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streets-in-paradise · 2 years ago

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For A Love Like This - Paris x (fem)Warrior!Reader

Troy (2004) Oneshot

Requested by Anon

Omg bestie I love ur writing!!! 🥺 could I request something?! I was thinking maybe something Paris of Troy x reader where maybe the Trojan war didn’t happen bc of Paris, bc Paris and the reader are together. Maybe it could be during the Trojan war and the reader is a warrior! And Paris always gets worried bc the reader is always by Hector’s side bc she’s super skilled?

( So sorry for the delay but I hope the result will compensate. It took me ages to post this but, trust me, I got a lot of inspiration for this concept. If you see this and happen to like it, tell me because I am considering making a continuation for which i already know how to start.)

Word Count + 3.5 K

Warnings: Reader is a trojan woman whose character is slightly inspired in Penthesilea, the amazon queen who fought in the war according to the epic cycle. For so, this features some tension with Achilles bringing the conflict that worries Paris.

Summary: Your first act of involvement in the war against the greeks leaves the city acting as if you would have sealed your fate for a certain death on the next sunrise, what leaves you on the task of calming the worries of your husband. Paris doesn't know much about fighting, but the concern Hector shows is enough to make him guess you got yourself in danger.

Tags: @mysticaldeanvoidhorse @spideyanakin @spideyanakin-interacts

The enemy surrounded you and there was no upcoming help. The battle for the temple of Apollo was already lost and Hector ordered the retree of the trojan troops, but you wouldn’t go without him. Achilles caused a general panic on your people, but nothing would be enough to make you leave your dear friend behind. He knew that, but he didn’t want you to follow his chaze of the myrmidon warlord and so you were taking another mission. The rescue of Briseis, his cousin, a newly chosen priestess of Apollo that was most likely to have been caught in the massacre.

The corpses of the priests made your horrified companions guess she must have been slaughtered, but you didn’t believe that and Hector allowed you to trust your instincts. From your particular perspective, you imagined she must have hidden somewhere despite the confusion and horror. Through your knowledge of the uses of war, you knew that an army coming from across the sea to fight at your shores would see women as a scarce resource. Even if she would have been found, there were chances to find her alive and made captive as part of the looting. Your self taken duty was saving her from that fate and stripping the greeks from the pleasure of capturing a trojan princess on their first day of stay.

It didn’t go too far. There were too many of them and while you got to show some more of your exceptional courage by killing a few in the search, it wasn't enough to accomplish your goal. The irruption of your friend and their leader heading outside stopped the combat and the man you were fighting against rushed outside following their actions. So did you, but surrounded by a multitude of myrmidons impeding you to get beside Hector. Your most recent rival, who you guessed as Achilles’s second in command, gave them the order of keeping you surveilled. He quickly found out that you were dangerous, even all on your own.

Taking risks was your thing, you couldn’t get recriminated for that because it served many times in victories of the past. Neither would you recriminate your leader for venturing alone against the blond myrmidon of abhorrent arrogance, even if it worried you as a friend. Perhaps the indignation made you both careless of your individual luck. You were used to witness many horrors, faced many defeats and handled the pain of losing friends before, but the men beating you were simply despicable in levels you have never seen before. Unfortunately, some were also shockingly talented.

Hate at first sight was what you found through your meeting with Achilles, he was simply the worst. At the gates of that temple, through his word exchange with Hector, he was letting you both know you were kept alive just to brag. There were a hundred different ways in which he could have declared the end of the battle, yet he had to pick the most annoyingly arrogant.

“ Go home, prince. Drink some wine, make love to your wife. Tomorrow we will have our war.”

Never in a long time you wished to slaughter an enemy with such visceral hate. Smacking him for such disrespect wasn’t enough, you wanted his blood on your sword. Through a furtive glance your friend was seeing it in your eyes, but wordlessly indicating you to calm down because the context was against you. Since you were at a disadvantage, standing powerlessly as Achilles would finish to praise himself was the only option to get back home.

However, Hector’s reply served as a display of your shared indignation.

“ You speak of war as if it was a game, but how many wifes wait in Troy’s gates for husbands they will never see again?”

Perfectly delivered, it made you remember once more of how proud you were of following him as your warlord and that almost served to calm you down a bit. The complementary effect you had on each other was no mystery and many trojans in the past have considered it proof for a viable romance. Your closeness as friends inspired some to fear you could have abandoned the lifestyle to marry him, a significant loss for the army given your skill, claim you both always found ridiculous.

The exhortation to calm you found in his words could have worked, if Achilles wouldn’t have awakened the worst of you with his comeback.

“ Perhaps your brother can comfort them, I have heard he is good at charming other men’s wives. “

Any glimpse of civility left on you faded.

“ …. You shameless greek BASTARD, THAT IS MY HUSBAND!”

Confusion reigned in the ambient, since the myrmidons were quite sure you couldn’t be Helen. Wasn’t that the reason they were fighting for? A pretty boy prince seducing a married queen and stealing her away to his kingdom?

Only then Achilles deviated his attention from Hector, in direction to the callout and being one with his soldiers regarding the intrigue.

“ Nobody told us Paris is married.” He commented while pacing in your direction in order to face you. “ My condolences, no one must be waiting for you behind those gates. The coward you got married to is cheating and the world knows it.”

The fire of your hate was growing with every gesture and every word coming out from his mouth. You couldn’t choose which part of that sentence was the worst, but you opted by starting with the assumption of your marriage being an arranged one. Angered to the core, you took your helmet off because he wasn’t wearing one. It was your own way to show that you weren’t afraid of him, even if common sense would indicate you should.

Teasing aside, Achilles seriously wondered how it was possible for you to be the wife of the hedonist fool who started the war. You were covered in dirt, sweat and blood; visual proof of how you busted your ass in combat. Your hair was a mess and the hate in your eyes as you challengingly stared at him was making you look crazy. He loved it, you seemed the most passionate woman he had come across in some long time. It was like standing in front of a daughter of Ares, an impression that made him also wonder if there could be an amazon at some branch of your family tree.

“ Keep your pity, I have a loving husband who has never chazed other women in front of me while the same can’t be said of Helen. I am aware of my privilege and that drove me to help her. The spartan king brought this on himself because his wife is escaping him, not following my Paris.”

“ Your Paris is hiding underneath the skirt of her dress while you fight their war, isn’t that unfair?”

The more aggressive replication was delivered so he could see your anger escalate because he liked it, but he also hoped to dig into some unspoken truth taking you over the edge so you would lose filters. He couldn’t accept the explanations you were providing, those were unbelievable to him. His best guess was thinking that you were ashamed of admitting your family or the trojan king forced you to marry that fool and you were defending him for your own honor.

“ I find it unfair that you are still breathing… What do you seek to achieve with these provocations? If a fight is what you want, I can give you that anytime.”

He couldn’t wait to fight you but, at the same time, he didn’t want to kill you. It was similar to the opinion he was forming of Hector on those first instants, only impulsed by something else. A different sort of curiosity, maybe stained with a bit of want.

Achilles smirked at you, a slightly flirtatious way of implying he would take the challenge.

“ How did your brother get her?” He asked right back at Hector. “ Who let that happen?”

“ Paris is, indeed, amazing at charming women.” The prince answered, turning the previous mocks against the rival. “ Nobody knows for sure how he made it, but I can tell you it wasn’t arranged. She became my sister by choice, if you knew her you would understand that commanding her is as easy as it looks right now.”

The implications, despite ruining his main theory, seemed to be of his like.

“ I see and I really want to try what she is made of.” The blond commented to him so he could later get back at you.

“ Get good rest, princess. Tomorrow you are mine.”

The menace kept wandering your mind for the rest of the day, your companions in the army interpreted it as a death sentence and they weren’t discreet about their impressions. Although Hector helped you through the moment and engaged on the less serious aspects of it, he was evidently concerned too. The pain of losing Tecton intensified to the thought of you facing his killer in the next battle. The spear throw that killed him was something neither of you have seen before. The precision and strength required for it were extraordinary, inhuman.

Your lovely husband read your friends’ preoccupation with horror. If the warrior you encountered was good enough to make them say all of that, to make Hector fear, then you were in serious danger despite how much you would insist him not to worry. He asked Helen for references on that greek and all he got to hear were horror stories. She didn’t want to frighten him; but those things were too much for him. The cultural concept of what greeks considered a hero was nauseating in his eyes, as was the description of some of the war feats that made that crazy man great among them.

The weirdest thing for Paris was noticing how her narration seemed neutral from a valorative standpoint. Helen wasn’t necessarily horrified by the actions in her tale, as if she was used to it, and there was no detractive intentionality in her words about the myrmidon. There was at least one thing she affirmed to like about Achilles: he hated her brother in law and she was respectful of him upon that hate.

When questioned about the situation at the temple, and how you both allowed the madness to escalate into a point where you ended up surrounded at the enemy’s mercy, Hector attempted to follow your route of lighthearted joking so Paris wouldn’t overworry Andromache.

“ We are still unsure if that was a death threat or if he was trying to seduce me.” You were commenting, referring to the awkward undertones of the altercate. “ In either case, I think I am fine.”

“ It could be both and it wouldn’t surprise me, that man is insane and you caused quite an impression among his men.” Hector added, supporting the anecdote. “ Not to mention how he reacted to the news of your marriage.”

The reminder made you throw a playful chuckle and Paris got an approximate idea of why.

“ Did you get in trouble for defending me again? “

“ He insulted your honor, called you a coward and a cheater. I’m sick of hearing people even here in Troy accusing you of bringing Helen as your lover. Now it turns out that Menelaus is using that narrative to portray himself a victim. I couldn’t stand it, so I called Achilles out.”

He was moved by your confession, a reckless but incredible soft gesture showing how much you loved him.

“ You made yourself a target of the most ruthless killer in the greek army just to prove I am a good husband?

You admitted the guilt with an innocent looking smile.

“ Nobody wanted to believe she is yours, Achilles is very curious about that. “ His brother continued. “ I think your honor has been avenged, at least on that front.”

“ We made it again, my darling!!” You cheered, seeking for his usual approbation. “ They are all so confused, just like Menelaus and his men were in Sparta. I knew right then I was going to hate that man, maybe judging the greeks based on their reactions to us will become my new pastime.”

“ Can’t you see the risk? Tomorrow Achilles will wander the battlefield looking for you, what will happen if he finds you?”

Paris was very serious, an unusual attitude for him and proof of how much he was suffering.

“ Rage is going to keep me alive, I fight better when I am pissed off and that happens all the time when he gets close to me.” You attempted to justify yourself. “ I will be alright, many others claiming to be better than us have passed by but your brother and I have proven them wrong.”

That wasn’t enough to calm him down, but you didn’t have time to discuss more because a call for council interrupted you. All you got to do was kiss your husband goodbye before he would go to attend his duty and that got a brief smile out of him.

Despite you being a respected warrior, you still haven’t earned a spot among the most notable citizens of Troy for the discussions. You didn’t mind not having a word there because Paris and you were a team. He would usually deal with the talking while you would get to do the fighting and the only regrets you had about that was your incapability of witnessing each other in action. That time, however, you wished you would have been there to stop what was later referenced to you.

An unfortunate comment coming from one of the present citizens pushed Paris over the edge and into a reckless choice that was an exact match of yours. Knowing him as much as you, Hector saw it coming but couldn’t stop it in the same way he couldn’t control your tongue that morning. Claiming that there were trojans burning in the pire for a youthful indiscretion, that man implied the very same thing Achilles did and Paris wanted to put an end to the insidious rumors. It wasn’t even about his honor, but of yours. You deserved better than being accused as a complicit wife who allowed her husband to bring a mistress under fears of being abandoned for her if you would have refused.

The shame you weren’t facing in your role as a soldier, you were getting in the domestic one. According to societal expectations, being a warrior should have anulated you from becoming a wife and you were once willing to pay that price pretty much as Briseis did when becoming a priestess. Paris was the one who proved you wrong, who did everything in his power to win your affections while showing himself absolutely careless of the warnings. He shocked the city asking for your hand, begging your parents to understand that he was in love with you and didn’t mind any of the presented atypicalities.They knew he was being serious when, after being asked if he would accept the mother of his children to abandon the household for war, he claimed he would. It served as an ultimate proof of his love for you, but the rest of your society wasn’t convinced of how long that could keep going.

Gossips, like the one summarized in that comment, claimed that Paris was getting himself another woman to cover up for the aspects in which your performance as wife would be neglectful. Because you were recklessly trying to live two lives, your husband wasn’t well served and Helen was supposed to fill that gap. A neglected spartan wife came across a neglected trojan husband with a turbious past as a woman chaser, making their adventure everyone’s doom. In short terms, the whole city was paying for the problems of an impulsive marriage that the young prince should have never ventured into.

He was going to fight to prove them wrong, one encounter with Menelaus putting an end to the war before Achilles could get to fight you. Paris was going to stand in front of the entire greek army and tell them that it was his love for you that made him offer Helen a chance to escape her husband, leaving the horrible man out of excuses for his mistakes. There was no passion of lovers justifying his anger, he lost Helen to no man other than himself. Paris was only guilty of not controlling his indignation to the mistreatments she was suffering, out of his own moral code but also because he was unable to stand how angry and frustrated it made you.

" You know you don't have to do this, ríght?" You softly reminded him while in the privacy of your shared room, insisting on it hoping it would dissuade him. " Not only you don't need to prove yourself to me, it will solve nothing."

" Agamemnon didn't bring fifty thousand greeks in vain, that's what Andromache says. " Paris commented to you what was a fraction of a conversation he had with his sister in law, since both were pretty much in the same state of desperation. " I can't let you fight tomorrow, not while I know what awaits. Let me do the fighting for once instead."

The vanity driven jester the outside world knew him as was completely gone. Seeing the worry in his sweet face was killing you.

" Did you lose all the trust in my skills you once used to have? Back when Hector took the lead of the army and gave me the chance to prove my worth, you were the first voice raising in approval. I remember you declaring your admiration for me, Briseis had to stop you from offending the gods by comparing me to Athena."

The mention of his beloved cousin brought the topic back by itself.

" Did you go inside that temple searching for her, or were you there only seeking to kill Achilles?"

You decided to be honest, he deserved it.

