#but the first one i really just wanted to draw legend in a prince outfit

[spacebagel54]

Random anthro au doodles will no context:)

[uniquevoidflowers]

Y'all asked for it. Drawings and explanations under the cut of Legend, Wind, Warrior and Hyrule (just to be clear don't expect anything bc I dunno how to draw really):

Starting with Legend (top left): The prince ofc. He's 17 in this au, and it's ok to ship him with Marin and Fable. The getup he has on in this drawing, he never wears when he sneaks out but when mostly when he's in the castle. He dyed half his hair. It was supposed to be red but it came out pink instead. He ended up secretly liking the pink though. Although not coloured atm, his outfit is red with the exception of his pants and belt. The little details on the sleeve are gold, his belt is brown. His pants are a creamy brown.

Little facts about him ig:

-Hates feeling vulnerable

-Fears being trapped or losing reality

-was very sickly as a child

-very good at many instruments; he enjoys learning them

-refuses to sing though

-wants to learn how to swordfight

-collector (he also enjoys collecting things)

-born in Castletown, Hyrule

_____________________________________________________________

Wind (top right): He's 14 and has a dark brown eye colour. Lots of freckles. His shirt is a bright green. He likes blue more but his Grandma liked him to wear green, so he wears it to honour her. His pants are a simple brown. His Grandma, passed when he was 12, and his parents had been missing even before that. He now lives with Green, Red, Blue and Vio. Aryll, his sister, lives there as well.

More little facts:

-loves seafood

-picky about other foods

-protective of his younger sister

-Aryll WAS kidnapped before :)

-used to pretend to be a pirate as a kid, still loves reading about them

-loves acting

-optomistic

-chaotic

-hates cold tempatures

-fears the dark, and losing his sister again

-loves bugs

-loves thunder and rain

-born in Outset, Hyrule

_____________________________________________________________

Warrior (bottom left): He's 22. His armour is a uniform, but the scarf was made by his mother before she passed away. The back of his scarf has a signature by her. He rarely parts with it. The uniform was inspired by botw's Hylian knight armour. He's Legend's personal knight, promoted after helping greatly in the war. Armed most of the time.

Little facts:

-Has 5 other sisters

-good with kids

-twins with one of his siblings, Linkle

-was popular among many ladies when he first joined knighthood

-also hates cold enviroments

-fears being hated, or failing

-has a 'soldier' mode where he doesn't show his emotions and is very calculative and serious

-born in Castletown, Hyrule

___________________________________________________________

Hyrule: He's 16. It's ok to ship him with Dawn. His clothes were made by Blue, they're a darker green. Messy hair, never takes care of it. (even if he needs to) and gold outlines on his clothes. He's a great friend of Legend's, meeting him a year ago.

Little facts:

-timid around strangers

-had an older brother but he ran away awhile ago

-very good at survival

-has magic abilities that he discovers later in the story

-looks up to Legend

-kinda skittish and jumpy

-bashful

-self-worth issues

-born in Selina of Calatia

[bobbybutterfly]

I have a post lined up about my latest finished SaH doll. But it’s taking just far too long to finish. So I thought I would make a different post in the meantime. Getting ya’ll up to speed with some of my SaH digital art. Starting with a piece I finished just now VISUAL KEI MULORI for @32girassoisdevangogh !

Hope she looks alright. I should have done more research before jumping straight into it. Ever since I discovered pen stabilisation inking became way more enjoyable. I just have to have a sketch I made on paper underneath because unless it’s something simple like the things in the panels and the petals then it’s not going to end well. Let’s just say that.

I first learned (maybe somewhere else before that but this is what I remember) of Visual Kei I would say was in a Rainbow High Review of sorts by Negative Legend on Youtube. She mentioned it would be neat if more dolls would represent this subculture. I looked it up and personally didn’t like it.

Well. Things are different now. I heard the calling of the darkness. I’m a fan of the trad goth style and Visual Kei looks awesome. Thanks for reminding me of this subculture with this art trade.

Now for something more cheerful. It’s the return of my OC Shiho Tenshi. I don’t know why I started thinking about them again. But here we go.

They’re wearing an outfit inspired by Princess Knight, a revolutionary shoujo manga. I started watching the anime when I was in England and it’s so fun! Also the main character is what we would call now nonbinary. Although you could make an argument that Prince Sapphire is trans masc. It’s thought to say.

Yeah. I don’t have much to add to this. Just happy to draw them again.

What’s this? A new OC alert?!

It’s a white rabbit everyone! We always need more of those. Inspired by 1920’s I Shanghai Art Nouveau posters it’s Ai Yuen. She’s a silent film actress and a spy. Originally I wanted her to be a spy for the Weasel Empire but now I think she should be a spy for Flower Hill. She seduces the animals she spies on. Tricking them into thinking that she’s just some bimbo you can spill all your secrets to.

She’s a mean girl only out for herself. She knows she’s talented and looks good. She knows her worth. Not going to lie, major lesbian vibes. I don’t know why. She grew up relatively poor and climbed that ladder. Getting rid of everyone who stood in her way. Deep down she’s really lonely. But she hates the idea of being vulnerable and needing others so she pushes it down with opium and other drugs.

Then she meets Shiho Tenshi. Someone with a similar background to her. But instead of being all alone they have their big acting troupe that’s like a found family. Ai slowly starts to open up. Thinking to herself that she’s only getting closer to Shiho because of her mission. A mission that would lead to her getting killed by Flower Hill if her true feelings were to get out.

She’s one of the OCs I made just because why not. I don’t have any ideas what to do with her. Well. Maybe I could make a doll of her later down the line? Let me know what you think.

[vampypurplequ33n]

HAPPY 8 YEAR ANNIVERSARY SANDERS SIDESS!!

I wish I could do more for this anniversary celebration but I have to go somewhere today and probably won’t have time to draw anything special. However, this is what I have time for since sanders sides was literally one half of my childhood and I recently got back into the hyperfixation of it. I love each of these characters to death and I’ll explain each of them in detail during this post <3

Logan: He is the best “teacher” ever! I wish he got more love from the other Sides, but the fandom definitely makes up for it. He’s a sucker for Crofters, got me into that jame btw, and he helped me learn a lot of new things! During one of my classes a teacher asked if anyone knew what a “Yerkes-Dodson Curve” was and let me tell you how I raised my hand so fast…. LOGAN MY BOI WE ALL LOVE YOU😭😭

Roman: The Man, the Prince, the Legend. He is so flamboyant I love him for that. He is the embodiment of “drama queen” and he definitely deserves that title. I loved this man to D E A T H since day one. I feel like half of me is literally his personality, and since I’m also insecure it checks out pretty well! If I was forced to only draw one Side for the REST of my life, it would be Roman in a heartbeat.

Patton: HES THE BIGGEST PUFFBALL WEVE GOT IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD AND EVERY CAN AGREE HES AMAZING AND OMFG HES SO ADORABLE AND EVERY BAD THING THAT HAPPENED TO HIM THAT HE COULDNT CONTROL SHOULDNT HAVE HAPPENED AND I ONLY WISH THE BEST FOR HIM AND HE DESERVES ALL THE COOKIES IN THE WORLD OMGGGGGGGGG- Ahem, aside all that… I do love Patton! He is like the father I wish I could have, and the childhood imaginary friend you had what you were a toddler as well! I love you to bits Patton!

Virgil: He’s a fan favorite, which is understandable. A ton of people deal with anxiety, and a lot of people love the color purple. I.. am in that group but in a slightly insane level- Not the anxiety part that’s being dealt with, but the P U R P L E. He’s my favorite BECAUSE he’s purple. When he was just black I didn’t really like him THAT much, but I saw the appeal. Once he got the purple tho, I LOVED THAT MAN. He really is a big fan favorite and I understand why. Plus he’s a silly little emo gay, who doesn’t like that?

Janus: MY SASSY BOII!!! We love to see him! We all know he loves wine, we all know he definitely needs some validation, and our boy deserves a hug. We love him, and as the saying goes “She is beauty, she is grace, she will lie right to your face.” And he is also the embodiment of…. “Girlboss, gatekeep, gaslight <3” And all of this is the truth, which is definitely gonna mess with him a lil bit :3

Remus: How do you describe your love of a character without it getting to redundant? I love this fucking trashy rat man to death and nothing will change my god damn mind. HES SO SCRUNKLY I LOVE HIM!!! HE IS THE ELBODIMENT OF THE OTHER SIDE OF ME, IM BEING DEADASS RIGHT NOW. I WILL ACTUALLY KEEP RANTING AND RANTING ABOUT HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS GOD FORSAKEN MAN. I WILL FUCKING KILL FOR HIM (if he doesn’t do it first) His outfit, his personality, HIS FUCKING MACE. HE IS THE EMBODIMENT OF CHAOS AND I LIVE FOR IT!!

Thomas: Him. Just, Him. He deserves all the love this world can possibly give him and more. Whenever he posts is always, and I mean ALWAYS during a troubling part of my life. And he can get me through any bad days I may be having. I swear this guy knows when we are sad and posts RIGHT when that happens and it brings a chuckle to us, making the day MUCH BETTER. He is an inspiration, a goal, a dream, a PARENTAL FIGURE to most of the community and I want him to know that.

@thatsthat24 HAPPY ANNIVERSARY FOR SANDERS SIDES YOU DESERVE ALL OF THE GIFTS AND LOVE THIS COMMUNITY HAS GIVEN YOU!!!!

[rainydaydream-gal18]

Steve Rogers x Reader: The Nutcracker(AU) Part 4- Final Part

   (Warning, this is kind of long)

You noticed as the four of you wandered the island, it began to grow warmer.  It wasn’t a major change in the beginning, but after a while you were able to shed your coat.

   “Anyone else feel it getting warmer?” you called.  The group had split up to explore.  You saw Tony a little ways away give a shrug.

   “It hasn’t been this warm anywhere in the kingdom since the Mouse King took over,” he called back.  “For once, I have no explanation.”

   “It’s the Sugarplum Princess,” Steve called from the other side of a ruin. “She’s on the move.”

   “Oh my goodness, this is turning into Narnia,” you muttered under your breath. Still, you started to feel something. Something was calling you, beckoning you further into the island.  With a final glance at your comrades, you started heading in that direction. However, you halted at the sight of a figure wandering in what looked like it used to be a courtyard.  It looked like Thor from the Marvel movies. It was, sort of.  He was wearing princely garb similar to Steve’s, but in his usual gray and red colors.

   “Hello?” he called, noticing you.  “Who goes there?”

   “Hi,” you greeted, noticing him raise his hammer in an attack stance. “I’m ____________.  I’m a friend, not a foe.”

   “Is that so?” he gazed at you seriously.  “How do I know that you are not a follower of the Mouse King?”  

   Huh.  Good question.  How do you prove something like that to a stranger?  You did the only thing you could think of in that moment.

   “Steeeve?” you called over your shoulder.  “Natasha?  Tony?”

   The three of them appeared momentarily.

   “Your highness,” Steve greeted with a smile when he saw the man in front of you.  “It has been far too long.”  

   Thor’s shoulders relaxed as he lowered his attack stance. “Prince Steve Rogers!” he boomed with a jolly grin.  The two clasped their hands on each other’s forearms in a warrior-like sort of greeting.  Then, Thor called over his shoulder, “Bruce!  Come hither!  It is Prince Rogers!”

   Bruce Banner poked his head around a ruin, looking nervous at first before he noticed Steve.  “Oh, it’s the prince!”  He approached, pushing his glasses up his nose, looking quite overwhelmed.  “How’s it going?  You guys notice it got warmer here?  It’s been a long time since it was this warm.  You look different, Steve.  Are…are you a nutcracker?”

   “Good to see you again, Banner,” Nat spoke up.

   “Oh, hi, Natasha.  You look well.”

   “As do you.”

   “Bruce,” Tony greeted, going in for a bro-hug.  “What on earth are you doing out here?”

   “We have come in search of the Sugarplum Princess,” