#also its my 2nd favorite fairytale. so.

[sasseebeee]

guys....hear me out.....wolgraha beauty and the beast au......

[artsyjedi]

They don’t stay together at the end | Charles Leclerc x reader

summary: you and charles meet, live and life goes on.

author’s note: i enjoyed this but no at the same time? maybe it’s a little confusing, sorry. I hope you enjoy anyway :) and let me know if you do! english isn’t my first language!!!! and it’s been a while since i wrote something, be nice please

*also: I think the reader is gender neutral, but i don’t exactly remember.

warnings: none but If you find any let me know

**2nd part: ‘they see each other again’

“Move in with me to Monaco” Charles’ voice caught your attention.

You had met during that week, three days ago to be more precise and the days since have been more than a dream. A true fairy tale.

Charles’ was travelling, enjoying his days off before the begin of the season, and you were trying to make a life in a new place. You were working at a cafe when you met him; brown eyes enchanting you right away. He was a prince; the most beautiful man you’ve ever seen.

“Hi” he said softly while paying for his drink.

“Hi” you answered back with a mere whisper. If he wasn’t paying fully attention to you, he wouldn’t have heard.

And that was when you figure it out how powerful a two letter word can be.

This simple ‘hi’ became a whole conversation at the end of your shift, and then him showing around the city; his favorite spots, places he holds deep in his heart. Charles told you stories and you loved how his eyes sparkled with passion whenever he mentioned his family, friends or his career. He loved talking about art, he showed you his songs. Every little thing he did, you fell more and more.

But this dream would end one day. You knew - and so did he. This whole fairytale is gonna come to an end eventually and he’s gonna go back to his prestigious life as a driver while you gonna go back to your cafe and small apartment you share with other three people. Everything was gonna be nothing more than a memory - one you will hold close to your heart forever.

He was still staring at you, body and hair wet from the hot shower. You were on his hotel bed, covered with the white sheets, hair a mess and body tired. You were still sweating. He looked ethereal.

“I can’t, you know that” you laughed.

“Of course you can” he sat next to you, hand holding yours “You can live with me. At least at first if you want to live somewhere. And if you want, you can find a job there - or not too. Just come. I need you”

“You’re insane! I can’t just go and leave everything behind again. I need to create roots, a life. And more: what people would say? They would think I’m using you for money and fame”

“Who cares about what people think? It’s me and you that matters, nothing else. Create roots with me. We’ve been having such a good time together here, why not keep this going?”

“Because” you tried to argue, taking a deep breath before continuing “Because this is just a moment, Charles. This is good, perfect, but we both know it won’t last. This is good because it’s gonna come to an end. That’s all. Destiny played its part: we met each other, we learn from each other, and now we need to follow our own paths”

Charles got quiet. He was sad, you could see it; feel it even. But he knew you weren’t wrong. You couldn’t just drop everything you’ve been fighting for and go on this adventure with him; he had everything right already. A name for himself, a career.

“I love you. I love this” your hand held his face and went to his hair, caressing the brown humid strands. He closed his eyes, letting his head lean on your warm touch. When he opened his eyes, he found you smiling. Charles Leclerc was truly a thing.

He leaned further, nose meeting yours and he let himself enjoy the intimate touch. He kissed you then, with more passion than he had on the previous days.

“Fine” he rested his head against yours “I hope we meet again soon. Until there, let’s enjoy the time we have, ok?”

“Ok”

The days passed and everything felt then times more real. The feelings you had towards each other were crude and transparent to everyone. You went more places together, ate together, slept together. You loved him and he loved you. Life was simple.

The day he left, you went to the airport to say goodbye. It felt right.

While you saw him walk to his gate and disappear from your sight, you thought how beautiful those days were. It’s was not just about love, but about moments, about knowing to live with the knowledge that everything can and will end. One hour, one day, one week, one month or an entire life - moments are what makes life what it is and the best thing we can do is be grateful for them to happen at first place, and for the people who are part of it.

When you left the airport, the cold breeze met your face. That day was a good day, and you hoped faith would put Charles in your path once again; in that life or in another one.

[duckprintspress]

Celebrate World Folktales and Fables Week with 10 of Our Favorite Folktale Collections

This week, March 19th to 25th, is World Folktales and Fables Week! Duck Prints Press is celebrating with two blog posts: today’s, which focuses on the folktales, fables, and myths that influenced us as creators, and tomorrow’s, about our favorite folktale-inspired fiction (queer and otherwise).

Love folktales and fables? Join us now and learn about the ones we love – some you may know, some you may not!

D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths by Ingri d’Aulaire & Edgar Parin d’Aulaire (an inspiration for Shadaras)

The first book that comes to mind is D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths (I had to look up the title, but the cover is burned into my memory). While there may be other collections of fairytales and folklore that struck me, this is one of the first ones I read, and it set the stage for my love of mythology in general.

The True Story of the Three Little Pigs! by Jon Scieszka & Lane Smith (an inspiration for Veronica Sanders)

I remember being really inspired by the genre of “a well-known story told from a different perspective” after reading the Jon Scieszka/Lane Smith books in 2nd grade, like The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. I always really liked thinking about folktales and fables from the POV of the “villain.”

Folktale-Inspired Disney Films (an inspiration for Adrian Harley)

I was a Disney-loving child of the 90s, so I am still unpacking the ways that shaped my view of folk stories, stories as a whole, and the world—and reconciling the positive ways these stories shaped me vs. the harms of the Disney corporation.

The Onion Girl (and other stories) by Charles de Lint (an inspiration for Anonymous)

He did an amazing job of blending American and European folklore with ordinary life in all its highs and lows. I don’t know if I could point to a specific story that’s retelling any one folktale, but I can absolutely point to the author as a whole for his folkloric style and tender exploration of magic, queerness, and being outcast. He helped invent the Mythic Fiction subgenre. The Onion Girl lives in my head rent-free.

Folktales of the Amur: Stories from the Russian Far East by Dmitri Nagishkin (an inspiration for Nina Waters)

A collection of eastern Russian folktales that really had a huge impact on me. 30+ years on from when I read them, I honestly couldn’t relate a single one of the stories, but they burrowed so deep into my psyche that when I imagine “folktales that really mattered to me” the first image that comes to mind is the cover. The art throughout the book is just absolutely gorgeous.

The Rose-Beauty – a Turkish Fairy Tale (an inspiration for Alessa Riel)

This is a Turkish fairytale that impressed me because it was cruel even for a fairytale. It‘s about a young woman who is blessed from birth to grow roses in her hair, cry pearls and grow grass wherever she walks and the cruel fate she is dealt because people are jealous of her gifts. It has a happy ending but only just.

A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz (an inspiration for Sebastian Marie)

It had a HUGE influence on me as a kid, for two main reasons. One, the events of a lot of European fairytales are told as happening to the same two kids and their parents, which creates a really interesting story structure. Two, it’s unabashedly mean and gory and cruel and well, dark and grim. It says that sometimes people are terrible and sometimes bad things happen to decent people. It’s one of the things that made me want to write fairy tales, or at least stories that are a bit gruesome and meant to be told to children.

The Swan-Maiden – a fairy tale (an inspiration for Alessa Riel)

This is a variant of the selkie tale as far as I can tell, only that the women don‘t turn into seals but beautiful swans. It was the version of the lore I first encountered and the unfairness of the women being forced to marry their captor and abuser and then also being cursed for abandoning the children these men forced onto them always resonated deeply with me.

The Blue Light by The Brothers Grimm (an inspiration for Alessa Riel)

In this fairytale a veteran soldier is unjustly treated by the king and then a witch sets him three challenges. The third one is getting her a blue light from a deep well. He refuses to give her the light and she drops him into the well along with the light. It turns out the light can fulfill wishes. Up to this part the veteran looks like a sympathetic person, but he uses those wishes to have the princess dragged to his room three nights in a row to do his bidding against her will. He is finally found out and sentenced to death for this transgression but manages to escape that fate by using the blue light and he gets the kingdom and the princess to boot. I always found this supremely unfair.

Egyptian Mythology (an inspiration for Dei Walker)

I think one of the first books of folktales, legends, or fairy tales I can remember reading repeatedly is a copy of Egyptian myths and legends I used to get out of my local public library when I was young. It was already an old edition in the 1980s and its pages were yellowed, but I would borrow it regularly and lose myself in the stories of life and (un)death along the Nile.

What are some folktales and fables that have inspired YOU? We’d love to hear about them, and maybe find some classical stories to add to our To Be Read piles!

Who we are: Duck Prints Press LLC is an independent publisher based in New York State. Our founding vision is to help fanfiction authors navigate the complex process of bringing their original works from first draft to print, culminating in publishing their work under our imprint. We are particularly dedicated to working with queer authors and publishing stories featuring characters from across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. Love what we do? Want to make sure you don’t miss the announcement for future giveaways? Sign up for our monthly newsletter and get previews, behind-the-scenes information, coupons, and more!

Want to support the Press, read about us behind-the-scenes, learn about what’s coming down the pipeline, get exclusive teasers, and claim free stories? Back us on Patreon or ko-fi monthly!

[lesboymetaknight]

Was just randomly thinking about it, how would you rank all the Disney Princess movies? Like from favorite to least favorite, numbered list, or like letter (A, B, C) tiers?

I hope it’s okay to talk about some of the placement reasons, we feel pretty passionate about this. Especially ones that are absolute favorites or might surprise others.

There is too much that has already been said about Beauty and the Beast. All I am going to say is that it’s one of my favorite movies, that I could watch over and over again. It’s also my favorite romance story in the franchise 👉👈

Little Mermaid also has been praised a lot too, so we will keep it brief. Ariel is my favorite Disney princess, because I love how flawed she is, and as a queer person I can relate to her relationship with her father with my own parents. This movie and Beauty and the Beast feel so queer to me, and we are glad that Howard Ashman’s influence and involvement were strong in them both.

Yes I put Cinderella 3 at Godtier I love this movie sm, and we know it didn’t need to exist, but we are glad someone made their Cinderella fanfic a reality. It breathes more characters into the prince (he’s the best Disney prince I will die on that hill), her step sister Anastasia, and even the king. Her step mom is even more of a threat in this movie too. Also this movie looks really good for just being direct to DVD. This movie also pokes fun of its classic fairytale ways, but in a more charming way like Enchanted does.

Sleeping Beauty is very high because this movie is fucking gorgeous, *eats all the bg art up* I also love how petty and bitchy Maleficent is. Also love that the movies real heroines are the three fairies, and you don’t get much movies were three older women get to be the protagonists.

In our opinion we like Frozen 2 better than one. We just like the settings and atmosphere more. We like some songs more too, like Into the Unknown and Show Yourself. I’m a simple queer person with the mental illness, so we really relate to Elsa, so we like that she has more focus in this film. Still this movie is kinda of double edged sword because some side characters like Kristoff and Olaf are actually so annoying in this movie, I never thought much of these characters before, but now I despise them. Also they took out some things that would have made this movie so much better, like a romantic song between Kristoff and Anna that honestly makes their relationship more endearing. Also the fucking castle would have been destroyed in the end, making this tale of colonialism much more symbolic. They weren’t brave enough to do that tho, or who knows higher ups probably didn’t like the idea.

Speaking of what might have been, I wish men didn’t meddle and take over a woman’s vision when it comes to Brave. It’s another movie were we feel in our opinion it could have been better than what we got.

I’m not gonna say much about Pocahontas, because it’s not really our place. We will just say as a child it never was a favorite of ours. I don’t like how the human characters look, a lot of the characters are weak too, the villian is so lame. The only positives I can say some of the music can be amazing, some of the visuals are gorgeous, and I like the animal companions. However both films especially the 2nd make me like 😬

Oh I almost forget Aladdin is not here, because I feel like I need to rewatch it again to see where we would place it. To be fair it doesn’t feel like a Disney Princess movie anyways, since Aladdin gets more focus than Jasmine. There are also some Disney sequels we have not seen that are not here.

[cyborg-cinderella]

Do you have a favorite version of Cinderella?

OMG yes!! There’s so many wonderful versions of the story, but my favorite film adaptation of Cinderella is still the 1998 film “Ever After” with Drew Barrymore. Even though it was released more than 20 years ago, it’s still an adaptation that holds up today because of how sweepingly beautiful and romantic it is.

“The Slipper and the Rose” comes at a VERY close 2nd place as far as Cinderella adaptations go. Everything about it — the acting, musical performances, costumes, scenery, etc. — it’s such a gorgeous and underrated version of the fairytale and it deserves more love imo.

As far as book retellings go, I’m a big fan of Marissa Meyer’s “Cinder” from The Lunar Chronicles series (which is the inspiration behind my username here). It’s an excellent sci-fi adaptation of the story that also embraces the Chinese roots of the Cinderella fairy tale. “Ella Enchanted” is another great book retelling of Cinderella imo.

And of course, I love all of the Disney versions too. From the animated 1950 film to its remake in 2015 and the R&H tv musical with Brandy in 1997 — they’re all so good and I’ve rewatched + reread them many times. 🥰

What about you? Do you have a favorite version of Cinderella? Do you know any good film/book adaptations of the story that you’d recommend?

[pvrrhadve]

I trust ur taste in books, so can you recommend some? 🥺🥺🥺

yes absolutely!! this turned out obnoxiously long so i'm putting it under a read more

at this point you definitely all know about 2 of my favourite series, the queen's thief and the locked tomb

on the jellicoe road, also by melina marchetta. my fav ya contemporary, about a girl at a boarding school in the australian bush trying to figure out where she comes from, where she belongs and how to heal. marchetta's writing style can be a little difficult to get into for some people but she really really does it for me.

while tqt is my #1 favorite series, my 2nd favourite is melina marchetta's lumatere chronicles which is both kinda dark and full to the brim with love and hope and healing. some of my fav characters ever are in these books and the ending is so warm and radiant it straight up made me weep. some tw's that i go into here

the darkest part of the forest by holly black. ya fantasy. she wrote this specifically for girls who absolutely would've bargained years of their life away to the faerie king to become a monster-hunting knight when they were 11. black's magnum opus.

the girl who drank the moon by kelly barnhill. mg fantasy about a little girl who is accidentally given magical powers by a friendly bog witch. reads like a ghibli movie.

this is how you lose the time war by amal el-mohtar and max gladstone. a lyrical and devastatingly beautiful epistolary sci-fi wlw love story about 2 enemy time travellers.

abhorsen/old kingdom trilogy by garth nix. a ya fantasy classic about grief, duty, dead things and primordial cats and dogs. definitely holds up.

tess of the road by rachel hartman. ya fantasy. one of the best books i've read this year, had me completely emotionally invested by chapter 2. tess is SUCH a good character and her arc is so beautifully done. a companion novel/future series to hartman's seraphina duology but imo you don't need to read them first to enjoy this (you can ofc, but while the 1st (seraphina) is a really good scholarly fantasy about identity and also dragons, the 2nd (shadowscale) sadly didn't do much for me). tw for sexual assault (recounted as a memory, not graphic) and religious abuse.

the colours of madeleine by jaclyn moriarty. young ya/older mg contemporary portal fantasy. i picked these up on a whim a couple years ago and didn't expect much from them but was very pleasantly surprised by how fun and original they are. i reread them this summer and they're just as good the 2nd time around.

in other lands by sarah rees brennan. ya portal fantasy deconstruction. it's borderline satire and one of the funniest books i've ever read but it's also very sincere and intelligent in how it deals with its main character and his struggles.

middlegame by seanan mcguire. fantasy/sci-fi. honestly could not explain the plot of this book to you or why it's so good but there's psychically linked alchemically engineered twins who have various and sundry powers and i loved it.

sunshine by robin mckinley. paranormal urban fantasy. another book that i cant really explain but love anyway. i mean it's in the very general neighbourhood of "vampire romance" but like... weirder and frankly whatever you're expecting it to be it's probably not that.

keturah and lord death by martine leavitt. fairytale-like and haunting. every hades and persephone retelling wants what this book has.

the scorpio races by maggie stiefvater. her iconic standalone horsegirl fantasy <3 deeply atmospheric and about how being stuck on an unspecified celtic island in an unspecified but vaguely modern time could understandably be enough to drive you to fuck around with the local carnivorous water horses.

braiding sweetgrass by robin wall kimmerer. honestly if i could make everyone read just one book off this list it would be this one.

lab girl by hope jahren. beautifully written memoir about life, love and botany. one of my fav nonfiction books.

[raeynbowboi]

How to Play as Belle in DnD 5e

Belle is my favorite Disney Princess, and from my favorite fairytale covered by the Disney company. Which is why it’s a crying shame she hasn’t been properly built until now. I mean, I have built her before, but that was terrible, and I’ve since changed my mind on how best to build her. So, go on. Unfold your menu. Take a glance, and then you’ll, have to suffer through my cringy attempt at humor.

Belle is a perfectly ordinary person. There’s nothing too remarkable about her. As such, it’s easy to write her off as just an ordinary Standard Human. But hold on, there’s her literary version to consider. In the very first version written by Suzanne-Barbot de Villeneuve in 1740, Belle is the daughter of a king and a fairy, making Belle a half-fairy. So, you could also build her as a Variant Human with the Fey Touched feat to give her that fey analogue, or go Half-Elf for the bonus skills.

BACKGROUND

Belle’s background can lean one of two ways, and I recommend shaping her background to the subclass you pick out for her.

Guild Artisan As a guild artisan, Belle can be a tinkerer, metalworker, or alchemist by trade. It’s also called Guild Merchant, and her father is a merchant in most versions of the fairytale, fitting as most peasant girls would likely take up her father’s trade. This puts more emphasis on Belle making things by hand, and gives her proficiency with Insight and Persuasion.

Sage With this background, Belle is a researcher or librarian, recording and preserving knowledge in a vast library or workshop. This feeds more into Belle’s love of literature and reading, and is a good translation of Belle’s hobbies and interests into the realm of Dungeons and Dragons. The Sage background gives Belle proficiency with Arcana and History.

CLASS

ARTIFICER

As tempting as a Lore Mastery or Order of the Scribes Wizard would be to make Belle a magical intellect, I find that the more scientific angle of the Artificer feels more at home with the daughter of an inventor. Granted, if Belle grew up in the setting of DnD, she may be far more fascinated with wizardry and magic, but as a pure translation of her screen counterpart, the logic-driven inventor class feels more appropriate for her. Especially since it can easily allow her spells to be reflavored as whacky inventions created either by Belle or her father. However, if you’d rather play Belle as a dedicated squishy caster with a love for magic instead of science, then either Lore Mastery Wizard or Order of the Scribes Wizard is a perfectly appropriate substitution build for Belle. And if an INT caster isn’t really doing it for you, Belle also works great as a Knowledge Domain Cleric who seeks to understand the universe, or an Arcana Domain Cleric who worships a powerful enchantress and seeks to understand the magical strings that connect all things together in the great glamorweave of magic.

ARCHIVIST (UA)

If Belle chooses this subclass, have her background be a Sage. As an Archivist, Belle is a researcher who uses her technology to gather and store information. The articial mind feature dosen’t specify if the object with the mind can think or talk, however. If it can, Belle can create Lumiere and Cogsworth to store information for her. Or, if the object is just an object that can show Belle information, then have her use Beast’s enchanted mirror to show her things.

ARTILLERIST

As an Artillerist, Belle will gain more from being a Guild Artisan. It’s not quite Belle’s style, but this artificer subclass comes the closest to making Belle an inventor, as she can craft laser cannons, flamethrowers, mobile forcefields, and other things. I did consider the Battle Smith, but that one seems far more focused on Belle herself fighting on the front lines, and that doesn’t really fit her style. Belle is far more at home tinkering and inventing than she is standing over a hot anvil, forging weapons.