" A bit of both, the same can be said about Hector. An ambush of two against one could have worked, but you know your brother: he played fair even when the enemy was playing us. I believe in that, I respect his code, but the greeks were so ruthless that I would have consented to using questionable tactics. He made me stay out of it, but there was no way I would have gone back to the city knowing he was still there so I tried searching for her. I didn't succeed, we lost so much for nothing and that son of a bitch made fun of our suffering. Even that, I could take, but I lost my mind when he insulted you. "

" Was he shocked to find out your husband is a man widely judged as a coward and effeminate? " Paris asked, the self deprecation was more a repetition of things being said about him. " I bet he wasn't expecting that, no one does."

" They all thought the woman you are calling your wife is the adorable blond flower we brought home." You snarked back. " I am not precisely the ideal wife in the mind of most men."

" Yet I love you more than life itself and I want the whole world to get it clear. I want to expose the spartan king, set yourself free from those awful rumors, then walk straightfoldy to that myrmidon beast of a warrior and tell him you are mine."

You let out a soft gasp, the intensity of his phrasing would never stop amazing you.

" That sounds beautiful, but impractical. "

" You have fought alongside my brother for years and I have never felt as fearful as I am now. People say Achilles is a demigod, invincible from birth. Hector himself seems terrified to the thought of fighting him and that is unusual enough to be a bad sign."

" The bastard is very good, I don't deny it, but ' invincible from birth' sounds like a stretch. No one is, even gods lose battles from time to time. "

Unsure of how to proceed, Paris begged you in the most desperate way he found.

" Please, don't go. You don't have to, plenty of other soldiers can defend the city." As he said so, he abandoned his position to literally beg on his knees embracing your hips. " I'm desperate, my love, absolutely defeated. I don't know what to do or say in order to make you stay. Isn't my devotion enough for you to consider valuing your life like you should? I have no life without you, that's why I don't mind fighting tomorrow.."

You caressed his cheeks before his tears could begin to fall. When one of your hands reached closeness with his mouth Paris placed a kiss on it and that made you lose reason.

" That's what you don't understand: I fight with the strength of your love in my heart. I fight for you, to come back into your sweet embrace and get more of the kind of love I never imagined I would have. Whenever you await me at the gates, or here, laying on our talamus while looking more handsome than usual just for me. When you order to get my bath ready on time just to be the one helping me get clean, when you trace my scars with your fingertips and still dare to say my skin is beautiful. I am a better fighter because of you, in all those moments I get a strength I didn't have before you."

He looked at you with the sweetest disbelief and you were in awe with yourself regarding how much you adored him.

" Paris, I was not made for a love like this. Warrior women aren't meant to love or be loved as wifes, we are supposed to remain virgins like the daughter of Zeus. The intensity of your feelings is a blessing that I used to think was forbidden for me. Maybe the gods sent us this war because we crossed the line, but I prefer to fight a thousand more before letting you go. "

" Aphrodite shaped you for me in likeness to her greatest love. " He followed you, losing himself in the sweetness of your words. " I will keep praying to my goddess, begging her to get you the favor of Ares."

Intense staring between the both of you and he stood up slowly, letting a trail of kisses over every section of your body on his way up even while you were still dressed. The action concluded with a desperately passionate kiss that you initiated once his líps got to your reach.

" Love me." You sweetly begged him ríght afterwards, purring close to his ear. " Please, Paris.... just love me. "

Your pleading helped him get a bit cocky, what was sensed in the kind of teasing he delivered while getting in bed with you.

" Should I believe in those strange jokes you have with my brother? Deep down, that despicable greek craves to ruin you for my caresses?"

" Well, he advised me to rest after mocking Hector with the opposite. The idea of you making love to me must be uncomfortable for him." Was your honest and quite playful reply. " Yet he didn't shy away from suggesting you were hiding underneath the dress skirt of Helen."

Paris chuckled against the skin of your neck, what felt to you as relief on his part.

" He wants you, fighting is just the way to awake passion." He casually added. " Too bad for him that you are all mine. "

" It's just a joke, that happens when you are the only woman of the enemy troop. "

That explanation was unsatisfying to him.

" Don't discredit yourself, the sweat looks incredibly good on you."

#troy 2004 #troy 2004 fanfiction #troy fanfiction #troy #paris of troy #orlando bloom #paris of troy x reader #orlando bloom x reader #orlando bloom characters #orlando bloom fanfiction #troy (2004)

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reflections-in-a-critical-eye · 2 years ago

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Omg finally someone else knows about the Charmie ship, I was starting to think it was a fever dream that I dreamt up lol. People always bring up Taekook and Larry as examples of bad shipping practices but Charmies were delusional too. It’s interesting how these problematic ships have specific terminology associated with them/their industry. Larry had a ‘beard’, Taekook had an opposing ‘fanservice’ ship and Charmie had a ‘PR relationships’. Observing the ships of especially higher profile celebs/idols is so interesting to witness because it highlights the patriarch society we live in. Like you mentioned, these ships really display how women consciously/subconsciously hate on other women they perceive to be threats to their ship or fantasy. The enemy of these ships are usually women (Harry+Louis+Timothee+Armie’s girlfriends/wives) or men that they feminize (Jimin). Interesting topic.

You made an interesting observation at the end regarding Jimin. The taekook narrative is different in comparison to other big slash ships because the so called "enemy" has a different gender. For larry or charmie, the woman is the intruder so hating her it's like an automatic response. She's there to disrupt the fantasy and also expose the fantasy at the same time.

Because the result is that the shippers are more interested in actively fetishizing a gay relationship and gay men. They are fascinated with it, although at the same time they apply heteronormative definitions to it. One is the woman with any particular gender stereotypes, the other one is the man, with its own set of gender stereotypes. This is then transposed into the way they write fanfiction, how they draw the couple. They have the obsession with coming out, of praying for their eternal love. Once you see such vocabulary, it makes it all more clear. And then something happens, a woman comes into play and that's a problem. They already have the woman, the feminized version of one of the men in the ship, which is acceptable because it's a product of their imagination and a self insert at the same time.

Now, taekookers are having to deal with a bigger problem. Their biggest threat in their view is in this case a man. That disrupts the fantasy even more. So in order to make it all work, they have to change how they view that man. They need to reduce him, to strip him of his masculinity because his masculinity puts him as equal as those other two men. And him being an equal makes it a threat. Because in the case of taekook where the shippers believe that Tae and JK are in love with each other and that makes them automatically attracted to the same gender, hence gay (I'm just telling how their fantasy works), it means that there is the possibility of Jungkook (never Tae) to be attracted to Jimin. Because he is a man. That's why ships involving Tae/JK and a woman do not pose a "real" threat in the eyes of the shippers. They laugh at it because they truly believe JK and Tae are together. But by believing that, they are also aware, deep down, that Jungkook as a presumably gay man, could also be attracted to another man - Jimin.

So because this is such an unacceptable scenario, they have to femininize Jimin. He cannot be seen at the same level of a gay man as JK and Tae. Hating Jimin in that position would reveal that they can be homophobic and how they mostly fetishize a gay relationship. In turn, Jimin is portrayed as a woman. A woman that can be hated, the type that through the patriarchal conditioning, is seen as a threat to other women. For example, the femme fatale, the seductress, the slut, the whore. All words used by taekookers. Sometimes they latch onto made up rumors in which they return Jimin his masculinity if it involves some woman, or him supposedly becoming a father. But that doesn't happen often. Jimin is also seen as a man who could be gay only when once again, they find another man to ship him with. Be it Yoongi, or his friends in his private life. In both these scenarios, Jimin can be a man and attracted to other men. But the minute he is next to Jungkook, he cannot be that anymore. He is no longer potentially a man with whom Jungkook may cheat, but a home wrecker, which is usually a term used for women. Jimin's feminine qualities which show up in his behavior in a positive sense (he is more nurturing, he is in tune with his emotions, etc) are completely dismissed. He is patriarchaly feminized.

*Jimin and gender identity/sexuality discussion.

#bmt asks #bts #bts ships #taekook #jikook #taekookers #bts shippers #anon I hope I was clear enough in my response #I was just brainstorming #my ideas kept coming #but I'm not sure it all makes sense #but I do see it as a rough draft #there is potential here to explore the topic #jimin #jimin gender discussion

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maidenvault · 3 years ago

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please talk more about the weird psychosexual vibes in The Batman because I felt troubled by some of it but it also felt hot?

Oh my God, so. I’d say what makes it work despite having an uncomfortable dynamic at parts is that Selina’s the one who is so transparently into him and always initiating it when they kiss. The way her eyes roam up and down him when they first look at each other and again later when she says “I have a thing about strays”...LOL he doesn’t know what to do with this!! And that line says so much about how she instinctively recognizes another damaged person who has been deprived of so much and hides it, who has reasons for all of his giant flaws, which has to be largely what draws them to each other. I love that it’s never commented on by either of them that they’re both dressed up like weirdos. They’ve both been hurt badly enough to leave any sense of normalcy behind in some single-minded pursuit that skirts the law, and it doesn’t need comment or explanation because they both get it.

And it’s such a testament to Pattinson’s performance that you buy her attraction to him even though she never sees his face. It’s unbelievable how expressive he manages to be with the cowl on. His eyes soften so much when he looks at her closely. This is such a unique and strange portrayal of Batman, the more he acts hard and impassive the more this weird vulnerability seems to come through. He’s so repressed and locked inside himself. How can she resist?

It also definitely helps, at least for me, that I think the relationship is supposed to be troubling and there is a purpose to that. There are a lot of parallels between Batman and the Riddler in this movie, and this Riddler is clearly a representation of the gross, radicalized 8chan incel type. When he describes how Bruce grew up safely removed from the common people’s problems and just watching them from his tower, it’s more apt than he could know because Batman has made a whole damn thing out of studying people from a distance and uses his own technology to survey and record them. His detachment from the world around him and resulting bad social skills definitely includes not relating to women very well. He pressures Selina into situations she’s not fully comfortable with, and so stupidly can’t see her discomfort when Falcone talks to her. He watches her changing through her window, obviously not for pervy reasons and really not seeing much compared to what she was wearing before but DUDE NO. (I think it’s interesting, though, that once he’s made himself known to her and wants her to cooperate with him he lets her know right off the bat how long he’s been following her and that he was watching her at her place, by saying something regarding Annika like “She did seem upset.”)

I feel like I have to talk about an interpretation I’ve only recently come across, that what Bruce is really freaking out about re: her knowing Falcone is the possibility that she is OMG a sex worker!! And that the twist about him being her father disappointingly lets him off the hook for his non-empathetic attitude about that. If that is actually what’s intended without the film more clearly saying it (ridiculously, it's trying to not be completely inappropriate for children), then indeed that is exceedingly gross and ugly and can’t really be excused, just adamantly ignored as subtext.

I really don’t think that’s what’s going on, though? He knows Selina didn’t work in the 44 Below like Annika, she isn’t recognized there. When Bruce starts obsessing over whether she might have slept with Falcone, to me it’s clear he’s imagining something more personal than the transactional and coercive situation of being an escort for dangerous men like this, hence the judgment. The fact that the latter, much darker possibility doesn’t even seem to occur to him probably further shows his privilege and cluelessness about women’s experience, and maybe that should have been addressed somehow. But it just seems absurd to think when he’s obsessively replaying the footage of her talking about Falcone, he’s disgustedly imagining that she’s *gasp* been paid for sex. That’s so uninteresting and cartoonishly puritanical it’s hard for me to give this otherwise really good screenplay that little credit. It’s more than that, Bruce is trying to figure out what her deal is and if she’s even a trustworthy person. She doesn’t seem like someone who’d be messing with a place like the Iceberg Lounge out of desperation; she’s a skilled cat burglar and there’s clearly more to her than she’s told him. Bruce is unforgiving of weakness in himself and he is very attracted to Selina despite not being sure he can trust her, so he’s really unfair in judging her based on what information he has as if this can guard him from being femme-fataled. Yeah, it’s sexism. But hopefully not that level of sexism.

After she gets the cash, his ultimate conclusion before she tells him the truth is that she got close to the mob to steal from them. It’s money earned by destroying lives which as far as he can see she took for purely self-serving reasons, and he hoped there was more to her than this. That this was apparently her motivation for associating with such terrible people, selling drugs in the club and who knows what else, is disappointing. It’s definitely a bunch of bullshit how judgmentally he confronts her about it (she just found her girlfriend dead in a trunk, you could at least just ghost her if you don’t like her anymore like a normal person but nooo).

So yeah, Bruce treats her in a fucked up way through some of this movie. But she calls him out on his privileged way of thinking and shows him that other people’s lives and choices can be much more complicated than his have ever been. And honestly, I’m not sure that their connection evolves to much more than sexual attraction until the moment he stops her from killing Falcone. Earlier when he gives her the “Then you’re no better than him” line he is as usual applying to everyone else the rigid moral standard he holds himself to as if he’s just like everyone else (and projecting like hell since he’s just learned how one mistake of his father would have tainted all the good he ever could have done from that point on if he was able to continue a political career). But later he’s empathizing with her, actually meaningfully reaching out to her as someone who is also traumatized, because he cares and killing her own father isn’t something he wants her to carry.

(Then of course not long after she was just strangled by her own dad, she gets attacked by redpilled guy #7 and Bruce very nearly crosses that line himself by fucking murdering the guy and it's maybe the most fucked up and sexy thing in the movie. Put me in jail.)

#batcat #the batman #selina kyle #catwoman #asks #my meta #the goddamn batman #dc #the batman meta

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djarinsbeskar · 2 years ago

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Omg thank you for your answer. I stopped everything to lay down to read it.

Do you think he’s ever also been worried that she won’t like what she sees? Or would that be too much like vanity?

Second question/comment - I loved seeing a glimpse of kitten being possessive of him. Obviously we’ve seen his jealousy in action. Is there going to be a bit of that from her. Personally I’d love it if she got all - get away from my man/family if grogu was there too

🥰

Do you think he’s ever also been worried that she won’t like what she sees? Or would that be too much like vanity?

Since appearances have never really mattered to Mandalorians, I don’t think it’d be the thing Din would be worried about on a physical level. He already knows that regardless of how he looks, he makes that girls legs shake with how much pleasure he can give her.

I do think he’d be a little worried about his age though. I’ve mentioned previously that people can interpret Medic’s age to suit themselves, but in my mind she’s around 10-12 years younger than him. Again, this isn’t a big deal sort of worry, but he sometimes wonders if he’s stealing her from a life she might have with someone younger (obviously not because young men are trash, long live the older man). We saw it a little when he first met Kai, who is around four years older than her which is quite a bit younger than Din.

