#also designing that tattoo in photoshop and applying it to that image took me AGES - sorry i'm so late posting this but that's the reason!

[hollyand-writes]

My other Arlathan Exchange 2023 gift for @highwayphantoms (2nd of 2 fics I wrote for @arlathanxchange!) 😁

Rating: Teen/Mature   Chapters: 7/7 Word Count: 9,785 words Pairing: Carver/Merrill Characters: Templar Carver Hawke, Merrill, Keeper Marethari, Female Hawke (Jay's OC Serafina Hawke), briefly-mentioned Isabela & Fenris Other Tags: Soulmate AU, Title from the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, Soulmate-Identifying Marks (Soulmark Tattoos), Descriptions of Cutting For Blood Magic, Time Skips, Angst with a Happy Ending, Referenced Mahariel/Alistair/Zevran (Jay's OC F!Mahariel), Background Anders/F!Hawke

Summary:

All Carver knew was that his soul-mark would exactly match that of a soulmate; and that the identical symbol on their flesh represented both him and them. Either way, it didn’t matter: there was a war to fight; and the soul-mark still etched on his skin meant whoever had its twin was still alive, or Carver’s own mark would have faded.

He didn’t want to think about how his soulmate might feel if their mark ever faded.

So Carver got the mabari tattooed over it—something that made his soul-mark look like nothing more than kaddis war-paint on a war-hound—and tried to forget about it.

–

Soulmate AU. Templars and blood mages are mortal enemies—but what if one is the other’s soulmate?

——————— 

When Carver Hawke’s soul-mark showed, he covered it with a mabari tattoo.

As an eighteen-year-old away at war, about to go into battle at Ostagar, the last thing Carver Hawke wanted to think about was his soulmate—the possibility that there was someone out there, waiting for him, needing him to come back alive. For he was happy to lay down his life if need be, if it meant saving his country, saving his family—saving his home.

He didn’t have time to think about soulmates. What use was that anyway, when his purpose was far higher, for a far worthier cause.

The only girl he’d been interested in was Peaches, but when her soul-mark showed… well, his own wasn’t fully visible yet; but it was clear the design gradually forming on the skin over his tailbone was never, ever going to match hers in a million years.

(He was only glad Serafina and Bethany were off practising magic in the woods again when he got home, so that they weren’t there to see the disappointment on his face.)

When Carver’s soul-mark finally emerged fully, on his lower back, a glance in the mirror told him it had a sword in the middle of it, along with some flame-like markings around it that would have made it the Sword Of Mercy—the symbol of the Templar Order—if it wasn’t for these strangely delicate, swirling, pencil-like outlines surrounding it that could have been… vines? but hollow, rather than filled-in? or maybe they weren’t vines at all?

He couldn’t be sure.

Read more on AO3...

[indigo-ra]

The Little Black Mermaid

There’s a lot to unpack here. First off, let me start by saying I think it’s very progressive to see a black girl casted for Disney’s live action version of The Little Mermaid. It seems that after 70 some-odd-years, Disney is finally taking steps to represent diversity for this next generation of kids.  Now, I  also have to come in and say that I don’t understand why Disney is doing all these live action remakes. I saw Aladdin recently and I could see the love that the creative team put into the costume designs and backgrounds- it was so BEAUTIFUL.

But I also saw something I fundamentally disliked about this new generation of live-action remakes. See, when Disney does any storytelling, whatever the source, it is scrubbed of much of its authenticity and then sugar-coated for mass consumption for all ages. Of course, it wasn’t always this way. If you go back a few decades, you’ll see some downright offensive things produced by Disney too; but Disney 2019, is the owner of Lucas Arts and Marvel now. They’re such a massive conglomerate corporation, their image has to be flawless so they can set the pace for each new wave of consumerism. You’re thinking “Yeah, so?”  So, I’m just going to say, after watching Aladdin, I felt hollow. To get a Disney-filtered animated version of the story, there are a lot of things to weigh and consider. Animation, by and large is a treatment most production companies market toward children. You also have to understand that you can get away with a LOT in animation, because impossible things are possible in 2D animation and everything is intentional.  To take that story that had already been through such an intense filter to make into an animation, and apply that same exact treatment to live-action is moving backwards. Not only that, but Disney took it a step further and made a point to omit any semblance of ANYTHING that could be considered risque in the slightest. Jasmine’s short scene of seducing Jafar was swapped out for a new princess power ballad and left the entire story feeling FLATTER than the 2D Animation. It’s true. The reason why, is, because all the richness of a story adapted for animation has been applied to live-action. Three dimensional people don’t squash, bend, stretch or emote like cartoons, so the songs, the action, the intensity of it, unless treated like a LIVE-ACTION movie would never add up. And it’s incredibly flat. The movie has no surprises, no intensity, no complexity and no personality. She looks very pretty though. Now with that in mind, I’m going to approach the topic of The Little Mermaid. Keeping in mind that Disney is catering their brand toward a new generation of gender-neutral pussies in the making, their message has changed. It used to be “Your prince will come.” but now it’s “You’re a princess, you don’t need  a prince.” Taking the “Happily ever after” off of the ending in favor of some “...to be continued” because, it sells. The first go round was so successful, there was all kinds of collectible junk that came out with each classic movie and even new rides for the theme park. People ate that shit up, and Disney is like, “well it if ain’t broke...”, and is now redoing the same projects because, everybody else has done it.  In recent years how many versions of Disney princesses trended? Modern takes with them illustrated wearing casual clothes, On the cover of magazines, Photoshopped to look photo-real, Covered in tattoos, doing drugs etc... In the past 2-3 years there has been an upward trend, after we came out of our sexy vampire phase (True Blood, Twilight, Vampire Diaries)  and went in the direction of modernized fairytales (Once Upon a Time, Grimm, The Hunstman, Descendants). Disney rode that wave until it started to decline and THAT’S when the live-action remakes started. The Little Mermaid casting choice, plain and simple is a grab at black dollars. I’m not mad at it. But I think it’s very flippant how Disney made such an unexpected move, knowing exactly how Black people would react.  It has mostly been positive. Disney is certainly trending in the black community, and new art of the new black Disney princess is popping up everywhere.  But not all Black people agree. Some don’t even understand why they don’t like the concept, because it does seem like they should be happy, that, for once, color seems not to matter. Which is exactly the problem.  The issue at hand is when white actors are placed in roles that ARE WRITTEN or CALL FOR ethnicities that are NOT White:

Disney is making an effort.-But not really. I understand why black people are happy, but I also understand why they are upset, and for ONCE white people do have some reason to feel slighted in this situation. The Little Mermaid has been black-washed. The Little Mermaid is a story written by Hans Christian Andersen in 1837 - who was Danish man from Denmark. SO if you’re under the impression that The Little Mermaid was originally about this “Yemoja” Orisha I’m seeing popping up all over the place from these hoteps that claim they’re woke, that is called “cultural appropriation” plain and simple. We hate that, so let’s not be those people. The original story is about a mermaid in search of obtaining a soul, and though it is a mythical creature, SUNSHINE is what makes people dark-skinned. If you live underwater, in DENMARK of all places, fuck white, this fish would be damn near transparent. This was one of the times where Disney didn’t have to worry about appeasing black people. If Ariel was casted White, Black people wouldn’t have cried about it being unfair because that would be accurate. NOBODY petitioned, going around asking for signatures, demanding that Ariel be black, and now, White Disney supporters are feeling slighted, and rightly so, because Disney isn’t trying to balance the scales, so much as perpetuate the message that they “don’t see color” and “race doesn’t matter”; and Black people hate that narrative! It’s like when you get into a fight with your little sister or brother growing up and your mom makes you apologize, even though they started it. To your mom, it doesn’t matter who started it, and even though it’s unfair, she forces you to humble yourself even if you were the victim. That’s not balance, it’s a forced compromise. We need to stop being so eager to jump on the bandwagon of any pitiful handouts they give us, especially if it’s not coming from a pure place of good intent. White people will buy new merch to burn and Black people will buy anything that has their face on it, so both ways, Disney wins. I love Disney, but this was a blunder on their end. Halle Bailey’s singing chops in a Disney movie is not going to even get close to showing off her skills or range as a vocalist since Disney songs are all written in keys and chords that the general public can sing along with.  Personally, I think Disney could have been better about choosing a character that more matched the Ariel we already know and love. It’s not like we are starting from scratch. We already have a red-haired, fair-skinned mermaid girl, who we know and love from the 2D animation. If you’re RE-MAKING the movie, why not make it in the image of the first success? Don’t change the main character’s color on a whim. If Disney was RE-IMAGINING The story, then it’s okay. Tweak the story. If it takes place in the Carribbean, maybe with some influential cultural tweaks like the prince being from Barbados (Sebastian can obviously stay the same), and maybe some pirates thrown in, it could be good, and Halle Bailey would be a wonderful casting choice, just like Brandy was in Rodger and Hammerstein’s version of Cinderella. But it wouldn’t be a REMAKE. But if it’s going to be a remake, as I recall, I do believe the Disney’s version took place in The Caspian sea, according to Ursula’s spell.

I never felt like I couldn’t relate to Ariel because she was white, A mermaid isn’t a human in the first place. We’re 2 for 0 in black women getting the “another species/race/creature” treatment with Disney. A princess that was a frog and now a mermaid and we’re playing it up like a victory while Disney is about to make some serious coin off of us. That’s all folks.