SIDEKICK

GNOLL DEFENDER WARRIOR

The new sidekick mechanic introduced in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything allows us to be joined by a simplified build PC that can be any creature type with a CR 1/2 or lower. I chose a gnoll as these bipedal hyena-like creatures come the closest to Beast’s aesthetic, although the Jackalwere is another great option in its hybrid form, and lets Beast play more with a werewolf type angle. As Belle’s sidekick, Beast can flank her in battle, and so long as he’s within 5 feet of her, Belle’s enemies will have disadvantage on hitting her. Though he also works as an Attacker Warrior, charging ahead to the front lines while Belle stays in the back of the team’s formation to cast her spells from a distance. Just pick his warrior style by how he approaches combat. If you want to lean more into the Artificer angle and make the Beast something she’s built, use the stats for the Stone Giant Statue and make it an Anvilwrought.

Belle’s Spell Library

Cantrips Firebolt Message Ray of Frost Shocking Grasp

1st Level Catapult Grease Tasha’s Caustic Brew

2nd Level Arcane Lock Heat Metal Magic Weapon

3rd Level Elemental Weapon Glyph of Warding Tiny Servant

4th Level Fabricate Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere Summon Construct

5th Level Animate Objects Bigby’s Hand Creation

Ultimately, whether you favor Belle as a tinkerer or a mage, she’ll make great use of her keen intellect in Dungeons and Dragons, and with the sidekick feature, she can be flanked by a bestial creature without having to dip into Beast Master Ranger, or having another player agree to make Beast in order to complete the set. 

[luimnigh]

So, I’m just gonna go through the Reddit AMA that happened today (December 2nd 2020), and compile the answered questions that I personally find interesting

Taking part in this AMA was Eddy Rivas, RWBY co-writer; Eugene C. Myers, write of After the Fall, Before the Dawn and Fairy Tales of Remnant; and Violet Tobacco, illustrator on Fairy Tales of Remnant. 

(Not all questions and answers are repeated here verbatim, if you want to check the exact wording, please use the link above.)

This is gonna be long, so I’ll place a cut here:

Eddy Answers:

JNPR Birthdays: Someday. They’d rather reserve that information for the show or other materials, but they felt it was well past due to learn RWBY’s birthday. 

Who is the girl in the photo in Theodore’s office?: “That’s something we’ll come back to later.”

Mercury Thoughts: He’s reserving them for later in the Volume, though he does find some people’s takes on his character “interesting”, but can’t say why just yet. 

Thoughts on the Em/Merc/Hazel dynamic:  “As for the Merc/Em/Hazel dynamic, moooooore to come. I've always enjoyed that little trio in the midst of these bananas villains.”

Are we ever gonna get an origin for Dust, even a biased one?: “Yes, more than likely.”

Are Ghira and Kali’s bands in each other’s colours “wedding bands”, and is this a faunus/huntsman tradition? (The asker also notes that Tai has a red armband):  “Different cultures/kingdoms have different ways of expressing their bonds to other people, and there's not even really a set standard for that across the board. Most often it comes to incorporating it on their clothes/person in some way, usually through color.”

Do the Gods have actual names, or are they only known by their titles as God of Light and God of Darkness?: “Certainly the Two Brothers might have other things that they are known by!”

Does the women who first followed the Infinite Man have a name as well? “Ozpin was choosing in the re-telling of that story to keep those things pretty general/vague -- more than likely to keep it from being perceived by the audience as truth.”

Things created by the Staff of Creation have no ontological inertia: a created object will disappear once the Staff is used again.

The Grimm in Before The Dawn were attracted to the amped Auras because “large flare-ups of Aura (the soul, which goes hand in hand with emotions) would read similarly to the emotions that Grimm are naturally drawn to.”

Remnant Holidays: “There are certainly different holidays in Remnant, many of them similar to our own. This is the kind of thing we always want to save for the screen or other materials if we can help it!”

Semblance Rules: “Semblances can basically be anything, we just make sure there is some kind of check on it -- take Tock, for instance, who could become invulnerable but it's going to lead to her Aura breaking. I wouldn't say there's a hard and fast rule against a Semblance being transformative, but it certainly would be uncommon.”

It seems Ironwood did issue an arrest warrant for Robyn, but the Council offered her safe passage to Atlas and Schnee Manor, in order to put Ironwood off-balance. 

Is Nicholas Schnee dead or is he still alive?: “Yes.”

Production of the 2D shorts on various Fairy Tales has been impacted by the pandemic, but more details are “hopefully coming soon”.

Sage is not connected to the AceOps, despite being based on an Aesop. There are more characters based on Aesops besides them. 

Beacon’s Academic Year: “It's fairly similar to our own semesters.”

The events of the books will impact the main series, but they want to fit them in in such a way that non-readers won’t feel like they’re missing out.

Will we ever find out more about Summer/how she died?: “It certainly seems like a pretty important thing for the show to touch on :)”

RWBY’s favourite fairytales: “We'll get to this.”

Eddy says we will learn more characters’ sexualities. 

Will We Ever See Roman Again?:  “I will say that Roman is a very fun character who has obviously made an impact on everybody. There will always be a desire to go back to that well.”

Aura would block a Lightsaber.

Cinder did not get any of the Spring Maiden’s power when she used her arm on Raven.

Is there is a link between semblance and magic?: “Yes.”

Are the Gods All-Powerful?: “This is a tough question to answer, but a very good one. I think it's something we'll actually learn more about... later.”

THE GOD OF LIGHT ALONE MADE ALL FOUR RELICS.

Eugene Answers:

At one point, Eugene, not knowing the ships of the fandom, named a location “Arkos”. His editor had to tell him why he couldn’t use it.

What inspired you to choose memory erasing and telepathy for Yatsu and Fox respectively?: “For Fox, it came about honestly because he had never spoken on the show, and I wanted to provide a canon reason for it, and then it just opened up so many interesting possibilities. For Yatsu, it probably started as I thought about Edward and Augustus and what might fit in thematically; and again, it fits in with Yatsu's more meditative nature, and I like the fact that his Semblance isn't based on physical strength.”

“”From my perspective, it was very important to me to not contradict anything in the series past or future, help expand on things that haven't been covered in the show yet, and help lay the foundation for things that may appear in later volumes. The RWBY writing team is terrific to collaborate with, answering all the questions I had as much as they could, and of course they review, approve, and correct anything needed to fit the show's continuity and its tone.”

Does the Chill have a physical form?: “I envisioned the Chill as being incorporeal, living in the shadows.”

Can you save someone from the Chill?: “You could save someone from possession, if you acted quickly.“

The books tell us Coco has an older brother, Toma; and a younger brother, Mate; as well as a third brother, Van. Eugene confirms Van to be younger than Coco.

He wishes he could have spent more time on Scarlet and Sage.

Favourite OC: Rumpole. Favourite Show Character: Penny

Fox’s Personality: “People often compare him a bit to Toph, who is my favorite Avatar character, so I think that influenced his character. Plus, the voice in your head would have to be the one that says things you shouldn't say aloud. That's Fox.”

If he gets to make a third novel, it would be SSSN-focused.

“I believe it took SSSN several months to reach Vacuo from Haven, partially because they weren't in any hurry, and it's a long way. And then the main events of BtD take place a month or so after AtF.” 

Before the Dawn takes place before Volume 8.

Violet Answers:

What are some of your artistic inspirations?: “Arthur Rackham was the biggest inspiration throughout. The grungy, rough nature of his work was very helpful in merging my style with something more traditional to match the fairytale feel needed for this book.“ 

[disney-rapunzel-merida-vanellope]

- so let’s begin the silver era. My 3rd favorite era. Sleeping beauty and Peter Pan are my personal faves but its just iconic disney magic all over

- i gotta admit…. Cinderella is my least favorite princess 😭 and little me decided this long before even watching this movie. Bare with me and my stupid bias against her. I actually really like her in the movie. My bias actually comes from the fact that SHE WAS THE FRONT AND CENTER OF EVERY DISNEY PRINCESS MERCHANDIZE I OWNED AS A KID 😭 I know its so stupid but little me really made cinderella to be this Regina George mean girl that likes to take the spotlight. In my mind she was a queen b, while Snow White was the Gretchen and aurora was like cady in the beginning of the movie (aurora was my fave disney princess at the time), (I hadn’t even watched mean girls as a kind I’m just using the characters cause they fit the personas i had for the princesses). And the fact that the only cinderella movie i owned was the 2nd one made me even angrier at her cause i thought she didnt have her 1st movie yet so why was she the popular girl 😭 I’m sorry Cindy, i love you in the movies but i cant shake that old bias, you’re still last place

- and speaking of that, i was really confused why i had cinderella 2 in vhs but now the 1st. I asked my mom and she said “its not out yet” 🙂 she could have been more specific and had told me they were waiting to release it on dvd (like we ended up buying) or that my parents never ended up buying the vhs cause they couldn’t find it or whatever but no. Had me thinking disney really made the 2nd and not yet the 1st. I still knew the story cause i had many MANY illustrated fairytale books both disney and nondisney with all the stories but i probably thought they were gonna make the movie based on the disney picture books or something (all this also happened with lion king 💀). I might seem like i only got the dvd when i was already grown but i was probably still in kindergarten so it was still part of my childhood. I dont even know why my brain still has this before and after the dvd time period so defined cause really i was still a kid when i got it

- I generally prefer the 2015 one…. That’s probably the only live action I prefer over the og, tho this is actually not a hot take. Many people do

- story time over, imma watch the movie

- love when disney movies start with a book

- I’m an cinderella and my mom is the birds. Every. Single. Morning. 🥱

- during the war era movies, the girls always had this 2 braids with bows hairstyle but it always looks like pigtails or something, probably to save money not actually drawing the braids. It’s cool to finally see the hairlstyle how it actually is

- i love her positivity, dreamy and strong personality. She’s a slave but still manages to wake up and sing, trying to find little fun and joy in her basic actions in live

- love her bossiness and sarcasm with Lucifer kkkkk

- the animators really asked the question “if rats needed to choose 1 of themselves randomly and fairly, how would they do it? Joining tails and grabbing one”. Genius, really got into the thinking of a rat. Jaq going 😃😟😃😟 is killing me too

- these bitches are so impatient…. I think id cry everyday if i was cinderella

- early disney princesses get slammed a lot for not being “””””strong female characters””””” but that is ancient bullshit. I really wonder how the conversation relating these movies to the female gaze goes. The girls are never sexualized and the boys have no personality and are basically just the love interest (like girls in male gaze movies). Where is the female gaze takes on the early princesses. I want to read some cause i really feel like these are 100% female gaze even tho the staff was mostly male. All this when it comes to the protagonists cause obviously theres the problematic beauty=good, ugly=evil problem… idk, id just like to read more on this non biased woke feminist takes on the early princesses

- the king is hilarious. I’d marry him if i was cinderelli

- pros of the portuguese dub being made in the 90s/early 2000s, she sings “ i sew, bring me the fabrics” instead of the “women sew” thing. This is why a lot of racist/ sexist things in disney movies are unknown to me. Lost in translation and said translation is from the 90s and forward. Can’t hide sexist/ racist visuals tho. Curious to listen to the natives Peter Pan song again and see if i pick up anything weird

- the rats making her the dress makes me so emotional. She goes through so much, its so nice that she has friends.

- ive always liked the pink dress but i also always felt like it was too childish with the excessive amount of bows

- i love how collected and with head held high she talks to them. She really kept her dignity all the time

- the ripping of the dress bit makes me sick. It feels like assault i hate it

- the way the fairy appears between cinderella and the bench always blows my mind 😭 its so simple but i find it so impressive

- i want a fairy godmother 😭 such a kind silly lady

- love how cinderella wants that dress more than anything and the fairy literally forgets the dress 😂

- everything turned out so nice tho. Just like the genie, this lady doesnt let cinderella off with the bare minimum. She goes extra hard. The carriage is soooooooooo pretty. The silver pallet of everything is 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻

- I’m so sick of 22, where’s my bibbidi bobbidi boo

- the dress transformation IS SO GORGEOUS 😭 I love it so much. Animation really is the superior medium. I’m always blown away.

- in have mixed feeling for the dress, i love the silver, the puff sleeves not so much. But the hairstyle is really unfortunate 😭

- “the prince only had personality in cinderella 3” GIRL, THE SASSINESS IS PRESENT HERE TOO 😭

- This castle is so pretty

- the king and the duke remind me a lot of aurora and philip’s parents

- i love how in the ball scene, many spectators are moving, instead of just the stepmother and sisters. Normally the other people would be static like the background. It’s a really nice touch

- the whole “so this is love” scene is so iconic, so beautiful. I want that experience 😭

- the king’s bed is literally goals. That mattress would cure all my problems

- the king is literally so funny. “The shoe might fit many girls” #thats his problem” kkkkkkkkk

- oooooh i hate how evil this woman is. The glare alone could kill. If i was her id play nice with cinderella to get a room in the palace

- i like how cinderella reacts here more than in the live action. She screams, tries to open the door, kneels crying, calls for help from her animal friends. In the live action she starts singing like she has made peace with the injustice happening to her. Idk, i just like this reaction more

- the wedding dress is so pretty

- damn now i wanna watch the live action one 😭

- an iconic classic. Not my fave but i 100% see why its loved and timeless

[betweenthetimeandsound]

Three Minutes to Eternity: My ESC 250 (#72-71)

)Author's note: This was delayed by a few days because I couldn't get the gifs to download from the website. Sorry about that!)

#72: Zdravko Colic -- Gori vatra (Yugoslavia 1973)

“Gori vatra sad u nama, Gori ljubav, puna plama, Da l' to sanjam, il' je stvarno tako lijepo,”

“The fire is burning inside of us, Love is burning, full of flames Am I dreaming, or is it really this beautiful?”

Any title which translates to “fire is burning” must live up to its name. It's not a candlelight dinner that Zdravko is describing; it's more of a bonfire which threatens to engulf the lovers if they are not aware of what's going on with each other. And Gori Vatra does that many times over.

From the opening guitar solo, which heralds in a set of trumpets and the percussive background, you get a sense of the tension the two put themselves upon when they engage in passion. The lyrics also convey the madness of falling in love, as Zdravko takes note of how much this fire burns, though I do get the feeling he's lost in how overwhelming it is.

Despite the resemblances to Cliff Richard (#143), Zdravko performs with only his voice; he conveys his emotions with a deep and clear voice, one which is enough to get lost into if one is not careful. Also, for some reason, I keep looking at his suit, because it's so red and bright, haha.

Unfortunately, unlike Cliff Richard, Zdravko didn't get the result he deserved, and I'm not sure why. I know Yugoslavia did a lot more genre experimentation prior to the 1980s, and Gori Vatra is a great example of that.

Personal ranking: 2nd/17 Actual ranking: =15th/17 (with France) in Luxembourg

#71: Alexander Rybak -- Fairytale (Norway 2009)

“Years ago, when I was younger I kinda liked a girl I knew...”

We almost made it through 180 entries into this 250, and during that time we gone through all of Iceland's entries, have only one left from Finland, and have only two left from both Denmark and Sweden. Meanwhile, Norway has its first entry here, and what a way they start their run here!

So which this Fairytale begins, in which Rybak tells the story of a girl he liked, but ends up in a tumultuous relationship with her. It's very playful in terms of the lyrical storytelling--very simple like an actual fairytale, but still with so much drama. Rybak also showcases it with the way he sings and how he expresses himself to the camera, and you could see how much he puts into the performance.

There’s a sense of joy in this, through the folkloric instrumental and the wicked fiddling, but there's still a bunch of tumult. We have the backing dancers performing "push-ups" and flips all around the stage, and the backing vocalists adding to Rybak's sadness. With the huge stage in Moscow, they manage to use the space effectively, especially with the LEDs creating a whimsical landscape.

While it’s not my personal favorite of 2009, it still stands out as an absolute jam. It's an earworm played so often across Europe that the violin intro is enough to make some people go mad. That said, it's an absolute classic in the Eurovision fandom and has aged quite well; also do check out this performance at the Nobel Peace Prize for a different take on the song!

Personal ranking: 5th/42 Actual ranking: 1st/25 GF in Moscow

[into1-wonderland]

Baby!Into1 x Daycare au | Intro

(ft. Bo Yuan as the caretaker of the 10 chaotic bunch, ranging from the ages of 3-5)

a/n: hello hello yumi here~ so this is the first into1 au of mine that will ever see the light of day. at first I was going to write things for it, but honestly I'm going to make it into a series with incorrect quotes to attach with it. this post will be the bios of all the babies and our lovely caretaker Bo Yuan, so enough of me babbling and I hope you guys could enjoy~

First off, we have the Caretaker™ Bo Yuan:

my mans is like in his 20's rn

wanted to open up a little day care as like side job/internship because he wanted to teach kids in the future so he was like “might as well start working with kids now!”

and so

he did it

only regretted his life decisions when his devil number 1 and devil number 2 does something bad

other times he really enjoy looking after them! and he doesn’t even feel like it’s a job!

has been thinking about taking a field trip with all 10 of them but he’s afraid: 1) he might lose one 2) he might lose himself 3) can they behave themselves

his favorite thing to do is having all of them gather around while reading a fairytale to them for nap time

or sometimes he would sing a song

he has a lot of favorite things in day care, literally having all 10 of them just there makes him happy

except when lin mo and nine is having a scream off:

lin mo: ahh

nine: aHH

lin mo: AHH

nine: AHHHHH-

bo yuan, running into the room: what’s wrong?

ak: screaming

bo yuan: why?

patrick, with his hands over his ears: TO SEE WHOS LOUDER

all the other boys: *nods*

isnt always watching the kids 24/7, since day 1 when the kids came in he told them the rules of the daycare and kinda just let them familiarize the place

(bo yuan: its a daycare, and they are kids, they are suppose to have fun!

keyu, in the back, mumbles: i wanna climb the tree in the yard

bo yuan, turns around: keyu no)

///////////

And now we have the kids!!

