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desiree-harding-fic · 4 years ago

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A TAZ Cinderella AU

You guessed it, folks, this is the full arc of what my Cinderella!au would have been for the Adventure Zone, if I had the time/inspiration to write the whole thing. Just imagine that all of this is paced out over a bunch of chapters of very pretty words, ok? ;)

That said, enjoy! I’m actually very proud of the thing I concocted in my my head for this!

To begin, a quick run-down of the situation as it stands at the beginning of the fic: Mostly Taakitz-centric, Blupjeans as a side plot. Kravitz is the Crown Prince of Faerun, his mother the Raven Queen current ruler of the kingdom, and him as her only son. Taako and Lup’s parents are both dead, and they live with their mother’s father: their grandfather Tostaada, along with the many aunts and uncles and cousins from Tostaada’s other children.

Tostaada has a house, several days travel (at least) from Neverwinter, a typical country home for the well-to-do. He’s somewhere between gentry and nobility, but his wealth has been in decline, as is often the case in these stories. His mistreatment of Taako and Lup comes from a disdain for their father. And it provides a convenient excuse not to pay servants.

Summary of the arc proper under the cut:

So we begin with a prologue (posted here) in which we see Kravitz and Taako, around the early teenage years (14-ish) and just get a little taste of how different their lives are.

Chapter one (also here) kicks off with Kravitz sneaking out of the castle in the early morning for a ride, musing at how busy he is and how stressful his life is trying to be in charge of a whole kingdom, etc. Upon his return, Barry, the royal head arcanist, and Kravitz’s friend, is waiting for him, and informs him that he has a meeting scheduled this morning with the Royal Council.

The Royal Council was originally meant to be a B plot in the story, something to help drive the thing forward, in part because I couldn’t think of a reason as to why the Raven Queen, who adores her son, would force him into marriage. There had to be an outside pressure. So the council was born.

The council was created during the reign of Kravitz’s grandfather, as a way of giving the people a say and lessening the power of absolute monarchy in Faerun, which was falling out of fashion. That was the intent, but, as we find out in the first chapter, the council is now filled with noblemen who haven’t really got the people’s best interests in mind, at least in Kravitz’s humble opinion, and get a good deal of say over what he does. There was never anything enacted that would allow Kravitz to either disband the council or enact term limits, and now, if he were to put such a thing to a vote, it would never go through.

The original council consisted of: Lord Sterling (Artemis’s father), Jenkins, Gundren & Jack (both recently deceased at the opening of the story), Governor Kalen, and Davenport. I promise this will be relevant later.

So in our first chapter the Raven Queen pulls Kravitz aside after his meeting and tells him, over a very tense tea, that he is turning 25 in a couple of months, and the council, as well as foreign powers, are getting nervous that he has no martial prospects yet, and as the Raven Queen has no other relations to carry on the monarchy in Kravitz’s stead, they kind of need to get a move on. Having it so that the Royal line could die out any minute isn’t great for cultivating confidence in the people of your kingdom.

Kravitz is understandably upset, being the romantic that he is (I love him), and he wants nothing less than to be married as the result of some political power play. And yet, there is low probability, at least in his mind, that anyone that will be “suitable” according to his mother, the council, and the people both in Faerun and abroad, will be anyone that he will even remotely like. But what can he do? He agrees to begin the process of finding a spouse at this year’s Harvest Ball, which will coincide closely with his 25th birthday.

Barry is actually the one that gives Kravitz the idea of throwing the doors open to the whole of Faerun, and Kravitz, seeing it as an opportunity to meet men who aren’t stuffy nobles he hates, strikes a bargain with his mother: a masked ball, three nights long. Kravitz will not know (in theory) who is wealthy and powerful and who is not, and will be able to choose at his discretion someone that he would like to pursue. Shockingly, the Queen agrees.

*~*~*~*~*

SMASHCUT to Tostaada’s country home. We see Lup and Taako going about their morning routine, making breakfast for the family, lighting the fires in the hearth, generally working their asses off. Mid-breakfast, there’s a knock at the door, one that Taako goes to answer. (This is a no-no. He’s meant to be more of a behind-the-scenes servant, Lup being the one who is seen. She’s slightly more favored by Tostaada. Taako is hated. But Lup is in the middle of something, so...) It’s a letter from the Raven Queen, an invitation actually, to the family Taaco, to come to Neverwinter for the three-night Harvest Ball.

The Queen’s intentions of finding her son a husband are not directly stated, but Tostaada is a shrewd, terrible old man, and it does not take him a moment to catch on. The family packs up, Taako and Lup and all, and heads to Neverwinter, the ball two weeks away.

While they’re packing, Lup pulls Taako aside and tells him her plan. They’ll be in Neverwinter for almost two weeks, ball included. And the whole kingdom will be swarming to the city for this, it will be more crowded than ever, and therefore will give them the perfect opportunity to run away from Tostaada. He’ll be so preoccupied he’ll never be able to track them down in the chaos of this event. Taako hesitates for just a second before he’s on board. They’ll run away mid-ball, when the family is gone, and by the time Tostaada realizes anything, it’ll be too late.

*~*~*~*~*

SMASHCUT back to Krav, chilling in the palace, it’s now two weeks before the ball (around the same time that Taako and co. get the letter, actually,) and preparations are well underway. During another busy day of overseeing some of the prep for the upcoming Massive Festival (TM), Kravitz runs across Captain Davenport, just returned from a long stint at sea.

They have a conversation about the state of affairs in the kingdom, Kravitz expressing his frustration at not only the ineptitude but corruption on the council, and his worries about this marital plan. He knows that Lord Sterling is going to throw his son Artemis at him relentlessly, but he hates the kid, and wants nothing to do with him, etc.

Davenport merely expresses that he has faith in Kravitz’s ability to turn it all around and make for a good king. That the recent loss of Gundren and Jack and the dragging on of the council replacing them doesn’t bode well, but that he needs to see the thing through.

He unfortunately agrees with the rest of the council, however, that Kravitz needs to be married, and soon. There’s only so long they can go dragging this out. Kravitz sees the sense in this and agrees, albeit reluctantly. At least he has the opportunity to find someone he actually likes.

Meanwhile, Taako, Lup, Tostaada and the family have arrived in Neverwinter and will be staying in a fine manor house in the upscale residential part of the city, and the family immediately sets out to find tailors and seamstresses who can get them all dressed up for the inevitable ball. The house is in shambles on the inside, the only way Tostaada could get it cheap, and Lup and Taako spend the afternoon trying to fix it up to live-able standards and clean it enough so that should the family be called upon, they’ll at least look respectable.

In the meantime, no one is home, and they begin to plan their escape.

They plan it for the third night of the ball. Tostaada will be furious if they leave sooner, being left with no servants to assist any upcoming nights. The third night, once the family leaves for the party, they’ll be in the clear. If Tostaada manages an advantageous match for any one of the cousins, he won’t bother with Taako and Lup anymore, and get better servants. It’s highly likely that in the next two weeks he’ll make several matches, so after the party is done they should be as safe as possible given their plan.

*~*~*~*~*

Everyone spends a week getting ready.

Istus, friend of the Raven Queen from a neighboring kingdom, arrives to the palace. She will be staying for the celebration, and for a while on either end. She and the Raven Queen have a conversation, in which the Raven Queen expresses her anxiety about the upcoming matchmaking process for her son. She does not want his marriage to end up like hers (loveless, purely political). She asks Istus if she will use some of her divination skills to look into the future. Istus agrees, and it is clear that she sees something very intriguing in Kravitz’s future. She does not say what it is, but she assures her Majesty not to worry.

The day of the ball arrives.

Now by some trick of fate, one of the cousins has received the wrong suit by accident, and Lup simply must go to the tailor and send it back, and retrieve the one he was supposed to receive at any cost. So Lup goes, and Taako doesn’t think much of it until she bursts back into the attic that evening, two garment bags in her hands. She says that there was a mistake, and that a noble man and woman didn’t pick up their garments for whatever reason; the week has been so chaotic anyway, and there was talk of them falling ill and being unable to attend the ball tonight, and the woman at the tailor shop felt so bad about the mistaken order she offered to alter them to fit Tostaada’s family for free, as a sort of “so sorry about the mistake” thing, and Lup said she would just take them, and isn’t it exciting Taako, we can use these and go to the ball tonight!

Taako is reluctant to accept this plan, but Lup says they’ll only go one night, just to see the spectacle, and then they can be home for the other two and prepare to run away, and besides, they’re starting a new life and this will be a fun way to kick it off, and the outfits even come with masks, Taako, please?

Taako finally relents, and they spend the rest of the afternoon getting the cousins ready to go to the ball themselves, along with the aunts and uncles and Tostaada himself, who is in one of his moods. It’s awful, but they finally get a moment away, and they sneak up to the attic to pull out their garments...

And they get caught. Tostaada never comes upstairs, but he was calling for them, one of the cousins having forgotten a brooch or something, they weren’t answering, and when he comes upstairs and sees them, he takes the garments, drags the twins downstairs, and lets the cousins laugh at them until they’re in tears, and the family rip the dress and the suit to shreds.

The thought that they would even show themselves is so repulsive to Tostaada, and he gets angry at the presumption of it all, and he locks them downstairs in the kitchen for the duration of the evening, the door swinging shut behind him with a heavy clang.

Lup is furious, Taako more resigned, as the house quiets with the eventual departure of the family.

An hour passes with them sitting in the kitchen under the house, Lup cursing her luck. If not for her stupid idea to go, they wouldn’t be in here, locked in, and they could work on their preparations to leave two nights hence. But now they’re completely useless.

The latch on the door to the outside of the house, the small yard in the back with the meager kitchen garden, comes undone, and swings open of its own accord.

A woman is there. Or at least it looks like a woman; she is cloaked, head to toe, even her face obscured, but there’s a shimmer in the air around her that they recognize immediately as magic.

Taako and Lup have been learning magic, little by little. Taako stole a book from the village a little over a year ago, but it’s slow going, especially with Tostaada always trying to catch them doing something “indecent.”

They’ve never seen anything like this.

The mysterious woman tells them she heard Lup’s frustrated shouting while walking by and wanted to see if they needed any help. Once they thank her for letting them out, she asks them why they haven’t decided to go to the ball; two young people like them at home on a night like this seems strange. Lup scoffs, says they thought about going for a moment, but they have nothing to wear.

Istus (for by now the reader surely knows it is Istus) cocks her head and says that that won’t do, will it? And raises her hands.

And in a moment their clothes are transformed, and Lup is dressed in a gorgeous gown in reds and golds, and feathered mask is on her face, and Taako’s in a finely made suit, his mask vaguely rodential. And the woman says that now they are well-suited for a ball. Taako and Lup are just gaping at her, but she shoos them along. Go, she says, and Taako feels a peculiar prickle up his spine when she tells them, when she tells him, it feels like, to amuse himself, to have a good time, to meet new people.

She warns them that while her magic is powerful, which is evident, it is sensitive to time. Wherever they are, at the stroke of midnight, the magic will fade, and their appearances will revert to what they were before.

Lup and Taako, wanting to go only for a few laughs and to spite Tostaada, say that this is more than enough time.

And they go.

When they arrive at the palace, it’s positively swarmed with people. They agree to meet by the front doors at a half hour before midnight, giving them plenty of time to get out without being seen.

And they go in.

They’re being jostled on all sides, and well, as much as they’d like to stick together it doesn’t really work out that way, and before he knows it, Taako is in the midst of a ballroom looking for Lup, and following the flow of the crowd -

And suddenly he’s face-to-face (or, well, mask-to-mask) with a very handsomely dressed man with a skull for a face.

A skull mask, to be exact, all silver and gold filigree and done up with rubies and diamonds, and his suit is fine, dark velvet in rich blacks and deep, deep reds, and he bows and Taako does, too, because he feels as though it’s the thing to do, and when the man straightens up he and Taako trade the typical small-talk befitting a prince and his guest (because, Taako realizes, with as many people seem to be looking at them, that is surely who this must be), and Taako says something witty that makes Kravitz laugh which I will not write here, because this is a summary, which means all I have to do is say when the jokes happen; I don’t actually have to write them.

Long story short, Kravitz pulls off his mask, and he asks Taako to dance.

The anonymity Kravitz was hoping to be afforded by throwing a masked ball has not really panned out. Everyone can tell exactly which mask the prince is behind, and once the receiving line began to form, there was really nothing for it. He likes the Mongoose-masked stranger, though, and would very much like to know him better. And so what if he’s abandoning the rest of the line? He’s the prince, thank you very much, and he can do what he likes.

Taako is sold the moment the prince pulls his mask off, because the prince is hot, and Taako feels rather gorgeous himself, and maybe this is the first night in a while that he’s had any kind of serious fun and he’s feeling a bit reckless, so he pulls his mask off too and they have a dance.

Or two.

Or three, talking all the while.

After the third, the prince bows respectfully and says he must see to his other guests, but that he hopes to see Taako again, and Taako, maybe just a little flustered, wanders over to the food.

Meanwhile, Lup entered the ballroom, having gotten a bit lost on the way in, shortly after the fateful meeting itself and what does she see but her brother, unmasked, dancing with a man who is most unmistakably the prince.

Which is really just perfect, isn’t it?

She pouts for a minute because one beautiful elf will hardly draw any attention in this crowd, except Taako’s dancing with the crown prince, so every eye in the assembly is fixed upon him, and seeing an identical twin will definitely lead to some word getting around. So Lup is confined to remaining masked for the duration of the ball.

Which isn’t so bad, since she was expecting that, after all, but neither is she looking forward to it.

She skirts the edge of the ballroom, finds her way to some refreshment tables, and she’s lucky her mask leaves most of the bottom half of her face free as she nibbles on the hors d’oeuvres set out and generally enjoys the spectacle. She is propositioned to dance a few times but after the prince removes his mask a large portion of the assembly does as well, and Lup rather sticks out for keeping hers on.

She isn’t given much more attention, then, as all of the other people around seem to write off the mask as a wish to stay hidden and therefore ignored, and while they aren’t wrong, Lup isn’t enjoying the ball half as much as she thought.

And then things go from bad to worse.

Some moron completely knocks into her and sends her drink, a strong red wine, all down the front of her, granted, magical and temporary, but very nice dress.

Lup’s going to be mad, but the man is so sweet about it, stammering his apologies, and completely red in the face and, frankly, such a dork that she really can’t be mad, and he does about some ridiculous business about trying mop up the wine and it’s completely hopeless, and Lup is bored -

So she tries casting prestidigitation on the stain.

And, somewhat to her surprise, it works.

This catches the man’s attention, who immediately straightens up and starts asking her questions about where she’s learned magic, and what other spells she knows, and what her name is. Lup, in a moment of impulse, introduces herself as Lady Lulu, which she cringes at immediately but sticks with. And the man is nice to talk to, and interesting, and apparently an expert in the arcane, which Lup is thrilled about. Out of all these people she ran into someone actually interesting.

At one point, she invites the man to dance, but he refuses, a bit awkwardly. He says he’s not very coordinated, but he wouldn’t mind taking a walk, if she wouldn’t mind either? Lup is going to say yes, but upon glancing at the clock, sees that it’s almost eleven-thirty, and tells him she has to go.

Taako, meanwhile, has danced with Kravitz twice more, and chatted a bit, and when he tries to extricate himself from his Highness’s presence Kravitz seems genuinely disappointed to see him go, and asks him if he’ll be back tomorrow night.

Taako, suddenly overcome with something that makes him want to make this man smile, says yes.

And then he goes to meet Lup at the front.

They head home, making their way through the streets which are not quite as crowded as the palace was, but are still significantly busy, as those who felt they would not be at home in the palace have taken to celebrating the harvest ball in the streets. Lup and Taako make it home unnoticed, and they chat a little bit about what they saw and what they did, and when Lup teases Taako about the prince, he’s unusually quiet. This worries Lup a bit, but she doesn’t press further.

Their clothes transform when they’re about 3/4 of the way home. When they arrive, they figure they have a few hours until the family gets home to begin making preparations for their escape. Around three, they shut themselves back up in the kitchen. Lup manages to find, from the outside, a way around the locked door that i haven’t decided on yet, because this is just a summary.

Wash, rinse, repeat. The twins are on their best behavior the next day as Tostaada and co. sleep through the morning, having been up late the night before, and while no one comes to call that afternoon, Tostaada still has high hopes for a match. Lup and Taako are locked in the kitchen, manage to get out -

And now, Taako has been nervous all day having promised the prince he would be back, and surprisingly, quite wanting to see him again. He’s pacing the floor when Istus arrives, transforms their clothes, and sends them off.

Lup is more than a little skeptical about this magic woman, but Taako wants to go, so she goes, and tries to put the bizarre-ness of it out of her mind.

Taako goes to the ball, meets up with Kravitz, and this time Kravitz doesn’t leave his side all night. Lup wanders around, still masked, until she runs into Barry again (not literally this time) and makes good on that walk in the gardens he asked her for last night. They both make it to the gates again by eleven-thirty, and make it home.

This night, however, something tips Tostaada off. Maybe it’s the way Taako moves, or maybe it’s his own paranoia, but something happens at the ball that makes him suspicious. I will not hash out what it is at this time because, again: Summary.

Wash, rinse, repeat.

Istus, on the third night, gives Taako his most fabulous ensemble yet, a beautiful thing in deep blue and silver and gives him jewelry set in sapphires and, you guessed it, pink tourmaline (because I’m predictable). Including, most importantly, a pair of bracelets. As Lup is locking up the kitchen to go, Istus pulls Taako aside and hands him the bracelets, and tells him that they will not dissipate at midnight. She hints vaguely at Taako and Lup’s plans to go away after the ball is over, tells him to consider the bracelets a gift. They are two of a kind, she tells him, and perhaps they will fetch a price.

Taako does not know why this woman knows so much about their life, but he’s eager to get to the party, accepts the bracelets, and before he can ask her more, she’s gone.

They head out to the ball for the third time.

It is this night that we get the majority of the material between Taako and Kravitz. Kravitz, this time, is waiting right inside the door to the ballroom, and when Taako arrives he is immediately swept up by the prince into a dance. Although, after a few hours of dancing and eating and generally enjoying themselves in the ballroom, they take a walk in the gardens.

Meanwhile, it is at this time that we get the scene where Barry has been chatting Lup up, quite obliviously, and finally he asks her if she’d like to see his lab, unable to take it anymore, he’s so excited that someone’s interested in his work. Lup, of course, thinks it’s a come-on, as discussed here, but upon going up to Barry’s tower lab she realizes that he actually, genuinely was inviting her up to look at his research which is just... too cute.

Meanwhile, Taako and Kravitz are taking a stroll through the extensive terraced palace gardens, talking all the while and the both of them are just... enamored. Taako feels beautiful and important for the first time in a long time and it’s wonderful. Kravitz has found someone interesting and gorgeous and wonderful, and it’s just... too much. It’s hard to write in short form here that they’re in love, but they like... are. Just trust me. Not fully, because it’s only been a few meetings, a few nights, but there’s something there. There’s a pull that they haven’t felt before, and feels somehow beyond them.

They wander, and the gardens are beautiful, and the moonlight is beautiful, and they end up on a sort of terrace, secluded by trees, and the sea is down below them and they dance again, just the two of them, and then there’s kissing and it’s all very romantic, I promise. There’s a scene from it here.

Then the clock strikes midnight.

And Taako panics.

The time got away from him, he got distracted, and he tries to run, but Kravitz catches his hand and he’s begging Taako to stay but Taako can’t, because Kravitz doesn’t know what’s going on here.

He thinks fast. He unclasps one of the bracelets and places it in Kravitz’s hand and says so fast that if Kravitz wants to see him again he can look for him and Taako will have the other bracelet ok bye and then he runs.

He barely makes it out of the palace in time.

But of course, by this time, Lup is not at the front gates. They planned out a fallback location, less conspicuous, if one of them got held up, and Taako is already late, and he gets there as fast as he can, and Lup is pissed.

(she’s mostly just worried).

She kind of goes at him for being late but Taako just says he lost track of time, and whatever that feeling is in his voice makes Lup back off. She’s never heard Taako sound like that before. She lets it go, but she’s more worried than before.

They make their way home, ready to pick up their packs and run like they were planning. But they open the door to the kitchen, and there’s a thud, and a candle lights, and Tostaada is there, the contents of their packs spread out before him, and absolute fury in his eyes.

It’s awful. After his suspicion, he saw Taako enter the ball tonight. And knew it was him. And he was furious. He came home, headed them off, and yells at them something fierce, locking them in separate closets to deal with them, because they can’t be trusted to be together, they’ll scheme. (Some of the cousins, by the way, are here for this, because fuck the cousins).

They try desperately to break out. Banging on the door, trying to bust out the doorknob, to cast something on the door to unlock it, but they’ve been going three days only getting a couple hours of sleep a night. It finally hits them how exhausted they are. After a while, there’s nothing they can do.

Now you may say to yourself “this is awfully convenient.” And you would be right. But it’s also a fairytale, and this is a summary of a fairytale, so there.

Tostaada, because he fucking sucks, finds some way to separate the twins. Probably something along the lines of dragging Taako out of his “cell” and being like guess what I’ve always hated you and I’m a real bastard so you’re working for this shady caravan now, have a good time. Taako is Not Down to be separated from his sister but he’s also like hey fuck you to Tostaada and is going to dip from that caravan in about 30 seconds so he’s like yeah have a nice life, too, dickweed.

He slips away from the caravan in like... a day. Fuck those guys. He’s gonna go back and get Lup.

And just a bit later, Lup gets let out of the closet, and finds out that Taako’s gone. And she goes fucking berserk. She casts her first fireball (yes I know that’s now how it works in DnD but shhhhhhh it’s fine).

She burns Tostaada’s fucking dumbass city house to the ground. And Tostaada and the cousins are panicking but Lup is honestly like fuck the cousins, and she slips away in the chaos. Fuck Tostaada. Fuck the family. Lup’s going to go find her fucking brother.

*~*~*~*~*

We haven’t checked in on Kravitz in a hot minute, but he’s been completely smitten with Taako from the moment he met him, and has been saying as much to Mama Bird herself, the Raven Queen, who has been... a little less than stoked. She is skeptical because this isn’t going exactly as planned, and on top of that, Kravitz hasn’t even learned this man’s name. He’s an absolute enigma, and Raven worries not only that this man will potentially not be a good asset to the kingdom, but he also might not turn up and completely break Kravitz’s heart.

But Kravitz stands firm. The Queen said he could make his choice, well, he’s going to. He’s going to go after this guy.

...Or so he thinks. See, the Royal Council, as in all things, gets their say. And they’re not happy with this. Generally disapproving when Kravitz tries to make his own decisions, they say absolutely not to his wish to search for Taako. Raven tries to help by talking them down from letting them handle the search and keeping Kravitz in the capital to letting Kravitz go himself but only giving him a few months time. If he hasn’t found Taako by then, he’s going to have to call off the search altogether and look for another match.

It’s not good, but it’s something. Kravitz takes his bracelet and begins seeking out every elf in the land who even vaguely matches Taako’s description.

*~*~*~*~*

The elf in question is, at this point, on his own. Meeting up with your sister when you have no idea where she is and she has no idea where you are, and you’re running back and forth and missing each other, well. It’s difficult.

It takes them a little while to get back together, and I’m sure there are plenty of minor trials and tribulations along the way. I won’t go into them all here, because this is a summary.

*~*~*~*~*

Kravitz is on the move, looking for Taako. He searches and searches and comes up with nothing. It’s been two months. It’s almost the height of winter. He’s running out of his allotted time for his search. And that’s when it happens.

He’s riding through this one town, a ways from the capital, when he sees, there, out of the corner of his eye, a flash of silver and blue and maybe some pink, and he turns his head, and there’s the bracelet. The one Taako gave him.

But it’s not on Taako’s wrist.