It's never out of vanity, I don’t think Din knows the word. Not unless it has to do with marksmanship or how quickly he can give Medic an orgasm of course, then he definitely has a little bit of an ego. It’s never from a self-centred view.

TL;DR – he doesn’t think appearance has much to do with his relationship with Medic, but he sometimes thinks he might be a little old for her.

***

Now, Medic and jealousyyyy, my goodness.

This woman is more panther than kitten outside the bedroom, and Maker help anyone who threatens or undermines her found family. She’s far more heated and emotional when it comes to people threatening her family than she is her relationship, truth be told. By the time we get to Pamarthe, her relationship with Din is quite strong after the ordeal of the New Republic Arc, but there’s a question mark over her family with knowledge that Grogu won’t be with them for long. So she is definitely more likely to lash out about that sensitive topic than anything else at the moment.

One thing I adore about Medic as a character, is her self-confidence. It’s not unshakable, she definitely has her moments like we all do, but she refuses to be needlessly humble or self-deprecating when she knows she’s pretty and capable and is damn good in bed. Like with Din, I don’t think jealous is the right word, because it insinuates a level of mistrust. That he/she might do something or run off with someone else if the other doesn’t chase the temptation away.

That’s not to say that there won’t be instances where people come onto Din in front of her, and let’s not forget that Medic is both passionate and calculating. She’ll do what any sensible, well-educated woman would do in that situation; she’ll destroy the offending person with scathing intelligence, cool professionalism and a sinister glare that would scare anyone stupid enough to ignore the signs that he’s not available.

Medic likes people to know that that’s her man. She doesn’t need to be catty (excuse the pun) or vindictive, but she’s also not above reminding him of how lucky he is in bed after a day of other women flirting with him. He’s completely oblivious, lets be honest, but he loves the result when his kitten gets fiery and demanding and in need of a good fuck to unwind.

#stitches!q&a #din djarin x reader #djarinsbeskar writes

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ichorai · 4 years ago

Text

frozen hearts, flaming arrows ; p.sh

parts ; one. masterlist. two coming soon.

pairing ; fire!seonghwa x ice!reader

summary ; two enemy clans. one icer healer, one flamer soldier, one brewing war. love was never meant to be a part of this. but then again, when is love ever supposed to be a part of anything?

words ; 7.3k

warnings / includes ; cursing, violence, a make-out scene !!, future suggestive / mature content, hwa being sexy as always, ANGST okay this is a lot of ANGST and hURT, enemies to friends to enemies to lovers trope lol

a/n ; bet yall didn’t see this one coming lol but yea pls enjoy !!! im rlly excited for this series omg !!! im sorry this part was rlly short and kinda bad kkdfjdf but this is just the beginning and i swear part two will be much better !!

A snowflake glowing a luminescent blue lazily floated above your palm, multiplying into several others until you held a mini-flurry in your hand. You walked past all the frosted-over trees, huffing in deep breaths of cold air as your boots stepped over piles of unblemished snow and crispy dead leaves.

Being a healer was exhausting. Though you were still fairly new to the job, you couldn’t help but lay all the blame on yourself for being incapable of saving a life today. You just… hadn’t expected there to be that much blood. Icers had thicker blood for a reason; it wasn’t usually a problem. The head healer tried to reassure you that you did everything you could, but you couldn’t stand to be in the medbay for much longer. You needed air.

And that’s how you ended up here, head spinning dizzily as you stomped through the wintry grey forest, releasing out a frustrated groan from the bottom of your lungs.

“You’re dangerously close to our territory, Icer.” The sudden deep-timbered voice had you flinching so harshly you hit your head on an icy tree branch. “I’d watch my step if I was you.”

Breath caught in your throat, you watched with wide eyes as the Flamer stepped out of the shadow of a tree. He was undeniably handsome; his irises were dark, flecked with a fierce gold the same hue as the edge of a fire, his slicked-back hair a nightly black, and a curl of his carmine lips that was nowhere near friendly. An obvious insignia of a red flame was embedded into his unwrinkled jacket, a clear sign of this man being from the Fire Tribe.

“I’m sorry. I hadn’t realized I was so close to the border.” You murmured, backing away slowly. The small snowflakes that you had accumulated in your palm quickly dissipated into the air, but miniscule particles of snow still floated around you, no doubt a result of your quaking nerves.

Noticing this, the man watched curiously as a snowflake drifted by him. He raised a finger towards the ice crystal, a small orange flame bursting out of the tip. The snowflake melted into a droplet of water, falling to his feet. You noticed the snow had melted away from him in a large circle around his shoes, now standing in a patch of wet grass. Even from the great distance between the two of you, you could still feel the wavering heat pulsating from this strange man.

“What are you doing so far away from your people?”

You knew you shouldn’t be talking to a Flamer stranger. They were dangerous, and it was common knowledge that Icers and Flamers weren’t on the best terms as of late.

“I couldn’t be there anymore,” You whispered, just loud enough for him to pick up. At his raised eyebrows, you continued on. “I’m a healer. It was a lot of pressure not to mess up.”

He nodded, his curiosity getting the best of him. He stepped closer and asked, “Then why are you a healer?”

“Because I’m good at it.” The words came off far too snobbish for your liking, so you quickly added in a sheepish tone, “Also because I like helping people.”

The two of you fell into a queer silence, before he nodded, somewhat satisfied with your answer. The Flamer turned his back to you, “I best get going now. The lands aren’t going to patrol themselves. Run back to the rest of your people, Icer.”

You could feel his heat retract as he walked away. More snow fell to cover his tracks, as if the strange man with flaming eyes was never there.

It wasn’t until the same time the next day that you found yourself strolling towards the forest, back to the same spot last night, feet acting to their own accord. You paused in your steps when you realized where you were heading.

Would you really risk getting a Flamer angry at you for getting too close to their borders again? With not another thought, you pushed back the doubts and walked onwards… it wasn’t like you actually crossed the border. There was a large grey strip of forest land that belonged to neither tribe; it was far too costly to maintain and the forest gave them nothing but bugs and piles of dead leaves.

Much to your surprise, the man was already there, watching you with those glowing eyes of his. “What are you doing here?” He hissed.

“I can ask you the same thing,” You retaliated, arching an eyebrow.

The cold wind whistled as it blew past you, but you were planted firmly to the ground. He, on the other hand, grimaced quite obviously as the breeze tousled his neat hair about, sending dark strands careening into his eyes.

“I’m Y/N,” You said with a small smile. Although he pulsated with heat, that only made him feel the frigid sting of the cold wind all the more. At the sight of his shivering form, you wondered just how bad a Flamer can be.

He eyed you suspiciously before stepping forward quite boldly, sticking out a hand, “I’m Seonghwa.”

There was a strange arrhythmic thump in your chest. Now that he was so close to you, the lilith-hued snow around your feet started to wilt away as well, your cheeks flushing at the sudden rise in temperature. Icers weren’t very good with heat, that was obvious.

And when you took his hand, it was as if he was the coldest thing you’ve ever touched. But that couldn’t be it… you couldn’t really feel the cold much. Nonetheless, you gripped his palm unflinchingly, staring him dead in the eye. It became like some sort of challenge, but the both of you knew that you had obviously won. Seonghwa winced at how freezing your fingers against his were.

“Do you come here everyday?” The Flamer asked once he retracted his hand from yours to shove into the warmth of his pocket.

“Yesterday was my first time. I wasn’t planning on coming back today, but I just ended up here on instinct.” Your boot scuffed the pristine snow, avoiding the way his gaze seemed to quite literally burn holes into you.

Seonghwa frowned slightly. Funnily enough, the same exact thing had happened to him. He wasn’t on patrolling duty today, so really, he had no cause to be out here. He could be curled up with a book in front of a nice, warm fire, instead of standing in the snow with an Icer, of all people. Gods, he must be crazy.

“So… what are you doing here?” Your seemingly innocent question had Seonghwa struggling for words.

In all honesty, he had been curious whether or not you’d come back. An Icer healer in the Grey Forest was more than enough to pique his interest. Nothing remotely gripping ever happened in the Fire Tribe (other than the various men and women who threw themselves at him whenever they got the chance). He hadn’t actually expected you to come back.

“I’m… hunting.”

“It’s illegal to hunt outside of your tribe lands, everybody knows that.”

“Who said I was hunting for an animal?” Seonghwa crossed his arms over his chest to try and look somewhat menacing, but you just grinned. “I was looking for a book I lost.”

You hummed slightly, “Right.” As you waved your arm about, little snowflakes seemed to trail after you, and Seonghwa watched in masked fascination. “Can’t you just admit that you came to see me again?”

“Who’s to say that it’s not you coming to see me?”

“Hmm, let’s just say we both came to see each other. I’ve never seen a Flamer up this close before.”

Seonghwa blinked down at you with wide eyes, as if realizing just how small the distance between the two of you was. His cheeks reddened quickly as he cleared his throat into a fist, stepping backwards and almost slipping on more snow. When he attempted to sidestep the large wet puddle he’d created because of his rippling heat, his foot caught onto a tree root and he tumbled backwards. Snowflakes clung onto his dark hair and he shivered yet again. You tried to conceal your sniggers behind a palm, but Seonghwa still seemed to notice, his blazing eyes narrowing in mock-offense.

“You’re enjoying this,” He stated with an accusatory tone.

“Of course I am,” You replied through muted laughs. “I’m sorry. I would help, but I’m afraid I’d only make it worse.” To emphasize your point, you shook your hands slightly, blue crystals of snow whirling about.

Seonghwa’s fiery eyes seemed to soften at this. He pushed himself up to his feet, now shivering so harshly that you could hear his teeth chatter. You’d only known this Flamer for less than two days and yet he’d already managed to tug at your heartstrings.

“You should go back and get warm. I’ve read about Flamers and their immune systems… you guys are absolute babies when it comes to the cold.” Out of instinct, you reached out to touch his arm, like you did to most sick patients. But of course, you paused just before the tips of your fingers brushed against his jacket, curled your hand into a palm and forced it back down to your side. “I wouldn’t want you getting a fever just to see an ordinary Icer.”

Seonghwa cracked a half of a smile, shaking his head in disbelief.

But when he spun on his heel to leave, you called out before you could stop yourself, “Will I ever see you again, Seonghwa?” He stopped in his tracks without turning to looking at you. Stomach coiling into a tight knot of tension, you awaited in the palpable silence, a heavy lump forming in your throat.

“Next time, let’s go somewhere a bit warmer, yeah? Meet me closer to Flamer territory, by the river next to the largest tree in the Grey Forest. If you get to see me shiver, I get to see you sweat, Icer.” And then he continued on his way, until his lithe form disappeared behind the misty haze and the frosted shrubbery.

Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck. Just what were you thinking, agreeing to meet with a Flamer? Were you always this stupid or had you just realized now? You couldn’t believe you were spending your free time with some random Flamer from the Fire Tribe.

Thoughts of doubt swirled about in your head as you wove your way through the Grey Forest. The low rumbling of the river had you gulping down a large lump in your throat. It was already far too warm for you liking, the little snowflakes that buzzed around your head slowly melting away in water droplets. You didn’t think you’ve ever been this nervous before; not even back when you performed your first major surgery. There was just something about Seonghwa that you couldn’t stay away from… like when your Nan used to tell you no sugar candies before bed, it only made you crave for them all the more.

By the time you spotted Seonghwa leaning against the large tree, you were panting heavily, perspiration marring your skin.

“Fancy seeing you here,” The Flamer chimed, seeming to be in a much better mood now that the tables have turned. He seemed quite at ease, not a bead of sweat to be seen. “Already worked up quite a sweat, have we?”

Pathetically, you lifted your arm to conjure a small snowball, proceeding to press it against your head for cool relief. It quickly melted into a slushy of ice and water, dripping down your hair. You frowned, while Seonghwa grinned in return.

“Not so fun, is it?” He teased while you kicked off your boots and dipped your feet into the river, moaning in relief at the slightly cooler temperature of the water. You wished to make it colder, but much to your disappointment, the water wouldn’t crystalize because of how quickly it was rushing by.

Seonghwa crouched next to you, but still kept a decent length away, picking up rocks to skip across the river. For that, you were grateful, because if he made you any warmer than you were at that moment, you would’ve gotten up and stormed back to Icer lands.

“The first time we met,” You started after flicking water onto your face to cool down, making Seonghwa glance at you with curious eyes. “You were telling me to go back to my territory. But now, you made me come closer to Flamer lands. What’s up with that?”

“I don’t know,” He answered honestly. “You’re just… not what I thought an Icer would be like. It made me curious.”

“And what did you think we’d be like?”

A small shrug lifted his shoulder, “Cold. I mean, not that you aren’t, but cold as in… your hearts would be frozen over as well. I grew up with stories of Icers freezing Flamers to death and placing them in their gardens as statues. But you don’t seem like you’d do that kind of stuff. Especially when you told me that you were a healer.”

“For me, everybody knew the story of how the Fire Tribe would lock the Icers they captured in a sealed room, and the snow they made would melt and they’d slowly watch as the room filled with water, unable to turn it into ice because it was too damn hot. And eventually… they’d drown.” At the last few words, you frosted over your fingers and dunked them beneath the waters’ surface.

Seonghwa’s horrified expression made you chuckle slightly.

“Well, for the record, we don’t do that. We aren’t barbarians.” His words were said huffily as he crossed his arms and turned fully to fix his rapt gaze on you.

“I know. It was merely a silly childhood legend.”

The hours dribbled away fairly quickly, you and Seonghwa exchanging tales of your childhood that only increased in absurdity the farther you recounted. He told you about his friend, San, and how they once snuck into Wind Tribe territory to steal rare Gustberries that only grew in the harsh fields of the Breezers. You told him of Hongjoong and Wooyoung, the former being your closest friend and the latter constantly getting himself hurt. Laughs and giggles and the quiet hum of the river filled the silences in between the gaps of your vivid conversations. The more time you spent talking with him, the more you found yourself growing fond of the fiery-eyed man. Who would’ve thought?

By the time the sun had already set, you and Seonghwa were sitting much closer than when you had first sat down, his heat pulsating through the air in waves. To be honest, you didn’t quite mind the subtle warmth after you got used to the initial shock, but you knew you were pushing your limits. An Icer shouldn’t be out in high temperatures for this long.

You pushed yourself up to your feet, head swimming dizzily as you sucked in lungfuls of air. Slightly concerned, Seonghwa reached out to help you find your feet, but he pulled away at the last moment, just as you had last night. The tables really have turned, you thought in mild amusement.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m… fine…” You swayed on your feet slightly, pressing your cooler palm against your warmer-than-usual forehead.

“Come on, let’s get you back to the cold. You guys are absolute babies when it comes to the heat.” He said, mimicking the same exact words you told him yesterday. A weak laugh slipped past your lips, as you leaned against a tree branch.

Oh, everything was just too hot. You’ve been out of the snow for too long…

All of a sudden, the world was flipped onto its side, damp grass pressing against your face. You could barely register Seonghwa startled yelp before everything went dark.

“Hey. Icer, are you okay? Icer! Y/N, come on, I put you back in the snow, I don’t know what else to do.”

Though your head pounded as though someone had whacked you with a tree branch, you could just barely make out Seonghwa’s concerned tone. When your eyelids fluttered open, you were met with the sight of the Flamer’s handsome, yet alarmed face.

“You okay?” His words came gentle and soothing.

Puffing out a small sigh, you nodded tiredly. Being back in the snow felt much better, “Yeah. Thank you,” You croaked out sheepishly.

Seonghwa beamed down at you, before shuffling away so as the snow around you wouldn’t melt. But just as soon as the smile graced his features, it quickly dissipated into a frown, “Don’t scare me like that,” He practically scolded. “You win, okay? Next time we can stay in the snow.”

Breath caught in your throat, a heavy blush laid over your cheeks, “Next time? You just can’t get enough of me, can you?”

“No, I suppose not,” Seonghwa said somewhat nonchalantly, shocking you.

“I… well, thank you for the, well… uhm, getting me back,” You stumbled over your words the longer Seonghwa stared. Oh, what was this man doing to you? “I have some… healer things I need to do… so, I best get going… erm -” Without another thought, you pushed yourself onto your knees, snow crunching underneath your breeches as you leaned over towards him.

He was so warm. His face, especially, once you brushed your far-cooler lips against his cheekbone. The Flamer reared back with a ridiculous, startled expression, eyes comically wide. One of his hands came up to clamp against the cheek you kissed, mouth opening and closing but no words coming out.

“It was really nice talking to you. Thank you again,” You murmured while hiding a grin behind your palm. With that, you turned on your heel and left the blushing Flamer alone in the snow.

From then on, you saw Seonghwa practically every day. Oftentimes, you’d meet in the snow and stroll through the Grey Forest until it got far too warm and the both of you would have to turn back. The moment he’d see your skin dampen with sweat, he’d have the two of you abruptly changing course, steering away from the heat of the Fire Tribe. You thought that was incredibly thoughtful of him.

Once, Seonghwa discovered a more shallower part of the river that you could actually crystalize to keep yourself cool. That day was a good day. You had gently taken his scorching hand and tried to help him run across the ice before his heat could melt it away. The two of you left soaking wet, boisterous grins painted across your lips.

Hongjoong, being your closest friend and all, was constantly questioning and badgering on about where you went every afternoon. After all, you were a healer and your tribe needed you. But, however selfish it was, you didn’t want to stop seeing Seonghwa… he made you feel things no person from the Ice Tribe had ever made you feel.

The more you saw him, the more you had the urge to yank his stupidly sharp jawline towards you and shove your lips onto his. You’d imagine the way the warmth radiating off his skin would feel underneath your frigid palms and lips. You thought back to the second-long cheek kiss you gave him a couple months back, a fond smile tickling at the corner of your mouth.

“What’re you thinking about?” Seonghwa asked from beside you, nudging you slightly. Over a long course of time, the pair of you grew more and more comfortable with one another, inching closer and closer with each meet-up. At this point, you were practically sitting on top of him, one of his legs intertwined with yours and your head laying on his shoulder, the both of you leaning against a frosted tree trunk. Seonghwa smelled of sweet, burning sugar with a heavier scent of roasted coffee beans. He also often complained about how cold you were, although his tone was always fairly light and lacked any true bite.

“Nothing,” You were quick to say, pulling your head away from his shoulder to peer up at him.

Shrugging off your strange attitude, Seonghwa glanced down at you with excited eyes, “You wanna see a new trick I learned?”

Without awaiting your answer (because he knew you’d say yes anyway), Seonghwa cupped his hands together and pulled them away to produce a thin orange flame morphed into the shape of a shooting arrow. You watched in rapt fascination as the fire-arrow spun in the air when Seonghwa whistled sharply. Then, he pushed it away to embed itself into the tree across from you. The tree’s dry bark was quick to catch aflame, but you flicked your hands and caged in the fire with frost, the orange dying out into the blackened wood.

“Learned that during archery,” Seonghwa beamed down at your bemused expression. “You know, only the best Flamers can morph their fires into shapes. It takes a lot of concentration.”

With no effort at all, you twirled your fingers to make an intricate rabbit out of ice, whiskers and fur and all, holding it out to Seonghwa with a minuscule smile. The Flamer scowled slightly, and touched the tip of his finger to the clear crystal, watching it dribble into liquid through the gaps of your palms.

You rolled your eyes to the side before leaning your head back onto his shoulder with a content sigh, “Don’t you compete with me, Park Seonghwa. You’ll never win.”

Much to your surprise, he didn’t bother to argue, and instead pressed his warm nose into your frosty hair, humming, “Yeah, yeah. And who was the one that fainted in the heat again?”

“If I recall correctly, you’ve caught more than three colds just this year! And it’s only the fifth moon, too!”

His hands suddenly darted out to tickle your midriff, to which you squirmed away with a smothered laugh.

“Hm, wanna put it to the test? I promise I’ll go easy,” You said teasingly once you managed to capture his wrists. You could feel his pulse rapidly thumping against the pad of your thumb.

“I don’t know… I wouldn’t want to hurt you.”

“Trust me, you’re not the one that’ll be hurting.”

“Oh, you’re on, Icer.”

The two of you stumbled onto your feet and you held yourself up in a defensive stance. With a faint smile, Seonghwa mimicked your position. Admittedly, it wasn’t a very fair fight; you were a healer and he was a well-trained fighter.

But nonetheless, you were the first to throw, a frozen ball of ice the size of your fist hurtled towards him at top speed. Seonghwa was quick to react, blasting the ice with orange flames until it melted mid-air. You frowned and lithely dodged behind a tree when he reconjured his fire arrows and sent them after you. In retaliation, you quickly brought up a thick ice barrier with a laugh, smothering the thin lines of fire away with the sole of your boots.

The air was chock-full of his crackling flames muted by your snow, crystalline icicles dripping from nearby tree branches, and lame taunts tossed back and forth by the both of you as you play-fought for another couple of minutes.

Seonghwa might’ve had the upper hand in combat, but you knew how to play dirty. Just as he was stepping forward, you sent a sheet of slippery ice to slide underneath his boots. With a bewildered expression, Seonghwa flailed about for a moment, the small fire he prepared in his palm dying down to glowing embers, before tumbling down into the snow.

“That was low, Y/N,” The Flamer huffed out whilst trying to catch his breath against the pale white mound of snowflakes, glaring at you with playfully narrowed eyes. You were glad to see that he wasn’t actually angry at you.

“Do you call defeat, Seonghwa? There’s no shame in admitting it, you know!” Your jaunts were light-hearted as you walked closer to him and Seonghwa found himself grinning despite the cold stinging his skin.

Sticking your hand out to help him up, Seonghwa eyed you for a moment with an indiscernible expression, his playful nature fading away into something you couldn’t quite decipher.

Instead of pushing himself up, he suddenly pulled you down with him, a startled shriek leaving your lips and echoing across the Grey Forest. You fell on top of him with a grunt of pain, meeting his glowing amber eyes with your confused ones. During your hazy moment of puzzlement, Seonghwa tugged you closer, his warm palms curled around your forearms gently.

And then, without further warning, he kissed you. This one was nothing like the first kiss you gave him. That one was merely an innocent peck on the cheek. But this one… this one held passion and furtive desire and yearning. The both of you most definitely wanted this, it was quite clear by now.

Your senses were overwhelmed in the best way possible. All you could smell was him, the heavy undertone of roasted coffee beans sending your head into a cloudy daze. Your lips were slanted against his hot ones, noses of starkly opposite temperatures bumping against one another in your moment of desperation. You weren’t sure where to place your hands, so you balled them up against his jacket, just close enough to feel the hardness of his chest underneath.

For you, everything was hot, searing with a need for more as his plump, warm lips laid over yours. For him, however, everything was cold. The snow beneath was a mild annoyance, and yet he was willing to bear through it for you. You were equally freezing, but Seonghwa welcomed the cold for once, a dangerous ache that would grow to be lethal if neither of you were careful.

A small, frosty sigh left you when he pulled away for a second to stare at you with those intense eyes of his. You stared back with part-confusion and part-longing, lips agape. That apparently set something off in him, because he sat up with you straddling his hips, hands now encircled around your midriff as he kissed you more passionately, leaning forward so your back arched into him.

This wasn’t supposed to be happening. Why were you feeling these emotions for a Flamer of all people? Why couldn’t you have just stayed within your own tribe? Turmoil churned about in you as you kissed him in somewhat of a frantic manner. You hated yourself for loving it so much.

The second time he pulled away, you were both gasping for breath, lips swollen and clothes rumpled and askew. You could tell he wanted to kiss you again, and probably a thousand times after that. To be frank, that was all you wanted as well.

But you knew this had to stop. And so, when he leaned forward to capture your lips with his again, you flinched none-too-subtly and slid off his lap. An expression of genuine hurt flickered across his handsome, reddened features. A twinge of guilt gnawed away at your stomach as you got up onto your shaky feet.

“Go home, Seonghwa,” Was all you could find yourself saying with a hoarse voice. “You’re going to catch a cold again.”

You couldn’t look at him anymore. And so, you left him laying crestfallen in the snow, hurriedly making your way back to Icer lands, small blue snowflakes trailing behind you and cold tears pricking the corners of your eyes.

The next day, Seonghwa didn’t show up. You waited by your usual meet-up place, gnawing on your lip anxiously, glancing every which way in hopes of seeing the raven-headed Flamer. In the midst of your worrying turmoil, more and more snowflakes emanated from your skin and it didn’t take long for them to accumulate by your feet, completely covering your boots in a pristilline white blanket. You stepped out of the feather-soft pile, opting to impatiently trudge about in an attempt to steel your nerves.

You hadn’t been able to sleep that night. Seonghwa’s heartbroken expression was imprinted into your mind, leaving you in a mess of guilt and regret and anger.

Why did you have to push him away? Seonghwa, your first non-Icer friend, shoved away as if he meant nothing. You released a frustrated groan, smacking your palm into your forehead.

It made sense that he didn’t want to see you. If you were in his shoes, you probably wouldn’t leave your room and have the light of day touch your face for a whole moon. The idea of Seonghwa upset just didn’t sit right with you. Nonetheless, you could do little else than bide your time for him, however much you hated waiting.

He didn’t show up the next day either. Nor the one after that.

By the fourth day of waiting, you started to feel twinges of discouragement, but you never gave up, determined to set things right with Seonghwa. The niggling thought of him never showing up was one that often pestered you while you patiently awaited his return, although always quickly shoved down into the corner of your mind. You didn’t want to think about what you would do if you never saw him again.

It took just over a week of waiting for him to come back. At that point, you hadn’t thought he’d come back at all, reluctantly accepting that you’ve ultimately ruined your friendship with Seonghwa.

And so, imagine your surprise when his voice rang out through the trees, your name rolling off his tongue smoothly, “Y/N.”

Startled, you flinched so hard that your head hit a branch that hung lowly on the icy tree you were sitting beneath. It reminded you so much of the first time you met him that you couldn’t help but crack a smile after your initial pained grimace.

“Seonghwa,” You gasped, eyes round with shock and mouth agape. “You’re… you’re back!”

The excitement in your voice didn’t go undetected by either of you, but his features were set in stone, unmoving and neutral. Those blazing eyes of his seemed to bore holes into you, and you felt strangely naked underneath his gaze. You noticed that his appearance was more disheveled than ever, eyebags dark and hair not neatly slicked back like usual. He looked broken, but far too proud to admit so.

“Seonghwa…?” You stepped closer, the frosted leafy foliage crumbling under the pressure. This man was someone you deeply cared about, and you knew he felt the same about you.

So why was he staring at you like you meant nothing to him?

A shiver ran down your spine, a sensation that only Seonghwa could bestow upon you. Which was ironic, because the cold feeling that tickled down your spine was ignited by a man with powers of fire and heat.

You and him didn’t belong together. That was clear as day by now.

“Seonghwa,” You mumbled again, reaching out to him once close enough.

He shut his eyes as if looking at you were torture. It stung more than you liked to admit, so you retracted your fingers, clenching them into a fist and dropping them back by your side awkwardly. The air was so tense, so utterly uncomfortable, you could feel the crack in your heart splinter into more branches.

“Stop saying that.”

“Saying what?” Your bottom lip trembled. This wasn’t the Seonghwa you’ve grown to be so fond of. This man scared you. You had half a mind to grab him by the shoulders and shake some sense back into him. Where did your Seonghwa go?

An angry huff escaped his lips, misting visibly out of his carmine lips. The very ones you kissed a little over a week ago.

“You can’t… just… don’t say my name. Please. We can’t be like that anymore. We can’t do this. We can’t keep seeing each other.” Seonghwa’s stoic mask disintegrated into raw emotion. He looked to be on the verge of tears, and you wouldn’t be surprised if you mirrored the same exact expression.

There was a part of you that wanted to yell and scream and throw sharp icicles at him until he had no choice but to run back to Flamer territory. Anywhere, as long as it was far away from you. The other, more rational part of you, whispered that he was right. After all, you were the one that pushed him away first. It was only fair.

A broken bone won’t heal if you keep putting pressure on the wound. Being a healer, you couldn’t just ignore your own teachings.

But for just once in your life, you wanted to be selfish. You wanted to hold Seonghwa tightly in your grasp, no matter how dangerous it was. You wanted to call him yours, and you wanted to be his. You wanted to kiss him again, despite the small action being the ultimate downfall for the both of you.

And so you found yourself croaking out, making sure to emphasize his name, “Seonghwa, you know just as much as I do that there’s something here between us. You can’t just ignore it and toss that all out the window!”

His face screwed up in an effort to keep the onslaught of tears at bay. Perhaps what he felt for you wasn’t yet as strong as what he’d call love, but he wasn’t very far from it. He cared too much for you, so much more than anybody else in his life.

He needed you. And because of that, he had to let you go. Fraternizing with the enemy wasn’t something to be taken lightly. If his tribe knew about this little escapade of his, they’d have his head and would finally have a good enough reason to declare war. Regardless, it was only a matter of time. The Fire Tribe has hated Icers for centuries and centuries, teetering on the brink between neutrality and complete bloodshed.

“We have no choice,” The words were said in a low tone, rumbling deep down in his chest. Seonghwa shuffled closer, so close that you could feel his familiar heat wavering against the ice once again. You longed to reach out and place your hand on his chest, feel his heart thumping against his ribcage frantically, just as yours was. “Do you know what they’d do to you - to us - if our tribes found us together? It’s too risky, Y/N. I don’t know what I’d do if you got hurt.”

“I’m a healer. I can take care of myself! And we can just stay careful like we always have. Besides, people rarely come into the Grey Forest anymore!” Your words came out fast and jittery and panicked. You thought that you had already come to terms with losing the man that stood in front of you, but you were far from acceptance, you knew that now.

Seonghwa carded a pale hand through dark strands of hair, “I’m sorry, were you not the one that told me to go back home? You started this. You wanted this!” He was so agitated that when he swung his arm back to his side, small crackles of fire lit up his fingers.

Something inside you snapped, “I most definitely did not! It was just… all too sudden and I needed time to think. Now that I’ve already thought, there’s no need for us to run away and never see each other again! You’re overexaggerating, Seonghwa.”

“No, you don’t get it. Don’t you know, Y/N? Our tribes are verging on war. We’re supposed to be enemies, you and I. Don’t be daft!” His voice raised a notch or two louder, and you found yourself shrinking into yourself.

Tears pricked your eyes and you looked away from his fierce gaze, “We don’t have to be a part of that. We can just -”

“Just what? Pretend? We can’t play picnic in the forest and act like our people aren’t planning to slaughter each other!”

“You know what?” You shouted so loudly that the birds nesting on treetops fluttered away, a mass of dark wings and agitated squawks. “If you want to walk away from this relationship, from me, then go ahead! I won’t stop you. Fuck you, Seonghwa. Fuck you for throwing this away the moment it became something more.”

“You were the first to push away!” He protested, pointing an accusatory finger at you.

“Well, I’m sorry!” You cried out, furiously swiping away the tears that dribbled down your cheeks. “I’m sorry I was scared! I’m willing to try again, but you’re not giving me the chance. I waited for you every day, you know.”

“I know. I saw,” He said, suddenly quiet. “I’m sorry for making you wait.”

The two of you stared at each other defiantly, heavy breaths misting the air in front of you. His nose was tinted a deep pink, no doubt because of the cold.

“I’m leaving,” Seonghwa said after a long while. “And you shouldn’t come back here. Ever. I need you to know, Y/N. I’m doing this because I care about you. I expect you to do the same for me.”

Then, after casting you a forlorn expression, he tore his blazing eyes away and stiffly swiveled around in the snow. A gust of wind tousled his hair and he blew out a sigh of pale white mist. The cold made his nose red, and you subconsciously noticed the way he shivered slightly, brushing snowflakes off his sleeve. You’d miss that.

You’d miss him.

His heat grew fainter as his long strides took him further away from you. Your tears had crystallized on your cheeks uncomfortably, a frozen reminder of what you’d lost. You had half the mind to storm right up to Seonghwa and force him to stay here, by your side. That was the child speaking within you, however, and you were no longer a child.

Flicking the solidified salt water on your cheeks away, you did just the same as Seonghwa had minutes ago, trudging your way back to Icer lands. Little did either of you know, the two of you cried fresh tears along the whole journey back.

The last time you ever stepped foot in the Grey Forest was just the day after. Your eyes were puffy and aching, hair a terrible mess, and a wax-sealed envelope was tightly clutched in your hand.

There was a chance that Seonghwa would never come back. In fact, it was most probable that he’d never get the precariously written letter you left by the usual meeting place, considering what he told you yesterday.

Fond memories sunk its sharpened claws into you, stealing away your breath as you cupped both hands over your mouth, overwhelmed in every way possible. You were far too drained to cry, having emptied away all your tears the day before.

And so, you brushed stray snowflakes off the periwinkle-hued wax stamp, placing it down by the tree stump where Seonghwa usually sat.

Then you muttered a quiet, broken goodbye, stomping back to Icer lands. You were never going to see Seonghwa again.

Dear Seonghwa,

I know you told me to never come back. I won’t, I promise. I just wanted to leave the letter because… we never properly got to say goodbye, did we?

Well, congrats, you big dummy. You’re right. You always were, and you always are. We were never supposed to be friends. I mean, I suppose we’re enemies now, aren’t we? It was quite the foolish fantasy we had going on there, huh? I get it, we have to stay loyal to our respective tribes, we can’t risk getting caught, so on so forth. I just hope that when war is declared (which doesn’t seem to be long from now, to be quite honest), I won’t see you on the battlefield. I don’t think I’d be able to handle that.

So, I guess this is goodbye. It’s a little hard to believe that I won’t ever get to see your stupid face again. Remember when I threw a snowball at you so hard that it broke your nose? You panicked and blood went splattering everywhere and it didn’t stop until I got you to calm down. For a highly-ranked Flamer soldier, I’d expect you to be less squeamish at the sight of your own blood. It’s alright, though. As a healer myself, blood still freaks me out just a bit.

I thought I ruined your pretty face for all the poor ladies and gents who were mad in love with you back at the Flame Tribe, and I felt so guilty. And then you smiled! I remember feeling envy and astonishment at the same time because how the hell could one look pretty while smiling through a broken, bloody nose?

I’m glad I didn’t ruin your face, though. You’d probably get really mad at me if I did. But you would’ve forgiven me eventually, right?

Frankly, I don’t know if I deserve your forgiveness for what I did. And no, I’m not talking about hurting your precious face (they say a once-broken nose makes a man more attractive!). I’m sorry for pushing you away, Seonghwa. Really, I don’t know what I was thinking. I was scared and I needed time to think. I hope you understand that. If you don’t, that’s okay as well.

If I could rewind time, I wouldn’t have stopped kissing you. I could’ve carried on for days and days and days on end. Did you know that you’re the second person I’ve ever kissed? Don’t ask about the first, drunk Wooyoung isn’t really something to brag about. Well, for the record, you were the first kiss I actually enjoyed. Congrats.

Of course, all this doesn’t mean that it was entirely my fault. I waited for you for a week, and you did nothing but hide behind trees and watch. That was real shitty of you, to put it plainly.

I’ll miss you, though. I’ve never felt this way about any Icer and I doubt I ever will. Of all people to set my sights on, it just had to be a Flamer. What rotten luck we have.

Goodbye forever, Seonghwa. Stay safe, alright? For my sake.

With much love,

Y/N.

Seonghwa read the letter through so quickly that his pupils seemed to be moving at lightning speed. Then, with a numbed heart, he read it a second time, this time much slower.

By the third time he reread each of your carefully handwritten words, warm tears of salt water were running over his cheeks. His face had grown considerably hotter, the salty liquid steaming misty tendrils against his skin. He was angry. So, so ridiculously angry. At himself, at this stupid rivalry between the tribes, at you for being so goddamn perfect. Of course you’d managed to squeeze in jaunts and jokes in a farewell note.

There was a part of him that wished he’d never come back to the Grey Forest and found the letter. Fat droplets of his tears trickled down his jaw and soaked through the parchment, marring the intricate ink characters. With a gentle sigh, Seonghwa brushed the dampness away and stiffly flicked his wrist.

The letter burst into glowing orange flames. And Seonghwa watched on, stifling down the urge to break down into a fit of chest-wracking sobs, until your goodbye was nothing but a measly pile of blackened ashes on his palm.

#ateez x reader #ateez seonghwa x reader #seonghwa x reader #ateez #park seonghwa #ateez smut #seonghwa smut #park seonghwa x reader #seonghwa x you #ateez x you #ateez fanfiction #ateez seonghwa #ateez fantasy au #ateez imagines #ateez angst #seonghwa imagines #park seonghwa x you #ateez fanfics

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audreydoeskaren · 4 years ago

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History of Chinese standing collars (part 1: Ming & Qing)

So, a lot of people nowadays refer to a certain type of standing collar as a “Mandarin collar” but I'm not sure if that’s legit, because standing collars throughout Chinese history looked different. I was confronted by this topic when I was writing my post on 1950s Chinese fashion and felt like I had to make a separate post. I’m gonna do a quick break down of all the different types of standing collars in historical Chinese fashion from the 16th century to the present and how they developed.

Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)

The first mature 立领 liling standing collars were applied to women’s robes in the late 15th/early 16th century. Before any garment with a standing collar was invented, both men and women in Ming China wore garments with either a 圆领 yuanling round collar, 直领 zhiling parallel collar or 交领 jiaoling crossover collar, with crossover collars being the more common in womenswear.

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Early Ming Dynasty portrait of a lady in a crossover collar robe.

The development of a standing collar was in large part thanks to the invention/adoption of the 子母扣 zimukou metal clasp button. I wonder why the fabric knotted buttons used on round collar robes were not used on standing collars in this period? They were awfully similar to the pankous of later. Anyway, at one point in the 15th century, some women thought it would be cool to add zimukou to their clothes and it resulted in this (they were also used on 比甲 bijia, 半臂 banbi and 短衫 duanshan but those are irrelevant to collars):

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Part of 明宪宗元宵行乐图 (a painting depicting various Lantern Festival activities at the court of Emperor Xianzong), 1485. This lady is wearing a crossover collar robe with a zimukou at the middle.

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Modern reproduction zimukou. You could buy these for cheap on Taobao if you want to sew your own Ming style hanfu btw.

In the 16th century a fashion revolution took place in China: the standing collar, which came out of nowhere, began to suddenly dominate women’s clothing. This OG Chinese standing collar was very tall and form fitting, usually covering all of the wearer’s neck. It had sharp, rectangular edges and was closed by two zimukou, one placed at the bottom of the collar where it meets the bodice and another slightly above, not reaching the top of the collar. An important feature that set this apart from the collars of the 20th century is that it was unstiffened and made of the same fabric as the robe, meaning it was soft and could be worn with the top bit folded over, showing the lining which could be of a contrasting color. For archival purposes let’s call this collar style 1.

There are various theories as to why the standing collar was invented, e.g. because of colder climate during the little ice age, which peaked in the late 16th/early 17th century. Methinks it was just a fad which stayed.

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Late Ming Dynasty portrait, collar style 1.

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Late 16th century/early 17th century aristocratic lady wearing a standing collar robe underneath a round collar robe. The top of her collar is folded over. Collar style 1 variation 2.

Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)

This style of collar became the norm for Han Chinese women’s fashion in the mid to late 16th century and stayed that way throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. While the clothing silhouettes and accessories changed, the shape of the standing collar remained the same.

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Late 17th century illustration for pornographic novel 肉蒲团 (1657). Collar style 1, but it became fashionable in the 17th century to have rows of piping around the neck for each button, so variation 3. Oh and wlw pride come throoouuuugh

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Early 18th century court painting, collar style 1 variation 3.

At some point in the late 18th century Han women decided it would be cool to use 盘扣 pankou, this fabric braided/knotted button of Manchu origin (more on Manchu dress later) on their collars instead of zimukou. The decoration also became more extravagant, with often rows of thick binding, piping or trim, corresponding to the decorations on the rest of the robe. It’s also slightly shorter, the upper button being at the very top of the collar. Let’s call this collar style 2.

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(Presumably) late 18th century reverse glass painting showing collar style 2. The late 18th century deserves more attention, it’s such an important transitional period but also charming in its own way. This is true of European fashion of the period as well, I honestly love both places in the late 18th century.

In the beginning of the 19th century, the fashionable collar shape suddenly changed for some reason. It became extremely low, approximately only 1-2cm tall, only tall enough to accommodate one button. It still had crisp, rectangular edges. You could say this is another variation of collar style 2 but it is so iconic to the 19th century I think I’ll call this collar style 3.

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Reverse glass painting ca. 1830. Han lady wearing a robe with collar style 3.

Now a brief look at Manchu womenswear. I am not an expert on Manchu historical fashion so tell me if I’m wrong. So the Manchus, who were apparently a confederation of Jurchen tribes from the area in what is northeastern China nowadays, invaded China successfully in the 1640s and remained the rulers of China until 1911 when they were replaced by the Republic of China. Throughout most of the Qing Dynasty Manchu women wore collarless robes, it was not until the mid 19th century that some Manchu women started to wear detachable collars to emulate Han women’s fashion, and not until around 1908 (!) when standing collars were actually added to their gowns themselves. Yes, period dramas did Manchu women dirty, poor gals have been dressed in the wrong costumes this, entire, time. The misrepresentation of Manchu historical fashion in the media in general is just fucking infuriating, but well, topic for a future post.

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Late 17th century/early 18th century portrait of a Manchu lady. She is wearing a 衬衣 chenyi, a robe with straight sleeves, no slits and closed at the right side. It’s a casual gown worn for everyday activities. Her chenyi is collarless and the collar is closed by binding.

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1840s/1850s court gown. She is wearing 氅衣 changyi (the bottom part of the first character should be 衣 not 毛 but this character is so obscure that it literally DOES NOT EXIST in the Chinese language anymore omg), a more elaborate style developed in the early 19th century with slits down both sides and wide trims along the collar, cuffs, side closure, side slits and hem. I have yet to see an extant example with a standing collar, all the changyi from the 19th century I’ve seen in museum collections are collarless, so the collar seen in paintings must’ve been detachable. Maybe some Manchu women liked Han women’s fashion and wanted to wear a detachable collar. I have, however, seen Manchu women’s vests and jackets with standing collars. These were similar to late 18th century Han women’s collars, so collar style 2.

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1890s/1900s women’s vest with collar style 2.

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Ca. 1908. Chenyi with standing collar. If the passage of time is still not clear, notice the Western fabric used. Collar style 2.

At first glance this might look like a cheongsam but it is not. Chenyi did not have slits down the sides, unlike most 20th century cheongsam. It may have been a source of inspiration for cheongsam though, as I have explained in one of my 1930s posts, although the more obvious prototype for cheongsam was the changyi with slits and standing collars.

