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lacrimosathedark · 4 years

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Hamilton Inaccuracies/Corrections (because why not?)

Okay so, I saw a post on reddit that was like, “what’s some inaccuracies in Hamilton off the top of your head?” and I got a whole bunch...and then I had to double check to make sure if I was right...and I’m pretty long-winded...and now I have this 5,000ish word monstrosity. And apparently you can only post 1000 characters at a time on reddit. Laaaaame. So here’s some Hamilton facts I’ve gathered in my brain. Since it was kinda off the top of my head despite being so long, it’s kinda vague in some places, so if anyone wants to expand on anything (or correct me if I oopsed somewhere) please do! Though nicely please.

Also I am also awful at citing things, but I know I learned some of this from @john-laurens and @ciceroprofacto so thank you.

LET’S BEGIN!

Act 1

Rachel Faucette was not a prostitute, but she was a “whore” in the sense that she did what she fucking wanted with her body. During her first marriage she may or may not have been sleeping around, but she refused to stay with John Lavien, her husband, anymore. So he had her arrested. And he could do that. Because patriarchy and theocracy. And she was essentially put in solitary confinement. You can see why she tried to leave, right? She tried to get their marriage annulled or get a divorce. I forget what the issue was but she couldn’t and eventually she just moved to another island where she met James Hamilton.

The intro song makes it seem like Alexander was an only child. He actually had an older brother, James Jr., but he kinda fucked off after their mother died, working and taking care of himself. They also had an older half-brother Peter Lavien, but I don’t think they really knew him other than as the son of their mother’s abusive ex who took everything from them when she died. John Lavien was able to do that because when Rachel was with James Hamilton, she had not been able to get legally divorced from him so she wasn’t really married to James Hamilton, so James Jr. and Alexander were illegitimate ie bastards. He was an asshole. I don't think Peter had anything against the Hamiltons, but I think he grew up to be a Loyalist so. He actually made some trouble in South Carolina for Henry Laurens, John's dad! But I think I read somewhere he also left money for Alex and James Jr. In his will, which is sweet.

This is more visual since it’s not specified in the song, but in the show, Hamilton’s cousin mimes hanging himself. Peter Lytton’s cause of death if I recall was inconclusive, but he was in his bed and there was a lot of blood. So, yeah, he didn’t hang himself.

Alexander did not punch the bursar. However he did return to Princeton later during the war and blew a canon through the school and apparently decapitated a painting of King George lololol. He was under orders, but yknow. Probably felt pretty good after he was rejected for accelerated courses. He wasn’t the only bastard rejected, though! Ben Franklin’s bastard son was too. The guy in charge of admissions, Witherspoon, hated bastards as a concept and Princeton was a very religious school at the time I believe.

It may have been the plan by Aaron and Esther Burr for Aaron Jr to graduate Princeton, but like, he couldn’t really be sure of that? He was like 2 years old when they died, and his older sister Sally was 4 I believe, maybe 5.

Hercules Mulligan met Alex in 1772. His older brother Hugh knew Alex’s old employer in St. Croix and helped him get to mainland America. Alex and Hercules lived together for a long while, and Hercules is actually who got him interested in the revolution.

John Laurens was in England in 1776. He wouldn’t meet Hamilton and Lafayette until he accepted his post as Washington’s aide-de-camp upon his return in August of 1777.

Lafayette couldn’t have met Hamilton before August 1777 because that’s when he met Washington, and he was appointed as a volunteer to the Continental Army only a week prior, and before that he had been in France. But Lafayette later declared their relationship to be like that of brothers, Alexander his closest connection in the states besides Washington.

Lafayette admired and absolutely adored Laurens and they were besties, but neither of them knew Mulligan. They may have met in passing, or heard about him from Hamilton, but nothing more.

“Lafayette” was actually a nickname based on his title of “Marquis de la Fayette”. In his autobiography, he wrote: “It’s not my fault I was baptized like a Spaniard, with the name of every conceivable saint who might offer me more protection in battle.” I’m glad he thought it was funny at least. His name is Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de la Fayette.

Hercules Mulligan is not known to fuck horses.

The Revolution had already sorta started. Actually, Hercules and Alexander had been part of local militias before 1776.

This is more of a miscommunication since the actors are close in age, though the lyrics try to get it across. There’s a reason Mulligan says he’s got the others “in loco parentis”. In 1776 Hamilton and Lafayette would have been 19, Laurens would have been 22, and Mulligan would have been 36.

I think we all know “Laurens, I like you a lot” does not cover the scope of their relationship but that’s rather self explanatory so unless someone asks I’ll leave it at that. And for other clarifications. But at the very least I’ll share this: Anyone who saw them knew they were like attached at the hip (without knowing how attached *winkwonk*) and you could almost always contact one through the other. Laurens was notoriously bad at answering letters, to Hamilton too (and Alex did bitch about it because he is insecure and needs love), but it became quickly known he got back to Hamilton fastest so people would be like “Tell Laurens I said hi!” or “Hey, I need to get these to Laurens, you send them to him.” Which is hilarious. I just imagine Alexander going, “Why me?”

While all of them are Revolutionaries, Laurens is the only one you could solidly call an abolitionist, and Mulligan’s even shaky on the manumission part. He was supposedly part of the Manumission Society Hamilton helped start, but Mulligan also personally owned slaves and was never known to have freed them (One helped him with spy shit. His name was Cato!). In fairness, Hamilton and Lafayette wholeheartedly agreed with Laurens, and Hamilton was the biggest supporter of his battalion plan, and both of them did try to continue working towards equality after the war, but it was never the top priority for either of them and their lives kinda went to hell, so it fell to the wayside. Lafayette actually did some nifty stuff worth looking at, and Hamilton might have tried to keep one of John Lauren’s freed men from Henry Laurens! But as slavery stuck around for a while, it clearly wasn’t anything significant.

Angelica would meet and befriend Thomas Jefferson in Europe, but she would never manage to convince him to put women in a sequel because he’s a huge misogynist and told her in multiple letters that politics isn’t for women and I think he deserves a shoe up his southern backside. Side note, it always bothered me that Lin played up the misogyny in the musical. I mean, yeah, all of them would be misogynists compared to us, but for their time, Hamilton wasn’t so bad. If there was anyone to play up misogyny with, it was Jefferson, because he would tell Angelica for years and years that politics could never make women happy, and that the women in France were foolish for trying etc.. Hamilton would actually discuss politics with Angelica frequently and openly. And there’s a proto-feminist in the cast that was never recognized—Aaron Burr! He respected Theodosia Sr. as an equal and she was his most valuable political ally, and he made sure Theodosia Jr. got the same education any boy of her time would have. He actually respected women to a decent degree. Not to say he wasn't as much of a ho as Hamilton cuz yeah that's accurate (but they were both disaster bisexuals more on Burr's sexuality later)

Farmer Refuted was an essay Hamilton wrote arguing against Samuel Seabury's posts. They weren't shouting in the public square(but Lin got the sass right. I love his face when Hamilton and Seabury are fighting over the podium). Seabury was also really really old, not young and cute like Thayne, hence the line about "mange". Blech.

General Montgomery didn’t take a bullet in the neck, it was a grapeshot from a canon in his head (and his thighs), but close enough I guess. Side note: Burr actually served a short interim on Washington’s staff, but only for like 10 days because they hated each other lolol.

Alexander didn’t bring Laurens, Mulligan, or Lafayette to Washington. Lafayette joined up with the Continental Army in 1777 and quickly convinced them he wasn’t like the other French nobles; he was a glory-seeking kid with a boner for America (for some reason???). Laurens was requested by Washington to join his military family and he arrived also in August 1777 just after Lafayette. Like previously stated, Mulligan was doing shit even before Hamilton did.

Alexander would not have been in charge of spy shit (though may have been somewhat involved). Washington had people like Mulligan for that, who actually saved Washington a few times. But also, the "King’s men who might let some things slide" was the tactic Mulligan used. He was actually very charming, and his wife was very high in British society and he was a skilled tailor, so they were thought of well among the redcoats, and he got a lot of information through chatting with his customers. He also could usually smooth-talk his way out of trouble. Actually, Mulligan blended in so well, when the war was over, people in the city wanted him out cuz they thought he was a Loyalist. So George fucking Washington paid him a visit and commissioned I think a coat from him, and that cleared that up. He got a LOT of business after that.

Alexander would not be Washington’s right hand man, or at least, not his only one if Lin was using that to mean aide-de-camp. In that case, Laurens would also be Washington’s right hand man, along with many men not named in the musical.

John Laurens may have been reliable with the ladies (comes with the territory of being hot, rich, and a perfect gentleman), but he most certainly didn’t want to be. His father noted, rather proudly at the time, that as a young teenager he expressed no interest in girls. John was also married by 1780, and at least Alexander knew. (he told John he'd found out in the well-known April 1779 letter. You know... “Cold in my professions...find me a wife...the length of my nose...” That one.) Because John apparently didn't tell people he was married. Laurens. Sweetheart. Get. Your. Shit. Together.

John also would not be at this ball. February 1779 to March 1780 he is fighting down south, and this ball was early 1780.

The tomcat thing may be half true. Martha Washington did supposedly name a cat Hamilton, but it was an affectionate thing. The slang tomcat meaning ho wasn’t a thing at that time, so it couldn’t be named to tease Alex for his promiscuity. I believe this was one of the many things John Adams made up to slander Hamilton.

Hamilton and Eliza had met before 1780. They had met once two years prior at a dinner her father had hosted. Also, Hamilton had been courting her friend Kitty Livingston, and his friend and fellow aide Tench Tilghman had been attempting to court Eliza, and they’d actually done at least one sort-of double date (which is adorable). So this shouldn’t have been the first time they’d seen each other. Could still be when they fell in love, though, since they started courting after this. Which is cute to think about.

Speaking of Tench and Eliza! I don't remember when this took place but Tilghman journaled it, he went out on something of a hike with a few ladies and they got to a cliff. Of course, he had to help the girls climb up. Except Eliza who started climbing by herself like a natural to the bewilderment and likely horror of the other ladies. Elizabeth Schuyler was a bamf okay?

Of course everyone knows by now, Angelica was married before Eliza. During the Winter’s Ball, she’d already eloped with Jack Carter aka John Barker Church and run away to Boston.

Their courtship was not that fast. Not like, weeks. More like months. Fun fact, Eliza is the only of the five (yes FIVE) Schuyler sisters who didn’t elope and actually got her parents permission! But here’s a heartbreaking fun fact: while Alex was courting Eliza, Laurens was taken prisoner and then on probation. He wasn’t allowed to leave the state of Pennsylvania. He was mentally in a very dark place. Alex kind of procrastinated telling Laurens about Eliza, didn’t say he was courting anyone until they were already engaged.

I can't leave this alone if I'm sad you have to be too. Alex was hella depressed during this time too. Of course he was a soldier so he couldn't see Eliza as much as he'd have liked. On top of that, he kept pushing for an exchange for John and kept getting rejected because they couldn't show preference for him. And then Laurens was sending him very few letters, of course, and the ones he did send were very depressed, even suicidal sounding. He had to work while dealing with that. He had to keep begging Eliza to write to him to be reassured that she still liked him.

No one could show up for Hamilton for the wedding. Some sources say fellow aide James McHenry showed up, but he’s the only one. Alexander even invited his deadbeat dad, offered to pay all his travel expenses and everything, guess how that turned out. So Eliza’s side of the hall was packed and his was empty. God, can you imagine how sad that is?

Another heartbreaking fun fact! John Laurens was out of probation and could have made it to the wedding, was invited (Hamilton, I kid you not, jokingly invited him to a threesome with his new wife in a letter: “I wish you were at liberty to transgress the bounds of Pensylvania. I would invite you after the fall to Albany to be witness to the final consummation.” (emphasis is original to Hamilton. As is the misspelling of Pennsylvania. Yes, seriously.)) and John did not go. Instead he went back to work trying to talk his way out of getting sent as an envoy to France and suggesting Alexander to take his place. You know. His boyfriend who just got married. Sure, he was right that Hamilton was better equipped for the job, but yknow. Another fun fact, one of the guys who voted for John to be the one to go to France was John’s ex-boyfriend Francis Kinloch. Who was a turncoat, and had been a royalist when he and Laurens split. How’s that for some twisty bullshit.

Sorry, this one isn’t about the musical, it’s a tangent, I just got excited about that quote. Both that style of innuendo and the misspelling of Pennsylvania are consistent in Hamilton’s writing. Listening to john-lauren’s podcast about the April 1779 letter can really help you understand how Hammy uses innuendo but also I just love listening to it it’s insightful and hilarious and I love John Laurens but y u do this and my heart hurts for Hamilton but he is also a ho but aNYWAY. As for Pensylvania...well, he kinda made that mistake on an important document. ...It’s The Constitution. He misspelled Pennsylvania on The Constitution. No big deal. Not like something that could haunt his legacy forever. Oh my god I’m so sorry.

Philip Schuyler did have sons. Five in fact. Two of them died pretty young though I think, considering there are three kids in a row named John Bradstreet Schuyler. The other two were named Philip Jeremiah and Rensselaer.

Laurens, Lafayette, and Mulligan were all married before Hamilton. Hercules Mulligan married Elizabeth Sanders in 1773. Lafayette married his beloved Adrienne in 1774. John Laurens was regretfully obliged to marry Martha Manning in 1776.

Sigh. Again with the misogyny. Anyway, I wanted to comment on the marriage as a loss of freedom. From what I can tell, Elizabeth helped Hercules with his spy work at home. John was literally fighting a war across the ocean from his wife, and probably having an illegal affair with Alexander (though to be fair to him, he was kind of running away from Martha because he didn't marry her for love, gosh, there are no winners here). Lafayette absolutely adored his wife but still was also fighting a war an ocean away, and had multiple affairs, at least one with his wife’s blessing. So yeah, losing your freedom with marriage? Bullshit.

Despite where it is in the musical and Eliza singing the beginning, Stay Alive is roughly about Valley Forge, which would be December of 1777 through June of 78. So before the ball and wedding. (Fun fact! A lot of people theorize Valley Forge as when Hamilton and Laurens’ relationship may have escalated into romantic and/or sexual territory. They may have had more privacy, as small temporary buildings were being made to better withstand the cold, and Hamilton was sick a lot during that time and did need tending a lot. West Indian boi did not like Northern winter.) But yeah, Congress being stupid and the army resorting to eating their horses sometimes and not being able to buy food and equipment? All true. It was a real bad winter.

Mulligan wouldn’t have to go back to New York, he never would have left. He remained there as a tailor and a spy throughout the war. He wouldn’t have been traveling with Washington.

Hamilton and Laurens didn't write essays so much as start working out John's battalion plan and writing letters trying to push for it.

This duel happened in 1778, so like. This timeline is so fucky.

Stay Alive makes it seem like Hamilton was the one who wanted to duel Lee, but it was 100% Laurens from the start. The off-Broadway version demonstrates it a bit better. Hamilton was Lauren's second to save his ass. Hamilton had a rough relationship with Washington, but Laurens admired him greatly and would have willingly defended his commander’s honor. John was a Good Boy who always bowed his head to his asshole father, even at first for his battalion plan, but John wouldn’t let even his father talk shit about Washington. Fun fact about this duel, Alex and John were late to the duel because they “got lost in the woods”. Oooookay. Suuuuuuure. And Baron von Steuben was straight. (Fact: Steuben was very gay and pretty much pushed out of Europe for it. And he actually also had challenged Lee! They talked things out before this.)

Aaron Burr was not Charles Lee’s second. His second was a Major Evan Edwards. Lin wanted a parallel with the final duel. To be fair, that was a really cool way to do it and I like it better that way.

Alexander Hamilton could NOT agree that duels are dumb and immature. He was in 10 duel challenges as a participant in his lifetime, 9 of which he was the challenger. One time he challenged two people at once. One time he challenged an entire politcal party apparently. No, I am not kidding. He had a bad day. And I think you know the one time he wasn’t the challenger.

Lee did not yield on the first shot, nor was Laurens satisfied. Lee was pretty much like, “It’s just a flesh wound!” and wanted to go another round and Laurens agreed, but Hamilton and Edwards managed to talk them down. Yes he was shot in the side. But that wasn’t all because Laurens absolutely roasted Lee at his court martial.

Lee: Were you ever in an action before?

Laurens: I have been in several actions; I did not call that an action, as there was no action previous to the retreat.

I love this man. So much. The sass of this man.

We don’t know if Washington was angry about the duel with Lee. We do know that Laurens, and probably Hamilton, had Christmas dinner with him two days later. When Hamilton left, it was because Washington had snapped over a misunderstanding (caused by Lafayette actually, and he really tried to make it better because Lafayette is a sweetheart), and then continued to deny Hamilton the command he requested, and he resigned. It was entirely unrelated to the duel and Laurens. However, the daddy issues are real.

I don’t know if Lafayette went to France for more funds and came back with more guns, but Laurens certainly did! Ben Franklin told him to chill, but he actually got super impatient and ended up supposedly disrespecting and maybe kinda threatening the court, demanding what he needed, and walking out. They were were kind of shocked and impressed into giving more than had been requested. Any existing deities bless John Laurens. I love him.

Lafayette actually nominated his own aide to lead the charge and Hamilton appealed for himself and Washington finally gave in to Hamilton.

Laurens was not in South Carolina. When he finally got back from France, he was sent to Yorktown. He actually was commanding the group Alexander led. (Power couple lol) He also helped with negotiations after the battle. Also, supposedly making the British play ‘The World Turned Upside Down’ on their way out was Laurens’ idea because boy is made of sass and spite.

Henry Laurens would not have sent a letter to Hamilton about John’s death. Even if he would have, he couldn’t. At that time, he’d been locked up in the Tower of London as a prisoner. We have no idea when or how Alexander found out, or who might have told him. We know he wrote to Nathanael Greene on October 25 and Lafayette on November 3 (literally 2 months after Laurens' death), and the mentions of Laurens were very short. It’s thought that he really couldn’t talk about Laurens. People have compared it to the stories of how Benjamin Tallmadge apparently couldn’t hear Nathan Hale’s name without crying.

After Yorktown Alexander resigned and John went down south to flush British troops out of the southern states. His group was ambushed at Combahee River and he decided to charge instead of wait for backup and he died. Many people think it was a combination of his usual recklessness, suicidality, and glory-seeking mixed with a desperation with the war coming to an end. It was such a small skirmish. He deserved better. He left his daughter, Frances, whom he had never met, orphaned, as her mother had died months earlier from sickness. She was adopted by John’s oldest younger sister, also coincidentally Martha Laurens (though married was Martha Laurens Ramsay).

The Levi Weeks case was years later than that, in 1800, though it was alongside Burr. Hamilton actually lost his first trial as a defense lawyer and was not with Burr.

The whole conversation where Hamilton proposes Burr help him write the Federalist Papers is fake. Lin made that up entirely.

John Church’s wealth kinda...varies. He was a gambler. At first, he was actually in quite a bit of debt. He did make it big eventually and he and Angelica moved to Europe. He really didn’t seem to be a lot of fun to most people, but Angelica eloped with him. She chose him against her father’s wishes. I don’t get why Lin kept writing lines saying she didn’t love him, at least at first. He also does this in the cut song Congratulations where she says “I languished in a loveless marriage” bish you eloped wat She also lived as a socialite and was adored by anyone who met her apparently, so like???? da fuq Lin. Didja really do Laurens dirty for these lies or at the very least uncertanties? Could you not prop up that romance without making her say she hates her husband?

Act 2

More of a personality miscommunication. Irl Thomas Jefferson was shy, quiet, and hypersensitive, nothing like how Daveed plays him. If you knew a guy like the real Jefferson in real life you might be endeared to him out of pity or because he seems sweet, but in the short time of a musical that would immediately be read as cold and unlikable. So the best way to portray “this guy is a likable asshole” is to make him loud and made of sass which is what Daveed does magnificently. So, not at all accurate to real Jefferson, but gets the concept of him across.

Thomas was not off getting high with the French. Probably. He was making negotiations for the Revolution. And abusing Sally Hemings (his, at the time, 14 year old slave, who was also his sister-in-law, and 30 years his junior, and was brought along to entertain his daughter). And actually probably chatting up with Angelica!

By the time Philip was 9, he had two sisters, Angelica (7) and his foster/adopted sister Frances Antill (6), but he also had two brothers already, Alexander Jr. (5) and James Alexander (3), with maybe another one on the way since William Stephen would be born next year.

The whole comma thing is backwards. It was Angelica who made the initial mistake. Hamilton pointedly and flirtatiously teased her about it before closing it with “Adieu ma chere, soeur” French for “Goodbye my dear, sister”. So it’s more playful and less lovey dovey in context, so the tone is all wrong. It’s not romantic, it’s teasing and snarky.

Say No To This feels like it’s over quick. The affair lasted a year, not just the summer Eliza was away.

Clermont Street wasn’t renamed until many years later.

I don’t know that Alex has always considered Burr a friend. Irl they weren’t as close, and Hamilton was keenly aware of how slimy Burr could be.

Lafayette was NOT fine. He was imprisoned a lot during the French Revolution, the poor man, and many members of his wife’s family were killed. HOWEVER! Hamilton was not just sitting by. Angelica and her husband did make an attempt to rescue Lafayette, and the Hamiltons fostered Lafayette’s son Georges Washington Lafayette (yes that was his actual name). So Hamilton also did not forget Lafayette.

