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adelar-ward · 3 years

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Saeran de Winter, my love, MC of "Creme de la Creme" game by @hpowellsmith.

Amazing drawing by mistfall_crow. I'm gonna commission them to draw Hartmann and them both together too, and i'm gonna babble a LOT about Saeran and Hartmann again, okay?

- It was by no means love at first sight or a smooth ride – they have grown to appreciate and love each other through many steps of honesty and respect toward each other, through misunderstandings and miscommunications, and they've learned to understand and be supportive to each other first. Saeran did like Hartmann in a friendly way almost from the off, but they had a massive crush on Blaise at that point. They still lowkey do but won’t act on it.

- Saeran respects and admires the fact that Hartmann always tells them the truth despite obviously stressing over it, especially that time when he confessed that he liked them but was afraid of being associated with their family reputation. It wasn’t pleasant one bit, but Hartmann could just lead them on or pretend that nothing happens between them, yet he chose to be painfully honest at the risk of looking bad. This emotional bravery meant a lot for Saeran. As a response, when Hartmann went with them to the winter ball despite being worried about his reputation, they chose the most proper clothes and behavior despite that normally they'd choose to be more flamboyant about their outfit, just to show Eugene that they respect his worries, care about his reputation, and won’t hurt it if they can help it. They did help him rebel against his controlling parents later, and oh boy, did they give his parents a piece of their mind. Though aside from standing up for Eugene when they push him too much and too unfairly, Saeran is always polite with Saeran.

- Hartmann's mother coldly tolerates Saeran. She is always perfectly polite as well, but doesn't like them much because they've put in [formerly manageable] Eugene's head this atrocious idea that in order to be loved and accepted he doesn't have to be perfect all the time and always do everything "right", or to live up to someone's expectations and sacrifice his own ambitions to deserve recognition. The audacity! Hartmann’s father mostly follows suit with cool politeness but reluctantly admits that maybe Saeran isn’t that bad for Eugene because his son has grown some backbone, ans mr. Hartmann Sr is even [his definition of] friendly with them sometimes.

I decided to embrace the AU about my CDLC MC as a teacher later as canon because the vibes are <3.

- They and Hartmann still go to the university after Gallatin, according to my canonical walkthrough, i simply can’t deprive Hartmann of this achievement, he really needs it to realize that he deserves more credit than his parents give him. But i decided to headcanon that right after graduating from Gessner they both are asked to teach in Gallatin for the next year to temporarily fill the gaps in the staffing table, and they agree. Saeran teaches either zaledoan language or etiquette (maybe both). Hartmann teaches either history or, unexpectedly, geography (maybe both).

- When the student makes a silly mistake that makes their words change the meaning to something outrageous, Saeran sometimes doesn't correct it straight away. Instead, they sit back relaxed and watch the student continue to talk nonsense with a slowly growing smile. Actually, that works, because when other students see Saeran smiling at someone speaking, they start to pay attention to the speech.

- Quite a few students have a crush on either of them, because they’re handsome, only a few years older, and pretty much on the same wavelength. Plus Saeran is lenient to students’ struggles, they haven’t yet forgotten how it is when you are stressed and not sure what to do with your life, or want more freedom, or feel like you don’t belong, or have put too much on your shoulders. Well, Hartmann does remember all this, but he's not lenient.

- They and Hartmann decided not to make any of their personal life known at school, only the headteacher knows that they're married. They keep it strictly professional, like no brushing hands, no visits between classes, no first names when referring to each other. They wouldn’t lie about their marriage if asked directly, but they try not to give students the reason to ask.

- Some excitable students ship teachers with other teachers, and just like we could try and influence teachers into relationships in CDLC, they too try to influence Saeran into taking an interest in some young female Athletics teacher they think Saeran would make a good pair with.

- At the end of the year, when students say that mx de Winter simply can’t go alone to the graduation ball, and Saeran says “I appreciate your concern, but hopefully my husband will not refuse to accompany me”, they are like “0_o hwusbwand?..” and start making theories about who their husband might be – if they work here and not visit just for the event that is, and Hartmann is barely on the list at all because he’s way too uptight for them and they don't even mention each other much, so no way, right?

- A month or so before it Saeran had to spend a few nights in a hospital room, but after living together at Gessner Hartmann’s kinda used to studying near them, it helps him concentrate (plus ofc he heeds to check if everything's fine). So late in the evening, he was reading students’ homework in the hospital, sitting not far from Saeran who was asleep, and when a few students appeared, he quickly gathered his papers and left. So students decided that he has a secret crush on Saeran. And when Saeran said that they have a husband, some students were like “poor mr Hartmann will be heartbroken”.

- And when Saeran steps into the ballroom accompanied by Hartmann, they’re like ooohhhhhhh

A couple assorted facts:

Poise/Wits/Intrigue > Flair/Spirits | Accommodating, Straightforward, Progressive

- Saeran has a very high natural flair, it could be higher than poise, but they consciously choose not to act on it on most occasions and go on manners and brain instead (also they're a prefect, so). And they do have good sportsmanship spirit, but it’s the lowest as the spirit stat also refers to physical strength and health, and Saeran does not have much of those. They get sick easily, they aren’t physically strong, their stamina is easily depleted. I also think they have heart problems.

- Eugene is probably the only person who knows that Saeran is way less self-assured and laid back than they appear for others. Saeran doesn't usually share their insecurities with people, even friends - but they won't ever wear any mask for a person who was honest with them like Hartmann was. They probably would also share with Blaise, once their friendship reaches the point of trusting each other enough.

- Saeran always helps Hartmann relax after work every day, massaging his shoulders and head. He loooves their hands in his hair, either softly running fingers through it or grabbing it tightly when kissing. Almost as much as i love the kissing scene in chapter 6. Seriously, this scene is created by a genius.

Fun fact: Saeran and Marcel Hartmann are big friends, they even write letters to each other frequently - Saeran is some sort of cool big sibling to Marcel, so he shares secrets with them, ones he can't share with parents. Hartmann is very fond of Saeran and Marcel's friendship, actually. Also, visiting Marcel is a perfect pretext for going to Hartmann's parents together for providing emotional support and protection without being patronizing. They were like "besides, i promised Marcel i'd come visit soon" (which is true though).

(this might not be the end of my babbling, really. i'm head over heels about Saeran and Hartmann again)

(previous post about Saeran)

#saeran de winter #crème de la crème #creme de la creme mc #eugene hartmann #cdlc #cdlc mc #cdlc hartmann

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sagemoderocklee · 3 years

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I would love to get your thoughts on ships like Kankuro x Kiba, Hinata x Gaara or even Hinata x Shikamaru, please ?

Just base on your views and opinions of those characters, do you think they could get along and teach each other things or they are not meant to be together at least ? Thank you !

Well, I can say right now that if you like these ships (not just you, anon, but anyone) you won't like my response to this so Imma put most of it under a cut.

First and foremost, Gaara x ANY woman is just not gonna happen, in my bisexual (and correct) opinion, because he's gay (Gay, gay, homosexual, gay). And Hinata is so far from his type that even if he weren't Gay it would never happen. She's--I mean look, I cannot stand her. Imma be brutally honest and I am not sorry in the least, but she is an awful character, if you can even call her a character at all.

Hinata and Sakura suffer on opposite ends of the male fantasy spectrum, and Hinata's particular end of it is very much the "bland, no character, easy to superimpose anything on to" female character.

Hinata is one of the best examples of a male wish fulfillment fantasy in media--meek, sweet, utterly devoted to the MC, zero ambitions outside of the MC. She has ZERO character aside from her feelings for Naruto and how she can be utilized to further prop up Naruto. There is nothing about her that feels compelling in the canon, and if not for a random fluke I'd only ship her with Kiba and no one else because she has no relationships separate from Naruto aside from her teammates (and even those are overshadowed by her interest in Naruto).

In addition, Hinata could never date Shikamaru or Gaara because she has nothing to offer them. Specifically from Shikamaru's standpoint, she has no backbone or wit, which simply wouldn't keep him interested in her. He works well with Temari because she's his equal and she challenges him. Hinata don't challenge shit, except maybe a wet blanket in terms of characterization. If you look at the two main women in Shikamaru's life that we see on screen, it's Ino and Temari. These are two women who do not take shit. They are outspoken and brazen, and very touch. Hinata can't be that because if she were she wouldn't be the perfect male fantasy to go with Naruto's MC syndrome.

Obviously, in a relationship and therefore a ship dynamic, characters should be providing each other with something, and I just cannot see either Gaara or Shikamaru dealing well with Hinata's meek shit long enough to offer her anything. If Hinata was going to be involved with anyone, she's gonna need someone who's going to break her out of her shell, and neither Shikamaru or Gaara are people who can or will do that. Kiba and Kankuro are genuinely the only two characters who could spice Hinata up enough to make her interest, in my opinion.

Which honestly is a great segue into Kiba/Kankuro which is a ship that I, personally, think sucks and makes no damn sense because these two read as Painfully Straight, and I'm personally not interested in seeing them as anything else. I get zero out of the idea that Kiba's gay or bisexual. Same with Kankuro.

And quite frankly I just do not get shipping them. Kiba seems like the type of dude who's trying too hard, whereas Kankuro doesn't have to try at all and Kiba would probably piss him off when they're younger because of it. Kiba and Kankuro are similar in a lot of ways, but also approach things differently in the way that they wouldn't get along romantically, and probably not even as friends.

It's like Kiba is the obnoxious frat boy to Kankuro's broish brash attitude. Kankuro doesn't need to be loud to get his point across, Kiba does. Kankuro's the kinda guy that's like masculine and comfortable/secure in it, whereas Kiba's not even close to secure and feels the need to overcompensate. Kankuro's the guy who if you asked if he's gay or bi wouldn't lose his cool and probably admit he fooled around in college with a dude but it wasn't for him, whereas Kiba would get all kinds of bent out of shape in a homophobic-not-at-all-internalized kinda way. Kankuro's raunchy and a little bit of a shit, but he's charming and actually has a warmth to him; Kiba's just raunchy and nasty.

My read on them is that Kankuro's what Kiba wishes he could be, and there's zero there that strikes me as potential for romance--setting aside, again, that they really just are boldly heterosexual men. I do think Kiba will and does grow as he gets older, but I don't think that's something that's gonna make him and Kankuro friends, let alone boyfriends.

anyways those are my spicy opinions that im sure a lot of ppl won't like but yeah

#naruto #shippuden #kankuro #nara shikamaru #gaara #inuzuka kiba #anti hinata i guess

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cheri-translates · 3 years

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[CN] 3rd Anniversary Love Carnival - Victor

🍒 Warning: This post contains detailed spoilers for an event which has not been released in English servers! 🍒

Victor’s Prologue: here

3rd Anniversary Masterlist: here

[ PART ONE ]

The moment we step into the carnival venue, my gaze is completely consumed by a gigantic merry-go-round.

MC: What a dream-like merry-go-round! Let’s ride this as our first attraction!

When Victor sees the golden coloured merry-go-round before him, his expression freezes in place for a moment. However, he still stands in the queue with me.

MC: Eh? You’re agreeing just like that?!

MC: “I don't waste my time on such senseless things”.

I mimic Victor, channelling a stern expression.

MC: Don’t you typically say that? Why did you agree so quickly today?

I make a face at him. When Victor sees this, he furrows his brows and gives me a gentle knock on the head.

Victor: Spending my time on a pointless rejection is even more of a waste.

I turn around, glaring at Victor. However, all he does is stare back plainly at me.

Victor: Because of a certain childish individual, my tolerance levels have increased by quite a lot.

I specially pick a double-manned horse. Along with the romantic music, the horses start ascending and descending, moving in a circular motion.

Couples in the surroundings are raising their phones, taking photographs with various poses. Every screen is filled with brilliant smiles.

Somewhat influenced by such an atmosphere, I turn my head to look at Victor.

As expected, Victor, who is sitting on a black steed, looks so stern that it’s as though he’s participating in some investment report meeting.

Sensing the gaze I tossed at him, Victor looks at me.

Victor: What is it?

MC: Victor, do you want to smile a little?

Victor: Why?

MC: Because when people are happy, they’d subconsciously want to smile. In the happiest place on earth, and having such an adorable lady in front of you, don't you feel even the slightest bit of happiness?

Victor: You aren’t humble at all.

Despite what he says, I can clearly see a handsome arc at the corners of his lips.

MC: Can you appreciate the joys of being on a merry-go-round now?

Victor: That’s only if seeing you look silly counts as one of the joys.

MC: Can’t you just honestly say that you’re very happy when you’re with me?

I wave my fist at him in a threatening manner.

Victor sighs. Looking back at me, he says in resignation:

Victor: I’m happy. But it has nothing to do with the merry-go-round.

As the music gradually softens, and the merry-go-round is about to complete its turn, I realise that we haven’t taken a picture yet.

Just as I adjust the angle, attempting to include Victor into the frame to obtain a “group photo”, he senses what I'm planning to do.

Victor takes my phone, then leans down closer to me.

Victor: Look at the camera.

He lifts the phone up, pressing the shutter.

[ PART TWO ]

MC: High-altitude glass platform bridge…?

In order to try a more unique attraction, Victor and I have come to the high-altitude glass platform bridge with the direction of the guide.

Victor: Want to try it?

After a moment of hesitance, I nod.

MC: Since we’re already here!

Looking death calmly in the face, I stare at the pathway, resolutely joining the queue.

Although I’ve already mentally prepared myself, I regret it the moment I step onto the platform bridge.

MC: I can’t do this. People need to stand on the ground!

I grip the railing at the side, carefully inching forward at a tortoise’s pace.

Just as I plan to tell Victor about my regret of overestimating my confidence, I lift my head and see him waiting for me composedly.

Likely seeing that I haven’t moved after such a long time, Victor sighs softly, walks towards me, and offers me his hand.

I immediately reach out, holding his large palm.

A warm sensation sprouts from our laced hands. Victor follows my pace, walking slowly to the other end of the platform bridge.

MC; You aren’t afraid?

Victor: Why should I be afraid?

He pauses for a moment, then gives me an explanation which leaves me unable to retort.

Victor: Since it’s open for visitors to experience, there are definitely sufficient safeguards to ensure the safety of the amusement facilities.

MC: …

For a moment, I actually don’t know where I should begin.

The person is the one feeling scared. What does that have to do with the safety of the facilities?

Or should I be in awe that because of such a reason, he can overcome the fear that humans have about falling from high altitudes?

Victor: If you’re really scared, don’t look under your feet. Look forward.

While doing that, I still can’t help but mutter:

MC: During such moments, shouldn’t you say things like “If you’re scared, hold me tight”, or “If you’re scared, just look at me”?

Victor casts me a glance.

Victor: Do you think that’d be useful?

MC: Mr Victor, do you know the power and vigour comfort brings?

Victor: The next time you can’t finish your proposal, I think I could reuse this saying. You can use your vigour to increase efficiency, and not ask me to postpone the meeting.

I look straight into Victor’s eyes, the discipline of the working class enabling me to harden my backbone and face this investor even at a high altitude.

MC: Are you a monster? Must you bring up things that’d upset me at this time?

Victor looks at me, a slight smile in his eyes.

Victor: You’re so full of vigour. I think you aren’t afraid anymore. All right, you can finish the rest of the path yourself.

Hearing this, I realise that the transparent glass platform has already reached its end. The following path is lined with carpet.

In the midst of our banter, I’d actually completed the entire journey without even realising it.

MC: Victor, were you deliberately criticising me earlier to divert my attention?

Victor: I should be the one with questions. When I’m by your side, where else could your focus be diverted to?

I’m left dumbfounded. Victor chuckles, as though he doesn’t care how I’d respond to his question.

Like earlier, he walks in front of me unhurriedly, not releasing the hand holding onto mine.

Victor: The next attraction probably has a queue. Follow closely.

[ PART THREE ]

MC: I didn’t expect the restaurants in the carnival to serve pretty tasty food.

I take a bite out of a heart-shaped lemon cake, and can’t help but exclaim in awe.

Initially, I had only noticed that the food laid out on the tables for patrons was shocking.

The extremely big and bold words on the leaflet - “Carnival Special Couple Set Meal” - stirred my heart.

Without another word, I pulled Victor in, pointing at the leaflet excitedly.

I didn’t expect that no matter whether it was the presentation or the taste, they left one pleasantly surprised.

MC: Victor, should Souvenir also introduce a couple set meal in the future? Like this heart-shaped cake - I’m really optimistic about its popularity in the market! I think it can attract quite a number of people.

Victor: No.

Unsurprisingly, Victor rejects my idea.

I sigh.

MC: CEO Victor, as the most ambitious and most knowledgeable on how to advance in the market, LFG is a business miracle. What does it receive most praise for? Isn’t it how it’s bold enough to try expanding its capabilities? Also, as the manager of Souvenir, are you really not considering including such a mentality into your dishes?

On the spot, I present a report involving how to expand Souvenir, and anticipate his reaction.

Victor is the same as always. Both arms are crossed over his chest as he listens to my report seriously, then he gives his comments.

Victor: The report lacks proper thought. Rejected.

MC: Why’s that?

I feel slightly indignant.

Victor sets down his hands, signalling that I should shift closer.

I have no idea what he’s planning to do, and lean over while confused.

Victor’s fingers brush against the stray hairs near my ear, rescuing a strand of hair which has been entangled with my earring.

When his finger brushes lightly against my earlobe, I suddenly think of how Victor was the one who put on this pair of earrings for me before we headed out this morning.

Victor: Souvenir isn’t a business. Its existence is unrelated to any business models.

MC: What is it related to then?

Victor: The manager’s personal preferences.

He retracts his hand, looking at me calmly.

Victor: The presentation and image of such dishes don’t suit Souvenir’s usual style.

Regretfully, I split the heart-shaped strawberry pie, placing half onto Victor’s plate.

MC: Since the manager has already put it that way…

MC: It looks like I can only seize this opportunity, and experience the fluffy, soft strawberry pie here.

I let out a soft sigh. In my mind, I can’t help but imagine - if Victor were to make this, I wonder how it’d taste.

MC: It’d definitely be several times more delicious than this.

Victor finishes the strawberry pie, and doesn’t seem to hear my soft mutter.

After a short period of silence, Victor’s serious voice pipes up.

Victor: It won’t be an item on the menu.

Victor: But this doesn’t mean I can’t make it for you once at home.

Victor elegantly cuts the food on the plate, not much expression on his face.

Only I know the warmth underneath that quiet display.

MC: When the time comes, I’ll invite Mr Victor to appraise it with me.

[ PART FOUR ]

We walk and pause, finally ending up before the Pendulum ride.

Pointing at the attraction, where shrill cries can be heard constantly, I think of that children’s day when he had taken the “Time Traveler” ride with me.

And how time had stopped for a few seconds during the descent.

[Note] This is a reference to Fairytale Date!

MC: Want to give this a try?

I turn my head, looking at Victor expectantly.

Victor: No.

As I expected, Victor rejects me.

MC: Victor, could you be scared?

Victor: Of course not.

His expression is stern, and he looks forward.

MC: In that case, ride it with me!

While saying this, I pull him along with me and we sit down.

There’s still some time before the ride begins. The chatter and laughter from people in the queue before us continuously drift over.

Enthusiastic visitor: A friend of mine took the Pendulum before. When it was over, he calmly said that it wasn’t much. In the end, he started puking after taking a few steps.

Happy visitor: Hahahaha, the same thing happened to my colleague. He sat for the ride in another place once, and screamed until his voice was hoarse at work the next day. He had to drink chinese medicine for the entire day.

I’m somewhat tickled by the conversations.

MC: They’re speaking so exaggeratedly. How could that be possible? What do you think?

The criticism I expected doesn’t arrive.

Finding this a little odd, I look at Victor, realising that he’s strapping on his seatbelt seriously, his expression stern.

Oh…?

I really wish I could take out my phone and snap a picture of this Victor before me.

The Pendulum truly lives up to its name.

At first, I even thought it’d be so-so.

But when the Pendulum’s amplitude grows increasingly larger, till it feels like I’m being tossed around, I can’t help but scream.

MC: Ahhhhh–

This! Is! Too! Scary!

Just when I’m forced to sit through these parabolic motions, my left hand is gently held onto by someone.

Bracing against the violent wind, I open my eyes. Victor is sitting straight and quietly in his seat. His posture is tense, yet he looks as though he’s very calm.

Amid the shrill screams, I can vaguely hear his voice.

Victor: Don’t be afraid.

Stepping off the Pendulum, I immediately grasp for the railing at the side.

However, when I see Victor’s crooked tie and slightly unkempt hair, I can’t help but burst into laughter.

This time, I don’t let this chance slip by, and keep this dishevelled Victor in my phone.

I make a decision to have this picture printed out to be placed at the bedside.

Victor: …what are you doing this time?

MC: Nothing, nothing! Oh yes, what do you think of this attraction?

Victor: …so-so.

MC: If you’re afraid, you can just say so. It’s a normal human reaction, and I won’t laugh at you.

Victor: I’m not afraid.

MC: In that case…

I look at Victor, my smile growing wider.

MC: Let’s ride it again!

Victor: …

MC: You aren’t going to prove that you aren’t afraid?

Victor: Let’s go then.

MC: Eh?

Victor: Since you’re so enthusiastic about this ride, you’ll definitely experience it together with me. Am I wrong?

Seeing Victor arch his brows slightly, and turning my game against me, I respond with certainty–

MC: I’m sorry! We’ll head to another attraction right now!

[ PART FIVE ]

Perplexed and not knowing which attraction to go to next, an uproar in front attracts my attention.

MC: Eh? Did something happen?

I pull Victor forward with me.

I see a man holding a large bunch of roses and pink balloons, kneeling down on one knee in front of a woman.

The woman’s face is red from shyness, and her eyes are filled with touching emotions and surprise.

MC: Someone’s proposing!

Looking at the scene before me, I can’t help but tilt my head and whisper into Victor’s ear as he stands beside me.

MC: It’s so sweet. I hope they can be together for a very long time!

Victor turns his head slightly, as though sensing the envy in my tone.

Victor: You’re very envious?

MC: A little.

Victor frowns slightly, looking as though he can’t comprehend it.

Very quickly, however, he seems to think of something.

Victor: Stand here and don’t move. Wait for a while.

Before I can react, Victor has already left.

I stand rooted in place.

At the side, the proposal is still ongoing. The man stammers as he takes her down a walk through memory lane, clumsily taking out a ring box.

The girl’s eyes have long since been brimming with happy tears.

I look at Victor, not knowing what he’s going to do, and not knowing what will happen next.

Under my expectant and nervous gaze, he walks over to the person selling balloons, and buys a small balloon flower.

MC: …

I knew it!

Victor: Give me your hand.

When Victor returns, he speaks in his usual tone.

Then, he holds up my hand, lowers his eyes, and ties the balloon flower to my wrist.

Seeing this childish action contrasted with Victor’s serious expression, I can’t help but chuckle.

With me, he’s done so many things that are, according to his standards, a waste of time, meaningless and utterly childish.

It doesn’t seem to be a bad thing though.

My heart is encased with a sweetness. Raising my wrist happily, I crinkle my eyes as I look at the balloon flower under the sunlight.

MC: It’s so pretty!

My gaze is completely absorbed by the balloon flower, and I don’t even notice that the crowd afar off has burst into applause. That man’s proposal probably succeeded.

Victor: You’re satisfied just like that?

MC: Hehe, the most satisfied person in the world! Let’s go, we still have to head to the next attraction.

I turn my head and prepare to leave, but Victor grabs my wrist.

MC: What…!

Pink coloured balloons and flower petals fill the air, spreading happiness all around.

And in this corner with only the two of us, a gentle kiss descends on my forehead.

Victor: The most childish person in the entire amusement park is probably right in front of me.

Victor looks at me, saying the critique that I couldn’t be more familiar with.

In his eyes, there’s also a smile and gentleness that I couldn’t be more familiar with.

The celebration and clamour have nothing to do with me.

All the happiness and clamour, all the ribbons and fresh flowers, can’t compare to a word from him.

Nor can they compare to the somewhat childish balloon flower on my wrist.

I smile while standing on my tiptoes, wrapping my arms around Victor’s neck, and giving him a kiss.

MC: He’s also in front of me! Being childish with you is the happiest thing in the world.

I hear a soft chuckle, then a warm breath. Following this, my forehead feels a tender touch for the second time.

Victor: Dummy.

Fireworks event: here

#this is just a re-post of the love carnival translations!#I'm doing some mild renovations to the blog so don't mind me #the previous translations were split according to parts rather than love interest which I find really disjointed!

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everyhowlmarksthedead · 4 years

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❛ DOUBLE DATE? ❜

with Ezekiel ‘EZ’ Reyes.

Request: This isn’t a Nestor one but how about one where I am friends with the guys in the MC I like EZ but I know he is hung up on Emily. I get a new best friend from work and talk about him all the time (he is gay) and EZ starts getting jealous and flips when I bring him with me to a club party. Ez gets angrier and angrier because we are hanging out dancing etc until bff husband comes to pick him up back early from a business trip.

BY @cherieann-2001

Warnings: none.

Word count: about 1.3k

Aurora says: this writing hasn't been edited, you may find some grammar mistakes, I'm sorry about that!

Gif credits: to the author

Masterlist.

You can subscribe to my broadcast list, to be notified whenever I post a writing!

“Why don't you have a date with him?”

The question makes you drown with a sip from your beer, frowning at EZ in front of you, inside the Mayans bar.

“Bring him tonight to the party”.

Narrowing your eyes, you notice the jealousy in his voice, raising your chin with a proud gesture. Nodding then, you take your phone to write to your partner in crime. He will be delighted to help you to make EZ's jealous stay at float.

You have chosen your best dress. A short one, over your knees, with fine stripes and a squared but pronounced neckline. Black, like your chunky heels. You're stunning, with your hair falling behind your shoulders and a light make up on point. Spreading on your neck the Hugo Boss perfume, you have a last look in the mirror. Simply perfect. Hearing the claxons sounding outside, you know that your best friend is already there.

Reaching the crowded yard, with a high five before joining the party, you walk through it holding his right arms with yours. Ezekiel didn't think that you could be capable of bringing him, but at least he knows how to behave, narrowing his hand as soon as your co-worker offers to him. And then, after introducing him to the crew, you walk to the bar to grab some beers. The mischief has begun.

You two dance too close. So close that there isn't any distance between both, drinking from the same bottle, laughing and feigning that you are flirting. What EZ doesn't know is the fact that your best friend is gay, and married. And even if you only have one hour to make him feel jealous, until he recognizes his feelings for you, it's more than enough. After this time, your friend has to drive to the airport in San Diego to pick up his husband, from a plane from New York where he has been attending a seminar.

Sideways, you can see Ezekiel serving drinks to the other Mayans, but feeling the burn inside his veins believing he has lost the boat straight to you. And you feel somewhat bad, but you have been throwing him indirects about what you feel for too long. So, this is the last option you have. And when you think that the plan can't work better, your partner in crime has a new idea.

“Ezekiel, right?” He asks walking towards the bar, leaning over it, while you feign to be talking with Coco. He knows what you are doing. “Give one more beer, please”.

He nods in silence, not falling into his taunting.

“She is beautiful, don't you think? Like an angel”. Your friend says then, trying to tease him.

“Yeah, she is”.

“I hope she's not single for much longer, you know what I mean”.

“Yeah, and I hope you don't hurt her”.

“Me? I couldn't, big guy”. He laughs, grabbing the drink, to give him his back.

Your friend blinks you an eye, putting an arm over your shoulders.

“Job done, sweetheart. I have to go, but, call me tomorrow if you're still alive. Did you see the size of his arms?”

Kissing the tip of your nose, he pokes it before leaving you there with Coco.

“Mami, you're gonna burn into hell”.

“Yes, probably. Who knows?”

The next part of the plan, and the final one, is play the innocent card. Ezekiel is pretty smart, but so predictable. Putting your dress on well, you go into the clubhouse. Your heels lead the way to the bathroom, getting locked inside it to retouch your makeup, taking your time. You're not in a hurry. Checking some emails on your phone, you try to desperate the prospect at the other side of the door. Being conscious that he is already waiting for an explanation. Keeping your stuff in the small bag, to hang it from a shoulder, you are about to walk outside of the bathroom when you almost collide with him.

“Jesus Christ, Zeke… You scared me!” That was a bad line, but effective.

“Yeah, sorry 'bout that”.

“Need something, ah?”

“Why the hell you brought your fuck boy to the party?”

“Sorry…?”

He doesn't repeat it again. Crossing your arms over your chest, you frown.

“You told me to bring him”.

“I wasn't being serious”.

“Why you care?”

“Mayans business, maybe? Do you think this is a disco club?”

Rolling your eyes, you place a hand on his abdomen to push him away, not letting him see that you're winning the game.

“Don't be a dick, Zeke. That's your brother's shit”.

“You are being a dick, not me. Bringing… this fucking guy here. What were you pretending?”

“Have a date?”

“With that guy? Nah. You're fucking kidding me. That's not your type”.

“Oh, wait. I didn't know that you know my type more than I do. Surprise me, oh, voice of wisdom”.

He doesn't reply, frowning and placing his hands on the folds of his kutte.

“Yeah, that's what I thought”.

Giving him your back, you continue checking your mails on your phone, while crossing the hallway to the living room of the clubhouse.

“I like you”. His voice sounds like a shy whisper, but the fact is that he has his eyes fixed on you. “You're not like… these girls walking around here all the time. You… are intelligent, you have… ambitions, inquisitiveness. And shit… Shit, you smell so good. Is like I have your smell stuck in my fucking lungs the whole day, just with smelling it once”.

His puppy eyes are melting your heart, seeing how he feels so miserable thinking he has lost you because of his incapacity of talking about the feelings he has for you.

“He looks like a good guy, but… if one day you need someone to break his legs, just call me”.

That makes you laugh, even if he's talking seriously. Taking some steps next to him, with your hands tangled behind your back, you lean forward a little.

“Do you wanna know something?” Waiting him for a nod, you take another step. “He is gay. And he's also happily married to another of my best friends”.

“Tell me you didn't play the fucking game of pu—”.

“I did, Zeke. See? You're not the smartest in this clubhouse”.

“So you ar—”.

“No, he's just my friend. But I was serious with the part of having a date. But my date is still working, so I have to wait for him”.

He just chuckles, with that kind of smile that could stop a damn world war.

“We're not having a date”. He says then, coming closer to you.

“Aren't we?”

“Not tonight. I don't want our first date to happen here”.

“Aw, look at you… The romantic Reyes”.

“More than my brother? Yeah”. He laughs this time, surrounding you with both arms as you place your hands on his chest. “If I see you again dancing too close with anyone, I'm gonna burn down this place”.

“That doesn't sound too bad… You will finish working sooner, then”.

Before you can continue talking, his lips are already pressing your with a gentle and lovely gesture, that gives you some nice chills down to your backbone. Raising your fingers to the back of his head, you deep your tongue in his mouth, to fight his, but taking your time to enjoy a kiss that you have been desiring for too long.

“Hey, boy sco—OH, SHIT, FINALLY”.

Turning at Angel, you find him freaking out. Hands on top of his head, widened eyes and his mouth dropping to the floor.

“DAMN, I THOUGHT IT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN”.

Now his hands go to cover his mouth, hiding a proud smile and making you laugh.

“Nah, whatever, I cover your ass at the bar”.

“Yeah, give me just two minutes more”.

He leaves you walking backwards, facing you and making some dirty gestures with his fingers, before pointing at his brother's arms to highlight their size.

“ANGEL!” You yell laughing, trying to hide against EZ's chest.

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#mayans mc x reader #mayans mc imagine #mayans mc #mayans x reader #ez reyes x reader #ezekiel reyes #ez reyes #ezekiel reyes x reader

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hakutaichou · 4 years

Text

[CN] Main Story: Chapter 33-3 (Lucien Route)

⚠️ SPOILER AHEAD ⚠️

🚨 Warning: This post contains REALLY BIG spoiler from main story which some of them have not been released in JP, TW, Global, nor ASEAN servers. 🚨

A/N: cuz the cn server using “Wuhui”, in english means “ball, dance party, and prom”, I’ll use “ball” like victor’s dance date?

- Part 0 -

Waiter: Miss MC, are you going to the ball alone?

MC: ...Yes.

Waiter: Let me have a clear eye.

I put the invitation letter on the tray and walked into the hall of venue under the guidance of the waiter.

***

Three days ago, Commander Leto publicly announced that he would hold a Evolver Ball, inviting the backbone of society, which has almost become hot topic in the city.

Lucien, who was also invited by Commander Leto, agreed with me to meet directly at the venue.