Kravitz calls for the guards travelling with him and they stop the woman and they question her as to where she got that bracelet. She says that she bought it off a travelling salesman, and seems rather embarrassed about it. She’s reluctant to give it up, having bought it fair and square, but Kravitz pays her, and gets it back.

Kravitz is, of course, heartbroken. Taako said he would have the other bracelet. He told Kravitz to look for him. He said to look for him. If he gave it up, if he sold it, does it mean he doesn’t want to see Kravitz again after all?

Kravitz wants answers for a minute. But then he listens to reason. Or so he thinks. Discouraged, he returns to the capital, as per Lord Sterling’s suggestion.

Many people and things are trying to keep these two apart. It is at this point that these forces begin to win.

So he goes home, in time for the first snow to cover Neverwinter.

*~*~*~*~*

What Taako and Lup are up to in the meantime:

It’s pretty close to canon in that they mostly hop from job to job, and caravan to caravan, taking odd jobs and cooking and making their way. And it’s hard. It’s really hard. But something about it is good. This is the first time they’ve had, maybe in their whole lives, to just be in charge of themselves. They’re deciding their own destiny now.

Lup can see that Taako is different. Something has changed. The news that the prince is looking for him isn’t a secret at all, so she keeps a careful eye on him for how he feels about that. She brings it up a few times that maybe they could come forward in their own way, maybe let people know that he’s out there, but Taako keeps shutting her down before she can really talk about it.

As for Taako, he’s more than thrilled to finally be free of Tostaada, and to have his sister back after a few months of absence. But the whole thing at the ball and with Kravitz is... weighing on his mind.

I should explain the bracelet fiasco.

See, Taako and Lup returned from the ball, and the whole thing with Tostaada went down. Of course, while he was deciding what to do with Taako he confiscated the bracelet, and sold it off a bit later for whatever he could get. This is how it was able to travel so far from where Taako actually is; the jewelry seller went one way, Taako another, and Tostaada and the family, when they finally left Neverwinter, a third.

This is all running through Taako’s mind of course. It would be nice for Kravitz to find him, sure, but Taako was the one who set up the system of verification through the bracelet. Without it, what credibility does he have? And sure, maybe Kravitz will recognize him, but what if he doesn’t? It was dark, and it was only a few nights, and -

Anyway, Taako’s not going to worry about it. He’s fine, really, and it was only a few nights anyway, and what does he care about the dumb old prince. It’s not like Kravitz said he wanted to marry him. He just said he wanted to see him again. What the hell does that mean? And it’s not like Taako was the only one he spent time with at the ball.

Basically our sweet boy is snackin’ on a big slice of denial pie and it’s very sad.

Taako is saying that he doesn’t care whether he sees Kravitz again or not, but Lup can tell something is wrong. She suggests that they stick around in Faerun, work for the winter, and come spring, they’ll head out. They’ll hitch their way with the caravans, and work their way over the border. New country, new life. Leave all that Tostaada shit and everything behind.

Taako’s on board. They find themselves a job cooking and occasionally tending the bar at an inn, not a gross one but not the fanciest either. They’re going to work up some money, and they’re going to hit the road.

But back to Kravitz.

*~*~*~*~*

Kravitz is back home at the palace in Neverwinter. The first snow on the not-very-aptly named city makes traveling difficult. If Kravitz hadn’t already given up the dream of Taako, it would well and truly be impossible to find him now. No one in their right mind would send a search party out in the winter months.

So he’s essentially on house arrest.

And so begins the parade of potential partners. Everyone knows about the ball. Everyone knows now that the plan of having the prince find a partner there was a colossal failure. Every young and eligible nobleman in the capital who is even remotely interested in men gets thrown at this boy. Artemis Sterling most of all, a spoiled brat of a boy, who, when he’s not being absolutely appalling to people is boring them to death.

Kravitz is fucking miserable.

Does this make him think of Taako? Yes. Does he miss him? Absolutely. Does it only twist the knife of heartbreak in this boy who thought he had found someone good and then that person gave him up? 100 percent.

Kravitz is ready to jump off the cliffs out back the palace into the Stillwater Sea and swim to a new country when the word from Raven’s Roost comes.

Rebellion! Against Kalen, of all people! How could it be?

(Kravitz has hated Kalen for a while, but this certainly is a pickle).

Kalen is ousted, arrives in Neverwinter half-frozen and fuming, a few cronies on his tail, and chaos in the palace ensues. Who to believe? Kalen, who claims he has been unfairly attacked, or the people, claiming Kalen’s long-term abuse.

It all shakes out somehow. This is a summary, though, so I don’t have to say. Julia does something badass. Also she’s not dead. She and Magnus show up in the capital and there’s the whole them vs Kalen before the Raven Queen fiasco and finally she chooses the good people as the correct ones and Kalen is thrown in prison or banished or something lol idk.

And now there are... 3 positions on the royal council empty and it is essentially non-functioning. The kingdom is in governmental crisis. Magnus and Julia are at the palace. This whole rebellion/trial thing has taken most of the winter months.

Barry and Magnus become fast friends, which of course puts Magnus into Kravitz’s orbit more than the Kalen ordeal already has. And they begin talking. And at the prompting of Magnus and Julia being so in love, Taako of course comes up.

Magnus is all omg wow buddy that’s true love u gotta pursue that, and Kravitz is like ok but also consider he probably doesn’t even like me, and also it’s impossible, and also I can’t. To which Magnus says umm how do you know, and also bullshit, and also why not?

And why not indeed?

Well, Barry says, perhaps because the government is in shambles and to abandon everything now would almost certainly trigger all kinds of issues amongst the aristocracy, upon whom your hold is currently tenuous at best.

Kravitz says >:((

And then along comes Merle.

Merle comes moseying up the palace one day like hey guys how’s it goin’ I’m Merle, and the [PLACE WHERE GUNDREN WAS FROM] sent me here to be Gundren’s replacement on the Royal Council, after all I am his cousin, don’t’cha know, and sorry it took us so long, we had some issues to work through. He does not explain what these were, nor does he have to, for this is a summary.

Merle’s addition is a real gamechanger, because not only is he miraculously able to neutralize the more antagonistic personalities on the council (usually through saying something Kravitz can’t decide is crazy or profound), but also he’s a big advocate for let’s get things up and running again, starting with just replacing Kalen with one of these two nice people who Raven’s Roost seems to have elected to represent them.

Magnus goes “oh well I don’t know this is a lot of responsibility-” and before he’s even done talking Julia’s like “I’ll fuckin’ do it.”

This, of course, gets the council running, and, importantly to our plot, creates a majority of people who Want kravitz to Go After A Boy. They work on cleaning up the mess in Raven’s Roost, finally find a replacement for Jack (it’s Cassidy, also by election, which is a shiny new toy for these people) and they iron all of it out by the time Spring has sprung.

Kravitz says now can I go Find A Boy PLEEEAAAAASE I did the governing thing and everything. And most people’s reactions are omg I can’t believe you’re still talking about that but Fine. Take some friends. Kravitz takes Barry and Magnus and (mumble mumble some others idk like avi or someone don’t @ me) and is like BYE MY CONFIDENCE IS RESTORED AND I’M GONNA FIND A BOY.

*~*~*~*~*

So Spring Has Sprung.

Which means Lup and Taako are back on the move. Continuing their slow journey out of Faerun, working on their way (it’s nice to have money saved up, they find, but it’s not A Lot, and they don’t want to totally deplete it.) They usually stop for a week in a town, do some odd jobs, travel, stop for a week. It’s nice.

But they’re on the way OUT OF THE COUNTRY *cue dramatic music*

Will Kravitz Reach Them In Time? If he does, will Taako even Want To Go Back? All these questions and more exist at this point in the narrative.

*~*~*~*~*

Kravitz follows the lead of the bracelet. He does not stop for a week in towns. In fact, he’s pushing pretty hard. He tracks down the woman who points him to the seller who points him to Another travelling seller who points him to a jeweler in town who looks at the bracelet and says oh yeah, I got that from Old Man Tostaada, outside of town, he’s a proud type, but you should ask him.

Well. Kravitz certainly does.

In the nearly six months since Taako and Lup slunk and exploded out of his life, respectively, Tostaada has become an even crochetier, nastier, meaner old man than ever. He has no servants now. The cousins have to do chores, oh the horror. He’s propping his appearance of nobility up on pride alone. The house is in Shambles. It’s a whole Thing™️.

But one fateful springy day, one of the cousins looks out the window…

And Sees An Entire Royal-insignia’d Party Riding Up The Lane.

And promptly Panics.

Well Kravitz and co are ushered into the house with all kinds of Ceremony, and Tostaada is acting very proud, and Kravitz says excuse me sir, I was wondering if you might remember being in possession of this bracelet.

This is Bad News to Tostaada.

I may recall, sir, he says.

There’s a terribly polite and tense conversation after that. Tostaada refuses to say where he got the bracelet, even to royalty, being as old and spiteful as he is, and Kravitz is just about to threaten him with something terrible when one of the cousins breaks, and spills the whole story tearfully, about Taako and Lup and how they were treated and where Tostaada got the bracelet and “we didn’t know you wanted it, we didn’t know it was important, we swear,” and the only thing that keeps Kravitz from Severely Punishing them is that he refuses to waste any time getting to Taako, who he’s very keen to find now. Tostaada has no idea where Taako and Lup are now, though, so he wasn’t helpful in that sense. Only now Kravitz knows that they’ve Been The Fuck Through It, and that Taako didn’t give up the bracelet of his own accord, and so it’s possible that The Boy Still Likes Him.

And with renewed energy, off they go.

Tostaada gets stripped of whatever title he has left, or something, because FUCK him.

Kravitz and the gang are putting out the word that hey, we’re still looking for this elf, if anyone’s seen him, that would be great.

The thing is, this time, they’re getting leads, on account of Lup and Taako sticking around in places long enough to make a friend or two.

*~*~*~*~*

It’s later, and almost Summertime, baby, when Lup and Taako finally hear the news.

The prince is still looking for Taako? Damn. Boy’s serious.

Lup watches Taako’s face carefully when they hear this news. They’re leaving town. They only have one more before they reach the border and slip away. Lup says hey. Are you sure you don’t wanna come forward and say something?

Taako’s like no of course we shouldn’t do that don’t be silly it’s FINE. (It’s not fine, Lup can tell, but she’s not gonna push. This is Taako’s decision to make. They’re gonna make a fresh start in a new place. It’ll be great.

They start hiking to the next town, hobbit style. They make it out into ye woods and find a nice spot to settle down and camp. Make up a fire, get cozy, cook a little dinner, the whole shindig. They settle down to sleep.

Taako wakes up. In the middle of the night. The full moon is shining brightly down into the clearing they’re sleeping in and the fire is no longer the softly smoldering embers it was when he fell asleep. It’s nice crackling along. And sitting there, tending it, is a lady.

Lady is the only way to describe her. She’s in a gown of silvery thread with silvery hair tumbling down her back. She asks Taako if he’d like some tea. He can’t tell if the light in the clearing is from the moon, or the fire, or just from her. She speaks with a voice that just sounds so familiar, but that he doesn’t quite place.

She hands Taako a cup of tea. It’s floral and fragrant and lovely. She asks him what he’s running from. He says she sounds awfully condescending talking like that, and if she knew what he’d been through she wouldn’t act like leaving it all behind was such a bad decision. She says she never said it was a bad decision, she just wonders how much he’s thought about it, is all. There’s a quiet moment, as she sips her tea. She says, quietly, that perhaps Taako ought to be careful, not to run too far too fast.

And taako wakes up again. There’s a teacup sitting beside him. Empty. Clean. There’s no sign that there was any visitor in the night.

To Lup, Taako is acting weird the next day. He seems jumpy. He seems distant. She keeps worrying they’re gonna get jumped on the road, from the way he’s not paying attention to his surroundings. He’s in his head, even more than usual. But they manage to arrive to the next town without incident.

And Taako’s weird over the next few days. And Lup suggests on the fourth that they get a move on. There’s a caravan headed across the border tomorrow, we can go with them.

Taako looks at the drink in his hand for a long moment, not there with her, and she’s about to ask again when he says “maybe just a few more days.”

Taako doesn’t ask her for much. Taako seems very serious, and it’s kind of scaring Lup. But she agrees. A few more days is fine. Then they’ll go.

And a few days pass. And Taako’s weird. He keeps looking around corners like he’s expecting something to jump out from around them. He keeps looking down the street like he expects something to come barreling into town. But nothing ever seems to.

Come on, Taako, Lup says, three days later, while Taako’s dropped over a cup of wine in the local inn. Tomorrow some more people are leaving, mid-afternoon, they said, let’s go. Just over those hills and we can start everything over, make a name for ourselves. What do you say?

And Taako agrees.

They go to bed.

And, in the bright-mid morning the next day, Kravitz and the gang come riding into town, Raven Queen standard flying high over their heads, dressed in shining silver on black. Lup’s out on the street, collecting some last-minute supplies when she sees them.

Holy shit, Lup says.

She recognizes the Prince. She recognizes BARRY. And after her moment of gawking in surprise, the prince glances her way, and does a frankly comedic wide-eyed double take.

She does, after all, have Taako’s face.

He hops off his horse and very politely comes over and introduces himself, and identifies her by name (he met her grandfather) and asks, very kindly, if she might know where he can find her brother.

Lup does some quick mental calculus and says “yeah, I can show you where he is.”

That scene can be found HERE. (I truly can’t shortly summarize this one better than I wrote it so yikes secret few thousand words nested in this already monstrous summary, I’m sorry but not really I am sorry that it switches tense like three times, I do not have the energy to correct it).

Needless to say, they are reunited.

But it’s a lot to put on someone, the entire “come home with me I think you’re the love of my life even though we kind of only know each other a little, also if you say yes you might be responsible for governing a whole people” so Taako needs some time to think.

Kravitz leaves him some.

And then Taako and Lup have a long conversation, where Taako makes lots of excuses as to why he shouldn’t go with Kravitz, and Lup listens very patiently and nods and hums along, and then finally asks him if he thinks Kravitz will make him happy.

This stumps Taako for a good long time, standing stock still, looking terrified, before he nods.

Well, Lup says, I think you know what you need to do.

And Taako goes, the evening, as it’s getting late (which is about when he and Lup finished hashing it all out and he got his courage up) to Kravitz’s room in the inn, and Kravitz’s guards let him in, and oh. Oh Kravitz looks lovely, standing there, dressed down, comfortable in his own space. And Kravitz gets up and looks at Taako with wide eyes and Taako says, “I thought about what you said.”

“Yes?” Kravitz says. He might be crying. Taako can’t tell. He looks terrified.

“I think…” Taako says. “I think I want to go with you.”

Kravitz becomes a human embodiment of heart eyes and says “really?”

And Taako says oh my god yes but you have to not be weird.

“I’m not being weird,” says Kravitz, still heart eyes-ing, “I’m so not weird. I’m so normal, see?”

And they KISS.

*~*~*~*~*

Everybody packs up the next morning to head on their merry way home. Kravitz is over the moon. Taako is, kind of, too, but is trying to be chill about it. Lup tells Barry as they leave that she was the one he was hanging with at the ball that one time, good to see him again, and Barry becomes human heart eyes for approximately four seconds before he reigns it in and he’s like oh cool nice to officially meet you, and the two of them spend the rest of the trip circling each other trying not to act in love because like there’s a lot going on and Taako needs lup and all, and Taako and Kravitz are very amused by this.

Taako and Magnus become fast friends. And, he and Kravitz get time to properly get to know each other during all that travel together, and the scary thing is they fit better than they ever thought they would, they really do. Taako likes the boy more by the day. Kravitz is so smitten it’s revolting.

When they get back to Neverwinter, there’s a fair bit of fanfare and the Raven Queen makes a big stink about Kravitz shirking his duties and being irresponsible and whatnot, but he can tell she’s secretly pleased. She comes to like Taako very much.

And well… you know what’s next. After a bit, Taako and Kravitz get married.

*~*~*~*~*

EPILOGUE:

The marriage of King Kravitz to Prince Taako is known as one of the more fortuitous in the history of the nation.

Prince Taako, after his history as one of the working common folk of Faerun, went on to use his new seat on the royal council to champion reforms that changed the lives of working people everywhere. The laws he helped draft that established basic working condition requirements for those in domestic services helped launch a new era of equal pay and treatment for the working classes of Faerun, and a culling of the power of the wealthy.

He helped establish a new nation-wide system of government, based on regional elections, and with King Kravitz, gradually placed more political power in the hands of the people. The minimum requirements for the royal council to balance the number of aristocratic members with those without titles stands to this day.

Prince Taako was known, also, for his aptitude for the arcane. Though never did he manage to surpass his sister and brother-in-law in his lifetime, he is revered as one of the more powerful and skilled mages in Faerun’s history. Though perhaps more famous is his legacy as a great instructor in the arcane sciences, known especially for training Grand Archmage Angus McDonald in his early years.

Though perhaps chief among his achievements was his role in the war against the Hunger in the twenty-third year of King Kravitz’s reign. He was among those who formulated the plan to infiltrate the Hunger’s forces and carry out the assassination of John the Devourer. And when King Kravitz was injured in the final battle against the Hunger’s armies, it was Prince Taako who held the line, and was unmoved in the face of their power. For this, he became known during his reign as Prince Taako the Steadfast, though over the years his long-time connection with Lady Istus was cited as evidence to his improbable marriage and ascension to the throne being an act of Providence, and in many secret circles he was referred to as Prince Taako the Blessed.

Upon his abdication from the throne in the thirtieth year of his reign, Prince Taako and King Kravitz were succeeded by the former’s sister, Queen Lup and Prince Barold, whose daughter, Queen Lilliana, finally dissolved the monarchy in the twelfth year of her reign, thus ending the Faerun’s royal line forever, and ushering the world into a new era of peace and equality.

From: Faerun: A History by Lucretia Moreau, published 538 T.E.

*~*~*~*~*

BIG Thank you to @fandomsnstuff and @her-biness who helped me with this for a Long Time. The little cameo of the blupjeans baby belongs to @lillianabluejeans, and the last name from Lucretia is taken from one of my favorite fics, Bureau of Badass on ao3, by Chemicallywrit and miceenscene.

Bonus points will be given to those who notice the 500 references in here to various adaptations of the cinderella story :)

#taz balance #taakitz #blupjeans #taako taaco #lup taaco #kravitz #barry bluejeans #my writiting #my fic stuff #cinderella au #Thank you for making it all the way to the end #likes charge reblogs cast #(aka if u liked it pls pass it on for me :)))

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faejilly · 4 years ago

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I was tagged by @la-muerta & @facialteeth & @thedivinemissema for the WIP/Title Game

rules: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. send me an ask with the title that most intrigues you and interests you and i’ll post a little snippet of it or tell you something about it!

AND THEN by @shadoedseptmbr @msviolacea & @ravenclawnerd for the “stories you want to write... but for some reason haven’t yet”

so this will be a mish-mash of both? The WIPs will mostly have blurbs in this case (to fit the second meme) but you are still welcome to ask follow-up questions, if you’d like ;) Assuming you make it through the list, it is uh. Not Short.

Anyone who would like to play with their WIPs, please consider yourself tagged in either or both of these. :D

Misc Fic Folder:

“untitled document” - where I’m working on fictober fills so I have word-counts for my GYWO tracker. I am not working on these because Brains Are Dumb and also Going Back To Work Is Exhausting

I made a file called “YULETIDE!” which has nothing in it but I’m determined to finish this year so that is definitely technically a thing in the Unending WIP List of Doom worth mentioning. (Tho obviously that’s all I could say even if I had started, because anonymous.)

“coda-fics, rewatch!” -yes, that exclamation mark is important! it’s to keep me motivated! (it didn’t work). Much like untitled, this is for putting stuff so I can do word count tracking even if I don’t know what I’m doing. Currently I think it just says “MARYSE” because I was working on my SH 1x6 coda-fic and then got distracted and haven’t typed anything up yet. (Yay notebooks? Boo notebooks? Not even sure at this point.)

WNIP (works not in progress) Folder:

“TOG” - I had one vivid mental image of how Nicky & Joe met (blood-stained evil smiles?) but then no idea for a follow-up story and also the fandom is insane and I’m not sure I want to deal with all of *gestures vaguely* all that

“Shan Xia Notes” -for a TTRPG that never quite got off the ground; she was a semi-tragic selkie who was still in love with the evil queen/lady who stole her skin and I got to play her for like one session and she was surprisingly chaotic neutral, which wasn’t at all what I’d been expecting. But the game never really got off the ground, so I never had enough info to really delve into writing backstory fic

“post-Kruschev” -Kruschev’s List was the last episode of Scarecrow & Mrs King, and I was debating writing an epilogue in place of the s5 we never got, to try and tie up some loose ends, but the fandom’s three old-ladies in trench coats and I never quite worked up the gumption to get it anywhere

“Code Realize warm as silk sequel” -there is literally nothing in this file except “SEX! Only a little angst” because I wanted to write some “we can’t actually touch each other” smut but never actually did. 🤷‍♀️

BioWare (also all Not-In-Progress Anymore)

“seb/adelaide”, “Theia” & “DAI Erana” -these WIP folders were cannibalized for ficlets for the last few times I did fictober, and while originally I had ideas for longer epilogues for all three of them, at this point I don’t think any of the remaining bits could support a story any longer.

”whispers in the dark” -Maia Ryder never really got much fic at all; the cancellation of any further Andromeda stuff was really disheartening, and at this point I’d have to play the game again, and I don’t think I’m gonna manage that any time soon

”TSP” -a Mass Effect 3 Shepard AU collab project that kind of went off the rails, and our mutual brains/lives never quite seem to line up so we can try and rebuild it ”Ngaio & Tane” -my one truly ruthless Shepard (Alliance background, who romanced Traynor) whose father Tane Shepard was, I think, in PsyOps, and I wanted to figure out their complicated relationship but never really did know where I was going with it

”JE Zu & Yaling” -so I’ve rambled about my Tragic Sagacious Zu Romance Thoughts regarding Jade Empire more than once (#Icy Yaling should have most of it) but apparently I want to yell about it more than I want to actually write it? Whoops.

”CI sequel: 5 times fic?” -Cruel Intentions is a kinkmeme fill that I started and then it sat for like five years before I actually finished it, and I liked the ending, but it does leave a giant fucking question mark in terms of how those people got from there to where they are after the game, and I kind of wanted to write a proper h/c fic rather than just... leaving them wallowing in all that trauma?

But I didn’t. I don’t even remember for sure how I wanted to frame the 5/1 of it all, besides it being something sad about allowing people to see you or touch you in some way. (Prayers maybe, since I think there was definitely some Sebastian & Fenris & faith stuff going on in there.)

“candles” -Merribela prompt fill that I never was happy with? Not sure what I might do with it at this point, so it’s just sitting there all sad and lonely and neglected-like.

Shadowhunters

pt1: WIP LIST ONLY

“Persuasion” -so I keep trying to write Persuasion AUs in many fandoms because it’s my favorite Austen, but I think I like it too much, I have no real solid concept of how I’d transform it, and if I don’t have anything else to say about different characters within that framework, I have no push to actually write anything? Also this SH version of it suffered from MASSIVE scope creep when I started outlining and it got too big for me to handle so I like, killed it twice? Whoops. This one is really probably never gonna happen.

“oosdt sequel” -I wanted to write more about the Forest That Eats People and Magnus & Alec as Guardians Between Worlds, and also some background Magnus’ Found Family & Lightwood Family Feels (maybe some clizzy?) and I left a Madzie plot-thread dangling from the first one on purpose even but I think this one had too many ideas and not enough focus so it’s sort of sprawling all over a doc with a lot of “???” in it

“procedural-ish” -this was originally going to be a sex-farce. and then it turned more serious. and then maybe kind of copaganda which was uncomfortable in terms of the Everything That Is The News in 2020, and then maybe it was more a Mafia AU and at that point I had self-inflicted tone whiplash and I wished the voices in my head were a little more forthcoming about their plans so I stopped before I brained myself on my computer monitor in frustration.

“I had rather a rose than live forever” -I started a reverse!verse Malec (Shadowhunter!Magnus, High Warlock!Alec) for bingo last year, and I couldn’t quite get it together in time, so I made a moodboard inspired by the bits I’d started instead. I may see if one of my prompts from Bingo this year help me finish it?

“fall fright fest (practical magic au)” -exactly what it says on the tin! almost exactly a year old & neglected! IDEK ANYMORE (I talked about this one with the WIP meme last time tho: here)

“priest!kink theology?” -I thought it was gonna be smut? I like priest!kink. I have made other people like it and yell at me even! But then I kept diverging into demon!Magnus thinking about Priest!Alec’s faith and as usual, IDEK ANYMORE *laughs*

(If they’re remotely canon-adjacent or divergent, a bunch of these are in here because I need to rewatch the show to get the pacing/timing/tone right and I haven’t, and I don’t know why, because I enjoy the show, but BRAINS! Are Dumb! So I guess that’s it?)

“I do” -I have tried to write this damnable Malec arranged marriage fic like six different times. I have signed up for fic exchanges and bangs with it, I have rewritten massive sections, trying to change tone or structure or POV or whatever, and it basically comes down to they like each other too fast and I keep not gutting it enough to get back to a useful pace, but by the time I realized that I was on take six and kind of sick of it. I may get back to it eventually

“wing!fic” -canon divergent in early s1, trying to deal with the consequences of Simon’s kidnapping as the Truly Serious Event that it should have been. It uh. Got heavier than I expected with those consequences (considering it was originally just supposed to be Alec’s wings flirting with Magnus) and also see above re: rewatching for pacing.

“2x20 aftermath/date night/pandemonium porn“ -yes that is the actual wip title. It used to be “spite fic” because I was originally inspired by fighting against a lot of fic!Alec characterization that was clearly based more on the books and ATG syndrome than the Alec in the show, which is the Alec I know and like and want to read about. BUT, pacing and etc. again, I think. Also I have somehow entirely lost my knack for writing porn, which makes it difficult to finish something originally intended to be smut!fic. Or even teasing almost!smut.

“rubbish heap” -so this is about three different fics that I realized complemented each other really well so they’re now all in the same file as I try to turn them into the sequel of “with an if in its soul”. It includes amnesia, parabatai lore shenanigans, a s3 rewrite, and some truly awful Owl adjustments that make me wince in horrified authorly delight and pain. BUT, as with the other ones in this file, the scope is large and I normally write short-fic and I kind of just threw up my hands in exasperation. I may have to break it back up into the three different fics instead, if I ever actually want to write it. Them? But also I need to take better notes on s3 to make sure I have what I need in here.

SH Pt 2: Started posting or not yet in hiatus because it’s actually almost ready to be a thing in the real world! maybe!?

“kisses (firsts)” -I actually started publishing this one, a “series of firsts” that was supposed to be kind of relationship milestones and kind of an excuse for smut, and then there wasn’t that much smut and I lost momentum and also dear lords & ladies the timeline is stupid, wtf. I may not ever add to this one, tbqh. It doesn’t stop in a terrible place, and they’re all ficlets so they stand alone all right.

“clizzy epilogue” -this is blank atm, it’s more a reminder for me to keep poking away at my “girls who can’t breathe air, only fire” collection BECAUSE I WOULD LIKE TO ACTUALLY GET TO THE CLIZZY AT SOME POINT

"mer!alec" -pts 2-4 of a series, but apparently having an actual plan gets in the way of me *writing* the thing, and I haven't managed to throw the half an outline far enough away from my brain to be able to write again. Or something like that.

"ibhww" -if broken hearts were whole is a soulmate fic I started a million years ago, and purposefully set aside to finish some other WIPs because I thought they'd be quick, and now it's just buried under two and a half years of regret and shame so it's hard to get back to it

"iafy" -i am for you is a delightful & frothy semi-epistolary fluff piece that also just lost momentum because Life & 2020 & etc. It's far and away the most popular thing I've ever posted on AO3, which also makes me feel weird sometimes, and I feel like the fact that there's no grand conclusion planned, just a bit more fluff and settling in, might end up being disappointing? Basically, it's the first time I think I've psyched myself out about reader expectations, and until I get over that I'm going to have trouble finishing the last couple chapters. (There really are probably only two more chapters though. IT’S SO CLOSE, I wish I could just... write it. And yet?)

“fake-hating” -I do not like fake dating as a trope that much, I just do not get it, but I love outside POVs and arranged marriages and there’s this delighful tumblr post about how they wished there was more fic about people who were together but had to pretend they werent’, and uh. This may be that? Eventually? I’m not exhausted by my failure to finish it yet, so it’s still in the regular folder rather than the hiatus folder, even though nothing’s been posted for it.

AND I THINK THAT’S IT?

Not as terrible as it could be, but still. MANY WORDS THAT MAY NEVER SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY. Posting the equivalent of one’s old ratty sketchbook is always a weird feeling. :D

#on writing #writing memery #unending WIP List Of Doom

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ktheist · 5 years ago

Text

thirteen.

chapters: 12 / 13 / 14

knight!jungkook x princess!reader

It’s a silent exchange.

The young guard does not say a word when he bows and unlocks the door to your knight’s sell. You nod in acknowledgement despite knowing his head is kept too low to see it, hand outstretched for the bags of shillings. It’s an established routine at this point.

“Can you smell the roses?” His back is on you, facing the minute window just inches from the ceiling, as though he could see what was beyond the pitch black of the night and the patches of grey in the scar.

The journey to the tower is lonelier than usual. The moon smiles behind dark clouds but the stars bear witness to your nightly schemes. Somewhere along the way, you pass the garden. Indeed, the roses are in full bloom.

“They’re not as pretty as the ones back home,” you set the basket of bread on the wooden bed, joining him on the ground.

He shrugs, a wistful smile on his lips as you wonder if he remembers what home is as the memory fades away for you with each passing day. That’s not to say you have more time to admire the gardens at home than you do here. A different kind of affair occupies your time. You’ve set foot in the village a few days ago; that’s more freedom you get than you first arrived.

The villagers were... tolerable for the most part. You don’t expect to run around in a circle with the maidens and sing hymns of peace when the aftermath of the war is still a fresh wound to most of them. Losing your face with a rotten tomato and eggs in your hair is something not too far off your imagination when you decide to step out of the castle’s gates.

“I heard she offered herself to the prince once she realized she’s losing. And now, she’s pregnant with Prince Taehyung’s heir. That’s the only reason for the royal marriage.”

“So it’s true. Didn’t her mother, the current Queen of her kingdom, come from a lowly noble family who enchanted her way into the King’s heart?”

That was when you heard a crack! against the back of your head.

“Go back to where you come from, whore!”

“Murderer! My brother died in the war because of you!”

“You will never be our Queen!”

The onslaught of rotten food being thrown at you only increased from then. Your face was bruise-free but you couldn’t say the same for your arms that you used to shield your face. The evening stroll turned to a run when you had to rush away from the town, having chosen to go by foot instead of a carriage that you could have escaped into.

“Who did this?” Taehyung’s heated demand reverberates against the walls of the dining hall when you showed up to dinner with a scarf around your head because Eunha was shaking while she washed your hair in fear for losing her job if she didn’t finish in time; she didn’t but you promised she was your maid and the only one who can fire her was you which you’d never do over uncleaned hair. He easily put two and two together having been the prince and someone who likes to stick his nose where he shouldn’t,“who dares commit a crime against the royal family?”

“Oh, sit down, son.” You were sure the Queen rolled her eyes at her son’s dramatic exclamation before feeding a piece of well-sliced steak into her mouth.

Taehyung’s reaction took you off guard but it’s easy to brush it off as an act of pride. Those who dared insult the Princess insulted the royal family as a whole. Not paying much heed to his extended inquiries in the bedroom, you disregarded his presence with a short, “it’s been a long day, your highness. I shall have my hot bath and rest.”

Your maid had picked up where she left off with your hair. It wasn’t too much work so she proceeded to massage your shoulders while you almost fell asleep in the tub.

By the time you thanked Eunha for her effort (to which she hurriedly credited it to her line of work), Taehyung was snoring softly beneath the sheets. He’s been getting better at doing whatever he wanted since Jungkook’s absence. You held your breath as the flickering candle that colored part of his unclothed chest a golden tan when you went to blow it off next to him.

It was a risk but you hadn’t seen Jungkook for five days, thus you deemed it a risk worth taking as you tip toed out of your chamber, cloaked in a black robe that assists you more than once to blend in with the shadows when you come across with the patrols.

Jungkook inhales the baked goods with zeal. Perhaps, this was the closest he’s been as a commoner if he hadn’t lead a vengeful life.

He brings a piece to your mouth, thumb lingering on your bottom lip a tad longer before his gaze makes you hot and shy all at once.

“Have you been trying to burn the royal kitchen?” He smirks, revealing the egg shell he picked from your hair.

“I went to the village nearest to the castle,” you swipe the shell piece off his hands and throw it behind you, “which is safer than trying to cook, thank you for worrying about the kitchen.”

“Doesn’t explain why you have egg shell in your hair,” he sets the bread on top of the mountain of pastries in the basket, shifting so his upper body is facing you.

You stay quiet, smiling at him somberly. It would do no good to burden him with the knowledge of the people - now, your people - and how they welcomed you but if you lied, he could see through it.

“They threw eggs at you,” his words are laced with a sort of venom that you’re no stranger to, if anything it reminds you of home, how within the walls of the castle you grew up in, Jungkook had sworn to protect but most of all, to kill those who dared came in your way.

“I’m not hurt,” you clarify as he cups your cheeks in inspection, “it’s my favorite dress being ruined that puts a bump on the evening.”

At that, Jungkook finally relents. Hands dropped onto your lap, caressing yours, he comments on your interest in dresses and the newfound information that you have a favorite.

“Besides the concerns of the citizens that Lord Park allowed me handle, there’s not much to do besides admiring the types of lace on a dress.”

Rueful silence hangs in the air for half a minute before Jungkook speaks again, “at least the crown treats you fairly well.”

“The crown is kind because I am of use to it,” you’re aware that your voice is shaking but you keep your gaze firm.

This silence is different yet telling. The kind of silence that doesn’t need you begging for a change, for an escape. You’ve known then and you know now but there’s a part of you, one that longs for freedom and a life without the chains of the blue in your blood.

Jungkook is the first to break eye contact this time. Those eyes that have always looked straight at you, peeled the deepest layer of you, has turned away from you. It doesn’t show - you make sure the hurt doesn’t show across your face.

“It is a duty to borne by every Queen,” he slowly speaks as if it isn’t a cruel expectation set by your predecessors.

“Is that all women are good for?” Oh, no. This isn’t good. The first tear wets your left cheek before another falls on the other, “to... to...”

The words gets choked in your throat. Just like the night you watched the flicker of flames licking the houses of the villagers, you try to push him away until you tire yourself. Jungkook’s arms are strong yet gentle as ever.

He holds you closest tonight and touches you softly. But his words are sparse. Jungkook never showers you with sugar coated words just to ease your heart. He says it for what it is or not at all for you are no fool and you of all people know what morning has in store.

“Your highness!” Eunha burst into the room with a couple of maids trailing behind her. They’re carrying trays of your breakfast.

When she saw Yerin, your recently appointed lady-in-waiting, was doing your hair, her head drops almost instantly as though coming face-to-face with her was a great sin. Yerin is part of the higher noble family. At some point, you heard from your resourceful maid, that she was to be paired with Taehyung who is now your husband. To serve the woman who she must have seen stolen her place was one thing, but you were understood that her father, a high ranking officer, had been maimed from the war and the family income had gone to treating his injury. That was why she volunteered to be a lady-in-waiting.

Naturally, she wouldn’t like Eunha or any commoner worker that acted familiar with you, the enemy-princess-turned-wife to the Prince. You dismiss Yerin as soon as she’s done with your hair, telling her that you would be in the office the King set up for your personal affair as you were more involved with the affairs of the kingdom, so you wouldn’t need the usual over-the-top royalty appearance.

“Your highness, have you heard?” Eunha is by your side in no time along with the other two maids.

You take a sip of the tea. It’s catered precisely to your liking. Sweet but not overly sweet.

“Certainly, I haven’t.”

“Prince Taehyung sent guards to the village. They carried away those suspected of disrespecting you yesterday!” She clasps her hand to her chest as she stares at you with stars in her eyes.

“Does he intend to punish them?” You set the teacup back on its causer with a sharp click that seems to have resonated through the maids’ growing gushes.

The breakfast remains untouched when you get up from the gold-encrusted armchair. You barely remember the maids leaping to their feet and dipping into a bow as you exit through the door.

You intersect Taehyung at the fountain. He waves his personal knight off as you approach, the conversation before you arrive too low for you to catch.

“To what do I owe this honor to/.” he acknowledges but without the smirk. You’ve seen glimpses of this side of him, mostly when he chooses to disregard your presence or have a more important matter to attend to.

“The commoners you had the guards force out of their homes,” the voice you use is smooth but the tightness of your face is not concealable, “what do you plan to do to them?”

“Do you not have your own work to do?” He’s referring to the concerns of the citizens. It was part of the Queen’s duties to listen to them but Lord Park had managed to convince the King to delegate some of the work to you.

If the Queen felt threatened by your taking over some of her work, she didn’t show. The curt dismissive tone she used to make her son shut up could mean anything. She might have truly felt irritated over the fuss made by her son over you.

“It couldn’t be that you missed me so much that you came all the way here just to see me,” there it is. The smirk. The silence you choose over entertaining his retort has invited another one, “I heard you spent the night at one of the maid’s rooms last night. You can’t run forever.”

At that, something stirs deep inside of you but you don’t allow your face to display more than what is already in the open. That doesn’t mean you don’t, all of a sudden, want to slap that smirk off his face.

“I don’t know what you are planning, your highness but the cruelty you show towards your people will not be beneficial for you,” his lips twitch but that’s it, so you go on, “keep in mind that Lord Min, your cousin has a claim over the throne. I pray that no revolt rises to roll you over. It will be an inconvenience for me.”

The last part is the truest. If he is ruined, if the people has had enough and knew of the recluse cousin of the Crown Prince and a chance for a kinder monarch, then you’d be ruined too.

“I shall take my leave, your highness.” You brush past his speechless figure. Whether the guards or maids who were around chooses to relay the lack of court etiquette displayed to the Prince, you have no control over it. But after the complete drop of the Prince’s smirk, you’re sure that you’ve gained what you came here to do.

Tonight, it’s safe for you sneak out of your chambers, hood cloaked around your body and a maid’s outfit underneath. Eunha had willingly lend it to you when you told her that you wished to step out of the palace’s walls without having eggs thrown at you. Or at least without anyone realizing the pearls and diamonds hanging off your dress screamed royalty.

...or so you thought.

Your body turns to ice at the figure standing in front of you. Unlike you, he didn’t look like he was caught red-handed though the wide eyes tells you he is surprised.

“You -”

His long strides takes him to you faster than you manage to get out any words past that. With a hand cupped on your mouth, he pulls you into a corridor and presses himself into the shadow. The only part of you that is visible is your ankle which you have no other space to squeeze it with the way the light slants across the tiny space.

The sound of footsteps causes you to involuntarily clutch his sleeve until they’re gone. You breathe out in relief only to have the goosebumps return at the sharp, accusing look peering down at you. With only the light from the flames burning behind you, the tug on his lips appear more sinister than it should.

“Look who lost her way.”

#bts smut #jungkook smut #bts jungkook #bts fic #networkbangtan #bts imagines #jungkook imagines #jungkook fic #bts fanfiction #jungkook fanfiction #bts fanfic #jungkook fanfic #knight!jungkook #princess!reader

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thelatelockdownlist · 4 years ago

Text

A Series on Series 01: Bridgerton

Hi. I’m Alex, a YouTube newbie.

I resurrected this channel mostly because I wanted to do this thing. It’s something I’d planned back in 2019 and never got around to it because I was too lazy. However… life happened and I thought that with everything that happened in 2020, I should stop procrastinating. So I did nothing in 2020 -- aside from the usual like work. I was one of the lucky ones whose only inconvenience really was being unable to go outside when I wanted to -- which, to be honest, wasn’t really that often. In ordinary circumstances, I don’t really like going out. But the thought of having an actual lockdown order PREVENTING me from going out, well, that’s a whole ‘nother thing.

So 2020 was a bust, but I wanted 2021 to be different. However long this pandemic is going to go, I wanted to make better use of my ‘free’ time.

On to the show. I’m doing A Series on Series, where I talk about my favorite book series. I figured since I read a lot of them, might as well talk about them right here. So let’s start with what’s currently popular: Bridgerton.

So I watched Bridgerton on Netflix the day it came out in my country, January 1.

I’d actually read the Julia Quinn series -- all eight books -- years ago. After I watched the first season, I went back and reread the first book in the series which is the basis for this first season.

Just a disclaimer: I’m watching this through the lens of someone who has read historical romance novels almost my entire life. I understand that there are a lot of issues that should/need to be addressed here like race. However, as I’ve read the books that this series is based on, I know the period in which it’s set. That is to say, the characters are mostly white and mostly straight. It’s the overarching theme of most historical romance novels.

With that said, it’s not to say that I won’t have comments about current issues that we see play out in the series, but I just want to ground this -- this whole thing -- on my own experience mostly because that’s really my frame of reference.

On the race issue, my comments are going to be from someone who is a person of color BUT has lived all of my life in a country, Philippines, where we’re really mostly just one race. There are a lot of biracial people in my country, but for the most part our issues are nothing compared to what black people have experienced and are experiencing everywhere -- especially in the U.S. What I’m saying is, I am aware of the Black Lives Matter movement and I agree with what they stand for and what they’re fighting for. What I’m also saying is that as a person of color who lives in a country with people who have the same skin color as I am, I don’t have the same issues of representation in the media. In OUR media here, I am very much represented. However, in the U.S. people of color are in the minority and struggle with representation. I’m saying that now because we’re going to come back to that later. Also most of my comments are going to be from the lens of someone who identifies herself as a decades’ long (yes, I’m aware that I’m aging myself) historical romance reader. However, even though I used to be the kind of reader who belongs to the ‘the author is dead’ school of thought, these days, one finds it difficult to divorce the author from the work.

From “The Death of the Author,” an essay by French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic and semiotician Roland Barthes. Basically, it says that the author does not factor in the reading of their work -- that their words get to be interpreted by the reader however they may. The point is not to try to understand what the author’s intentions are, and just focus on the actual work itself.

I went to school for this so I’m going to have to balance the death of the author vs my own thoughts -- immediate and otherwise -- when it comes to what I read.

So we’re good? If not, I’ll come back to it -- if you’re still here. [wink]

So in this first episode of A Series on Series: Bridgerton, I’m going to talk about my impressions regarding the series and then point out the differences between the Netflix Season 1 and the first book, The Duke and I.

First impression of the series & some issues:

I was pleasantly surprised to see a black man play the Duke of Hastings.

In the book, he is described as tall, dark-haired and with ice-blue eyes.

Also a pleasant, surprise? Queen Charlotte played by a black woman.

You see, some historians believe that Queen Charlotte was Britain’s first black queen.

She was born the youngest daughter of a duke and a princess in the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz in northern Germany. She married King George III -- yes, of Hamilton’s ‘You’ll Be Back.’

However, in this timeline set years after that, he’s more The Madness of King George.

Going back, historians are split about this because while some believe they can trace her lineage to the mixed-race branch of the Portuguese royal family and that the royal physician of her time described her as having a “true mulatto face,” other historians say that it’s never been proven.

History says that she might be black or she might not be. In the series, she is, and I had absolutely no problem believing from the get-go that the black actress playing her is in fact, Queen Charlotte.

Some people actually point out the casting of black people in the series -- not just the Duke and the Queen -- but others as well like Lady Danbury, the late Duke and the current Duke’s sparring partner, Will Mondrich -- as race baiting.

Merriam-Webster defines it as the making of verbal attacks against members of a racial group. But that’s the 1961 definition. However, its other definition says it’s the unfair use of statements about race to try to influence the actions or attitudes of a particular group of people. This, I think, applies better.

As someone who isn’t black, I feel like my opinion doesn’t hold much water here -- or at least not the ‘diamond of the first water.’ Yeah, yeah. I went there.

But for me, since the series creator -- who is white -- made a big deal of wanting a diverse cast and ‘colorbind’ casting, a lot of hype surrounded the casting of black people in these particular roles -- who are white in the book. I think certain expectations were set -- whether intentionally or not -- about what it means to cast black people in historically white roles. Hence, the issue of race-baiting.

Was that an issue for me? No. But I’m not black and I’m not the one who may or may not be baited. So what I say isn’t exactly something you can hang your hat on. However, I’ll say it anyway. I like the black actors who play their characters.

In the book, Simon is almost god-like because of how handsome he is. The actor who plays him, really hot. I don’t mind that he doesn’t have ice-blue eyes.

Lady Danbury is my favorite character because of her interactions with Simon and how fierce she is as a friend and aunt. She doesn’t feature much in the book.

Queen Charlotte, also not in the book, is great. I especially liked her in that scene with George who was lucid one moment and then crazed the next. I didn’t think this at the time, but she must have both pitied him and been afraid for herself because he did threaten her. And what does that threat really mean for her? Is it just for her? Or for her people as well?

Because as Simon says later during his conversation with Lady Danbury, their ‘elevation’ relies on the whims of this madman.

The late Duke, well, he was just mean. But that part, when he gets so mad that Simon can’t speak -- I sort of understand why he wants a perfect child. It’s self-preservation. He says that their situation is precarious, that what they have will only remain theirs as long as they remain extraordinary. I felt that vehemence there. While I don’t condone it -- after all, he’s doing this ranting at a child, his child -- I understand the reason behind it. Book OG Duke doesn’t have that reason.

The series kind of followed the book. There were certain departures, but it didn’t really bother me.

For those of you who have not seen the series and/or read the book and don’t want any spoilers, leave now.

Okay.

SPOILER ALERT

The first 9 minutes (more or less) in the series don’t actually appear in the book. But it does a good job of setting up this world. We’re introduced to the Featheringtons and the Bridgertons.

In the first book, the Featheringtons don’t really feature as much. Also, the Baron is dead there. Then there’s Marina Thompson, the Featheringtons’ distant cousin --

Not in the book.

Then there’s Lord Anthony, Viscount Bridgerton and his mistress’ (Siena) amorous activities -- also not in the book.

But I suppose it’s there to give us a glimpse of his character. You know, that he’s a playa.

Also, in the book, Daphne has come out -- as in debuted -- for nearly two seasons. In the series, it’s actually her first time hence the presentation to the queen.

Lady Danbury’s ball is in the book, but Daphne’s entrance which causes a stir due to her being proclaimed as ‘flawless’ by the Queen and --

#recordscratch

Did you think I’d forgotten about Lady Whistledown? Of course not. Especially when she’s voiced by Julie Andrews. I love that they chose her to be Lady Whistledown, but for the purpose of this comparison, I won’t be dwelling much on her, as much as I love Dame Julie Andrews.

#backtoourregularprogramming

Lady Whistledown as ‘a diamond of the first water’ doesn’t happen in the book. While book Daphne was by no means unattractive, according to her: ‘no one was dazzled by her beauty, stunned into speechlessness by her presence…’

Then there’s how Daphne and Simon meet. In the series, Daphne bumps into Simon accidentally, trying to escape Nigel Berbrook. In the book… it’s a little complicated.

First, there’s when and where (and really how their ‘grand scheme’ is concocted). In the series, it happens at Vauxhall Gardens where Simon overhears Daphne and Nigel Berbrook arguing. Then he discovers them after Daphne hits Lord Berbrook when he tries to assault her. Then Simon concocts the scheme with the dramatic cutaways of them rejoining the crowd as they watch the fireworks.

In the book, this actually happens at Lady Danbury’s ball (which we see in the series; the ball. The scene with Berbrook does happen, but it’s at the ball, off a corner. It’s how Daphne and Simon actually met. Anyway, it’s a whole coverup. They leave the unconscious Berbrook and they go back to the ballroom, separately.

Simon meets Daphne’s brothers and they end up introducing him to Daphne and they both agree to pretend that they’d never met before. Anyway, Simon gets all these looks from Lady Featherington and the other mamas and feels the need to escape. He then asks Daphne to dance.

THIS is where and when they concoct the scheme. The plan -- thought of by Simon, same in the series -- actually happens during this -- their first dance at that ball. AFTER their witty repartee, while waltzing. They multitask.

And unlike what happens in the series, the scheme didn’t happen because Daphne needed to be saved from ruin. Simon proposed it because he wanted an out from being stalked by ambitious mamas and offered it to Daphne AND this is a departure from the series -- to make her more desirable to other men.

See, in the book, Daphne always gets FRIENDZONED. I know, I know… but the term really does apply to her here. And with no malice, really.

They don’t view her as someone desirable. She says that she’s still unmarried “because everyone sees me as a friend. No one ever has any romantic interest in me. Except Nigel.”

So Simon’s reason of “men are always interested in a woman if they think other men are interested,” which he also says in the series is due to this.

So to sum up the difference: In the series, it’s to save Daphne from ruin; in the books, it’s so she no longer gets friendzoned.

So they both agree and the next day…

In the series, Daphne and Simon start to hang out and they go out on dates.

Kind of the same in the books, BUT they let Anthony in on the secret.

Anthony was incensed because Simon appears to be breaking the bro code. You know, the one where family is off limits? So they had to tell him. Of course he thinks it’s stupid, but goes along with it because he does see the benefits for Daphne.

In the series, Anthony is in the dark.

Anyway, the dates. BECAUSE this is a historical romance novel set in the regency period, book Simon isn’t quite so bold. The spoon scene?

Not in the book.

The scene where Simon basically gives WAP tips to Daphne?

Not in the book.

And the biggest plot in the series that isn’t in the book?

Yeah... he’s not in the book.

But the part where Anthony catches them in flagrante delicto?

That happens.

And the duel?

In the book.

The heartfelt speech to the queen?

Not in the book.

The scene where Mama Bridgerton tries (and fails) to explain the birds and the bees?

Happens. And it’s actually funnier in the book because Daphne asks her, “So you did this eight times?” (whisper) And her mother blushes furiously and says that, no, not just eight times because sometimes you do it because you like to.

Read the book. I found it funnier than the scene on Netflix. For one, Daphne is actually quite eager for this conversation “I’ve waited for this all week.” -- which shocks Mama.

The wedding?

Kind of the same, since Daphne only remembered the funny moments -- which were not shown in the series.

And I know you’re waiting for this: the wedding night.

Um, they were different.

For one thing, the ‘I burn for you’ line?

Not in the book.

In the series, their wedding night was pretty intense.

In the book, it starts out funny because remember Simon telling Daphne how he couldn’t marry her because he CAN’T have children? Well, Daphne -- having had what passes for sex education for women in Regency England -- thought that meant he COULDN’T have sex -- as in he’s impotent. Which sends Simon into paroxysms of laughter.

And then there was sexing.

But in the book, the sexing was confined mostly in the bedroom.

In the series, it was everywhere, including the bedroom. You know, the library (against a ladder), the mausoleum, in front of the swans near the lake

all to the tune of an orchestral version of Taylor Swift’s ‘Wildest Dreams.’

BUT

You know the course of true love never runs smooth. Our lovely couple has to hit a snag. And it’s in the form of animal husbandry, planting and a little putting of two-and-two together.

How Daphne finds out is sort of the same, but also different.

Like I mentioned before, I’d read this years ago. I’d forgotten about the particulars of this. So when I saw this scene in the Netflix series, I somehow sort of hazily remembered that that’s not what happened in the book. But as soon as I re-read it, I had to put it down. Not because the scene was well-written. But because I just had so many problems with it.

Which kind of makes me thankful that they changed it for Netflix. Because in the series, Simon doesn’t come inside Daphne but this is also what convinces her that he DID lie to her. Remember that earlier scene when Mrs. Colson, the housekeeper, tells Daphne the story of Simon’s parents? How his mother died in childbirth and how his father always wanted a son and blamed his wife when she miscarries? Then Mrs. Colson says, “A womb won’t quicken without strong, healthy seed.”

In the series, Daphne clues in to this when during one of their romps, AFTER she’d spoken with Mrs. Colson and the wheels started turning, she noticed Simon spend on her handkerchief. She then marches to her maid’s room and asks her for essentially a rushed version of sex ed. Then after Daphne and Simon have dinner, they have sex… and I honestly don’t know if Simon came in her or not. But that’s when she accuses him and Simon basically admits it, they then fight. From then on, their marriage becomes strained and they sleep in separate bedrooms. So that awful scene in the book doesn’t exactly appear in the series.

Book Simon comes home drunk because he and Daphne had been fighting because of THE LIE. He manages to convince her to stay with him in bed, and she does. Then she is awakened later and as she talks to him and starts basically caressing him in his sleep, he responds. Which she realizes that this is when she could do WHATEVER she wanted, have WHATEVER she wanted.

So she basically giddyups and rides him like a cowgirl and being super extra, impressing even Simon, as is written in the book. BUT things take a turn when he starts climaxing and she essentially uses what strength she has to pin him down so he couldn’t pull out.

He’s angry and is feeling betrayed and then he starts to stutter -- which makes him angrier, with her, with himself. He’s just a confusing mass of emotions at this point.

And then he leaves for one of his other estates. Daphne goes to London and her brothers visit. One day, she assumes she’s pregnant and sends a letter with Anthony to send to Simon. Simon receives said letter and promptly sets out for London.

In the series, this doesn’t happen. They’re basically living separate lives, apart from posing for a portrait, several social engagements and a ball.

In the book, Simon goes after Daphne who’d been out riding at Hyde Park and she tells him that as it turns out she’s not pregnant. They don’t exactly resolve things there, but at least they’re talking. Daphne’s brothers sort of accost them at Simon’s house demanding that he convinces them that he loves her. Which sort of terrifies Daphne, but Simon takes her to another part of the house and in there actually professes his love, which he does unknowingly in front of her brothers who followed them.

And then sex. This time they both finish. Together. Inside. With enthusiastic consent. On both sides.

In the series, we have sort of the same but in the rain. Not just the Bridgerton boys as audience, but all of their guests.

Then sex. This time they both finish. Together. Inside. With enthusiastic consent. On both sides.

In the series, it ends with Daphne giving birth to Simon’s heir. Then we see them saying good bye to Colin who’s off to tour the continent. Book Colin actually returned FROM the continent the night of Lady Danbury’s ball.

Then we get a hint of the next season, knowing that it’s going to be Anthony’s turn.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

What do I think?

Well, the series was HIGHLY entertaining. I enjoyed watching it, which, for me, is the chief purpose of TV shows like this. So that’s one box checked.

Was it faithful to the book?

Largely, yes. And whatever departures it made didn’t take away from the book, IMO.

Was I bothered about the ‘colorblind’ casting?

No. Like I said before, I had no problems believing the black actors were the characters they played. It wasn’t a shock and it certainly wasn’t distracting.

So I loved it; I may rewatch it from time to time while waiting for Season 2 as we go into Anthony’s story in, The Viscount Who Loved Me.

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flirting-with-psychology · 4 years ago

Text

Has the person you like ever seen you in your pajamas? Yes

Did the last person you kissed celebrate your last birthday with you? He was celebrating thanksgiving with his parents during my birthday but he called me

What’s the first word of the last text message you received? I

Do you think you’ve changed at all over the past year? I’ve gotten more anxiety and gotten fatter

Is there a song that reminds you of your ex? Do you still listen to that song? I Almost Do, Red, and If This Was A Movie (all by taylor swift). Yes I still listen

Did you tag anyone in your last Facebook status? Not in the post I shared, but in my last original post I tagged my boyfriend

How do you behave when you’re drunk? Usually giggly and overexcited

What is your least favorite type of chocolate? White chocolate

When was the last time you felt disappointed? What was the reason? Disappointed that the gym won’t let me cancel over the phone and might still charge me for february

Is there someone that can make you smile, even when you feel like crying? Not always

Is there a certain person on your mind right now? Tell me about him/her. My boyfriend

You’re getting ready to go to bed, and the last person you kissed shows up, what do you do? Get into bed with him

What was your last thought before you went to bed last night? Being annoyed at my dad’s snoring through the walls

Do you think someone is thinking about you right now? Maybe

Are you okay right now? I haven’t been okay this whole year

What time did you get up today? Like 1:30

When was the last time you saw your mom? The other day

What is the last thing you drank today? Water

Do you dislike/hate anyone? Donald trump and Mitch McConnell

Where is your best friend right now? At home I assume

When will your next kiss be? As soon as we get negative test results

Will you be up before 7 am tomorrow? No

Does anyone completely understand you? No

Who was the last girl you hugged outside of family? I don’t remember, it’s been a long time

Have you held hands with somebody in the past three days? No

What will you be doing in 3 hours? Probably wasting time

How often do you straighten your hair? Never now, I used to when it was short

What are you currently looking forward to? The costume sale that hopefully I will be able to go to

Is tomorrow gonna be a good day? What are you going to do? Lol probably not

Who did you last hang out with? My dad

Did anyone see your last kiss? No

Could things possibly get any better? I fucking hope so

Do you know who you’ll even kiss next? I assume it will be my boyfriend

Do you ever sleep in jeans? No, that sounds really uncomfortable

Name something you dislike about the day you’re having? Stress

Did you get a full 8 hours of sleep last night? No

Are you in love lately? Not sure

How often do you see your ex? Rarely

Who was the last person to text you? My boyfriend

Did you like anyone last summer? Yes, my boyfriend

Do you replay things that have happened in your head? Yeah

Who was the last person you stayed up with till 2am? My boyfriend

Do you want a boyfriend or girlfriend? I enjoy having one

Are you currently in a relationship? Yes

Do you use a full length mirror daily? Most days

Would you be shocked if the person you have feelings for texted you? No

Is there anyone you wish you could fix things with? I would like to reconnect with my friend Shaina

What are you planning on doing after this? Idk

Is there a girl you would do anything for? No

Who IMed you on facebook last? My mom

How old are you? 26

Do you love dogs? Yes

Were you finished childhood and teens when Harry Potter movies came out? No, they started coming out when I was in elementary school

Did you keep all your VHS tapes? Probably

Do you think Jack Nicholson is a good actor? Yeah I think so

Have you ever watched an episode of “The Honeymooners”? No

Have you ever owned a pair of high-top Converse? No

Do you have rain boots with a cute pattern on them? I have cowboy rainboots

Would you rather eat an apple or an orange right now? Apple

Would you rather do a cartwheel on land or a backflip in water? If I could do either of them, a backflip in water would be cool

Have you ever performed on stage in front of people? Yes

Were you kinda scared of the goths in high school? Not scared, just didn’t have anything in common with them

What size is your mattress?(single,twin,double,queen,king) Full size

Do you eat foods from all 4 food groups everyday? Lol no

Do you sleep in PJs? Yes

Do you prefer watching TV or listening to music? Watching TV. Listening for music needs to be accompanied by another activity

Would you rather watch a movie in theatre or at home? Theater is fun, but right now at home

Do you prefer brown or white rice? White

Do you like spaghetti? I love spaghetti

What about lasagna? No, I don’t like red sauce

Do you celebrate Christmas? No

Is your Thanksgiving celebrated in October too? Who does that?

Do you like chocolate bars? Yes

what about ice cream? Mostly, although sometimes the plain flavors are boring

Have you ever been stung by anything? What was it? Wasps a few times

Do you get tired easily? Only in the morning

Or do you always have plenty of energy to spare? No

Have you ever done volunteer work? Where? I volunteered as a teaching assistant What about court-ordered community service? No

Have you ever worn contacts?(even just to try them out) I tried but it made my vision all swimmy

Would you wear contacts on a daily basis? Maybe if I got some that worked

Are your ears pierced? How many times? One on each ear

Do you have GOD-GIVEN(not dyed) natural brown hair too? I have natural brown hair but I don’t believe it’s god-given

Or were you born blonde? No

Have you found a gray hair on your head or body before? I don’t think so. Both of my parents kept their hair color for awhile so hopefully I got that gene

Have you ever had any suspicious moles removed? Yes, on my arm

Have you ever been screened for STDs? Yes

Are all your wisdom teeth pulled? Yes

Did you have your tonsils taken out? No

Did you have your appendix taken out? No

How many kidneys do you have?(have you donated one?) I have both of them

Would you(to save someone)?^^^ I'm not sure. If it was someone I loved and there wasn’t one already on hand, maybe

Have you ever found a bug or slug in your salad? ewww no

Do you like Harry Potter? Yes

What about Twilight? It was ok, I liked it at the time I read it How do you feel about Lord of the rings? I like the movies

Are you going to see ‘The Hobbit’ when it comes out? I did

Do you have a glass that says 'Molson Canadian’ on it? No

Do you have any collector’s glasses or cups or mugs? I have a bunch of shotglasses from places I visit

Would you rather have a white fridge or a black fridge or a stainless steel fridge? Stainless steel

What size shoe do you wear? 7.5-8 womens

Do you have a wide foot or a narrow foot or just average? Kind of dorito-shaped, so some shoe types just don’t fit

Do you bite your nails when you’re stressed? No

Do you have to take an allergy pill daily in order to live normally? No

Are you on the birth control pill? No

Or are you trying to get pregnant? I’m trying not to get pregnant, but I use condoms instead

You’d rather wear black sneakers or sneakers in a bright color or pattern? Probably bright color

Has anyone ever told you they were attracted to you? Yes

Can you swim well in water way above your head? Decently

Are you afraid of thunder & lightening? No

Have you ever experienced an earthquake? No

What about a tornado? No

Are you closer to your dad?(more so than your mom) I’m probably a little closer to my mom

Were you your parents’ first born? Yes

Do you have a child? Is the father still with you? No

Did you trade stickers at recess when you were a kid? No

How old were you when you had your first crush? Do you remember their name? I was like 5 the first time I put a word to it and his name was Aidan, but I probably had sort-of crushes even before that

Can you even remember what the hell they looked like? Blond, bowl-cut at the time. He actually grew up to be really hot so I guess I knew how to pick em

Have you ever operated any type of motorized vehicle before? A car

Are you going to drink alcohol tonight? Maybe

Have you ever heard of the Canadian kids show called “Mr. Dressup”? No

What about the kids show “Fred Penner’s Place”? No

Did you hate Sesame Street when you were little too? A little

Were you born perfectly healthy or with some(or a lot) of health issues? I might have had some minor things

Do you collect DVDs? Not as a collection, but I buy movies I like a lot

Do you download music? Yes

Or do you still go to stores and buy CDs? No, those are like twice as much

Did you skip(jumo-rope) a lot as a kid? No, I was bad at it

Did you ever catch any bugs or insects with your friends as a kid? Only roly polies

Didn’t you just LOVE art class in elementary school?! Yeah

Have you ever played dodgeball? Yes but not well

What about Red Rover? No

Have you ever played “What time is it mr. wolf?”? It sounds familiar but I don’t remember it

Do you hate your weight? Yes

Have you ever struggled with a mental illness? A little

Serious question, peanut butter or nutella? Peanut butter for a sandwich, nutella for eating straight out of the jar

Have you ever stepped on a snail? No

Do you prefer baked potatoes or mashed potatoes? Mashed

Do you prefer ankle socks over regular socks? Ankle socks

Last movie you’ve seen in theaters? I can’t remember

What is your oldest sibling’s middle name? I don’t have one

Have you ever been to Disneyland or Disney World? Both

Would you ever go backpacking across any country? Probably not

Would you prefer to travel around the world by yourself or with a friend? With a friend

Do you like breadsticks? Yes

Do you usually wear shorts around your house all year long? No, but I do wear short sleeves year round

What state were you born in? Colorado

Have you ever had a nose bleed? All the time

How far away do you live from your birthplace? Like 15 minutes

Do you have a weak stomach? No

Do you know anybody who has been diagnosed with cancer? Yes

Have you ever had to take care of an intoxicated person? Yes

Have you ever considered becoming a lawyer? Slightly but not really

Do you *really* like donuts? Yes

Do you think Disney World could ever get old? At some point

If you could, would you hookup with the last person you texted? Yes

What are your favorite things to spend money on? Jewelry and nerd stuff

Will you talk to the person you like on the phone tonight? I am talking to him right now

What do you usually order on a pizza? No sauce, cheese, garlic, pinapple Do you and your boyfriend/girlfriend fight a lot? Not really

Who’s the first person with the letter “m” in your contacts? Mac

Which would you rather have a new puppy or kitten? Kitten

How old will you be on your next birthday? 27 yikes

What color are your underwear? Turquoise

Do you ever feel self-conscious when you eat around other people? If it’s messy

#survey

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peppersandcats · 5 years ago

Text

Flash stuff, comics and TV

So, I am finally up-to-date on The Flash in both comics and TV format, and I have some thoughts. The comics ones are mostly in the “oh come on are we expected to buy this, clearly you are aiming for that” vein, and the TV show ones are very mild and possible super-obvious, but since both deal with what both what is happening and what I think is going to happen, both might be spoilers so I’m putting them under a cut.

To be clear: please do not tell me anything about these assumptions that does not come from existing text. So for example:

“but in issue 76 we saw X” or “in episode 6 of this season Y happened, so we might get Z fallout” is totally fine. Yay analysis! Would love to hear from you!

“in the comics X happens, so that might mean Y for the TV show” is also cool.

“the comics writer said he’s aiming for X” or “a casting decision has been made so we know Y is still showing up/is not on the show anymore after this point” is really not fine please do not tell me that. I do not want to hear it. Thank you.

Also: discusses possible upcoming character death. I know some people would rather not see that, so mentioning it now.

With that in mind, here are my “I am okay with being wrong about this, but I bet this’ll happen” thoughts:

Comics

Oh, comics. Len has apparently turned into a vicious blowhard, Lisa is picking a fight with him, evil King Cold rules over Central, all is lost, no-one is paying me enough to pick up extra titles from DC to find out what all space and time being broken means, dour, dour, grim.

With that in mind, I have a possibly-more-cheerful read on current Snart events than the one initially presented. I’m going to keep in mind Len’s mention of the Rogues going with Lisa’s plan (issue 78 “Without my sister, the whole plan is on hold.”; issue 79 “This isn’t Lex’s plan. It’s not even my plan. It’s your plan.”), and assume that that was true.

This means that I think (hope) that what they’re going for is a long con. That the Snarts are running with a plan where Len plays bad guy to Central City, Lisa tries to convince Barry to use mega-uncontrollable Speed Force power against Luthor by pitching it as "save my brother he's gone bad", and the end goal is that the world-breaking nonsense and Luthor both get taken down while the Rogues get to keep all the shiny new tech in a world that isn’t weirdly broken by evil.

The big thing that kept throwing me about the narrative presented to Barry is why is Len keeping Barry alive?

Because, look. Right now everyone thinks the Flash is dead (seriously, those guards in the throne room were absolutely thinking “jeez, boss, we’ve heard how the Flash died in your arms three times already this week”), and yeah, that’s good to keep Central hopeless. And Len is coming across as mean as hell. But then why hasn’t he really killed Barry? He’s not angling for the “I will build my reputation with a grand execution!”, because then he wouldn’t be talking up how he’d already killed the Flash. He might be keeping Barry alive just to torment him, but then there’d be no benefit to lying about how he’d killed him. Dude’s stuck in Ice Heights, not even the Trickster* can make a dent in that, it’s not like someone is going to mount a successful rescue.

*Please insert usual where-the-hell-does-he-get-those-wonderful-toys rant here, I’m sure you’ve heard it from me by now.

And if Len was building part of his power on the “I will crush Central City’s spirit by letting them know I have taken down the Flash!” foundation, then Lisa’s “oh no, we can’t let people know you’re alive” seems a bit odd.

So if I take a step back, what I see isn’t “Lisa has a heart of gold and is begging for the Flash’s help.” It’s not even “Lisa is vamping Barry and feeding him a sob story about how her brother has gone bad.”

What I see is “the Snarts have a secret plan that involves no-one knowing that the Flash is still alive, so it doesn’t get back to Lex Luthor. Right now the genius supervillain has a massive blind spot about the existence of a terrifying Speed Force bomb, and Lisa is collecting pieces of Mirror Master’s tech. Those are totally the kind of things you could combine to break Luthor’s secret reality-busting stronghold, which would enable you to get rid of him but still keep your super-cool empowering tech.”

And if Len and Lisa are in cahoots on this, the bombast makes a lot more sense. “My sister has been in hiding ever since I took over Central City... and she reveals herself by stealing from me?" is a performance for the benefit of the two-high level mooks who were following Len and could probably hear him through the open doorway. Giant ice-wolves aren’t anything to do with Lisa being scared of dogs when she was a kid (which didn’t really come across in her reaction to them anyway), they’re just really cool and the speech is Len hamming it up for whoever in his citadel is spying for Luthor.

(I mean. It’s Luthor. You’re working with Lex Luthor, you gotta assume.)

So, yeah. I’m still hoping we’ve got the Snarts running a very sensible long con, which combines the best aspects of “we are crooks who want cool stuff” and “we’re not evil, evil is dumb.” Fingers crossed.

Okay, minor stuff, but I think I’ve finally decoded the symbols on the Monitor’s door!

I was assuming, pretty much, that these referenced the Justice League. The Flash in particular has been throwing in asides to the Justice League since its inception (everyone’s seen the mural at CCPD headquarters, right?), the last crossover involved a building that has people who don’t watch the show assuring me that it’s meant to evoke the Hall of Justice, one of the trailers mentioned seven heroes, here we have seven symbols, etc.

Left to right, I think these represent

Black Lightning - it’s not a logo, but the shape evokes the lightning streaks on the torso of his costume. This one was one I kept getting stuck on - I kept thinking “Trident! ...but it makes no sense for them to bring in Aquaman.” Then I went to catch up on Black Lightning a little and it clicked.

Canary - I honestly was thinking White Canary because I really want to see LOT involved, but Sara doesn’t wear a face mask. Therefore, probably need to go with Black Canary (who is a founding member in at least one version of continuity, lord knows which one, I have trouble keeping track)

Flash - that is, to me, obviously his cowl. Little bit coming down in the middle, little chin covering pointing up, wing-y bits on the ears, we’re good.

Martian Manhunter - this one I’m the least sure of, but given the options available, I think it has to be him. He’s totally a Justice League guy, and the hex with straps pointing up and down to the sides, echoes his costume torso.

Supergirl - again, I was staring at this for a while, completely lost, but now it looks to me like a really stylized ‘S’. If it was narrower on the bottom than on the top, it would look a lot like the family logo.

Batwoman - this is both a scarier-looking mask than the second image, and can be read as a figure spreading their wings to either side. (Huh, I suppose it might be Hawkgirl? But I’m betting on Batwoman. If I’m wrong, that’s okay! I have been wrong before)

Arrow. I mean, really, just Arrow. It’s an arrow-head. Arrow.

And I mean, I don’t necessarily think everyone’s going to survive through this. Oliver Queen in particular I think is going to die. Whether that means Roy or Mia steps up to try and become the Arrow, or whether they leave a seat empty at the table to honour Ollie’s sacrifice, I don’t know. But: Arrow in the JLA of the CW.

But.

Arrow is TV, but in a lot of ways it’s still comics. You know how it happens when people die in comics.

I think we might get to see Ollie as the Spectre.

It fits with the well-meaning darkness and the grim drive. It fits with the judgement of "you have failed this city". It fits with the green hood. The recent “hey, vigilantes working with the police” feel like it gives Ollie a sort of cop-if-you-look-at-him-sideways aura that makes him line up better with Jim Corrigan and Crispus Allen--hell, even Hal Jordan functionally comes across as a space-cop. Even Corrigan’s death thematically echoes Ollie’s first (presumed) death by drowning on the Queen’s Gambit.

I would like that. I have long loved the Spectre, and I would not be where I am as a DC TV fan--hell, as a DC fan--if Arrow hadn’t clicked with me.

I would like it if Oliver Queen, that grumpy control-freak secret-keeping self-righteous ass, could still be there on some level. He means a lot to me.

#commentary #the flash spoilers #dc tv #dc comics #crisis on infinite earths #my commentary #theories #leonard snart #lisa snart #the flash iss. 83 #the monitor #justice league #justice league dc tv #oliver queen #the spectre #arrow #here for a positive fandom experience

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queentargary3n · 5 years ago

Text

After Ice and Fire.

Summary: Daenerys is brought back to life by a red priestess in Volantis, it’s a terrible thing for a Targaryen to be alone in the word, but this Dragon will not be alone much longer. Post s8.

Please visit the amazing artist who created the image, Mel Schroeder. Instagram

Chapter 2

3 years later...

Late in the third year of winter, the snow had finally stopped, the wind didn’t chill your bones the way it used to, and they were finally able to see some green in the forest, from the view above the wall. The nights watch had grown, from the mere 50 men, survivors of the Great War, to the newly and unprecedented 900 men, all stationed across the wall, and in some posts now and for the first time beyond the wall, in the Hunted Forest, Hard home, and the last all the way to Thenn.

Lord Tyrion, Hand of the King, had once said that the world will always need a place for bastards and broken things, and that had hold true, but when the common people heard that one of heroes of the Great War, the brother of Kings and Queens, the man who was now known as the best swordsman in the Six kingdoms and the North, a men so honorable, he would sacrifice his love for the good of the people, was again named Lord Commander of the Nights Watch, hundreds of men joined the Nights Watch, hoping to train under him, and be ready to protect the realm of men from the unknown Dangers from beyond the wall.

The great hole of East Watch had then become an entry port for the wildlings to cross when they needed assistance from the Watch. Lord commander was a generous man with the wildlings, and the Watch now mostly dedicated to avoiding conflict between the settlements of wildlings, that the Lord Commander had spent 6 months helping build himself. The second job of the Watch was doing research, expeditions beyond the wall to obtain information on the White Walkers and the Night King, no one ever knew why the White Walker were created or what was the reason behind the attack, other than the destruction of the world of men, but the Lord Commander was dissatisfied with this reason, insisting that the White Walkers could return, and that men should always be prepared.

“You kneeled as boys, now rise as men of the Nights Watch” Jon Snow said, finishing his speech for the newly graduated men of the Watch. The graduates cheered and congratulated each other, and the Lord Commander took his leave to his chambers, followed closely by his second-in-Command, Lester, who had been one of the few members of the old Nights Watch.

“Make sure you notify the new graduates of their assigned posts” Jon called to the man following him.

“I will, Lord Commander, did you get steward for yourself this time?” Lester asked, wondering why the Lord of Commander of the Nights Watch refused to allow a steward to serve him, clean his sheets, clear his bed pan, bring him his meals or sharpen his sword as it was customary.

“I do not need one, Lester” Jon replied, without giving it one thought or slowing his pace almost at the door of his chambers.

“You do all of that shit yourself? Even I have someone to do all of that stuff for me!” Intruded the Maester Sam, truthfully surprising Jon, who did not know Sam visiting Castle Black at all.

“Sam!” Jon yelled, moving in to hug his old friend, exited for it had been so long since their last encounter. “Why are you here, you could’ve sent me a raven letting me know” Jon moved to give Sam strong hug, causing Sam to feel crushed and exclaim “Oh ow”

“You’ve grown softer” Jon teased.

“I’m a Maester, I have no need for muscles” Sam objected. “And I would’ve sent a raven, but I thought it best to come in person and get those ancient artifacts your man found in the forest to the Citadel, and... I have some news to tell you... didn’t trust it on a bird”

“Well come on in” Jon Snow stretched his hand to invite him into his quarters. “How’s little Sam?”

“Aam, he is doing well, he is thriving in the Kings Landing, but about my news....”

“Bran is doing well I hear” replied Jon, ignoring Samwell’s last sentence and setting a seat for him at his dining table and a cup of ale for each, and the sat across the table, nodding for Sam to do the same.

“Ahem yes he is but I had to talk to you...”

“We found artifacts containing the mark of the Night King and evidence of the Children of the Forest, I thought it might be of assistance...”

“Why are you avoiding my news?” Samwell interjected.

“I have nothing to do with the politics of the Kingdoms” Said Jon, with a quiet, stern look.

“We have reports of sightings of Drogon near Volantis...”

“Sam...”

“You know, you don’t have to stay here, away from everyone, refusing to even hear about current events”

“It’s my punishment” Jon took a long swig of ale, the set his cup down, more forceful than intended. Sam jumped at the loud noise.

“Nobody needs you punished anymore Jon”

“I need to punish myself.... for what I did, and the Watch needs a Commander, someone has to do it”

“Actually, that’s what I wanted to tell you, and I debated long enough if I should bring this to you. But Bran wants to bring Drogon to Westeros, and well the dragons always trusted you...”

“NO” The mere suggestion was infuriating for Jon.

“That’s not all, and I didn’t tell anyone else this, but the reports also mentioned a... a Silver Haired aaaam... women.” Samwell said, he knew how much pain he was causing his best friend with this, be he truly thought Jon deserved to have all the information. “Which I first thought might be another Targaryen survivor but there is also this ”

“That’s not possible Sam, I know it” Said Jon, looking down at his cup, his dark hair covering his face.

“Also, there is a red priestess, just like Melissandre was, asking around about you, looking for you. And if it really is not possible Jon, then then then” Sam stuttered, as it was known of him to do when nervous. “Then how come you are here?”

Dany... is it really possible? He refused to let his heart hope for more. He attempted to wrap his mind around it. The words bouncing over and over in his head.

“I’m going” Jon said, standing suddenly. “Lester” He called, knowing Lester had been listening the whole time just outside his door.

“Yes, Lord Commander” He answered, embarrassed to be caught eavesdropping.

“ I’ll be traveling for some time, you’ll be in command in my absence, remember to visit the wildling settlements at least once a month, make sure they all have enough food to eat, winter will be over soon so it shouldn’t be a problem” Jon was walking in circles around the table where Sam was still seated at. Nervously stroking his beard and pulling on his hair. “You’ll need to send envoys to the posts outside the wall every now and then, you’ll need to meet my Sister every month to get the supplies for the Watch, when I come back...” Jon then stopped near the window but did not finish his statement.

“Come back? If the queen is alive you’ve committed no crime my Lord, I’m sure no one would complained if you’d stop serving this punishment” Lester said to Jon, understanding that although life at the Wall wasn’t bad, the life-long promise of loneliness was one of the hardest sentences.

“I’m not doing this sentence out of anyone else’s conviction but my own, Lester” said Jon, lookingout the window. “Sam, we ride tonight”

“What tonight? But I’ve just gotten here”

“Samwell!” Jon Snow chastised him as he walked towards the door.

“Oh... of course tonight” Sam replied quietly.

Lester decided his Lord Commander was one of the most complicated people he’d ever met. And even though he spoke with the same strong, forceful voice he used to command; he could’ve sworn she saw him smile for a bit.

The roads where easy, no amount of snow was visible anywhere. Jon and Sam rode at a fast pace.

“Aaam do you think she’ll want to see you” asked Sam, concerned.

“We don’t know anything yet Sam” Jon replied solemnly. He didn’t want to get his hopes up.

“I know but I mean, we’ve seen so many things, it isn’t unreasonable to think she is alive”

“.... I doubt she wants to see me...” Said Jon sadly, thinking it had been such a long time, and he didn’t forgive himself why should she.

“Then why are...”

“Because I have to see her, it goes beyond reasoning, I just do” Jon never even looked to Sam as he answered, kept on riding and never took his eyes off the road. His stomach was in complete knots, felt like bats were threatening to erupt from his belly any moment now.

“We are at the border of Winterfell now; we mustn’t get too close or my sister will hear all about it”

“Couldn’t she help us get a ship? She is Queen if the North, she could secure the fanciest ship”

“She can’t know, she’ll never allow it” Said Jon. He knew if his Sister knew what he was planning on doing he would throw him in a dungeon until she thought him of sane judgement, who knows what else she’d be capable off. “No, we need to go around, get to bear island and hope their memory of Ser Jorah Mormont will be enough to want to kindly take us across the narrow sea”

“I feel like this The sort of thing we should’ve discuss prior to arriving to the border of Winterfell, and I also feel it maybe a little late for that” Sam said as even he, who couldn’t “ see all that well, was able to see the red haired figure riding a horse heading his way. Jon’s heart stopped, he cursed his damn luck for the unlikely encounter with the Queen of the North, the ruin of all of his plans.

“That’s not Sansa!” He breathed at last, able to see up close, the red women approaching them on a horse, that for all the things seemed to be red as well.

“Aegon Targaryen!” The red priestess called.

“It’s Jon” Snow responded bitterly.

“Doesn’t matter what you call yourself, you cannot change who you are, but more on that later, I’ve been looking for you my lord, the lord of Light has a great gift for you, and I’m prepared to take you to it” Said the red women, and strange smirk played on her face.

“Not interested, we have plans already” Replies Jon, as he turned his horse around to circle her.

“Plans? Are you planning on scouting a whole continent in search for her? I know exactly where she is my lord, if you’d please follow me, I have a ship arranged for you” She turned her horse and started ahead, she didn’t even doubt Jon would follow her.

“I don’t trust in red priestessess” Jon told her, remembering the last Priestess of Rhollor he’d met, and the horror he felt when he heard that the women who had saved him, had also sacrificed a little girl for her god.

“You don’t need to trust me, you need to follow me, and I’ll take you to see who you’re looking for, want it or not, I’m your best option”

And she was not wrong, Jon thought, his plan was rather illogical, but when he heard of the possibility, he sprang into action. He was never one to be patient.

“Why where you are looking for me?” Asked Jon, riding alongside the red priestess, while Sam struggled to catch up, and hear the conversation.

“Rhollor brought you back for a reason Aegon, and, believe it or not it was not to save the world from the Mother of Dragons”

Chapter 1

#got fanfiction #fanfiction #jonerys #jon x daenerys #daenerys targaryen #jon snow #boatbaby

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commandertheory · 5 years ago

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Modern Horizons Commander Set Review

The Commanders of Modern Horizons

Urza seems very, very powerful. He runs tons of 0-mana artifacts so that almost every card you cast nets mana, and then relies on Blue’s efficient card draw (like Windfall, Time Reversal, etc) to draw into more mana, cards, and eventually tutors, which will get Paradox Engine. Paradox Engine usually means game over, because every spell you cast off of Urza’s last ability will untap all your mana sources.

Urza, Lord High Artificer

This is a sweet commander with a lot of combo potential. My current list here:

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

It’s also a decent opportunity for an Old Phyrexia theme deck, if that’s your jam.

The passive pinging could be very good if you slap a Basilisk Collar or another deathtouch equipment on him. I think this could build into a grindier sort of goblin deck, in contrast to Krenko’s goblin aggro or Zada’s goblin combo. I think Mons could makes use of sweet sac outlets like Arms Dealer, Shivan Harvest, Dark-Dweller Oracle, and Goblin Trashmaster to control the board and get value.

This can be solid if you draw the right engines. Beast Whisperer, Vanquisher’s Banner, and Guardian Project are good here, as is Evolutionary Leap. The main thing you want to avoid is playing out your hand of bears, having no way to refill it, then getting your board wiped.

Ayula, Queen Among Bears

I’m pretty sure you can get this guy down consistently on turn three. There are many good cheap creatures in these colors (well, most are in Green) and there are a decent number of cantrips that dump a ton of cards in your graveyard like Grisly Salvage. It’s not going to be hard at all to cast some combination of two creatures and a Grisly Salvage variant in the first three turns of the game, and once you’ve got your 8/8 beatstick, you can pump him up with Voltron enablers like Inquisitor’s Flail, Glistening Oil, etc. I’d also run cards that draw tons of cards off of big boys, such as Hunter’s Insight, Hunter’s Prowess, Rishkar’s Expertise, etc.

This was explicitly designed so that you could play all the crew members of the Weatherlight in one deck and then tutor them out every game, and although that build is super flavorful, I don’t think it’s going to be very strong (and I’m sure it’s not the most powerful thing you can do with her).

The build I’ve been messing around with uses a ton of legendary permanents that cantrip or scry (such as Fblthp, Oath of Nissa, Oath of Jace, Search for Azcanta, Growing Rites of Itlimoc, etc.), as well as legendary permanents that accelerate you, such as the Radhas, Rishkar, Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion, and Azusa, Lost but Seeking. Of the latter category, one of the most important cards is Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, which scales with Sisay to generate enough mana in the right colors to activate her.

Generally, I think the play pattern is going to involve spending the first three or four turns casting your legends that offer card draw, card selection, or acceleration. Then you’ll cast Sisay and basically pray that she lasts until your untap step. Once that happens, you pass with WUBRG up. If somebody tries to mess with her, you can grab Saffi and save her. If not, you can grab Selvala, and if nobody kills Selvala before you untap, you get to really go off. By this point, Sisay should be a 6/6 or so, so you can activate Selvala for six mana and use Sisay to grab Paradox Engine. Then all you have to do is cast a spell and Selvala untaps. Then you can activate Sisay again to grab Rishkar, who will buff Sisay and another creature and provide the green mana needed to repeatedly activate Selvala.

Then you cast another spell, untap Selvala, and you can activate Sisay again, who will now be large enough to grab Bolas’s Citadel (thanks to Rishkar’s counter). From there, you can cast cards off the top of your library to net mana with Selvala, and if you ever get landlocked, you can activate Sisay to shuffle it away. You can also search out legends like Azusa or Erebos to help clear lands off the top of your library so you can continue to combo off with the Citadel. The win condition isn’t super clear at this point, but I’m guessing once you cast most of your deck you can find a way to kill your opponents.

Note that while this all sounds very powerful, there are a bunch of moments where your opponents can jump in with spot removal to ruin your plans. Try to play around removal accordingly and limit the amount of time Sisay is on the battlefield but not actively comboing off.

Sisay, Weatherlight Captain

Although it doesn’t work as a universal tribal commander, Morophon does build into a unique deck. If you run 50 or so creatures of the same type and use Morophon to make it so that all of those creatures cost zero, then you just need a draw engine like Guardian Project, Beast Whisperer, Vanquisher’s Banner, Kindred Discovery, or Glimpse of Nature to draw through your deck and combo out.

Humans have more than three times as many Morophon-compliant members (meaning their cost is reduced to zero by Morophon) as the next best type, which means that you get more Humans that are also Wizards (17), more Humans that are Legendary (16), more Blue Humans (26), more multicolor Humans (43) and more Humans that have two or more power (47).

“Why are those characteristics relevant?” you ask. Well, having a large number of Human Wizards allows you to use Azami, Lady of Scrolls as an additional draw engine. Having a lot of Human legends allows you to use Reki, the History of Kamigawa. Having lots of Blue Humans turns on Dire Undercurrents. Multicolor Humans trigger Tome of the Guildpact. Finally, having lots of humans with two or more power means you actually have lots of humans with three or more power, thanks to Morophon’s buff. This allows you to make use of Elemental Bond and Garruk’s Packleader to keep the combo going.

All this means that you’re waaay less likely to fizzle if you’re running Humans compared to any other creature type, as you have access to more draw engines because of your deep card pool. Once you have one draw engine, you’re likely to keep going long enough to assemble a pretty large board state. Once you have two engines, you’re likely to cast your entire deck.

I’ve built a rough list that goldfishes pretty well. Be warned, however, that if your opponent has spot removal open the turn you cast Morophon, you’re going to have a bad time. If they don’t, you’ve got a good shot at winning.

Morophon Humans

Slivers have often had trouble dealing with board wipes (as have most nontoken, non-Voltron aggro strategies), so I like that they’ve been printing Sliver commanders to address this problem. Hivelord was a good attempt, but what tended to happen was that people would find a way to remove it and then wipe the rest of your Slivers. The First Sliver may be more effective because it turns every Sliver into many Slivers, so you can build an army while still sandbagging a bunch of cards in your hand.

The Maindeck Cards of Modern Horizons

In this set review, I’ll be using two five-point rating scales to evaluate the nonlegendary cards, one that measures how many decks a card is playable in (we’ll call that “spread”), and one that measures how powerful it is in those decks (”power”). Here’s a brief rundown of what each rank on the two scales means:

Spread

1: This card is effective in one or two decks, but no more (ex: The Gitrog Monster).

2: This card is effective in one deck archetype (ex: self-mill decks).

3: A lot of decks will be able to use this card effectively (ex: decks with graveyard interactions).

4: This card is effective in most decks in this color.

5: Every deck in this color is able to use this card effectively.

Power

1: This card is always going to be on the chopping block.

2: This card is unlikely to consistently perform well.

3: This card provides good utility but is not a powerhouse.

4: This card is good enough to push you ahead of your opponents.

5: This card has a huge impact on the game.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

As one of the rare Angel token generators, this will probably find a home in Lyra Dawnbringer. In other decks, the +1 is mostly a blank, the -3 is not super powerful, and the emblem puts you close enough to dead that the right removal will still finish the job.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

The deck that runs this wants both a huge number of cycling cards (more than the 10 or so that you can sneak in via cycling lands and staple effects like Cast Out) and a bunch of ETB creatures. I’m not sure that deck currently exists (and if the EDHREC stats for Astral Slide are an indicator, it doesn’t).

Spread: 2

Power: 2

I’d consider running this alongside commanders with really powerful ETB triggers, such as Azor, Tazri, Lavinia 1.0, Lena, Nazahn, and Niv-Mizzet 4.0.

Spread: 5

Power: 3

We’ve stated before on the podcast that White should have good removal like this (I think we may have floated the suggesting of a Banishing Light with flash), but Wizards hasn’t gotten around to printing a critical mass of the staple effects it has access to. I’m glad to see that Wizards is working to address the imbalance and I hope that we start to see some of White’s other gaps being filled in (such as a third good instant-speed creature removal spell or a second good Disenchant).

Anyway, the vast majority of White decks are going to want this card. Beast Within sees play in 30,000 decks on EDHREC and Chaos Warp sees play in 20,000.

Spread: 3

Power: 1

The ability to protect itself is what made Mother of Runes such a champ; it invalidated spot removal (and other effects) unless you were willing to cast a board wipe or spend multiple spells on Mom. In contrast, this card is much easier to deal with and so it’s not going to see nearly as much play.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

Reaper King will happily trade one of its more expensive Scarecrow for a 2-mana Vindicate, and this may see play in Arahbo since it attacks for six on turn 3. I’m not sure there are other White tribal decks that would be satisfied with a vanilla 3/1, however.

Spread: 2

Power: 2

4 mana is a bit much for a single changeling, but for two, it’s a bargain. Getting double Reaper King triggers seems great and it’s 3 vampires for Edgar Markov. It’s worth noting that 29% of Ally decks on EDHREC run Allied Reinforcements, and this is essentially the same card. Similarly, 43% of Knight decks run Call the Cavalry and 38% run Gallant Cavalry.

Spread: 1

Power: 3

I’ve often said that anthem effects need to be at least +2 power to be worth a deck slot in Commander because of the high life totals and multiple opponents. This guy clears that bar and should be a great addition to go-wide Cat decks like Kemba, Kha Regent and Raksha Golden Cub.

Spread: 2

Power: 1

Journey to Nowhere hasn’t seen much play and requiring snow lands restricts you to color identities that can afford to run lots of basics. However, this effect is cheaper than we normally get (with the exception of Chained to the Rocks), and being an Aura makes it relevant for Sram decks.

Spread: 1

Power: 4

This seems very good in Teshar, Ancestor’s Apostle, as you can use it to tutor out a 0-mana artifact creature and sacrifice it to keep your opponents from interacting with you for the turn. Then you cast your 0-mana robot to reanimate him (thanks to Teshar’s ability), and then search out another 0-mana robot. Sacrifice him again, reanimate him again, and then tutor out Glint Hawk. At that point, you have infinite sac fodder, as you can sac Glint Hawk to an Altar of Dementia or whatever, reanimate it by casting Memnite, and then Glint Hawk picks up your Ornithopter when it enters the battlefield. Then Memnite resolves and you’re essentially back where you started, except your opponent has milled a few cards. Continue until your opponents are dead.

Spread: 4

Power: 2

This is much closer to Lignify than it is to Darksteel Mutation, and it’s worse off for it. Not making the creature immune to most removal spells means it’ll be pretty easy for its controller to unlock it and go back to playing as normal.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

Some tribal commanders grant a reward that’s so powerful that you don’t care about any text on your creatures except the type line and the mana cost (ex: Reaper King). In those decks, cheap Changelings often outclass real members of the tribe. Because those decks are already running large numbers of Changelings, Valiant Changeling will often cost only two mana, making him one of the cheap changelings your deck needs.

Be aware that you need a critical mass of changelings for this to work, which might not be possible in restrictive color identities.

Spread: 2

Power: 1

I don’t think this is running as a narrow one-shot reanimation spell, but the combo potential is interesting.

It’s notable for going infinite with a Clone variant and a sacrifice outlet. Just copy Vesper and then sacrifice the copy, and the Clone will be in the graveyard in time to get brought back by its leaves the battlefield trigger. Repeat for infinite of whatever resource your sac outlet generates.

I’ve been tinkering with a Blue/White clone combo list for a while and this is the perfect addition to the deck.

Spread: 2

Power: 3

I really like that they’re printing cards that reward you for playing a monocolor deck. I was initially low on this card because three is a lot of mana to hold up for a counterspell (I usually stick to counters that cost 2 or less), but this does offer a lot of versatility and the options of snagging a Sol Ring/Mana Crypt or digging for an answer makes up for the mana cost.

Spread: 2

Power: 4

Decks built around Wheel effects (such as Niv-Mizzets 1.0 and 3.0, The Locust God, Nekusar, and Urza, Lord High Artificer) are going to love this card, especially because it interacts really well with other Wheel effects (provided they’re discard wheels and not shuffling wheels).

Spread: 1

Power: 2

It’s one of the best Flying Men variants ever printed for Edric.

Spread: 4

Power: 3

I love Negate, and the option to tap out and still hold up one of the format’s best answers seems very powerful. I’d happily run this card.

Spread: 2

Power: 2

This card is essentially landfall - scry 1 in a deck with a lot of snow basics. Retreat to Coralhelm doesn’t see a whole lot of play, and that has an untap effect stapled onto it. I’m also not crazy about the token, as the nature of the sacrifice trigger prevents you from cheating it out very early, and if your group can’t muster an answer to Marit Lage by turn 10ish, they deserve to die to it.

As a random scry effect, it might be worth running in the Circu Citadel Combo list I’ve talked about.

Spread: 2

Power: 3-4

The Mirran half seems great in Urza, Lord High Artificer as a way to double your mana production and create an army that will eventually win you the game.

I would use it for the Phyrexian half in artifact-centric lists with a self-mill component, such as Sharuum, Hanna, Ship’s Navigator, and Silas Renn.

Spread: 2

Power: 3

A Ninja that makes more Ninja is great for Yuriko, and I’ve also heard people talking about using it in Tetsuko Umezawa because it’s a 1-toughness creature with a solid saboteur effect.

Spread: 1

Power: 3

These are good in Yuriko and nowhere else. I like how the monoblue ones enable ninjutsu.