Not all his defendants got acquitted, obviously. Stop being cocky, Ham.

People comment on how Jefferson whines about Hamilton’s fashion sense while literally dressed in violet velvet. The original plan was to have him in browns, but Daveed is just such a friggin star that they just had to give him something brighter and decided to go with a Prince-inspired look. Originally the browns were going to be representative of his supposed representation of farmers. Though note here: Jefferson’s agricultural representation is much the same as modern Republicans’ rural representation. More for show.

Actually, let's get political for a sec. I've done some research in my hyperfixation and in searches for Hamilton shiz I've ended up stumbling into far-right nonsense and I know how to recognize the degrees of nonsense from years of actually paying attention to it now because this is what I do apparently. Which is weird, right? Lin kinda portrays him like a lefty. Well, here's the thing. Any proud historically educated Republican will tell you that their roots are in the Federalist Party. Which is technically true. What they will neglect to mention is the flip between parties that happened when the Republicans decided to use southerners racism to their advantage in elections. Being subtly racist can get the racists and the non-racists on your side! Yeah, it's gross. Federalists are more like Democrats. The corporatists. They clearly care more about companies and Wall Street, but they put actual action into social progress on rare occasion. Democratic-Republicans are like Republicans, conservatives who don't want social change and rail against it and pretend they aren't for corporate interests while being just as bad as the other guys. But Republicans have a tendency to rewrite history to paint themselves as the good guys, or reclaim things that aren't theirs as their own. Just look at the Civil War! Or...literally just...America I guess. Yikes. But yeah, here's your warning. Don't just go looking at and trusting things labelled Federalist. It likely won't be friendly.

John Adams didn’t fire Hamilton, Hamilton left. Eventually. And this is not the only time this kind of verbal confrontation happens, and not the one that destroys the Federalist Party. That actually happens after the Reynolds Pamphlet. But John Adams hates Alexander Hamilton with the burning passion of a thousand suns and really kinda earns this.

I’m not sure if he specifically called Alex a Creole bastard but I wouldn’t be surprised, there were other similar racist and bastard-related insults. You know the tomcat thing mentioned above. He started the rumor of the affair with Angelica. He accused him of being a rake (male version of whore at the time). He also may have behind closed doors accused him of being a sodomite. His (probably gay) son Charles helped with that one, bringing back rumors from a dinner he had with Hamilton (who he was working for) and John Church because Church joked about Alex being fond of a guy. Adams probably thought working for Hamilton was what made his son gay and alcoholic (Charles was an alcoholic and may have died in part because of that; Hamilton was not an alcoholic, but he supposedly could not hold his drink. He was smol).

Jefferson, Madison, and Burr didn’t accuse Hamilton of speculation. It was James Monroe, Abraham Venable, and Frederick Muhlenberg. Lin wanted to keep consistent representation of the Democratic-Republican party. But anyway, the whole thing went to hell because Monroe sent the letters to Jefferson (or I’ve also heard Monroe gave them to Madison who sent them to Jefferson) who, the spiteful gangly fucker, started spreading rumors because fuck Hamilton, amirite? Hamilton challenged Monroe to a duel over that. And who stopped this duel? Aaron Burr. He gets to be the good guy now and then.

It wasn’t just total strangers that got Alex off the island. He was sponsored by his cousin Ann Lytton and his teacher Reverend Hugh Knox. Also, he was kind of expected to get an education and come back and help out the island...guess what he never did. Oops.

This one I may be wrong, but I’m pretty sure. I think Eliza was upstate with her family when the Reynolds Pamphlet was released, away from Alex. I also know she had recently given birth to their son, William Stephen. A lot of people think Alexander had been keeping that in mind. Eliza had had a miscarriage once before, when she was under a lot of stress and alone and with the kids and he had to be away (Whiskey Rebellion), so some people think he made sure she was surrounded by her family and waited until the child was born to drop this on her, and gave her distance from him if she needed it. At least he knew he fucked up, and he really did love her.

Those weren’t Alexander’s guns. They belonged to John Church.

It was quite some time between Philip’s challenge and the actual duel.

Another age miscommunication; Eacker was 27ish and Philip was 19 when the duel happened. There was a whole 8 years between them!

Eacker didn’t shoot early. Actually, both of them stood staring at each other for a really long time doing nothing. But Philip went to make a move and Eacker shot him.

Alex and Eliza had made up from the Reynolds Pamphlet bullshit before Philip died. When he passed, Eliza was already pregnant with the son they would also name Philip in honor of his older brother.

Hamilton wasn’t really the deciding factor in the election of 1800. But he did say that about Burr and it did help swing the vote somewhat. But also, this was before Philip died. Philip died in 1801.

If a vote is that close, you can’t win in a landslide??? That’s not how words work???? Mister Miranda????? You are a writer??????? Sir???????

Burr actually held a term as Jefferson’s Vice President.

The Burr vs Hamilton Duel was in 1804 and was actually about another election and other things Hamilton was saying about him. Burr was running to be governor of New York and lost but heard about Alexander telling people the things he listed Alexander saying in Your Obedient Servant.

Thayne should not have played Alexander’s doctor. Sydney should have played Alexander’s doctor. Do you know why? Philip and Alexander had the same doctor when they died. Alexander took that doctor with him to the duel. His name was David Hosack.

While there’s evidence to suggest Burr experienced immediate regret (he stepped forward as if wanting to see if Hamilton was okay and supposedly asked after him and wished him well before Alexander passed) in the years that followed, until he was on his death bed, he expressed nothing but neutrality or even pride for having shot Hamilton. The ‘the world was wide enough’ comment could plausibly be entirely made up, and even if it were true, it was supposedly said toward the end of Burr’s life. Burr's life was quite a ride after Alex. He tried to make like his own empire out of Texas, and then of course was tried for treason, but he got out of that, but then everyone hated him for that ON TOP OF already hating him for killing Hamilton, so he had some crazy journey around Europe for a while. He kept a journal, writing entries like letters to Theo. The most notable things I think he writes he'd "been amused for an hour with a very handsome young Dane. Don't smile. It is a male!" which implies maybe Theodosia knew her dad was bi and was at least amused by it? And he spent a while living with Jeremy Bentham, who is generally accepted to have been gay (if you want more Burr gayness look into Jonathan Bellamy and Robert Troup. Troup knew Hamilton too!). Unrelated to his sexuality but I find it important, Burr spent, in modern cash, $40 on a coconut, in his own words, "like an ass." He returned to America eventually. I dont remember if it was before or after his foreign adventures, but his beloved grandson (also named Aaron Burr) died, and then not long after, Theodosia was lost at sea on her way to visit her dad. No one knows what happened to her. It's so sad. Anyway he married a wealthy widow named Eliza, spent all her money on charity, and died the day their divorce was finalized. And Eliza Jumel's divorce lawyer was Alexander Hamilton Jr..

Poor Eliza couldn’t go through all of her husband’s papers. Her son, John Church Hamilton, finished the work for her when she no longer could and put together the biography that inspired Chernow’s that inspired Lin’s musical. (He named a son Alexander and a daughter Elizabeth. He even named one of his sons Laurens! Aw.) And we have come full circle.

The End :33

There’s probably more but that’s what I’ve got. Thanks for reading!

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cherrychonk · 3 years

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The Transfer Part 9

*This bih is 4k+ long so to read it fully just follow them link*

“What if they don't like me? What if they think I'm annoying? What if-”

“Enough!” Lin raised her voice exasperated.

You had been pacing for the last ten minutes waiting for the ferry. You were rethinking the piercings and the short sleeve blouse. You kept your hands on your arms in an attempt to cover up. You felt too vulnerable for your liking and the anxiety started getting to you.

“Everything is going to be fine Y/N. Stop overthinking it. They are all very accepting of everyone’s differences. You won't be the reason they stop thinking this way.” She offered her knowledge. “The ferry is almost here, come down. Everything will be okay.”

You nodded, you were still nervous but not as much. The ferry arrived and both of you got on and some people started to stare at you. Lin would stare at them back until they got uncomfortable and minded their own business. You placed your hand on your lower back, the stress was making your stitches hurt, Lin saw this and placed her hand above yours.

“Is it hurting?” She asked softly.

“It happens when I get stressed, but if I apply a bit of pressure it helps.” You answer, you take your arm off but she keeps it on. You tried not to think of it too much but the warm blush was already spreading to your ears.

Soon the ferry arrives at the temple's docks and you both get out. You can see the long road ahead and sigh. You start walking alongside the earthbender until you reach a long line of stairs. You took the first step holding tightly onto Lin, a few more steps and you had to take a moment to breathe.

The chief looked at you and used her bending to make a platform under both of you. “Hold on.” She said as the platform started moving upwards. After a few minutes both of you were finally in the courtyard of the temple. A young girl with long hair and two buns made her way to you. She smiled and started asking questions rapidly.

“Are you Y/N? How old are you? Are you a firebender? Do you like animals? Can I see your tattoos? How many tattoos do you have? How many piercings do you have?”

You stood there a moment collecting the information before smiling back at her.

“Yes, 25, yes, also yes, sure, like 15? A few.”

She scanned you up and down and grabbed your arms. She started looking at them and flipping them to see the full picture.

“You're so cool and pretty!” The girl charmed as she stared.

“Ikki, leave her alone, she's tired.” Lin growled.

The girl seemed unfazed at Lin’s antics.

You chuckled “It's alright Chief. So you're Ikki? Nice to meet you, I like your buns.”

“It's my signature hairstyle.” She smirked as she touched her hair. “Come on, dinner's ready.”

You followed the girl inside where a tall man with blue arrow tattoos and a tan woman with short hair greeted you. Your eyes widened when you realized who the people in front of you were.

You bowed deeply and immediately winced. “Master Tenzin, Avatar Korra. It's an honor to be blessed with your presence.” You said formally with a smile.

“It's an honor to meet you officer Y/N, we've heard so much.” Tenzin said softly.

“Yes! But due to your back injury we would prefer you not to bow. It could hurt you more.”

You blushed and nodded. “I'm just in such awe to meet such incredible people.”

“We are very happy to meet you too.” A new feminine voice said.

You look up to see the one and only Asami Sato.

“Miss Sato!” You automatically bowed again and winced.

Asami laughed. “Let's go take a seat, I think your back would appreciate it.”

The heiress took your hand and guided you to the table where Kya, Amara and Pema were sitting. You also saw Mako and another man with green eyes sitting next to him. Lin sat on one of your sides while Asami sat on the other. There were two more kids, another girl with arrow tattoos and a boy with short black hair.

“Y/N this is Bolin, my brother.” Mako said, introducing you.

You reached over and shook his hand. “A pleasure to meet you Bolin, Your brother has told me great things about you.”

“Aww bro really?” Bolin said with teary eyes.

Mako scoffed. “You've already met Korra, Amara, Kya and Asami, so she's Pema.” He said pointing to the woman near Tenzin. “She's Tenzin’s wife and mother to Ikki, Jinora and Meelo, the kids next to her.”

“I'm happy to meet all of you.” You said smiling. The pain started once more and you tried to reach behind you but the position was awkward.

Lin leaned into you. “You need help with that?”

You blushed but nodded, her hand went to your lower back applying steady preaching. You sighed in relief. “Thank you” You could see a blush as she nodded and couldn't help but grin.

“So, Y/N…” Korra started. “Let me start by saying that I LOVE your style.”

You smiled. “Thank you Avatar Korra.”

“Just Korra is fine.” She looked at Asami. “You look really cool, I mean when we saw the pictures in the newspaper it was blurry so we didn't get to see the details.”

“But your tattoos are amazing! It makes you look even more beautiful than you already are.” Asami finished.

You were blushing profusely. “Oh thank you honestly. They are just as much part of me as my hair.”

Kya knew the two women were enjoying flustering you. So she charged in to help you ease your nerves.

“How are you finding the city so far?” The waterbender asked.

“Oh! It's been really cool!” You smiled. “I haven't been able to see a lot since I'm working a lot but there's a cafe I'm falling in love with. It's close to the precinct and they sell the best strawberry and cream biscuits I've ever tasted.” You gush.

“Oh you like sweets? You have to try Kya’s fruit tart, it's the best thing ever.” Korra responded smiling.

“Yeah! Oh and you should go to a noodle place we know, they sell the best noodles!” Bolin said to you.

“I'll definitely try it out!”

You had been in the conversation so long that you didn't even notice Lin’s hand off your back. You looked at her discreetly but she was focused on a conversation with Kya.

“Are you single?” Meelo asked boldly.

“Yup.” You said looking back at him.

“Do you like boys or girls?” Ikki asked.

“Women.” You answer carefully.

Lin looked at you and took a sip of her tea. The gesture didn't go unnoticed.

“Me too!” Bolin said smiling.

“That's nice to know Y/N, we'll have to introduce you our clubs and places.” Kya sais smiling.

“So Y/N, tell us about yourself. What's your story?” Asami asked.

“My story?” You looked at her quizzically.

“Yeah, who is Y/N? What happened that made you end up here as a police officer?” Korra asked.

“Oh well I think that story is far too long and boring.” You chuckled.

“We are listening.” Pema said softly.

You suddenly felt every eye in the room looking at you, your nerves grew and you started feeling anxious again. You looked up at Lin and she gave you a nod.

“Okay well, I'll go chronologically? So it doesn't confuse anyone so much?”

“Sure!” Korra said happily.

You smiled. “Okay here we go. My name is Y/N L/N, I was born here in Republic City but I've lived in Ba Sing Se since I was a child. I'm a firebender like both my parents.

“When I was born my mother moved us to Ba Sing Se, when I was two my father left us. I have no memories of him and can't remember his face, I just know that his departure hurt my mother greatly. My mom was a strict woman, everything had to be perfect for her including me. She would spar with me from the moment I could bend, it was something we bonded over… or I thought we did.

“She wasn't very emotional, hugs and kisses we're definitely not her language. But that didn't mean I didn't love her greatly, she and my father will always hold a place in my heart. I grew to respect my element and be thankful for my life and the things I was given. I loved making friends and taking care of animals.

“When I was seven my mother left and I was all on my own. A farmer took me for a while until a real foster family could take me in. and honestly? It was the worst. I ended running away from them and later on ended running from every single foster family I ever got. I became an orphaned runaway.”

“So you're an orphan?” Mako asked.

“Yup!” You said like it was nothing.

“We are orphans too!” Bolin said.

“Me too.” Asami said more shyly.

“I mean it's not bad, I took care of things.” You responded, taking a sip of tea.

“How did you survive on the streets so young?” Lin asked.

“I joined a local pack of kids. We were all stealing and getting into trouble. I was very slick with my hands, could take your socks without taking off your boots.”

“Literally?” Bolin asked.

“Literally, you’d be surprised.” You laughed.

Lin looked at you sternly.

“Hey, I had to stay alive somehow. Besides, it caught up to me. I would always have trouble with the law and one day Chief Lei Ba got sick of my shenanigans and arrested me after stealing cabbages-”

“Cabbages?! From all the things to steal, why cabbages?!” Mako asked in disbelief.

“It wasn't for me! I found a goat gorilla in a cage! Poor thing looked awfully skinny and someone had to feed it!”

“Okay, okay what happened next?” Kya asked intrigued.

“Well he took me in, handcuffs and everything. It was like every other time. He took me in, arrested me, wrote about my crime, scolded me and sent me off. Only this time he didn't send me off. He took me to his office, sat me down and threw a few logs onto his fireplace.”

Lin wondered if this was the part where something bad happened that made you fear fire. She was on the edge listening to you.

“He looked at me-” You continued. “And took my file that was filled with my transgressions and threw it on the fire.”

“What?!” Amara asked, amazed.

You laughed. “Let me finish! He scolded me about what I did and after that we stayed quiet. He then told me he had found a family in the Fire Nation that would adopt me and give me a new life. They were soldiers themselves but had a few kids and agreed to take me in, per the chief’s request. I guess they were friends or something. Or, he would take care of me and take me off the streets, he was going to be strict and there would be a lot of rules but those were the only options I had.”

“And you chose to stay.” Lin responded.

“Yup, I chose to stay. It was hard at first but I made it out and thrived. He took me in as his own and gave me a new life. I became his shadow and did everything to try and make him proud. I graduated school early and as soon as I grabbed the diploma I was running down to the academy’s door enlisting myself. He almost had a stroke when he found out.”

“But, I was first in my class. Worked my a- buttoff every day. Did extra, worked more, fought more, study more and at the end it was all so worth it.”

Lin could see the shine in your eyes as you talked.

“I remember the day of my graduation. When the chief gave us all our badges, I was the last one in line. The runt of the litter. He shook my hand, placed my badge and looked me in the eyes and-”

You felt your eyes water. “He said… I'm so proud of you Y/N. So very proud.” You wiped a tear that fell from your eye. “I managed not to cry until after the ceremony but when we were walking back home we hugged and I cried for hours.”

“The first day everyone already knew me, I mean, I'm the chief’s daughter so it's not like I was a stranger. But finally, finally I felt like I had a family again. The rest is history.” You smiled.

Bolin was crying like a little kid while Lin looked at you with glossy eyes.

“Wow, that's… it reminds me of my own story.” Mako said smiling. “This job means a lot to me too.”

“It's more than a job, it's who I am. Helping people, being there for the ones in need, it's… it's my calling.”

“Wait wait! What about the tattoos!?” Ikki asked expectantly.

“Oh my tattoos?” You chuckled. “I got drunk one night with the rest of the officers and we got our badge numbers tattooed. I woke up with the ink in my arm, it was just the numbers and it made it look like I was some sort of prisoner so I went back later on to add some flowers around it and that's how it started.”

You showed the old tattoo on your arm.

“What's your favorite tattoo??”

“This badgermole someone very special drew for me.” You said showing your bicep, it was a scribble drawing of a badgermole’s head.

“It looks so ugly! Badgermoles dont look like that!” Meelo said with no filter.

“Meelo!” Pema scolded.

“It looks like it's been drawn by a child.” Asami said looking at it.

“Yup, little Eliah. That kid will stay in my heart forever.”

“Ooh! What's the story?” Bolin asked, resting his head on his palms.

“He was a sick boy that wanted to be a police officer, so I convinced the Chief to make him an honorary officer. He agreed as long as I was the one taking responsibility for him. So I did, made him my little partner. We did traffic stops, tickets, arrests, chases.”

“You took a child to a chase?” Lin asked.

“I always took care of him!” You said quickly.

“He was the sweetest. I remember how happy he was being a police officer. But of course he got worse until he was on his deathbed. We would visit him every day and bring some reports to tell him how things were going that day. He asked for my favorite animal and I told him. He drew this-” You said pointing to your bicep. “And I got it tattooed. My artist even made a stencil so we could have matching tattoos. When I showed it to him he was ecstatic laughing and as vivacious as ever. It made me so happy.”

“He passed away two days later and we gave him an official police burial. With escort and everything. We laid him down with the rest of our fallen officers and we watched over his mother. He was the only family she had so it was hard for her but we stood by her. A year later she died of the same illness.”

“Wow…” Kya said with wide eyes. “That's a lot…”

“You must be proud that you allowed that child to have the life he wanted.” Tenzin spoke.

“He was our little brother.” You said, sighing.

“I'm going to get a lot of tattoos like yours!” Ikki said with a smirk. “It's going to be so cool and I'm going to look tough like you and aunt Lin!”

You smiled back at the young girl. “You can be just as tough as the Chief without tattoos. She doesn't have any and she can strike fear in anyone by just narrowing her eyes.”

The earthbender looked at you in a glare. You chuckled nervously. “See? Terrifying.”

Ikki crosses her arms. “But I want to have cool tattoos like you!”

You thought about it for a moment before smiling. “You sure you want tattoos like mine? What's wrong with the blue arrows? They are super cool!”

“No they aren't! They are so boring!”

“Hey!” Jinora said offended.

“Besides, I want many different ones instead of just one full tattoo.”

You nodded. “You know, when you reach adulthood, I know an artist that does amazing work and has been in the industry for decades.”

Ikki beamed. “Really?!”

“Absolutely-”

#the legend of korra #lin beifong #y/n #fanfic

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kurowrites · 4 years

Note

Wangxian prompt: lan mother decides she doesn't want to live like this anymore so she escapes only managing taking lan zhan with her. To hide from the lan clan she fakes their deaths, than hides in lotus peir and becomes a nanny to yunmeng siblings.

Nooooooo poor Lan Huan! D:

Why do you people insist on hurting me???

Mama Lan was actually planning to take both of her children with her, but because there was some kind of important visitor in Cloud Recesses that day, Lan Huan is kept from visiting his mother. Only Lan Zhan visits her on that day. Mama Lan is conflicted, but she’s been planning her escape for so long. If she waits any longer, she’ll be unable to escape.

So she takes Lan Zhan to some gorge and plants some clothing there, making it look as if she jumped into the waters together with Lan Zhan, and their bodies were carried away by the violent waters beneath. She changes her and Lan Zhan’s clothing to something plain, and then leads Lan Zhan away along hidden paths in the mountains.

Bby Lan Zhan keeps asking for his brother and it almost breaks Mama Lan’s heart, but there’s nothing she can do right now. She promises to get Lan Huan as soon as she’s able to, but he needs to be a good child now and follow her. Lan Zhan, always being a good child, follows her without complaint.

