chapter 1)

Dedicated to Cameron Boyce. Eternal gratitude for the wonderful roles.

☆☆☆

"Jane? Jane! Can you hear me at all?"

The girl stopped abruptly, clutching the tablet to her chest. Uma looked unhappy. Did she forget to do something?.. In response to the confused expression on her face, Uma exhaled loudly, and her gaze softened. Although she didn't know her as intimately as Mal or Ben, they had had an indirect encounter in the past.

"You know, I already miss the last Jane," Uma continued, grinning. "The one who wasn't afraid to disrupt my engagement to Ben at the Cotillion."

"I did it for them," Jane said, shrugging her shoulder. "If my mother taught me anything, it's to distinguish between true love."

Although the girl regretted to this day that she hadn't been persuaded to show her magic since childhood — as all fairies were trained — lately even verbal spells using a wand turned out badly. The internal flow of energy was constantly dissipating, slipping away from under the very tips of her fingers. Only one person could help. He would have smiled now, put his arm around her shoulders and just by his presence gave her the opportunity to concentrate. Jane couldn't be sure if that love was true. In fairy tales, fairies were given the role of a wise mentor, guiding royalty or ordinary people on the right path. That's how her mom brought Cinderella and Prince Charming together at that wonderful ball. But already there were doubts: the eldest son, Chad, was distinguished by an unbearable character, brought up in too much love. Even then, the girl saw his efforts only to take advantage of Evie, but didn't dare to say so. And the daughter of the Evil Queen wouldn't have believed that her fate was the son of an ordinary dwarf, deprived of all titles. She wished Chad would also realize the wrongness of his behavior and take an example from his younger sister. With Lonnie and Jay, everything was more than obvious: both stood up for justice and were in no way inferior to each other.

But there were problems with the son of the King Beast and Queen Belle. He, like Audrey, is a little older than her, so they were engaged long before she learned to see the difference. Audrey really had feelings, partly caused by communication since childhood, partly dictated by family pressure. Everything remained too ambiguous for Ben. But the appearance of Maleficent's daughter opened her eyes. By nature, leaders who have a lot of power hidden inside. Only if Ben grew up in a pretty happy family... Fear of the villains' children clouded her mind, which made Jane not immediately understand what Mal was trying to achieve. There was only the faint sympathy that had passed between them at their first meeting. To some extent, her and Mal's goals collided. Without the love cookie, these feelings took an even longer amount of time to unfold. Ben mentioned the very existence of a love spell in conversation with her, but at first the girl didn't understand why he didn't interfere. Later, when they were returning from their first date, it became noticeable that the water of the Enchanted Lake not only removed the consequences. No, now the prince's feelings were felt even more vividly. Mal, on the other hand, was clearly distraught. Perhaps Jane herself had made it worse by trying to side with Audrey. When Ben suggested that she organize a Cotillion, Jane agreed, trying to atone for her guilt. It was all exhausting, of course, but the feeling of usefulness turned out to be pleasant. While she was running errands — including the creation of stained glass windows — she managed to once again make sure that Ben and Mal were meant for each other. With what trepidation he clarified everything to the smallest detail. The appearance of Uma, who was still a villainess from the Isle of the Lost, knocked the ground out from under her feet even. They seemed to have feelings, but something about them was confusing. Who would have thought that she decided to repeat the fate of her mother. And after all, she didn't need Ben himself: Ursula's daughter only wanted to hurt the former villain.

"How are you and Carlos?" The name of a once-loved one caused a nagging pain in her heart, but Jane found the strength to shake her head. "Come on, it can't be that you're not true lovers."

Carlos. Cruella's son. This villainess might not have magical powers, but bullying dogs has never made anyone better. Imagine her surprise when the guy once admitted that he used to be scared to death of these animals, and only getting to know Dude helped overcome this fear. But one thing was clear: they were both in the shadow of their parents. True, her mother loved her sincerely, although she was too protective, and among the vague images from Carlos's childhood it turned out to be impossible to notice at least some kind of manifestation of love. However, his fate wasn't known, and Jane decided that not everyone should find happiness in love. With all this preparation for the ball, the girl was running so fast that she didn't pay attention to the slowly emerging feelings of the guy who was constantly trying to talk to her. She couldn't see the full picture anyway — the fairies were worried about someone else's well-being. It was only when Carlos finally decided to discuss everything here and now that such a warm and brave love came over her in waves. His brown eyes sparkled with happiness, and a wide smile shone on his freckled, tanned face. His embrace seemed to be the most comfortable place in the whole world. At first she was kind of scared: mom hadn't said anything about fairies being happy with someone.

However, it was true.

"Fairies don't use their abilities to their advantage," Jane replied, glancing at the playground where Carlos had once met Chewie.

With an initially thin build, the guy ran away fast enough, and the girl was definitely afraid to think about the reasons for the appearance of such a skill. Over time, she couldn't help but notice that a good lifestyle clearly did him good: his lean body became noticeably stronger, and in his spare time, Carlos began dancing. Secretly, Jane even admired his graceful and smooth movements from the side, but she never admitted it.

"Can't you?" She froze, pushing the memories away.

Really, couldn't she? But it was too late to talk about it anyway.

"We can't."

***

A week later, her birthday came. The first birthday without Carlos. His last gift, a necklace with their names combined, was still hanging around his neck, both pleasing and making him feel even more lonely. So many familiar faces gathered, but there was absolutely no mood to celebrate. After making sure that no one was around, the birthday girl quietly dived into the Enchanted Lake. After swimming a sufficient distance, she exhaled deeply and raised her head to the sky. Not a cloud, only the bright sun shone in the sky. Even it reminded her of him. The girl climbed onto one of the flat stones and shuddered: her wet hair stuck to her bare shoulders, and the blue translucent knee-length dress didn't warm her. A spell flashed in her memory, allowing her to dry out quickly, but the magic failed again.

"I wish you were here again!.." Jane shouted desperately into the void and hugged herself by the shoulders, feeling burning tears rolling down her cheeks. "I can't do it without you, do you hear? You were the sun in my life!"

She covered her face with her hands, clenching her whole body, shaking with sobs.

"And how can you cry on your own birthday?"

It seemed. There's definitely no one here.

As soon as she felt the warmth of someone else's hands gently touching her tear-stained face, she felt like an electric shock.

Impossible. It can't be...

Her hands slowly lowered, gently wiped away the traces of tears with one finger and tucked the wet strands behind her ears.

Only then did Jane dare to look up. The black-and-white hair was slightly disordered as always. The brown eyes, as before, shone with devoted and endless love. The freckles on his tanned face resembled rays of the sun.

"How are you?.." It sounded hoarse.

"You called me, and I came," Carlos replied softly, touching her forehead with his. "I'm sorry I didn't say goodbye properly.

"You fool," she suddenly blurted out. "We should be the ones to apologize to you. We couldn't save you."

"No one could have predicted this." With each word, his hot breath sent goosebumps all over her body.

"If only... If only I could do magic like a real fairy..." The girl barely touched his shoulders, trying to make sure of the reality of what was happening, and pulled him into her arms, completely forgetting about his wet clothes.

Carlos nuzzled her neck, exhaling deeply. Nothing seemed to have changed since he left. It was as if there had never been that distant day when Auradon was overshadowed by terrible news. At first, what was happening looked like an endless nightmare. Emotions were so overwhelming that she had to get used to uncontrollable bursts of destructive magic. Because of this, Jane tried not to go anywhere unnecessarily, even when King Ben himself asked the Fairy Godmother about her well-being. She desperately wanted to wake up and return to the moment when the kids of the villains had just left the Isle of the Lost. To find at least the slightest opportunity to fix everything.

"You are a real fairy," the guy whispered, stroking her hair soothingly. "Who else was able to recognize the spell on Ben? We were all confused then. None of us have ever believed that it is possible to be loved just like that. Not pretending, not trying to please."

"And it's terrible," she muttered dully. "Everyone deserves to be loved... Except for me. Fairies instruct heroes, tell a story, but don't have their own."

"And I'm the son of a dog—hating woman. Do you think Dude knows about this?" He laughed softly, which made Jane freeze in fascination, feeling that she missed his laughter. "We decide our own destiny. Of course, Mal could become as terrible a villain as Maleficent, Evie could find herself a prince, and Jay could continue stealing for his father. But they are all here and happy."

"We were happy with you. If everything is in our hands, why can't you come back?" The girl took a shaky breath, sobbing. "And don't tell me that the best leave early."

Carlos said nothing, hugging her to his chest. The realization that his heart was beating was maddening. How? Isn't this her dream? Reality just can't be that beautiful.

"What happened while I was gone?" Jane wondered fleetingly what that meant.

"Ben and Mal got married. They say that almost the entire population of the states has gathered." She couldn't help but smile, remembering that she had indeed contributed to this. "Evie's business is booming: now she works with Dizzy. Jay and Lonnie want to create a club where anyone can play their favorite sport. And I continue to make sure that everything is in order. And I'm not coping... I'm not okay. This is definitely a dream.

His hands were on his wrists. Jane looked away.

"You're going to disappear, and I'm going to wake up. It's not the first time I've had a dream like this," she said lamely. "Can I at least do one little stupid thing?"

"Which one?" Carlos cocked his head thoughtfully.

"In fairy tales, the story ends after the words about living Happily Ever After." Jane exhaled sharply, gathering her thoughts and raising her head. "The heroes stand side by side against a beautiful sky and... I know that this is probably not the right place at all. I have a tear-stained face, a soaked dress and a terrible mood for a person whose birthday is today. This is all wrong. I still regret that I didn't do it when I had the time."

"Are you talking about the Kiss of True Love?"

"Yes, but I won't have that anyway. So I just..." The girl stopped short, feeling the gentle touch of his warm palms on her cheeks.

Carlos looked at her with a bit of embarrassment, but how deep, charming and tremulous was the look. Jane was well aware of it existence, having read many books, but she never would have thought that one day she would see it in reality. These flickering sparks made it impossible to think about anything else, as if hypnotizing.

"Maybe it's worth fulfilling your dream?"

A light, almost weightless touch to the lips. So soft and soothing, but at the same time incredibly exciting and brave. It was as if time itself had stopped. Despite the wet dress, there was a feeling of heat all over her body. The whole world around them faded into the background. Cold hands hesitantly wrapped around his neck. It was only now that she remembered how unusual her feelings for him were. Enthusiastic in every moment, genuine, bright and somewhat naive. The kind she has always dreamed of.

There was something insanely right about it all. Destined by fate.