Spread: 2

Power: 2

I think most of the power of this card is in the body, which is not what you want to see on an ETB creature. That being said, Naban is in need of more monoblue ETB wizards and less competitive Inalla and Brago lists won’t turn up their noses at this.

Spread: 4

Power: 3

No matter what you’re trying to do, there’s a 2 CMC artifact that will help you. A short list of sweet targets for this guy:

Lightning Greaves, Null Rod, Mask of Memory, Strionic Resonator (y’know, for Brago), Winter Orb, Altar of Dementia, Scroll Rack, Grim Monolith, Konda’s Banner, and one day, Painter’s Servant.

Spread: 2

Power: 2

This could potentially be a useful sac outlet in Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker decks, although it is very slow.

Spread: 2

Power: 2

Kolaghan 1.0, Yuriko, Reaper King, and Beckett Brass provide really powerful rewards for committing to their tribe, so cheap members tend to get prioritized over more expensive cards because the power to mana ratio is inflated. Changeling Outcast is perfect for decks like these.

Spread: 2

Power: 3

I’m reading this as a cheaper Mutilate that can occasionally work in 2-color decks. I think the basic count in 3+ colors might be too low for this to be consistently good. This is probably the third-best board wipe in monoblack, after Damnation and Toxic Deluge.

Spread: 2

Power: 2

I really like the idea of running this card alongside Frenetic Sliver so that if someone casts a board wipe, you can flip a bunch of coins with Frenetic Sliver and save about half your slivers. Then on your next turn you can use Dregscape Sliver to return all the Slivers that lost the flip, then use Frenetic Sliver on those unearthed slivers before the end step to save about half of them (because Frenetic Sliver exiles the slivers, you’re fulfilling the requirements of unearth and you still get to bring them back). So any board wipe only actually kills 25% of your Slivers, on average.

This might be a little too hard to put together outside of Sliver Overlord, and it’s hard to evaluate how good Dregscape on his own. I would suggest testing him because he is one of the more interesting slivers and he does help with one of the deck’s biggest weaknesses.

Spread: 4

Power: 2

The power of these alternate cost spells is dependent on the value of the effect you’re getting. Considering that Snuff Out, Vendetta, and Dismember exist, holding Black removal up on an opponents turn is not very difficult, so this card isn’t especially necessary. I also wouldn’t expect to net a ton of card advantage relative to another spot removal spell, since most of the time you’re killing stuff on an opponent’s turn, it’s because of a single creature that’s got you worried.

Spread: 2

Power: 3

The high-powered tribal decks don’t have a lot of room for a 4-mana 2/2, but the promise of another member of the tribe can add some value to an otherwise bad deal, much like Irregular Cohort. I would try to find room for this in Reaper King.

Spread: 2

Power: 3

I would run this as protection against board wipes in Varina, Lich Queen. It also seems pretty good in decks with lots of Zombies and easy access to sac outlets, such as Ghoulcaller Gisa and some Grimgrin builds.

Spread: 1

Power: 3

This is both a cantrip and a win condition for Feather, the Redeemed so she should be happy to run this over a slowtrip or a 2-mana cantrip that doesn’t net you anything useful. Zada will also gladly find room for this card.

Spread: 2

Power: 3

It’s both a tutor and a recursion engine. Any Red-based artifact deck should be running this card.

Spread: 2

Power: 2

Red-based token decks (Zada, Purphoros, Krenko, Mob Boss, Marton Stromgald) won’t turn up their nose at three bodies for four mana. It’s not the best rate, but until we get some redundancy for Hordeling Outburst, it’s decent filler.

Spread: 2

Power: 2

Slivers that draw cards are relatively rare, so this one is worth paying attention to. I like that he gives you a way to dig through your deck for your most important slivers (potentially helping you cheat mana costs with Dregscape Sliver).

Spread: 1

Power: 2

Most planeswalkers don’t have abilities that are so powerful you only need to activate them once and the premier commander for superfriends is not Red. I don’t think this is a Commander card.

Spread: 2

Power: 2

The potential three bodies for three mana makes this appealing to Red token decks like Zada and Purphoros, and the ability to dig you out of a bad hand is a nice bonus.

Spread: 3

Power: 3

I feel like it’s probably correct to run this card. The sorcery speed prevents it from being a great answer to combos, but that never stopped Vandalblast or Shattering Spree. I especially like that you can discard it to Red’s many draw smoothers (e.g., Tormenting Voice, Cathartic Reunion, Faithless Looting, Wild Guess) when it’s not good and then get it back once it’s relevant again. I also love the idea of running this in lists with a self-mill component.

Spread: 3

Power: 4

This card completely negates the danger of flooding out. It also has powerful synergy with Crucible of Worlds, Life from the Loam, Ramunap Excavator, Rings of Brighthearth, Dakmor Salvage, Splendid Reclamation, and many, many more cards. Plus, if it’s ever not good, you can easily cycle it away, so there’s very little risk to running it in your deck.

It’s good in many places, but it’s especially good in the following decks:

Lord Windgrace: Runs pretty much every card mentioned above and he can recur the lands you cycle.

Neheb, the Eternal: This deck always have tons of mana but has trouble finding gas. Tectonic Reformation will make it a lot easier to find ways to spend your huge spurts of mana.

Grand Warlord Radha: Also pretty good at generating mana.

The Locust God: 1 mana to get a locust is a pretty decent rate, and it’ll help you dig to stronger draw spells. May also be good in Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind and Niv-Mizzet, Parun decks.

Spread: 2

Power: 3

This card can singlehandedly dig Red out of a manaflooded game and in the games you don’t need it, you can pitch it to one of Red’s many cheap rummaging spells. I would happily run this in any monored or Red/White list.

Spread: 2

Power: 3

Ayula will definitely want this, Lord Windgrace will be indifferent, and The Gitrog Monster will be very excited. Most of the discard outlets that Gitrog runs as part of the Dakmor Salvage combo don’t actually net you anything useful (see Noose Constrictor, Wild Mongrel), so having one that generates an army is a huge boon for the deck.

Spread: 3

Power: 3

Can be found consistently thanks to Green’s many creature tutors, and does a great job of shutting down decks that rely heavily on artifacts.

Spread: 3

Power: 3

Five bodies and 9 power is a great rate for 5 mana. I’d happily run this in any Green token deck.

Spread: 4

Power: 2

I don’t think Return to Dust is as good as it used to be. It’s great that this will never be worse than a two for two, but I would still rather run a Nature’s Claim or Return to Nature over this card. (There’s something to be said for the “free” aspect of these cards though, and this one can just stop combo like the blue one, so that might be worth it in some play groups for the peace of mind)

Spread: 1

Power: 2

Thanks to @follower-of-liliana for pointing this one out. Sasaya, Orochi Ascendant decks running snow Forests can use this to up their number of lands in hand.

Spread: 2

Power: 3

I’ve been a big fan of Somberwald Sage and this is mostly an upgrade in monogreen lists. It seems especially good in Ghalta; this, a 1/1 mana dork, and 4 lands are all you need to get Ghalta down on turn 4.

Spread: 1

Power: 3

Both Selvala, Heart of the Wilds and Marwyn the Nurturer add mana based on your creatures’ power, so upping your commander’s power by 4 or 5 is a solid deal for 1 mana, especially if you’re trying to combo off with Umbral Mantle or Staff of Domination. Note that this boosts base power and toughness, which means that it stacks with Marwyn’s +1/+1 counters and pump spells.

Spread: 2

Power: 3

This effect is comparable to frequently-played cards like Wood Elves (16k decks on EDHREC) and Farhaven Elf (9k decks on EDHREC), but I think this effect is slowly becoming less goodstuff and more of a card for Elf/Druid tribal. I think the format has been shifting toward cheaper accelerants like mana rocks and mana dorks and away from three-mana rampant growths.

Anyway, it’s pretty safe to toss this guy in Ezuri and Seton, Krosan Protector.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

Gorm the Great and Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis (and Ikra Shidiqi, sort of) have huge asses relative to their mana cost, and might be interested in trying for big butt voltron. They are on color for Assault Formation, and Kynaios and Tiro also gets High Alert, uncommon Huatli, and Arcades, the Strategist. Speaking of Arcades, this protects him and turns him into a 3-turn clock if you’re using him as your commander.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

These cards may not be great, but they’re significantly better than most spiders, which means you get to increase the quality of your Ishkanah deck (or your Morophon spider deck, I guess).

Spread: 2

Power: 4

I would definitely run this in Kruphix and Rosheen Meanderer, and I’ve also heard of people using Wort, the Raidmother as an X-spell commander.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

This is exactly the sort of card that Hogaak is looking for.

Spread: 2

Power: 1

Throughout spoiler season, I’ve been stressing that vanilla changelings can be quite good if the tribal reward is strong enough. This card seems to have been created to test where the threshold between playability and unplayability lies. Making a 3/3 scarecrow and vindicating at instant speed is still quite strong in Reaper King, but the rate is so abominably bad that I’m not sure it’s worth it (though I do concede that it is better than both Volrath’s Laboratory and Riptide Replicator). I wish they had bumped this up to rare so they could put some more power into it, as cutting a single mana off the casting cost and activation would drastically increase the number of decks for which this would see play without making the card broken.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

There are 8 Scarecrows, 10 changelings, a robot that pretends to be a Scarecrow while distributing counters, and a land with all creature types that cost 2 or less mana; the Farmstead is not beating them out for a slot in Reaper King (unless you’re a scarecrow purist). Compared to the 3-drops, it’s definitely worse than Mirror Entity, Taurean Mauler, Adaptive Automaton, Scarecrone, Scuttlemutt, and Wild-Field Scarecrow. Other must-run Scarecrows include Irregular Cohort, Graveshifter, and Valiant Changeling (the latter because he’s essentially a 2-drop). That’s 29 Scarecrows that you’re putting in Reaper King before you get to this guy. So how many Scarecrows should you be running?

I haven’t played Reaper King so I can’t speak to the optimal number, but the average Reaper King deck on EDHREC is running 30 scarecrows. That leaves one scarecrow slot open, and the remaining three-drop scarecrows are roughly equivalent in power level. So, I’d run this guy because his art looks cool. Hope that helps.

Spread: 2

Power: 3

I would run this guy solely to grab Scrap Trawler, as it sets up a sweet value engine where every artifact you sacrifice gets you another artifact and a Construct. You can even tutor out Constructs with death triggers like Treasure Keeper and Workshop Assistant for additional value. The fun never ends!

Be aware that the levels of durdling I’m describing are only feasible in color identities for whom traditional routes to card advantage and tutoring have been barred; I’m thinking of monobrown, monored, monowhite, and red/white.

Spread: 3

Power: 3

When I saw Sword of Truth and Justice I had hoped that the other allied color swords were intended to support specific decks. Unfortunately, this one is more generally powerful and can fit pretty easily in any deck with a cheap commander.

Spread: 2

Power: 3

This is a great proliferate engine and should see plenty of play in Infect decks and +1/+1 counter aggro.

Spread: 3

Power: 2

The green ones are less good since that color has access to better ramp/fixing, but the rest are all solid mana rocks.

I would usually run these in addition to the signets. If I was cramped for space, then signets are generally better, but if I needed to sneak sources of colorless mana into my deck (say, to power an Eldrazi Displacer), then I’d prioritize the Talismans over the Signets.

Spread: 2

Power: 3

This guy is the best changeling because he can fit into any tribal deck and he’s super cheap, so Reaper King, Yuriko, Kolaghan 1.0, and Unesh are all going to be interested in running him.

Spread: 1

Power: 2

Quick summary of all the characteristics a deck needs to make use of this card:

Must be a tribal deck

Must be in B/W

Must have lots of sac fodder

Must have a commander that really needs protecting

Maybe Aryel, Knight of Windgrace would be a good fit?

Spread: 1

Power: 3

I don’t think Varina, Lich Queen is very interested because it competes with her on four and she wants to keep her curve lower than this. Still, he’s an easy fit for Yuriko.

Spread: 1

Power: 3

I don’t think it’s good enough for +1/+1 counter decks, since it’s a terrible topdeck. If this card makes an impact in Commander, it’s going to be as a cheap combo piece for Ghave.

Spread: 1

Power: 1

Baleful Strix sees a decent amount of play (7800 decks on EDHREC), but a fair portion of that is in artifact decks, and the Strix’s deathtouch is more reliable than this guy’s. I’d also argue that not all of the decks running Strix should be doing so, but that’s a topic for another episode. I feel comfortable recommending Strix in maybe Rashmi, since it has flash and generates value. If you’re still trying to make Kaseto snake tribal work, I would run it in there as well.’

Spread: 3

Power: 2

I prefer my pinpoint removal kill exactly what I need it to kill, rather than generating random value. Between Anguished Unmaking, Despark, Generous Gift, and all the great monowhite and monoblack spot removal spells, this card is not going to be able to compete, even with that sweet graveyard hate rider. If the first mode was Murder I would probably play it, though.

Also modes 3 and 4 are blanks and I’d only entwine if I was horribly flooded or had infinite mana.

Spread: 1

Power: 3

Volley Veteran underperformed but cutting its mana cost in half and granting it flash basically makes it a Terminate, although it’s a shame that there’s only one Goblin deck in the format that can make use of this guy (Wort, Boggart Auntie). On the bright side, Wort can really make use of this guy, as he has to be one of the best goblins to repeatedly recur with her ability.

Spread: 2

Power: 3

At first I wondered if there were any good ways to consistently prune your graveyard so only the good stuff was left, but then I realized it didn’t matter if you got everything back by pumping a ton of mana into it with Rosheen or copying it with Riku or Wort 2.0.

Spread: 2

Power: 3

It’s a cheaper Conjurer’s Closet for your blink decks.

Spread: 2

Power: 3

It’s a cheap Scarecrow for Reaper King, and although most of the cheap changelings we’ve seen so far haven’t been good enough for Najeela (as there are so many real warriors that offer useful abilities), I think the protection offered by this guy pushes him into playability for that deck.

It also ticks a bunch of boxes for the Morophon Human Combo list I mentioned above, as it’s a Wizard for Azami, it’s a blue creature for Dire Undercurrents, it has 2 power, and it’s free when Morophon’s out.

Spread: 2

Power: 2

I like this card a lot but it doesn’t do a great job of protecting itself; if I’m going to devote deck slots to land recursion, I’d prefer to use cards like Crucible of Worlds and Life from the Loam that can’t get attacked to death.

Spread: 5

Power: 3

These are all good, the Green ones a little more so because of Ramunap Excavator and Life from the Loam. The Red/White land is also a little better than the Black/White and Blue Red ones because it’s in a color identity starved for card draw.

Spread: 2

Power: 2

Snow mana is a big commitment, as it limits you to one or two colors. Being an artifact makes it relevant to Arcum Dagsson decks and being a creature while on the battlefield but not while in your library makes it relevant to Jalira decks. I’ll also see if I can squeeze in enough snow lands to make it playable in my Depala list that’s all Vehicles, board wipes, and manlands to crew the vehicles.

Spread: 2

Power: 3

Using this to repeatedly wipe the board with Phyrexian Scriptures or Pernicious Deed seems great, and if it’s your fateful hour, you can take infinite turns with Second Chance. There also a few more self-sacrificing enchantments that serve as spot removal, such as Seal of Primordium, Seal of Cleansing, Aura of Silence, and Seal of Doom.

You can also use it alongside one of the many good sacrifice outlets for creatures in order to reuse enchantment creatures with good Constellation triggers, such as Thoughtrender Lamia, Doomwake Giant, or Eidolon of Blossoms.

In contrast to these proactive uses, it can also be used defensively to reuse powerful enchantment value engines like Aura Shards, Rhystic Study, Spreading Plague, etc.

Spread: 4

Power: 3

It’s a strict upgrade over Terramorphic Expanse (60,000 decks on EDHREC) and Evolving Wilds (75,000 decks on EDHREC). I wouldn’t run it in 5C or 4C, but I can’t think of a reason not to run it in a two- or three-color deck. It’s notable that this brings the fetch count to 7 for monocolor decks, 10 for 2-color decks, 12 for three-color decks, and 10 for four- and five-color decks, which means that any multicolor deck in the format has access to a critical mass of fetches (hypergeometric calculator says you’ve got a greater than ⅔ chance of drawing a fetch by turn 3 if you’ve got at least 10 in your deck. I would expect more 2- and 3-color decks to take advantage of the fetch + Crucible of Worlds engine with the advent of Vista, and more monocolor decks may take the plunge, as well (especially if they’re already running cycling lands, Strip Mine, Wasteland, and/or Tectonic Edge).

Thanks for reading!

Let me know if a reblog or message if you disagree with any of my ratings or if you think there are Commander-relevant cards that I missed.

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#set review #edh #commander #mtg #magic the gathering

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starryburglar-archive · 5 years ago

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Hans Info

Full name: Hans Westergaard

Species: Human

Age: 23

Sexuality: Pansexual

FC(s): Domhnall Gleeson

Bio: As the youngest of 13 brothers, Hans found it pretty difficult to stand out in his family or as a prince. It almost seemed like, no matter what he did to an exceptional degree, one or several of his brothers would do it BETTER. It didn’t help the fact that most of them either ignored him or bullied him for being the youngest. The only sort of love he receives from his family is from his mother, who only seems to be truly content around him.

The young prince knew from an early age that her marriage to his father was arranged. The two never loved each other, never grew to be fond of one another, they can’t even stand being in the same room together. But their marriage united two kingdoms and saved The Southern Isles from disgrace.

One would think that being basically ignored by almost every member of his family would mean that Hans has the freedom to do anything he pleases, but that’s not the case. His father barely spoke to him but his eyes said everything. If Hans didn’t do what the king wanted, he would be punished -- it was the silent treatment version of ‘You may be a waste of space but you’re still a prince of the Southern Isles. Act the part.’. Etiquette, diplomacy, politics, geography, economics, manners... Hans had to master them all.

His only moments of solace were when he would be by himself on his private chambers or in the royal library. The young prince would do nothing but read -- read books about the mysteries of the world, about the different kingdoms and their customs, and, last but not least, fairytales. Yes, fairytales -- something unfit for a prince but Hans found enjoyment out of them. They were that one thing that brought a smile to his face because of how hopeful they make him feel. They made him wish for a better future, one where he was able to find true love and be happy, unlike his parents.

Years later, some months after his 22nd birthday, he was sent by his father to represent The Southern Isles at the coronation of the new queen of Arendelle. Why him? It’s still puzzling for Hans how his father doesn’t consider Arendelle a possible strong ally but was happy to be able to travel away from his homeland for a while. A few days without his family is better than nothing. Not long after a few minutes after arriving at the closed-off kingdom, he accidentally stumbled upon the princess of Arendelle, Anna.

She was the sweetest and prettiest girl he had ever seen -- prettier than all of the wives of his married brothers. And despite the unfortunate way they happened to meet, she didn't think ill of him after almost accidentally pushing her into the sea with his horse -- she even laughed! At that moment, Hans was convinced that the warmth in his chest was love. It has to be, right? What else could it be but true love? Maybe it was fate what made his father choose him to come to the coronation and meet the young princess.

Later that day, when the two were alone, he didn’t hesitate to propose right on the spot, even though it was the craziest move he could’ve done. Propose after meeting her that same day? His father would’ve thought he had gone bonkers -- you can imagine how shocked and overwhelmed he was when she said yes, a genuine and heartfelt yes. Hans thought nothing could ruin that evening.

Oh, how fate had different plans for him and everyone involved.

He never anticipated for the new queen to have any sort of magic abilities like he would so often read about in his fairytales. But she did, queen Elsa had power over ice and snow. Because of a misunderstanding, Anna’s frustrations and the evil intentions of the Duke of Weselton, her powers were exposed and everyone feared for the worst -- even he himself was unsure of how to feel at first. After Elsa ran away scared, Anna left the kingdom determined to find her and fix this mess, but not without leaving Hans in charge.

It was rough at first, trying to calm down the townsfolk as well as the other royal visitors currently stuck in Arendelle during the frozen winter in the middle of July. But he did his best, applying everything he has learned back home while adapting it to this current predicament. It worked well enough for the first hours.

When Anna’s horse returned but without its rider, his worries only increased. Dedicated to finding his bride-to-be, Hans formed a team of volunteering men to search for the princess and the queen. Hours later, he was surprised, once again, to find queen Elsa in what seemed to be a place of her creation: a palace made out of ice, truly magnificent. He was planning to reason with the queen and try to make her return to Arendelle peacefully, but those soldiers from Weselton ruined everything by scaring her and almost killing her.

The men returned to Arendelle with an unconscious Elsa. Hours later, Hans found himself with the queen, who was put in the dungeons and chained due to the worries of the other lords present. He pleased her to bring back summer, but she couldn’t. Unsure of what to do, he reassured her he would do anything to help her and returned to the comfort of the chimney. Not too long after that, Anna returned weaker than ever -- her hair was whiter than before and her body was freezing. Apparently, when anna tried to reason with Elsa, the queen accidentally froze her sister’s heart and now anna was slowly turning to ice, only to be told that an act of true love would thaw it.

The young couple stared at one another after being left alone. An act of true love... a kiss! If they kissed, she would be saved. Hans was extra careful while holding Anna, resting her against the sofa in the room that was near the chimney, all while cupping her cheek gently and smiling warmly at her. He leaned closer until his lips met hers in a closer embrace. They stayed like that for what it felt like an eternity... but neither felt anything, not a spark, not warmth, not anything. The kiss not only didn’t work, but both were dumbfounded by this revelation.

It took the help of a curious but strange talking snowman ( which shook him to no end ) for the lovebirds to realize their situation. What they thought was true love was not it -- it was a fling of the moment, a passionate desire for comfort and happiness while sharing it with another person, something both had wanted for years due to not getting any sort of love from their families. This didn’t make things awkward between them ( or at least not THAT awkward ); both knew the truth know.

Now their objective was to get Anna to Kristoff, her actual true love. Hans helped Anna get around the castle due to their weak form and her inability to walk in her current state. They reached the frozen fjörds, where Kristoff was also looking for her, but so were Elsa, the duke of Weselton and his men. Hans left anna so she would go with the blond man, while he grabbed his sword and tried his best to stop the men from killing the snow queen. However, they were three against one, two of them being much taller, bigger and stronger than him.

It all happened in a matter of seconds. The short Duke sneaked past him to strike Elsa, but then Anna stood in the way, using her last ounce of life to stop him while her body became ice. The ground shook as a wave hit everyone who was nearby. The scene was devastating to behold. Anna, who he had ground fond of and now realized she really was a good friend, stood frozen in the middle of the fjörds; Elsa hugged the statue devastated while sobbing her heart out.

No one anticipated the return of princess Anna. But it was that act of true love, the self-sacrifice she did for her sister what thawed her frozen heart. There was rejoicing all across the kingdom of Arendelle, its citizens and the lords visiting as Elsa brought back Summer.

A few days later, Hans was rewarded for his bravery and all the help he brought to Arendelle and the sister, despite the young prince insisting that he didn’t deserve anything while anna said otherwise. He was a hero, as much of a hero as Kristoff, the ice harvester, was. He and Elsa also were able to start again while building new relations between the kingdoms -- The Southern Isles and Arendelle would be their greatest allies.

Hans was content to have done a good deed and for some of his naïvete to have vanished thanks to this experience -- he’ll be careful in the matters of love, but still hopeful for a bright and loving future.

Note: Hella canon divergent. Mostly based on his personality pre-twist and first impressions from the trailers.

[ MAIN || INBOX || HEADCANONS || VISAGE || MUSINGS ]

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V001: Youngest of 13

Default main verse. Hans is the youngest child of the king and queen of Westergard and without any chance to get a claim to the throne, not without his 12 brothers being more favoured by his father in all ways possible. He is determined to stand out in any way possible without going against his moral compass, which includes forming better relations with other kingdoms and start having friends.

NOTE: Mostly takes place after the events of the first movie. I’ll have to see the sequel to see how I can work him into it.

