#Fairy tale of hope
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fairytaletime7 · 4 months ago
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Elara's Journey from Orphan to Princess 👑✨
In a distant kingdom, Princess Elara faces tragedy when her parents die, leaving her in an orphanage. Despite hardships, she remains kind-hearted and compassionate. On her 18th birthday 🎂, a royal messenger 🏰 reveals her true identity as the rightful heir to the throne 👑. Elara returns to the palace, transforms her childhood orphanage into an academy 📚, and rules with kindness 💖. Her journey teaches that hope 🌟 can emerge from darkness, leading to beautiful surprises 🌈.
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trashfire-nia · 5 months ago
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Just manhua Wei Ying being a smitten princess
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JUST LOOK AT THEM I'M---
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oumoumimi · 4 months ago
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⁘Yoongi⁘ ↪ Butter Motion Clip | Making Film for @raplinenthusiasts 💜
(cr.namuspromised)
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vimbry-moved · 1 year ago
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sad that I couldn't take a photograph for obvious reasons, but there was a parcel at the post office today addressed to "grandpa mice". I absolutely want to know what grandpa mice's deal is
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bookshelf-in-progress · 8 months ago
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For Love of the Princess: A Sleeping Beauty Retelling
The court was leaving. A colorful parade of nobles in richly-embroidered robes, with bright banners flying, were abandoning the palace with the king and queen.
And leaving Princess Aurora behind.
"We've no choice, dear," the queen had told her daughter in tears the evening before. "The whole palace will sleep when the curse falls. We've a duty to our people. We can't abandon the kingdom for a hundred years."
Princess Aurora, who'd been fairy-gifted with grace and compassion, had sweetly said she understood.
Margaret, who had no such gifts, thought the queen deserved to have her eyes pecked out by birds.
All of Aurora's ladies-in-waiting had talked late into the night--had been working over the problem for weeks as Aurora's sixteenth birthday drew ever closer with no chance of averting the curse. They had planned and theorized, but all decided at last that there was only one thing to do. They were, to a woman, going to stay with the princess. A hundred years would pass while they slept. They would wake to a strange world where everyone they knew was dead and gone. But not for all the gold in the kingdom would they abandon Aurora to face such a world alone.
Now they stood together at the palace gate. Anne, the eldest of them, with strands of gray in her hair, who had been lady to the queen before coming to serve the princess. Lydia, younger even than Aurora, fair and tall and full of energy. Celia, little, sweet and copper-haired, only a year older than Aurora. Margaret herself--tallest and most practical, with wisps of golden-brown curls fluttering in the wind. And exactly in the center, Princess Aurora, with her fairy-gifted beauty that outshone the sun itself. Margaret had come to view these girls as sisters, but as they watched the courtiers leave, she suddenly realized they were all the family she was going to have--that any of them were going to have--for the rest of her life.
When the last face, the last horse, the last banner, disappeared over the horizon, all five of the women stepped back inside the palace walls.
And were immediately faced with a problem.
"Which one of us is going to close the gate?" Celia asked, gazing up at the wicked-looking portcullis. None of them had ever touched the winch-and-chain that moved it. Who knew if they'd even have the strength to? Five women staying alone in a castle for a hundred years could not leave the palace gate open for any passing brigand to come through.
With a groan and a rattle, the chain moved, the portcullis lowered, and the metal bars fell to the ground with a bone-rattling thump.
All of the women screamed.
Had the curse come upon them already? Were they to be trapped here for a hundred years, never to escape? Margaret's heart raced--she hadn't realized how suffocating the palace would seem.
A man stepped out of the guardhouse. He wore the livery of the palace guard and had the first whispers of a mustache on his upper lip. He bowed to the princess and her ladies.
"My apologies, ladies," he said, in a baritone that sounded surprisingly deep for one who appeared barely old enough for that facial hair. "I did not intend to startle you."
He looked young and strong of limb. He carried himself with the dignity and grace of a much older man--had something in the eyes that made him seem wiser than his years.
Aurora gave a deep royal nod. "We thank you for your service. If we could know the name of our servant?"
He bowed crisply. "William of Avenroth, your highness."
Aurora gave her sweetest smile. "We are pleased to know you, and we beg your forgiveness for our outburst. We had thought ourselves alone in the palace."
"You are alone, your highness," William said. "Everyone left, save for me."
"You did not wish to escape the curse?"
William bowed again. "I have a duty, your highness, to protect the princess. All other considerations fade before that calling."
"Some would say such devotion goes far beyond duty," the princess said.
Serenely, he said, "Perhaps it does, your highness."
Aurora opened her mouth, then closed it. She bowed her head. "I am grateful for your loyalty, William."
She turned back toward the palace, and her beautiful face was pensive.
As Margaret and the other ladies followed Aurora back toward the palace, Aurora asked, "Ought I to send him away?"
"Send him away?" Anne yelped. "Why?"
Aurora hushed her, looking back over her shoulder. "I can not ask him to risk the curse for my sake."
"You haven't sent any of us away," Lydia pointed out.
"You all know me well," Aurora said. "He barely knows me."
How little Aurora understood her power. She was princess of the realm, fairy gifted, bright and shining. No person who saw her ever forgot her.
"He has served you from his boyhood, highness," Margaret said. "Though you do not know him, he is quite familiar with you."
Anne said, "He chose to stay, just as we did."
"It is not fair," Aurora said, "for all of you to give up your lives because of my curse."
Margaret said, "It's not fair that you were cursed. You did not choose it--but we can choose to love you. Let him make that same choice."
Aurora stopped, tears in her eyes. "Never has a princess had such true friends. I am afraid I can never be grateful enough."
She embraced each of them in turn, all of them caught between laughter and tears. Then she turned back toward the guard and invited him inside for supper.
#
In the Great Hall--now echoing and cavernous in its emptiness--they made a merry birthday supper, rejoicing over the coming of the princess' sixteenth year, and not letting themselves think about the doom that came with it. The king and queen, though not staying to celebrate the day, had left a celebratory meal behind them--roasts and fruit and cakes and punch.
Margaret had been afraid that the guard William would be out of place among them, but he blended in with ease. He was quiet, respectful, courteous, seeming to enjoy being in their presence, not minding being on the outside of their shared jokes. He helped to serve the meal, even brought some of Aurora's favorite treats from the palace stores, pointing out that they would not last the hundred years. Aurora was gracious, and, as the night went on, genuinely warm. She smiled at William with the smile she reserved for her friends, even drew him into private conversation once or twice.
Despite her assurances to Aurora, Margaret couldn't figure out why William stayed. Margaret had noticed him at the palace, had seen him serving with distinction. He was loyal, dutiful, diligent--but a man didn't become the only guard in the entire palace to risk a hundred-year curse out of duty.
It puzzled her, but she had to admit that she was glad for his presence. Having another person there made the world seem not so small.
The next day was a tense one. No spindles had been seen in the palace since the day the princess had been cursed, but curses had a way of making themselves come true. Margaret and all of Aurora's ladies stayed with her, trying to keep up her spirits and keep watch for any stray spinning wheels. William kept watch at the gates, hoping that he could fend off any evil that might try to approach from outside.
The sun was nearly below the horizon when Margaret and the other ladies followed Aurora into her room in the castle's highest tower. They all sat beside the window, watching the sinking sun, waiting for the moment when the day would end and the danger--so long feared--might pass by forever.
The last sliver of sun sank below the horizon, and all the ladies gave a sigh of relief.
"Could it be over?" Celia asked, with suppressed joy.
"Perhaps the king's plans worked," said Lydia.
Margaret could not shake a sense of foreboding. "The sun is gone, but there's still light in the sky."
Anne rose angrily. The shawl she'd been desperately knitting all day fell to the floor. "We've only a few minutes! What more could happen?"
The ladies began to quarrel--everyone's nerves were tight after the tension of the day.
Aurora rose--quietly, gracefully, but her movements attracted every eye. "Girls, let's not quarrel."
She reached beneath her bed to pick up the ball of yarn that had rolled away from Anne's knitting. "Oh!" she said in surprise, drawing her hand back. "I think I found your knitting needle, Anne."
She drew back the ruffle at the base of the bed. Beneath, they saw, not a knitting needle, but the shining, wicked point of a drop spindle.
Aurora fell onto the bed--lost in a deep sleep.
There were tears, gasps, shrieks--but they fell to work. Margaret could already feel sleep pressing down upon her, but she urged the girls to move quickly. They lifted Aurora fully onto the bed, arranged her limbs to lie flat, put pillows under her head, and covered her with blankets. If their beloved princess was to sleep for a hundred years, they could make sure she was comfortable while she did it.
Celia was the first to drop, falling to the floor in a deep swoon. Margaret placed a pillow beneath her head, and then did the same for Anne when she fell asleep at the foot of Aurora's bed. Lydia fell almost on top of Aurora, and Margaret moved her so she was stretched across blankets on the floor.
All this time, Margaret's eyelids drooped, her limbs became heavy, and her head split with yawns. She fought the curse as long as she could, trying to arrange a hundred years' worth of comforts in a few moments. But at last, even her will could not overcome the magic. Her legs gave out, and she crumpled to the floor, with half her body draped across the foot of Aurora's bed.
Her last thought as she fell into a hundred years of sleep was that she'd have such a backache when she woke.
#
Margaret woke to a world covered in dust. She scraped it off her face, shook it off her hands, brushed it from her dress and hair. Around her, the other ladies were waking with similar ablutions.
Aurora's chairs, wardrobe, dressing table, even Anne's abandoned half-finished shawl, were all covered in dust. The windows were covered with rose bushes, so Margaret couldn't see what a century had wrought upon the world outside. On the bed, the other girls were clearing the dust off of Aurora--but Aurora remained fast asleep.
"I don't understand," Celia said, as the hours dragged by with no sign of Aurora's waking. "We're all awake."
"The hundred years has passed," Margaret said. "But the princess has to be woken by a kiss of true love."
"Where's that supposed to come from?" Anne asked. "Any suitors the princess had will be dead and gone by now."
"Maybe one came from this century," Lydia suggested. "It's possible some brave prince grew up with the stories and came to save the sleeping princess."
That seemed as good a theory as any, so after they'd tended to their ragged old dresses as best they could, Celia sat at Aurora's bedside, and Margaret went into the halls with Anne and Lydia, in the hope they could point some wandering prince in the right direction.
The rest of the palace was as dusty and decayed as Aurora's room. Tapestries were moth-eaten. A kitchen's worth of food had decayed to nothing. Suits of armor were covered in rust.
When they found no princes inside, they decided to head outdoors. With all three of them pulling together, the kitchen door came open with a shriek of rusty hinges.
The doorway was completely blocked by a wall of roses and thorns.
Margaret's throat tightened. They had nothing to break through those branches. They were alone in a palace with no food. If Aurora didn't wake soon, they'd all starve.
Looking at their stricken faces, Margaret could see the other girls were coming to the same conclusion.
Then they heard rustling in the branches. The thick wall showed gaps of sunshine. There were flashes of silver, the sound of a man's groans. At last, the branches parted before a blade, and William burst into the kitchen.
His mustache had darkened a bit over the decades, but he still looked as young and dignified as ever. Though his face and hands were bleeding with a thousand scratches, he bowed with his usual courtesy and a hint of a smile. "Good morning, ladies. I trust you slept as well as I did?"
"What's it like out there?" Margaret asked.
"Overgrown," William replied. "The entire palace is covered in roses--a precaution of the fairies, though I'm not certain whether it came from the good or the bad ones."
William cast his gaze across the room, and suddenly became solemn. "Where is the princess?"
"Still asleep," Lydia said, near tears. "It's awful! There's no one to wake her!"
The look of selfless devastation on William's face made everything clear.
"William," Margaret said. "You love the princess."
This unflappable young man blushed and looked at the ground. "It is not my place--"
"You stayed a hundred years for her! Of course you love her!"
"I could never be her true love. I am only a guard--"
"It's been a hundred years! Some other king rules the kingdom. There's no one alive who'd object. You have to kiss her awake!"
William turned white and his jaw fell. "I could never take such liberties!"
Margaret put her hands on her hips. "Look, if Aurora was drowning, you'd jump in to save her, right? Even if it meant touching her without asking permission."
"Naturally."
"This is no different. If you don't try, Aurora will die."
William thought, then bowed. "I will do what I must to serve the princess."
Margaret seized William's hand and led him toward Aurora's tower.
#
Celia jumped to her feet as they entered the room. Her eyes brightened as she saw the guard.
"William! Have you found the prince?"
Margaret and Lydia pushed William toward the bed. "He's right here," Margaret said.
William stood beside Aurora, looking down into her serene, flawless face. "What if she doesn't welcome such an advance?" he whispered. "How could she care for a man she barely knows?"
Anne said, "Why don't you ask her when she wakes up?"
William bent over Aurora--then stood up. "This might not work."
At once, all four of Aurora's ladies said, "Kiss her!"
Ever so gently, with impossible tenderness, William brushed his lips over Aurora's.
Aurora's eyes opened. "William?" she breathed.
William bowed his head. "Forgive me for taking such liberties, your highness--"
Aurora threw her arms around his neck. "I'm so glad it's you."
Caught in her embrace, William stood flabbergasted.
"Your highness," he said. "Under the circumstances, I do not expect you to return my affection--"
Aurora pushed him away and looked in his face. "How could I not? You stayed true to me when every other man in the world abandoned me."
"You do not know me."
"I know that you stayed. I have a whole new century to get to know everything else." Aurora sat up on the edge of the bed. "If we decide that marriage suits us, I have plenty of bridesmaids."
#
With laughter, all of Aurora's ladies embraced her in turn, sharing stories about their hundred years of sleep.
Margaret went last, holding Aurora tight.
Aurora said, "I can't thank you enough. All of you, so true. You gave up a whole world for me."
As Margaret looked around the room at Anne laughing over her ruined century-old knitting, at Lydia and Celia teasing William--the women she loved like sisters and a brand-new brother--Margaret felt justified in saying, "If I lost a world, I got a better one in return."
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spookacola · 1 year ago
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Blessing of the Sea
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shady-tavern · 14 days ago
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Preview for "Mirror World" the January Short Story
(Warnings ahead for implied and described violence, please be sure to take care of yourselves)
*.*.*
For as long as Alice could remember something had been wrong with her reflection. It moved just a tiny tad too slow, looked just a little too sharp around the edges and from a young age on she knew better than to meet its eyes, keeping her gaze at her reflection's collarbone and never raising it further. Her reflection's chin was a tad too far up, as though it wasn't looking down either.
Once or twice, just as she turned away from the mirror, she swore that for just a brief second she caught her reflection wriggling its fingers at her from the corner of her eye.
She didn't mention anything to anyone, not after her parents scolded her when she had asked for their help, telling her to stop spouting nonsense. They said that she ought to do something more productive with her creativity than try to scare them.
So Alice buried herself in books and fantastical stories, badgered travelers for tales of their journeys and snuck into the tavern behind her parents backs to ask others about the things they had seen.
Their world had long since lost most of its magic, people told her. The last dragon had been slain by the Church knights a good fifty years ago, its bones mounted in the capital in the grand palace of the king and queen. But while magic was nearly completely gone, it didn't mean that danger was as well.
It made her dream of daring adventurers and noble warriors as she listened to tall tales about defeating bandits and rescuing princesses. It made her wish she had been born a boy so she could go out into the world to seek adventure herself. 
It made her sneak out with the rising sun to badger a local veteran until the man gruffly started to give her pointers that turned into full lessons.
He never told her parents and neither did she. She knew what they would think about such things, how they would scold her and forbid it and tell her that a girl had to spend her time with better, more appropriate things.
But it made her brave and daring to steal away moments for herself and her dreams. It made it easier to face her reflection, draping a cloth over the top of the mirror so she wouldn't risk meeting its eyes while still using the mirror.
Not even the wobbly reflection of a lake was safe. Actually, reflective surfaces that weren't mirrors were the worst. She swore that sometimes she saw things beyond her reflection that didn't exist in her own world. 
A forest of glass trees, a sky filled with stars that made her feel searing cold just by glancing at them. Eternally drifting snow even though the night sky above was clear and cloud free.
Her reflection never spoke to her, never moved in an overly obvious manner, but it tickled along her senses every time. That sense of dread. Like she had something monstrous breathing down her neck, waiting to be looked at. Waiting to devour her whole.
Aside from her reflection, her life was perfectly ordinary. She hid her calluses beneath the gloves her parents were glad to see her wear, for it was in fashion for young ladies. She made sure to smile and be pretty and agreeable so they wouldn't think to investigate how she spent her free time.
If they thought her to be an obedient girl, if they thought she wouldn't lie to them, that she was perfectly happy to do as they said, she could be free outside her home a couple of hours here and there.
Her closest friends knew what she was doing when she left the house at the first hint of dawn, sneaking back home two hours later just in time to greet her parents as they woke up and they kept her confidence.
Her friends though, soon started to groan and grumble over the tea parties they had to attend as their parents tried to find good matches for them for they were at an age to get married off. While most of them remained unenthusiastic, slowly, some of them started to look excited. 
Alice was happy for those who liked their matches, listening as they described the person they had gone on a fifth walk with in two weeks, the letters and secret little gifts they exchanged. For the friends who weren't happy, she offered what distractions she could.
She snuck them out to go dancing at the tavern and at festivals, leaving books and other little gifts tucked into their coat pockets on the way home so their parents wouldn't know their children read those raunchy, exciting novels that they scoffed at.
Life was mostly good, if at times a little hectic.
Until her parents sat her down to discuss her marriage with her.
"You're old enough now," her father said, calm and certain. "We have a good family namecand we'll choose someone to further our business."
"There is no greater honor," her mother added, all prim and proper. "Oh dear, don't look so surprised, surely you didn't think you'd be the only one of your friends who wouldn't get married?"
Her parents hadn't mentioned marriage even once in the past and Alice realized that this was one of those things they considered so matter of fact they hadn't seen the need to bring the topic up before.
"What if I want to choose whoe I marry?" she asked and her parents hummed, thoughtful.
"You can, of course, bring up someone you'd like us to consider," her father allowed. "However, please be certain that he comes from a reputable family, we will not let you squander our hard earned fortune on an errand boy."
Alice had no such person in mind, especially not someone they would consider worthy. She didn't wish to get married to a stranger either. She enjoyed her freedom, to have her life and time to herself and to go out dancing until she was dizzy with how many times she spun around. To visit the old veteran who never went easy on her but treated her with gruff kindness all the same.
She had seen what happened to many married couples – married women especially – once the knot was tied. There were expectations, no more parties, no more going  wherever one liked. Decorum had to be maintained, women deferring to their husbands and, within a year usually, a child was born.
The thought of having to bear a child made her feel vaguely ill. Children were fine, they were cheerful little bundles that sometimes were quite snot covered, but she didn't mind them. She just didn't want one herself.
She tried to protest, carefully selecting her words, but her parents refused her sharply. She was to get married and that was the end of it.
She stood in her room an hour later, feeling the hot well of tears in her eyes, a downright angry helplessness looming ahead of her as she thought of her parents' expectations. Her hands empty where she had once held the reins of her own future. Only, she had never truly held them, had just been given a few years to do as she liked, her future always held in her parents' hands.
A movement from the corner of her eye made her startle and she glanced over, only to still. Her reflection was beckoning her over and it...it was and wasn't her reflection.
It looked like her on the surface, but the nails looked just a tiny bit too long, the skin a little bit too smooth, the curled fingers hinting at a power she could only dream of having.
Never before, not once for as long as she could remember, had her reflection done something so obvious. She found herself stepping closer, keeping her gaze lowered as she lifted the cloth far enough to reveal half of her reflection's face.
"Do you want to be set free?" the reflection asked and while it was her voice, it had a strangely musical quality to it, reminding her of people trailing fingers long the rims of glasses to create melodies. 
Alice lifted her gaze a little further and bit back a gasp. Her room was no longer reflected in the mirror, instead there was that glass forest again with the icy stars above, everything covered in thick snow.
"I've watched you for so many years," her reflection said, all sweet and soft and kind and it rang wrong in the very marrow of her bones. "Such a smart girl, don't you think you deserve better? A life of your own that no one but you controls?" Her reflection leaned closer and Alice hurriedly lowered the cloth a little bit to ensure their eyes couldn't possibly meet. "Don't you want to see magic?"
She did, was the thing. She wanted everything the reflection offered, but she had also read enough stories to know better than to think it was that easy. There was always a price to be paid.
Her reflection smiled and it looked too sharp, the hint of teeth revealed were too white. "You are of course, right to be suspicious," her reflection said, still so sweet and soft and kind and she wondered if this was what she sounded like when she spoke with people while she acted perfectly polite and proper. "I do require a little price to be paid."
"What is it?" Alice found herself asking, leaning a little forward. Cold radiated from the mirror, but it didn't chill her the same way the frost in her world did. Instead it felt...refreshing. She wanted to breathe it in until it suffused every fiber of her being, setting her free like a wild north wind.
"A day in your shoes," her reflection said, holding out a hand as though she might reach out to touch it. "Nothing more and nothing less."
A day of trading places. A day in a world of glass trees and ice stars and eternal snow to be...set free. To touch magic. It sounded too good to be true, but Alice found she wanted to take that deal. She wanted to take it more than anything else if it meant she could finally be fully in control of her own life.
"What will you do if we trade places? And answer me truthfully," she demanded, making sure to keep her voice down so her parents wouldn't come investigate. Her reflection's smile grew a tad.
"I want to walk a world of warmth," it answered. "Soak up the sunlight, sit at your table and eat your hot food and drink your sweet wine and fill myself to the core with it all, so when I return, the cold will melt beneath my touch."
It sounded reasonable, she had to admit. She wouldn't mind sharing what she had, to give up a few meals and some nice drinks. A day of her life was nothing in the grand scheme of things. It was nothing compared to a life of servitude and empty, polite smiles and not knowing whether or not to resent her husband and parents for taking everything she wanted from her.
Her husband could give her all the books he wanted, all the fighting lessons he wanted, at the end of the day, he was the one who held the reins of her life. Who could drag her wherever he wanted, like a collared dog.
"Just one day?" she asked and her reflection's smile turned into a grin, the chill radiating from the mirror spilling forth until she swore she saw frost appear along the wooden frame.
"We will trade places from sunrise to sunset," her reflection offered. "The moment you see the sun set we trade places again."
Was this deal truly too good to be true? She would trade some parts of her life – not even a full day – and some heat for magic and freedom. Maybe her reflection thought the same thing, maybe the heat of her home meant something more than she realized in that world of eternal night and snow and glass trees.
"You will hurt no one in my world and no one in yours can harm me," Alice said and the reflection pressed its hand against the other side of the mirror.
"Yes," it answered and Alice hesitated just one more moment, before she took a deep breath and pressed her hand against glass so cold it should have hurt but instead it just felt refreshing. Like the cold opened up her lungs and made her breathe in more than mere air. A taste of something more filled her mouth.
A sudden pain in her palm made her flinch back and she stared wide-eyed at the thin, shallow cut, a few beads of blood oozing forth. She snapped her gaze towards the mirror to see that her reflection was bleeding as well. Only what welled forth from its palm was pale pink and half translucent.
"A deal made and accepted and sealed in blood," it said and she pressed her lips together, not protesting. If it bound her reflection to her conditions, it was...alright.
"Could have warned me," she muttered and her reflection laughed, tinkling like tiny silver bells she had once seen sold by traveling merchants from the capital. 
"The sun is setting soon," her reflection whispered. "Once it rises once more, come here."
"Alright," she whispered back and then there was silence, her reflection acting as always. A little strange, a little unsettling, a tiny bit too slow in following her movements.
*.*.*
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laurasimonsdaughter · 4 months ago
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is there any aromantic themed folklore stories?
I think that very much depends on your personal definition. Of course there are plenty of folktales that do not include romance, but for me that usually isn't quite enough to consider them aromantic. For me the folk- and fairy tales that feel the most aromantic to me, are the ones where the plot makes me expect there will be a love interest along the way or a wedding at the end, but instead there is neither.
Here are the ones I've taken a personal liking to so far:
The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces
Source: Cape Verdian folktale, collected by E. Parsons from Antonio Soares Rosa in 1916-1917.
Content warnings: princess-shaming.
Character I read as aro: The hero.
Why: He answers a royal proclamation that states that whoever is able to find out how the princess wears out seven pairs of shoes every night can marry her and have half the kingdom. When he accomplishes this, however, he declines the marriage and returns home to build his mother a new house.
Read it: Full text online.
How The Devil Married Three Sisters
Source: Italian folktale, published by Widter and Wolf in 1866.
Content warnings: fairy tale violence, abusive spouse.
Character I read as aro: The youngest of the three sisters.
Why: While the first sister is pleased by her handsome suitor (the devil) and the second sister is also described as "wooed and won" by him, the third agrees to marriage only because he is rich. She proceeds to save her sisters, outsmarts the devil, and they all get away.
Read it: Full text online.
David Cotterson
Source: Danish fairy tale, collected by Jens Kamp, published in 1879.
Content warning: suicide contemplation, fairy tale violence.
Character I read as aro: The hero, David Cotterson.
Why: His biggest desire is to become a sailor and see the world. In his biggest adventure he defeats a seductive witch, saves a prince who has been cursed to be a dog. He then decided what he wants most of all is to got home to his loving parents, which he does.
Read it: Offline in this book, or my summary online.
The Squire’s Bride
Source: Norwegian folktale, collected by Asbjørnsen and Moe, published 1841-1844.
Content warning: attempted arranged marriage, attempted kidnapping.
Character I read as aro: The heroine, a farmers daughter.
Why: She's being courted by an old, rich squire. She rejects him, not for a better (kinder, younger) suitor, but simply because she doesn't want him. He doesn't back down so she humiliates him to teach him a lesson.
Read it: Full text online.
The Three Brothers
Source: German folktale, collected by the brothers Grimm, published 1857.
Content warning: ends with natural death.
Characters I read as aro: The protagonists, three brothers.
Why: Their father tasks them to learn a trade to show who deserves to inherit their family home. They become a master barber, blacksmith and swordsman, and the third inherits the house. But because they love each other so much they decide to share the house. They live happily and grow old together, after which all three die close together and are laid in the same grave.
Read it: Full text online.
Diarmaid and Grainne
Source: Celtic legend, Scottish variant collected by H. MacLean in 1859, from Alexander Macalister.
Content warning: tragedy, coercion, murder of protagonist.
Character I read as aro: The warrior Diarmaid.
Why: He has a love spot on his face, which he keeps hidden to prevent women from falling in love with him. Grainne (who is married to his lord Fionn) sees it and falls for him, but he refuses to go with her until she outsmarts him and places him under obligation to do so. He goes with her but they live in a house with separate beds. Grainne betrays Diarmaid for yet another man and Diarmaid ends up being killed by Fionn before he realises that Diarmaid has never touched his wife.
Read it: Full text online.
Slawa
Source: Romanian fairy tale, found in a German collection from 1977, sadly unsourced.
Content warning: attempted kidnapping, fairy tale violence.
Character I read as aro: The heroine, Slawa
Why: She is a poor young woman so beautiful that the cruel tsar wants to marry her. She keeps refusing and he gets violent, so she resorts to defeating him with magic (which she has because she was once a doll brought to life through the love of her parents), so she is free to go see the world.
Read it: You can download my translation here.
King Bear
Source: Danish folktale, collected by Jens Kamp, published in 1879.
Content warning: animal death.
Character I read as aro: One of the two protagonists, the eldest of two brothers.
Why: The older brother doesn't fully understand why his younger brother has fallen in love with an imprisoned princess, but helps him win her hand anyway. He stays happily at the royal court, but never marries himself.
Read it: Offline in this book.
And just because I still love them, I did write two literary fairy tales with aro protagonists myself some years ago:
The Man and the Mermaid, in which a man meets a mermaid after losing the woman he thought he wanted to marry.
The River Sprite, in which a woman helps a river sprite who is determined to repay her.
Hope there's something on this list that makes you happy!
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vintagegirl01 · 3 months ago
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The Greatest Treasure
Merman Steven Grant x female reader
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Summary: On a trip, you come across an amazing treasure that’s worth everything.
A/N: This is my first Steven Grant fanfic. Though this isn’t related to spooky season, I hope you all enjoy it nonetheless.
Though you know you should enjoy the monotony of knowing how and when things are going to happen in life, you can’t help but still yearn for more adventure and excitement. Hence why you decided to do something out of the ordinary and join your friends on a trip to the river to celebrate the end of the summer season despite your reluctance to tag along due to all of them having boyfriends to spend the time with.
Nevertheless, they all insisted that she come along with them to enjoy a little break from the usual routine of work and college. A week's vacation promised to be filled with fun.
Currently, you sit in a lawn chair reading a book under the huge blue canopy that her friends' boyfriends have set up for them. Your attire consists of an olive green two piece bathing suit with an unbuttoned white cover over you with your hair in a ponytail. While this is an outfit you normally wouldn’t wear out in public due to your body insecurities, you wanted to wear something that made you feel comfortable and confident in your own skin.
As you hear your friends giggling and playing in the water with their boyfriends, you can’t help but smile. Seeing your friends in happy relationships made you happy. Perhaps you will be lucky enough to have a man that loves you the way their boyfriends do.
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After a while of reading, you close your book and decides to head into the water to cool yourself off from the heat. Taking off your white cover, you are left in your bathing suit as you begin to walk towards the water. You continue to walk toward the water until it hits your midsection. You notice your friends and their boyfriends on floaties in the deeper end of the water as they can all see and ensure the other’s safety.
“You aren’t joining them in the deep end?”, a gentle but manly voice behind you asks.
You turn around and are met with a muscular chest in her face. You look up and are met with a beautiful looking man. He has curly dark hair, chocolate brown eyes, and has olive skin. The attire he wears is that of sky blue swimming trunks, leaving those who were around him to have a good view of his abs.
Noticing how long you have been staring up at the man, you make an attempt to answer him.
“I…I…I can’t swim,” you stutter. ��Plus, I don’t want to be the one to be a third wheel… even though that’s kind of what I'm doing right now.”
The chocolate-eyed man smirks at her. “Want some company?”
You are a bit cautious about letting a strange man near. Though you found him handsome, that didn’t mean that his intentions with you were good ones. But that didn’t mean that they could be bad either. Perhaps he really did want to go out of his way to keep you company. For what reason, you had no clue.
Taking in your silence, the mysterious man speaks up. “You don’t have to accept. Just tell me you’re not comfortable with me and I’ll leave you alone. You have my word on that.”
You shake your head. “I could use the company if your offer still stands. My name is (y/n).”
“(Y/n)”, the handsome man tests out her name on his tongue. “It’s nice to meet you. My name is Steven.” The handsome man then puts his hand out for her to shake.
“Steven.” You smile. “I like your name. Are you here on vacation too”?
Steven smiles. “You could say that. Would you like to sit on that rock over there and talk?”
You nod eagerly as you and Steven make way to the rock and sit atop of it. For the next few hours, the two of you get to know each other until your friends tell you it’s time for dinner. Before you can invite Steven to dinner, you turn around to find the rock he was sitting on completely empty. Looking around, you find no sign of the brown-eyed man and almost believe your mind had made him up until your friends ask about him.
“He’s just a nice guy that I met today”, you blushed profusely.
Your friends playfully roll their eyes as they ask more about Steven. Once they are content with your answers, they go back to talking about their day as you think about Steven.
Despite his reserved nature, Steven was kind and a good listener. Also very into history as he told you about the history and legends regarding the river. All so interesting and entertaining that you hoped that today would not be the last time that you’d see him.
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In the coming days, you and Steven spend time with one another as if you two had known each other all your lives. In fact, he even taught you how to swim.
You can’t explain it but you have never felt comfortable being yourself the way you had been with Steven. Too bad this relationship of yours will have to end in two days.
A bit earlier than their usual time, Steven had asked you to come at the crack of dawn as he had something important to tell you. Even if you somehow got his number, the odds of you two keeping in touch seem slim. Still, you decided to keep your chin up and make the most of your time together as you make way to meet Steven at your usual spot.
Getting closer to the rock, you see Steven and call out his name. When he turns to face you, you are shocked by what you see. Instead of seeing two legs on Steven like you had for the last few days, you now see that in place of his two legs is one long emerald green tail.
“Steven… you’re a..a mermaid?” you ask.
“A merman actually,” Steven jokes as he scratches the back of his head.
You sit next to him but can’t contain yout shock. “How long have you been a merman?”
“All my life,” Steven responds.
You touch Steven’s cheek. “Why didn’t you tell me? I know it’s too soon… but I thought that our time together proved how much I care about you.”
For the first time since you two have met Steven, he looks flabbergasted by what she has said. Almost as if what she just said truly hurt him. “Oh (y/n), I wanted to tell you since we first met but I had to be extra sure.”
You look at the merman with concern.“Sure about what, Steven?”
“That we are mates,” Steven says matter of factly.
Your eyes go wide eyed.“Mates?”
Steven nods. “Mates,” he emphasizes. “Since the moment I looked upon you, something inside of me was wanting for me to approach you. And when you went out of your way to talk to me, I was a goner. ”
As you take all of this in at once, Steven takes this as a sign of rejection. “If you don’t want me… I completely understand. I…”
Before Steven can further explain, you lean in close to the merman to give his left cheek a kiss.
“I’d love to be your mate, Steven. Even though we’ve only known each other for a few days, I feel this connection with you that I’ve never felt with anyone else. Although, a part of me thought I was just imagining the chemistry between us… I’m glad to see that it wasn’t imaginary.”
At these words, Steven takes her hand into his own. “I’m not sure how we are going to go about this but I just know what we’re meant to be.”
This would be the first of many summers where you and Steven would meet with one another. For you and Steven were mates. Therefore, nothing could separate you both from each other.
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hanzajesthanza · 9 months ago
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i tend to talk a lot about the realistic nature of the witcher, its "realistic fantasy," "brutal realism," its references to political realities and inspirations taken from history, and that is all very important to it.
but... i also want to take a moment to say that the witcher, as a tragedy, also fills me with a hope... that such love, such beautiful families and friendships can exist, even if they differ too much to survive in the end. the idea that the beauty and purity of that love even exists at all, in such a fucked up world, despite it and sometimes existing in the very middle of it, is also what makes it realistic. hope is realistic. love is realistic.
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fuedalreesespieces · 1 year ago
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Inuyasha & Demisexuality
i think halfway into writing this i thought about just cramming all my thoughts into a semi-coherent rant due to a combination of a.) lack of access to decent translations of the manga and b.) paranoia about over-analyzing scenes and coming off as delusional (i think by now it's probably too late to thwart that claim) buuut this headcanon in particular is near and dear to me so i want to try and get as in depth as possible.
what is demisexuality?
in simple terms, demisexuality is when an individual doesn't experience primary attraction - that is, the sort of attraction based on immediate observable (often physical) characteristics - and instead only experiences secondary attraction first: the type of attraction that forms after the development of a deep emotional bond.
inuyasha and kikyo
this aforementioned term perfectly describes inuyasha and his relationships with the only women he's ever loved romantically. you could make the claim that his inability to feel primary attraction first stems from his trust issues and not inherent sexual orientation. and to that, i would disagree - he and kikyo develop an emotional bond despite an unspoken lack of trust, which may have improved had naraku not meddled in their lives. still, both find solace in each other's similarities, loneliness, and "outlier" status (though the similarities are in isolation only, if i'm being completely honest) and establish a connection that persists post-revival.
inuyasha eventually did start to feel primary attraction to kikyo during their time together - in the second chapter of the manga, when he compares kagome to her, he states that kikyo "looked pretty."
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[source - viz. i haven't been in this fandom long, but what i've gathered is that there are a lot of mis-translations of this manga, even from viz. since i have yet to buy physical copies of the manga and don't have an account for the site, i'm going to be using fan-scans for the rest of these, which hopefully won't really affect what i'm trying to convey since i'll be looking at character expressions rather than dialogue for most of them.]
i'd also note the order in which he lists those traits: kikyo looked intelligent and pretty. her intelligent appearance is the first part of her he remembers, which i think underscores his priorities in this regard. he values things like intelligence and companionship - facets that come to light when developing secondary attraction towards someone - more than aspects of primary attraction.
inuyasha and kagome
as mentioned before, demisexuals don't feel physical attraction before establishing a tight emotional bond. the most blatant examples i could think of this were any instances in which inuyasha sees kagome nude and his difference in reaction - in particular, during the yura of the hair and togenkyo arcs, which are roughly seventy-three chapters apart. there are two new moons in that time, and from that we can say at least two months have passed.
chapter six: yura of the hair
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kagome's bathing below him, and i'm sorry, but this expression literally screams "zero fucks given." he does not care in the slightest. not a blush. not a spot of red on his cheeks. not a sweatdrop. not a tee-hee. if i were to describe what he's feeling in this moment i would say "extreme ire." when she uses the sit command on him, it's on the assumption that he's "peeking," but kaede understands that it's actually because inuyasha is trying to steal a shard of the shikon jewel.