They wander around for some time, mostly keeping to small communities where Mama Lan earns a little money by offering her services as a scribe. Since most people can’t read or write, a lot of people appreciate her help with resolving conflict with the authorities that they wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. When they see her wandering around with a child, obviously not a farmer’s wife, they assume that she’s either a widow who was turned out of her house or a former prostitute, and they feel kind of sorry for her. But her son is really cute, and many a cold heart cannot resist the charm of the strangely serious eyes of this child.

Eventually, someone in the village she’s currently residing in (which is in Yunmeng Jiang territory) tells her that she heard that someone in Lotus Pier is looking for a good nanny, and that Mama Lan would be a really good fit, what with the well-behaved son that she had and her patient nature. And at first Mama Lan is all against it, since she’s been avoiding places in which cultivators could possibly be.

But then she starts thinking about. She doesn’t know most clan leaders in person. The only people that can reasonably recognise her are Lan Qiren and Lan Huan, because they’re the only ones that have seen her apart from Lan Zhan in the past ~10 years. As long as she keeps away from Lan Qiren, she should be safe.

She goes to Lotus Pier and gets the job. Turns out she is supposed to care for the children of the sect leader himself!! But as she thought, she is not recognised by anyone. She starts living at Lotus Pier.

Lan Zhan, now going by the name of Lin Jing, gets on very well with Jiang Yanli, even though Jiang Cheng and him are closer in age. (Yanli seems to understand LZ’s taciturn nature quite well.) There’s a bit of tension between the two of them, although ‘Lin Jing’ really likes JC’s dogs.

Life is finally peaceful, Mama Lan has her work and can take care of her son at the same time, only she misses her other son. And she knows that Lan Zhan does, too.

That changes once Jiang Fengmian brings a half-starved, feral child home. Yu Ziyuan is adamantly against keeping him, but JFM eventually forces his opinion through. Wei Ying will stay with them. Wei Ying is wild, disobedient, and really gives Mama Lan a run for her money, but he’s also endlessly curious and generally a happy child, so she has her Ways of keeping him engaged and away from trouble.

At first, it seems like ‘Lin Jing’ doesn’t take to Wei Ying well. But then the dogs happen.

JC has three dogs. Wei Ying is extremely afraid of them. So Wei Ying panics and cries every time they are around. Mama Lan is helpless and unsure what to do with the child, but then Lan Zhan takes Wei Ying by the hand and leads him over to the dogs. Not too close, but in their vicinity. He then sits down and promises, “I would never let you get hurt.”

So they sit there for a while, not really interacting with the dogs, just being in their presence. Wei Ying hiccups a little.

After a while, Lan Zhan turns to Wei Ying. “See?” he says. “I will not let you get hurt.” And so the dogs can stay, and Wei Ying sticks to Lan Zhan from that moment on. At first fearfully, because he’s convinced that Lan Zhan will protect him from an imminent dog attack, but then he seems to take a liking to Lan Zhan and just generally sticks to him. Lan Zhan seems to allow it, and Mama Lan is very proud.

The four children grow close and learn and grow together. Mama Lan gets conflicted. On one hand, she is happy that Lan Zhan seems to be happy here. On the other hand, she wants Lan Huan to be with her, too. But if she gets Lan Huan, she wont be able to stay at Lotus Pier. She will have to go somewhere else...

#kuro answers #mdzs headcanons #anonymous

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shockapella-sweet · 5 years

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hello, sorry to bother you but, i have two things to say/ask, 1) happy new year!!! i wish you all the best wishes for you!!! 2) i'd like to ask you what your thoughts for a mk11 modern au, more specifically, about what careers would they have as modern aus? it doesn't need to be a fic, it can be headcanon, i'm just curious what would they do as mdoern regular humans (sorry i don't know if this has been asked before :x) :))

Happy belated New Year, Nonny, and thank you so very much; I hope your year will go wonderfully for you and be filled with happiness! :D Sorry for the epically late response to your ask, as I’ve been moving house (which has been a hectic process), so thank you for your patience.

Gosh, I’ve never been asked this before, so it took me a while to sit and think about this. I suppose an MK11 AU depends on what the characters do for a living in the real world. I can imagine charries like Kitana and Kotal Kahn being in the political field and potentially being at odds with each other, while others like the Kombat Kids and their parents work in everyday jobs while contending with their own personal issues.

Here’s some potential occupations that they could take up:

Raiden: Billionaire philanthropist/museum curator who’s close with Kitana’s family, practically raised Liu Kang, etc.

Fujin: Environmental activist who’s involved in the sustainable energy business, specifically solar wind farms.

Sonya Blade: US military officer (of course).Johnny Cage: Actor (duh).Cassie Cage: A toss-up between joining the military like her mother, or becoming a vlogger/social media influencer. I can also picture her making vlogs centred around her military life, doing challenges with her friends or her dad, etc.Jax Briggs: Something in technology or in the automobile/aircraft industry, before he retires to become a farmer.

Jacqui Briggs: Pilot (commercial or private or air force).

Takeda: Information technology, ie. web development, programmer, hardware specialist, etc.

Kenshi: A psychologist who can solve everyone’s problems but his own. >3

Kung Jin: Lawyer who specialises in human rights cases, or a state diplomat (because he’s got a mind and mouth for those sort of things).

Liu Kang: I feel like teaching would be up Liu-liu’s alley. At a school or as a Wushu instructor, I can’t decide, but expect him to teach youngsters who look up to him.

Kung Lao: Either something along the same lines as Liu Kang, or dabbling in historic preservation (similar to Nightwolf).

Kitana: Politician who comes from a well-known family.

Kotal Kahn: I can see him as someone who’s in the pharmaceutical field, or as a doctor (who specialises in cardiology), before he decides to take up politics.

Sub-Zero: Lecturer at a university who specialises in political science and/or Chinese studies; or a political analyst, or an anthropologist. OR, if you want to go the coffee shop!AU route, he manages the Lin Kuei speciality tea store.

Scorpion: Also a lecturer at a university along the same lines as Subby (but specialising in Japanese studies instead), or something like a social worker who works with rehabilitating kids and adults.

Kano: Your neighbourhood nightclub kingpin who happens to run a casino, a dodgy underground fight club, and a weapons/drug cartel all at the same time.

Erron Black: Unemployed stripper. Helped his daddy run a ranch/farm as a kid before taking it over himself. Or, he runs/owns a distillery that specialises in whiskey and spirits.

Stryker: Cop (duh times two).

Kabal: Reformed criminal-turned-cop + Stryker’s partner. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

D’Vorah: Entomologist, because it’s D’Vorah.

Tremor: Geologist, or someone who works in the mining sector. Also runs the Johnny Cage fan club.

Shao Kahn: Donald Trump on steroids Gross-as-hell politician.

Shang Tsung: His adviser with his own plots and plans.

Kollector: Shao Kahn’s taxman. Literally. I bet SK is the CEO of some tax organisation, and Kollector’s his spokesperson or spin doctor who commits fraud on the daily.

Geras: Big boy has his own gym or self-defence school, because DAMN. Or he manages a library or archival office with Kronika, I don’t know.

That’s all I can think of at the moment, Nonny. I’m still trying to think what could suit Smoke, Jade, Reptile, Ermac, Mileena, etc, without going for the obvious like reptile expert or bodyguard. Otherwise, I’m sure a decent MK11 AU could be made from my suggestions. ^3^

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my9percent · 6 years

Text

生日快樂，我最親愛的~ Happy 23rd Birthday, my love ❤ You deserve all the good things in life. Thank you for existing in this life. This is also for the anon who asked for Yanjun taking you to prom. Please feel free to send in more requests. I’ll get to them, albeit a little slowly, but I will!

“You know, if you like her so much, why don’t you just do it? Cause bro, if you won’t do it, I’ll do it. And I’m going to be asking for me, not you.” Jeffrey gave his friend a meaningful look.

Yanjun’s mouth opened but nothing came out. His gaze was fixed earnestly on the girl who looked beautiful in a bonnet and petticoat and made up his mind. He swiped an object off the table and strode over to her, not caring that Jeffrey, and now several others, were looking at him in bafflement.

“Hey, do you want to go to prom with me?”

Once the words were detonated, he could hear his heart beat pulsing like the ticking of a time bomb. Please answer, he plead, or let me disappear.

You giggled. “Really, Yanjun? With a pin of the American flag? I thought flowers were the gift of norm for prom proposals?”

His ears burned bright red but he stood his ground. “I’d give my heart for my country but I’ve already given it to you.”

The yes that was coming out of your mouth nearly turned into a no as you groaned. “Tell me you didn’t just think of that.”

“Yes, Ma’am, I just did,” he replied with a straight face.

As ridiculous as the whole thing was, you couldn’t help but melt at his conviction. “Yes, Yanjun, yes. I’d love to go to prom with you.”

“That was absolutely not how it happened,” Yanjun protested. Your entire friend group was laughing as the limo swayed its way to the ballroom. His thumb rubbed tiny circles against your knee as his eyes and mouth both begged for you to have mercy.

“Oh, it definitely was,” you insisted. But the wide smile across your lips meant that it was a good memory, and Yanjun decided that even if it was a joke at his expense, as long as he could always make you smile like this, it was worth it.

“He’s been bugging me for weeks as to how to do the perfect proposal. He even used me as a stand-in for you,” Jeffrey ratted. “I’m sure he thought of writing notes on paper airplanes, or spelling cryptic messages with cereal or something wild. I could swear he almost kissed me once while practicing.”

By now, your date was pouting. “I did not,” he mumbled. “And it was colored pebbles, not cereal.”

Your heart expanded as you looked at his downcast profile. You had known Yanjun all throughout high school and the two of you had always been classmates, and friends. You’ve seen his dorky side and his cool side, but never once have you seen this particular side. There was something extremely endearing about how honest he looked, and you couldn’t help but give his hand a squeeze. He looked up in surprise, eyelashes fluttering softly against his cheeks.

“I think the colored pebbles would have been a nice touch.”

The corner of his top lip quirked into a grin and his dimple deepened ever so slightly. “I can still do it, if you want me to. Except not for prom. But maybe for a date, or like something else.”

Around you, the other couples were chatting, allowing the two of you to have some time alone. Despite the thumping music, you found that your heart beat wasn’t because of the bass but rather the boy staring at you. You leaned in and whispered against his ear, “What what else?”

He pulled away. “I can’t exactly tell you. Then that would ruin the point of the proposal.”

Your eyes crinkled into crescents as you smiled again. “You smell really nice.”

“T-thank you,” he stammered, and you couldn’t help but giggle. In class and in the hallways, girls constantly ogled at him and he would always give them confident looks. Who knew that he would actually be so shy?

You lifted a hand to the lapel of your dress and pulled it away, grinning at his widening eyes at your exposed skin. “Look.” When he dared peek, with pink tinged cheeks, you saw Yanjun laugh in surprise. You had pinned the flag that he had given you to the inside of your dress. “I thought it would be a nice touch.”

“But nobody can see it.”

You gave a tiny shrug. “You know it’s there. I know it’s there. That’s enough isn’t it?”

And that was when you saw something change in Yanjun’s eyes. All car ride, he had been gentlemanly, and shy. His gaze when it did linger on you was filled with admiration. But now, you saw something warmer, brighter enter them. This was a look of a boy in love, and if you had to be honest with yourself, you were falling for him hard too.

Suddenly, there was a loud roar and the car came to a stop. Yanjun hopped off first and held his hand out for you to take. As you were about to jump down, however, his other arm slid around the back of your thighs and he lifted you gently onto the concrete.

“You’re wearing heels. If you jumped, you would have snapped your ankles,” he admonished. A warmth spread over you and you desperately wished your hair was around your face just so he wouldn’t see the hard blush.

The two of you were breathing hard and you dabbed at your forehead. “Wow, you’re a good dancer.”

“I’m a man of many talents,” he responded. But his palm was flat against the small of your back as he led you to a chair. “Your feet must hurt. Let’s sit down somewhere.”

The dance floor was dark and crowded with people still dancing or hiding in the corner, making out. You grabbed his hand and turned the other way instead. “Let’s go outside.”

The air was a welcome relief against the heat. You leaned against the balcony and Yanjun stood next to you. “You know, you just looked so pretty in that costume, I couldn’t help but ask you to prom right then.”

You giggled. “I never knew you had a thing for colonial clothing.”

“It’s not that. I just really like how you look in browns, and you looked all cute in your floofy skirt and your hair covered by a bonnet. You have an amazing profile, you know. And I guess the fact that you were supposed to be my wife didn’t really help keep the feelings at bay either.”

“When the teacher told us that we would have to be enacting a part of world history, and we got colonial America, I never thought that we would have to be playing a farmer’s couple.”

“Merchant,” he corrected. “I wasn’t going to let your pretty hands handle the shovel and hoe all day.”

Laughter filled the air between the two of you. “Well, that’s probably why we had the six kids we did, so they could help with the chores.”

There was something oddly comfortable about the joking. Even though you were only seniors in high school, there was something pleasant about a future with Yanjun. His hands took yours and he gently pressed something into your palm.

When you unfurled your fingers, you saw five rose petals. “That’s my kiss proposal. You look pretty in a petticoat and bun, but just as beautiful in a gown and your hair in a chignon,” he whispered. “Can I kiss you, because I really, really want to right now.”

You bit your lip to contain the happiness that threatened to reveal itself on your face and have you smiling like a fool. “Of course, Lin Yanjun, how could I say no?”

Your eyelids fluttered closed, and you waited. His hot breath fanned across your face and then his lips were on yours, and his hands gripped your elbows before sliding across your waist. His head tilted to the right and you followed suit, deepening the kiss.

When you did pull away some minutes later, you were once again breathless but smiling, and the emotion was reflected on him as well. “Will you be my girlfriend?” he blurted.

“What? No colored pebble proposal?” you teased.

“Sorry, how about a kiss instead?” And as you whispered a ‘yes’, his lips were once more covering yours, smile mirroring yours.

#lin yanjun #NINE PERCENT #nine percent scenarios #lin yanjun scenarios #yanjun scenarios #nine percent imagines #nine percent fics #idol producer #idol producer scenarios #idol producer imagines #idol producer fics

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commenter2 · 2 years

Text

Millie’s family reunion episode idea

The people that follow me know that I’m a big Millie fan and when Helluva Boss started I became intrigued by what her family was could be like that I was able to successfully confirm that her family members were farmers and she moved into the big city. I even made a literature centered around a possible future episode about her family till I was surprised to see them appear so early in the series in episode 5, pretty much the only good thing about that episode in my opinion even if it was only for a few scenes to start an unnecessary plotline that could have been saved for a Moxxie and Millie only episode. I do hope they return for another episode centered around them, Moxxie, and Millie soon and I thought I make this to talk about what I now think an episode about this concept could be about.

The episode opens with Moxxie and Millie arriving at the farm as Millie's parents are holding a little family reunion. Here we get introduced to the other siblings seen already along with a few other new characters. Though Millie is having a blast Moxxie is having some trouble bonding with his in laws with some exceptions like Mollie, Millie’s cousin who flirts and tries to seduce Moxxie (who she does find cute) and another cousin who is learning to play the guitar who Moxxie gives some advice to. Now since episode 5 had Moxxie learn about being himself we don’t see him trying to be like everyone else, instead he does his own twist on things but it doesn’t go well at first, getting poked fun of by Joe and Millie’s brothers including the youngest small one who I see doesn’t talk much (saying three word long sentences at max) and usually expresses himself in various movements like throwing mud at Moxxie. The party is slightly interrupted by another group of imps, who are Joe and Lin’s “next door” neighbors who hate each other for reasons and the two groups mock each other, Moxxie trying to get in on it but fails, before the other imps leave after someone throws a knife at the truck of animals they had which causes them to run wild. After that Millie comes and cheers up Moxxie who thanks her and states he’s not going to stop doing things his way as he believes the others will eventually like it.

Suddenly a bunch of big demonic vulture like creatures appear, being attracted to the food, and start attacking the party where we see everyone fight them but melee weapons seem to not be as very effective against them and things get dramatic when one swoops up Millie’s young brother. This is when Moxxie comes in as with his armor piercing guns is able to shoot down the creatures and save Millie’s brother, though he crashes into Moxxie XD. The family cheers as they are grateful for Moxxie killing the creatures and saving the boy (who throughout the episodes constantly hugs Moxxie and staying on him with a death grip) but it dies down when all the food seems to be gone, but realizing he can make something with the leftovers decides to cook and everyone loves the meal he makes except Joe who finds it lacking something. Time passes and the party seems to die down but then a nasty “firestorm” starts and everyone is told to stay at the barn till it calms down which will be in a day or so. Here we see Moxxie shine as he uses his talents to make people happy and entertained which as a result gets treated better by the family, except Joe who is a bit grumpy towards him. Eventually after seeing Joe struggle with something in the barn at night and tries to help, Joe lashes out at him and Moxxie ask why he treats him like this after showing he is just as good as him in his own way but before he can answer the two are knocked out and taken off screen. Mollie, who was hiding so she can surprise and flirt with Moxxie goes and warns Millie and the family who go looking for them.

The culprits are revealed to be the neighbor imps from before who wants revenge on Joe but luckily Moxxie and Joe escape. While catching their breath Joe reveals to Moxxie that when was Moxxie’s age he was friends with an imp that lived in “the big city” and they and another one of his friends planned on moving into a place in the city but while doing so they got attacked by some gang members and the city imp sold out Joe and their other friend to save his skin and though Joe escape, his other friend died. Though he knows Moxxie would never hurt Millie, he is just nervous that she could get hurt because of him one day, which makes Moxxie a bit mad which draws the attention of the other imps. Back with Millie, she finally lashes out at Mollie for all the antics and flirting she done to her husband, and two argue till Mollie explains she does this because she always felt Millie was trying to be better than her while Millie says the same thing which touches both of them and they briefly make amends. Back with Joe and Moxxie, the enemy imps put them in a scenario that reminds Joe of what happened years ago in the city but is surprised when Moxxie able to outsmart the imps and save him and Joe who work together to take them out and go outside. Unfortunately, more imps surround them and when it seems like it’s the end, Millie and the other family members arrive and they get out of there.

The episode ends with everyone leaving, where we see how different things are between Moxxie and the other characters compared to the beginning, like Millie’s little brother throwing mud on himself and hugging Moxxie. Well, most of them have changed as when Mollie seems like she is going to do something platonic but ends up kissing Moxxie, which makes Millie anger. Here Joe thanks Moxxie for having him back, even calling him son which he and Millie like. I can then see a moment that makes Joe a bit mad at Moxxie but it would be a natural anger as he is still Moxxie’s father-in-law XD.

Though short I think this is a good summary for such an episode. I feel like I could add some more Millie moments in here to even things outs since we already had 2.5 Moxxie centered episodes already, but besides rewriting a scene from my first Millie family episode idea, I can't think of any more right now that doesn’t just sounds like it involves Mollie. I remember that Sallie Mae is confirmed to be appearing in season 2 so maybe there could be a reference to that episode?

Do you hope to see another episode about Millie’s family soon? What could you see happening in such an episode?

#helluva boss #helluva boss millie #helluva boss moxxie #vivziepop

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futur3juli3 · 3 years

Text

-GALAXY4-

PROFILES:

No.17

Name: Miranda

Age: 19

Birthday: July 12

Occupation: Planetary Youth Cooperation Corps

Gender: Female

Blood type: A

Likes: Donuts

Dislikes: White-collars (employees)

Hobby: Collecting goods with the smile mark logo

Plans to use the Groovetron for: End all wars and hold a memorial service for my parents.

Worries: About always being asked "hey, are you angry?"

Personality: Very fond of her sister (5 years old)

Special skills: Track & field

Collects: Potpourri

Dream: To become a space supermodel

Respects: Janet Jackson

Releases stress: By doing sit-ups

Favorite word/phrase: Perseverance

When drunk... I'm a minor. (the legal age in Japan is 20)

With 1 million yen... I'd go to a space zoo with my sister.

Quotient: Super Sportswoman quotient: 86

Epilogue: Miranda finally became the No.1 dancer,

and prayed to the Groovetron for all wars

to disappear from the universe.

"Please do not cause anymore of those sad wars.

And may mother and father be happy together in heaven"

Thus war disappeared from the universe, and after that

Miranda married Apollo; the two lived peacefully ever after.

No.18

Name: Planet

Age: 19

Birthday: December 24

Occupation: Planetary Youth Cooperation Corps

Gender: Female

Blood type: A

Likes: Peace

Dislikes: War

Hobby: Demonstrations

Plans to use the Groovetron for: Make all wars disappear, avoiding for couples to be torn apart by them.

Worries: I don't know...

Personality: Naive, ditzy

Special skills: I like Japanese food, I guess?

Collects: Cute erasers

Dream: I sleep like a log lately~~

Respects: Lin-chan (Lincoln)

Releases stress by: Demonstrating? I do that.

Favorite word/phrase: Consign the fault, and not...hm? (basically she tries saying a proverb but does it wrong and doesn't remember the latter half)

When drunk... I don't dri~~nk

With 1 million yen... I'd be happy.

Quotient: Naivete quotient: 99

Epilogue: After becoming the No.1 dancer, Planet faced the Groovetron

with a pained expression, and prayed thus...