The splendid banquet hall was full of chatting and laughing guests. I searched for a long time, but I didn’t see Lucien.

On the other side of the venue was a long floor-to-ceiling window, and the long table under the window was full of self-gathering food. I walked over unhappily and picked up a glass of champagne.

As soon as the champagne was brought to my lips, my phone suddenly rang--- It was from Lucien.

Lucien: Has arrived?

MC: Yeah, I looked for you for a long time but couldn’t find you.

Lucien: Don’t worry, there’s still some time before the ball begins.

Lucien: Compared with this, I’m even more curious why you chose to “get drunk” as soon as you come.

MC: Can you see me? where are you?

I quickly put down the champagne glass and looked around, but still didn’t find his shadow.

A low laugh came from the other end of the phone.

Lucien: Now turn around, go straight in the direction of 9 o’clock, see the long table at the entrance?

I followed his instruction and walked to the table near the entrance.

MC: And then?

Lucien: When people are not paying attention, squat down.

MC: What?

I clutched my phone, and squatted down in confusion according to his instructions, feeling quite an kind of undercover joint.

At the foot of the table lies a self-defense knife, which looked very familiar.

Lucien: I just remind you that something dropped when you came in.

Lucien smiled in a good mood. I was stunned. I quickly picked up the knife when no one was paying attention, and my face flushed.

MC: Lucien, where are you?

I stood up while whispering, but when I turned around. I was stopped by a strange man.

Strange Man: Miss, can I ask you to dance?

I covered the earpiece, put down the phone, and waved at him awkwardly.

MC: Sorry, I already have a partner.

The man walked away disappointedly.

Lucien: Mm, good job.

There was a low laugh on the phone, Lucien seemed to say something, but was disturbed by the intermittent noise.

There were more and more people in the venue, and the signal was intermittent. I looked at the floor-to-ceiling windows and the terrace outside, and I had an idea.

Pushing open the door leading to terrace, the distracted voices and music are isolated, and the cool night breeze awakens people’s spirits.

MC: It was too noisy to hear you, what did you say?

Lucien: I said, you can turn around.

This time, the sound came not from the earpiece, but from behind me.

I froze for a second, the turned around abruptly.

In the blurry night, Lucien stood behind me, his dark eyes smiling.

Lucien: Why didn’t you speak?

MC: ...I thought that your hide-and-seek game would continue.

Lucien: Because my partner seems to be very popular, I can’t just sit back and watch.

He looked down at me, the curvature of his mouth bends again.

Lucien: Any interesting findings from the ball just now?

MC: No, it looks like a normal ball.

I thought this ball must be full of traps, but after so long, I couldn’t find any clues.

MC: But you must know something, right?

Lucien: To reveal the answer in advance, it’s better to experience the process of solving puzzles in person.

MC: Is it the same as before?

Lucien is noncommittal, at this moment, the door behind him was suddenly opened untimely, and a strange man walked towards Lucien quickly.

???: Professor Lucien, Commander has something to discuss with you.

Lucien turned around, looking at the man in front of him coldly.

Lucien: I don’t want to be disturbed right now.

???: But this is very important to Commander, you must...

Lucien: Do you want me to say it again?

The man was stunned, a trace of unwillingness flashed across his face, he turned and left.

MC: Lucien, that person was...

Lucien: It seems that this isn’t a suitable place to talk.

He blocked my question lightly, I didn’t speak, and looked straight at him.

MC: If you have important things to discuss, I can wait for you here.

Lucien: I don’t want my partner to be taken away again.

Lucien smiled softly, he leaned down, and kissed the back of my hand.

Lucien: Miss MC, can I ask you to dance?

His voice was gentle and tender, even the kiss that fell on the back of my hand was soggy.

In the depths of my mind, that similar and cold memory automatically played back---

[Flashback: Chapter 23-10]

Lucien: The one and only Black Swan Queen, I will witness your coronation.

[Present]

I bit my lips.

MC: Lucien, the person you are invited is Queen or MC?

Lucien was startled slightly, as if he understood what I was thinking, and the asked back.

Lucien: Will you accept Ares’s invitation or Lucien’s invitation?

I shook my head and looked at Lucien firmly.

MC: To me now, it’s all the same.

MC: No matter what your position is, since I have agreed to your invitation, This dance will always stand with you.

MC: Even if you and I choose a different position after this night, I will prove it to you in my own way.

Lucien tilted his head, meeting my sight, the breeze blew his forehead, and time was silent.

Lucien: Then I should cherish the time of this last dance.

He took my hand.

Lucien: It seems that it’s still too noisy in here.

Lucien: I know a secret place that won’t be disturbed. Would you like to go with me?

***

The door to the venue was opened at this time, and the long overdue star walked into the venue amidst everyone’s exclamation. His eyes looked around, and a faint smile appeared on his lips.

Victor casually rejected the champagne handed by the guests who came to show off, and he walked alone to the empty deck, putting on a specially constructed headset.

Outside the venue, the officer lurking in the dark turned on the communicator, and reported to the other side.

Officer: Report to Captain Gavin, their action is about to begin.

- Part 1 -

The noisy voices gradually drifted away behind me, I followed Lucien, and ascended the last step of the stairs.

He seemed to be very familiar with the structure of building here, and he let me straight to this very hidden attic.

The floor was white with moonlight, the ball downstairs seemed particularly lively, and the sound of music could be heard clearly even in the attic.

He turned to face me, leaned slightly, and made a silent invitation.

I put my hand on his palm, as if I was giving out my heart at the same time.

Lucien held my hand, like the leader of this dance, but very gentlemanly catered to my unfamiliar pace.

The distance was close, and I can almost hear his expanding breathing and heartbeat.

In the dim attic, the light floated up and down, and the surrounding objects turned into fuzzy black shadows, shaking in my field of vision.

For some reason, my consciousness seems to drift further and further with the music, and it doesn’t belong to me at all.

Even the body seemed to have lost control, it only moves with the lead of the person in front of me.

The chaotic mind seemed to be covered by fog, and only a vague voice echoed from far away.

???: MC.

Who is calling my name?

I tried my best to chase this voice.

MC: Lucien...

I murmured that name, and my thoughts were pulled back to reality.

I seem to wake up from a dream, my consciousness is a little fuzzy, and I don’t remember what just happened.

Lucien: Are you awake?

I looked at him blankly, my temple still aching.

Lucien watched me quietly, with surprise in his eyes, but also a little relieved.

Lucien: You really became stronger.

MC: What happened just now? What’s wrong with me?

Lucien didn’t speak, and let me to the stairs.

The air is extremely quiet, only music flows slowly in the air.

I followed Lucien’s eyes suspiciously to the meeting place downstairs.

I just noticed that, there were no people talking in the entire ball hall, nor the clicking of champagne glasses.

The people who originally danced were pinned in place motionless, with dull and hollow eyes.

Lucien: These Evolver are controlled.

MC: Controlled? Since when?

Lucien: That dance just now.

His gaze swept across Commander Leto on the stage, his voice was low.

Lucien: This piece of music combined with some kind of sonic jammer will have an effect on Evolver’s brain waves and play a hypnotic effect.

Lucien: Once they walk into the sound field of this melody, they lose their self-awareness.

MC: So I just....also because of this song?

Lucien’s words made me gradually realize the seriousness of the situation.

MC: In other words, Commander Leto’s motive is actually to control all Evolver?

Lucien nodded lightly, and looked back at me.

Lucien: These invited Evolver are all important figures in society.

Lucien: Once they are controlled by Commander Leto, his resistance to doing things in the future will be much less.

Thinking of the true motive of this ball, I shudder. Once this plan succeeds, the consequences will be disastrous.

Lucien seemed to have guessed my mind and comforted softly.

Lucien: Don’t worry, his plan won’t succeed so easily. Moreover, not everyone will play his tricks.

Lucien said very firmly, the anxiety in my heart eased a bit, but suddenly thought of another thing.

MC: Wait, did you let me be hypnotized just now?

Lucien gave me a calm look, and there was a curve in the corner of his mouth.

Lucien: In fact, this effect in quite interesting. I also want to see your reaction.

MC: Interesting? You won’t take the opportunity to order me to do something, will you?

Lucien: You might guess as well.

He suddenly drew closer, grabbed my wrist playfully, and pulled me close to his arms.

Lucien: Do you feel any difference?

His voice was stained with a faint ambiguity, and accompanied by a warm breath burrowed into my ears.

I ran away from his sight, the voice became smaller and smaller under his watch, with a guilty conscience that I didn’t even understand.

MC: No... I just feel dizzy, my consciousness is completely out of my control... It’s like being held tightly by someone.

MC: But what exactly did you order me to do?

Lucien: Just kidding.

Lucien: You woke up before I thought of something of a fun way.

Lucien: Perhaps this is what makes you unique as a Queen.

There was a smirk on his lips, I wanted to say something, but a strange noise suddenly came from behind him.

The sound of footsteps echoed in the empty and silent attic, Lucien turned his head, saw the person coming, his eyes became cold.

Lucien: It seems that some disobedient people are bothering us.

As soon as the voice fell, a person in black walked over from the side of promenade.

In the darkness, a small snake wrapped around the person’s wrist hissed, and the scales glowed with blue light.

The brightly lit hall behind her, with a snap, plunged into darkness.

- Part 2- (Mission stages)

- Part 3 -

Lucien: Why are you here?

Lucien turned to face the incoming person, the whole person seemed to have faded away from the illusion of gentleness, which easily made people feel a kind of fear.

Artemis: To solve you and Queen.

Lucien: Whose order is it?

Artemis: It doesn’t matter whose order is, you just need to know that tonight is your death date.

As soon as the voice fell, Artemis raised her hand, the gray mist that was born out of thin air carried a suffocating danger, and instantly rushed toward me.

Before I could react, I was pulled by Lucien and held firmly in his arms.

Even after avoiding that attack, the cramped attic had almost no room to escape.

There was a tension in the air, and I could feel Lucien’s tight murderous aura.

Artemis frowned, raised her hand again.

MC: Be careful!

The gray mist like a living creature, swiftly attacked him like a snake.

Without thinking about it, I raised my hand, feeling the convergence of the abilities flowing in my body, the kind of fluctuation that I had once appeared again.

The transparent water ripples that appearing out of thin air, spread out in circles, like a white barrier blocking us.

Artemis was shocked and ran back a few steps, the gray mist slammed back and disappeared into the air.

Succeeded!

The crooked attack was threatening to save his life, I happily looked back to Lucien, only to find a trace of complex emotions that I couldn’t understand flashed in his eyes.

MC: It seems that I forgot to tell you, this is the new power I have gained soon, although I’m not very skilled in using it.

Since I got Evol back, I have often rushed to many dangerous places in order to investigate. Several times I used this unskilled attack to resolve the crisis

Lucien: You did very well.

Lucien’s voice was very soft, and I thought in a daze that the expression had passed by just now was my illusion.

Suddenly Artemis stopped, put her head in pain, as if fighting desperately against something.

Even if I don’t know what happened, I dare not to relax my guard.

After hesitating to attack again, Artemis raised her head again, and looked at me.

This time, the expression in her eyes was more murderous than before.

MC: Lucien, she is...

Lucien responded with a faint smile, showing an expression that he could watch the game in his spare time.

Lucien: Let me see your growth.

MC: ?!

Before I had time to say anything, a thicker gray mist came towards me from Artemis’s palm.

I took a deep breath, tried my best to use my abilities again---

The next second, a whirlpool-like white beam pierced her.

Artemis who was got hit, clutched her chest and coughed violently, with a trace of blood on her lips.

I turned my head nervously, but Lucien gave me an approving look.

Even though she was injured, Artemis didn’t seem to feel any pain or mood swings.

She is like a murderous machine who has been programmed.

It’s no way to laugh like this all the time, my heart sank and calmly took out the knife hidden at the base of my leg for self-defense, and pressed it in the palm of my hand.

MC: Wait, you must have a reason to kill me!

Artemis still walked towards me indifferently, looking at me like a dead thing.

While she wasn’t paying attention, I threw the knife out quickly---

When the tip of the knife brushed her hair, it was corroded into a piece of scrap iron by the black mist in her palm.

The spreading mist was too fast, I couldn’t avoid it, and my arm that was rubbed instantly felt a tingling burning sensation.

Artemis forced me into the compelling space behind her, looked at me condescendingly, and raised her hands wrapped in black leather gloves again.

Lucien: Enough.

The gray mist that was going to swallow me in the next second, disappeared without a trace as Lucien’s voice fell.

The pain as expected didn’t come, I opened my eyes, saw Artemis’s had was tightly coppered by Lucien.

He stared at Artemis, there was a sharp and cold breath in his sight.

Lucien: It seems that you have a lot of laziness these days in the organization, and you have actually fallen into his plan.

Under his shackles, Artemis couldn’t move, she could only look at him angrily.

Artemis was about to fight back, but Lucien slashed the back of his neck with hand knife, and collapsed unconsciously to the ground.

I clutched my wound, looked at Artemis who was lying aside, a sense of unreality arose in my heart.

Lucien didn’t speak, squatted down and looked at me, checked my wound.

Lucien: Does it hurt?

I shook my head nonchalantly, I just wanted to speak but I didn’t know where to start.

Lucien: Sorry.

Lucien: I originally wanted to see where your abilities have grown, so I didn’t make a move for the time being.

MC: My ability?

Lucien: Mm, It’s far beyond my imagination.

I shook my head gently.

MC: Actually, you don’t have to be sorry... If I were to attend the dance alone, I would definitely encounter the same danger.

MC: If I can have more experience in the battle, maybe I can last longer.

Lucien was stunned, then smiled, and carefully treated the wound briefly for me.

Lucien: The wound is not serious, you can only endure it for a while. Follow me.

I followed Lucien and walked to the lower level of the attic, and there was a faint sound of messy and dull footsteps in my ears.

The brainwashing music stopped at some point, and the controlled Evolver gradually woke up.

A group of men in black with guns quickly broke into the hall and aimed their guns at all Evolver in the venue.

Man in Black: Don't move!

I couldn't help but take a step forward, have a panoramic view of the chaos in the entire venue.

MC: What's happening?

Lucien: Commander Leto just issued the shooting order.

He leaned against the wall, looking down at the chaotic scene below.

Lucien: The Evolver who came to ball tonight, none of them will go back alive.

MC: His brainwashing plan was ruined, so he wanted to seal it off?

Lucien frowned, suddenly walked to the corner of the attic.

He lifted the black oiled paper there, I took a breath---

There is a sniper rifle already prepared.

Lucien knelt on one knee, checked the magazine without hesitation.

Several dull gunshots were heard below the venue at this time, and the short flames were quickly extinguished in the dark, and it seemed that Commander Leto's men had started the action.

I looked at Lucien nervously, faintly guessing what he was going to do, but I was not sure.

MC: Lucien, you---

Lucien: Don't worry, just teach them a lesson.

Bang---

The sharp whistling sound brushed his ears, and the bullet's fire flashed in the distance.

Lucien's eyes reflected a touch of brilliance, his slightly squinted eyes, pointed the muzzle at the panicked man in black through the scope.

The messy gunshots and screams, mixed together to become the most perfect cover, and almost no one noticed what was happening here.

He calmly pulled the trigger again.

[Bang]

With a "bang" gunshot, another man in black fell over his shoulder.

It was the first time I saw Lucien like this, he was like a dangerous and calm predator.

The gunpowder turned the direction of the gun. This time the person he aimed at was, Commander Leto.

There was a faint smell of burnt in the air.

The bullet flicked over Commander Leto's head, hit the wall behind him like a joke.

Commander Leto, who was unable to control the development of the situation, realized the severity of the situation and quickly ordered his men to protect himself.

I looked at Lucien subconsciously, not understanding his intentions.

He wiped the muzzle, looked at the chaos underneath with interest, as if it was just an impromptu performance at the official festival.

He loaded the gun sharply again, squinted at the scope, and fired.

[Bang]

With the last shot, the bullet clanged to the ground.

Lucien turned towards me, as if not caring about what happened behind him.

Lucien: Never mind.

The gentle tone that seemed to have passed away made me feel unreal.

I looked down the venue, faced each other. STF officers still don't know where the bullet came from, and Commander Leto on the stage collapsed with his shoulders that had been shot.

It was only then, I suddenly remembered a fact that I had ignored just now.

Whether it was fighting Artemis just now or shooting right now, Lucien never used his Evol from beginning to end.

If as he said, Commander Leto's music is aimed at Evolver, then why can Lucien stay sober?

MC: Lucien, where's your Evol?

Lucien lowered his head, said briskly while removing the magazine.

Lucien: I threw it away.

- Part 4 -

The silent corridor was empty, my ears were still buzzing with gunfire.

Thinking of what Lucien had just left behind, I couldn’t calm down.

When was he, why did he abandon his Evol?

I raised my head, looked at Lucien who was walking ahead, hesitating to ask this question

MC: Lucien...

Before I could finish speaking, Lucien suddenly stopped and dragged me behind him.

Lucien: There’s a situation outside.

On the other side of the corridor, the cumbersome human voices and footsteps passed by, almost hitting us.

Fortunately those people didn't stop, they all continued to chase forward.

I was close to Lucien's chest, his steady and powerful heartbeat beside my ear.

It seems that he is so calm and powerful no matter what the occasion, It was nothing like the person who had just hit the commander with one blow.

After a while, the corridor gradually calmed down.

Lucien: Never mind.

Realizing that Lucien's direction was not leading to the venue just now, I couldn't help asking.

MC: Don't we need to go to the hall to see the situation?

Lucien: Don't worry, someone over there has taken over. Those Evolver will be fine.

Lucien's tone was very brisk, not as if it was fake, and my heart that had been hanging high since just now finally fell back to where I was.

Only then did I realize that Lucien brought me to the central control room.

The door of the central control room was hidden. Perhaps it was the chaos that had transferred everyone away, but there was no one to guard it.

Large and small surveillance screens were broadcasting the situation in the venue at this time, and indeed another team rushed over.

Lucien called out the archive monitored in the ball hall, copied a copy to me.

Lucien: I watched your new show, maybe these will help you.

MC: Thank you, I didn’t expect you to pay attention to these...

Lucien: Since my program consultant has not received a formal termination letter, I will still do my best.

Knowing that he was joking, my heartstrings were still lightly touched by his words.

In the half-bright and half-dark light, the computer behind me made a faint operating sound, and I suddenly had the illusion that Lucien would accompany me to work overtime at the company.

If everything goes back to the beginning, he's still the famous "program consultant" and I'm still the clumsy little producer.

Since then, those ordinary but unique memories in my life, he took me to appreciate it.

Many words come to the lips, but only one "thank you" is left.

Lucien tapped my forehead lightly, and the corners of his lips burst into laughter.

Lucien: What are you thinking?

I shook my head and smiled at him.

MC: I was thinking that the cooperation between us has been very pleasant.

When leaving the ball hall from the back door, the streets at midnight were quiet and deserted, and the helicopters hovering in the sky kept roaring.

Gunshots reverberated occasionally in the venue, the gate was heavily blocked, and team members wearing NW uniforms kept coming and going.

I looked at the tall building that was blocked behind me, realized that the night was over.

Lucien: Does the wound still hurt?

MC: It's better already.

I hesitated, but still spoke.

MC: Lucien, I have a question to ask you.

Lucien: What is it?

Lucien looked at me quietly, as if waiting for a long time.

MC: You... why you give up your Evol?

The flickering light spots swayed in his eyes, making me unable to see the emotions hidden deep in his eyes.

Lucien: Don't you ask how I did it?

MC: Because it is you, I feel that you can do anything easily.

MC: I never doubt that you can do everything you want.

MC: But in fact, many times, I just want to know the reason.

As I spoke, I looked at Lucien and waited for him to continue.

His expression was faint, as if he was talking about something ordinary.

Lucien: If you want to pursue true evolution, you must cut off some extra power.

Lucien: Those redundant branches may bear sweet and huge fruits. Many people will be attracted by these fruits and even forget that their ultimate goal is to grow upward.

Lucien: And such a person will die of his own greed, sooner or later, buried in the rotten fruit.

Lucien stopped and looked at the shadow of the tree swaying in the night. The shadow was stretched very long by the street lamp.

Under his calm eyes, there seemed to be a deeper shadow than eternal night.

This kind of Lucien gave me a strange sense of familiarity, as strong as the first I knew him, but it seemed that there was something more.

Police: Are you two the guests who attending the ball tonight?

The silence was broken, and a man in a police uniform walked up to us from the other side of the road.

MC: Who are you?

Police: I'm the police officer in charge of investigating this dance.

The man showed his credentials, his eyes flashed with surprise when he looked at me.

Police: Wait, are you the producer of "Miracle Finder" on TV today?

MC: Have you watched my show?

Police: Of course, it's not just me, people in our entire bureau are watching.

Police: Thanks to these programs you made, we learned more about the truth about social events.

Police: Since both of you have been invited to this ball, is it convenient for me to go back and make a report with me?

I looked at Lucien hesitantly, a trace of apology appeared on his face.

Lucien: Sorry, I still need to go back to the institute for something urgent.

Lucien: MC, can you do it yourself?

I let out a sigh of relief, smiled and waved goodbye to him, and the haze that had filled my heart that night seemed to gradually dissipate.

Lucien looked at the girl who was going away, put a smile away, and walked in the other direction.

Next: [F4, Assemble] Chapter 33-4

#mlqc #mlqc cn #mlqc lucien #mlqc spoilers #mlqc chapters #ALWAYS HANDSOME EVEN WHEN SHOOTING SOMEONE :)#Lucien: Don't worry someone over there has taken over. Those Evolver will be fine. (*cough u mean...Captain Gavin👀)#i bet gavin asked lucien to not kill commander leto but send a deathwish form first to that old man #Captain Gavin...good job-good job *pat his head #SHIT IM IN LOVE WITH LUCIEN'S FOX SMIRK

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cursed-ice-spirits · 4 years

Text

Unique First Impressions Part 4

When one turns 17, a young pureblood of a noble house will be eased into society through a party by the Head. Rebecca Lord is no exception… but perhaps, she has something up her sleeve.

MCs Featured: Aleksia Aries @aleksia-aries-hogwartsmystery, Aisling Baskerville @elefseija, Summer Charn and Garrett Avery @thecursedvaultchild.

Beginning

Time was lost on Rebecca. By now, she’s probably been gone long enough to be worrisome when she just went out to get some air. She leaned against the balcony, raising her hand to rub away her tears that just kept coming. Maybe she’s ruining her makeup. Maybe it’s not working. But she didn’t care.

Fuck me… stop getting your hopes up. He’ll find some way to ruin it. He always will.

All the joy, all the pride… it just drained out of her, and now she’s here.

"Bex?"

At the sound of voices, her shoulders jerked, then she turned around, hurriedly rubbing away tears. But it was like stopping a huge waterfall. Every time you try wiping it away, it’ll be replaced. Giving up on trying to clean herself up, she raised her gaze.

Summer and Garret stood in the archway, brows furrowed in concern. Their eyes widen, however, when they take in her tears.

She tried not to look away, her face burning with shame. “Oh hey...”

"Bex! What happened?" Summer immediately ran to her, putting an arm around her shoulders and her free hand gently brushing hair out of Bex's face.

Garrett took a moment to glance around. "Do we need to hex someone?"

“How did you guys find me?”

“You were missing from your own party. It’s not that hard to notice, we all did. Us and Aisling and Aleksia. We just searched and found you here.” Garrett frowned at her. “You didn’t answer the question.”

Rebecca laughed weakly and rubbed her eyes. “It’s fine, it’s just... stupid.”

Summer pursed her lips. "Don't tell us it was Giddeon."

As a response, Rebecca lowered her gaze. It didn’t take much to know the answer. “I think the display just pissed him off,” she said tiredly. “Not enough for him to do something to me, but enough to say things.”

Anger flashes in Garrett's eyes while Summer's lips grow more pursed.

"What does he care?” He demanded, looking pissed off for her. She appreciated it. “It's your introduction. Everything else is pureblood proper. He can't stop you from dancing with me and being yourself."

"It's my fault. I designed it. I thought it'd be a nice touch."

"He's just a stupid as my father."

"Garrett!" Summer hissed, gaze flicking around warily.

Tensions between him and his father were well known. This is a party where purebloods gather. Who knows what would happen if one manages to overhear.

Rebecca shrugged. “I don’t know. He just likes having control over me. I think he hates the fact that the display makes it seem like I’m different.” She looked down at herself, at the glittering suit that made her feel so confident and happy.

"Well, that was kind of the point.” Summer’s voice interrupts her thoughts. Her lips were pursed. “You're not a Caldwell, you're a Lord." Summer pulls Rebecca closer, wrapping both arms around her in a hug. "You're your own person, not anyone's puppet."

"You're rocking the suit, by the way."

Rebecca laughed. “Thank you.” She shrugged, hugging Summer back. “Proof that a Lord and Caldwell shouldn’t mix I guess. Lords have backbones,” she said, a roguish grin flashing weakly over her face, before it faded once she reached the next part. “Papa said so.”

Old buried grief curls in her stomach. She ignores it. It’s not the time. It’s never the time.

Still, old memories came anew, and she mourns for moments that will never happen.

Summer huffed, blowing a curl out of her face. "You can't let him get to you. This is your party. Your time to shine." She gently wiped the tears off Bex's face.

"Your backbone beats his words. And your suit is cooler than his," Garrett grinned.

"Let's go back out there and rock the ballroom! Or all my planning will have been for nothing."

Rebecca let out a soft laugh, using her hand to rub away the rest of her tears. What the hell was she doing? She danced in this suit, she danced and showed them she’s different and proud, she danced with her friends in this suit and they’re just as proud as she is. She shouldn’t let her uncle’s words get to her. Pull yourself together.

A surge of appreciation for her friends surges up. If it weren’t for them…. she wouldn’t know what to do. She remembers Jason, and promises that everything will be okay.

“Alright alright. Let’s get going.”

Each linked an arm through hers and walked back into the party, hearts light and bright with laughter and determination to have fun. Aleksia and Aisling were waiting for them at the archway, looks of concern on their faces. Once they saw the three, however, they lit up and flew over.

“Is everything alright?” Aleksia asked, staring imploring at her.

Rebecca looked around at their faces, remembering that they’re her friends and they chose to be her friends no matter what her stinky uncle says, then looked where her uncle was, socializing with other purebloods like he hadn’t confronted her about her show seconds before.

She smiled, feeling a glimmer of spite. “Never been better.” She turned to Aisling. “Wanna dance? We can sneak in Celtic music. Just for fun.”

As predicted, Aisling lit up, looking ready to bounce straight up to the ceiling. “YES!”

Amidst bright laughter, Aisling grabbed a laughing Rebecca’s hand and tugged her towards the dance floor, feet already skipping along to imaginary Celtric music.

Yes, never been better.

#hogwarts mystery #hphm #hphm mc #jacob's sibling #rebecca lord #summer charn #garrett avery #aleksia aries #aisling baskerville #lunar writes #hphm fanfiction #hphm fanfic #hphm fic

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nofacenocaseblog · 4 years

Text

𝗡𝗢 𝗙𝗔𝗖𝗘 𝗡𝗢 𝗖𝗔𝗦𝗘 - 𝗗𝗼𝗽𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 2: Marseille: the New French Connection

“Arrive déjà la 4ème identité Marseillaise” (1)

More than 2600 years ago, Greeks founded Marseille (then Massalia). Since then, immigration has been the backbone of the city. Here, the term melting pot takes its real meaning. Throughout the centuries, Greeks , Italians, Armenians, Algerians, Tunisians, Moroccans, Comorians...called it home. Here you’re “Marseillais” before being “Français”.

Born and bread in Marseille (in 1981), I saw the city getting divided before my eyes. By the end of the 70’s, the french government parked an entire generation of immigrants from the Maghreb (who help rebuild France after WW2 and fought FOR France during the Algerian independence war) in an endless sea of buildings on the outskirt of Marseille (in)famously known as “Les Quartiers Nords”. Those white concrete structures were built in the mid 60’s, when “Corbusian” (2) architects applied their utopian visions on people’s lives. The result: drugs, poverty, alienation, isolation, anger… Rage!

I left Marseille in 2004 to move to New York. Back then, the gap between white “french” people and the 2nd generation of immigrant (100% French but some people tend to forget) was already increasing, the city was fractured.

The French Connection

Once upon a time, Marseille was the mecca when it came to the processing and exportation of heroin. Everybody remembers the French Connection: a 30-year heroin operation between Marseille and the US. A traffic worth more than $40 millions a year back then. Orchestrated by Lucky Luciano, the French Connection provided up to 80% of the US heroin consumption during the 60’s / 70’s. The morphine base from Turkey and Asia was shipped to the Marseille harbor, unloaded on the docks and processed in one of the many clandestine laboratories hidden in the Provence’s countryside to be transformed in the purest heroin ever manufactured (off medical diamorphine): La Marseillaise, as they called it, was 98% pure.

The network was dismantled, and after the 90’s pick, the heroin disappeared from the streets of Marseille (but this is another story...). Today, the few die-hard junkies remaining shoot up Subotex (3) with benzos to “spice it up”… a deadly cocktail. But another traffic emerged: Cannabis and Cocaine.

“Ici on est à Marseille mon frère, Sortis tout droit du conteneur Le produit qui t’met à l'envers”(4)

Here cannabis is embedded in our culture, quality is high and price low. Good Cocaine, on the other hand, was hard to come by, but now you can get dime bag of high purity cocaine quite easily. Without the presence of organized crime (”le milieu”, as they call it here knew his golden age with the French connection but was dismantled by the early 2000), the city was left in the hands of gangsters (called “bandits” in Marseille) fighting each other to death in a turf war that caused 34 homicides in 2016 (5). A heaven you’ll say compare to the 786 homicides the same year in Chicago, but in a country where firearms are illegal, it gave Marseille the title of “France Murder Capital” and the mainstream media did what they do best: spread the fear, pointing the finger to the common enemy: “Les banlieues” (Ghetto in French) and their inhabitants… The dialogue was broken and the city split in two, the North and its “bandits” versus the South with La Canebiere (Marseille most famous street in the city center) as “unofficial” border.

“Rick James said cocaine's a hell of a drug Who else could put the hipsters with felons and thugs And paint a perfect picture of what sellin' it does? This is for the critics, who doubted the chemistry Two different worlds, same symmetry” (6)

I used to come back to my hometown once or twice a year for few days, a couple of weeks at the most. In 2019, I decided to stay over a month. The homicide number that year dropped to 9, I went to the “allegedly” worst ghettos in town: La Busserine, Les Oliviers, Brassens, La Castellane etc… Les Quartiers Nords.

Where no there was no illegal activities , everything was quiet and relax, not once my wife and I felt “in danger”. Where drugs were being sold, everything was even more quiet… Don’t forget, murder and violence is bad for business... and business, in Marseille, is good: at La Busserine alone, the sales of cannabis and cocaine add up to 15,000€/day during the week and up to 25,000€ on weekends with over 500 clients daily. The narcotics sale amounts to 70 millions €/year in Marseille (7), spent and laundered (re-invested) in the city. After some violent years, violence went down and sales went up.

Like any other ghetto, you’ll find here the usual set up: look-out kids (called Chouf, in Marseille slang, translates “look” in arabic) “chilling” on the side of the road and on top of buildings , hidden stashes in apartments, empty lots and garages, dozens of "read-to-sell” bags concealed in pipes and cars’ bumpers, ‘menu’ openly written on wall, obvious selling points (yet distant from the main hang-out spot where kids are playing) and a clientele in and out in less than a minute.

A Les Oliviers, the line of customers almost goes around the block on Saturday nights. Security is insured by the local “muscles” to avoid any “dispute”. Kids from the neighborhood point customers to the right building and tell them where to park their car. The operation is seamless. People are lining up, waiting to buy some hash or weed, a bag of coke for the evening, some K and possibly a couple of ecstasies and MDMA. Choice is broad at Les Olivers, one of the most profitable “cites” (another name for ghetto in France) in town with La Busserine (where the choice is lesser but the quality higher).

Nothing exceptional you’ll say, just another drug traffic… but look closer and you’ll see something I’ve never witnessed in 25 years living in Marseille (and spending lots of time in those “ghetto” as I was boxing in one of their local gym):

I saw white kids hanging out in the "hood” -to buy drugs, I know... but still- with no fear, feeling welcome, joking with locals, even getting drinks at the corner bistro.

Something unthinkable 10 years ago. Something hidden by the media. Something politicians don’t want you to know, to not lose the “fear of the other” they spent so much time to insinuate in our heads.

Let the people believe that only dirty, nasty junkies are going to those dangerous places to buy their dose of dope, whereas it’s their sons, daughters or even colleagues, who are going to get their weed, some pills and maybe a beer before going back to the “right side of the track” to hang out in the trendy and cool bars and restaurants of the “Corniche” and “La Pointe Rouge”

The French Connection is still alive but deeply changed in nature… french people are now actually connected. They’re bounding around something they have in common: drugs. Good or bad, I’m not here to judge, all I know is that as long as there is demand, there will be offer…

In one of the the countries in Europe with the toughest laws on narcotics, French politicians keep on playing Sisyphus (8) with their “war on drugs”…Decriminalization and comprehension healthcare solutions remains the only efficient -and proven- solution to fight drugs…

In the meantime, in the South of France, the new generation is getting together and making its own New French Connection.

============

NOTES

(1) Translate: “Already here, the 4th identity from Marseille” Kenny Arkana refereeing to the 4th generation of MCs but also the 4th generation born in France from immigrant descend (2) Le Corbusier philosophy : his vision for residential architecture included a great deal of services, business and activities to have the building self-sufficient and sustainable. He dreamed of "cleaning and purging" the city, bringing "a calm and powerful architecture"—referring to steel, plate glass, and reinforced concrete... This utopian vision has then been applied to low income building ending up in the creation of actual ghettos. (3) Subotex is the brand name for buprenorphine, a drug used to get off heroin (like methadone, yet completely different in its use). If shot, it will get you high, add benzodiazepines such as Xanax or Rivotril (Marseille’s favorite) and you risk the cardiac arrest as it greatly slows down your heartbeat. (4) Translate: “Straight outta the container, the product that’ll fuck your brain up” Fonky Family - Le Retour du Shit Squat (5) https://www.20minutes.fr/marseille/1988379-20170102-marseille-34-tues-balles-lors-reglements-compte-2016-inexact-repond-prefet-police (6) Pusha T - Trouble On My Mind (7) From the show “L’heure des Pros” sur France on August 28th 2020 (8) In Greek mythology Sisyphus or Sisyphos was the king of Ephyra. He was punished by being forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll down every time it neared the top, repeating this action for eternity.

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fluffy-marshmallow-heart · 5 years

Text

Drake's Diary ch.30 -Return To Cordonia

The Royal Romance from Drake's POV

Drake x MC (Emma Rose)

Words: 5370

Master List (Catch up here)

This one is a bit dialogue heavy...sorry. Only a couple chapters left probably!

The next morning, everyone is gathered around the breakfast table on the royal train.

“I’m glad we’re finally going back to Cordonia. New York was fun, but it’ll be nice to stop sleeping in hotels.” Emma said excitedly.

Olivia scoffed. “Not to mention on trains.”

“Yeah, it’s too bad we couldn’t fly straight home. You said there was some kind of security issue with the last leg of our flight, Liam?” Drake looks at his friend.

He nodded. “Probably nothing to worry about, but when the Royal Guard voices concerns, I find it best to listen to them. Taking the train was mostly a precaution. I promise we’ll all be home in Cordonia soon enough.”

While everyone else tucks into their food, Emma catches Drake’s eye across the table. As the train speeds toward Cordonia, he can hardly take his eyes off her.

I can’t believe she’s mine. I am such a lucky bastard.

He sets his plate aside as everyone finishes their breakfast. Olivia is the only one not touching her food, and finally, she set her fork down hard with a clatter.

“If no one else is going to ask about the elephant in the room, then I will. Emma. Your reputation has been restored, and with Madeleine out of the picture…I assume Liam asked you to marry him.”

Liam’s mouth fell open. “Olivia, I…”

“Judging from that face and that neither of you have mentioned it, I also assume you said no.” She interrupted.

Emma kept her tone even. “Actually…you’re right. I said no.”

This time is was Olivia’s jaw that dropped. “You…Why would you…”

Liam held up a hand. “Olivia, please. This was a personal matter between Emma and me. She doesn’t need to explain her reasons to you, or to anyone.”

“I…I’m sorry, Liam.” She glances quickly at Drake, then just as quickly looks away. “My…apologies…Emma.”

Alright, well, I guess there’s no question about why she turned down his proposal anymore.

“It’s alright. But I’m afraid I must take my leave of you all. The press will be waiting when we arrive at the palace and I have a few notes to prepare.” Liam stood up quickly, giving a slight nod to the table, avoiding both Drake and Emma’s gaze.

“They’ll probably want to hear from Emma too, after what happened at the wedding shower.” Hana pointed out.

Oh yeah. Practically all of Cordonia wants her to be Queen. Guess they’re all in for a rude awakening. Not everyone wants a kingdom. She said it herself.

Emma nodded. “I’d better get ready.” She gives Drake a brief, warm smile before heading off, Hana and Maxwell trailing behind her.

Guess I better pack my bags. We’re almost home.

The train whistle blows as it pulls to a stop, and the entourage exits into a swarm of paparazzi. Cameras flash all around and there’s a motorcade waiting for the court.

Emma immediately puts on a dignified smile.

“An elegant entrance by Lady Emma and King Liam”

“Welcome back to Cordonia, your majesty. How does it feel to be home?”

Drake tunes out as he walks unnoticed to the motorcade, getting into a vehicle and sitting down. Don’t need to be where I’m not needed.

Several minutes later, the car door opened, revealing Bastien. “Drake, we’re heading to the palace now. Lady Emma and King Liam are scheduled for lunch with Constantine and Regina. They’ll be in a different vehicle.”

“Oh…” Drake knew he wasn’t hiding his disappointment that Emma wouldn’t be able to go anywhere with him, and that he’d have to grab lunch alone. Not a minute after he resigned himself to that fact, Maxwell, Hana, and Olivia joined him in the car.

“Drake! Buddy! Guess what I discovered??”

Drake sighed. “What’s that” What is he going to drag us to now?

“There’s a beer garden not too far from the palace! It’ll be so much fun, we have to go!” Maxwell told him excitedly.

Hmm. Guess I could drink some beer for a change.

“Only if Emma goes.” He blurts out.

Olivia snorts in amusement, rolling her eyes. “Oh yes, if Emma goes, Drake will certainly be there right beside her as usual.”

“Drake’s not the only one. Where Emma goes, I go” Maxwell chimed in, unaware of the sarcasm.

Hana nodded. “It will be fun, and you know Emma’s going to agree. It’s back to courtly protocol as soon as we stepped foot into Cordonia. The press even asked if she and Liam were engaged already.”

Oh shit. I hope that went decent enough.

“So where can we find her and Liam? Maybe Liam can go?” Maxwell thought, scratching his chin.

“They’re having lunch at the palace with the former King and Queen.” Drake informed.

Hana’s eyebrows furrowed. “Oh, she’s definitely going to need a break after that. They both will.”

Olivia sighed. “Fine, fine. Let’s go get them.”

As they rode to the palace, Drake’s phone began buzzing. Fishing it out of his pocket, he grinned at the screen.

“Hey, Savannah.”

“Drake! I have good news! Maxwell did an awful lot of talking, and…he convinced me to come back to court! I’ll be there soon, I just have to pack up!”

Drake’s breath hitched. “…What? You’re coming back here? Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“Of course, I’m sure! Drake, I have missed you so incredibly much. I am beyond happy that you found me and were able to meet your nephew…being around you again made me realize…I still have a home in Cordonia. There are still people there I love. And, well, now that everyone knows Bertrand and I have a child together, there’s really no need to keep it a secret any longer.”

Slowly he felt his smile return to his face. “Sav, that…that sounds amazing! This really is great news! I’ll let Maxwell know he succeeded in his plan to get you back here.”

“And Emma. Emma did too.”

“What?”

“Emma! The way you two look at each other…you two are so in love and I need to make sure you don’t screw it up! I’m just so excited for you! You still have our grandma’s ring, right? You should definitely give it to her.”

“Sav!” Drake blushed furiously. “We’re not exactly there yet.”

“That’s because you’re a lovesick fool who can’t put two sentences together when it comes to this kind of thing. Don’t worry, I’ll help.”

“You’re not going to let this go, are you?”

“Are you saying you don’t want to marry her?”

“Of course, I do.” He muttered. He glanced around at his friends, the only one paying attention to him was Olivia. She rose an eyebrow ad he narrowed his eyes, glaring at her.

“I gotta go Savannah, we’re heading to a beer garden.”

“Okay, have fun!! I’ll be there soon, and don’t forget to keep that ring handy! You never know when the right moment may pop up.”

He blew out a breath and said his goodbye before telling everyone that Savannah is coming home.s

“Well, well, well. The prodigal daughter returns. I have to admit, I didn’t think she had the backbone.”

“Shut up, Olivia.” Honestly, why the fuck does she care? Anyone’s business she can possibly butt into, she does. I have no idea why Rose likes her.

She shrugged. “Hear that Maxwell? Savannah’s returning.”

“Yes!!” Maxwell fist pumped the air. “I knew it!”

By this time, they finally rolled into the palace. As they stepped out, they ran right into Liam and Emma, having a low octave conversation.

I wonder how lunch went. There’s no guards or ambulances, so I guess no one died. That’s always a good sign.

“Told you we’d find them here.” Drake announced, startling Emma and Liam out of their conversation.

“What’s going on?” She asked.

“Oh, not much. We just came to invite you to the best beer garden in Cordonia!” Maxwell squealed.

Drake nodded cheerfully. “Emma’s in the clear, we’re home in Cordonia…that calls for drinks if you ask me.”

Holy…I’m in a damn good mood. I forgot what this even felt like!

“Hana’s been reading this place’s menu for the last hour.” Maxwell pointed out.

“Don’t judge. They have a lot of options!” She smacked his arm playfully.

Emma turns back to Liam. “Think you can get away for a little while, Liam?”

Liam frowns thoughtfully. “I have at least a dozen meetings this afternoon, but if you’re willing to wait until the evening…”

Of course, we need to wait for him. Some things never change.

Emma smiled at him. “I’ll be there. Someone has to keep an eye on these two.”

“Meaning…Maxwell and Hana?” Drake clarified.

“I don’t think Emma was talking about me.” Hana told him lightly.

That doesn’t even make sense. I don’t get drunk. Ever. I can certainly handle my booze, and I’m offended anyone thinks I can’t. I’ll show ‘em.

As they all parted for a few hours, Drake went up to his room, turning and locking the door behind him. Walking over to his dresser, he opened the top drawer and dug through the clothing until he found the small green satin box. His hands shook as he slowly opened the lid, revealing the diamonds inside.

I forgot how beautiful it is. It’s so…sparkly. I really hope she likes it. It can’t possibly be better than the one Liam…

He shook his head, ridding himself of the thoughts. It doesn’t even matter. Because it’s from me…she’s going to love it.

He smiled softly at the gold band and the three diamonds. One larger one and two smaller on its sides. He took a shuddery breath…and put the box in his pants pocket.

Okay, Sav. I have it. Just in case.

Later, as the sun starts to set, they ride through the streets of Cordonia. Chatter and music are already spilling over the garden’s walls then they arrive.

“Wow, this place is happening!” Hana gasped.

Drake looked around in appreciation. “I guess we weren’t the only ones who wanted to unwind.”

“Who wants drinks?” Emma asked

“Ooh, can I try their Raspberry Lambic?”

Emma shrugged. “If you get a table, I’ll see what I can do.”

While Hana and Liam search for a table. Drake leads Emma and Maxwell over to the bar.

“This round’s on me.” Drake stated, pulling out his wallet.

Emma’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re buying us drinks?”

Maxwell grasps her arm. “Emma, you should check if he has a fever.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Ha ha. Can’t I be in a giving mood once in a while?”

“Not without explaining yourself.” Emma joked.

He rolled his eyes and attempted to frown…but instead he found himself grinning from ear to ear.

“Fine, if you must know…I got a call from Savannah today. She’s coming back to Cordonia.”

“That is fantastic! You two can finally spend time together again!” Emma exclaimed.

He nodded vigorously. “Yeah. Yeah, we can. It’ll be good to catch up with her. Get to really know Bartie.”

“I’m guessing you aren’t the only person she and Bartie are coming to see.” Emma points to the far wall of the garden, where Bertrand is sitting alone, staring into a pint of beer.

“Oh, no.” Maxwell groaned.

Fucking Bertrand. “I’ll, er, let you two handle this.” Drake hurries off to a different section of the bar to grab the drinks, watching Emma and Maxwell walk over to Bertrand.

Fucker better not mess with my sister again, or I swear to god…

After receiving the tray of drinks, Drake walks over to the table Hana reserved for them. To his great disappointment, Olivia was also there. A moment later, Emma and Maxwell came over as well.

“Ah. So, Emma’s deigned to join us.” Olivia sighed.

Emma grinned. “Olivia. I missed you.”

Olivia shrugged, a hint of a smile on her face. “I admit, this gathering was growing dull without your senseless antics.”

“Hey, our antics are of the highest quality.” Hana argued.

“Come on, Olivia. Have a drink with us.” Emma told her.

“I already have a drink, Emma, are you blind? You can’t see I’m holding it?”

“Ugh, shut up Olivia.” Drake raised his glass to the center of the table, and everyone clinks their glasses together and takes a sip of the cool, crisp lager.

“Mmm. This is perfect.” Hana sighed happily.

Liam agreed. “It’ good to be home among friends.”

Drake chuckled. “Mostly among friends.” He pointedly looks over at Olivia.

“For your sake, I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.”

Drake shrugged. Whatever you need to do. I certainly don’t need saving from you.

As they all enjoy their drinks, a few patrons begin saying their goodbyes. Guests wander out of the garden in twos and threes, some more wobbly than others.

Liam glanced at his watch. “It’s even later than I thought.”

Drake looked at him in surprise. “Don’t tell me you need to head back to the palace. We just got here.”

“Need to? Not necessarily, but I probably should…”

“Come on, Liam.” Maxwell groaned.

“We haven’t even gone dancing yet!” Hana complained.

Maxwell turned back to Emma. “What about you, Emma? Do you want the party to stop here?”

Drake couldn’t stop his smile from returning. Guess we’re definitely not headed back yet.

“Let the party continue!” She announced with a laugh.

Damn, I love her.

“You heard her!” Maxwell races over to the music controller in the beer garden. He fiddles with it until a danceable, upbeat song begins to play.

“That’s more like it! I propose a toast! To us! There’s no one else I’d rather be here with.” Emma looked around at her friends proudly, and everyone raises their glasses except for Olivia. After a pointed pause, she lifts hers and sighs.

“You are all…a decent source of entertainment.”

“We try.” Emma beamed.

“Music, check. Audience, check. We have almost everything we need for a dance party…except more drinks!”

“I’m on it!” Emma jumps up, walking to the bar. About ten minutes later, she returns.

“Drinks achieved. Where am I supposed to dance my heart out in this place?”

Maxwell looked around. “There’s plenty of space if you know where to look.” He hops up on a small table and begins dancing to the beat. Each step brings him just short of the table’s edge as he shimmies across its surface.

“Maxwell, let me show you how it’s done.” Emma hope on her own table, steps, slides, and shimmies to the music.

“I think she’s got you beat.” Drake laughs, downing his drink. Before he knows it, there’s another in his hand.

“We’ll call it a tie.” Maxwell mumbled.

She climbs down from her personal table as Drake helps Liam put several tables end-to-end into a long ‘dance table.’

Rashad glares at Drake. “We might have been using that table, you know.”

Seriously? “It wasn’t even touching yours.”

Neville scoffed. “That’s not the point. A gentleman would have asked.”

Gentleman my ass.

Drake pointedly drags the table away with a smirk on his face. Rashad turns back to his drink, sighing. “Remind me why you brought me here instead of to a quiet bar?”

“After a long royal tour, I find it refreshing to unlance one’s boots and fraternize among the commoners.” Neville waved his hand dismissively at Drake.

Oh that mother f…

“Ugh. His name should be in the dictionary under ‘pompous.’” Emma grimaced.

Hana suddenly stood tall. “Everyone…wait here. There’s something I need to do.” She strides over to Neville and Rashad’s table.

Neville immediately plasters a smile on his face. “Lady Hana! What a delight to find such a radiant flower in so base a setting. I told you she’d be back, Rashad. A woman in her situation simply can’t resist my charmi…”

“I’m not interested.” Hana interrupted loudly.

“I beg your pardon?”

“You’re self-absorbed and stuck up and…and boring! I will never be interested in you. And that blazer will never be your color.”

Neville’s jaw drops and before he can respond, Hana spins around and walks back to their group’s table. Neville stares after her, dumbfounded, while Rashad clutches his beer, looking torn between amusement and horror.