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"huh?" - he sounds genuinely confused that she reached that conclusion, even though he was quite literally peering over the cliff's edge in what obviously has very perverse connotations. it's almost like he doesn't understand why kagome would think his actions come from a place of sexual attraction because that sort of thing just isn't on his mind at all, and he doesn't get why it would be in the first place.
another extremely blatant example can be see in miroku's introductory chapter: chapter 51, the delinquent priest:
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do i even have to say anything. this scene also further emphasizes my previous point - before, the only reason he was there was to try and steal kagome's jewel shard. if his true intentions had been driven by primary attraction, this would have been an opportune moment to "peep." in his words, however, he just isn't interested. note that he could have said something along the lines of "i wouldn't do something like that" (which, if he was attracted to her in that way from the start, wouldn't have done anyway) but specifically i'm not interested. the primary attraction is not there in the slightest. at least, not until:
chapter eighty two: fateful night in togenkyo
the scene i'm talking about needs no introduction, but for context: kagome's half-freaking out after having woken up in a sake bath. inuyasha breaks down the door to come and rescue her, accidentally seeing her naked in the process. well, i'm sure his reaction won't be that dif-
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...it's only one panel-
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okay, two-
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i think at this point it's fairly obvious that primary attraction has developed. besides the fact that he's spent three panels trying not to look like he's having a quasi allergic reaction, it's been approximately two months since they've met, and by now they've definitely formed the deep emotional bond required for him to begin feeling any primary attraction at all. in fact, the chapter where he tells kagome "there's no replacement for you" - that chapter, where he's vulnerable and honest and opening up to her, strengthening their bond further, (ch. 78, a tender smell) is directly before the togenkyo arc begins, and, thus, just before these scenes occur. these chapters have all been building up secondary attraction, and now that primary attraction is just starting to show up.
several chapters later we have this iconic panel from 173:
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this is such a look of awe, as though he's gazing up at a goddess. jaw dropped, eyes-wide, words trailing off awe. he's entranced. fully head-over-heels in love, feeling both primary and secondary attraction in regards to kagome, and this trend only continues throughout the entirety of the manga.
conclusion + extra thoughts
my belief in this headcanon comes from not just the evidence depicted above, but because i just related a ton reading those scenes. i found myself just nodding along (as someone who's demisexual themselves!) plus, since ace-spectrum representation is so rare, it's nice to see it reflected in a character whose story and relationships i love dearly.
tags: @nightshade-lullaby
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atopvisenyashill · 19 days ago
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In the mountains, all he could think of was reaching the Wall and finding the three-eyed crow, but now that they were here he was filled with fears.
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fairytale-poll · 6 months ago
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BEST MODERN FAIRYTALE ADAPTATION! ROUND 1D, MATCH 2 OUT OF 4!
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Princess Tutu (2002 - 2003) is based off the Ugly Duckling and Swan Lake; Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch (2003 - 2004) is based off the Little Mermaid; A New Magical Tale! Mofuderella is the Star!? (An episode of Mahou Tsukai Pretty Cure) is based off Cinderella.
Propaganda Under the Cut:
Princess Tutu (2002 - 2003):
This show is PHENOMENAL. Starts as a fairy tale show, slowly starts to discuss fate vs free will and the archetypes that fairy tale characters have to play and what would happen if they could fight the narrative. Also has one of the most perfect endings to Duck's arc that any protagonist could ever have.
Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch (2003 - 2004):
I love my magical girls
A New Magical Tale! Mofuderella is the Star!?:
I love that transgender teddy bear so much
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luthienne · 2 years ago
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I wondered how often the future waits on the other side of the wall, knocking very quietly, too politely for us to hear, and I was filled with longing to reach back into my life and inform that unhappy girl: all around her was physical evidence proving her sorrows would end. I wanted to tell her that she would be saved, but not by an act of will: clever Gretel pretending she couldn't tell if the oven was hot and tricking the witch into showing her and shoving the witch in the oven. What would rescue her was time itself and, above all, its inexorability, the utter impossibility of anything ever staying the same.
Francine Prose, from Hansel and Gretel, as featured in My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me: Forty New Fairy Tales
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twinterrors29 · 1 year ago
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Codywan Sleeping Beauty AU
Obi-Wan gets hit with a Sith curse dooming him to die when touched by cortosis, a metal known to be used against Jedi and other lightsaber wielders
fortunately, the Council was able to find a way to transmute the curse by mixing it with another curse, resulting in the curse becoming 'sleep for many years' (due to the newly hybrid nature of the curse, it's unclear how many exactly or even if there is an exact number, but they get the sense that it'll be more than a decade) rather than straight up 'die' when he inevitably ends up coming into contact with cortosis
the wake-up condition is a classic one though: true love's kiss
Cody, however, hopes to be able to keep his general with him and their men for many more years, but knows exactly how unlikely it is that he'll still be alive when it's time to break the curse if they manage to hold it off for as long as he's going to try to, what with his double-rate aging
so he begs the Council to make one more amendment to the curse: that Cody will share Obi-Wan's fate, so that Obi-Wan won't have to spend all that time and then wake up alone
they find a way to grant his wish
another year goes by, and then it's time to face General Grievous on Utapau
after being disarmed, Obi-Wan knows the risk of ripping open Grievous' chest with his bare hands, but accepts it as the price for ending the war
it's Cody, who followed along, who takes the final shot into Grievous' exposed heart right before the curse can finish taking effect
in the immediate aftermath, the rest of the 212th are trying to figure out what to do with their unconscious general and commander, when Boga, wailing, gently snatches them both off and disappears into the caves leading out of the sinkhole
unequipped to follow her, they ask the locals, who suggest that the varactyl likely claimed them as family and took them back to her den
they'd just started searching for the den to try to bring their commanding officers home to the Temple when they got an unexpected comm from the Chancellor
and then the goal of their search changed from 'recover' to 'execute'
however, as they went to take another step into the tunnel Boga had disappeared down, they felt a strange rumbling
as they retreated toward the surface to escape the oncoming earthquake, they noted that the tunnel was rapidly caving in just ahead of where they'd been standing, leaving them without a clear path to finding their targets
the battalion spent another week searching the surrounding tunnels with no success; in fact, they estimate that it would take decades to search the tunnels leading out of that sinkhole alone, much less the connections to surrounding sinkholes
before they can settle into that task, the Emperor recalls their battle to Coruscant for reassignment, unwilling to waste resources on such a pointless endeavor
over the next years though, the Utai and Pauans noticed that a certain black specter would show up regularly to that same sinkhole, spending a few days at a time searching the tunnels
some even said that they heard furious screams coming from the area whenever he visited, but those were dismissed as rumors
more than a decade later, another set of visitors arrive
there are four of them, in a junky old freighter: a Wookie, his human partner, a blonde human boy, and a well-dressed human girl
they'd heard rumors about the specter's searches, and listened to the Pauan's recollections of the Jedi General and his clone Commander who supposedly had been entombed in the tunnels and never recovered
while the Wookie and the ship's captain loudly complain about the whole trip as they make repairs to the ship, the pair of younger humans start their own search for the lost Jedi
and crucially, they make the decision to hire out a varactyl to navigate the tunnels
one that reacts quite favorably to Luke Skywalker's and Leia Organa's presences
and immediately takes them to her family's nest deep underground
where a Jedi and Commander have been waiting many years for their niece and nephew (never known, but already loved) to wake them from their slumber
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modernsuperhero · 7 days ago
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hello I would love to hear about your life series OUAT AU please tell me all the things 👀
Okay you don't know how excited I am to share this.