Liu Yu:

4 years old

very quiet, just likes to sit and read and draw

the most obedient one, and likes to follow around bo yuan

well,, most of the time

he’s played a few pranks on bo yuan like:

bo yuan: liu yu nap time is over you have to wake up

liu yu: *not moving*

bo yuan, gently nudged liu yu: liu yu wake up!

liu yu: *continues to fake sleep and not move*

bo yuan: *leans closer to liu yu’s face to make sure hes not sick or has a fever*

liu yu, scares bo yuan: WAH

bo yuan: liu yu dont do that! you scared me!

liu yu: *giggles*

likes to stretch and bend himself in odd positions

(bo yuan: everyday I’m in fear that he will snap himself in half)

kinda an introvert but once he hangs around everyone for a bit he will open up to them and fit himself in very well

likes to organize and keep things how he found them/have special places where he organizes his toys

jiayuan: *moves liu yu’s fan*

liu yu: hey! put that back!!

has really good etiquettes and never really fights or argues or bicker with the other kids

but likes to joke around and mess around with once in a while

patrick: wahhh i put my cupcakes here who took one!

liu yu, hiding it behind his back: idk maybe keyu took it?

the least of bo yuan’s worries since he’s always in bo yuan’s sight, also he’s aware of his surroundings so he actually helps bo yuan make sure everything’s okay

(bo yuan: i made a checklist for myself on the whiteboard and liu yu likes to check things off for me, he said “coloring in the boxes is fun” so now he's the reason why i get all my work done)

-----------

Santa:

4 years old

riki’s best friend

super happy and bright, like a ray of sunshine

is easily scared

lin mo: hi

santa: WAHHHHH BO YUAN GEGE

really likes bo yuan, would stick on to him a lot and ask him about everything

santa: bo yuan gege whats this?

santa: bo yuan gege what’s that?

santa: bo yuan gege what are you making right now?

hangs out with liu yu and mika a lot (other than riki)

riki is older than him but would hold riki’s hand and take him around like a didi

also really likes racing with mika for E V E R Y T H I N G

(bo yuan: yeah couple days ago they tried to race who can fall asleep faster but because they kept on peeking at each other so they basically didn’t sleep till i said i’ll watch for them)

really likes to dance, every time he hears music he would start grooving around

loves learning new things, which is probably the reason why he always asks bo yuan so many questions

also least one of bo yuan’s worries, just gotta make sure jiayuan and lin mo don’t pull pranks on him

(bo yuan: well they dont really pull prank pranks, its just once lin mo grabbed a frog and started running around and showing it to everyone, but lin mo lost grip and the frog jumped on santa)

-----------

Rikimaru:

5 years old

looks like he’s 3, acts like he’s 3, but is actually 5

best friends with santa! always sticks around him and likes to tug on a corner of his shirt out of habit

bo yuan: alright everyone it’s nap time! i’ve made the beds for everyone

riki, sees his bed is not next to santa: bo yuan gege can you switch my bed next to santa? i wanna be next to santa

he didn’t start speaking till he was 4 so he often stutters when he talk and just looks confused a lot (it's because he’s thinking and formulating his words)

santa and the other kids would always have to interpret for him

bo yuan: riki I brought some snacks today do you want cookies or marshmallows?

riki: ???

santa, motioning with his hands: bo yuan gege said do you want the white fluffies or brown crunchies

riki: oh! crunchies!

squishy cheeks,, bo yuan’s favorite thing is to squish his cheek everytime he sees him

riki: gud mooning bo yuan gege!

bo yuan, squishes riki’s cheeks: ahh I haven’t seen you in so long good morning!!

nine: wait wasnt riki here yesterday??

also likes to stretch,, often seen around with liu yu and they just help each other

(bo yuan: i am afraid he will snap himself in half too)

not too much of bo yuan’s worries, besides the fact that he might get kidnapped because he’s so oblivious

(bo yuan: we were playing outside in the yard once and riki just wandered off because he thought the neighbor’s flowers were pretty)

-----------

Mika:

4 years old

also kinda an introvert, doesn’t interact with too many people

usually it’s santa that approaches him first or keyu^^

found a ukulele in the toy bin one time and wouldn’t let go of it (he claims it’s his now)

his favorite activity at daycare is when they all sing together, that’s when he smiles the most and has the most fun

the one that likes to nap the most

also likes to help bo yuan cook once in a while (mostly just having mika washing vegetables and passing things to bo yuan)

very laid back and not noisy (till he starts playing the ukulele)

often gets scared by lin mo’s sudden screams (actually, lin mo scares a lot of people, sorry to mika’s ears)

also not one of bo yuan’s worries, literally there’s nothing to worry about with mika, all the kids just likes to sit around mika and pet his head so he keeps everyone safe

(bo yuan: one time I couldn’t find any of the kids in the play room, apparently they were all in the napping corner petting mika’s head since he just got a hair cut)

-----------

Nine:

4 years old

loud, very loud.

pouts a lot

everyone calls nine cute, even the boys who are younger than him

likes to boss around patrick because he’s older

nine: patrick gimme that juice box!

patrick: you’re closer you get it!

nine: i’m older than you!

literally scared of everything

if he hasn’t seen it before and it’s living, he’s scared

jiayuan: *holds a bowl of tadpoles*

nine, several feet away: WAHHH WHAT IS THAT

the happiest when he gets snacks + real food food

also really likes to sing!! his favorite thing is watching disney movies because there’s so much music in it and he just loves to sing along

he’s not part of bo yuan’s worries because he’s literally scared of everything, but nine is really naive and would do things that the other kids tell him to do so, it’s a 50/50 on nine

(bo yuan: there was an edible decorative flower on keyu’s birthday cake couple days ago, and somehow jiayuan convinced nine all flowers were edible. so today during outside time nine almost ate the neighbor’s flowers)

-----------

Lin Mo:

3 years old

LOUD. VERY LOUD.

probably the craziest most hyper one out of them all

he and jiayuan always have something bad planned

literally doesn’t have a moment where he’s calm

constantly in bickering mode with ak

lin mo: NO IM RIGHT

ak: NO. IM RIGHT

patrick: what are they arguing about?

keyu: *shrugs*

but is also best friends with ak so he’s also calm around him

(bo yuan: yeah these two have on and off days, you can never predict it)

and also constantly naruto runs around the daycare

bo yuan: lin mo stop running!

lin mo: *nyoom*

he also once nyoomed into keyu

keyu: ow what was that for?

lin mo: you were in my way!

and now he nyooms into keyu for fun

a very good mood maker

likes to smile/laugh a lot

would calm down if you show him a movie or a cartoon

number 2 on bo yuan’s worry list because he’s the "bad influence" for everyone, also he reduces hearing for everyone

(bo yuan: i’ve secretly made a tally book on how many times i have to say “lin mo” in a concerning tone this week and he came in 2nd. he was only here for like 3 days!)

-----------

Zhang Jiayuan:

3 years old

YOURE THREE STOP SMIRKING LIKE THAT

couple months younger than lin mo but this is the real culprit under a lot of his and lin mo‘s plans

it’s just because jiayuan has a lot of crazy ideas and he says them out loud and lin mo is just like “yes”

also sometimes they are just accidents, but he's always doing weird questionable things with lin mo

got really sad one time because he brought tadpoles and put them in the fish tank and killed them since the fish went nom

but then started to constantly catch for tadpoles to feed the fishes

bo yuan: jiayuan stop, you’re killing the frog population!

jiayuan: but the fishies are hungry *pouts*

likes to fight/mess around with keyu for no reason

keyu: *sitting there, drawing*

jiayuan, with a squishy hammer: *bops keyu’s head*

but also will protect keyu if anyone tries to mess with him

lin mo: *nyooms into keyu for the 3rd time of the day* jiayuan, hugs keyu: stop hurting him!

the calmest thing he likes to do is taking care of plants, probably because he saw bo yuan spraying the plants one time and he like to squeeze the spray bottle

number 1 on bo yuan’s worry list, this child is literally not safe alone or with anyone. they were trying to celebrate keyu’s birthday and jiayuan tried to touch the candles, while it was lit, by the flame.

(bo yuan: i just got the tablets and haven’t set up children mode, so i’ll take the blame for this one. but also why are kids so good with technologies nowadays??)

-----------

Patrick:

3 years old

squishy :D

smiley :DD

favorite thing is nap time and snack time

somehow knows every location where bo yuan hides their snacks

bo yuan: *getting the snacks that he hid in the piano*

patrick: *sitting next to the window sill with the snack* hi~

of course bo yuan can never get mad at patrick for eating the snacks because patrick doesn’t do anything bad

also he's a growing child

best friends with keyu,, and drags him on to “adventures”

*the daycare got a new toy play house*

patrick: bo yuan gege, keyu and I are moving out so we can go on an adventure!

keyu: I didnt agree to this??

wants bo yuan to add dress up into the daycare games, since he wants to dress up the other boys in the daycare

patrick: i call it, patrick fashion!

not part of bo yuan’s worries till he’s on his hunt for the hidden snacks, just because bo yuan is afraid he might hurt himself

(bo yuan: i started hiding the snacks higher up and one time i saw him trying to climb on keyu’s shoulders to grab it)

-----------

Zhou Keyu:

3 years old

smart, but really clueless at the same time

tall, but has the personality of smol

likes to draw

also likes to read with patrick,, but usually patrick falls asleep so it’s him, the book, and a sleeping patrick

wears glasses all the time since his vision isn’t so good but somehow he makes glasses look good on him???

has a chain with his glasses because there too many glasses incident with keyu

glasses #1 keyu: I don’t like them! *takes it off and loses it*

glasses #2 keyu: *takes them off for nap time, but riki accidentally rolled on to them and snapped it*

glasses # we don’t know how many: *disconnected from the keyu universe*

also like a month younger than lin mo but literally has to make sure lin mo doesnt “blow” the place up

lin mo: what if I stuck this fork into the pluggie thing?

keyu, picking lin mo up: nope you’re not

when keyu is clueless he either stands there or just sit there and space out, not really noticeable but bo yuan ran into him doing that a couple times

(bo yuan: I thought he was an ai that was malfunctioning, it scared me at first but now I know he just doesn’t remember what he’s doing)

oh did I mention this,, even though he’s one of the youngest, he’s the tallest, with that advantage he likes to try to pick people up

jiayuan: keyu pick me up!

keyu: no

patrick: keyu likes me more he will pick me up!

keyu: no

patrick: *pouts*

keyu: *tries to pick both jiayuan and patrick up at the same time*

bo yuan, running over: ZHOU KEYU PUT THEM DOWN YOULL BREAK YOURSELF

not too high up on bo yuan’s worry list, give him a piece of paper or book or anything he would just calmly sit there and do something with it

(bo yuan: every time when we do art or reading its so hard to pry keyu away, he has to finish what he was doing and he’s so concentrated he doesn’t hear anybody)

-----------

Liu Zhang (AK):

4 years old

loud, VERY LOUD.

he doesn’t know he’s loud

bo yuan: ak you don’t have to yell

ak: OKAY

monopolized over all the instrument music type of toys in the daycare

bo yuan: ak you know you have to share your toys right?

ak: I gave the ukulele to mika

honestly having ak is like having a walking megaphone so bo yuan ended up actually making ak his little helper for announcements

bo yuan: ak go tell everyone is lunch time

ak: alright!

ak: *da da da running to fetch his little stool*

ak, stands on a little stool in the middle of the play room: ITS LUNCH TIMEEEEEE-

nine, swats ak’s leg: YOU SCARED ME

the only time ak is quiet is when he’s around lin mo, he kinda just likes to watch lin mo and follow him around so that’s that

unless lin mo starts messing with him, then you just lose your hearing for the day

also at first bo yuan was trying to see what ak is interested in, and he taught ak hot cross buns on the bells and thought that would calm ak down,, but oops ak ended up making more noises

patrick: I WANNA SLEEP AK

(bo yuan: I swear something happened to this kid or something. he’s not hard of hearing but he’s just naturally so loud)

i too would lose my hearing if im around ak so much

not to high on bo yuan’s worries but he just make sure ak isn’t being too loud and bothering the other kids, usually he’s pretty good about that but you never know when a little patrick will start napping or anyone really so gotta contain his energy

(bo yuan: ak is usually the first one that’s awake from nap time but its usually like 5-10min before everyone else so i told him he can go and play but he just has to be quiet)

///////////

alrighty !! now you've met everyone in the daycare, what kind of fun and chaotic adventures are they going to have??