V002: Working Towards a Better Life

Modern verse. As the youngest of 13 brothers, Hans was often ignored by his siblings and his father, only occasionally receiving a caring word from his mother and, if he was lucky, a full conversation with his father.

Currently, at the age of 23, he’s working to get a degree in History so he can become a professor in the subject -- history has always fascinated him, even as a child, so having the possibility to share this passion with a new generation made him happy. On top of that, Hans is also working on a novel during his free time. He also moved out of his home as soon as he was able and had the resources; at this point of his life, he didn’t want anything to do with his father’s company and connections ( not that he would get any of that ) and instead focus on making himself happy.

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CONNECTIONS

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mermaidmafia-official · 5 years ago

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“Some moment when the moon was blood / then surely I was born;” —g.k. chesterton

Name: Popa Chatelet

Title(s): Queen of Iphis, officially Queen Popa IV

Age: 15

FC or Features: Larsen Thompson + golden canines (upper and lower only) cut to little fangs and embellished with esoteric symbols of blessing and strength, cut by Thalestris herself when Popa was still a small child. They’ll be pulled and replaced with silver and rubies soon. Piercings all along both of her ears. Thatched hair (like the McQueen image in her section of our board) is typical for her. Deceptively dainty in overall appearance.

Likes: jewels and shiny ornaments (a lot of gold but that will soon change- ), neatness, her privacy, silence, reading, talking tactics with Caiaphas, archery (though she excels more at swordplay, she likes archery best), her golden bow (taken from an enemy general who died in the Arena), tormenting Violaine-Iris, milk baths, meditation, gold-leaf sweets

Dislikes: disorder and chaos, small children, birds, rodentia of any sort, bugs, heat, any authority other than her own, “Chaos Queen” Violaine-Iris, illness (in her as well as- if not especially- in others), surprises, parties and drinking, her freckles

Goals: To maintain her current situation as Queen and defend Iphis from the great threat of being overrun by beast-men. As well, to some way take her secret of infection to the grave with her.

Fears: Being caught in a situation that she has no control over. Somehow being dethroned (and/or losing any influence) is a large concern of hers since it was almost too easy for her to end Alexon who was King until he was Arena fodder. In the end, she fears not having the power to protect herself.

Rumours: Often, if not always, Violaine-Iris is called Popa’s conspirator in planning the death of their brother Alexon, and Popa is content to let people think so. There’s the werewolf blood-drinking- which is also true, but it was one occasion and not an on-going thing like some believe. The notion of blood-drinking- particularly werewolf blood- disgusts her and is considered by her one of the many, many grave sins Thalestris committed against her.

Scale of 1-10, how likely is your Chatelet to kill a family member: 12 10

- Typical -

Wardrobe: Mostly black and/or gold, with the occasional Arena Reds. The more demure dresser of all her siblings- it would be unusual to see her shoulders or back bare. Like most royal garments, hers are in-sewn with symbols of protection and blessings by Noble Seamstress who is well-versed in the Empyreal Texts. She does wear ornate armour while outside the Wall and light gladiatorial armour while fighting in the Arena but never within the palace (unseemly). She likes to wear lots of rings and the “claw” jewellry on the tips of her fingers as well as light jointed metal gloves set with precious stones, perfume necklaces, armlets and rows of earrings in each ear. She likes to hide her freckles beneath makeup to make herself look less like a child. No florals.

Places most likely to be found: her apartments, the Arena (mostly spectating but there is the rare gladiatrix performance), away- defending the Wall

People most likely to be with: Damali and/or Smeme when home, Lord Captain Caiaphas when on defense missions outside the bordering Wall

Strongest character trait: Controlling

Mannerisms: Popa likes to be precise and neat in any endeavour, very private (even more so lately), a bit finicky- bit of a micromanager (really things must be just-so, even others’ clothing or it will be promptly pointed-out and rectified), easy movements- very controlled. She smiles at strange times during conversations, is habitual eye-roller, and calculates thoroughly before ever opening her glistening-gold mouth. Otherwise, she’s prone to some immaturity which is understandable given her age- for example her need to pick on Violaine-Iris and engage in arguments with her four-year-old sister.

- Relationships -

I need to add onto all of these !

with Anxélica: Popa believes her mother was justified in sending Anxélica away- she’s a blight, as far as Popa is concerned. Her visits to the main palace since Thalestris’ death aggravate Popa.

with Violaine-Iris: Popa enjoys picking on Voilaine-Iris- in fact, it’s one of her favourite amusements outside of the Arena. “Ah, there’s the Widow Lady Chatelet!”, “Where’s your husband? Ah, forgive my poor memory- you turned him into a flatcake,” “We were out by your late husband’s resting place...”, etc.

with Sabela: Sabela is the sister Popa minds least because she gives Popa the least amount of trouble.

with Otrera: A loud, grubby creature that Popa likes to avoid and has been attempting to send away from the main palace for the past year.

Damali & Smeme - Popa’s gang of handmaidens. Her only confidantes since she was a very small child. They’re both trained soldiers who keep her company as well as protected when on missions outside the Wall.

- Bio -

Not nearly as delicate as she appears, Popa is perhaps the most blood-soaked of all her siblings. Popa was her mother’s youngest child for eleven years of her life, and it is well-known among the sisters that she was Thalestris’ favourite even following the birth of Otrera. Her brutality, even at such a young age, she comes by honestly- Vitalion used to call her “Little Thalestris”- and it’s said that the girl was fed the blood of a werewolf by her mother when she was still a small child with the only effect being heightened senses. But this is only speculation. While most might believe that Popa loved her mother, it was in fact the opposite, and the rumour goes that she was truly the one that ended Thalestris’ life and framed her brother Vitalion to save herself. Then, in order to become a Queen, she did away with Alexon by accusing him of, not only treason, but also being a werewolf himself. True or not, her ambition has been clear from the start, and these days, she looks after military affairs and has even been known to engage with the enemy on the field from time to time. Her spare time is taken up at the arena- mostly as a spectator but a couple of instances as a fighter. But young Popa might find herself in over her head with a new threat- a mighty lycanthrope Queen from the north who is not-so-secretly uniting a massive force of her kind to overrun Iphis once and for all.

- Extra -

Playlist:

the devil & the daughter by daniel pemberton

we appreciate power by grimes, hana

become the beast (predator remix) by karliene

if i had a heart by fever ray

bad moon rising by mourning ritual, peter dreimanis

control by halsey

the devil within by digital daggers

Headcanons:

In a strange way, Thalestris coveted certain aspects of werewolves that she hoped she could gift to Popa without transforming or “damning” her completely. The werewolf blood she gave her as a child did provide her with some elevated hearing and sight, as well as some improved stamina and strength. Popa always denies any such thing occurred, but it’s fairly obvious when she partakes in the Arena, that she does possess some superhuman abilities.

Even if she dislikes you, Popa will adjust your out-of-place clothing out of compulsion. I suppose she would do it especially if she disliked you since she does prefer to humiliate subtly.

She enjoys showing off in the Arena for the people because she believes the displays give them confidence in her ability to protect them.

Popa has a bevvy of spies to play her eyes and ears around Violaine-Iris when she cannot be present in the palace. For now, she also has them watching Anxélica after a report that missing Arena werewolves were showing up at her private residence for so-called secret gatherings.

#sac: popa #sac: bio #fanfan's writing #i n c o m p l e t e #but ! close to being done #so i thought i would go on and publish it if anyone needs a bit of inspo ^^

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endlesschange · 6 years ago

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The Right Heart: Prologue

A The Royal Romance Fanfic

Warnings: Some swearing and mentions of sex.

Pairings: Prince Liam x Kate Beaumount (mentioned), Drake Walker x Kate Beaumont (mentioned)

Summary: During the social season of Crown Prince Leo’s journey to find a bride and queen, Kate Beaumont can’t help but discuss her own love life with her best friend.

Word Count: 4,803

Prologue: Before the Storm

Katherine Beaumont figured that, by now at least, she should be used to attending courtly functions.

As the youngest member and only daughter of House Beaumont of the duchy of Ramsford, it was somewhat expected for the brunette and her two elder brothers to be in attendance at a whole laundry list of events. From charity auctions to barn buildings, and from palace galas to the elusive Beaumont bashes, the girl didn’t even have to make a guess at whether or not the family would be attending. Her eldest brother, Bertrand, had assumed the title of Duke Ramsford with their father falling ill years ago and while he had once lived it up in the way that most young people did, he had begun almost ruling the events of their family the same way that their father did — and with that came attending a multitude of frivolous events in support of the Crown.

It was something that Kate and her other brother, Maxwell, had come to terms with a long time ago, having been raised to grow accustomed to. But while Bertrand enjoyed networking and the process of preparing for events and Maxwell just enjoyed a good party no matter the occasion, the youngest Beaumont couldn’t help but feel almost silly standing in the grand ballroom of the palace in a form fitting gown, sipping champagne that probably cost more than the Ramsford estate itself. She figured that by now she should be used to attending courtly functions. But the truth was that she wasn’t at all.

Despite having been born into this life and despite being extremely grateful for everything that life had offered her, there was just something about court and the world that it was that always struck her as . . . odd. She supported Cordonia with every fiber of her being, she loved her home truly she did, but prancing around balls simply to be surrounded by stuffy fellow nobles gave her the royal equivalent of cabin fever. Like Maxwell, she enjoyed a good party and enjoyed seeing her friends all together in one place, but with Bertrand looming over her shoulder at almost every other hour, it felt more like tedious work than actually enjoying herself.

There was a level of eloquence that one must maintain at all Cordonian courtly functions, the ones actually held at the palace especially. Kate knew that Bertrand was always chomping at the bit when it came to her behavior, the eldest Beaumont seeing Maxwell and his antics as a lost cause over the years. Kate was the youngest, someone Bertrand thought that he could control and mold into the model of a perfect lady, even if it meant acting like an asshole.

Preparing for tonight’s event, a ball held in honor of the social season’s beginning, had been an absolute nightmare. Bertrand had run his mouth the entire, grasping tightly onto his high horse as he practically shouted orders to Kate seemingly from the moment she woke up. He was seemingly hell bent on her rubbing shoulders with the exact kind of people that she wanted to avoid. From criticizing her choices in dress to making sure she knew the proper positioning of cutlery, he nearly gave her the third degree. She had nearly fallen asleep during his lecture on fork placement — a speech she had heard far too many times in her short life.

God, she thought to herself as she sipped on champagne, imagine what he would have been like if she was actually involved in this spectacle. She shuddered at the thought.

The spectacle in question was the social season itself. Starting tonight, Crown Prince Leo of Cordonia would begin his search for a wife as well as Cordonia’s future queen. King Constantine had no current plans of stepping down from the throne for his son to ascend, but the social season was Cordonian tradition — and somewhat of a protocol. In order to one day rise the ranks up to king, the Crown Prince had to be married, or at least engaged to be wed. The social season was a circus show for the most part, in Kate’s opinion, noble houses tossing their daughter’s or sponsored suitors into the ring for ring and crown. Over the course of the next few months, Leo would be expected to get to know each lady, whereas the people of the country would be exposed to how each lady acted through the eyes that were the press.

Thankfully for Kate, she had been spared from being a part of this madness. For one, Kate couldn’t ever, ever, in a million years see herself pursuing Leo. The Beaumont children were relatively close to the children of the Crown, having grown up together through court and such. A handful of years Kate’s senior, he was someone she saw simply as a brother figure and nothing more. He was close to Bertrand’s age as well, and once upon a time, when Bertrand actually used to have fun, he and Leo had done a numerous amount of things together. And whatever Bertrand knew about Leo’s past of being a partying playboy, it had set him on a clear path to making sure that the Beaumont family were not sponsoring anyone, especially not his baby sister. It was moments like that in which Kate realized that Bertrand sometimes thought with his actual brain and not his courtly mannerisms.

When Kate had been given that news, she had let out a breath of relief. If there was something that Kate didn’t want, it was a life that would be led for her. Granted, that was pretty much the life she led under Bertrand’s thumb, but the youngest Beaumont had dreams. Running a country and marrying someone that she didn’t love weren’t exactly a part of those dreams. Really, all she wanted was to travel, experience life, and perhaps one day find the heart that was right for her. In a social season with press and royalty and nobles watching her every move? She was certain that she’d be unable to find that heart. She couldn’t picture herself running a kingdom. She couldn’t picture her dealing with that, day after day. Maybe it was because deep down, she didn’t particularly care for the dealings of social classes and the people that came along with it. Maybe it was her naivety, her young age telling her that she wasn’t ready for that kind of commitment to something other than herself. Either way, it wasn’t exactly the life Kate Beaumont wanted to live.

Instead, she watched on as other noble ladies began to try and vie for that life tonight, as did the rest of court. Currently, the ladies participating in this social season were being presented to King Constantine and then Prince Leo himself, the latter looking all too bored with the frivolity of it all. Like most nobles, Leo knew most of the ladies he was being introduced to, the majority of them knew each other through functions just like this one. Clearly his days as the court’s wild child were not behind him. Kate didn’t know whether to pity him or laugh at the expression on his face.

“Countess Madeleine looks as if she has this all wrapped up with a neat little bow,” a voice spoke up from beside Kate, breaking her from her thoughts.

A glance to the side gave Kate a view of Savannah Walker, rolling her eyes at the sight of Fydelia’s countess across the room. Kate snickered into her glass, before giving her best friend a light jab to the ribs with her elbow. “Keep those comments going, Walker, and people are going to begin to forget how starstruck with the nobility you are.”

Savannah narrowed her eyes, but there was a hint of a smile on her lips. Unlike Kate herself, Savannah was born a commoner, the daughter of an American woman and a late member of the King’s Guard who had spent her entire life at court. Kate and Savannah were the same age, so anytime that the Beaumont’s had visited the palace, the two had always found themselves in each other’s company, which had then spawned into a lifelong friendship. Savannah, like her mother before her, was quite frankly enraptured with nobility. Kate wasn’t exactly sure what the appeal was, but Savannah beamed at every chance she had to participate. There was some sort of childlike wonder in her eyes at every event, like she was living out a fairytale. It was something Kate found endearing, though she did her fair share of poking fun at her friend.

“I am not starstruck with the nobility,” Savannah muttered in annoyance. Kate raised an eyebrow. The Walker girl rolled her eyes again. “Okay, well at least not with all of them, like Lord Neville for example.”

The name of the Vancoeur man itself left a sour taste in Kate’s mouth, the girl wrinkling her nose. He tended to mostly stay at Comery Isle, never one to set foot in court unless there was something important going on. But the handful of times that Kate and Savannah had had to deal with the man had done nothing but leave quite possibly the worst impression of him in their minds. “No one is a fan of trash, Savannah.”

Savannah burst into a stream of giggles, not noticing how the nobles that floated by them on the dance floor gave her dirty looks. That was another thing about Savannah that Kate enjoyed, her tendency to not notice the ways that people looked at her or talked about her. As a commoner in a room full of nobles, there were plenty of times where people like Lord Neville had looked down upon her, but Savannah took it in stride. Whether she kept her feelings about that to herself and herself alone or she just didn’t care, the Beaumont girl wasn’t all too sure, but she truly had never seen a non noble handle themselves in such a strong-willed way.

Sighing, Savannah took a sip of her drink. “I just wish there were more . . . charming men around for us to see. I mean, we’re literally standing in a ballroom, Katie, where’s our fairytale romance?”

Kate chuckled. Nodding at the line of ladies waiting to speak to Leo, she said, “Well, as a member of House Beaumont, I could probably pull some strings and get you a place in the social season. Fighting a bunch of catty woman to win over an actual prince, that’s got to have some fairy tale appeal.”

At Kate’s teasing, the Walker girl shuddered. “No offense to Leo, but I’ve heard my brother talk about his particular . . . tastes in the bedroom. I’m not exactly looking for that. Nor do I feel the need to have to deal with Madeleine on a near daily basis.”

“Ah, nobles and their kinks. Warding off potential suitors, most likely since the union of the Five Kingdoms,” Kate chuckled, eyes roving over the crowd that was beginning to gather for dancing. As expected — there was an actual betting pool going on — the Fydelian countess snatched Prince Leo for the first dance without a single warning. Madeleine was an acquired taste (read: a manipulative bitch), but damn, she was good at getting what she wanted. Turning back to her friend, Kate shrugged. “It’s just as well. If I told Bertrand we were going to sponsor someone last second, he might actually have the aneurysm Maxwell’s been predicting for three years.”

At the mention of her eldest brother, Savannah turned a brilliant shade of pink. A smile tugged at her lips and her eyes seemed to sparkle a bit more than they had the previous moment. With just the mention of Bertrand's name, she's been reduced to a schoolgirl with an obvious crush. A crush, by the way, that made Kate want to gag.

“Really, Sav?” Kate groaned, already noticing the way that the girl in questions allowed her eyes to roam the ballroom looking for a particular moody Beaumont brother.

If there was one thing that puzzled Kate endlessly about Savannah Walker, it was her strange fascination with Bertrand. From a young age, it was clear to see that the girl was taken with the Duke. She thought the world of him, like the sweater vest wearing man had hung the moon and the stars himself. Kate figured that, sure, maybe when they were younger it might have been plausible for girls to be attracted to her brother. Before their father's death, Bertrand had been charming and kind, someone people actually wanted to be around. But following the death of Barthelemy, he became somewhat of a colossal asshole, he exact kind of man that Kate wanted to keep her best friend from falling for. Falling for Bertrand seemed to be like driving down a dead end street — once you reached the end of the road, that was it.

Savannah's blush didn't falter, but her voice sure did as she tried to make a retort at her friend. Loudly, a little too loudly actually, she replied, “I don't know what you're talking about!”

“Sure, sure,” Kate replied with a teasing grin and a roll of her eyes. “You definitely don't have a giant crush on my stick in the mud brother.”

“He's not that bad,” her friend told her, her voice quieting down a bit. She looked slightly embarrassed, but refused to voice that particular feeling.

Kate waved her off with her hand. “That's because you've never been on the other end of his extensive the ruination of this house will fall onto your shoulders if you use the wrong fork, Katherine speeches or his Maxwell, if you breakdance one more time in the presence of the Queen kind of threats. You think he's this great, powerful Duke, but he's really just an inconsiderate jerk who gives extensive tongue lashings.”

At the words tongue and lashings, Savannah's blush seemed to grow even deeper, the girl's eyes widening for good measure. Kate stared at her oddly for a moment, wondering what in the actual hell that she had said that caused her to blush so heavily. And then it hit her. Holding herself back from throwing up the minimal contents of her stomach, she gave a shove towards Savannah’s shoulder.

“Oh you know that is so not what I meant,” Kate groaned, shuddering as she tried to ward off those disgusting thoughts. “It’s one thing to swoon over my brother in my presence, it’s another to have your mind in the gutter over him with me standing next to you.”

Savannah spluttered, but there was a measurable amount of mirth in her eyes at the situation. “My mind is not in the gutter over your brother, Katie. He just happens to be an attractive, interesting man that I — ”

“Have scandalous daydreams about, yes we’ve covered that,” the Beaumont girl interjected.

The Walker girl narrowed her eyes. “You’re insufferable. And a little bitter. Maybe you’re the one who needs to start having scandalous daydreams, take the edge off.”

At that, a peal of laughter escaped Kate’s lips. She covered her mouth with her hand for a moment, before she poised a manicured eyebrow at her best friend. “And who do you suppose I start having scandalous daydreams about?”

“Well, we’re in the middle of a crowded ballroom, I’m sure we could find you some sort of eye candy,” Savannah snickered, a twinkle in her eyes as she scanned the crowd. Raising a finger, she discreetly pointed at a somewhat dashing man walking past. “What about him?”

Kate made a face. While she couldn’t for the life of her remember the man’s name — if Bertrand were here, he’d probably whip out his courtly flashcards — she knew that she had met him once before. And that he had been a rude, perverted asshole to anything that breathed. With narrowed eyes and a sharp tongue, she replied, “I’d rather spend my life getting pleasure from my right hand alone then deal with him.”

“I thought you were a respectable lady of the court?” Savannah teased, biting her lip to stifle the laughter that was threatening to pour out.

Kate raised an eyebrow. “You’ve spent enough time at court to know most of these ladies become skilled in the art of . . . self service because they have to deal with the likes of have of these earls and dukes and such.”

“Well, from what I’ve heard, some of them are good in bed. And besides, lets just take sex off the table — is there literally no one here that you’re interested in? I’ve known you nearly my whole life and I swear I’ve never seen you have a crush on someone who wasn’t a celebrity.”

At the mention of the word crush, a flush seemed to creep up the back of Kate’s neck. One, because what Savannah was saying wasn’t anywhere near the truth. While she was right in the sense that nearly all of Kate’s crushes were celebrities (and the occasional fictional character), there had been one instance at court where she had found herself swooning over someone. And two, because the universe clearly wanted to fuck with her, her eyes managed to land on said crush at just that particular moment.

To say that Drake Walker — yes, Savannah’s older brother — was hard to find amidst the dancing couples and conversing dignitaries would be a lie. In fact, the commoner stuck out like a sore thumb, leant up against the far wall in a pair of dark pants and a button down shirt, a far cry from the elaborate suits that the men around him wore. A half drunken glass of whiskey was clutched in his hand and a sour expression was plastered across his face, the signature Drake look. If it weren’t for the fact that his best friend happened to be Prince Liam, the younger brother of Leo, Drake probably wouldn’t have been there at all.

Kate bit her lip as her eyes glanced over him, a little voice in the back of her mind nudging her to remember how taken she had been with him for a week during her fifteenth year. The long and short of it was that at one visit to the palace, there had been a near tragic accident in the stables that involved Kate and one of the newer horses at the time. Kate, like her brothers, had grown up riding in equestrian competitions and felt at home around horses, but the newest steed had clearly not appreciated her over confidence. Ten seconds later, the horse had charged at her only for her brother’s best friend to dart out of another stall and coax the horse into calm, pretty much saving Kate from being trampled. At the time, he had been newly eighteen, the summer before he left for his brief stint at college, and for some reason, Kate had been over the moon with him for the following days. And then he had made a rude comment about her brothers and the nobility in general — a classic Drake tactic — and the crush had disappeared as quick as it came.

Her silly little schoolgirl crush on Drake had been something that she had never disclosed to anyone, especially not Savannah. The crush had been short lived, maybe a week and a day, and it had been mostly centered around the fact that Drake had practically saved her life. For a short period of time, she viewed him heavily as her ruggedly handsome knight in shining armor. There had never been any actual feelings, no substance behind the fact that she had briefly liked to drool over the man who seemed to have an easier time drinking his weight in whiskey than he did conversing with other human beings. So because of that, she hadn’t disclosed the feelings to anyone. Savannah was far different than Kate herself and Kate knew without a shadow of a doubt that the first thing out of her best friend’s mouth would be how she’d talk her up to Drake and how the two would actually be sisters if the two were to get together.

Yeah, that would never happen, Kate thought to herself as she watched the man take another sip of whiskey. She turned back to her friend. Muttering, Kate told her, “I don’t have crushes on any of these people because I’ve known half of them since childhood and half of them are complete assholes.”

Savannah shrugged, taking another sip of her drink. “Not everyone you’ve known since childhood is a jerk. For one, there’s the Prince.”

Furrowing her brow, Kate replied, “If I wanted to go after Leo, I’d be battling it out with Madeleine at the moment.”

“I meant Liam, dumbass,” Savannah responded. “He’s always had a soft spot for you. And he’s incredibly well mannered and honestly? Looks like he’d know what to do in more intimate situations.”

At the mention of Prince Liam, Kate couldn’t help but groan. It wasn’t exactly like this was the first time that her friend had ever brought up the notion of the two dating. God, Bertrand might just have a coronary from pure excitement if he ever found out that there was a chance that his little sister and the King’s second son could possibly enter a relationship. Kate could just imagine it now, the way he’d bust out all of his infamous lectures on courting and being a prim and proper lady.

It wasn’t much of a secret that Liam had harbored a little bit of a crush on the only Beaumont girl — at least, it wasn’t much of a secret in their social circle. If any of the elder members of court knew, that was beyond Kate’s knowledge. But when it came to Maxwell and Drake and Savannah, Liam’s little soft spot for Kate wasn’t unheard of. Kate figured that she should be flattered, thrilled even, to have a potential chance with an actual prince, someone who could further her own social standing and allow her to live out a fairytale. And yes, maybe a small part of her was a bit flattered — Liam was a kind and handsome man — but she wasn’t exactly sure that was the kind of situation that she’d want to put herself in. It would be a situation where she knew she’d feel like she being forced into it. Surely Bertrand would never let her have a purely romantic, feelings based relationship with Liam if she wanted. He’d be hounding her every day and night, making sure she was using her relationship to better House Beaumont.

So, much like she wasn’t interested in courting his brother, Kate didn’t have much of a desire to court Liam either. It wasn’t that Savannah was wrong — again, Liam was one of the sweetest people that Kate had ever come across in her life, even if he had every reason to turn out like an entitled bastard. He also wasn’t bad looking, with his dark hair and charming smile. She knew that across Cordonia, Liam was crushed on and lusted over heavily by most women and men. But being interested in Liam was a road she’d rather not travel down, despite the fact that Savannah couldn’t seem to get that through her head.

“I don’t want to crush on or fantasize over Liam,” Kate muttered in annoyance, glancing down at her empty champagne glass. Shit.

“Well, you’d better figure out a way to put that nicely because he’s headed over here with my brother right now,” Savannah laughed.

Kate glanced up, feeling almost like a deer in headlights when she realized that Savannah wasn’t lying. Prince Liam made his way over, the picture perfect model of grace and charm. Drake, on the other hand, followed behind him with his usual bored expression plastered across his face.

The two men came to a stop in front of the two women, but only two of the four were smiling. Liam had an effortless grin etched across his lips, while Savannah beamed endlessly at the prince and her brother. Drake still looked bored. And Kate still wore a mildly distressed expression on her face, wondering what in the actual world could have brought them over here.

Seeing as no one else was going to break the silence, Liam took the lead. “Ladies,” he greeted, giving each girl a nod.

“Your Highness,” Savannah replied with a grin, a joking edge to her tone. After all their years being friends, the girl sometimes still addresses her brother’s friend in professional terms, even if Liam had told her a thousand times to call him just Liam. Before he could make that remark, she tossed a look in her brother’s direction. “Hey big brother.”

Drake grunted out a greeting and gave Kate a barely discernible nod. She rolled her eyes. But she gave him a smile nonetheless and did the same for his current companion.

The smile seemed to make Liam’s expression sparkle. “Lady Katherine — ”

“Liam, we’ve been over this — every time you call me Lady Katherine, I lose roughly six years off my life,” the Beaumont girl joked.

“My apologies, Kate. I’ve spent the entire evening greeting everyone by title, it’s a hard habit to break,” the prince joked. Then, he offered his hand. “They’re about to start the next waltz. Would you care for a dance?”

Without even breaking a sweat, Kate gave him a sad smile. “I’m actually not in a dancing mood. But I’m sure Savannah would love to accompany you, wouldn’t you Savannah?”

Savannah gave her a scowl, before brightly turning to the prince who was trying his best not to look like a kicked puppy. Shoving her half empty glass into Kate’s empty hand, the Walker girl took Liam’s outstretched hand. “I’d be delighted to dance with you.”

If Liam was even mildly disappointed at dancing with the girl he didn’t ask, he hid it exceptionally well. That was an art that most Cordonian nobles knew well. He whisked her off to the dance floor just as the music queued up, the two soon disappearing amidst the other dancing couples. Kate bit her lip, feeling like a bit of a bitch, but she shoved that down as she disposed of her empty glass on a passing waiter’s tray, bringing herself to drink the rest of Savannah’s glass.

“You know, you break his heart a little more every time you turn him down for a dance,” a voice spoke, bringing Kate to realize that Drake was still stood beside her. He had taken Savannah’s now empty spot, leaning against the wall much like he had done across the room. But now he was giving her a look, one that told her that he knew exactly what she had been doing when she sent Savannah out on that dance floor.

“Spare me the over protective best friend speech, Walker. I’m just not in the mood for dancing tonight.”

“That’s what you said the last time.”

“Don’t you have somewhere else to go be miserable?”

Drake scoffed, but there was a hint of a smirk on his lips. “If I’m miserable, then so are you. Maybe even more. You’ve been moping the entire night. And unfortunately, Katie,” he drawled, using his sister’s nickname for the Beaumont girl in a sarcastic manner, “Misery loves company.”

She rolled her eyes at him, briefly wondering how in the hell she had ever managed to have a crush on him. Kate didn’t hate Drake, to make it clear. In fact, she sort of considered him a friend (she was smart not to brand him a best friend like Maxwell had, but Maxwell had never been one to grasp the fact that Drake generally wanted to push him off a cliff). But he was just the right brand of annoying that Kate didn’t want to deal with tonight.

Tipping the glass of champagne towards her mouth, she downed the rest of Savannah’s drink in one fell swoop. Eyes cast out to the dance floor, she couldn’t help but already begin waiting for this social season to come to a close, so that everything could calm down.

But unfortunately for Kate, she would come to learn a year later that Leo’s social season was in fact the calm. The last bit of comfort before a whole season of heartache and pain and mixed emotions. Right now, she was calm, calmer than she would be in a years time. For it truly was always the calmest before the storm.

Tag List: @goldenraines @museofbooks

#mc: kate beaumont #mc: katherine beaumont #drake walker x mc #drake walker #king liam x mc #king liam #prince liam x mc #savannah walker #maxwell beaumont #bertrand beaumont #the royal romance #pixelberry #choices #playchoices #trr #fic: the right heart

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i-can-be-king-again · 4 years ago

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Has the person you like ever seen you in your pajamas? Nope

Did the last person you kissed celebrate your last birthday with you? No, that person dumped me a couple years ago and we stopped talking after a while

What’s the first word of the last text message you received? “okay”

Do you think you’ve changed at all over the past year? I’m being less of a pushover than I've been before and being less of a perfectionist in front of ppl

Is there a song that reminds you of your ex? Do you still listen to that song? “In my head” by Ariana Grande, I listen to it sometimes to remind myself that I'm better off without them

Did you tag anyone in your last Facebook status? I don’t use Facebook as much anymore

How do you behave when you’re drunk? Never been drunk, but I was super tense when I was buzzed lol

What is your least favorite type of chocolate? White chocolate, it makes my stomach hurt lol

When was the last time you felt disappointed? What was the reason? Last week when I felt like I'm not improving in my self defense class, but I'm always disappointed in that lol

Is there someone that can make you smile, even when you feel like crying? There’s a couple people that can

Is there a certain person on your mind right now? Tell me about him/her. My boyfriend

You’re getting ready to go to bed, and the last person you kissed shows up, what do you do? Tell them to get tf out my house lol

What was your last thought before you went to bed last night? I’m so goddamn lonely lol

Do you think someone is thinking about you right now? Probably not

Are you okay right now? I’m never ok tbh lol

What time did you get up today? around 8:30 am

When was the last time you saw your mom? As of writing this right now, about 10 minutes ago

What is the last thing you drank today? Water

Do you dislike/hate anyone? Trump, my self defense teacher, and this stupid guy in my self defense class

Where is your best friend right now? Probably at home

When will your next kiss be? I’m not going to predict that because I don’t want to jinx the possibility lol

Will you be up before 7 am tomorrow? Hell no lol

Does anyone completely understand you? My therapist, I think

Who was the last girl you hugged outside of family? A couple years ago I think

Have you held hands with somebody in the past three days? No

What will you be doing in 3 hours? Playing games

How often do you straighten your hair? I already have straight hair so I don’t need to do that

What are you currently looking forward to? This stupid pandemic and trump’s presidency to be over

Is tomorrow gonna be a good day? What are you going to do? Probably not lol, mostly waste time

Who did you last hang out with? The person I'm dating(?) at the moment

Did anyone see your last kiss? Nope

Could things possibly get any better? I hope so ugh

Do you know who you’ll even kiss next? I have no clue!

Do you ever sleep in jeans? No, that sounds really uncomfortable

Name something you dislike about the day you’re having? Anxiety and lack of sleep

Did you get a full 8 hours of sleep last night? No

Are you in love lately? No

How often do you see your ex? Never, thank god lol

Who was the last person to text you? My friend

Did you like anyone last summer? Not really

Do you replay things that have happened in your head? All the time!

Who was the last person you stayed up with till 2am? My friend

Do you want a boyfriend or girlfriend? yes!! I’m fine with either one lol

Are you currently in a relationship? Nope

Do you use a full length mirror daily? Rarely

Would you be shocked if the person you have feelings for texted you? No

Is there anyone you wish you could fix things with? Not really

What are you planning on doing after this? Probably play some games

Is there a girl you would do anything for? Yep!

Who IMed you on facebook last? An old classmate from college

How old are you? 27

Do you love dogs? I love them!!

Were you finished childhood and teens when Harry Potter movies came out? No, they started coming out when I was in elementary school

Did you keep all your VHS tapes? Some of them yeah

Do you think Jack Nicholson is a good actor? Yeah I think so

Have you ever watched an episode of “The Honeymooners”? No

Have you ever owned a pair of high-top Converse? No

Do you have rain boots with a cute pattern on them? I don’t own any rainbows lol

Would you rather eat an apple or an orange right now? Orange

Would you rather do a cartwheel on land or a backflip in water? Cartwheel

Have you ever performed on stage in front of people? Not performed, but one time I saw a comedian at a small venue and they had me come up on stage with him to be his “personal assistant” because I looked super young for my age, it was really fun lmao

Were you kinda scared of the goths in high school? Not scared, but mostly intimidated lol

What size is your mattress?(single,twin,double,queen,king) Full size

Do you eat foods from all 4 food groups everyday? I don’t eat meat so no lol

Do you sleep in PJs? Yes

Do you prefer watching TV or listening to music? I’m ok with either one

Would you rather watch a movie in theatre or at home? Depends on the movie I'm seeing in the theater

Do you prefer brown or white rice? Brown

Do you like spaghetti? Spaghetti is pretty good

What about lasagna? Lasagna is pretty good too

Do you celebrate Christmas? Sort of

Is your Thanksgiving celebrated in October too? No..? I've never heard of that tf lol

Do you like chocolate bars? Not really, I like chocolate in other forms lol

what about ice cream? nah, it hurts my teeth when I eat it

Have you ever been stung by anything? What was it? Mostly mosquitoes lol

Do you get tired easily? Sometimes

Or do you always have plenty of energy to spare? Never lol

Have you ever done volunteer work? Where? I volunteered to help office workers at red cross What about court-ordered community service? No

Have you ever worn contacts?(even just to try them out) I tried but they were too hard to take out and they were uncomfortable

Would you wear contacts on a daily basis? yes if they were easier to take out lol

Are your ears pierced? How many times? Nope

Do you have GOD-GIVEN(not dyed) natural brown hair too? I have natural brown hair but from genetics lol

Or were you born blonde? No

Have you found a gray hair on your head or body before? Not yet lol

Have you ever had any suspicious moles removed? Nope

Have you ever been screened for STDs? No

Are all your wisdom teeth pulled? not yet

Did you have your tonsils taken out? No

Did you have your appendix taken out? No

How many kidneys do you have?(have you donated one?) I have both of them

Would you(to save someone)?^^^ If it’s a close family member yeah

Have you ever found a bug or slug in your salad? no thank god

Do you like Harry Potter? not really

What about Twilight? I liked it when I was younger, but not now How do you feel about Lord of the rings? It’s kind of boring lol

Are you going to see ‘The Hobbit’ when it comes out? I saw, it was ok

Do you have a glass that says ‘Molson Canadian’ on it? No

Do you have any collector’s glasses or cups or mugs? Nope

Would you rather have a white fridge or a black fridge or a stainless steel fridge? Stainless steel

What size shoe do you wear? 7-7.5 womens

Do you have a wide foot or a narrow foot or just average? Narrow

Do you bite your nails when you’re stressed? No

Do you have to take an allergy pill daily in order to live normally? No

Are you on the birth control pill? No

Or are you trying to get pregnant? I’m trying not to get pregnant, but I use condoms instead

You’d rather wear black sneakers or sneakers in a bright color or pattern? black sneakers

Has anyone ever told you they were attracted to you? Yes

Can you swim well in water way above your head? yep

Are you afraid of thunder & lightening? No, I love them lol

Have you ever experienced an earthquake? yes

What about a tornado? No

Are you closer to your dad?(more so than your mom) I’m a lot closer to my mom

Were you your parents’ first born? Yes

Do you have a child? Is the father still with you? No

Did you trade stickers at recess when you were a kid? No

How old were you when you had your first crush? Do you remember their name? I think I was 10, I don’t remember their name

Can you even remember what the hell they looked like? Not at all lol

Have you ever operated any type of motorized vehicle before? A car

Are you going to drink alcohol tonight? Nope

Have you ever heard of the Canadian kids show called “Mr. Dressup”? No

What about the kids show “Fred Penner’s Place”? No

Did you hate Sesame Street when you were little too? I've never watched it so I can’t have a valid opinion of it

Were you born perfectly healthy or with some(or a lot) of health issues? I had semi severe stomach problems when I was a baby, and still have them now lol

Do you collect DVDs? Nah, I just rent them

Do you download music? Yes

Or do you still go to stores and buy CDs? No

Did you skip(jumo-rope) a lot as a kid? Sometimes

Did you ever catch any bugs or insects with your friends as a kid? roly polies and ladybugs

Didn’t you just LOVE art class in elementary school?! I don’t remember having an art class back then lol

Have you ever played dodgeball? Yes, I'm pretty good at dodging but not throwing

What about Red Rover? No

Have you ever played “What time is it mr. wolf?”? It sounds familiar but I don’t remember it

Do you hate your weight? I’m fine with it

Have you ever struggled with a mental illness? yes and still do lol

Serious question, peanut butter or nutella? Peanut butter

Have you ever stepped on a snail? yeah, on accident :/

Do you prefer baked potatoes or mashed potatoes? Mashed

Do you prefer ankle socks over regular socks? Ankle socks

Last movie you’ve seen in theaters? Sonic the hedgehog lmao

What is your oldest sibling’s middle name? I don’t know their middle name oops, I think it’s the same name as my dad though

Have you ever been to Disneyland or Disney World? Both

Would you ever go backpacking across any country? Nah, not interested

Would you prefer to travel around the world by yourself or with a friend? With a friend

Do you like breadsticks? Not really

Do you usually wear shorts around your house all year long? No, my house gets cold a lot

What state were you born in? California

Have you ever had a nose bleed? Never had one

How far away do you live from your birthplace? An hour maybe?

Do you have a weak stomach? yes, I hate it ugh

Do you know anybody who has been diagnosed with cancer? No

Have you ever had to take care of an intoxicated person? No

Have you ever considered becoming a lawyer? Not at all

Do you *really* like donuts? Hell yeah I do!

Do you think Disney World could ever get old? If I went there all the time, then yeah

If you could, would you hookup with the last person you texted? I don’t like hooking up with people :/

What are your favorite things to spend money on? Games, art supplies, clothes

Will you talk to the person you like on the phone tonight? Probably not

What do you usually order on a pizza? vegan cheese with veggies on it Do you and your boyfriend/girlfriend fight a lot? I don't have one 😭

Who’s the first person with the letter “m” in your contacts? My cousin

Which would you rather have a new puppy or kitten? Puppy!!!!!

How old will you be on your next birthday? 28 😱

What color are your underwear? That’s confidential information lmao

Do you ever feel self-conscious when you eat around other people? All the time, I always have to eat in an area with little to no people. It sucks

#personal #about me #survey

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caddy-crystal-queen · 7 years ago

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Introducing my new star wars original species (os): the Draconians

I’ve been wanting to post about these guys for a while, particularly their history through their rulers. I really wish to do an rp with these guys on here if anyones interested. So…here are some top ten basic facts about them. I do plan to get specific later, as i am currently writing a little book of sorts about their rulers. Now this is DEFINITELY NOT CANON. This is a species i purely made up and thought itd be awesome to share. So with that being said…

#10: the species name and home planet

The name draconian actually comes from the now destroyed homeworld of the draconis species, referred to as Old Draconia. The planet was “doomed” by a pair of powerful sith lords who used ancient sith sorcery to create a disease that ultimately killed the planet and everyone on it. Old Draconia is now pretty much just a land of ashes, ruins, and mist. Think of it almost as the silent hill of the star wars universe.

#9. Their Beliefs

Most of the Draconian religious and historical texts were lost to the doom, but its highly believed that the Draconians worshipped seven goddesses who resided in the constellation Draco. One of their myths stated that the dragons are actually children of the stars and its from the stars its where they got their fire. Each goddess was once a queen or other important political or social figure, each one representing a different element in nature.

#8. Their powers and Force Sensitivity

There was technically eight types of dragons. Six “common” dragons and two “rare” types. The six were able to control the elements (water, fire, earth, wind, light, and darkness), while the two rare dragons were called Celestials and Aethers. It was said the source of this “magic” was actually stemmed from Force sensitivity. Some draconians, mostly the Aether dragons, were able to “hide” themselves within the Force itself becoming invisible to almost all except for Force sensitives. Celestials could control all elements in nature except for Dark Matter, which was controlled by Aether dragons. But Dark Matter control was seen as dangerous and blasphemous to the seven goddesses so Aether dragons (then called Nether Dragons) were hunted to near extinction. They didnt see the Force as a weapon, like most did. But rather as a living protective deity which called the All Mother or The One Beyond the Seven Stars.

#7. Their government and society

The Draconians had a matriarchal society and were usually ruled by a queen. They did have a few kings here and there but two of them were the first dragon rulers, two others were absolutely cruel, and another was only given the title on the insistence of a queen. The queen was a descendant of the Conqueror, a young fire dragon who united the draconian species from their primitive tribal ways into a single kingdom. Women and girls were seen as more valuable after one queen, named Rhea, challenged her Nest Brother for the draconian throne and won by actually killing him. She declared a weak male would never again rule draconia, but they still had two very oppressive kings. The queen was entirely expected to have mostly daughters to succeed her. The title didnt however always go to the oldest. Sometimes it was determined by a fight between the Nest Sisters from the queens first clutch. If a queen dies without any daughters then one of her sisters would be next in line, followed by nieces, cousins, etc. As for the queens sons, well, they became mostly scholars, healers, soldiers and the like. The queens oldest son would become the captain of his sisters Queen’s Guard until she started to choose guards for herself. After that, he may become her advisor or take up any place in society he may want.

#6. The Queen’s Guard

The name is pretty self explanatory, the queens guard protected the queen. But in early days of the guard, it was also the queens harem in a sense. When she came of age, the queen was technically allowed to take whoever she wanted to her bed as long as it was consensual on both ends (rape was seen as a taboo). Most queens didnt actually get married after queen Rhea, but they did play Favorites. These Favorites were usually the Captains after her brother stepped down, and was often granted certain priviledges and favors/positions for his family. With that said, many families with strong sons or attractive sons pushed them to try to win the queens favor, as he is also more likely to conceive with the queen and therefore be the father of the next queen. However it wasnt just men on the guard, there were a few queens that actually favored women, as all draconians were actually taught to fight. But a queen always needs an heir so there always had to at least be one man on the Queens Guard.

#5. Rashkas and Dovas (Draycon)

“Rashka” and “Draycon” mean Rider and Dragon respectively. They were titles given to individuals who were bound together for life by a mental link. The Rashkas protected the common folk of Draconia, and mostly consisted of humans riding dragons. These humans were given powers and magic from their mounts who shared their lifeforce (called Dova in Old Draconia) with them. As long as the Draycon lived, so did the Rashka, and vise versa. That being said, early Rashka were nearly immortal as draconians usually lived for a very long time. A Rashka can usually have only one Draycon throughout their life time and again it works the other way around. However this mental link can be severed under extreme stress or just before death so the other can keep living. However their life after that was said to be terribly unhappy. Any dragon can be Draycon, and any person can be a Rashka. No one truly knows who or what determines how or why theyre chosen for each other. Queens however arent typically Draycon, with the exception of one who was the very first. Up until closer to modern day, it was believed only humans could be Rashka, but the first alien Rashka was a Duros who found and later hatched a Dark dragon egg…

#4. Tosca, the Mad Queen

The worst female ruler in draconian history was none other than Tosca the Mad. Born from the greatest ruler in draconian history, her reign was a complete contrast to her legendary mother’s, but it didnt start out that way. Tosca the First was obsessed with keeping her power and prestige, and would go to any lengths to keep it. It’s believed that her uncle, Malakai, cursed one of his sisters eggs before she killed him, making it so Tosca was influenced by him her whole life. She had her sisters husband locked away and later executed on false charges of treason and banished her sister, Nythia, to a distant world where she was to live in isolation for the rest of her days. Despite her paranoia, Tosca the Mad did manage to have one child survive to adulthood, though this child, a daughter named Harmonia, barely escaped with the help of smugglers. Tosca the Mad ruled for fifty years before her madness completely took over and therefore had to be killed. Harmonia succeeded her. She was the only mad queen in draconias history.

#3. Creed, the Draycon Queen

Ask any modern draconian who the greatest ruler in draconian history was and theyll tell you it was none other than Creed. She was the first Draycon ever, and the only to ever be queen. She ruled during the time of the old republic. Born to queen Sarella, creed and her nestmates (still in eggs at the time) were sent off of draconia to other worlds under a powerful enchantment, only draconian fire could hatch them, with the exception of her and her twin brother, named Malakai, who also had a rashka. Creed however lost her rashka when he was captured by the jedi, but not killed, thus keeping her alive but the jedi severed the link between the two. It left the princess absolutely miserable and she escaped coruscant to a distant deserted world, laying low a few years to learn to control all the elements in nature. Creed was the first queen since Queen Nymeria to learn such a thing. With her new found powers, Creed took back Draconias throne from her brother, who she later imprisoned and later executed. Her reign was draconias golden age.

#2. The Nether Purge

Of all the dragon types there are, nether dragons are the most misunderstood. With the power to control dark matter, the very fabric of the universe, these rarest of dragons were the most powerful in existence. So how did they die out? Well the answer isnt really known but its speculated that there werent all that many to begin with and the few that were killed or captured hadnt realized their full potential yet. But it wasnt just their power people feared, it was also the manner in which their mates were picked. As hatchlings, the Aether dragons removed a fragment of their own hearts and crystallized it. When in the presence of their soulmate the crystal glows. The thing that scared most other dragons was that this tended to happen around mostly hatchlings or very young dragons. Fearing for the future, and believing only celestials should come close to the seven goddesses, the Nether dragons were hunted, killed, or taken to a distant world where they couldnt do harm.

#1. The doom of old Draconia

The Doom of old Draconia was a catastrophic event for the dragons. Two sith lords came to queen Serren, the last queen, demanding to know the secret to draconian long life. The queen of course refused to tell them, claiming she didnt know. But this was only a partial truth. Ancient draconians once used a powerful dark magic to transfer their souls to new bodies but Creed banned the practice and had all knowledge of it erased. As for their naturally long lives (they can live up to about two and a half centuries supposedly) serren honestly didnt know. It was the secret of the Soul Release spell that the sith were after and serren, as the queen, was supposed to guard the secret with her life. The draconians’ magic was cut off leaving them defenseless from the onslaught of drought, famine, and disease that eventually overrode the planet. The queen was however able to escape with a single egg. But no one knows where she is…

And i hope you guys enjoyed reading that! I plan to write more about the rulers of draconia. If you got questions please feel free to ask, anonymous or not. I look forward to sharing more if you guys are interested ^^

#star wars #oc #original species #top ten list #dragons #draconians #species facts

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