So quick recap for those who don't know, the premise of Once Upon A Time is that pretty much every fairy tale (and Disney movie character) is magically yoinked via a dark curse from the fairy tale world into ours, (specifically a town called Storybrooke in Maine) with their memories erased. They're trapped in basically a timeloop, frozen at the same ages as when they were transported. The curse also gives them fake memories of their lives that are intentionally curated to make each of them as miserable as possible! A few staples of the plot are that none of the fairy tales went down exactly as we know them - they'll be technically the same, but the details way more complicated and often more mature than a children's bedtime story would allow. Several fairy tale characters are secretly also other fairy tale characters, and a bunch of them are related in confusing ways.
Now, onto the Life Series OUAT AU! (Featuring some non-Life guys too!)
Now, admittedly I don't have everything figured out for every character - the AU isn't quite finished, so there's a couple holes. But I have a lot of it! I've also used this AU as an excuse to use my favorite obscure fairy tales~
Everything starts, of course, with Snow White.
And her sister. (Did you know there's a second, unrelated fairy tale to Snow White, called Snow White and Rose Red?)
Snow White is... Pearl! And her sister, Gem, is named Rose Red - Snow White for her pale skin and Rose Red for her bright hair. In this AU, Snow White and Rose Red are princesses whose father remarries an evil queen. Quite classically, she's jealous of Snow White, and tries to have her killed. Both Snow White AND Rose Red flee to a cabin in the woods. In the winter, a terrifying massive talking bear appears and asks to shelter in the warmth of their home. Rose Red [Gem] has a moment of quick thinking, not wanting to risk this being some threat to her sister, and introduces herself as Snow White, and Pearl as Rose Red. Confused yet? Rose Red Snow White [Gem] allows him to stay for the winter, and both sisters quickly befriend him. He warns them both about an evil dwarf(?) before leaving after winter thaws. Over the course of the next several months the evil dwarf appears to cause problems for the sisters, eventually concluding with the bear returning to kill the dwarf and transforming into a prince! The Bear Prince reveals the dwarf had cursed him, and now that he's free he proposes to Rose Red Snow White [Gem] and offers to take her and Snow White Rose Red [Pearl] back to his kingdom with him where he can protect them.
The End.
Right?
Obviously not all goes to plan.
This is the first instance where the details of the AU are fuzzy. Somehow, the Bear Prince dies. Probably because of "Snow White" being wanted, and Gem being targeted. Because of this, "Snow White" Rose Red [Gem] turns on "Rose Red" Snow White [Pearl], blaming her for her fiance's death. Pearl has to flee once again for her life. This time, she finds a home inhabited by seven dwarves, the youngest of which is a young girl dwarf (because of course girl dwarves exist in this world, and OUAT was a coward for not including them) named Tilly.
"Rose Red" Snow White [Pearl] gradually becomes comfortable in her home. Her sister has yet to reveal their identity swap - partly because "Snow White" is the name of who married the Bear Prince, and thus inherited his throne when he passed, and partly to keep anyone other than Gem from killing "Rose Red". "Rose Red" Snow White [Pearl] even starts wearing a big red cloak everywhere.
In the meantime, "Snow White" Rose Red [Gem] has become queen of the Bear Prince's land, and found herself a strange and powerful mentor - a man toting a magic wand and a strange dagger, calling himself Rumpelstiltskin. Rumpelstiltskin is... Scott! Rumple [Scott] starts teaching Gem dark magic, eventually leading her to kill some strange demon man called Xornoth with Rumple [Scott]'s dagger... only of course for her to pull the dagger from his chest and see the name carved on the side change from 'Xornoth' to 'Rose Red'.
Rumpelstiltskin [Scott] is ALSO not pleased at this development, having believed Gem was Snow White. He reveals that Xornoth was a being called a 'Dark One', the ultimate embodiment and well of darkness and dark magic. By killing Xornoth, Gem has herself become the next Dark One. As her body starts to become absorbed by the darkness, Rumpelstiltskin abandons the Evil Queen to her fate.
Once Gem has been absorbed by the darkness, she vows revenge against the one she blames for her greatest tragedy, who led her to follow Scott's advice in the first place - Pearl. She transforms her friends, including Tilly, into wolves. Pearl - sorry, Little Red Riding Hood "Rose Red" Snow White [Pearl] (confused NOW?) - goes on the run once more with her wolves in search of answers for how to fix her sister, searching specifically for a man her grandmother told her of. Her grandmother, who married the old king despite being only a poor miller's daughter, by supposedly spinning straw into gold - who secretly told little Pearl the story of the man who helped her do so... a man by the name of Rumpelstiltskin.
Rumpelstiltskin, aka Scott, has his own motivations. Years and years ago, in fact, he wasn't evil at all...
...but I might make that its own post! Partly because I don't want this one to get too crazy long LOL. But I do have plans for the Dark Curse, featuring some characters as Jack and the Beanstalk, Donkey Skin, and Pinocchio!
For now, know that in the town of Storybrooke, neither Gem nor Pearl - as are their new names, in our world without magic - are aware of their sordid pasts, only of their complicated, yet mundane, relationship as sisters.
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