“That…felt…amazing!” Hana was beaming, and her smile was infectious.

Maxwell gives her a high five. “Damn! Overly-honest Hana is my new hero!”

Even Olivia was chuckling. “That blazer line was particularly cutting.”

Hana’s smile turned to worry. “I didn’t even know what I was going to say until I was standing in front of him. Do you think it was too much?”

Emma slung an arm around her friend. “Honestly, I have never been prouder of you. If I had a trophy I’d give you one.”

“I’ll contact the royal smithy.” Liam agreed.

Hana blushed. “You guys…”

Olivia rolled her eyes. “Don’t try to be modest, Hana. You stood up to him with courage. You should be proud.”

“This calls for celebration.”

“Hold my drink!” Hana climbs onto the combined tables and begins a series of elegant steps, her arms tracing careful arcs through the air.

Liam watches in amazement. “When did you learn the Cordonia harvest dance?”

“Well, I wasn’t sure which traditional dances were still in fashion at court…so my parents had me learn all twenty-six of them.”

Twenty-six? Wow. That. Is. About the worst thing I’ve ever heard. This poor girl really never got out.

Maxwell turns to Olivia. “Olivia, what about you? I bet you secretly now how to cut loose.”

She rose her glass in response. “I’m quite content with my drink. It’ll give me a better view when one of you falls of that table.”

“Hey, we’re a coordinated bunch.” Drake drinks the last of his beer and climbs onto the table with Hana and Maxwell. He nearly tumbles off in the process, until Maxwell catches him.

Olivia smirked. “My money’s on Drake falling first.”

“Mock me if you want, Olivia, but I’m still going to have a good time!” Literally no one can take my good mood away from me. My life is good. For the first time…I love where I’m heading.

He looks down and sees Emma and Liam deep in a conversation and for a split second, his smile droops. I have no reason to be insecure. Damn. This is such a different feeling for me. I wonder if I’ll ever get used to it? I hope so. Maybe when we’re married…

Drake pats his pants and feels the edges of the box. He looks back over at Emma and tries to picture her wearing the ring.

“Emma! What are you still doing down there?” Hana called.

“I’m coming, I’m coming” She climbs onto the table as a lively folk dance begins to play through the speakers. “Drake. Over here”

Drake dances his way over to her. “We’re doing what now?”

She links her arm through his and begin to trace the steps of a circle. He concentrates on her footwork, and after a few steps, he catches on, circling her in turn. As their momentum carries them both through the rest of the song, Drake can’t stop smiling at her, enjoying a rare feeling of unbridled joy. “That was…fun, Rose”

She smiles softly. “Yeah. Yeah, it was.”

Everyone climbs down from the table to catch their breath once the song ends. Drake, Liam, and Hana then start putting the tables back together while Maxwell turns down the speakers.

Liam looks around in satisfaction. “It’s nearly midnight. This time we really should end the evening’s festivities.”

“Let’s go home.” Emma winked at Drake, his heart surging with love and warmth. They all walk home to the palace, enjoying the peaceful evening, and Drake strolls along at the back of the group, humming faintly to himself.

My sister’s coming home…Emma Rose loves me; my friends are fun…life is so good. I love life. Why don’t I feel this way all the time? Life is soooooo great. So many beautiful and wonderful things and people to do and see…er…people to see and things to do…

“Drake are you…drunk?”

He snaps his eyes up and sees only he and Emma are outside of the palace. Everyone else must have already gone inside for the night. “Noooooo way, Rose. I don’t get drunk. Maybe you’re drunk.

An amused look crosses her face. “Uh huh”

“I’m just…happy. We’re home, Savannah’s coming home…you like me for some reason…”

“Okay, you’ve definitely had more drinks than I thought.”

Drake chuckles. “My point is, things are going good. For everyone.”

“It’s about time.” She agreed.

Oh my god. I have the most brilliant idea ever. Oh, she’s going to LOVE this!!!!

He looks at her in excitement. “Hey, how about a palace tour tonight? Just you, me, and old portraits of stuffy people?”

Emma blinked. “We’re all staying in the palace. I’ve seen it.”

He shakes his head vigorously, before feeling a tad dizzy. “Nah, Rose. You’ve seen the palace the way the royal family wants you to see it.” He leans in conspiratorially. “I can show you the palace…like you’ve never seen it before.”

“Are we talking secret rooms?” She asks in a hushed tone.

His eyes widen. “If I told you, it wouldn’t be a secret anymore.”

“Good point.” She laughs.

“So? You coming or what?”

“Oh I’m definitely in. Where does this tour start?”

Yessssssssss

“Just keep up with me, Rose.” He grabs her hand and pulls her along, leading them to the grand ballroom. He looks around the space with interest.

“So, you brought me here to show me…tables?” She asked, skeptically.

He feigns offense. “Come on, Rose, you’ve gotta look deeper than that. Really take in the scenery.”

“Such as…?”

He starts pointing. “See how that part of the chandelier is shinier than the rest? And those flower petals in the…the…”

“The molding?” She supplied

She’s so smart. So, so smart. “Yeah, that stuff! See where a couple of them got replaced?” He walks over and points out both repairs. They would be almost impossible to spot without a guide, and he’s feeling very proud of himself for knowing the real history of the palace.

“Where do you think those came from?”

“They’re from you and Liam.” She said without hesitation.

He stared at her a moment, caught off guard. “Damn, Rose. How’d you know?”

She laughed. “You looked way too proud of it. What happened?”

“Well. There was this super rainy winter one year. I’m talking cats and dogs for days. So, after a while, me and Liam decided to play some indoor soccer.”

“That can only end well.”

“Pssh. I’m great at soccer. Best defense in the palace. So, when Liam got frustrated and tried a shot from across the room…” He mimes the trajectory of a ball bouncing from chandelier to wall to floor, complete with crashing sound effects.

“Did you get in trouble?”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “…nothing your old pal Drake Walker couldn’t handle.”

“Wow. To think, this top-secret palace history has been in front of my eyes this whole time.”

That sounds like sarcasm…but she has a straight face…Ha, I’m blowing her away right now with all my knowledge.

Grinning, he goes to lean against the wall and nearly misses. He catches himself just in time. “Whoa. H-Hey. D’you want to know another secret?”

She shrugged. “Sure.”

Give yourself a pat on the back later. This is the best tour of her life!!

“…This way!” Drake leads her to a familiar hallway. He stops halfway down it and frowns at the wall.

“Uh, Drake? I’ve walked down this hallway dozens of times.”

He looks around in confusion. “No, no, this isn’t it. You’ve gotta look…Out here!” He wanders over to one of the windows and gestures outside. “This is my faaaavorie view of the hic…the whole…palace. I like how you can see through it, even though you can’t move through it.”

Drake puts his hand against the solid glass. “And there’s so much…stuff…out there.” He looks out in awe.

That is just. So beautiful.

“It sure is something.”

He looks back and sees her smothering a laugh, and he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “I wanted to show it to you ‘cause it’s pretty. And Emma…I mean, Rose…You’re pretty, so you and this view belong together.”

She touched his arm lightly. “I never knew drunk Drake could be so poetic.”

Whaaaaaaaaat? Again she’s calling me drunk. I’m definitely not drunk. “I’m not drunk. You’re just rrreeeaally sober.”

“Thank you…For taking me to such a romantic spot.” He can hear the sheer amusement in her voice.

“I’ve wanted to take you to this window for a long time.” He informed, smiling down on her.

“That’s…very sweet.”

“I was hoping you’d think so.” He glances back out the window and instantly realizes his mistake. “Oh, wait. This isn’t the spot. It’s this window over here. C’mon!” He leads her to another window.

“So pretty.” He murmured.

She rose an eyebrow. “…Riight. So, was this the secret you promised me?”

“Secret?” He frowns in concentration, scrunching up his nose until finally his eyes light up and he snaps his fingers. “I remember the other funny thing about this hallway.”

“What about…”

“Kiara’s room is over here.” He leads Emma a few doors down to one with an embossed sign beside it, bearing Kiara’s name. Drake knocks, but there’s no response. “No one’s home.”

“Why do you want to talk to Kiara in the middle of the night?”

He frowned, hearing the disdain in her voice. Why would I…ohhh I get it. No, that’s…no.

“I don’t.” He assured. “I want to prank her.”

Emma’s laugh rang out and she presses her lips to his cheek. “You are like a whole new person right now.”

“You still love me, right? Come on, Rose. Are we doing this or not?”

She looks around mischievously. “Let’s prank her!”

“Yeah!” He bumps her fist, then pats his shirt pocket, then pats down his jeans, feeling the ring box again.

Shit. Why did I listen to Savannah? That was stupid, it’s such a waste of pocket space.

He looks at her nervously. “Oh. I didn’t actually plan for this part. You got any ideas?”

“We should put shampoo in her bed.”

Drake looks at her in awe. God damn, she is the smarted, most brilliant woman alive. “You didn’t tell me you were an evil genius.”

She just shrugged. “Pranking people is one of my many talents.”

“Don’t let me get on your bad side.” They find an array of shampoos and conditioners in Kiara’s bathroom and lather them all over under the sheets. Drake carefully sprays hair spray onto her pillow.

“Uhh, Drake?”

Why is she looking at me like I have three heads? He looks back at the bottle in his hand. “This stuff belongs on her hair!”

“Not anymore. When you pull a prank, you’ve gotta go big or go home!”

He thought a moment, then snapped his fingers. “Got it!” He sprays the bottle again, leaving at least a few ounces of hair spray on the foot of the bed. He stepped back to admire his work.

Hmm. Can’t really see it.

“Close enough.” Emma teased.

Why are we still here? There is something way better to still be seen by her eyes, and only her eyes.

“Let me take you to our last stop.” He says abruptly. Drake leads her through parts of the palace he knows she’s barely seen before, following only his known path through the maze of hallways. Finally, he holds open a heavy wooden door and ushers her into a deserted library.

She gasps in delight. “Whoa…I didn’t take you for a library kind of guy.”

“Oh, yeah, I love books. Sometimes I even read past their covers.” He replied, distracted.

“Did you bring me here to read to me?”

This time he doesn’t even bother to respond. He wanders along the shelves, frowning in concentration, and nearly walks into a carved pillar as he traces his hand along book spines. “Where did it…” His shoulder glances off the side of a pillar, and something behind it begins to rumble. Dust rises from the nearest shelves as a panel in the wall swings open. “Oh, I found it! C’mon Rose!”

He quickly ducks inside the dimly lit tunnel. “Welcome…to my secret passage.” He looks at her proudly.

“Where does it go?” She asks curiously.

He shrugged. “A dead end. That part’s no fun. The cool part is just…this passage. It’s like a…a special hideout. That’s what I used it for, growin’ up. Whenever I got too fed up with all the phony smiles and parties…I’d come here. Where nobody could find me. Even Liam doesn’t know about this place.”

“But…now I do. Why bring me here?” She steps closer to him.

A slight blush crept up his neck. “I thought, now that you’re gonna be duchess and all…if you ever get tired of dealin’ with the court…you can come hide out here too, Emma.”

“You just did it again.”

He furrowed his eyebrows. “Did what?”

“Called me Emma.”

“I…oh. I did, didn’t I.” He scratches his chin, thinking hard.

Called her Emma…Why did I do that? I know there’s a reason, just…

His eyes lit up in excitement. “That’s the secret I was gonna tell you! About your name. It’s not as awesome as this, though.” He waves his hands at the ancient stone walls surrounding them.

She steps even closer. “Well, I still want to hear it. You call Liam, Maxwell, and Hana…Liam, Maxwell, and Hana. Why are you always calling me Rose?”

Drake sits down on a stone step. He runs a hand through his hair as he searches for the words. “The truth is…I started calling you Rose ‘cause I didn’t want us to get close when you showed up. Didn’t want to get…used to you. But you kept sticking around, and being you, and after that…I didn’t want you to know how I felt. So now Rose’s just my thing. Our thing. I guess. I can’t believe I called you Emma. Felt kinda weird.”

He looks back into her eyes and sees softness.

“Thank you for telling me.” She murmured quietly.

“Thank you.”

“You mean, you’re welcome?”

“No, no, no. Thank you for going on this tour with me.”

“I’d give it five stars.”

He nods happily. “That’s the because I’m the best tour guide there is…and now my work here is done.” Drake closes the secret passage behind him as they leave the library. The two of them slowly make their way back to the hallway outside Emma’s room.

She turns to face him directly, just a breath away. She trails a finger down his stomach and he inhaled sharply. “So…Maybe I can give you a tour of my room another time.”

Oh my god, she’s talking about sex. She’s talking about sex! She wants to sleep with me!!! Damn it! Why am I so drunk??

His eyes focus on her with more clarity than he’d had all night. “I…I’d like that, Rose. I’d really like that. But tonight…I’m not exactly all here. If you’re talking about the kind of tour I think you’re talking about…I don’t want to miss a thing.”

She pouts, his eyes drawn to her lips. I wish I could sleep next to her tonight. Just literally sleep. That would be so nice.

“Another time, then.” She continues.” Maybe when you’re more…” Drake barely manages to stifle a yawn. “Awake?”

He nods. “Yeah. Another time. I won’t forget.”

As he turns to go, Emma leans in and kisses him on the cheek.

“Th-thanks, Rose.” He rubs his cheek, grinning.

“Goodnight, Drake.”

He heads off to his own room as she shuts the door behind her. He starts humming again sleepily. She’s the best. I’m the luckiest guy in the whole world. And maybe I should be a tour guide…I know all kinds of history and she was completely enthralled with our palace expedition…

He pats his pocket once more, making sure the ring is still there. Okay Walker. Just keep it with you. You’ll know when the time is right. Just make it soon. It’s gotta be soon. Nothing to worry about.

@annekebbphotography @gardeningourmet @zigortega4life @eileendannie @thequeenofcronuts @drakewalkerfantasy @friedherringclodthing @coffeebeandragon @drakewalker04 @alesana45 @mfackenthal

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flying-elliska · 5 years

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hi ellie! what's your top 5 tv shows? (no skam, this is kinda obvious 😂)

haha anon thank you for reminding me there were tv shows other than skam :D

- Buffy the Vampire Slayer - first series I ever went apeshit for, it brings up so many memories of saving to buy dvd boxsets and watching VHS tapes with my bestie and halloween parties and cutting snippets out of fan magazines (whoop i’m old). It’s dated and problematic now but. It’s still so Quality TM. It’s so good at using dumbass genre tropes (which are also super fun don’t get me wrong) to say super deep shit about life and love and growing up. There are a lot of parts I wish I could rewrite and maybe send different messages (Still not over Tara’s death...) but still, when I rewatch it I’m like wow, that shit was my life once upon a time. And the Vibe ! It’s still so funny and taught me the importance of using humor to support darker storylines so it doesn’t get too gloomy or self serious. And they’re doing a modern comics reboot, which I’m so gonna buy once money happens. Also we’ve gone far enough round the bend that some of their outfits are like. really cool again. And it was the actual first time I saw a lesbian couple story that was so positive and loving and celebrated. I didn’t even know I was bi at the time but it made me so happy. (and it pushed me into my witchy phase instead lmaoooooo)

- Star Trek (techically a cheat bc a lot of series in one but lmao). I became a fan like 5 years ago and still it felt like I knew it already, because it’s so engraved in our consciousness. It’s just incredible to think that people were obsessing over shit, shipping stuff, falling in love with characters, just like we do, already in the 60s. It feels so comfy to watch, and the optimistic worldview still gives me hope we can get our shit together as a species. I just go back to it periodically, it’s one of those things you know will be there forever. And some of the stories are dumb or really bad but some are just....so good and so deep...wow. My favorite has to be Deep Space Nine because I love so many of its characters and it got a bit darker and more ambitious with the overall storytelling. And I could write a political science essay about several of the plotlines. You got bad rubber lizard masks and everyone dresses like a train carpet, but also you got really deep storylines about guilt and propaganda and genocide and how to make ideals stick and nation building and the evils of blind bureaucracy and idealism vs pragmatism and !!! It’s my jam really.

- Black Sails ! I’m still ??? that we got a show like that. It was billed yay pirates boobs beaches explosions, produced by Michael Bay ! But what we got instead was like, ok wow. First of all 4 main characters are queer, plus two polyamorous relationships, plus several side characters who aren’t straight either including one that is introduced in the last 5 min of the show. They start with this really badass scary pirate captain who has a troubled story with a woman and then half way through the second season (spoilers) they reveal that the entire backbone of the series’ story is that he was in love with a man and he is so angry at how they treated him that he’s going to war with the entire British Empire over it. It’s one of the finest examples of heterobaiting I’ve ever seen. AND his relationship with the other main character is also extremely full of longing and subtext even if they never actually go there. Plus, awesome sword fighting lesbian pirate ! And of course apart from that the story is really good and says some incredible things about stories, power, oppression, empire, freedom, how ‘monsters’ are made. I think a lot of people slept on it because the first season is kinda slow to start and has a really problematic rape storyline. But imho it’s worth powering through. And it has one of the most satisfying endings I’ve ever seen in a TV show.

- Brooklyn Nine-nine. Ultimate comfort show and still so fucking funny - it’s arguably gotten better over time, even. Jake and Amy are one of the rare canon het couples I actually read fic for lmao. I love how all the characters are interesting in their own ways. I love how they dismantle toxic masculinity so hard, do diversity in a way that feels completely organic, and tackle some stuff that is seriously wrong with the US/cops in general from their middle of the road perspective in a way that never feels like they’re teaching you a lesson. I love that their female characters are all strong in different ways and shown to be flawed and still lovable and hilarious. I love how they portray their queer characters in such an honest way without ever reducing them to their sexuality. It’s one of these shows that actually makes being a grown up appear interesting and not boring.I love the big found family vibes. I love it so much.

- Bonus Cheat Round because I’m incapable of choosing one last one ! Halt and Catch Fire (Lee Pace ! Amazing creative female partnership !) Doctor Who (Moffat can fuck off but some of the eps remain incredible sci-fi stories) Skam (sorry oops), Avatar/Legend of Korra, Agent Carter (mostly the 1st season tho), Pushing Daisies (Lee Pace! Super cuteness! Whyyyyyyy was it cancelled sighhhh), Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (Adorable period drama w badass female MC), Legends of Tomorrow (admire their committment to going for the most balls to the walls out there solution everytime, plus badass bis everywhere), Parks and Rec, the Good Place, Broad City, Penny Dreadful (altho I hate the ending my god), Hannibal, a Series of Unfortunate Events, the Expanse, Killing Eve (just watched, it’s amazing)... I guess I watch too much TV lol but don’t we all.

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capricious-writes · 6 years

Text

11-11-11

rules: answer 11 questions, ask 11 questions, tag 11 people.

Tagged by @vieliwrites and @bookenders, I didn’t know how to go about that, so I’ve reblogged this with the other part.

1. Where’s your favourite place to write? (bedroom, coffee shop, study, etc.)

I write wherever I suppose. Usually at my desk in my room, sometimes when I eat at a cafeteria, rare times in bed on my laptop, even rarer times on my phone wherever.

2. Do you have any writing habits you’re trying to shake?

Recently I’ve been looking for filter words in my writing. ‘She thought.’ ‘He felt.’ ‘They wondered.’

3. If you could spend one whole day with one of your characters, who would it be and what would you do with them?

I’d spend the day with Dee.

She’d try to figure out all my troubles and woes, I’d ignore her attempts (or blab everything to be honest), but TRY to just give that woman some company when she’s off work. She’d probably have something in mind, and it’d probably be really interesting to me because she’d deduce it spot on. Ultimately the day would end where I’d feel guilty, because I’d feel like she did more for me than me for her. But she’d go straight to sleep and wake up and head straight for work to interact with more people. And have made it through another day without the looming moments of solitude.

4. Do you have any pre-writing rituals or habits? (lighting some candles, showering, etc.)

Music. Water bottle. And I think that sets me up just fine.

- Outline tab open

- Thesaurus tab open

- Google tab open

Okay, NOW I’m set.

5. What’s your favourite genre of book and is it the same as your current wip? Why or why not?

My favorite genre probably is the same as my wip. I like fantastical situations that also give an excuse to push characters to the brink. Whether that’s Gov Spy genre, Space Adventure, Psychological Thriller, Fantasy Quest - whatever mixes Action with slice-of-life, but also higher stakes, you’ve got me.

6. What’s the hardest part of creating a character for you?

Making them well rounded with flaws. I created a sibling to my protagonist that was almost perfect - her only flaw was ‘caring too much’ which made her an inefficient pushover. She was slated to die and I was heartbroken - but it had to be done.

On rewrite, she became much more capable. I don’t want to say she grew a backbone, but she DID gain a certain set of moral values that started to contradict her sister, my protagonist. After that, she suddenly wasn’t slated to die anymore either. Its the characters that don’t have anywhere to grow that get killed off.

7. Do you live by a motto or quote?

Am I interested? Yes? Alright lets do it. No? Alright lets wait a few hours and see how I feel then.

Everyone says don’t wait for inspiration - and I’m getting that a little more now, but up to this point, pushing myself wasn’t the best idea.

8. What are your favourite relationship tropes in fiction?

Really strongly bonded relationship’s that know each other inside out, but are at odds too. So - antagonist and protagonist are frenemies. Or two friends bicker constantly, but at the end of the day, will have the other’s back. Siblings might fit that description. Or betrayal. Or two heads of an issue that used to be on the same side. That’s my jam.

9. Was there something in particular that inspired your current wip? (a piece of art, a song, a scene in a film, etc.)

Yes actually. Troll Hunters.

*spoilers?*

When Jim came back from the Darklands, his first day or two, he constantly interacted with his old world differently. But when new dangers from the Darkworld showed up, Jim handled them much more proficiently than before, while everyone else was still caught off guard.

That directly started the first idea of Blooming Under Night. It blossomed and spiraled from there, but the first few chapters so far especially, have that same core. I think what caught me was a character going about a regular life in a way that confuses or is obviously different and even a bit weird to everyone else. But that a character like that still has different ways they’re more skilled and knowledgeable, and that those situations really bring this understanding in full view.

On revision, I’m really gonna try to instill that.

10. What was the last book you finished reading?

The Chemist by Stephanie Meyer.

11. Have you ever dreamt of your OCs? If so, what was it about?

I have not. If I did, I have no idea what it’d be about.

>>> Q’s

1. What’s you favorite OC?

2. What’s your favorite POV?

3. What’s one food that just doesn’t exist in your wip. You’re a petty god - what’s that one ‘delicacy’ that you erased from all history, and that will never ever be mentioned in your story? Why?

4. Is there a type of setting you tend to write stories in?

5. What was the last show you finished?

6. If you had to completely change the medium of your wip what would it be and why and/or what would change?

7. What’s your ideal villain?

8. What’s one recent aspect of writing you’ve been trying to implement/improve?

9. If your MC had sudden access to a time travel wrist watch (fixed points time travel), what would they do with it? Alternatively, if you have time travel already, could your story exist without it, and how?

10. What’s one joke, or funny trope that gets you every time?

11. If you could say one sentence of dialogue, as yourself, in your current wip, what, where or to whom would it be, and why?

Tagging @moonyspoon @writer-who-cant-write @shadowfire71-writes @phoenix-the-write-thing @nkta-ink @taz-writes @tachycardick @thatwriterofsorts @shakespeare-who @dramaticvoiceover @action-science-fantasy

^^^ If you’d prefer me not to tag you for future reference just comment ‘NTY’ [No Thank You] below. Feel free 1000% not to if you aren’t interested. Otherwise, I’d love to see anybody’s responses!

#bun #long post #tag game #Dee

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persephonesnow · 6 years

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That worldbuilding thing

Below a cut because holy crap this thing is nine pages long.

The very point of worldbuilding is to create a cohesive arena for your story to take place. Think of it as the background of a painting. You’ve got a subject that’s intended to be the focus of the piece, but that subject isn’t going to stand out if the background makes no sense and distracts the viewer. Worldbuilding is the thing that will make or break a story. That goes for original fic and fanfic both.

The most daunting is by far original fic. The easiest place to start is with, well, the place. The literal landscape of your story can have a huge impact. Is it mountainous? Forested? Rich and fertile? Cold? Hot? Dry? Are there settlements? What kind? Cities? Villages? Have no idea where to start? Start in the real world.

(We’re going to stick with stories centered on human characters, simply because they are the overwhelming majority and where worldbuilding tends to most often fail. And full disclosure: I am one of those writers who has written encyclopedias for the worlds I create. It makes things so much easier.)

I’m serious. If you think you want to write about a desert world, look into what real-world desert life is like. Even if you’re writing something sci-fi and need to account for currently impossible tech, look at the real world. How has the desert shaped the history of the people who live there? What have been the challenges they’ve faced from the environment and how has that changed them?

And pro-tip: if you’re writing a world with lots of direct sunlight, any human character native to this world is highly, highly unlikely to be white or overly fair-skinned. If you’re writing a snow-covered or water-filled world, you’re more than likely talking about a native population with both tanned skin and likely monolid eyes. When I say look at the real world, I don’t just mean the culture and history. I mean look at how people have evolved to survive in the given environment. Y’all may not realize this, but things like (light) skin colours and eye shapes are adaptations that evolved to allow humans to live in places very different than where our species first turned up.

(All bets are mostly off for any aliens. But if your aliens are humanoid and can pass for one of us, that means that they can pass for one of us, and will be bound by any physical adaptations humans in their given region would have.)

Worldbuilding is about 99% research. That’s it. It’s reading lots of random and weird things because the strangest things will have an impact. Environment and climate impact each other. Both impact what edibles are available and if the local population is going to be mostly hunters, fishermen, or farmers. Or even a combination, but given what humanity has been like, once we start trending agrarian we largely stay agrarian. Similarly, if your main settlement has little in the way of agriculture, then it’s not going to be much of a settlement and is more likely a waystation for nomads. Agriculture is the backbone upon which civilization is built. And agriculture doesn’t necessarily mean plants. Ranching is a thing, people, and you can farm fish.

There are other things, of course. If your world has few trees, your buildings won’t be wood, which changes what shapes they can take and their overall appearance. It also changes how the buildings hold heat or if they stay cool year-round.

IS THERE WINTER?

Okay, this point. Is there a winter in your world? Nothing, absolutely nothing will have a bigger impact on your growing world than the existence or nonexistence of winter. Don’t believe me? Go take a look through human history and the various mythos we’ve created. How vital is spring and the growth that come with it? How much is the winter, with the lack of growth and migration of game featured in those stories? How much is the concern of the lean times, of the time when diseases are more common (flu season, anyone?), of when children of all species are less likely to be born and less likely to survive if they do present?

No winter? Guess what, that has an impact too! You know all those plants you love to look at? All the ones you eat? Most of those require a winter to grow. Some plants need their seeds frozen and held at a freezing temperature for a length of time in order to properly germinate. Some need the inverse, of course, and will not grow unless they’ve quite literally been torched.

No winter also changes bug populations. Which can have an impact on the spread of disease. Which very definitely changes any population. Is there a monsoon season in place of the frozen winter that’s often featured? My good dudes, water is dangerous in all forms. Rivers will flood. Hurricanes and monsoons will happen. Floods will happen. No place is perfect. If you’re imagining an idyllic world where nothing is wrong, you’ve done something wrong and you’re missing something.

Worldbuilding requires a lot of really weird details, in order to do it properly. If you’re keeping your story small and focused on something small (a person, a family, something of interpersonal nature) then you can probably stop here and go write your story.

If you’re wanting to write and epic a la Harry Potter or A Song of Fire and Ice? Buckle up, kids, you’ve got a lot more think about.

Worldbuilding isn’t just your landscape. It’s your culture and everything in that. You imagine your characters wearing furs? Okay, then what kind of animals are lurking about for hunters? Go look at real fur, at real game, and think very seriously about what kind of skins your people are likely to have access to. Things like bear and other big carnivores aren’t likely to show up on normal people. Those will be, as they have been in the real world, expensive af. Predators tend to be rare, even places with lots of prey. There is in fact a set ratio for populations of predators to prey that researchers have discovered in the real world. Go look it up. Look up requirements for large predators, because they tend to have insanely large ranges and are often solitary, which makes them rare for hunters.

You have deer? Okay. Look at what a normal deer population looks like and what their behaviors look like in any given environment. Not all deer are as big as the white-tail. Some are bigger. Some are infinitely harder to catch. Some are isolated, some form herds. Some are aggressive. White-tail are what’s lurking where I live, and they’re mostly blind and rely heavily on their hearing. You know the classic deer in headlights look with the ears straight up? Yeah, they can see the light and something big moving towards them, but they can’t identify it so they’re listening.

Think all of this is unnecessary because you’re not writing a hunter? Nope, sorry. This shit impacts not only what your people are eating but also what they are wearing. Not a problem because your people have cattle? Not so fast, sweetheart. Cattle evolved from aurochs, officially in Turkey (I remember coming across a study that thinks aurochs might have evolved into cattle more than once, but don’t remember I found it). Cattle are also not the end-all of bovines. There’s multiple forms and then there’s also things bison and all their forms, oxen and their brethren. All are different. All have different environmental requirements and sometimes very different requirements for farming. Not all can be used for milk and not all are good eating. Same goes for sheep and goats. You’ll have to think about how humans have altered whatever species has been domesticated in your world, because it’s unlikely you’ll be writing at a time when domestication is just starting.

Poultry? Chicken come from a jungle fowl native to southeast Asia. Ducks and geese have different stories. They’re also largely useless for clothing, bar decoration and we’re not to that yet.

(On birds: all females will produce eggs, male present or not. It’s a natural process and just happens. Never seen a pet bird lay an egg? That’s because birds sold in the pet trade are almost exclusively males. If you’ve got egg-laying birds and no male around, you’re not going to get any new birds from those eggs. They’re unfertilized and will never develop because there is no embryo.)

Food is the traditional ground on which the divisions between rich and poor are drawn. Humans are a naturally greedy species, so you need to account for this and where your MC fits into this picture. Food availability and quality can change everything from general population health to culture and how people interact with one another, but also how families interact with each other. If food or other resources are at any time scarce, then whichever child has been designated heir will get preferential treatment because that’s the child that needs to survive to adulthood to carry on the family legacy. If your chosen MC is from a wealthier background where food, clothing, and shelter were never a concern, then where do they fit in? Are they the heir? Guess what. No adventures across the world for them. Your best bet will be an extra child who isn’t in line for anything and is mostly just expected to not cause problems. Determined to have an heir be the MC? Go read up on your history. Research, research, research. That’s going to come with some very unique challenges that will change how your MC interacts with the world around them and how the people in that world interact with them.

Clothing is a thing that divides us, mostly because it is an outward marker of wealth but also because clothing can restrict us. Clothing requires people to make said clothing, and your world will be restricted by materials. Textiles require looms and huge amounts of resources. Leather requires critters and tanning is a whole other can of worms. It’s smelly and can be done different ways. Leatherworking is also very, very different from sewing in any form. You’ll need to think of cobblers and what resources they’ll have. There’s a saying in the vintage community that your shoes will make or break your outfit and that’s true. Shoes have been a revolutionary thing in history. Not only do they protect our feet but we can use them for other things. Heels originally evolved on men’s cavalry shoes, where the heel was used to sort of latch onto the stirrup, allowing the rider more security when trying to stay in the saddle.

Utility matters, but humans will decorate themselves too. Accessorizing isn’t a new thing and it’s taken many forms across the ages and cultures. Hair is a surprisingly complex matter too. Curly hair has very different needs and behaviors than straight hair and colour can dictate what you can and can’t do to your hair (some ingredients will stain/discolour lighter hair). Bleaching is not a new phenomena. Dyes in general are not a new phenomena. Think carefully about beauty standards. No one is immune to them and they can and do change whole societies.

Other things that can change a society are work animals. Like dogs. No, I’m not talking about your cute pet. Go take a good, hard look at the history of dogs. One, as a species they are a hell of a lot older than you probably think they are. Second, precious few of them evolved with the intent to be companions. Most were created for a job and that job was often killing things. Some breeds are also significantly younger than others. The Labrador Retriever, the ultimate utility dog (seriously, it can be trained to do just about anything and it’s perfectly happy being a companion. There’s a reason it’s been the most popular dog in America for as long as it has been), was created only about 150-200 years ago and was meant to be a more manageable form of the Newfoundland. Given the thousands of years that dogs have existed, that’s brand new.