"If possible...I'd like that person to be returned to me...

but....I can't bear seeing couples torn apart by war anymore...

I beg of you, make all wars...disappear!"

And so, all wars disappeared from the universe.

At present, Planet is living peacefully in an institute

for war orphans, taking care of the last remaining ones.

No.19

Name: Orion

Age: 35

Birthday: May 27

Occupation: Bird watcher

Gender: Male

Blood type: B

Likes: Love

Dislikes: Hate

Hobby: Watch rented videos

Plans to use the Groovetron for: Bring peace to the universe and dance with many humans (?)

Worries: His hair might be getting thinner...

Personality: Super cheerful

Special skills: Imitating bird cries

Collects: Lithographs

Dream: Ride a big bird and fly in the skies

Respects: Ernest Thompson Seton

Releases stress by: Playing the guitar and singing

Favorite word/phrase: Eat, sleep, & play

When drunk... I monopolize the mic at karaoke

With 1 million yen... I'd buy a super slick pair of binoculars

Quotient: Not being able to stay in a yakitori (skewered chicken) restaurant quotient: 96

Epilogue: As predicted, Orion won the title of No.1 dancer and prayed to Groovetron.

"If wars disappeared from the universe and everyone danced together

it'd be super good"

And so from that day all creatures living in the universe started dancing, to never stop.

The universe gained peace, but many creatures started suffering from muscle pain,

so that day became known as "muscle pain memorial day".

No.20

Name: Apollo

Age: 23

Birthday: October 7

Occupation: Space Farmer

Gender: Male

Blood type: O

Likes: Chemical-free vegetables

Dislikes: Violence

Hobby: Meditation

Plans to use the Groovetron: For bringing peace to the universe, so I can grow my vegetables in peace.

Worries: Having short legs (he uses thick-soled boots)

Personality: Quiet type

Special skills: Katsura cut (cutting vegetables like carrots in a very thin and long film like manner.)

Collects: Antique dolls

Dream: I want a little sister

Respects: Miyazawa Kenji

Releases stress by: Talking with my cacti

Favorite word/phrase: A journey of thousand miles begins with a single step

When drunk... I'm pretty strong with alcohol.

With 1 million yen... I'd buy a tractor.

Quotient: Astrofarmer quotient: 81

Epilogue: After becoming No.1 dancer Apollo prayed right away to the Groovetron

for peace in the universe, then stood before Miranda.

"Y, you know..."

"Ye~s?"

"W, wouldn't you...marry me?"

"OK. I don't like white-collars after all, so."

Congratulations!!!

And so Apollo and Miranda married, and lived happily

ever after has space farmers.

#dance summit 2001 #bust a groove #miranda #planet #orion #apollo #ダンスサミット2001 #bust a move #galaxy4

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meadow-dusk · 6 years

Text

LONG LONG LONG

a music survey from livejournal days…

- TO TAKE THIS SURVEY, SIMPLY PUT YOUR MUSIC PLAYER ON SHUFFLE AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS WITH THE TITLE OF THE SONG THAT COMES ON - [it’s better if you don’t cheat and don’t skip any songs.]

What is your name?: Moby Dick • Led Zep

How is your life going?: Get on the Right Thing • Paul McCartney

What is your nickname?: The Day the World Gets ‘Round • George Harrison

What is your theme song?: Little Games • The Yardbirds

What is your best friend’s theme song?: Wait • The Beatles

How is your life going to turn out?: Communication Breakdown • Led Zeppelin

Will you get married?: Four Sticks • Led Zeppelin

Will you have kids?: For What It’s Worth • Haley Reinhart

What will your job be?: Rattled • Traveling Wilburys

Did you/will you finish school?: Good Times, Bad Times • Led Zeppelin

Who is your best friend?: Behind that Locked Door • George Harrison

Who is or will be your significant other?: Think Pink! • Beyond Pink

Who do you like?: We’re All in This Together • High School Musical Cast

How will you die?: Stairway to Heaven • Led Zeppelin (YAAAAAS)

How do you feel right now?: Sentimental Journey • Ringo Starr

What is your favorite song?: Matilda Mother • Pink Floyd

How could you describe your parents?: Pilate and Christ • Jesus Christ Superstar (you can’t make this stuff up yall)

Your best friend[s]?: Postcards from Paradise • Ringo Starr

Your teachers?: She’s Not There • The Zombies

Your significant other [or crush…]?: Riding on a Bus • The Beatles (an interview)

Yourself?: Brian Bathtubes • The Beatles (taking requests)

What is your best feature?: The Riddle • Five for Fighting

What will you be/should you be, profession-wise?: Desire • U2

How could you describe this survey?: I Told You So • Randy Travis

What makes you angry?: Moanin’ • Chris Farlowe ft. Jimmy Page and a random sitarist (this song is so interesting)

What makes you sad?: Everything I Know • Mandy Gonzalez

What makes you happy?: One • Bee Gees

What makes you dance?: I Still • Backstreet Boys

What is your favorite color?: Sundown • Gordon Lightfoot

How would you describe yourself?: Heart Attack • One Direction

Who is your worst enemy?: Little Soldier Boy • The Yardbirds

Who do you hate?: No Me Diga • In the Heights

Who do you love?: I Started a Joke • Bee Gees

Who do you lust after?: What Do You Want? • The Yardbirds Finish the Sentence I wish: Rainy Day Women #12 and 35 • Bob Dylan I want to: We’re on the Road Again • Ringo Starr I want to kill:. Money • The Beatles I want to eat: Spring Musical Medley • HSM3 yall with Kryan duet to open My head: Sometimes I’ll Be There • Naked Brothers Band (accurate) I am: Movin On • Rascal Flatts My best feature is: The Sad Bells of Rhymney • Fifth Avenue My eyes are: Safest Place to Hide • Backstreet Boys My hair is: Who Can See It • George Harrison My face is: Baby Come on Home • Led Zeppelin You should: Not This Time • 3Lw

Random Words of advice: And Here We Are Again • The Beatles How do others see me?: Rhythm of Love • Plain White T’s How do I see myself?: Knowing Me, Knowing You • ABBA *** For this first section, put down the first ten songs that play, and then rate them on a scale of 1 - 5 (5 being the best) in the next column. 1. I Have a Dream • Abba 2/5 2. Sounds of Silence • Simon and Garfunkel 5/5 3. In The Flesh • Pink Floyd 4/5 4. Ya-Ya • John Lennon (ft. Julian on drums) 4/5 5. Magic Bus • The Who Live at the Isle of Wright 4/5 6. Stomp • Steps 2/5 7. KICK DA DUST UP • Luke Bryan 4/5 8. Your Mother Should Know • The Beatles 5/5 9. Photograph • Ringo (2017) 3/5 he sounds great but it isn’t exciting also who’s the chick I didnt sign up for this 10. Piggies • The Beatles 5/5 good one George Now for a little fortune telling… 1. Who am I?: Tug of War • Paul McCartney 2. Why am I here?: Bet On It • Zac Efron (skittles and steak) 3. What’s my theme song?: American Beauty/American Psycho • Fall Out Boy 4. How’s tomorrow gonna be?: Behind Blue Eyes • The Who 5. What does ______ really think of me?: Let’s Go to Vegas • Faith Hill 6. What’s this school year going to be about?: Man on Fire • Andy Gibb 7. Is something bad going to happen in the near future?: Little Bitty • Alan Jackson 8. What’s the government going to do next?: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band/The End • Paul McCartney Live at Citi Field 9. What’s my best friend doing right now?: Inutil • Carlos Gomez 10. What does my iPod/MP3 think about me?: American Girl • Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Last section! These next questions are all about music 1. I absolutely LOVE this song!: The Look of Love • ABC Comments: This was in Start the Commotion and there was a clip art of eyes as the O’s in look 2. I have no clue why this song is still on my music player: Steppin’ Out • John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers Comments: It’s saved because I occasionally really try to get into Clapton 3. This song has AMAZING lyrics: Love Will Find a Way • Pablo Cruise Comments: I remembered his initials but not his name

4. The band that does this song is one of my favorites: Most Peculiar Man • Simon and Garfunkel Comments: I would not say favorites but I give them their due 5. My dad loves this song: Songs About Rain • Gary Allan Comments: he bought the CD and took it on road trips so probs 6. My mom can’t stand this song: The Hook (All My Love) • Led Zeppelin Comments: she probably can stand it more than me 7. I have a sibling who enjoys listening to songs by this band: When You See a Chance • Steve Winwood Comments: fair to say that cause once she asked me what the name of Valerie was 8. One of my best friends hates the band that does this song: Like Nobody’s Around • Big Time Rush Comments: NO FRIEND OF MINE! 9. I got this song off a mix CD: Got My Mind Set On You • George Harrison Comments: I learned how to do the mashed potato to this song 10. This song is on a movie soundtrack: The Freedom Song • Jason Mraz Comments: could definitely be but don’t hold this one down

11. Share a memory involving this song in comments: Friday On My Mind • The Easybeats Comments: running to it - how was there this much good music at one time 12. I’ve played this song on repeat before: You’re My Number One • S Club 7 Comments: Try this ALBUM back when we used to play S Club and have choreography 13. This song is on the band’s Greatest Hit’s CD: Ramblin’ Man • Allman Brothers Band Comments: if it isn’t they screwed up 14. I love dancing to this song!: If You Wanna Do a Dance • The Spinners Comments: seems like that was the idea 15. This song gets me every time I hear it: Bathroom Sound (Out on the Tiles early take) • Led Zeppelin Comments: I prefer the final version with vocals and silly quips but this version does just as well for Bonzo Appreciation Time 16. This song is great to listen to when you’re angry: Farmer Refuted (Instrumental) • Hamilton Comments: OH MY GOD tear this dude apart 17. I love the music video for this song: I’m Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band) • Moody Blues Comments: if there is one it’s probably psychedelic so I’d dig it I bet 18. I’ve seen the band that performs this song live: The Boxer • Simon and Garfunkel Comments: I have not. This song is beautiful. 19. Is this song better to listen to at night, in the morning, or in the afternoon?: Let’s Get Rocked • Def Leppard Comments: morning, running. 20. I haven’t listened to this song in so long!: That’s the Way (Live Paris 1971) • Led Zeppelin Comments: not true it came on on the way to the gym barely a few weeks ago *** What were the first words to Abe Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address?: What ya gonna do when it’s cold outside? (Keep It Hid • Robert Plant) What did Martin Luther King have a dream about, anyways?: You’ve got a cute way of talking, you got the better of me! (You Make Me Feel Like Dancin’ • Leo Sayer) Tomorrow’s newspapers will all have the major headline of: Out in the Rain Looking for Sunshine (Permanent Stain • Backstreet Boys) If someone offered you some free drugs, how would you respond?: Lord almighty, feel my temperature risin’...(Burning Love • Elvis) What kind of higher power do you believe in?: You need coolin, baby I’ ain’t foolin (Whole Lotta Love • Led Zeppelin) What do people really notice about you?: There’s a girl I know who makes me feel so good (Valleri • The Monkees) What do you notice first in the preferred sex of your choice?: Hey fellas, have ya heard the news you know that Annie’s back in town (Heartbreaker • Led Zeppelin) What do you look for in reading books?: They say that Richard Cory owns one half of this whole town, with political connections to spread his wealth around (Richard Cory • Wings) What’s a must-have quality in a friend for you?: Meeting people along my way, seemingly I’ve known one day (Happenings Ten Years Time Ago • The Yardbirds) What scares the shit out of you?: Gat Kirwani • George Harrison (this has no words it’s just a sitar jam) How do you laugh?: Anna, you come and ask me, girl, to set you free girl? (Anna (Go To Him) • The Beatles) Why do you do these surveys?: When the night returns just like a friend, when the evening comes to set me free (If You Know What I Mean • Neil Diamond) Do you have anything you’d like to confess?: I can see you in the window waiting for my call (Untouchable • Big Time Rush) How do you feel about the person you cannot stand the most?: If ever you’ve got rain in your heart, someone has hurt you and torn you apart, am I unwise to open up your eyes to love me (Run To Me • Bee Gees) The best date ever, in your book, would consist of…: Dear Theodosia, what to say to you?(Dear Theodosia • Leslie Odom Jr. & Lin-Manuel Miranda) If you sent a random Hallmark card to a friend, you would write to them: Are we growing up or just going down? It's just a matter of time until we're all found out. (Sophomore Slump or Comeback of the Year • Fallout Boy) If you had the chance to speak to (a) God, what would you say?: Every time I see her, she don’t even look my way (Just My Style • Gary Lewis and the Playboys) Finish the sentence: “When the going gets tough…”: My friend came to me with sadness in his eyes and told me that he wanted help before his country dies (Bangla Desh • George Harrison) How do you deal with your stress?: I can almost remember their funny faces (Jet • Paul McCartney) What is your biggest burden in life?: Somebody’s knocking at the door, somebody’s ringing the bell (Let Em In • Wings) What’s the coolest thing about your best friend?: Hands, put your empty hands in mine (Stand By You • Rachel Platten) Why do you love the one you do?: Sweet, wonderful you. You make me happy with the things you do (You Make Loving Fun • Fleetwood Mac) If a friend broke their arm and got a cast, what would you write on it?: Gonna build myself a castle high up in the clouds (Dance the Night Away • Cream) You see a stick and wet cement. What do you write?: It feels so right now hold me tight (Hold Me Tight • The Beatles) A guy just stole your (purse, car, etc)! What do you yell at him?: Welcome to the camp, I guess you all know why you’re here (We’re Not Gonna Take It • The Who) You pass a crack addict on the corner one day. Solemnly he tells you: Well now we’re respected in society, we don’t worry bout the things that we used to be, we’re talkin heroin with the president (Respectable • The Rolling Stones) What will your baby’s first words be?: He knows about you in every way, he's memorized every part of your face (Does He Know • One Direction) You are at your wit’s end, and decide to write a suicide note. It begins: The pound is sinking, the peso’s falling, the lira’s reeling and feeling quite appalling (The Pound is Sinking • Paul McCartney) Why can’t there be peace in the world?: Let’s talk about one, bay-bay, ya gotta hear me out (Get Another Boyfriend • Backstreet Boys)

How do you think people see you?: I walked in the band just started, the singer couldn't carry a tune in a bucket (Ten Rounds with Jose Cuervo • Tracy Byrd) Inside, though, what kind of person are you really?: well the rain was a-fallin’ and the ground turned to mud, I was watchin’ all the people running from the flood (Deliver Your Children • Wings) If you wanted to comfort a friend, you’d say: Anytime, any day you can hear the people say that love is blind, well I don’t know but I say love is kind (Listen to What the Man Said • Wings) When you want to cheer someone up, you say: *I just make series of nonsense sounds* (Pow R. Toc H. • Pink Floyd) You’re unbelievably depressed because your friend just told you…: people say we’ve got it made, don’t they know we’re so afraid? (Isolation • John Lennon)

When you are incredibly bored, you start thinking about…?: I drive all alone, at night, I drive all alone, don’t know what I’m headed for. (Dead End Friends • Them Crooked Vultures) You’re a classy person, so instead of cursing when you’re mad, you yell…?: I met a gin-soaked, bar-room queen in Memphis (Honky Tonk Women • The Rolling Stones) you’re writing a love letter, but what are you going to begin it with?: The theater’s so obsessed with drama so depressed, it’s hard to sell a ticket on broadway! (Keep It Gay • The Producers) If you were to write a letter to the President of the USA, it would say…?: It’s a boy, Mrs. Walker, it’s a boy (It’s a Boy • The Who) What would someone have to tell you to make you really angry?: No no no no, don’t phunk with mah haaahrt (Don’t Phunk with My Heart • Black-Eyed Peas) …To make you really depressed?: Cars and girls are easy to come by in this day and age, laughing joking drinking smoking til I spend my wage (Over Under Sideways Down • The Yardbirds) ...To make you sexually aroused?: Catch a star if you can, wish for something special (Are You Ready for Love • The Spinners) Your first thoughts waking up were…: Life is just a bowl of All-Bran, you wake up every morning and it’s there (Happydaystoytown • The Small Faces) Your last words before falling asleep will be…: the sun is shining in the sky, there ain’t a cloud in sight (Mr. Blue Sky • Electric Light Orchestra)

#music survey #wow that only took me half a month #kari

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roseeycreates-blog · 2 months

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more of farmer au, please! Who's Suyin's dad? tell us more about the gaang and their children? more of farmer Lin? what did Toph find out that ruined their relationship? how come Toph never found Kanto?

Aaaaahhhh! Thank you for taking an interest in the AU! I've said this before and I'll say it again, this makes me so happy~ ANYWAY, I'll answer your questions~

Suyin's dad is Sokka. Let me tell you about the complicated relationship they had. As I mentioned in a previous ask, Sokka was in a relationship with Suki while Toph was with Kanto. After Toph announced her pregnancy to the gaang, Sokka started feeling a little jealous because everyone else, even the one he least expected, had one. He proposed to Suki and asked her to move to Republic City to start a family, but Suki graciously declined. She loved Sokka but couldn't leave Kyoshi Island and her people. They needed her there. Sokka understood because he couldn't leave Republic City and his duties. They both chose their careers over love. Months went by, and then Toph lost her child and her lover. Sokka knew how painful it was to lose someone, so he offered Toph a shoulder to cry on. Toph acted annoyed and insisted she didn't need anyone, but Sokka's persistence won her over. He took extra care of Toph during that time, helping with the investigation and search for Kanto and the midwife. When Toph lost all hope, Sokka was there for her. Old feelings for her friend reignited, and Sokka began seeing Toph as more than a friend. That's how they had Suyin. However, their marriage didn't last. They argued most of the time, especially about Toph's way of raising Su. When Suyin was just 10 years old, her parents split for good. It wasn't a messy breakup because both of them knew they were better as friends than as a couple. Toph also knew that Sokka loved her, but not as much as he loved Suki. About the GAANG and the next-gen:

Zuko ended up with Mai and led the Fire Nation. They were the first to have a child, making Izumi the first baby the Gaang took care of. Toph and Aang spoiled her rotten with gifts and sweets whenever they visited. Katara and Mai often scolded them for going overboard. Aang and Katara had Bumi, Kya, and Tenzin. Unlike in canon, Aang never neglected Bumi and Kya. They always went on family trips, spending quality time together and passing down their Air Nomad and Water Tribe cultures. Izumi’s nickname is Zumi, but Zuko prefers calling her "my princess." Bumi is often called Bubu or Umi by baby Tenzin and later on by baby Suyin. Kya goes by her name, but Aang calls her "my baby girl." She loved it as a kid, but as she grew older, she wasn't as fond of it. When Su was born, Kya was relieved that her dad retired the nickname and passed it to baby Su. Because the adults were often busy, Suyin spent more time with her cousins. Additionally, she spent a lot of time with her father, Sokka, since Toph was frequently occupied with work.

More on Farmer Lin:

Lin had a wonderful childhood despite growing up without a mother. Her father often affectionately called her "Meilin." She found a second mother figure in Lei, her babysitter (also the midwife who delivered her). Lin cherished Lei deeply and once even asked her to be with her father, but Lei always declined, insisting that Kanto was just a friend.

Lin was a quiet child and not very social. She had a few friends from the neighborhood and school. She was known as the quiet kid you never mess with because one time, she snapped and fought off a bully who was picking on her friend.

As a teen, Lin became popular with the boys because of her looks, but she wasn't interested and found them really annoying. Her father would tease her about being tomboyish and say she was too intimidating. She would tease him back, saying, "Maybe I'll marry a feminine boy, and we'll run away and elope, Dad." This always got Kanto, and he would swear that no man would ever lay a finger on his precious girl and take her away from him.

In her young adult years, Lin inherited her grandpa's farm, including the existing workers whom she chose to keep on. Despite their assurances that they can handle things, Lin insists on personally tending to the plants. She also has a soft spot for the farm animals and owns a shepherd dog named Zhenzhen. He's incredibly loyal and friendly to Lin but also fierce and protective of her.

Toph and Kanto's relationship hit the rocks when:

Toph discovered his ties to a gang, later known as the Triple Threat Triad. They argued fiercely because Toph insisted on getting him and others involved arrested. Kanto begged Toph, promising to reform and leave the gang, but Toph remained firm. She insisted he stay free until after she gave birth, after which he would face justice.

Despite Toph's efforts, Kanto managed to evade her thanks to his connections in Ba Sing Se. With "Kanto" being a common name, especially in the Fire Nation, Toph focused her search on finding a firebender named Kanto within the Fire Nation. Meanwhile, Kanto played the part of a non-bender widowed father, complicating Toph's quest to locate him.

#farmer lin #farmer au #lin beifong #anon asks #asks about farmer lin makes me so happy

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adventures-in-a-world-of-fiction · 7 years

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What if The Mummy 3 had been a good film?

I recently rewatched The Mummy 3 and remembered all the things that were bad about it, but what annoys me is that they had a lot of the pieces for a good movie. In my annoyance, I have ended up thinking about how it could have gone. So here is my version of The Mummy 3, if it had been good.

Most of the backstory can stay the same but let's skip the Great Wall stuff because that doesn’t work geographically. Evil emperor, big army, wants to become immortal. He conquers loads of lands and then starts building a special site near Xian to research immortality. Loads of workers die but the emperor doesn't care and they end up buried in the foundations. As part of the research, the emperor hears about a mystic gem that's supposed to lead to the Fountain of Eternal Life, but he can't figure out how to make it work. He hears about a witch and sends his general out to find her. The rest is basically the same - love affair, murder, curse. The emperor and his armies are turned into terracotta. The emperor is sealed in his secret chamber but the rest of the soldiers are lined up outside it. The local people don't want the soldiers waking up, so they smash the warriors to bits and bury them, but they don't find the secret room with all the magic stuff.

Centuries later, a local farmer finds bits of broken warrior and Chinese archaeologists investigate (because why not give the Chinese credit for their own discoveries?) but they don't find the secret room. They think they've found the first emperor’s tomb and start reassembling the broken warriors, not knowing the danger they're in.

Backstory over, enter Alex, who's joined the dig and thinks he's found some information that will lead to the secret room. He finds it, there are some traps, and he finds the gem, the oracle bones, and what he thinks is a statue of the emperor. Lin comes in to try and kill him because she's afraid he'd going to raise the emperor. There's a fight, but he makes it out with the bones and the gem, while the Chinese military, led by General Yang, drive Lin out, saving Alex's life. The film is set in 1946, which is when the Chinese Civil War restarted (funny that the film never mentioned this) leading to the rise of communism, so you could have Yang talking about the unrest and thinking that Lin must be part of the rebellion. The army start to take the statues to Xian but Alex keeps the bones and gem with him.

Meanwhile, back in England, Rick attempts to learn to fish and fails spectacularly. He returns home and gets a phone call from New York. It's Evie. She's off putting together an exhibit (if they couldn't get the same actress, it would be better to not have Evie in the film at all) but Rick stayed behind because he got injured on their last dig and he's supposed to be resting and relaxing so he can recover. Instead of lying to each other and pretending to be happy when they're clearly not (because that retirement plotline made no sense for either character), Rick admits that he's finding this whole relaxation thing a challenge. He tells her what happened with the fish.

"Evie, it's not that funny. Stop laughing. Evie, I swear to god, stop laughing at me or I will end this call. Evie!"

Rick speculates about going over to join Evie because his injury is healed now, but she's nearly finished her work there and then Rick gets a letter from Alex, the son he loves and is really proud of and has a great relationship with (because all the family "drama" during the first half of the film was entirely unnecessary). Rick decides to go and join Alex instead, and that Evie can come to them when she finishes up in New York.

Jump to Jonathan's night club in Xian. Alex comes in, has a little exchange with Jonathan, bumps into someone spilling his drink and it looks like he's about to start a fight - only it turns out to be Izzy from the second film (because how many daredevil pilots is Rick friends with?). They have a drink and a chat. Alex asks what Izzy's up to these days and Izzy says he's still flying, mostly taking crazy tourists up through the mountains, but how even the most dangerous of flights is nothing like as dangerous as what he used to have to deal with when he was with the O'Connells.

"I swear, every time your dad shows up, someone tries to kill me."

*Rick appears.* "Hi, Izzy." *Three seconds later, Lin shows up and tries to steal back the gem and bones from Alex, leading to a big fight.*

Izzy: "Every time, O'Connell! Every time!"

Rick: "At least no one's shooting at you."

They all head to the statue to try and figure out what's going on. Alex deciphers some text and works out that the bones could be used to wake the emperor.

Rick: "Let's not do that."

Alex: "Yeah, Mum will be mad if we summon an ancient evil with magical powers while she's not here."

Rick: "And, you know, the whole 'ancient evil with magical powers' thing."

Alex: "Right. Yes."

But then Yang arrives because he was just waiting for Alex to decipher the ritual. There's a hostage situation, he forces Alex to do the spell to save his dad. Lin shows up to try and stop it but she's too late and the emperor's statue comes to life. All the other, broken statues in the area come to life too and start reassembling themselves. Insert humorous moment where two half-reconstructed statues get into a scuffle about which of them an arm belongs to. Lin stops trying to kill the O'Connells and they all start working together to try and take down the emperor.

Cue chase scene through the city, including a chase on the city walls (which are huge and awesome). Jonathan gets caught up in the chase scene.

Jonathan: "I hate mummies!"

Alex: "They're not actually mummies. They're soldiers who were cursed to become terracotta and now..."

Jonathan: "They're trying to kill us! Do you think I care about semantics?!" *Panic. Flail. Scream.*

This then becomes a running joke. Jonathan, Izzy, Rick, or someone else will refer to the emperor or his warriors as mummies, Alex will try to correct them, whoever it is will tell him it's not the time or they don't care.

The emperor and Yang get the gem and head off to find the fountain. The heroes set off after them with Izzy ("I'd better get another huge diamond out of this, O'Connell.") and Lin. Rick wonders if Ardeth Bay would have any ideas how to fight these mummies ("They're not actually..." "Not now, Alex."). No romance arc. No stupid yak jokes. Just a flight, a dodgy landing, a fight at the monastery, some yetis, the emperor puts the gem on the tower and sees the way, leaves everyone else buried in the avalanche.

Instead of Rick getting shot for family angst, having Izzy getting shot leading to mild angst and then later jokes.

Izzy, bleeding to death: "I should have known this would happen if I signed up with you again." *passes out*

Rick is guilty and grieving because he dragged Izzy into this. Lin leads the heroes into Shangri La to the fountain and they save Izzy. Played for jokes for the rest of the film ("I got shot" "You got better").

The emperor gets to the fountain, steals the oracle bones from them, gets his magical transformation powers, becomes a dragon that looks more like Chinese renderings of dragons instead of European pictures of dragons. He grabs Lin and flies off with her. Izzy flies the rest of them down and then goes off with Jonathan to fetch reinforcements.

Alex goes to rescue Lin, but she's halfway through her own escape attempt (because, seriously, why was she just sitting around waiting to be rescued in the film?). She's stolen back the oracle bones and needs to get them to her mum to raise all the dead people who were worked to death by the emperor. Lin's plan works. The emperor resurrects his army, but Lin's mum raises hers and there's a big fight. Lots of shooting. Stuff blows up. It looks like all hope is lost... and then Jonathan and Izzy show up with the promised reinforcements. They've brought Ardeth Bay and a bunch of his people and they fight the terracotta warriors.

Ardeth Bay: "I thought you said you were fighting mummies. These aren't mummies."

Alex: "Thank you! Finally!""

The emperor dies, the old general and the immortal witch are reunited, Izzy and Jonathan argue about which of them deserves to keep the giant diamond, Ardeth Bay and Lin bond over having to keep ancient evil people safe from these irresponsible English people who go around bringing them back to life, and Alex and Rick argue about which of them has to explain to Evie that they nearly destroyed the world again.

We skip cliched and painful romance arcs, we skip bad characterisation and unnecessary family drama, we don’t have the wrong actress playing a character without any of the chemistry of the original films, and the constant referring to creatures that aren’t mummies as mummies becomes a deliberate joke and not a plot hole.

#The Mummy 3 #I spent way too long thinking about this #reworked plot #someone give me a time machine so I can fix this film

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gratitudejoyandsorrow · 7 years

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Of Loyalty and Duty (Chapter 3)

Prompt: In an effort to save two kingdoms, an arranged marriage was made. At his request, Prince Lin-Manuel Miranda was to be wed to you, the youngest daughter in your royal family. RoyalAU. Written for the hamwriters’ write-a-thon Day 1 prompt.

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2

Pairing: Lin x reader

Words: 2,383

Warning: minor character death

Tagged: @buckybarneshairpullingkink @notthrowingawaymyfood

A/N: So you’re going to give me a backhanded compliment and then insult me by telling me my fics are shitty? Well here’s ANOTHER one for you. Two in one day, will ya look at that? *clears throat* Anyways, hope you guys enjoy this chapter and let me know what you think. Thank you for proofreading @how-could-i-do-this ! Also, I’m leaving for a trip soon, so I’m not sure if I have time to write. @nesthemonster - this is for you.

Thanks for reading!

The Miranda kingdom was breathtaking.

Though you’d already seen the scenery – the sprawling green plains, mountains and hills that decorated the horizon, and the fields littered with farmers that tended to their crops and livestock – experiencing it once was not enough for you to appreciate its beauty. As you neared the first village, you noticed that children, boys and girls alike, were running alongside the carriage, waving their tiny arms in greeting. You automatically waved back, giggling when their eyes went wide.

Without much thought about your prior spat, you tugged on Prince Lin’s sleeve to catch his attention. “Say hello!”

He gave you an amused stare but acquiesced, lifting his hand in acknowledgment to the sprinting children. You laughed when they shrieked in delight, their bright smiles shining under the sun despite the growing distance between them and the carriage. “I imagine that you are very popular with the children in the villages,” you teased, tucking the loose tendrils of hair that the wind toyed with behind your ear, “they are quick to idolize people that they admire… and your similar temperaments must be appealing to them as well.”

Prince Lin scoffed and propped his chin on his hand, elbow resting against the window of the carriage. “Are you calling me a child, Princess?” he questioned, regarding you carefully.

You leaned back against the seat, purposely not meeting his gaze as you grinned. “Maybe.”

“I am anything but a child,” he murmured, shifting close, “would you like a proof of my manhood, Princess?”

“You are appalling, Prince Lin-Manuel,” you seethed, your playful mood gone, “I will make good on my earlier promise if you lay a finger on me.”

He threw his head back and cackled. “But we are madly in love, are we not? I can’t resist the temptation to touch my beautiful bride-to-be.”

“Already playing into the role of the loving groom, I see,” you retorted, folding your arms across of chest. You refused to fall for his trap to fluster you.

He laughed again, mirth dancing in his eyes. “I’m always ready to play the part. Besides, it is not a difficult task to pretend that I am fond of you.”

Your mouth snapped shut, heart fluttering at the low rumble of his words. “I…” you started, troubled that you were at loss for a reply. The smile of triumph that slowly spread across his face caused your cheeks to heat in response. “I cannot say the same for you,” you continued, inwardly scowling at your lackluster reply.

Fortunately, the carriage slowed, directing his attention from your flushed face to the approaching huts. He turned back to you, teasing smile gone. “Are you ready?” he asked, voice gentle.

You let out a loud exhale, throat constricting at your realization of the forthcoming trials and the lies that you were going to feed to innocent people. “I will never be. I have no choice but to endure, do I?”

He smiled wryly. “No need to remind me, Princess.”

The rest of the ride was spent in silence. Upon arrival, Prince Lin brushed off the coachman that tried to assist you out of the carriage, offering his hand to you instead. You noticed the crowd that gathered as you stood at the threshold of the opening, their scrutinizing eyes watching the scene unfold.

With a forced smile, you took his hand and placed a foot on the folding step, using him for balance. When he suddenly drew back, you felt your body tip forward, and you opened your mouth to squeal - but the noise was caught in your throat when his hands wrapped around your waist to guide you safely to the ground. You stared up at him, alarmed, heart racing from his unexpected horseplay. “What –” you sputtered, bewildered.

You heard the hushed whispers arise from the crowd, and when you became aware of his motives, you couldn’t prevent the incredulous giggle that escaped your mouth. “You are devious, Prince Lin-Manuel.”

He grinned, remaining silent as he untangled his hands from your waist. “Let the show begin, Princess,” he cooed, offering his hand to you once more.

You didn’t have a chance to reply before the sound of rushed footsteps caught your attention. You turned just in time to see two little girls racing forward, leaving their protesting father behind, their arms full of flowers.

“For the future Queen!” The taller one chirped, lifting a flower crown to you. You inspected it, smiling when you realized that the blossoms were the ones that you asked Prince Lin to name during your walks through the palace’s garden. The crown was decorated with silk rose buds, peach flowers, white daises, and orange ranunculus; the blend of colors complimented each other beautifully.

“For me?” you asked, melting at her enthusiasm. You quickly waved off the guard that stepped forward, ready to reprimand the girl that dared to approach you so informally.

She nodded, pigtails bouncing with her zealous movements.

With a small laugh, you kneeled and leaned forward, offering the crown of your head to her. Another low murmur came from the crowd, but you ignored it, welcoming the weight of the flowers when she placed it on your head. “Did you make this?” you asked.

“Yes! My younger sister and I spent days crafting the crowns for you and the Prince!” she replied, beaming.

You glimpsed at Prince Lin, who now had a similar crown resting on his head. “Thank you. I am honored to receive your gifts.”

She curtsied and gave you a toothy grin before she and her sister were swept up into the arms of their panicked father. He bowed low, apologizing profusely at his daughters’ boldness and insolence. You stood and gave him a comforting smile. “I take no offense. I am pleased to be welcomed so warmly.”

Wide-eyed and still stammering his apologies, he bowed low once more and carried his girls back into the safety of the crowd.

After waving goodbye to the ecstatic girls peering over their father’s shoulders, you turned to look at the silent Prince. “What is it?” you asked, seeing the soft smile on his face.

“These crowns,” he said, reaching to touch the flowers that rested on top of your head, “are what my people give to newlyweds. It is to wish the bride and groom a happy and lengthy marriage.”

“Oh,” you replied, stunned.

He smiled. “Perhaps my people do not need much convincing after all.”

Throughout the day you met the Lords of each village; their humility and respect towards you and your family were admirable. They greeted you with open arms, offering gifts in celebration for the upcoming wedding. Each time the Lord of the current village led the group through his lands, your father and Margaret inquired about the efficiency and methods of production, eager to know more about the mechanics of the village. Meanwhile, you and Prince Lin trailed behind them, their words falling on deaf ears. Instead, you listened as he clarified what crops were grown in each village, explained the story behind certain customs that you noticed and were curious of, and even named the flowers that you spotted and didn’t recognize.

As the carriage drew near the last village you were arranged to visit, you caught a glimpse of Prince Lin out of the corner of your eye. He was uncharacteristically quiet, gazing off into the distance, fingers drumming against his crossed legs, with a deep set frown on his face. The setting sun kissed his skin, bathing him an orange glow that caused his dark eyes to lighten.

“Prince Lin,” you said before you could stop yourself.

He turned, the frown softening into a small smile. “Yes?”

“You seem troubled.”

He uncrossed his legs, sighing before he spoke. “As we get farther from the palace, there is a significant decrease in the quality of living. The villages we’ve visited so far have been the most robust in the nation. This upcoming one, however…”

“Is not,” you finished, speaking slowly.

“They were the first to be heavily impacted by the famine. Their population was nearly cut in half and they have yet to recover. Their children are malnourished, the life expectancy of the elders is declining, and I cannot help but feel their accusing glares when we visit. The Lord of the land insists otherwise, but I can tell that the people of the village blame us for favoring the other villages and abandoning them,” he sighed once more, his features turning into that of a burdened twenty-three-year-old King you’d never seen before.

You smoothed out your dress, the material starting to wrinkle from the day’s events, and turned to face him. “I don’t necessarily understand the process of action when it comes to disasters within a kingdom, but if there is one thing about you that I have learned during my short time here, is that you are loyal to your people. You love them and will do anything for them. Is that not why we are in this predicament now? Do not feel guilty for your inability to help them in the past and instead feel proud for what you are doing for them in the present.”

He stared at you in wonder, a genuine smile spreading across his face. “You never cease to amaze me, Princess.”

You stared at him in surprise. “What?”

The carriage stopped, disrupting your conversation. He ignored your lingering gaze and helped you out of the carriage, your hand tightly clutched in his. After a quick scan of your surroundings, you immediately noticed the disparity of the village compared to the previous ones.

The huts looked timeworn, the life of the buildings nearing their end. There were only a few men and women that greeted the carriages – most were in their homes, peering through their windows, disinterested – but the sight of their tattered clothes barely hanging off their thin frames made your stomach sink.

And the children…

The children were malnourished. The skin on their arms and legs was stretched tight around their bones, and their stomachs were distended from their hunger. Their eyes were dull, lacking the liveliness that most children had when encountering royalty.

The Lord of the land came forward, a tired and strained smile on his lips as he bowed low in greeting. True to the routine, he guided everyone through the village, with your father and Margaret in the forefront while you and Prince Lin flanked the back. This time, however, Prince Lin was silent, his eyes searching the faces of the people he passed. His grip around your hand slackened when the topic of conversation shifted to the food supplies, the tense voice of the Lord palpable when he was asked about the quantities remaining. Impulsively, you squeezed his hand to comfort him, returning his appreciative smile.

You took another quick perusal of your surroundings, frowning at the impoverished environment. The streets were barren, lacking the life that a growing kingdom should have. From the corner of your eyes you spotted a little girl sitting on a wooden mat, leaning against a hut, her gaze directed forward and a straw doll clutched in her hand. Concerned at her lack of awareness of her surroundings – she was too close to the baskets containing garbage – you tugged your hand out of Prince Lin’s grasp and walked towards her.

The first thing you noticed was the buzzing sound of flies.

Next was the smell of rotting flesh.

She was in nothing but in her undergarments, her cachectic body revealed. Bones that you knew that should not be so pronounced made your stomach turn uneasily. Dust and dirt covered her skin and hair, and the sight of the flies swarming around her caused a chill to run down your spine.

Your knees trembled when you stared into her eyes, the beautiful shade of blue lifeless. “She – she –” you started, not recognizing the high pitch of your voice as you stumbled backward, eyes still glued to the little girl.

You felt a firm grip on your arm before you were yanked backward. Suddenly, you no longer saw the little girl, and it took you a moment to realize that Prince Lin had you pressed against his chest. You tried to pull away from him, hoping that if you looked at the space again, it would be empty – that the body of a little girl that died scrounging for food would be gone.

But Prince Lin didn’t release you, and you struggled in his grip to free yourself. “Let me go! Don’t you see?! She needs our help!”

He ignored you. “This trip is over,” he said, voice firm.

Margaret rushed forward, placing her hands on your shoulders to gently turn you towards her. You searched her eyes and anticipated her comforting words. “Y/N,” she cooed, her soft voice warm and reassuring, “this transpires frequently, and as unfortunate as it may be, it is a natural path of life.”

You stared at her, horrified. “An innocent child dying is unfortunate?”

Margaret let out an exasperated sigh. “You need to understand, my dear sister, that as future Queen, sometimes it is best to push your sentiments aside. Her death was ill-fated, but it was of no surprise. You must recognize that this village is declining. Their production has decreased, and they are slowly losing their importance to the Miranda Kingdom. Accept that this village will soon be abandoned and the people will migrate to the larger villages that are in need of their help. They will prosper there.”

“Margaret,” you whispered, feeling as if you were staring into a stranger’s eyes, “do you hear yourself?”

You felt numb as you watched her press her lips together in a straight line, unhappy with your answer. She gathered her dress in her hands and rushed off to the carriages that were prepared for departure.

Prince Lin touched your arm, gaining your attention, and you felt sick when you saw the pity in his eyes. Between the sight of the lifeless girl and your sister’s lack of empathy, you were uncertain how to feel. “I want to go home,” you whispered, eyes lowered as you unsuccessfully attempted to sort through your emotions.

Prince Lin nodded, silent.

“Let’s go home.”

#lin x reader #lin manuel miranda x reader #lin manuel miranda fanfiction #lin manuel miranda imagines #lin manuel miranda preferences #hamilton x reader #hamilton preference #hamilton imagine #hamilton fanfiction

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tenyearsapeasant · 7 years

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43. The Sent-Down Youth Return

There was a major incident in China in September of 1971. Chairman Mao's official successor, Vice Chairman Lin Biao suddenly got on a plane and flew away, then died when that plane crashed in Inner Mongolia. After that, things began to change in subtle ways.

In 1972, I was home for the new year when President Nixon visited China and shook Chairman Mao's hand. This was very clearly an attempt to warm up to America after ten years of worsening relations with the Soviet Union. The government was trying to use America, an ocean away, to exert some control over our neighbors to the north. My mother said this was the traditional method of keeping your friends far and your enemies close by.

President Nixon meets Chairman Mao in February 1972.

My family lived in the employee dormitories of the railroad department. Before the revolution the building was called a "Chinese garden." Every Thursday afternoon, the residents' study group would meet in the courtyard. The female party official on the neighborhood committee was very loud, and I could hear everything she said from my room.

She said, "Why did Nixon come to see Chairman Mao? First, because we scared him during the Korean War. Second, after the Cultural Revolution, he's lost hope of peacefully changing us. So, he is surrendering to us." According to her, this was a sign of our victory.

Upstairs, I laughed out loud. America was always our biggest enemy, and this was how the party official was trying to reconcile that with the visit?

Everything has its counterpart. Twenty years later I was in Washington DC, in a building near the White House. There was a US government photo exhibition. The last one was from Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping's visit to America, where he was pictured standing next to President Carter. I remember the caption ended with, "... Our new allies - China." The implication here is that America won. No wonder once Deng Xiaoping returned, we started warring with Vietnam. It was like we were getting revenge for America's defeat to prove our worth as new allies. I thought about this, and felt that the alliance between America and China was very good for our own safety - it was now less important to send hundreds of thousands of young people to the borderlands.

In those years, as the political and economic arenas changed, so did the policy around sent-down youth.

Starting in 1970, not every middle or high school graduate needed to be sent to the countryside. The "four directions" returned: one could focus on the countryside, borderlands, factories and mines, and the lower class. Some students could be assigned to factories in Shanghai. Because I was already in a village, my parents only had my little brother Jianyuan left. So he was able to get a job at the cargo shipping department. Half a year later Nixon came to visit, and we started needing to export manufactured goods to America. Jianyuan then transferred to an apprenticeship in a factory.

My mother always liked me, and would often say to my brother, "You're in the factory now because we lost your brother to the countryside."

The first time I heard of getting "sick leave" from the village was in 1970. A man from the Pioneer Production Brigade, by the name of Ru, had a brain infection. When he returned to Shanghai, I heard his residency had been transferred back and he wouldn't have to come back. A few years later, I heard that the criteria for sick leave had been expanded to include pre-existing conditions as well. For example, if your vision was worse than -8 diopters, you shouldn't have been sent down anyways and were allowed to leave.

Starting around the second half of 1974, there was another change. Those families where all the children were in villages while the parents were childless in Shanghai were allowed to bring one child back to Shanghai to work. As a result, Lu Yuping's older sister was able to return from a village in Jilin province, and Ma Liping's little sister was able to return from a village in Anhui province. Since the older of Xia Yuanlin's little sisters was already working in Shanghai, nobody else from his family was allowed to leave Yang'aosisters was already working in Shanghai, nobody else from his family was allowed to leave Yang'ao.

Chairman Mao and Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping.

In 1975, Chairman Mao wanted Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping to take charge of the daily operations of the country. Some of Deng Xiaoping's actions were seen by others as "walking the capitalist road." After a bit over a year, he was again disgraced and fired. In the early summer of 1977, I went to Lugang to hear an official announcement. Deng Xiaoping's former position had been restored. The commune added that Deng Xiaoping did make mistakes in the past, but had personally guaranteed Chairman Mao that they would not occur again.

Immediately after Deng Xiaoping (re)assumed office, the universities reinstated their entrance exams. The sent-down youth in Lugang ran to spread the good news: "We can apply to college!" But from 1966 to 1977 we had spent eleven years without any formal education. Our fingers, which had once grasped pens and pencils, had been reshaped by our hoes and sickles. The test was imminent, and there was no time to learn or review. So applying to college was not an easy task.

In 1977, the siblings Xia Yuanlin and Xia Yuanjie both got into college. That was the first entrance exam in ten years; allegedly the acceptance rate to colleges nationwide was four percent.

In the latter half of 1978, I heard in the villages that a Vice Premier had identified the "Four Dissatisfactions" of the Down to the Countryside movement. These were the dissatisfactions of the sent-down youth, their parents, the farmers, and the nation as a whole. At the end of the year, Deng Xiaoping replaced Chairman Hua Guofeng. Deng Xiaoping was officially the Vice Premier, but in reality he was the paramount leader. The newspapers began to criticize some aspects of the Cultural Revolution. With this, the sent-down youth's discontent of the last decade exploded.

Before the plenum, a Shanghainese sent-down youth in Yunnan province wrote "A Petition to Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping," which allegedly garnered six thousand signatures. The petition detailed the various complaints of the sent-down youth in Yunnan: first, they felt that life was monotonous and devoid of meaning; second, a majority were losing hope for their futures; third, some sent-down youth got married very early and only cared about their nuclear families; fourth, many female sent-down youth left the villages to try to get married in a city, which made it hard for the men who remained to find partners; fifth, the sent-down youth who spent their time at home with their parents were squandering their youth; sixth, the sent-down youth who thought only of getting home were unproductive workers. The petition asked for sent-down youth to be allowed back home.

At year's end, they organized a group of volunteers to head to Beijing. They held up a banner that said, "We want to go home" and started walking north. When they got to the province capital, Kunming, they lay down on the train tracks and blocked train traffic in order to force the officials to let them go to Beijing. After consulting with the national leadership, the party leaders in Yunnan allowed them to return to their homes.

The activists asking to go home in December 1978.

Almost simultaneously, during the Chinese new year celebrations in 1979, hundreds of thousands of sent-down youth went back to Shanghai to visit their families. The Shanghai government held various events to try to support the sent-down youth who were particularly unhappy. But there were still many sent-down youth who took to the streets and blocked railroads, asking to go to Beijing to make their case.

Suddenly, everything changed.

My mother sent a letter saying that the residents' council told her that she didn't need any specific reason to apply for my "sick leave." She had already done all the paperwork, and it was en route to Yongfeng.

About ten days later, I received not the paperwork but another letter from my mother. She wrote that the railroad department had told my father a few days prior that he could retire, which would open up a spot in the department's labor quota, which he could then transfer to me. Then I would be able to work for the railroad department. Now that paperwork had also been done, and it, too, was in the mail. She said that my father was still working every day at age sixty-four, and his wages had not gone down even a single cent.

Everything was changing so fast. I was in shock. I was unspeakably happy, of course, but had an inexplicable sense of loss as well.

The great return of the sent-down youth was beginning.

I was a substitute teacher at Yongfeng Middle School. After receiving my mother's second letter, I told the school what my plans were, and went back to Libeishang. I never did get that paperwork - it must have been lost in the mail.

There was one family in Libeishang that had a patriarch who worked outside of the village. He was over fifty years old. At the time he was home to celebrate the new year. He had heard that I was going back to Shanghai, and came to find me. Very seriously, he said, "In the past couple of years, all the college spots have gone to you sent-down youth. Us farmers have been upset by that. Now, you all are oing back to Shanghai. What are we villagers going to do then? Aren't we a country of workers and farmers? Is it right for the government to do this to us?"

I knew in my heart that the great pendulum of Chinese politics was swinging rapidly toward the right, but I didn't know how to explain this to him. Faced with his confusion and doubt, I was completely speechless. All I could do was explain the "subsitution" method that my father had used to get me a job. Later I heard that he quickly prepared his own retirement, transferring his job to his son. No individual among us is strong enough to turn the tides of history.

When the villagers learned that I was leaving, they came to my house to express their congratulations. The old team leaer, Zhang Famao, took issue, saying, "Old Xia's been here for so long, everyone should be thanking him for his time." Qingkui, Sixi, and other major figures in the village fell in line. Sixi had some education, and he suggested giving me a pennant. They all agreed. Famao went to buy the fabric, Sixi was to write the characters, and a deft young girl was to cut the characters out and attach them to the flag.

Famao and Sixi gave it to me without much ceremony. The pennant was red, with a yellow borrder. It wasn't very big, and there were three lines of white text attached to it. The first line was "A Memento For Comrade Xia Jianfeng," the next read "Leaving behind love for the people," and the last read, "A gift from the members of Libeishang, Feb '79."

I pointed at the characters on the pennant, and jokingly said to Sixi, "Wow, being a teacher really left an impression on you. The 'Jian' and the 'memento' are both written as alternate forms, and the 'leaving' and 'members' are in Traditional Chinese."

After they left, I stared at the four characters "遗爱待民, leaving behind love for the people." I couldn't tear my eyes away, and I felt a little twinge in my nose as a few tears welled up.

Did I really deserve such high praise? Wasn't this pennant a little like the old "Umbrella of the People?"

I read that the upstanding government officials of yore were described as "creating fortune for a whole region by working for one term." When they left the people would give them an umbrella in thanks. Inside, the umbrella would be covered with the names of his constituents. This was the "Umbrella of the People," signifying that the official had been able to protect the people from all sorts of misfortunes. I had also read that corrupt officials would sometimes force their citizenry to make one on their departure.

Later, I found the phrase in the encyclopedia, where it said that the "love" in the phrase also means "benefit" in this case.

When I was production team leader, I felt like I was fairly upstanding, but I didn't count as a government official.

That night I couldn't sleep as various scenes flashed through my head. Digging the emergency spillway at the reservoir during a storm; the soreness of my back during planting and harvesting; horsefly and leech bites; the mice running races above my bed; frozen in fear before the jackals; pigs oinking endlessly in hunger; my yellow dog happy to see me; jogging with a bamboo stalk on my shoulder; nearly falling over while carrying a big sack; villagers bringing me piping hot dishes...

I began to pack my things. Only then did I find that I had many things that I couldn't bring home: the water tank, water buckets, the dining table, benches, the pigpen, the chicken coop, the rice bin and the bed, the pantry cabinets, pottery urns, my hoe and sickle, the chamberpot...

There were twenty-six families in Libeishang, so I split the things I wasn't bringing with me into twenty six parts, and gave them to teach family. Something to remember me by, and a way to thank them for taking care of me for all these years.

After all this, I still had a substantial amount of luggage. Not only did I have the brown synthetic leather trunk from my arrival, I had a few camphorwood trunks and a round hardwood tabletop. To protect my luggage, the villagers made me an immeasurable amount of straw rope, to tie all of my things together tightly.

I went to the Lugang bank to transfer my account. I still had over two thousand yuan in my account. I wrote a two thousand yuan check and took the rest out as cash. The accountant sighed, saying, "If only more sent-down youth were like you. I heard you even gave your things away to all the families in Libeishang."

The accountant knew that in the future, when a villager was in dire need of some money, they would come to the bank and borrow some from that fund. If someone couldn't pay it back down the line, I wasn't going to collect on their debt.

As the last sent-down youth to leave the Pioneer Production Brigade, I went to their headquarters and asked if they could give me a tractor ride to the Jiangbian village railroad station in Le'an prefecture. The production brigade secretary told me, after some discussion they had already agreed that I could use the tractor whenever I wanted. To express their thanks for my ten years of work, they waived the fuel fee of fifty yuan.

The secretary especially emphasized that my contributions were worth far more than those fifty yuan; waiving the fee was to express their gratitude, not to remunerate me for my service.

It was a beautiful morning when I left Libeishang. The village sent four people with me to go down to the train station.

Libeishang village slowly moved farther and farther away, and I couldn't see it anymore.

Lugang bridge was up ahead. When we were picking tea tree seeds every year, I'd often rest my shoulders under the bridge here.

We passed by the production brigades' oil press. I felt the heat, as if I were still there, shirtless, pressing oil.

The road to Cunqian was close by, which I once traveled to go see Ma Liping.

The "Grain Mountain" was swelling towards me. This was the mountain we went to harvest tea tree seeds on.

The narrow "Flag Row Ridge" swept by in an instant. Was there someone digging on the ridge? Was someone singing a folk song?

The Pioneer Production Brigade oil-press near the road, in 1998.

I didn't know the next mountain by name, as it wasn't part of the Pioneer production brigade. I did know that there was the "White Cloud Temple" on it. They said that no matter how hot it was, you would feel cool when you went there. Unfortunately I never made it there.

The tractor rumbled louder as it worked its way up the mountain towards Guanqian Production Brigade.

Goodbye, Libeishang. I've bled in your mountains, I've sweated in your fields, I've dug in your rivers and I've fished in your ponds.

Goodbye, Libeishang. Even though you've humiliated me in some ways, you've given me bits of pride in others.

An individual is a tiny speck in the universe, but I still left the most important ten years of my life here.

I would definitely return, but I would be a different person then. You can't step in the same river twice, after all.

When we arrived at Jiangbian village, the railroad station was completely empty. There was a new announcement posted on the wall. It read, "Because this station's luggage rooms are full, we will not check baggage or other cargo starting today." It was dated five days prior. I guess I wasn't going to leave after all.

Someone who looked like a sent-down youth walked up. I asked, and he was also going back to Shanghai. He had already stayed here for three days because he was unable to check his luggage.

"There are too many people going back to the city. The railroads can't keep up. I hear tomorrow they'll open up the luggage again. I guess we'll just have to wait and see," he said.

"Where's all your luggage?" I asked.

"Oh, over there." He gestured with his mouth. "I come by twice a day, doesn't seem like people are going to steal it."

I guess I could try my luck too. The villagers helped me bring my luggage down, and put it next to that person's.

Then they climbed back onto the tractor and went back to Lugang.

At eight the next morning, the ticket window opened, and I successfully bought my train ticket. Even better, they were checking baggage again!

I transfered at Xiangtang station, and my final destination was Shanghai. I sat in the train, the cabin gently rocking. The wheels clattered over the sections of rail as they always did. I thought of my first train ride to Jiangxi, a decade before. Ten years had passed in the blink of an eye, and the tides of history were pushing me back onto a green train, but in the opposite direction. The train was going a different direction this time, and so was China.

The PA system crackled to life, bringing my attention to the present. The announcer used her well-trained voice to welcome us, "Travellers, we have arrived at the last stop Shanghai station." The way she said "travellers" was " 旅开, lükai," not the standard "旅客, lüke." There had been a skit about this in the 1950s. In any case, the railroad department stated that this was intentional, and created a friendly environment on the train.

When I got back to Shanghai, my father told me that because of the great return, the travel season for the new year was particularly busy. Even the ample luggage rooms of the Shanghai station were no longer ample, and they had to build temporary ones on the platforms.

When I went to the police station to transfer my residency, the young police officer looked up at me. What a coincidence, they said, you left in February 1969 and are returning in February of 1979, a round ten years. That's not easy.

Everyone in Shanghai knew that over ten years, over one million youths from a city of six million had been sent to the countryside. Their lives were certainly not easy.

But many in Shanghai didn't know that there were many peasants in China who, like those in Libeishang, were born, lived, and died in the same place for generations. Their lives were even harder.

In the innumerable villages of China there were many people whose natural environments were not as rich as what we had in Libeishang, and their lives were especially hard.

If you thought closely, I was lucky to have lived and worked in Libeishang for ten years.

Some sent-down youth got rashes and sores when they started working in the rice paddies. It was called "paddy rash." I was lucky, and didn't get it.

I later found out that I would get altitude sickness anywhere over 1500 meters above sea level. Fortunately, Libeishang was barely 100 meters above sea level.

Even more luckily, I was in the relatively rich Libeishang, where I could feed and clothe myself with just my own labor.

By the time of the sent-down youth's great return to the cities, many had already made their way back. Only about seven million were still living in the villages, about forty percent of the original total. Many of them were like Lu Yuping and I, unremarkable and not well connected. Over the course of a few months, all of these people went back into the cities.

In 1981, the departments of sent-down youth across the country began to shut down. Before the Lugang department was disbanded, the director went to all of the villages to ask them to buy the houses the government had built for the sent-down youth. The asking price was low, as they were only looking to offset the initial investment, but he had few takers.

In most villages, they knew that even if they didn't spend a single cent the houses were effetively theirs. If the whole department was being disbanded, was the government going to take the houses too? But Libeishang's Zhang Xianzong and Zhang Sixi decided they would do as the department said, and bought our house.

The director of the sent-down youth department heard there was still one sent-down youth living in the Qingshan Production Brigade, who didn't want to go back to the city. So he went to pay him a visit.

It turns out that this sent-down youth was very happy to stay in the village. He didn't have to work - his parents sent him an allowance regularly. He bought food from the village and vegetables from the villagers, and spent his days without a care in the world. He was living the pastoral lifestyle.

The director had no choice but to send someone to bring this last sent-down youth back to Shanghai.

Lugang Township of Yongfeng Prefecture of Jiangxi Province turned the page on their life with the sent-down youth.

The old Lugang Commune sent-down youth department office had become the Mount Linhua Tea Orchard lobby in 2013.

The old director retired soon after sending the last sent-down youth back to Shanghai. Many of the Lugang sent-down youth should recall that, in his office that doubled as a bedroom, beyond a bed, a desk, and a chair there was also a small file cabinet. Rumor has it that there were dossiers on every one of us in there.

Now his office has been merged with the next room over, and is the lobby for the Mount Linhua Tea Orchard, a company developed by someone from Zhejiang province.

I once asked the manager, "Where exactly is this Mount Linhua?"

He had probably talked to many visitors before me, and he waved his hand toward the window, at a local hilltop in Lijiacun. "Right here." I laughed to myself.

Mount Linhua is the tallest mountain in Yongfeng Prefecture, at the intersection of the Yongfeng, Ningdu, and Le'an prefectures. It's 54 kilometers from Lugang Township, and has no relationship to Lugang. Its peak is 1454 meters above sea level, allegedly the ideal altitude for growing tea. But of the 2000 hectares of Mount Linhua Tea Orchard, not a single one is above 200 meters in altitude.

Ma Liping likes drinking tea, and she says that their white tea is actually pretty good.

#chapter

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linzihong · 8 years

Text

FIC: Follow The Trail [Completed] by confused_duck

Ship: Xiao Jingyan & Mei Changsu AU: Werewolf

Words: 9,187 // Chapters: 5

Summary: The Xiao family has a secret: they come from a line of werewolves. To protect the dignity of the imperial family, only members of the Xiao family know about this. Needless to say, Xiao Jingyan is also a werewolf and has the perks that come with being one.

Read on AO3 at http://archiveofourown.org/works/8243875 OR read below:

Xiao Jingyan is confused.

He looks at the man in front of him up and down -- the man who claims to be a Mei Changsu, who claims to be the most powerful man in the pugilist world, who wears a completely unfamiliar face.

Yet he smells… Exactly like Lin Shu.

There are two secrets that Xiao Jingyan never told Lin Shu.

Xiao Jingyan was born a normal and adorable baby. He had chubby arms and cheeks because his mother was a physician and his aunt, Imperial Consort Chen, made sure no harm was done to Jingyan. Jingyan grew to be a quiet child, and playing in his mother’s garden of herbs everyday was his greatest joy.

But one day, just when he turned five, he transformed into a wolf with dark gray fur and a snowy white belly. When his mother found him, he was rolling on his back with his little paw sticking out, waving at a butterfly.

Next thing Jingyan knew, he was transferred to a hidden court temporarily with his mother. The norm for Great Liang’s royal family is this: whenever a prince or princess has their first transformation at around age five, they will be transferred to the Manjing Court with their mother to learn to control their lycanthropy. After generations of dealing with werewolves, the court has expanded so much so that there are specific physicians for young royals dealing with their inhuman side.

Thanks to Xiao Xuan killing most of his brothers in his ascension to the throne, Jingyan was the only prince in the court during his period of training. Although Concubine Jing wouldn’t tell anyone, she actually enjoyed taking care of the small puppy Jingyan much more than the human Jingyan, mostly because puppy Jingyan would curl up on her lap at night when she told him bedtime stories of her adventures before entering the court. He would wag his tail, and she would pet his soft and furry head.

Jingyan was only in Manjing Court for 18 months. He beat Xiao Jingyu by 2 months, but he was released 6 and 10 months earlier than Xiao Jinghuan and Xiao Jingxuan, respectively.

It was when Jingyan was six-and-a-half years old that he started remembering playing with his flamboyant little cousin, the then four-year-old Lin Shu.

*Princes are more likely to be born lycanthropes. Although it is a dominant gene, it is more likely to show up in the biology of male heirs.

*Manjing Court (曼菁宮): different characters for 蔓茎, literally Vine Stem

“Jingyan-gege!” Lin Shu pulled at Jingyan’s sleeve.

“What is it?” Jingyan patiently asked, turning to Xiao-Shu.

Lin Shu pouted. “Where did Auntie Jing go?”

Jingyan thought back to the months he spent in Manjing Court with his mother in solitude, and forgot to answer Lin Shu’s question for a moment.

“Jingyan-gege!” Lin Shu shouted, and swung Jingyan’s arm left and right to get his attention. “Where did Auntie Jing go!”

“I am right here.” Concubine Jing saved Jingyan, and lifted Lin Shu onto her lap from the floor. Jingyan looked awkwardly at his mother.. He didn’t like lying, but his mother told him repeatedly that he could not tell anyone about him being part wolf.

Lin Shu threw his arms up. “But you weren’t here the last time I came! Or the last time! Or the last time!” Xiao-Shu went on and on, but Concubine Jing and Imperial Consort Chen only laughed as the toddler threw a fit.

“Here,” Imperial Consort Chen extended her arm with a treat, “Does Xiao-Shu want a biscuit? Your Auntie Jing made them just for you.”

“Jingyan,” Xiao Jingyu called from the other side of the room, “Come here.”

Jingyan obediently left the scene of his mom and aunt affectionately feeding Lin Shu and walked up to his brother with his head down.

“What’s wrong?” Jingyu asked when his little brother didn’t look up at him. Little Jingyan kept looking down at his little clenched fists, and Jingyu bribed the child to look up with a piece of hazelnut biscuit. “Want one?”

Jingyan nodded, and thanked his brother before taking it from his hand.

Jingyu kneeled down from his chair to look at Jingyan. “What’s wrong?”

“Brother…” Jingyan hesitantly said as he chewed on the biscuit, “I don’t want to lie…”

“About the lycanthrophy?”

“Yes!” Jingyan exclaimed, happy that somebody finally understood him. “Mother said I should never lie, but she also said I should never tell anyone about being part wolf. How can I do both?”

“Well…” Jingyu patted Jingyan’s head and smiled, “Who said keeping a secret requires lying?”

“Brother means…” Jingyan gave his older brother a confused look.

“Don’t do anything suspicious, and nobody will ever question you. If nobody questions you, then you won’t ever have to lie about it.” Jingyu smiled at his little brother.

After a moment of thought, Jingyan nodded in agreement and smiled back. Just when he proceeded to continue eating his biscuit, Lin Shu came up behind him.

“Jingyan-gege! Jingyu-gege! What are you guys talking about!”

Jingyan panicked when he saw Lin Shu, and replied, “Nothing! We were just eating!”

“What are you eating?” Lin Shu asked, and his eyes glowed with curiosity.

Xiao Jingyu sat back in his chair to enjoy his osmanthus cakes and watched the two.

“Hazelnut biscuit,” Jingyan explained, and pointed at his half-eaten biscuit to reiterate. “It’s the most delicious snack. Do you want to try?”

Xiao-Shu’s mouth opened slightly in wonder. “Yes!”

That night, Concubine Jing watched her son sit at the doorsteps of her Zhiluo Court wagging his tail and worrying about Lin Shu.

Jingyan kept replaying the image of Lin Shu’s face turning red and falling on the ground as he breathed heavily.

“Gege is allergic to hazelnuts. Xiao-Shu must be too.” Imperial Consort Chen explained when Concubine Jing felt Xiao-Shu’s arm for a pulse and Grand Princess Jinyang ran her fingers through her son’s hair as she a few drops of tears ran down her cheeks.

“I’m sorry,” Jingyan kept repeating under his breath. Tears swelled in his eyes as he watched everyone rush to Lin Shu’s side.

After Jingyu escorted the Grand Princess and Lin Shu home, Imperial Consort Chen comforted Jingyan when Concubine Jing went to explain the situation to an imperial doctor that would follow the princess to the Lin manor. “Jingyan, it isn’t your fault. You didn’t know.”

“It was my fault,” Jingyan told himself repeatedly that night as he stared at the moon.

“From now on, I will treat Lin Shu better than anyone and everyone. I owe it to him,” Jingyan swore.

-----

Xiao Jingyan charged at Lin Shu, but the other boy was not going to let his opponent take him down so easy. After all, it was only the first move of their first match, and the red scarf was still in the air.

Jingyan lunged a punch towards Lin Shu’s abdomen, but both of them knew Lin Shu would dodge it with ease. Lin Shu shifted to his right a bit, and threw a weak punch on Jingyan’s left shoulder. The two stepped back to look at each other for a moment before jumping back in.

Instead of going for the boy, Jingyan jumped up and tried to grab at the scarf. Unfortunately, Lin Shu made it just in time to drag Jingyan down by the waist and pushed him onto the ground. Jingyan closed his feet around Lin Shu’s ankles, and pulled the boy down before he could even jump.

Jingyan pushed himself up and looked into the other boy’s eyes. They were practically face-to-face. The two watched each other’s movements tentatively, and before Jingyan sensed Lin Shu’s movements, he saw the other boy grin.

Next thing Jingyan knew, Lin Shu had put his hands on Jingyan’s shoulders and lifted himself up. Jingyan’s body responded before his brain did and he hit Lin Shu’s chest with his head and put the other boy flat on the ground.

Jingyan only looked up when he heard Xiao-Shu laughing triumphantly.

“Jingyan, I still got the scarf,” the other boy said amidst his laughter, “You lost to me again.”

Jingyan felt the rhythm of Lin Shu’s breath under him, and it was the first time Jingyan realized how good Lin Shu smells. He smelled like a combination of a fresh spring and leaves with morning dew, Xiao Jingyan knew that, but at that moment, Lin Shu also smelled like the beginning of a brand new day.

As Lin Shu continued to laugh and catch his breath, Jingyan just wanted to bury his face in Lin Shu’s chest and soak the scent in. Sadly, Lin Shu caught him.

“Jingyan, stop taking advantage of me. You have to go to Donghai some time today, you know.” Lin Shu lightly pushed at Jingyan’s shoulder, but had no intention of forcing the other boy up at all.

“I know,” Jingyan answered, and pushed himself up before giving Lin Shu a hand.

“Hey, you should bring me something from Donghai so you won’t forget me,” Lin Shu suggested as he got up with Jingyan’s help.

“What do you want?” Jingyan asked.

Xiao-Shu patted down his sleeves and shoved the scarf into his shirt. “Not sure yet, but I’ll come up with something before you leave.”

Jingyan opened his drawer and pulled out the pearl he had promised Lin Shu.

He stroked the smooth surface. When he found the pearl, it was jagged at some edges, but it was the biggest pearl of the batch, so he found a local pearl farmer to round off the edges for him. He had to make sure the pearl was perfect for the young marshall.

“I will tell him everything when I give him the pearl,” Jingyan swore to himself. What I am and how I feel.

Except it didn’t matter what he swore when he came back to Jinling. The young marshall had perished, as did his army and his family. As did Jingyan’s family. In just a few months, Jingyan lost all but one person that he loved. Those that died could never come back, and those that were left behind had no choice but to distant themselves from the tragedy. It seemed everything had already fallen apart by the time Jingyan came home, and he was left to pick up the pieces of his shattered heart alone. The blood had dried up, and everyone had moved on.

Three years after Meiling, when Jingyan was finally forced to marry, he realized how much he wished the girl wearing the red drapes and swearing to the heavens that she will be with him forever was Lin Shu.

Except it was too late.

If Xiao-Shu is alive, he would’ve came back to me by now, Jingyan thought to himself. He closed the box with the pearl neatly wrapped in a red scarf, and placed it back in his drawer.

“I choose you, Prince Jing,” Mei Changsu declares.

Xiao Jingyan does not respond, and Mei Changsu’s calm look falters for one moment in wonder of what the prince can possibly be hesitating about.

“Prince Jing?” Mei Changsu quietly says after an extended pause on Xiao Jingyan’s side.

“Yes?” Mei Changsu is slightly taken aback by Jingyan’s sudden respond, but he collects himself too quickly for Jingyan to notice a difference. “Mister Su was saying?”

“I was saying, since the Crowned…” Before Mei Changsu finishes his sentence, Prince Jing has already wandered to further thoughts.

How did I not notice him before? Must be all the scent mixed together, what with Nihuang and Tingsheng and the other eunuch boy. But how is it possible that he smells exactly like Xiao-Shu?

“So I choose you, Prince Jing,” Mei Changsu repeats. This time, he looks at Xiao Jingyan expectantly.

Jingyan laughs. He means to laugh at himself for thinking that Mei Changsu can be Lin Shu, but seeing Mei Changsu’s expectant look, he can only force himself to follow along in the conversation. “Why me? What is a neglected prince going to do for you?”

As Mei Changsu go on about fame and glory, Jingyan’s train of thought goes back to the other man’s identity. Maybe if I get a closer sniff…

Jingyan subtly walks two steps closer to Mei Changsu. “Since mister Su in interested, then so be it, but it won’t be my fault if things don’t go as you wish.” Jingyan has lost track of what he was saying and what the other man had said. He just hopes Mei Changsu doesn’t realize his odd behavior, but it is very unlikely that he didn’t, since Mei Changsu then bows to Prince Jing and excuses himself.

When Mei Changsu walks toward the door, Jingyan catches a whiff of the man, and the scent is undoubtedly Lin Shu.

“Mother,” Jingyan begins to say as he transforms into a wolf. Concubine Jing has ordered the servants away, and it is just the two of them in her court now. “I’ve decided to join the race to succeed the throne.” Jingyan curls his legs and places his head on his mother’s lap. Concubine Jing starts to pet him, and his ears shake as he gets used to the touch.

Concubine Jing sighs, as if knowing all along that this was inevitable.

“There is one more thing,” Jingyan’s tail wags nervously, “Do you think that Xiao-Shu may still be alive?”

Concubine Jing is taken aback by the question. No one found Lin Shu’s body, at least not technically. Afterall, no one can know for sure who is who when there are seventy thousand burnt bodies in identical armor, especially when no one has bothered to look. Every one of the brave soldiers who once fought for the country were buried in a mass grave with no honor to their name, but they were labelled with the worst crime instead.

“Why do you ask?” Concubine Jing asks after a moment of silence.

“I-” Jingyan hesitates, and wags his tail even quicker, “I think I saw him today.”

“Saw him?” Concubine Jing knows that his son cannot possibly be so thick that he won’t recognize Lin Shu if he did see him.

“I mean, I smelled him,” Jingyan explains. “This man, Mei Changsu, came to me today and offered to aid me in my fight for the succession, but he smelled exactly like Xiao-Shu. Yet he looks nothing like Xiao-Shu.” Jingyan turns to look at his mother. “Xiao-Shu has the prettiest eyes that looked like stars, but Mei Changsu’s eyes are so cold that they can cut through stone.”

“Perhaps you’ve mistaken,” Concubine Jing reasons, but even she herself doesn’t believe such a thing can happen. Wolves may forget or mistake a scent, but not when it comes to the ones they love, especially not Jingyan.

“But how can two different people smell so alike?” Jingyan begins to tear up, and his paws are shifting uneasily against Concubine Jing’s leg.

Concubine Jing stays silent, not knowing what to say. She only responds by stroking his fur.

“Mother.” Jingyan turns his head back onto his mother’s lap and closes his eyes. “I miss Xiao-Shu,” he mutters as he nudges his mother’s stomach with the back of his head, as if he is finding the perfect spot to fall asleep.

10.

Xiao Jingyan has made it his mission to find out who Mei Changsu is, even if Mei Changsu is making it hard for him. It has been months since the two has been working together, and weeks since the underground path has been built, but Xiao Jingyan still hasn’t gathered enough information to make a decision about the man’s identity, especially when his sense of smell has been leaving him lately.

“Has mister Su heard of Chiyan army’s young marshall Lin Shu?” Jingyan asks one afternoon.

“I have heard of him,” Mei Changsu answers calmly.

In a warm room, Jingyan can usually smell everything, from people to plants. Now, only his ears aid him in identifying how many pages Mei Changsu has turned in his book. “He and I used to be best friends,” Jingyan says as he reads the scrolls, hiding the glances he takes at Mei Changsu.

The other man simply nods, and continues reading the scrolls, not paying Xiao Jingyan any particular attention.

“I think he is back,” Jingyan comments as if it is none of his business. He lowers his scroll and his head to try to avoid giving away anything with his expression.

Unfortunately, he also misses Mei Changsu looking up at him ever so slightly. Hiding his astonishment, Mei Changsu says, “Hasn’t young marshall Lin… passed away?”

“I think he is back in Jinling.” Jingyan continues to avoid eye contact with Mei Changsu.

Mei Changsu has no other choice but to look back at his scroll defeatedly. “Your Highness may have mistaken.”

“If Xiao-Shu is really back in Jinling, I will find him,” Jingyan declares.

Mei Changsu then proceeds to tell Jingyan why looking for a criminal that committed treason is a sure way to anger his father, but Jingyan only laments about another failed attempt to confirm Mei Changsu’s relation to Lin Shu.

------

11.

Consort Jing has been avoiding her son lately.

Ever since Jingyan has told her he smelled Lin Shu on Mei Changsu, she has known Mei Changsu’s identity. Jingyan may have doubts about his scent, but Consort Jing knows that a wolf can never mistake their one. Since then, she has made sure to deter Jingyan’s attention from equating Mei Changsu with Lin Shu. There has been many thoughtful afternoons when Consort Jing has had to tell her son blatant lies so he can steer clear of the truth.

Consort Jing has concluded that if Xiao-Shu does not want Jingyan to know the truth, then it is best if Jingyan does not know the truth, but it wasn’t until she figured the truth out for herself that she decided to help Xiao-Shu.

One quiet night, when she was told that the emperor has decided to spend the night at Zhaoren Court, she sewed under the dim candlelight and thought of all the possibilities why Xiao-Shu would push Jingyan away. When she finished the last petal of the plum blossom, she remembered an old medical miracle her mentor once told her.

“Animals are the most miraculous of remedies. Take the worms off the cliff of Meiling, for example. Those little things just eat at your skin and leave all their poison in you, but in the end, you would realize that they are the reason you are alive, even if you are cover in white hairs the next morning…”

When the sun came up, Consort Jing ordered a servant girl to find her a lot of Setaria viridis. It was said that the juice of the plant could dull one’s sense of smell.

Consort Jing sighs as she watches the flames of the oven dance. The smell of chrysanthemum begins to take over the scent of the grassy herb.

Author’s note: Setaria viridis does not actually dull human or werewolf senses and is likely that they are not edible. Please do not feed them to your son so he can’t smell his soulmate. Thank you.

12.

“I don’t know why, but Jingyan has been talking about Lin Shu so often lately.”

“Maybe he found out.” The other man fans himself as he mindlessly eats one pastry after another.

“That is impossible. Nothing I have done could have led him to that conclusion.”

“Maybe you left a trail.”

“He cannot possibly know anything that happened in the Langya Hall or in the Jiangzuo Alliance over the years.”

“Maybe his heart is connected to yours.”

Mei Changsu hesitates. “Lin Chen, stop eating the pastries that Auntie Jing made me.”

13.

Soon after Xie Yu has been banished, Lin Chen sends Mei Changsu a pigeon with a bamboo tube labelled “Gift.”

The letter explains the ancient rumor that one of the great kingdoms has a ruling family that is half-man and half-beast, and according to legends, those of half-beast descent will transform into their true form when caught off guard.

Five nights later, Mei Changsu orders Li Gang and Zhen Ping to fill the secret room with non-poisonous snakes.

14.

Jingyan has hated snakes since he was little.

When he was three, he was playing in the Zhiluo Court garden when a snake suddenly coiled around his arm. At the time, Imperial Consort Chen caught the flu and his mother was busy taking care of her and did not have time to tend to her gardens. The servant girls did water the plants as they were ordered, but they did not weed or look out for potentially harmful animals hiding behind the bushes.

Anyway, when Concubine Jing did find her son, he was already in tears with the snake hissing painfully next to the young prince, lying immobile save for some sporadic twitches. Concubine Jing did not know if the snake scared her son more or the other way around, but one thing she knew for certain was that her son would not go near a snake or a place that may have a snake, ever since then.

But as usual, Jingyan’s little quirks made their way to Lin Shu’s ears through the network of mothers inside and outside the palace.

15.

Mei Changsu rings the bell at Prince Jing’s end of the room and finds himself a seat at the table. Although he knows the snakes are harmless, he finds himself restless at the table and picks up a book to help him settle down.

Xiao Jingyan appears in the doorway after a short moment and he naturally seats himself across from Mei Changsu.

“What made mister Su call?” Jingyan tugs at his own sleeve. He knows Mei Changsu would not have called at this hour if it isn’t an emergency, and if Mei Changsu considers it an emergency, it must be some emergency.

Changsu lightly kicks the edge of the table to wake up the snakes. “I wanted to tell Your Highness that I have news of young marshall Lin.”

Jingyan is very confused. “Xiao-Shu?”

“Yes.” Mei Changsu kicks the table harder, seeing that the snakes are unwilling to crawl towards their target. “One of my subordinates has reported a sighting.”

Jingyan squints his eyes at the other man. “And what did your subordinate say?” He is also starting to notice Mei Changsu’s periodic kicks at the table.

“He only reported seeing him, but I have sent some of my men to track him down. I hope that if my men finds young marshall Lin, his return won’t pose a problem for our plan,” Mei Changsu lies. He glances at the floor for a second, and is happy to see that some snakes are making their way towards Xiao Jingyan.

Jingyan, oblivious to the animals making their way to his leg, is stunned by Mei Changsu’s news. “How are you so sure it is Xiao-Shu?”

Mei Changsu begins to pour himself and Prince Jing a cup of tea. It gives Jingyan the impression that Mei Changsu is going to make up a grand story about how his subordinates has seen Lin Shu before, but Mei Changsu just wants to stall some time before the snakes make their way to the prince.

As Changsu opens his mouth to speak, Xiao Jingyan interrupts with a horrified scream. Next thing Mei Changsu knows, the dauntless prince has jumped five feet away to the opposite side of the room and is shooing the snakes away with useless hand gestures.

To Mei Changsu’s disappointment, Xiao Jingyan remains as human-like as ever, but it is amusing to watch Jingyan scream and act so antsy, especially as a grown man.

Stifling a giggle, Changsu calls out, “Li Gang! Zhen Ping!”

The two men comes into the room and bows to their chief, dutifully ignoring Prince Jing’s scene at the other side of the room.

“Take care of the snakes,” Mei Changsu orders.

He quietly sighs as he watches his subordinates chase the snakes away, and has already began planning another test for Xiao Jingyan.

-----

16.

In the dark room, a silhouette patiently waits and silently pours a small cup of a half empty bottle of Dukang wine in the cup opposite from him. In the shadows, the man’s soft breaths is the only sign that he is not a ghost.

Just as Mei Changsu lifts his arm to cover a cough, the secret doorway hidden in Prince Jing’s manor opens and Xiao Jingyan walks in, his robes still cold from the unexpected snow in the spring.

Xiao Jingyan gently sniffs the air as he sits across from Mei Changsu. It has become his habit now to try and smell any reminder of Lin Shu on the man, but nothing. To be honest, Xiao Jingyan’s smell has gotten worse in general. He thinks back to his burned kitchen from a month before, and how shameful it felt to not notice a burning kitchen when nearly all his servants were screaming outside. In his defense, Mei Changsu’s annotated Xiangdi Records is a very interesting read.

Mei Changsu smiles and nods slightly to greet the prince. Jingyan hates that smile -- his lips curls calmly, but his heart has no intention of displaying any affection to the other person. Xiao Jingyan likes his other smile better, the one that the Chief of Jiangzuo only shows in front of Feiliu and Tingsheng. Today, though, his smile does seem to give him a reddish glow. Perhaps it is just the yellow candlelight.

The man gestures at the small porcelain cup in front of Jingyan. “Your Highness must have made a harsh journey. Here, have some wine to warm up your stomach.”

Xiao Jingyan’s eyebrow twitches at the offer, but he graciously accepts and swallows the warmed wine. “Mister Su said there is an emergency?”

Mei Changsu coughs quietly. His throat refuses his efforts to keep the peace and quiet in the room. “Yes. There is something that you must hear.”

Jingyan can’t help but notice that Mei Changsu keeps looking down today. “Is it about Wei Zheng? Or my mother?” Mei Changsu remains silent. “I assumed mister Su knows what is happening since I got the news only after I have almost made my journey back to Jinling.”

“Withholding the news from you was my misjudgement, but you must not act impulsively at this moment.” With Mei Changsu’s every word, he seems as if he can fall into a long slumber right after he says it. That or he has just woken from a long slumber.

“How else can I act at this moment then? My mother is locked up, and so is the last remaining person who may know about what happened to Xiao-Shu.” Xiao Jingyan’s face seems to redden up a bit, but it can’t be from the Dukang, since Mei Changsu knows Jingyan can drink more from a childhood bet.

Remembering that, the sluggish man reaches out to pour the prince another cup of wine. “Your Highness, it is unwise to set yourself up and lose your future over this.” After he has poured the cup full, he folds his hands back onto the iron hand warmer in his lap. He coughs again, this time more uncontrollably.

Even a furious Xiao Jingyan must know something is wrong with his strategist now. “If mister Su does not wish to help, I think it is best for you to get some rest for the night.” Jingyan then turns to leave, almost knocking over the little cup of wine on the table. On his way up the steps to the hidden doorway, he realizes Mei Changsu has not said anything back to his remark.

The prince looks over his shoulder, and sees that the Jiangzuo’s Chief has dozed off in his seat, nodding his head as if he is trying to keep himself awake.

Jingyan remembers when Lin Shu would always nod off when they were studying, and since they always sat next to each other, Lin Shu would somehow end up drooling on Jingyan’s shoulders by the end of the afternoon. After a while, Jingyan started looking forward to these study sessions with Lin Shu -- it was the only time when he could be himself around Lin Shu. Not many people know this, but it takes concentration to hide their wolf traits. After their first transformation, the lycanthropes’ natural form become their human form, a pair of wolf ears, and a long wolf tail. It is learning how to conceal their half-form that takes the royals the longest in the Manjing Court. Whenever Lin Shu starts to breathe steadily against his shoulder, Jingyan would let his ears and tail slip out as he reads the words from the scrolls to the rhythm of the other boy’s breathing. Sometimes, Jingyan would discover that he remembered Lin Shu’s breathing more than the words on the scrolls.

17.

Mei Changsu begins coughing in his sleep, but this time, he does so without waking himself up. Perhaps it is the wine, perhaps it is doctor Yan’s medicine, or perhaps it is the warm fuzzy thing covering him. Either way, Mei Changsu does not want to open his eyes yet.

As Mei Changsu’s coughing calms he shifts into a more comfortable position for his sleep. Xiao Jingyan finds that Changsu has nuzzled his head closer to Jingyan’s neck. Jingyan’s tail awkwardly readjusts itself in Mei Changsu’s lap. Lin Shu used to grab Xiao Jingyan’s sleeve in his sleep, and now Mei Changsu grabs Xiao Jingyan’s tail in his sleep.

When his tail has finally settled as Mei Changsu’s replacement hand warmer, Xiao Jingyan begins to readjust his breathing to match Mei Changsu’s. The prince carefully watches his hands, resting right on Mei Changsu’s lap, rise up and down with the other man’s breath. For a moment, Jingyan is so focused that he forgets how close Changsu’s forehead is to his lips, how his legs are also falling asleep, and how his back is starting to ache.

When he does eventually remember, he just watches the way the most powerful man of the pugilist world sleep. His ears drop, and he watches the man breathe to the rhythm of the candlelight’s dance.

“Jingyan,” Changsu whispers so low that his words are lost after said, “Do my homework for me.”

*Werewolves’ ears drop only when they are completely relaxed.

18.