(all future daycare au things will be incorrect quotes + short little one shots, this intro mostly served as a bio so you understand their personalities a bit, and i hope you enjoyed it!)

[lucidpantone]

Funny ask 🤣 rank your top 10 fic tropes from your favorite to you least favorite

Hey Anon, well I am assume you’re asking me this since am basically no.1 fan of all the wtfock fanfic writers (love you all please feed me wordcount am greedy). So let’s use the wtfock top 20 fanfics as an example (evaluations based on hits/traffic count since kudos have a one time max so they tend to give a distorted look on whats actually popular in Ao3. )

☝🏽 Grrrrrrr why Ao3!! (I want deluge a million kudos) 

1-10 (1 being my fav/10 still a fav but am reading 1 first)

1. A rotten work (ANGST give me all the angst all the time) by @aholynight (Warning this fic explores heavy drug use as a coping mechanism and concepts around sex as self validation but its truly a masterpiece of the human condition and how one self can perpetuate a cycle of abuse onto one’s self)

2. You are safe here (trope would be original characters au/concept) by gayboy99 I really like the development of parental figures in this fic that skam lacks. Author thank you for highlighting the male on male dynamic of father/son.

3. Rough Magic (enemies to lovers) by @aholynight I already told you how amazing of an angst writer she is so slap on enemies to lovers too. The woman is incredible in every trope.

4. The night we met (college Au) by @dearrobbe. Since we are only including the front page of ao3 I gotta discuss the masterpiece concept introduced in this fic concerning a liminal space. A million kudos for creativity.I have so much fucking respect for you Jenna you are an incredible writer. Go check out paint me in trust too its due to end this weekend or next.

5. Unattainable (social au trope: aka instagram, youtube, text crafting concepts) by @ravenbrenna09. I was one of those old school peeps that was resistant towards the whole social au concept but Breanna’s amazing writing and creativity really sold me. Also unattainable is only one part of the pov. She flips it in the next installment of this fic world. She is so fucking creative it makes me sick! Also check out her new work Jij Verliest. 

6. Do I know you? (amnesia au) by @srta-pepa you know when you realize you didn’t know you needed something and then it appears and you’re like omg why didn’t I demand this before?!?! This fic is that for me it has had me anxious/worried/biting my nails. What a ride.... Thank you for attempting a trope that not many people do and killing it. Also you writing has grown so much I am so proud to read every chapter and see your development. It doesn’t go unnoticed how much you’re killing yourself for us. Thank you!!!! You’re crushing it know that.

7. the blood of both is my limbo @luludemauryyy / Rescue my heart by @skamsnake & @zaddyskam (am cheating because one is top of 2nd page but am combining fairytale/abo/soulmate au because both these fics are part of adaptive lit category). Say it with me people exposition, exposition, exposition. Did I know that I needed to know what a bar looks like in the 9th circle of hell? NO, but did luludemauryyy describe it in the most vivid unbelievable detail. Hell yes, they did. No one comes close to writing exposition like they do. They are literally masters of this style. Maybe the best in the fandom. Only people that come close to world descriptions and exposition building is snake and zaddy explaining concepts to me around abo because I didn’t even know what this was until I read their fic. Am a simple brain people. I stan all of you so much and I am looking at you for inspiration as I attempt a world fic in the future.

8. Vrijdag 21:37 (multiple pov shift au) by @wasteourdays​ Shut up, shut up, shut up. I am so jealous of your impeccably talented brain. I love this concept. I want to steal it. You killed it and if anyone ever says that its impossible to write the same scene 5+ times and keep it interesting needs to be sent this fic because they are simply lazy and need to be school by someone like you. Also its one of smoothest reads because I was engaged the entire time. 

9. Five out of Thirty (Future au) by @tyrusmwm You know what I respect a writer that consistently ask for feedback and adjust their style and takes on real time ideas from their readership. When you write characters many years into the future it’s so hard to capture the characters correctly because 16 yr old you and 30 yr old you are worlds apart. I love when someone takes a chance to write a character many years into the future and basically carve out an entirely original character in a way. Also personal note the growth I have seen in your writing when you are timely and detailed really wrecks my heart. 

10. All of you!! (Am cheating because its goes pass the front hit page) Every trope, every wacky idea, every leap of faith to be original. I stan each and every one of you that is brave enough to share your writing with us and some of your inner most intimate thoughts and experiences. You are all fucking crushing it, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. 

Please applause, kudos, comment, anon and dm all these writers. We are so damn lucky to have them creating content for us and they all literally inspire me on the daily to become a better writer. I love and respect all your talents so much. Thank you and a million kudos!!!!

[accidentalspaceexplorer]

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

When Casiopeia Tun, tired of dealing with her family, opens a mysterious box in her grandfather’s study, she releases one of the Mayan lords of death, Hun-Kamé. This simple action ties them together and forces Casiopeia to travel across Mexico to help Hun-Kamé regain his throne. In the company of the strangely alluring god and armed with her wits, Casiopea begins an adventure that will take her on a cross-country odyssey from the jungles of Yucatán to the bright lights of Mexico City—and deep into the darkness of the Mayan underworld. (adapted from goodreads)

I read this for the first installment of my friends' book club, and I ended up enjoying it and its discussion quite a bit. I still don’t have super coherent thoughts about the book, though, so this review is mostly going to be a fairly straightforward list of things I liked or disliked.

The good: I enjoyed the pacing - it was definitely slow, but I thought that it worked for the fairytale vibe that was going on. I also enjoyed the Mexican Jazz Age setting, which really worked to frame Casiopeia's choices and character arc. Finally, I thought that the ending really worked! It was universally the piece that people enjoyed the most according to our discussion, and I personally thought it wrapped up the story in a poignant and interesting way.

The not-so-good: I finished it having enjoyed it but not raving about it, which I think is because of the fairytale nature of the story. It felt like I knew exactly where the story was going the whole time, and there's not a whole lot of action throughout the book, so it just didn't grab me as much as it could have. Also, I wasn’t super into the romance, although I liked it, so I don’t think I went through the full range of emotions I was expected to.

All in all, a pretty good book, but not one of my new favorites.

My Rating: 4/5

[beingpassionateabout]

Elsa in white and Anna in black--> opposite attract. That is it. That is the whole post.

I’m sure you did not ask for this but it made me think so bear with me for a sec. lol

I think we elsanna fans like to play with the idea that Anna and Elsa are color-coded as a romantic pairing and that’s fun and true but now with Frozen 2 we see that they’ve being given new colors and so their coding changed as well. There are even some people pointing out how they’re playing out a more “yin & yang” vibe. But what does it mean?

In order to comprehend their changes I took to Tvtropes to help me better characterize each of their phases. 

1. “Red Index/Blue Index”

In Frozen 1 and most of Frozen 2 Elsa and Anna are color coded as the Blue/Red (purple-ish) dynamic duo we see in this image. According to TvTropes, this means: 

“There’s just something about red and blue, the way these two colors complement each other but also seem to oppose each other. Since they contrast so well, they seem to be paired together in some form more than any other two non-gray scale colors: hot and cold, red team and blue team, red ribbon (2nd place) and blue ribbon (1st place). And this leads to their inevitable contrast in symbolism […]”

Also, in the Red Oni/Blue Oni section: 

“This trope is about two individuals (or occasionally, factions or civilizations) that are significantly linked together somehow (such as through a rivalry, friendship, being siblings, co-workers, competitors, etc.) that have differing personalities and, with it, often different approaches to the world in general, especially whatever they might be competing in/for/over.”

In both F1 and F2 they are represented in these colors. The “hot vs. cold” metaphor is even used in Olaf’s song “In Summer”, to indicate how they are opposites and yet complementary forces, and how he views both of them due to being a result of their creation. Also both the red ribbon (2nd) place and blue ribbon (1st) place play a part in there, indicating their places in life and the line of ascension to the throne (more on it later). 

All in all, this color-coding indicated their conflicting (in the beginning of F1) and complementary (F2) colors and approaches to life, with Elsa being more reserved and introverted and Anna being more assertive and adventurous. We saw how in F1 this color-coding meant that their arcs’s main goal was to overcome their differences and reunite in the end, as long lost siblings who just found love and comfort in each other’s presence after years of separation. That’s good and it fits the sibling narrative (canon) and the fanon shipping of them (elsanna) we saw after F1. 

Btw, this is my favorite spin of this trope: “Fire/Ice Duo: Since Fire Is Red and ice is generally light blue”

Bc I’d have loved if they gave Anna fire powers in F2 and made it even more of a romantic coded-pairing. So easy to ship.  

Back to the analysis tho, I was thinking to myself that my favorite aspect of F2 is how much elsanna we saw in it, totally wearing my shipper’s goggles, of course. 

But it’s important to point out why we see so much of them: because The Creators words were right and Elsa and Anna’s relationship is the main focus of the narrative, playing an important role in explaining later developments (like the “bridge”, as they told us later).

I am still of the opinion that this was a weak script and they could have done many things differently, not to mention better. However, now that I think of the main reason why i liked Elsa and Anna’s story together I see that it’s bc the creators had the right idea in mind: developing their relationship into something that would support both of their character changes later, while still keeping them together and strengthening their bond.

I’m not saying they did it well, i’m just saying that now that i see it, it sounds like a good idea (and even better shipping material, if you ask me) and that they really took them from one point to the other. 

Let me explain. They were coded before as Red and Blue, but after the changes in F2 they are now color-coded as:

2.  Light/Darkness juxtaposition. 

sauce

This new color-coding can mean many things for characters, mostly pointing out at the broody type/sunny type of relationship I don’t think they actually embody anymore (even so, Elsa would be seen as the broody type but she’s in light colors now so.. doesn’t fit). That makes us turn to the more mythical implications of this trope, as seen bellow:

“Darkness is the absence of light, and light cannot exist without darkness. The dichotomy between the two has been part of human storytelling for a very long time—many Creation Myths often involve light emerging from darkness, and many destruction myths involve darkness engulfing light.”

In F2 they did play with death and ressurection, with lightness (acceptance) and darkness (despair) and with mythical vs fairytale themes, but what did they settle upon for Elsa and Anna’s relationship? A narrative of epic and mythical love.

Yes.

“It can also be used in conjunction with other contrast tropes; for example, Life/Death Juxtaposition will generally have life associated with light and death with darkness. Solar and Lunar usually pairs the sun with light and the moon with darkness (due to its association with night). Chinese philosophy associates this with Fire/Water Juxtaposition, where the yin is associated with darkness and water, and the yang with fire and light. Light and dark can easily be treated as opposing cosmic forces.”

Wow. 

Their love for each other transcended death not once but twice.

Now that Elsa achieved goddess-like status and Anna ascended the throne (no longer representing 1st/blue and 2nd/red place, but standing as equals), it means that their character dynamic are now placed on a higher level than before too. But what could beat the True Love narrative of the first movie? A mythical tale of balancing cosmic forces, of course! 

Not only it means they’re each other’s true love, but it also means that they can’t exist without the other now at the risk of destroying the world’s balance. 

This fits nicely with the idea of The Bridge (a terrible excuse for separation but a beautiful metaphor for their love story) and how they connect the nations.. but most importantly this fits nicely with how they connect both human and spiritual realms now.

Whoa.

Now I see why Anna tells Elsa this line “our love is worthy of the great myths” by the end of Forest of Shadows. Because it is. Their love is worthy of the greatest tale of all. 

Here’s to hoping i made sense.

[longeyelashedtragedy]

this has been the most wild fuckin year so let’s do a Year in Review shall we

in terms of internet and fandom life, that is. my real life has been atrociously boring but who cares about real life amirite folx

january probably the only calm month of the year.  i spent the first day of the month watching the brazilian inauguration in burgos, spain with one headphone in, while ordering for my family in a restaurant where nobody spoke english (my sister speaks decent spanish, but my whole family has like 8194814 food restrictions so it kind of went past her level of ability). translating between spanish and english with portuguese in one year was kind of awesome. i watched bodyguard and it was amazing!  what else...in january i briefly owned the issue of spanish GQ with Luka on the cover which i then forgot about until november. other than that...? nada.  the calm before the storm. (fav music)

february was so long ago that i keep forgetting how insane its 28 days were.  probably the wildest month of the year really. i got involved in an absolutely batshit and exclusive group chat with a famous person’s family member (which must remain confidential). it was all sunshine and rainbows for a week and a half and it then devolved into the most absolutely insane Lord of the Flies situation ever--it turned into 1 main chat and then 1 chat that was less puritanical than the main chat, and that chat spawned another chat that didn’t trust the previous chat, and then that chat had a massive argument and a like 6-person bitchy chat modded by a gay guy who does voodoo (shoutout to ALCIDES) spawned from that one.  i made it into every level of group chat and was asked by the tiny bitchy chat to spy on the other bitchy chat (i did not lol). i was a member of the tiny bitchy chat until i got a new phone and was logged out of whatsapp for like a month.  these words can’t even convey what this chat was like--oh and did i mention it was all conducted in only my 3rd-best language? it’s no wonder my weird ass survived middle school almost entirely unscathed.  as this was winding down, on the very last day of the month, I found out about Justin’s involvement in the SNC-Lavalin scandal and decided to go public about my years-long boner for him; Lavscam definitely changed the course of the rest year ~ Oh, also i began helping to repair a friendship that had had some Drama go down so that was p cool ~ (fav music)

march was a Time. The insanity of lavscam helped me finally finish the macdeau I started writing the previous December when a bunch of tungelr people called me disgusting for writing it.  i wrote my first straight-up serious explicit porn in years which has wound up being the third-longest thing i’ve ever published on ao3. Also, Hozier released Wasteland, Baby! which made a huge impact on me as well.  i spent like half of march staying up till 3:30 am writing said Long Fic, and i was firmly in the closet about stanning manu. also justin almost got a vote of no confidence or something and he got busted for eating a chocolate bar during a parliamentary all-nighter.  (fav music)

in april i wrote a ton of fanfic thanks to declining mental health(tm).  i think this is when i started my emmanuyell insta account and became really into making weird edits (which i still love doing just...don’t anymore.)  i started meeting some cool people thanks to macdeau.  what else happened in april? i feel like it wasn’t actually too eventful other than writing a lot of fanfic and being Annoyed about manu.  feel free to jog my memory lol.  oh i think i wrote “Okay so who from the French national team are we gonna ship Manu with” on twitter after seeing photos of manu + antoine griezmann at the World Cup but nothing came of that...at that time... (fav music)

may saw me having to deal with my shit mental health and up my meds but that seems to have had a good effect because i seem to not be too depressed to write in the winter/fall anymore! it was the 2nd anniversary of manu’s election and at the Christchurch Call in paris, macdeau took that amazing fairytale princess photo together that was completely unrivalled in Gay Shippy Feels moments until ivan went out of his way to kiss luka during the el clásico gameplay last wednesday. someone wrote ao3′s first griezmanu drabble and at the end manu gets down on his knees in front of antoine, takes off his shoes for him, and sucks his dick, and i achieved another state of being entirely.  my sister graduated from grad school and when we went down to DC for the weekend i went to eat at this restaurant manu famously ate at while there and ordered the same stuff he did and i have no idea how he consumed all that grease.  i learned about the song O Come, O Come, Emmanuel *snort*. i feel like other things happened in may too?  OH YES--i got the idea for my magnum opus, Trophy Boyfriend, and started to write it. the first scene i wrote was justin blowing manu in the hallway. then the same day i wrote the scene at the airport (which was the ending for a solid month and half till i realized it shouldn’t be), and the saddest scene in the fic--but we’ll stop to open presents.  oh! and i stumbled across the macronists discord chat which is such a delightful little community *weepy sniffles* (fav music)

june was Eventful.  a french neonazi on tumblr told me to go let manu fuck me in the ass because i was a fucking degenerate.  what a start!  then came the ceremony in which manu awarded everyone on the french national team the legion of honor medal and the way he and antoine looked at each other was truly...Wait it was the 3rd Gay Shippy Feels moment of the year.  as soon as the ceremony was over i wrote a fic about it and haven’t looked back.  between this + watching almost every 2018 World Cup game and the women’s world cup (during which I cried during argentina’s last game because of that miraculous penalty) i finally achieved my years-long goal of getting into Futbol(TM).  Antoine dropped his spotify playlist and my crush on him turned into Intense Love (TM) and also he introduced me to some legit awesome artists.  which led to (fav music)

july, in which i wrote “ça c’est ma dope” which is definitely the best thing i’ve written since i wrote “modernity towering in front of the sky” almost exactly 10 years before. got embroiled in Soccer Transfer Drama and learned its pain for the first time (unfortunately, since i wound up attaching my heart-wagon to barça’s Suddenly Least Favorite Player, the transfer drama pain has...never ended) became a full-fledged culé, O the joy O the honor.  i wanted to ship antoine with someone on the team, which in their current chemistry-less season is a real challenge, but after seeing a few photos i decided it would be fun to casually ship antoine + ivan rakitic (partially because, ever since i went from Enemies to Lovers with the croatia NT during the World Cup, he was one of the only players i knew anything about other than messi, suárez, and piqué lmao). while looking on ao3 to see what kind of headcanons people had about him--and the fic is definitely in general better than what’s out there about antoine, which is perplexing because antoine is much easier to write than ivan--i found That Amazing Rakidric Fic and thought “oh wait that ship makes a lot of sense” and started also shipping ivan and luka with the fire of a thousand suns.  oh and my air conditioner was broken for like 3 weeks. i worked on more fics, seriously outlining the path of Trophy Boyfriend, and my music taste was killer. (fav music)

in august i finished Trophy Boyfriend in my neighborhood Starbucks after writing the scene that was giving me the most trouble (the scene at the beginning where they’re organizing their book collection). the fic has made multiple people cry and people disagree on whether justin’s choice at the end was the right one and god i’m so proud of it.  Instantly went on to write ‘i might not mind,’ a lively lighthearted Friends to Lovers ivantoine~ romp which was definitely going to be a one-off and i was definitely not going to get an extra celeb crush out of it,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, (fav music)

in september ivantoine became A Thing in my mind and it’s a whole ongoing slow-burn character-arcy series that has taken a very different turn than i had expected. i’m not saying it’s like, the most deep writing of all time, but it’s gone to some interesting places emotionally. honestly, ships and boners aside, the concept of a person who made some really stupid homophobia 101 comments many years ago slowly realizing over and over again that they have gay feelings for a man who seems rather comfortable with gayness is a fascinating one and one that’s really cool to explore in writing.  Or at least, i think so.  in many ways ivan is my most unreliable narrator because of the many layers of Discomfort, Emotion and Repression at play in the fic while he’s interacting with this pretty cheery and uncomplicated seeming-dude who’s still perceptive enough to sort of know what’s going on (and that’s not even adding in the star player/falling from grace former rockstar dynamic!!!)  i know in the current climate it’s Not Allowed to write about someone who said a bad, but luckily i’m too old to give a Fuck. ivantoine is hard to write but it’s my bff’s favorite ship of mine and has a few other excited fans on ao3 which tbh is kind of an accomplishment considering i made it up out of thin air and it’s not something you’d ever think would be a thing. instantly also developed ‘getting called out about ivan by a child on the internet’ as a goal.  and...i achieved my dream of leading high holiday services!!! (fav music)

october had more high holiday services and i worked a lot on certain fics (including d*janfic which would be fun to finish). i came up with the idea of a Very Long Rakidric Fic based on the translation of a gorgeous croatian folk song i sang in college (Janko fell asleep under the poplar/My dear and beloved/My beautiful dark eyes/Look at me/Under the poplar's golden branch/My dear and beloved/My beautiful dark eyes/Look at me/I tore off the golden branch/My dear and beloved/My beautiful dark eyes/Look at me--in which the golden branch is a reference to a way to get into the underworld). decided to start quarter-assedly learning croatian for fun.  Fun...ha.  other than fangirling a lot and watching the croatian NT play, october was pretty uneventful? i think? Justin got reelected and mauricio didn’t ;( (fav music)

in november i finally achieved my dream of having a literal child on the internet call me out about being attracted to a homophobe.  (they were a madridista even!) accidentally started writing some more rakidric and now i’m seriously hooked.  also accidentally came out of the closet about the secret crush i’d been harboring on luka modric and then one fateful day in the ihop on 14th st i realized i’d had this crush already and repressed it from my memory. Don’t do that kids! now it’s Hurting Really Bad. Ivan dropped the most pathetic and candid interview like...ever and i hope “¿Cómo puede disfrutar uno? Jugando al fútbol. ¿Cómo se siente mi hija pequeña cuando le quitan un juguete? Triste. Yo me siento igual. Me han quitado la pelota, me siento triste” goes down in the history of most epic futbol quotes of all time.  (still haven’t actually been able to watch this because no one has uploaded it anywhere)  What else...............Am i forgetting anything? i celebrated my birthday with @tender-vittles in epic fashion after two years of Not doing that, and turned 32 going on 15.  enjoyed my first-ever “x reader” fic (zlatko dalic x reader LOL) and finished “drive your plow over the bones of the dead” which was real fucking good. i saw hozier live and it was a religious experience and i unexpectedly cried during nina cried power and then called myself “Luka B” when ordering at the classy taco bell across the street after getting a glimpse of alexxx ryan in the flesh. (fav music)

now it’s december and my seasonal depression is a little worse than it’s been the past few years but i’m managing.  still shipping and writing and i just got called out about ivan again last week.  i’m 2 for 2 here!  el clásico was boring but also it was gay and my heart my heart my heart ! Anything could happen in the last 10 days of this year and honestly...I’m pretty sure I’m ready.

Most importantly this year, despite it being not that great in a lot of ways, I developed a lot more self confidence, made many important realizations, and became a lot more peaceful (despite how this post makes me sound) and wiser and less bitter and pessimistic.  And i became outspoken enough about antisemitism on the left to lose friends over it...3 for 3.  i can’t say i’m displeased with these developments.

Hasta 2020! <3

[multiphandomunnies]

did it right | seokmin

Word Count:1396

Prompt: I keep coming back to the print shop because my colors aren’t coming out right but also you’re really cute, “listen I know this is probably the third time I’ve been back to this print shop but I really don’t like this type of glossy finish on my prints and the colors are wrong again...or maybe I just think you’re cute, you tell me.”

A/n: This is apart of a Svt Art School Collab I joined, I hope you enjoy~

Admin: Mirae

Masterlist for the collab 

Your hands wrapped around the small golden doorknob, the bell above jingled signaling that a customer had entered. It was rather nerve-wracking to be here. In the past 2 weeks, you had to come to the same print shop all because they couldn't manage to print your art piece the way you had wanted. 

Glossy, giclee, comic art, they never seemed to use the right paper. You had to always come back in hope of getting the right print. At this point, your small apartment was filled with over 60 failed prints of your art. You would have gone to a different print shop but they after their first mishap they had been printing the others for free, plus the worker here happens to be very good looking and the same person you have been crushing on for months. With only 3 days left to turn in your papers, you meant business.

”Y/N...did we get it wrong again?” Seokmin, the cute guy and crush mentioned earlier, had asked. You lowered your head and nodded, it was hard to look him in the eyes. 

“I'm so sorry, I promise we will get it right this time!” Even though he said that everytime you always believed him. 

“Look, I don't mean to be rude but I really need it done right this time. My project is due soon and its half my grade, I really need it done right,” you gave him a small smile. He sighed rather loudly and began to fill out the paperwork. 

“I know how stressing it can be, you really need to get this turned on so you don't fail and I keep messing it up. I don't know why either. It's my fault so please don't get mad at the owner or the other workers, just blame me,” his tone of voice sounded sad and angry. It was the first time you had not heard him speak so cheerfully. 

His hands moved fast as he filled out his portion of the paper. You giggled to yourself when you saw his tongue peek out of the corner of his mouth, it was something you learned he did when focused. He quickly handed you the form, “fill this out and I promise I will do it right this time,” his eyebrows were furrowed while he spoke. You grabbed the form from his hand, for a split second your hands met causing your heart to speed up and the blood to rush to your cheeks.

 “Can I ask what I did wrong this time? Why do you keep coming back anyway?” he stared intently at you, awaiting an answer. 

“I don't really like the glossy finish and the colors were wrong..and I'm a broke college student so as long as I can get these printed for free then I don't mind...and you're cute” you mumbled that last part so he would hear it. 

His head cocked to the side while he tried to figure out what you said towards the end of your sentence. Without you having noticed his cheeks flushed red and a bright smile appeared on his face. You handed him the paper and went to sit down so he could do his work. “Matte Finish,” he repeated over and over while printing your work. “matte finish,” he yelled in a sing-songy voice earning a few giggles from you. 

“Can I ask why you wanted a matte finish and why you're printing so many of these?” his back was facing you while he spoke. 

“I have to print 1 for every person in my class. As for the matte finish, it just looks way better that way.” He simply nodded at your words. The room was silent except for the sounds of machines. With his back to you, it allowed you to admire him without getting caught. 

You had always had a secret crush on him, it was hard not to. It had all began when you ran into him in the library, he was the only stranger you had met that was nice enough to help you and pick up your stuff. Maybe it was his kindness, or his smile, oh lord he had the best smile ever. 

After you first encounter you started to notice how often you actually would see him, you two passed each other everyday on your way to 2nd period and then again for 3rd. You had always come to this printer shop, it was your absolute favorite. The owner of the place, Mr Lee, was so nice and kind. He offered you so much and did an amazing job with your works. It broke your heart when you learned that he was in the hospital. You were going to volunteer to help out at the print shop but you had learned that his grandson was going to help out. It warmed your heart to hear that his family was so kind. 

To say you were surprised was an understatement when you learned who his grandson was, but you were thankful. It was the first time you were able to properly talk to him, and you got to learn his name. Lee Seokmin or DK as he liked to be called. If he wasn't your crush and if you were not getting all this for free you would have quit returning after the 2nd time he messed up your precious works. 

A finger snap caused you to jump in surprise, your previous thoughts completely vanishing out of the window. Seokmin smiled down at you, his bright white teeth prominent. 

“I think I got them printed right, want to see?” his voice was smooth as he spoke. You bit your lip and nodded your head, if he did them correctly then you wouldn't have any chance to continue seeing him, just the thought alone made your heart shattered into a million different pieces. You  trailed behind him, fingers picking at themselves, you were a bundle of nerves at this point. 

“Did I do them right?” he had asked handing you a freshly warm printed paper. You looked down at it and sighed, he had done it right. Seokmin was able to print it perfectly for you. 

“I messed up didn't I?” his voice was low, he probably felt bad. You looked up at him and shook your head erratically 

‘No! You did it perfectly, they look better than I expected,” he beamed at your words. Getting a compliment from you made him feel like he had won an award. He couldn't help but wonder 

“But why did you sound so sad?” You could feel your blood rushing. 

“I...am sad because now I don't have a reason to continue seeing you,” you looked away when you finished speaking, it took a  lot of energy out of you just to say those words. Seokmin inhumanly screeched rather loudly, slamming his hand on the table. You made a face in utter surprise and blinked at him a few times. Noticing your stare he giggled softly and scratched the back of his neck 

“I like you too, I have since when I first ran into you at the library. The only reason I accept this job was because I heard from my grandfather that you came here. I was worried that you stop coming because I kept printing them wrong, but I'm glad you didn't,” you sighed in relief but you couldn't help but giggle. Your crush, had a crush on you? What kind of fairytale was this? 

“How about you and me go on a date when I finish up my work here?” he asked you rather confidently. 

You quickly replied “yes,” causing him to smile at your eagerness. 

“Great..meet me here in 4 hours?” he bit his lip, worried that you'd suddenly reject him 

“Okay! That's perfect,” you slowly started to back up, walking out of the store. He watched you the entire time with nothing but love in his eyes. He she waved his hand goodbye while you pushed open the door with your back. 

“See you later,” you said before quickly running off. You'd have to turn in your papers, finally, and then get ready for the best day of your life.

~end~