Let us now turn our attention to Manchu menswear, which is where things get complicated. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Manchu riding habit, 行服袍 xingfupao, was a form fitting calf length robe with form fitting long sleeves and 马蹄袖 matixiu “horse hoof cuffs”, closed at the side with pankou. It was constructed in the same method as Han Chinese clothing. This original Manchu robe was collarless----I cannot stress this enough. The Manchus did not come barging into China wearing robes with standing collars goddamnit, get your facts right period dramas.

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Portrait of Emperor Kangxi in a xingfupao. This is from the early 18th century already but the style didn’t change much so you get the idea. I love this color btw I think he looks great in it.

The xingfupao was an informal riding habit and only one small part in the gigantic system of Manchu court dress, the rules of which are well documented but I don’t bother to look them up. If you would like to do that, Google 大清会典. At one point in the early 18th century some Manchu dudes decided it was cool to add a collar to their xingfupao (like... Han women??) and it resulted in this:

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An early example from the Kangxi era (1661-1722), a xingfupao with a standing collar of a contrasting color. The hem is detachable for horse riding (horse riding was an important aspect of Manchu culture and that influenced many of their fashion decisions). Judging by the fur lining I assume the standing collar was added for warmth in winter? I also saw some xingfupao with fur trim attached to standing collars so maybe that was the purpose.

Standing collars on xingfupao was constructed in a similar way to Han women’s collars, with rectangular edges and closed by two buttons. Pankous, which were unique to Manchu dress, were used instead of the Han zimukou. It appears that this collar was also soft and unstiffened, so it could be worn with the top bit folded over like in ye olde times (the 16th century). It’s important to note that xingfupao with a standing collar were not common at all, maybe a 1/20 probability to see in museum collections. Construction wise it’s similar to collar style 2 but it appeared earlier and was exclusive to menswear, so let’s call it collar style 4.

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Qianlong era (1735-1796) portrait, xingfupao with standing collar of the same color folded over. Collar style 4 variation 2.

Another garment with a standing collar was the dress of the officials, known by white people as “Mandarins”. From the artworks and photographs I’ve seen, the collar only appeared in the outfit with a 行服褂 xingfugua, a button down tunic with straight, wide sleeves and slits at the front, back and sides. It was usually worn in combination with xingfupao, like how a shirt and vest are fixed combinations in European menswear. However, the collar of this kind of outfit was separate from the tunic itself. A plastron with an attached collar was worn underneath the robe and tunic (completely detachable collars were also used I think??) and the collar was buttoned from the inside. Not sure if this qualifies as a standing collar at all since it isn’t even attached to the robe itself, but anyway let’s just call this collar style 5.

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19th century portrait of an official. He is wearing a blue xingfupao, an indigo xingfugua and a blue detachable collar; a standard ensemble (well he’s also wearing pants and boots and stuff but that’s not the focus here). Collar style 5.

Oh I forgot to mention, after the Manchus took over China, they enforced their dress code on Han Chinese men but not Han Chinese women, so in the Qing Dynasty Han and Manchu menswear were one and the same but Han and Manchu womenswear were not.

I’ve only been talking about court dress so far, educated/well off civilian Han men would wear 长衫 changshan, a floor length robe, sometimes with a 马褂 magua, a short riding vest (derived from xingfugua), whereas poorer Han men would wear 短打 duanda, a short button down shirt, and pants. Well people who wore changshan also wore pants underneath but they’re not visible. All men wore pants tbh (incoming tangent), a while back when Harry Styles in a dress (which I stan) was making the rounds on social media some well meaning people were trying to find historical precedents for men wearing dresses and they named Chinese historical clothing as an example. I just wanna say, while I appreciate the sentiment, the harsh reality was that historical Han Chinese fashion was extremely gendered (except for a few brief time periods and a few select garments). Pants were reserved for men and skirts for women, the long gown like garments seen on men in historical portraiture were all robes, not dresses; you wouldn’t consider a long coat or bathrobe a dress nowadays, would you? Men always wore pants as undergarments while women wore petticoats. However I think that’s great for illustrating how our perception of whether a garment is masculine/feminine could change over time and that gender is socially constructed. Back to the main topic, to my knowledge, magua never had collars because it was a vest, changshan commonly had collars and duanda sometimes did too. I’m not sure when the standing collar began to appear on changshan, maybe when the court xingfupao gained collar style 4 it stuck in civilian fashion, maybe it was some point in the 19th century.

Anyway, fast forward to the late 19th century, the men’s changshan had a tall standing collar but again it was different to everything we’ve seen so far. It was exceptionally tall and had a smoothly tapering edge closed by only one pankou at the bottom. This resulted in a huge v shape gap down the middle. It’s still unstiffened but because of the lack of a rectangular edge it couldn’t be worn folded over. Let’s call this collar style 6.

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Late 19th century/early 20th century portrait of a man. Changshan with collar style 6.

Let’s finish this part with Han women’s collars in the 1890s and 1900s. Around this time Han womenswear began to modernize and become simpler, but that trend did not apply to collars: the collars of Han women’s robes suddenly became unnaturally tall. They were so tall that they touched the wearer’s cheeks and couldn’t be closed at the front at all, kind of resembling Regency era European men’s collars?? This style of collar was oftentimes called 元宝领 yuanbaoling, ingot collar, or 马鞍领 ma’anling, saddle collar, after the object it resembles. Let’s call all of these tall collars that touch the wearer’s face collar style 7, but bear in mind these had a lot of variations.

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Photograph from the 1900s. This could be categorized as a cursed variation of collar style 6 judging from how it only has one pankou and a tapering edge instead of a rectangular edge. But like, belle époque Chinese collars are a whole other species, so let’s comfortably call it collar style 7.

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More collar style 7 representation. This collar style will never stop being funny to me, like just look at it it’s so tall.

So, in summary:

Collar style 1: OG Ming Dynasty standing collar, in fashion from the 16th to mid 18th century. Tall, unstiffened, rectangular edges. Closed with two zimukou. Could have piping (17th & early 18th century). Could be worn with top bit folded over (16th & early 17th century). Worn by Han women.

Collar style 2: developed from collar style 1, popularized in the late 18th century. Medium height, unstiffened, rectangular edges. Closed with two pankou/other fabric buttons. Commonly has binding, piping or trim. Worn by Han women in the late 18th century, partially adopted by Manchu women in the late 19th century.

Collar style 3: developed from collar style 2, exclusive to the 19th century. Extremely short, unstiffened, rectangular edges. Closed with one pankou. Commonly has binding, piping or trim. Worn by Han women.

Collar style 4: collar style 2 but simpler, appeared in the late 17th/early 18th century. Tall, unstiffened, rectangular edges. Closed with two pankou. Commonly plain. Worn by Manchu & Han men.

Collar style 5: detachable standing collar, a staple of official’s uniforms throughout the Qing Dynasty. Medium height, unstiffened, rectangular/rounded edges. Buttoned from the inside. Always plain. Worn by all officials (exclusively men in this era).

Collar style 6: civilian men’s collar characterized by v shape gap at the front, I don’t know when it first appeared, some point in the Qing Dynasty. Tall, unstiffened, rounded and dramatically tapering edges. Closed by one pankou. Worn by civilian Manchu & Han men.

Collar style 7: cursed belle époque (1890s & 1900s) women’s collars that touched the wearer’s face. Extremely tall, stiffened, both rounded and rectangular edges existed. Closed by one pankou at the bottom but sometimes had more pankou for ornamental purposes. Worn by Han women in this period.

Join me next time as we dive into the Republican era where things get extra complicated.

#hanfu #historic fashion #chinese fashion #chinese history #ming dynasty #qing dynasty #16th century #17th century #18th century #19th century

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sigritandtheelves · 3 years ago

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i saw a diff anon ask about Scully’s childhood, and I wanted to hear your take on Mulder’s childhood after Samantha was taken. It’s canon that Mulder and his dad were estranged and didn’t talk for years. I assume his mom was really drained because her baby girl was gone, and she still had another kid to worry about. He was upset for both their deaths, and was distraught when his mom had her stroke so he obviously loved her, although more than he loved his dad

[This ask is from last summer, omg… I save them, see? Just taking my time, lol]

Putting this under a cut bc it’s pretty long…

We get a few glimpses into what Mulder’s childhood looked like, and we know that there was quite a lot of pain and misdirected guilt. I’ve seen a lot of fans turn their ire toward Teena Mulder, and I really don’t think she deserved it. Excuse the digression about her life, but I think it’s warranted.

Teena Mulder was born in 1941, which means she was twenty when her son was born. That means she was a teenage bride, not uncommon in the late 1950s/early 60s, but still: she was essentially a child when she was was pulled into a world of powerful men, secrets, and intrigue at the height of the Cold War—tied to a group that we know treated women as disposable: walking wombs to fit a higher agenda of reproducing “better” humans. Bill Mulder may have loved her, but his loyalties were still to a group that saw her only as a pawn and a body to produce children they could experiment on.

Teena had an “affair” with CSM when she was nineteen, probably just as she was learning how truly insidious this group of men was, that her new husband was one of them. Bill Mulder, too, was torn and tortured by the demands of this cabal, but never enough to push back, to quit, to turn against their methods.

Nevertheless, the Mulders gave her child, then children, a happy environment to grow up in. Mulder describes his early childhood (before Samantha was taken) as idyllic. Some of this may be rose-colored glasses looking back, but I also think his parents worked hard to hide the horrors from them. The children were happy, even if Teena wasn’t.

After Samantha was taken, though, the Mulders could no longer pretend or ignore or forget. Teena had no forgiveness to offer her husband: how could she? She loved her son, but she was broken by the loss of her daughter. She had a stroke at age 55!, probably a result of years of trauma and repression: stress on her brain and body from emotional abuse and threats of physical violence. (If you think the project didn’t threaten her, too…) When she is cold to Mulder, this is a trauma response, a survival response: she lives only by pushing down the fact that her whole life was orchestrated by cruel men and out of her control. Mulder’s demands that she tell him what happened are a reminder of that. Neither of her children, in the end, managed to escape this thing.

We know Mulder’s parents fell apart after Samantha was taken, and Bill Mulder absolutely redirected his guilt and shame onto his son, which emotionally traumatized Mulder for life. Mulder saw Samantha’s abduction as a catastrophic event, rather than a culmination of tension: the execution of a plan that had been in the works since before he was born. He thought he could have prevented all the trauma if he’d stopped one single event, and Bill Mulder let him believe that. The truth, of course, was that he never could have prevented her abduction. In the end, Bill was a bad guy, both in his personal actions and his life-long complicity. But Fox Mulder was so desperate for love and absolution that he wanted to forgive his father. And as we saw, that possible moment of absolution was taken from him, too.

I think Teena did still offer her son plenty of love as a teenager, and I think they had a good relationship for the most part, as long as anything to do with “the project” stayed off the table. She loved him, but he was so traumatized by the coldness and guilt his father gave him that he had difficulty appreciating her love. He took her for granted, and ended up turning her into the thing she’d hated being all along: an accessory to the project. That hurt her, and that’s another reason why she seems so cold when we see her—because he only wants to talk to her when it relates to this thing that ruined her life and robbed her of all agency.

So yeah. Mulder is a mess, and it’s mostly Bill Mulder’s (and CSM’s) fault. If Teena had had better resources, she may have been able to get them both out of the whole situation, but given the historical context and the strength of the Syndicate, she was powerless. I think her sense of hopelessness and powerlessness, despite her love for her son, affected his childhood—made him feel even more detached and guilty. Again, how could it not?

#asks #mulder's childhood #teena mulder #justice for teena honestly

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thoughtfullyrainynightmare · 3 years ago

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Yeeaaah… so this ended up turning out longer than I intended… but it’s a theory I felt like sharing nonetheless. Hopefully tumblr doesn’t eat this & if this is too long or odd to answer… don’t worry, I understand. I just wanted to share while it was in my head, ya know? So: Long Post Warning!

I am not 100% caught up on every chapter yet, but I do have a brief understanding of all the events up til now. So please forgive me if this has been revealed and I just don’t know about it yet.

Bell 🧚🏻 = wind spirit🌬🌪

Salamander (who honestly looks more like a dragon than a salamander so he’s gettin’ the dragon emoji) 🐲 = fire spirit 🔥

Undine 🌊 = water spirit💧

As far as I know, we don’t yet have an inkling of who the earth spirit will be or to whom he will “choose” to contract with.

Tbh, I have a some of feelings about possibilities surrounding the earth spirit…

Bell and Undine are both obviously women and I’m 96.8% sure that Salamander is a boy… but who knows, I also wouldn’t be the least bit freaking surprised if Tabata threw that back in our face and Salamander ends up being a girl like in Shrek (and on that note, I just need to ask, in Shrek 2 when Shrek and Donkey drank the Happily Ever After Potion, it’s described as “"Happily Ever After Potion maximum strength. For you and your true love. Drink of this potion and bliss will be thine, happiness, comfort, and beauty divine.” This stuff turned both Shrek and Fiona human while it turned Donkey into a pure white stallion… am I the only one that still gets peeved we never got an answer on wtf that stuff did to Dragon??? Or how it would’ve affected their dragon donkey hybrid babies??? That’s the only thing that irks me about Shrek 2… okay, whew, now that I’ve gotten that out, back to Black Clover theorizing)

Going by the assumption that Salamander is most likely a boy, it would stand to reason that the earth spirit has a good chance at being male as well like 2 female spirits, 2 male.

Salamander’s inspiration obviously comes from dragon lore, I can’t find one singularly specific mythology reference Tabata would have based Salamader on so I’m guessing Salamander is based on dragon lore.

Bell has, for the most part, 2 inspirations Tabata based her on. The main one being Sylphs have power over the skies and air. They've been delineated to have control over the wind and the clouds, and even have the ability to purify the air and control the weather itself. Sylphs are not officially from a specific type of mythology, but if they were to be categorized they’d qualify as European folklore, same as Undine and Gnome which will be explained a few bullet points later. The second and most obvious (my fav of the 2) inspiration Tabata drew from for her character is Tinkerbell; from the blond hair, green dress, gets pissed when male partner pays attention to any female that isn’t her, yeah no denying she’s based on tinkerbell; my guess is Tabata combined her with Sylphs wind magic because it was Tinkerbell’s pixie dust that Peter, the lost boys, and the Darling children used to be able to fly. “Faith, trust, & a little bit of pixie dust” (Which is even more perfect because, even if he doesn’t show it, there is no one else in the series that has more faith & trust in Asta than Yuno does… Yuno’s infinite faith/trust in Asta both drives their rivalry forward and, by this logic, is one of the very reasons Yuno can sore so high🥰).

Undine is the only spirit character, for now, that is directly based off of a real water spirit in European folklore (again, even though Sylphs technically qualify to be categorized under European mythology, as far as I know, they are not officially categorized as such which is why I say Undine is the only one) - “Undine, also spelled Ondine, is a mythological figure of European tradition, a water nymph who becomes human when she falls in love with a man but is doomed to die if he is unfaithful to her.” Being that Undine is described as being able to take human form when she falls in love with a man *cough cough* Ariel *cough cough* Black Clover’s Undine’s background states that she made a contract with the first queen of the newly formed Heart Kingdom and has thus stayed loyal and made a contract with every Heart Queen since. Maybe she fell in love with the father/brother/husband/male-figure associated with the first queen and since the queen is the predominant ruler of the heart kingdom - Undine made a contract with her to be close to this man while knowing he could/would never be hers… she wouldn’t die if her love is one sided… if her love is unsaid and unrequited then anything this man does with another woman isn’t considered being unfaithful.. and maybe she’s maintained contracts with every Heart Queen since out of sheer devotion, loyalty, and love to that original man whom she took human form for. Or she was in love with the first queen and has made a contract with every queen since out of sheer devotion, loyalty, and love not on just for that first queen but every one of her descendants. Who knows?

Tabata’s mythological references (demonology excluded because that a whole other thing) for the most part mainly circulate around Greek mythology, Norse mythology, and European folklore.

Going based off of Undine (and Sylphs) , there’s a strong possibility that this yet to be named earth spirit will possibly directly based on, even if only slightly, someone of those three categories above.

Greek mythology, I find somewhat unlikely seeing as there’s no official male god of earth in Greek mythology. There are deities that have roles related to the earth yeah… but no god surround the earth itself or the element itself. The closest thing to a god of earth in Greek mythology is Gaea - goddess of earth. Simplify it to god of dirt and still the only result is Demeter goddess of agriculture (which seems similar to Mimosa in some ways but I don’t think she will obtain an earth spirit because I think the earth spirit will have more to do with mineral earth than plants and agriculture). If there is to be any inspiration drawn from Greek mythology in terms of an earth spirit, but even this seems a little unlikely, my guess would be possibly some characteristics from Satyrs seeing as they are the male equivalent of nymphs - what Undine is technically classified as.

Norse mythology seems a bit more, but not by much at first, plausible in terms of gathering reference for an earth spirit. It probably wouldn’t be the Norse God of Earth Jörd because she is still technically a goddess and mother of earth like Gaea. However, Norse mythology does have a deity of rocks - Hrungnir is a jötunn (a type of entity contrasted with gods and other non-human figures, such as dwarfs and elves. The entities are themselves ambiguously defined, variously referred to by several other terms, including risi, thurs and troll). There is also one more Norse aspect that goes along these lines - Dvergar or Norse dwarves are entities in Norse mythology associated with rocks, the earth, deathliness, luck, technology, craft, metal work, wisdom, and greed.

Norse mythologies depictions of both jötunn and dvergar tie into the third category of European folklore’s depiction of earth deities/spirits. In European folklore, Gnome, is a dwarfish, subterranean goblin or earth spirit who guards mines of precious treasures hidden in the earth. He is represented in medieval mythologies as a small, physically deformed (usually hunchbacked) creature resembling a dry, gnarled old man. - this description is similar to that of jötunn/dvergar and also ties into Charmy being revealed as part dwarf which will most likely be explored in a later arc.

Tbh, I picture this guy’s personality being somewhere between Grumpy from Snow White, the grumpy but well-meaning and wisecrack Lorax, and Phil from Disney’s rendition of Hercules… (not only does imagining this type of personality have me laughing… imagining the 2 most whom I find most likely to be chosen by this earth spirit… imagining them being partnered up with this personality has me near cackling😂)

As for the 2 whom most likely might be the “chosen one” of this earth spirit?

Even though he is technically described as being Arcane in terms of his magical attribute, Mercury is by definition “a naturally-occurring chemical element found in rock in the earth's crust, including in deposits of coal.” So mercury is naturally occurring, derived from earth, and the fact that it can come from deposits of coal ties in perfectly to the hypothesis of this earth spirit/deity being along the lines of dwarves which (not JUST in Snow White) are heavily associated with miners in various mythologies and folklores. So even though technically classified as being arcane, I do think Nozel has a strong possibility of being chosen by the spirit of earth (+ it would make for an EVEN MORE epic rivalry between Nozel and Fuegoleon if they both have an elemental spirit) (++ based off of how dwarves are depicted in mythology and based on how I decribed how I think this guy’s personality will be, I can see this guy as wise/rational but also getting grumpy/irritated easily with a short fuse and just imagine him getting irritated and kicking Nozel in the shins when when he doesn’t communicate his feelings properly & almost always kicks Solid/Nebra/Augustus in the shins when he says something he shouldn’t have - omg this guy’ll be a hoot!!🤣)

The second possible “chosen one” of this earth spirit could be Sol. Not only is she 100% raw earth magic but I also feel like it would balance her out a bit having a male spirit attached to her and that’s where the wisdom side of the Lorax/Phil could kick in and help her not only improve as a mage but also as a person helping her not see things so one sided. You notice, even though the Blue Rose Knights are an all girl squad… Sol is the only one that goes to that much of a degree in despising men; everyone else on the squad detests men on the surface but for the most part not truly. Charlotte keeps up the façade of detesting men to both appear strong for her squad ladies but also to mask her own insecurities. Sol, while she has gotten a little better since her initial introduction, is the only one who barely tolerates men… the only one who’s depicted as not having a façade and genuinely detests all men with a few exceptions. Having a male spirit like character who does not take her BS (*shin kick💥*) but also offers her wisdom and guidance that helps her grow as a person would be phenomenal for her character overall.

I find Nozel to be the more interesting outcome (NO! not just because I’m a Nozel simp… who told you that? They lie) but either of these characters would be interesting and could improve drastically in character development and as a mage having someone like this joined at the hip.

What are your thoughts?

– Grimoire_Girl📚

OKay, okay *takes a moment* (Also: did I just stop what I was doing, just to read and reply to this? .... Maybe)

I'd like to platonically kiss you on the mouth (with your consent ofc, because consent is a big thing on this blog), because I love this. Okay the Fue simp in me was hoping to have more of him, but in the end I didn't even mind. And can I just say that I love, lovelovelove the idea of Nozel getting the Elemental Spirit of Earth.

The theory is made *so* *much* *better* by the mental image of him (supposedly 'him') being a Lorax/Phil (from now on, let's call him Phorax). Because can you just imagine this duo?! Nozel, our lovely tsun-tsun who is in need of a big, warm hug and therapy. (Like Nozel, sweetie, I know that there aren't many therapists around, but you need to talk to someone.)

I'm also thinking that since it's probable that there'll be the 2-2 divide between boy/girl spirits, because I kinda agree with you on Sal being a boy (I'm aware of Shrek 2, but unfortunately I have no answers, but I laughed *so hard* while reading that), if there'll be a divide between the Spirit forms that have wings. Because I can't see the Earth Spirit giving a flying Spirit Dive form.

I mean, what, everyone else, aka the rest 3 spirit owners can rise to the skies and then Nozel is left behind like a plucked chicken? (I'm so, so sorry for that comparison, but ain't no one leaving him behind! Nozel. Needs. To. Be. Included.) I don't think that's fair. So, it could very well be that the two else give a "grounded" Spirit form, and Bell and Undine give a flying form.

Aaaanyways... I do like your theory/thoughts on how Undine came to be. And I could very well see that to be canon.

I, honestly, have nothing further to add at this point. Because this is brilliant. I love this.

But Tabata please, give us a tiny bit more lore. Please? A pretty please

#grimoire girl #black clover theories #lovely people #this is gold #I'll be thinking about this all day

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theuntamedaus · 3 years ago

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So, previously on my Ice Skating AU.

I finally am covering the XuanLi drama going on.

I have left things with WWX going off to the Gusu rink and living the best life with LWJ and JC teaching ice skating to kids and being in love with NHS.

This leaves us with good, sweet Yanli, who is still doing championships as a solo in the women's category in the Meishan Yu rink, whilst JZX is competing as a solo in the men category.

Yes, they split up, but to add oil to the fire, whilst it was a conscious decision that fell completely in line with the double divorce, there is still something stirring underneath.

"Unfortunately", JZX and JYL, though they would never admit it, have fallen in love with each other. They are just too proud and/or dumb to admit their own feelings for each other.

YZY has a reunion with her bestie, former Madam Jin, and she brings along Yanli.

Ofc Yanli and JZX are happy to see each other, but OMG they can't act normally around each other. It will be up to our beloved queen Luo "Mianmian" Qingyang, currently one of the best skaters in the Lanling rink, to make the two dumb pining idiots get together.

Ofc JZX still embarrasses himself in front of everyone and manages to let out his own feelings of undying love towards JYL, then runs away hiding.

JYL finds him again at the rink some time later and he apologises and offers her a plush teddy bear holding a lotus flower - he specifically went to Build-a-Bear for this, but he won't tell.

She also confesses that she is in love with him. JZX asks her if she would like to compete as a pair together with him of her own will and says that if the answer is no he will be ok with it anyway.

JYL smiles and tells him that yes, she would love to compete as a pair wit him again. The two will get married and have a ton of kids, Jin Ling being their firstborn.

At the news, both WWX and JC take it with the usual Yunmeng Jiang aplomb, aka

LWJ and NHS have to invoke the help of their respective big brothers before blood gets spilled.

They will eventually make peace with the thought when faced with actual evidence that their beloved sister and the Peacock love each other dearly.

Everything ends well.

BONUS STUFF

1. Mo Xuanyu is one of JGS's bastard children. He will leave the Mos and rent a flat with Qin Su, his newly discovered half-sister. Mo Xuanyu is a quite successful make up artist and owns a YouTube channel called "Let's summon make up".

2. Qin Su will learn the hard way that she is the result of her mother's rape by JGS and decides to make up for it by being an activist and defending survivors of rape. She will eventually become a quite successful lawyer.

3. In this AU Xue Yang is a doll customizer, he has a Youtube channel called "Demonic Customs". He lives with Song Lan, Xiao Xingchen and a-Jing. XXC is blind and trusts people a lot. SL and a-Jing are convinced that XY is a murderer, considering that sentences like "now that I have decapitated her, let's put the head into pure acetone", "time to find some eyes" and "today I will need my trusty saw" have come out of XY's mouth pretty regularly and XXC has to constantly remind them that "he is a doll customizer, OF COURSE you re mistaking him for a murderer, but look, the shelves are full of dragon dolls and pokemon dolls, come on guys :D"

"Xingchen, we love you, but his channel is literally called 'demonic customs', you catch?"

"It will be fine :D"

#the untamed #the untamed au #the untamed ice skating au #ice skating #xuanli #ice skating au #I FINALLY FINISHED FLESHING THIS OUT #I AM CRYING

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silenceofthecookies · 4 years ago

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HI!💕 I just find your blog and OMG I LOVE IT, I really enjoy how you write, it's incredible 😍 So, I hope this request it's ok to put in here (so sorry it's my first time in life requesting) I was wondering if you could make a second part of the scenario "I DO" for Kouen from Magi. Hope you have a good journey, thanks in advance 💕

Aaaaaaa thank you for your kind words anon 😭❤ I’m so glad you like it. I was actually already considering writing a sequel to this, so I’m glad you requested it! I headcanon Kouen to sip his respect woman juice, and that will really be shining through in this chapter, enjoy~! ❤

Word count: 1234 (this made me happier than I’d like to admit)

Warnings: mention of suggestive themes, just like in the first chapter

Part one of this scenario can be found here.

It had been quite some time since Kouen and you started playing chess together, and it felt like you’ve been completely accepted into the royal family since that moment. Koumei would warmly greet you whenever you passed by, and sometimes give you tips on chess strategies, hoping that you could tone his brothers ego down a bit. Kouha and you sometimes had tea together while having a casual conversation. He was a bit of an odd one, but his heart was in the right place. Hakuryuu didn’t change that much, he was still the polite but slightly silent guy you got to know him as.

And Kougyoku? She was now your best friend. The princess was thrilled to have another princess in the palace who didn’t think she was trash for being a warrior, or for being the daughter of a courtesan. She was overly honest in everything she told you, like everyone’s behaviour towards you before you and Kouen started getting along.

Apparently, they all assumed Kouen and you simply didn’t get along, or actually got into a fight. Husband and wife not sharing a bed, only interacting at all during meals, and overall giving each other the cold shoulder was not a good impression, after all. They decided to leave the two of you to fight it out without interfering, but because of that they didn’t get the chance to actually get to know you. You also had to admit that at first, due to being forced into this, you didn’t even want to get to know the other princes and princesses.

Kouen and you had spent many more nights playing chess, mostly in the library or in his study, but sometimes also in the garden. Apart from chess, the two of you started interacting more outside of the dining room as well. Reading books together was not uncommon, nor was just talking a walk together. Sometimes Kouen would have you called to a secluded part of the gardens, where he’d have a picnic ready for you under the shade of a big tree. You’d eat together, talk about whatever came to mind and whenever Kouen had to make a though call on something, he’d ask your opinion. Over the time you spent together, he learned you were no princess who could only sit around and be pretty. You were smart, considerate and you had more political insight than he ever could’ve hoped.

Not long after you started playing chess together, you learned that Kouen appreciated brutal honesty above all, in many ways. He appreciated you showing your true colours around him, even if that resulted in him getting teased or made fun of. That way, he said, he knew what kind of person he was dealing with. People who lie about their motives are the dangerous ones, even if their polite personas might be easier to deal with. But when you yelled at him a decision he was about to make was bad, he was slightly shocked. You instantly realised what you had done, thinking you had crossed the line, and apologised. Instead of getting mad, he simply asked you why you thought it was wrong.