For me, personally, the absence of dogs will destroy any attempt at worldbuilding faster than anything else. Y’all trying to tell me you’ve got wolves, foxes, and other canines but you don’t have dogs? Not how that works. Canines have a notoriously slippery genome, which is how you get everything from wolves and foxes to Chihuahuas and Great Danes. Humans have had dogs for thousands and thousands of years. Their very existence has altered everything from how our ancestors hunted to our fashions (see: how the poodle went from respected retriever to a fashion icon). Take a look at a region similar to your world and look at the dogs found in that region. What purpose have they traditionally served? Were they hunters? What kind? Were they a pack animal? Livestock guardian? Shepherd? Mouser? Because oh, yes, dogs are mousers and rat catchers. They don’t call it a Rat Terrier for nothing.

Terriers in general have been created solely for the purpose of hunting small game and pest control. Cats, in comparison, are only semi-domesticated. Your “ancient” cat breeds? They’re what’s called a landrace in dogs. Humans have only recently started messing with cat breeding. A pet cat will not be a mouser unless they want to be, and chances are they’re going to go for easier prey. A cat’s purpose is solely to be cute. That’s it. That’s all it’s ever been and all it will ever be. Don’t believe me? The first known dog of what we now call the Rat Terrier was a set of remains found on a shipwreck, where it was being used to control pests.

Hounds also change things. Beagles were largely used for hunting hares, though they’ve been used for other small critters. Foxes? My dear, that’s the aptly named Foxhound, a similar looking dog that is quite a bit larger than the Beagle. Foxes are a mid-sized predator, like the coyote. They’re not super small and they are vicious little bastards. Dogs are older than you probably think but trust me when I say the dogs you think of as being the oldest breeds probably aren’t.

Two of the oldest dog breeds in the world are what we today know as the Afghan Hound and the Saluki. The Basenji is also extremely old. Notice a trend there? Some of the oldest depictions of dogs in human art show something that looks like what we today call the sighthounds, the most famous member of which would likely be the Greyhound. The hardy northern dogs (Huskies, Malamutes, etc…) still have that wolfish appearance, yes, but they’re nowhere near as old as things like the Carolina dog and other wild dog-adjacent breeds. Because yes, wild dogs exist. You do know what a dingo is, don’t you? A hyena? The vast majority of modern dogs came from these wild dogs and the wild dog endemic to a given region is going to determine what kind of modern dog you’ve got.

(In other news, the Mabari of Dragon Age gets a hard side eye from me, because it’s modelled on a relatively new modern dog and we’re given no evidence of the many breeds that went into creating that dog. Not to mention, as dog crazy as Ferelden is supposed to be, there’s a surprising lack of canines around. It doesn’t fully destroy the worldbuilding for me; the presence of the Mabari kind of saves it. Mind you, the worldbuilding actually crashes, for me, in the human noblewoman origin of Origins. What it doesn’t recover from, however, is what we’re getting to in this next bit.)

Horses are another major point in societal evolution. Cars? Guess what, they’re not only a hell of a lot older than you think, but they became as popular as they are as fast as they did (in the US, at least) in response to how difficult keeping horses and other large cart-pulling creatures in an urban environment was proving to be.

Horses in history look a wee bit different from what you’re thinking. Those pretty little runners who are so popular these days weren’t super popular in history. Their legs are too weak. I’m serious. If you’re writing something that features people in armor, they’re riding what we now call a draft horse. With the exception of one draft that was bred for farm work from retired war horses, draft horses are traditionally war horses because they’re the only horse with legs that wouldn’t break under the weight of a knight in full armor. They’re also relatively mild-mannered and often easier to train than their smaller cousins. But they’re not the kind of horse you’d want for a long-distance journey. Assuming the horse isn’t pulling anything and you want endurance over speed and strength, then you’re looking at a cutter horse. Just like dogs, different horses have different purposes. Do your research and please for the love of all that is good, do not overlook horses and other modes of transportation.

I mentioned Dragon Age above, and they’re probably going to be the series I talk about the most in this next bit because they not only excel as one of the few fantasy series to address technology in any way, but because they also utterly fail at building infrastructure. It is a video game and it has been restricted by that medium and it has made attempts to address some of the weaknesses I’ll be discussing, so I do trust the writers behind it to have thought of most of this. Witcher 3 had the budget and the engine to account for horses and ships and conveniently was based on a series of books that prominently featured portals in addition to both of these. The Witcher books are also something DA owes a lot to, so expect the odd reference to it (the books. I’ll rarely mention the games).

One of the things both series do well is establish that technology and magic can exist at the same time. Fantasy and sci-fi are not the same genre and do not deserve to be lumped together as they often are. Genres do blend, and these two do have a tendency to blend more than others because they are quite complementary to each other. But y’all have a tendency to not think it through. Fancy sci-fi tech is nice, yeah, but remember how much agriculture can change a society? Industry and tech are the two that follow on that list of variables. Agriculture has in fact been the single largest source of industry and tech in human history.

Remember textiles? Most of the plants used for that are labor intensive not only to grow and harvest but also to process into something weavers can use, assuming you have a climate that can produce them or have friendly trade going on with someone who does. If I’m not mistaken, the only thing more resource heavy than cotton is silk. Spidersilk is nice, yeah, but spiders don’t actually produce a lot of usable silk. There’s some great research on that and how to make it usable, but we’re not there yet. And holy crap don’t get me started on bamboo and linen. Do you realize how difficult flax can be to produce and how radically different the process for turning it into linen is from cotton? There are reasons why today, cotton is king.

Handwaving and going *~magic~* will only get you so far. And unless everyone can do that magic, you’re going to have some kind of innovation going on for those who can’t. Even then, magic in stories only really works if there’s a price to that magic, so you’re still going to have innovation. Don’t think so? Okay, let’s talk about food again.

One of the things I absolutely loved about DA:I was something found in Orlais that is a logical progression of something the series has established from the start. To recap this, there is a race in Dragon Age that most fantasy fans will recognize. Dwarves, specifically those that live underground, famous for their beards and tempers, and renowned as the best miners and smiths in the world. It’s this last point that I want to draw attention to, because the existence of dwarves is a super popular fantasy trope and DA is the only one to have done it right so far. Within DA the dwarves have Paragons; dwarves who have made such significant innovations to dwarven society that they are regarded as effectively being living gods. One of them is Branka, who got the distinction for the invention of smokeless coal.

Let that sink in. Smokeless coal. Do you realize how beneficial that would be? You’re talking about a people who still need to breathe, who can succumb to black lung as easily as any other air-breathing being. And the technological innovations of DA’s dwarves doesn’t end there. There’s something that sounds suspiciously like a thresher among the surface dwarves, which in the real world was one of the most significant agricultural innovations in the world. And it has been a while, but I seem to recall Bianca Davri’s machine being described as something akin to a Whitney gin. Not to mention the existence of the crossbow Bianca.

So imagine a fantasy world with magic and dragons and all sorts of amazing things. And you go into the kitchen of an upper class home and there’s an oven. It’s a little thing, but it firmly establishes the coexistence of technology and magic. And it’s believable, because there is this group of people who are widely considered the best smiths in the world, and by extension we are given the means to believe they are also considered the best inventors. And oven makes perfect sense in this context. So do threshers and gins and every other bit of agricultural tech that would 1000% be beneficial to a group of people who canonically are no taller than maybe 4’ and still need to eat.

Cooking over a campfire is restrictive. You’ll mostly be cooking over/under the embers of a dying fire or a good distance away from a healthy fire. You will likely never be putting anything directly on the flame unless you like eating ash. You’ll have next to no temperature control. Which severely limits what you can do. Goodbye, baking, you don’t exist in this world. Except for some quick breads. Some soda breads were traditionally made by being buried in the cooling embers. But fancy cakes and breads are out.

The oven changed the world. It allowed for cooks to be as creative as they wanted and as a result we have a whole host of sweets and baked goods. Modern ranges allow for temperature control and spawned huge industries manufacturing tools to use with them. Pans and whatnot largely evolved after the oven, which is itself a bit older than you’d think. DA:I was just a big deal because it was a thoroughly modern range in a thoroughly old world. Do look at the history of the kitchen, because it doesn’t really mean anything for your characters to have access to certain ingredients if they don’t have the tools to make anything with them. And I trust most of you have heard at least some of the noise made about the links between nutrition and health.

Which brings us around to the thing that completely destroys DA’s worldbuilding: infrastructure. Specifically how people and things move. Few, if any societies are capable of being fully self-sustaining. Even if they are, people always want more and no society will be able to produce everything they want. Enter trade. The odds that you can create a grand epic and not include any other group than the culture you’ve started with is slim to none. Look at any large landmass. You’ll always have variations in people and beliefs because isolation breeds uniqueness. This is where trade comes in and fills in the gaps, bridging the distances between different groups. But how does the trade happen? I’m assuming you’ve thought of horses and ships, and any other mode of transportation that might exist in your world. That’s all well and good, but how long does it take for those things to happen? Looking at you, DA, with your assertion that DA:I took place in about two-three years. They have horses. That’s nice. They also have an official map with an official key to understanding distances. You can probably see where I’m going with this.

Travel times can alter everything. Not only how long your story can take to complete, assuming there is some kind of long physical journey involved, but also trade. How long does it take for goods to move from one place to another? How risky is the journey? How does that change the value of the goods and thus the availability? Your readers may never need to know the details but odds are you will because the weirdest shit will turn out to be necessary for your storytelling. Travel and isolation impact everything from food to medicine, which in turn can limit almost every aspect of life in a region.

Which brings me to a surprisingly oft-overlooked aspect of worldbuilding: continuity. Did a character have a certain job in one part and then are doing something completely different in another with zero explanation (my copies of Harry Potter state that James Potter was a Chaser for Gryffindor, until the later books when suddenly he was a Seeker. Little me was very confused). Consistent internal rules are an important thing. Not only does this apply to things like physics and seasons (do you have seasons? Do you have variations in day and night? Oh boy I can go on about that one and ATLA), but it applies to things like the stuff society needs to keep working. Do yourself a favor and write out a timeline and stick to it. If you have any changes, change it and review everything you have written to bring everything in line with that change. Someone will always notice a mistake and those mistakes can break the illusion that holds a reader in a story. Continuity is everything. If it’ll help, and it probably will, keep a notebook or something that’s exclusively for the notes about any complicated storylines you’ve got. Be it how characters are related to each other or how religion works, even notes about food and clothing (which is important. Everything from the textiles used to the styling can say so much about the manufacturing of the world and about a specific character’s socioeconomic status).

Long story short: research everything and keep copious notes and reference those notes when writing. Please reference your research. I’m not talking about citations in text. Just don’t completely wing it when writing. A story that has been well-plotted and actually thought out with care is going to stand head and shoulders above something written by someone just making it up and not bothering to check to make sure it actually works. You’re welcome to make it up as you go, but please make sure it works and stays cohesive. A story falling apart at the seams is going to distract readers from whatever it is you’re wanting them to pay attention to. Read your own work. Repeatedly. As someone else to read it to make sure it works if you can’t decide.

Above all, just write it. Most of this is just little things that can be fixed in editing. Unless there is a solid story at the heart of it, you’ve got nothing but a bunch of words. Worldbuilding makes no sense without a story to tie it all together. Worldbuilding can be added in after the first draft, and after you know your characters a bit better.

(Think none of this applies to fanfic? Oh boy, you’re wrong. You’re dead wrong. Fanfic is actually harder because you have to do all of this while colouring inside the lines someone else drew.)

#writing #so this is how i write #worldbuilding #hermiowngranger #sara this thing is for you

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greenlightmusicreviews2 · 4 years

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Menomena - Friend and Foe (2007) | Album Review • 9/10

Now Playing: Friend and Foe, the 2007 release from indie alternative rock band Menomena.

We were trying to grow as musicians and recording artists. so we were trying to challenge ourselves. We also found ourselves with much more on our minds, on our hearts, and our shoulders. I think there was a lot more for us to say.

- Brent Knopf, Popmatters, 2007

These three gentlemen originate from Portland, Oregon, a city that actually has a good reputation for producing quality bands. Menomena (pronounced like: phenomena) cut their teeth on long and arduous treks through the country in a blasted RV nicknamed RV Danger before quickly becoming Pitchfork’s favorite band. Friend and Foe, being their third album, is a pretty cohesive culmination of the sounds, experiments and production techniques that they honed on their first and second records, I Am The Fun Blame Monster and Under An Hour, respectively. It would be this record from 2007 that would net them a Grammy nomination - albeit for “Best Recording Package” - but still, the record was also deemed “the first great indie rock record of the new year.”

That Grammy nod for “Best Recording Package” is no joke, by the way. Just to focus in on the artwork for a bit, it really is one of the more unique pieces of album art you might come across. The band itself remarks how you could mistake them for a psychedelic drug-fueled band - which they aren’t, according to singer/guitarist Brent Knopf. It was, after all, what initially drew me to the record. The artwork, done by Craig Thompson of Blankets fame (and, admittedly, some of my generation may [keyword: may] have seen his art in old copies of Nickelodeon Magazine), is cartoonish in a very devilish way, with absolute cacophony, visual chaos and MC Escher-type imagery surrounding the center character who has a halo hanging over its head. Not to mention that the CD itself, depending on how you rotate it in the jewel case, can alter the artwork as well.

The decision to self-produce the record results in a very unique and varied sound throughout from beginning to end. Amidst the very emotive and provocative drum playing, the point-to-prove and seriously melodic groove of the bass guitar and the gorgeous sometimes melancholic, sometimes mysterious piano textures on songs like “Muscle’n Flo,” “Wet And Rusting” and “The Pelican” - which has some of the most explosive drumming on the whole record (more on that later) - there is a lot of instrumentation packed into each song, but never so much that it becomes cluttered or that it ever feels like the instruments are competing for your attention. A song like “Air Aid” is where you really hear the band excel at creating these film-esque songs that are foreboding and almost paranoid in the way that you hear the piano that stalks behind the scenes in full chords and notes ascending and descending, the bass that drives the melody underscored with deep saxophones, the blips of Morse code, and the haunting the vocal delivery.

All of the aforementioned characteristics would not have been possible had the production been a shitjob. But on their third record, the boys in Menomena prove undoubtedly that they have a superb ear for tasteful, open and dynamic production. It’s not as experimental than their first record, but that never seems to be the point of Friend and Foe, where rather the record’s theme as a whole seems to take center stage, and actually flows much better. The songs are more straight-forward than on previous records but the quality of music and the compositional design of each song become the focus and it definitely shows.

Amazingly, despite the abundance of instrumentation, the hooks never really get lost. There are a lot of catchy hooks to be found. I found myself getting songs like “Boyscout’n,” “Rotten Hell” and “Wet and Rusting” stuck in my head because they feature these beautiful piano leads and riffs that are genuine earworms.

And seriously, drummer Danny Seim deserves recognition for his playing. It really provides the emotional backbone for a lot of the songs on this record, especially on songs like “The Pelican” where you just hear the tension building up in the music that releases suddenly with the crash of his kit, or on “Running” where it’s this galloping jolt of nervous energy with imagery that evokes something from a Steinbeck novel.

Lastly, the entire record has this unrelenting and punishingly persistent hope in the face of setback after setback - in terms of themes, that is. Getting back up after your fortieth stumble, and going back at it.

The hope can be painful, I'll try to be faithful (It's hard to take risks, with a pessimist)

“Wet and Rusting”

Wading through this mess together Hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder Some may stumble, some may fall behind

“Rotten Hell”

Come lay down your head upon my chest Feel my heart beat, feel my unrest If Jesus could only wash my feet Then I'd get up strong, and muscle on

“Muscle’n Flo”

I'm going to make it We're both going to make it Before the cows come home

“Running”

The record’s narrative low-point comes in at the one-two punch of “Running” and “My My” before returning with the strong and - again, persistently hopeful - true-to-its-name whistling “Boyscout’n” and ends with “West,” curiously reflective (”...I would never have gone...”) and strangely haunting and ambiguous, with - in true Menomena fashion - the fake-out ending that reprises it’s echo-ladened piano riffs before drawing the curtains.

Their best record up to this point, and one where the strange machinations that they laid out on the first record (an interesting and promising debut) and the second record (an experimental soundtrack to a dance troupe performance) all come together for a cohesive, well-produced and well-written rock album. There’s a bit that reminds me of other indie/alt. rock acts like Wilco in some of the album’s more artsy or aesthetic moments or Sufjan Stevens in their more fragile moments, but Friend and Foe is the band at their best.

Friend and Foe: 9/10

Favorite songs: “Boyscout’n" • "Rotten Hell" • "Muscle’n Flo" • "Wet and Rusting”

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