Jingyan turns his head immediately as the hidden pathway open behind him and Mei Changsu. He hides his ears and tail, and when he takes his tail away, Changsu shifted his in arms from the suddenly lack of warmth.

“Water-” Feiliu points at the scene, and Jingyan hushes him with a finger on his own mouth and gestures the boy to come closer.

The boy does not object, and he begins to hug Mei Changsu into his arms as Xiao Jingyan slides the man off his. Feiliu looks smaller than Mei Changsu, but Mei Changsu is oddly frail and Feiliu is oddly strong, so the two make quite the pair.

Xiao Jingyan gets up, stretches with one hand and hits his own back with the other. As he walks towards the doorway, he remembers that he has to go back to the army -- because “Prince Jing” is still in his tent, contemplating how to train the “lazy and incompetent” troops -- before the next sunrise. He is upset that he has gotten no answer about his mother and Wei Zheng’s status from Mei Changsu, but it seems that the man is too sick to help anyway.

Before he shuts the stone door behind him, he looks at Feiliu and says one last thing. “Feiliu, tell your Su-gege to… That I… Just say that he should rest.”

19.

In some way, Mei Changsu is happy with the results of his experiment. For example, he has confirmed that the Great Liang’s royal descendants are in fact, wolves. However, he is not that happy with the execution of the experiment.

“Didn’t Chief do that to himself?” Li Gang whispers to Zhen Ping the next morning.

“Technically, yes. Actually, definitely yes. But you can’t look at it this way. You see, Chief is very particular about every step of his plans, and he didn’t actually plan to get drunk. But you know, doctor Yan puts things that help him with sleep in his medicine all the time, so you would think he knows not to drink that with alcohol,” Zhen Ping analyzes.

The pair sighs.

Back in his room, Mei Changsu flips through pages of a random book mindlessly. It is less because he has read the book already, but more because he cannot remember anything about that night except a blurred image of Xiao Jingyan and his very, very, very fluffy tail.

Author’s note: “10/10 would touch again.” -- Mei Changsu, actual quote

20.

Xiao Jingyan has had a long couple of days.

He rode back to Jinling at Mei Changsu’s notice three days ago at the break of dawn, ordering Lie Zhanying to stand in as him in his tent. He also ordered every soldier that weren’t directly under him to stay away from his tent, reason being that he is devising a plan for their training. Of course, the soldiers stayed away obediently, what with Prince Jing’s reputation of being a strict military leader.

“It has been two weeks, and Prince Jing is just now reforming our training. He must think we are incompetent,” one soldier whispered to another.

After the night he spent in the secret tunnel, he started riding back just as the sky had started to turn blue. By the time he had gotten back to his camp, it was already nightfall. He changed out of his riding gear and into his light armor to come up with a new training regime for the troops. Thankfully, he had gotten bored on his way back to camp and thought of some innovative ways that may work on these troops.

The next day, he talked to the troops’ leaders at the main tent about the change, and oppositions kept him busy from returning to camp the whole day. The only break Jingyan had was when the marshals went to feast with the soldiers and he nodded off right after he told Zhanying to grab a bite.

That night, Jingyan ate some of the dried food Zhanying put on his table when he was asleep, but he continued to revise the plan and nod off at odd intervals, keeping his mind full of the matter in front of him.

That was how Lie Zhanying found him the next day. Prince Jing was in the exact same place the boy left him the night before: sleeping peacefully with his left fist against his left cheek and his right hand holding a brush. The only evidence of passage of time was the plate of biscuits he left the night before becoming empty.

“Your Highness,” Lie Zhanying whispered. The man did not reply.

“Prince Jing,” he whispered louder. The man stayed still.

“Prince Jing!” Lie Zhanying shouted, and immediately bowed as if nothing happened.

The prince woke up suddenly and looked to his left and right in confusion. He took in the sight of Lie Zhanying bowing to him with half-opened eyes and a red print on his left cheek. “Zhanying? What is it?”

Lie Zhanying nodded. “You should get some rest, Your Highness. You must be tired from all the travel.”

Xiao Jingyan refused, but Lie Zhanying went on persuading the prince to get some proper sleep in his own room, and then practically pushed Jingyan to his own tent.

That is where Xiao Jingyan is now: standing in his tent with light circles under his eyes. Just himself, Xiao Jingyan, the seventh prince, Prince Jing, of Great Liang, standing in his military tent, which is warm, cozy, all is quiet save for some chirping birds, and everything smells like Lin Shu.

Prince Jing walks up to the robes that he threw on his bed the night he got back to the camp -- the robes that Mei Changsu spent a good couple of hours sleeping on -- and brings it up to his chest. He clenches the clothes, and plants his head into it. His wolf ears trembles as he cries into the cloth.

Next thing Lie Zhanying knows, his Prince Jing has thrown him back into the general’s tent and ordered him to hide his absence from the troops again.

“I have something very important to do in Jinling,” Lie Zhanying remembers the prince saying.

-----

21.

Li Gang finally comes back to greet Prince Jing after reporting to his chief that the seventh prince has came to meet with him. The chief of Jiangzuo, who is presumably still fumbling to put on proper robes, has told his subordinate to stall Xiao Jingyan.

“Your Highness, this way please.” Li Gang bows and gestures the prince to follow him.

Xiao Jingyan contemplates whether he should pass Li Gang in their path since the other man is walking so slow, but he decides it would be inappropriate to walk in front of the host.

“But it’s Xiao-Shu’s house,” Jingyan bitterly thinks to himself. He obediently waits for Li Gang to tell Mei Changsu his presence and then steps into the warm room.

Jingyan moves out of Li Gang’s way to let him out the door. When he enters the room, he is overwhelmed with Xiao-Shu’s scent. The sense of smell is heightened in warmer environments, and he wonders how he has missed Xiao-Shu’s smell until now, especially when it is so painfully strong.

“Prince Jing.” Mei Changsu bows to him.

Jingyan pauses. “Mister Su,” he replies and bows back.

“Pardon me for being straightforward, but why did you return?” Mei Changsu asks.

Jingyan pauses for an uncomfortably long time. “I need to talk to you again.”

“Oh.” Changsu stares blankly at the prince, not knowing what to say for a moment. “Well, what is it that you would like to speak to me about?” Mei Changsu slowly completes his sentence.

“It’s about Lin Shu…” Jingyan pauses.

“It’s about Lin Shu and how you’re him and you smell exactly like him and I should’ve known all along but I didn’t and I’m so sorry but I know now so Xiao-Shu how are you why are you here and why didn’t you tell me you’re back how dare you not tell me and is that why you said I can’t save Wei Zheng oh my goodness Xiao-Shu how did you survive Meiling what happened in Meiling do you know how much I’ve missed you come here and let me hold you Xiao-Shu Xiao-Shu Xiao-Shu.”

Xiao Jingyan closes his eyes and decides to disregard his inner monologue. “It’s about Lin Shu’s lieutenant, Wei Zheng.”

Mei Changsu smiles tensely. “If it is about general Wei, you can rest assured that I have already devised a way to save him. As for Consort Jing, it would be best to keep quiet about her situation right now. If Consort Jing stays in hot waters, it is harder to pin you for rescuing Wei Zheng. I know it is very unfair to you and the consort, but it is to ensure everyone’s safety right now.” Mei Changsu looks down a little after he finishes explaining his plan.

Xiao Jingyan has already decided he will trust Mei Changsu’s decision in saving Wei Zheng and his mother on his way back. Mei Changsu is Xiao-Shu, so no harm will come to his mother or Wei Zheng.

Instead of listening to the other man, Jingyan begins to wonder why the brightest boy of Jinling looks down so much when he talks now. Jingyan recalls that Xiao-Shu used to talk with his head held high as if he is talking to the Heavens itself, but there is nothing pretentious about it. It was just Xiao-Shu, the way he has grown to love him as.

Back then, Xiao Jingyan loved being around Lin Shu during the winter. In his mind, Lin Shu is still the little boy on fire that won’t put on a cloak even if his auntie Jinyang is chasing him in the Lin manor.

Now, the pot of burning coal off to the side seems so out of place with Lin Shu. The man in front of Xiao Jingyan seems more like his Mei Changsu than his Lin Shu.

“Not my Mei Changsu,” Jingyan reminds himself.

“Prince Jing?” Mei Changsu leans in closer only a little bit to hear what Xiao Jingyan has said his name for, wondering if he actually heard “My Mei Changsu.”

Jingyan looks into his strategist’s eyes and blushes.

22.

To save Xiao Jingyan from the awkward silence, Mei Changsu suggests, “Prince Jing, would you care to have some water? You must be cold from the ride back.” The strategist then gestures toward the table to his side.

The prince pauses and then takes a seat. “Prince Jing,” Mei Changsu says as he takes a seat opposite to Jingyan, “You must understand that you cannot be involved in saving Wei Zheng.”

“What does mister Su mean by that?” Xiao Jingyan inquires.

Mei Changsu holds back his disappointment that Jingyan still can’t trust him and says, “If anything goes wrong and anyone under you is caught, you will doubtlessly be pined for the crime. However, if you let the Jiangzuo Alliance take care of this…”

“No!” Xiao Jingyan interrupts and sits up. Mei Changsu sits back, impulsively trying to distance himself from the other man. “I cannot let the people of Jiangzuo save Wei Zheng. Wei Zheng is… my business.”

Mei Changsu sighs and looks down at the steam rising from the teacups before looking at the prince again. “I understand, but saving Wei Zheng can seriously hinder or ruin the route to the throne. Are you really willing to risk everything for him?”

“Yes,” the prince answers with no hesitation, “He is Lin Shu’s lieutenant and I will risk anything for him, and I will save him.”

“I understand.” Mei Changsu begins rubbing his sleeve, a nervous habit he has picked up since he was little. “Which is why I said the Jiangzuo Alliance will save…”

“No, you can’t save him.” Xiao Jingyan stares determinedly at Mei Changsu.

“Your Highness, I must. If you want to save him, using the Jiangzuo is your best bet.”

“No, neither you nor Jiangzuo can be involved in this.”

Mei Changsu breathes in loudly to calm his impatience. “Prince Jing, do you want to recreate what happened to Prince Qi?” -- Mei Changsu continues despite the prince’s widened eyes -- “Was the blood shed from the Qi manor not enough for you?”

Xiao Jingyan shifts in his seat before replying, “No matter what, I do not wish to add Jiangzuo’s blood to the Chiyan case.” He stands up and continues, “I will go and form a plan with my men. As for mister Su, please do not worry yourself over this anymore.”

Mei Changsu stops play with his sleeve and clenches his fist as Jingyan turns to leave. “Xiao Jingyan, you have the hearts but why don’t you have the brains!”

Prince Jing pauses in his track. Without turning, he utters, “Lin Shu, you protect everyone but why don’t you think of yourself!”

23.

Xiao Jingyan finally turns after moments of silence, but Mei Changsu still looks mortified at what he has said.

Prince Jing sighs. “I will not let you be involved in this. So what if I get on this sinking ship? I can’t risk you, Xiao-Shu.”

At the sound of “Xiao-Shu,” Mei Changsu seems to be waken up from a daydream and looks down to his own lap. “Your Highness has mistaken, I am not young marshall Lin.”

Xiao Jingyan’s eyes redden again. “Why are you still lying to me?”

Mei Changsu does not respond, but he does not look up at Xiao Jingyan either.

Jingyan’s tears begin to swell in his eyes as he asks again, “Why did you have to lie to me?”

When Mei Changsu has finally gathered the courage to look up, he sees Xiao Jingyan’s tears quietly run down his cheeks. That’s how Jingyan always have been; he’s so quiet even when he is in pain that nobody notices.

Changsu pushes himself up and walks past the table as he reaches into his sleeve for a handkerchief that he keeps for Feiliu. Jingyan watches the man as he walks up to him, and he does not move one bit when the man starts to wipe his tears away.

“How many times have I told you crying won’t help anything?” Mei Changsu whispers gently. His fingers feel Jingyan’s hot tears through the thin cloth, and every tear burns him.

“Three times,” Xiao Jingyan responds. “First, when I was by your bedside when you ate a hazelnut biscuit. The second time was on our third military expedition and you got an arrow in your abdomen. And now.”

Mei Changsu’s eyes redden as well. “And this time nothing will happen to me either.”

Xiao Jingyan suddenly wraps his arms around Mei Changsu. He covers himself with Mei Changsu’s thick scarf and scent. “Xiao-Shu, I don’t want to lose you again.”

Mei Changsu holds Prince Jing back. He quietly comforts, “Jingyan, don’t be afraid.”

24.

Xiao Jingyan storms into the Su manor. His thoughts are no longer coherent, and they have not been since he realized Xia Jiang has captured him and jailed him in the Xuanjing Bureau. He rushes to see his strategist because Meng Zhi has told him Xia Jiang fed him poison during his stay, and even Xia Dong does not know where the antidote is.

“Prince Jing,” Li Gang rushes to the prince’s side, but Jingyan walks past him towards Mei Changsu’s room despite his efforts. “Prince Jing, Doctor Yan said no one can see the chief right now, so please wait outside.”

Xiao Jingyan pauses, but slowly starts to walk again. “If I must see him, what can Doctor Yan do?”

Li Gang pauses in his way, unable to answer the prince’s question. Hearing his silence, Xiao Jingyan turns around to look at the man. Li Gang looks down, not urging the prince to go or leave anymore. “I thought so,” Jingyan says and turns toward Mei Changsu’s room again.

Jingyan closes his eyes for a moment, and then opens the door to Mei Changsu.

The room is warm as always, and the room is full of Lin Shu’s scent mixed with the bitter herbs that is inseparable from Mei Changsu.

Prince Jing walks into the room and immediately rushes towards Mei Changsu’s bed. He takes his cloak off and warms himself at the fire before walking up to Changsu with the cold air still lingering on him, and Li Gang closes the door behind him.

Mei Changsu seems to notice Xiao Jingyan’s sudden presence and coughs in his sleep. Hearing that, Jingyan rushes to Changsu’s side and helps the man sit up on his bed.

Mei Changsu opens his eyes and realizes that he is leaning on Prince Jing. He sighs, “Your Highness, you really should not be here right after the scandal.”

“How can I be anywhere else when you are in this kind of situation?” the prince simply asks.

“I am fine,” Mei Changsu says as Jingyan starts to fill up a teacup with water. “Xia Jiang did not do anything to me in the Xuanjing Bureau. The only thing he did was put me in the same situation as anyone else who gets locked up there. The only differences is I am weak.”

“Mister Su willingly sacrificed himself just to help me save Wei Zheng. That is not something that a weak person can do,” Jingyan answers as he lifts the cup to Mei Changsu’s lips and Mei Changsu obediently drinks the water when the prince tips the cup.

“Now that Your Highness knows that I am well, you really should return to the Jing manor. The last thing we want is to have Jinling talking about how Your Highness got to the position you are at now with the help of an insidious strategist.”

“Mister Su is far from an insidious strategist,” Jingyan quickly rebutted.

Mei Changsu pauses, then shifts his body weight off of the prince. He mumbles just loud enough for Jingyan to hear, “Doctor Yan told me to get more sleep. I better get on that.” He slides himself off of Prince Jing’s shoulder and back onto his bed, and Jingyan watches as the other man pulls the thick blanket over himself and closes his eyes merrily.

Suddenly, an idea crosses Jingyan’s mind.

“Mister Su, perhaps I should warm your blanket for you.”

Mei Changsu opens his eyes and makes a noise of confusion, but before he says anything Jingyan has already began taking his coats off.

“Your Highness, you should really go home,” Mei Changsu weakly says, staring at the ceiling with no other intention but to not watch the prince undress.

“It’s fine,” the prince says as he slips under Mei Changsu’s blanket, “I’m only warming your blanket.”

25.

“So how did Mister Su escape the Xuanjing Bureau unharmed?” Xiao Jingyan asks, breaking the silence that took over the room after he has gotten on Mei Changsu’s bed.

Mei Changsu clears his throat, pulling himself back from the thought of how odd it is to lie next to Jingyan in silence. “If I knew Xia Jiang would feed me a Wujin Pill and I let him, then I would not be fit to be Prince Jing’s strategist.”

Xiao Jingyan stays quiet. Mei Changsu goes back to his thoughts as the silence grows longer. We used to sleep like this too. Except we would face each other. And we would talk so much. What is there to talk about now, and what is there to look at? Hasn’t everything changed?

“No wonder you have always been the brightest man of Jinling,” Xiao Jingyan suddenly breaks the silence. Jingyan’s comment takes Mei Changsu off guard and he jerks his head to look at the other man.

Jingyan doesn’t seem to realize and continues to stare at the ceiling. “It took me so long to realize. I wanted it to be true so bad that it took me so long to realize. I wanted it to be true so bad that I was afraid if I let it be said, let it be anything past suspicion, it would shatter and my last bit of hope would die too.”

Mei Changsu watches as tears ran down from the corner of Jingyan’s eye to his ear, but the other man doesn’t seem to realize. He just says things that tear my heart apart and doesn’t seem to realize. Changsu reaches out to wipe the tear from Jingyan’s face, but Jingyan grabs his wrist.

Xiao Jingyan finally turns to face Mei Changsu, and the prince holds the freezing hand against his other cheek. The cold hand draws Jingyan’s breath away for a moment, but he gathers himself and continues, “I called you all those things. I called you all those things and you just accepted it. You came back to avenge Chiyan, avenge Prince Qi, but I accused you of being… Of being a…”

The hand that is resting on Xiao Jingyan’s face seems to get scorched whenever the prince’s hot tears touch it, burning Mei Changsu more than the fires of Meiling did. But that warmth draws Mei Changsu closer, and he places his other hand on Jingyan’s other cheek, wiping away his tears.

“Jingyan…” Mei Changsu hesitates. “Jingyan… Jingyan… Jingyan…” The prince’s crying dies down as Mei Changsu calls his name. As Changsu wipes the last tear away and draws his hands back, he quietly says, “Jingyan, I’m back.”

Xiao Jingyan’s red eyes seem like they will start crying again. Mei Changsu smiles and says, “So stop crying.”

Jingyan sniffles again and wipes his tears away with the back of his hand. After a moment of staring at each other with nothing to say, Jingyan inches forward and holds Changsu in a tight embrace.

“Xiao-Shu, I’ve missed you,” Jingyan whispers above Changsu’s forehead.

“I’ve missed you too,” Changsu mumbles into Jingyan’s chest.

“Xiao-Shu, never leave me again, okay?” Jingyan asks and holds Changsu and little tighter.

“I won’t.” Changsu shakes his head in Jingyan’s embrace. Jingyan sniffles lightly at the sensation of Changsu’s hair brushing against his chin.

“Xiao-Shu, I love you.” Jingyan closes his eyes.

Changsu opens his clenched fist and places it against Jingyan’s chest. “I love you too.”

“Xiao-Shu…” Jingyan places a long kiss on Changsu’s forehead.

Special:

“Jingyan…” Changsu buries his face further into Jingyan’s chest after the man withdraws his kiss. Changsu quietly asks, “Can I touch your tail…”

Mei Changsu misses the blush on Xiao Jingyan’s face after hearing the question, but the prince reverts to his half-form for his strategist nonetheless.

To save Changsu the trouble, Jingyan loosens his embrace and moves his tail up the blanket to his chest, where Changsu’s hands are, unknowingly stroking half of Changsu’s body with his tail.

Mei Changsu brushes off the feeling of a strange furry thing sliding up his body and brushes Jingyan’s tail with his fingers instead. He looks up at the other man and asks, “Jingyan, is this how you used to keep me warm when I nap doing homework?”

“Yes…” Jingyan answers hesitantly, trying to hide his blush from Changsu.

However, Mei Changsu seems to not notice the man’s reddened face but notices his ears. “You have fluffy ears too,” Changsu seems to have forgotten about any formalities and reaches to touch Jingyan’s wolf ears.

“Yes… But Xiao-Shu… this is kind of inappropriate…” Jingyan hesitantly says.

Changsu withdraws his hand and smiles at Jingyan before leaning in for a kiss. Jingyan is surprised at Changsu’s sudden approach, so his tail suddenly retreats from his chest to his legs. After Changsu pulls away from the kiss, he smiles at Jingyan and says, “I’ve read that lycanthropes can also turn into full wolf forms. Jingyan, can you?”

Jingyan hesitantly nods, not sure what may follow such a question.

“Jingyan, it would be very nice to sleep next to a very cuddly and fluffy wolf…” Mei Changsu smiles as Jingyan’s face reddens even more. “If Prince Jing is not willing to do that then please accept Changsu’s apology. Changsu should not even dream to have the honor of sleeping by Prince Jing’s side…”

Xiao Jingyan’s face turns pale. That means I either turn into my wolf form right now or I never come onto your bed again...

Jingyan retreats from their embrace and Changsu widens his eyes in shock that Jingyan will actually leave him. In the next second, though, Jingyan turns from an ordinary man to a large wolf. The doe eyes stare at Changsu for a moment as he search for words, then gives up when the highest ranked gongzi on the Langya Charts remains silent in shock. Jingyan simply buries his face into Changsu’s chest and wraps his tail around Changsu’s waist. Mei Changsu’s hand automatically starts stroking Jingyan’s back and Jingyan’s breath starts to slow.

Mei Changsu’s heart melts when Jingyan nudges his chin as he falls asleep.

#nirvana in fire #myfic

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