Today was another picnic day. You had just finished eating, and were now leaning against the tree you were sitting under, reading a book. Despite the book being really interesting, it’s not what your mind was focussed on. Your thoughts had drifted to the man learning against the tree next to you. It was never said out loud, but you had the feeling he was using these picnics as a way of courting you. He didn��t have to do it, already being married, but you were glad he did nonetheless. It made you feel special.

By now, you were pretty sure you were falling for the prince. You were always happy to see him, excited to do something with him and every time he laughed, your heart skipped a beat. However, before telling him anything like that, you had a burning question that you really wanted an answer to first.

“Kouen?” “Yes?” “Why did you give me my own room?” Kouen kept staring at his book for a bit, before closing it and putting it to the side. “I told you that already, didn’t I? Because you were uncomfortable, and because I won’t take a woman against her will.” “You had full right to do so though. Some might even say it was our obligation.” “Taking a woman against her will is a crime, Y/N. Being married or not does not change that, at least not in my opinion.” “So… your plan is just to let me do my thing?” “Yes. That way you can set a pace you’re comfortable with.” “And what if I’d never be comfortable?” “Then I’d accept that and deal with it.” “But then you’d have no heir, right?” “There are different solutions for that.” “So… you’re really letting me set the pace in this?” “Yes.” “And you’ll just follow along with my pace?” “Yes.”

During the whole conversation, Kouen kept eye contact with you. All you could see in his eyes was honesty, concern and it may be because it’s what you hoped to see, but you thought you could see some affection in there as well? You thanked your lucky stars that out of all the men you could’ve gotten married to, it was Kouen. Though there was no love at first, hearing his answer now made you sure that you had fallen for this man. You smiled at him, took a deep breath and finally made up your mind.

“Then kiss me.” Kouen’s eyes widened briefly, before a smile graced his lips. Taking your chin between his thumb and index finger, he leaned in closer to you. “As you wish.”

After saying that, Kouen leaned in and softly kissed you. It was a short, careful kiss but for you it was perfect. Well, almost. Kouen pulled back but kept his face close to you, checking your face for any sign of discomfort. You grinned, and put both hands on his cheeks. “Allow me” you said as you connected your lips once again, this time longer and a bit more passionate, hoping that your actions would convey your feelings without you actually having to say them out loud. Kouen moved his hand from your chin to the back of your head and returned the kiss with just as much passion.

Breaking the kiss, you let out a shaky breath as you opened your eyes to look at him. Kouen chuckled.

“I see you’ve got your pace set already.” “I do. I hope you like surprises, because there’ll be more to come in the future.” “If they’re going to be like this one, I think I won’t mind them.” “Good.”

You smiled, picked up your book again and moved yourself to sit just as far from him as you did before. Kouen watched you and started laughing. He had expected you to sit down next to him, probably leaning your head on his shoulder, but of course you were special. He wouldn’t want it any other way. You weren’t like other women, you couldn’t be predicted. And that’s exactly why he had fallen for you. He picked up his book as well and continued reading, wondering what your next step would be, and how you would surprise him with it.

#magi x reader #magi reader #magi imagine #magi scenario #magi the kingdom of magic #magi the labyrinth of magic #magi #ren kouen #kouen ren x reader #kouen x reader #kouen/reader #kouen imagine #kouen scenario #kouen #cookie writes #requested #anon

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cross-d-a · 4 years ago

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if you're doing those characters then please give me more amazing takes on princess mute 🥺💕

OMG IM SO LATE ANSWERING THIS BUT HERE I FINALLY AM

Also omgg thank you SOSOSO much for asking me about Princess Mute?? THE LOVE OF MY LIFE??? You know me so well, vish!! I love and adore you so much!! Thank you for giving me the chance to blabber on about the woman I love!! ⁽⁽٩(๑˃̶͈̀ ᗨ ˂̶͈́)۶⁾⁾

ALSO! I’m gonna do my best to like- not spoil all my plans for whispers, haha

The rest is under the cut bc I just have a lot of FEELINGS~ about our resident zombie girl

❤⃛ヾ(๑❛ ▿ ◠๑ )

How I feel about this character

OH BOY OK I JUST??? LOVE HER??? A LOT???? I wasn’t expecting to get quite so immediately and intensely attached to her?? But from the second I heard about her in the legend I was just gone. Completely done for. I’m generally a sucker for mythology, and there’s just SO MUCH that’s fascinating about the tale behind the Princess Mute and the South Sea King?

Even though Princess Mute is so central to the myth, the South Sea King is deemed as the most important? I mean- duh it is his tomb, but Princess Mute is the catalyst? None of this would have happened without her? She’s main character material and yet she isn’t the main character of her own story?? She has practically no agency? It’s so? Fucking? Fascinating?? And there is so fucking much left unanswered? The myth says she turns into a goddamn monster?? Is this- figuratively? Or literally? Is she a monster for breaking gender norms and committing the ultimate taboo by killing the Emperor??? Like- holy FUCK? Like- LOOK at this pic from Ershu’s Expensive Powerpoint:

and a close-up for good measure:

(note the HORNS/HELMET?? the LIGHTNING STRIKE!!! 👀👀👀 how she’s dressed as a SOLDIER?? that SPEAR??? also she’s depicted as much bigger than the emperor!! which, of course, means she’s more important!!!!)

and, HELLO!! She’s called the PRINCESS MUTE. She is only known/named in association to someone else. Her name has been erased from history. It isn’t important to anyone. Which is so fucking ironic. She’s Princess Mute. Her voice has been stripped from her, just like her agency. This tale is the Mute Emperor’s and not her own. Her suffering means nothing to anyone. Her life means nothing other than for the Emperor to desire and the South Sea King to mourn over (and WOW!! ISN’T THIS JUST!! SO perfectly encapsulating Nanpai Sanshu’s female characters and their relevance to the story/male characters)

(so what is her goddamn name???? I mean, I know what I’ve named her, but sorry dudes. Again. I don’t wanna spoil too much :) )

also, WHY is the South Sea King covering her eyes when she’s sent off to sea in the origami boat?

What actually happens to her after this? The body we see of the South Sea King has long white hair so I assume he died pretty old? So why does she look so goddamn young?

And- the million dollar question here (WHICH I HAVE A LOT OF HEADCANONS FOR BUT I DON’T WANNA SPOIL WHISPERS): What happened to her after she killed the Emperor????

ALSO!! WHY IS SHE HOLDING A DINGLAN RULER WHEN SANSHU FINDS HER IN THAT FIRST EXPEDITION?? (internet says it’s a “special ruler used for making shrines, carving wood statues and making tablets of gods. Later used in measurement of architectural scale; measuring instrument for the netherworld, wishes best for tomb owner) did she design her own father’s tomb?? is there more to her becoming a leather figurine than filial loyalty/sacrifice??

Why does she have a tattoo?? I go a bit into this in my fic, but from my understanding it was unusual for people (women especially!) to have tattoos during this time! (this is just from my research! if I am wrong please correct me!)

For anyone who hasn’t read whispers, there were a a few tribes (minorities!) during this time who tattooed themselves (and to this day, they continue this tradition :) ). The Li were often attacked by invaders who assaulted the women and sold them as slaves. The women ended up tattooing their faces and bodies to make them less appealing, and it ended up becoming a tradition. When a girl came of age she’d get tattooed. Then we’ve got the Dai, who (from what I understand!) got tattoos of animals with characteristics they wished to embody, such as to show their virility and strength! So they’d tattoo tigers and dragons, etc.

So why does Princess Mute have one? Who gave it to her? WHAT ACTUALLY IS IT!!!!!! (eternal frustration that we never see a clear shot of the whole thing!!) It kinda looks like a heavily stylized fish? With some waves. But I am unsure! But it would make sense, considering the ongoing theme of snakes and fish throughout dmbj.

Also, her scars seem very strange. Like- if someone skinned her (YIKES!) then- her scars don’t really seem like they’re a result of skinning (double yikes!!). You’d think that for a woman who was the daughter of the King, they’d take more care to preserve her face?? So why does it seem like someone has done their utter best to ruin it? Did the Emperor do it himself? Did her father? Or did someone else do it?? Did she do it herself????

Also, I just wanna cut the bullshit with the creepy hand clam thing. A hand clam isn’t gonna wrap their fingers around Wu Xie’s hand to stop him from blowing himself up. Like. I get that it’s the censorship. I get it. But- you can’t tell me it wasn’t actually the Princess Mute who saved him. I just?? This moment is so powerful? It literally knocked the breath from my chest.

Princess Mute’s story is just so fascinating and tragic and I am just a mess over how she isn’t in control of her own story? She never is. Except for when she kills the Emperor. (AND when she saves Wu Xie) And I think that’s fucking telling.

Of course, it felt like they had more of a storyline planned for her which never happened, but I’ll get more into that later.

Basically, I just have SO MANY QUESTIONS!!!

It’s like- I dunno. Seeing a gorgeous woman flip an obnoxious man over her shoulder and slam him to the ground without breaking a sweat and watching her walk away with stars in your eyes. You barely know anything about her but you’re already half in love and you just want to know more.

I’m super Gay for her, if you couldn’t already tell.

Honestly, she just perfectly represents all the female characters and their treatment in dmbj with all the extra PIZAZZ of the mysterious supernatural/mythological elements. She just makes me go feral and I adore her with my entire heart.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

NUMBER ONE I SHIP HER WITH MY CUTE AND PERFECT GF XIAO BAI!!!!!!!!

They are my two favourite (okay and my wife Su Nan!) female characters in dmbj. I think their stories parallel each other pretty beautifully? They’re both women in a powerful position, though with limited agency. They both defy gender norms and accomplish things (I’m counting killing the Emperor as Accomplishing Something) in a very male-dominated world. And- okay. I know the Princess Mute is technically dead. But she also?? is someone still doing stuff?? and pushing along the storyline?? as a zombie?? So I’m just gonna say that both of them aren’t truly killed off for the Man Pain like all the other female dmbj characters (except for Xiu Xiu, and I guess Chuchu but ChuChu’s situation is kinda....Iffy. At best.)

Also both of them are linked pretty heavily with Wu Xie? They both have an interesting relationship with him. And Princess Mute leads Wu Xie to Xiao Bai!!!

And okay this is spoiling a bit of whispers, BUT!!! Warehouse 11 was built atop the South Sea King’s temple. Isn’t that fucking important??? I stand by my headcanon that Xiao Bai is a Warehouse kid (descended from the Founders) and so she grew up there. And like- ignoring censorship bc I can AND because Reboot leaves a lot of supernatural stuff up in the air anyway- wouldn’t growing up atop an insanely powerful temple do something to you? Wouldn’t it affect you in some way?? There’s just!!! SO much potential between Princess Mute and Xiao Bai!! Plus!! I think it’d be great for Xiao Bai to form a relationship with another woman. She needs some female solidarity in her life.

And- well. I just ship Princess Mute with all the dmbj women, really. Princess Mute has two hands, why can she use them both?? I’ve got a couple Princess Mute modern au’s going and in one of them she just- sweeps A’Ning and Su Nan off their feet :)

I really can’t ship Princess Mute with any male characters, I think. There’s just- so much underlying trauma surrounding her agency and how she’s been used by the men in her life. Also, I like wlw & mlm solidarity. Let Princess Mute and Wu Xie wallow over their Stupid Crushes. Or Princess Mute & Xiao Ge. I’m not picky.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Purely bc of my own au, I am very much invested in Princess Mute & Li Cu (& spirit snake). As I mentioned before, there’s a running theme of loss of agency in their own lives and suffering the consequences of others’ actions. Plus, there’s a lot of supernatural happenings surrounding the both of them. Why wouldn’t they find a connection?

And, obviously, I adore Princess Mute & Wu Xie. Princess Mute saved Wu Xie and then Wu Xie was promptly obsessed (can’t say I blame him). They had such an interesting relationship in Reboot that was just- so fucking tragically dropped.

My unpopular opinion about this character

SHE SHOULD BE MORE POPULAR!!!!!!!!!! She is so goddamn fascinating and gorgeous and I just!! Want!! Everyone to adore her as much as I do!!!!!!!! At least I feel a bit accomplished for swinging some readers over to her side in whispers!! That’s something!!!

I’ve got like- a million au ideas with her. I’m going to be the creator of the content I wish to read!!!!!

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

I WISH SHE COULD HAVE GOTTEN A SATISFACTORILY COMPLETED STORYLINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She just gets completely dropped after she leads Wu Xie to Warehouse 11. So once more, she is a plot device and not. And actual. Person. Her importance is tied irrevocably to the male leads. Her agency is not her own. Wu Xie cares so much about her, and okay, he’s trying to figure out a mystery and we all know how he gets when he’s trying to puzzle out a mystery-- but you can’t tell me he just- stops caring after he encounters Warehouse 11??? What happens to her after that?? Does she rot away in a box in Wushanju?? Does Ershu take her back?? I’m just?? WHAT????

I want to know her side of the story and not what everyone else has said. I want her to actually properly communicate with Wu Xie. I want her saving the day again and I want her being fucking badass and I want her and Xiao Ge being soft together and I want her and Xiao Bai to bond fall in love and I want everyone to just- fall in love with her? And care about her? And I want to to find herself caring about these fucking idiots too???? Can you imagine her and Liu Sang bonding over shitty fathers and lack of agency and Trauma?? Can you imagine Princess Mute getting her life back and the freckles returning to her slowly darkening skin and her being silly with Hei-ye bc he keeps shoving increasingly ridiculous sunglasses at her. And can you imagine her trying on jeans for the first time and picking out a cute bomber jacket and shoving a baseball cap on her head and dipping her feet back in the sea and befriending shibie bc she’s just?? that?? cool?? while Iron Triangle is off on the side fretting like she isn’t befriending some very dangerous creatures but it’s okay bc she’s a dangerous creature too and she understands fear and desire and hunger.

I want her returning to Thunder City. I want her getting closure. I want her story to get closure. Period.

And I know it didn’t happen bc censorship and Nanpai Sanshu and just- a host of Other Things. But I want it, and she deserves it.

AAAHH VISH!!!! Thank you so much for letting me yell about Princess Mute!! Sorry I couldn’t go more in depth with headcanons but!! Like I said, I don’t want to completely spoil you for whispers, so I’ll keep those close to my chest for now

٩(*ゝڡゝ๑)۶♥

#dmbj #the lost tomb reboot #princess mute #dmbj meta #sorta??#tltr #Wu xie #Xiao bai #cross talks #reunion: the sound of the providence #bai haotian #ask game

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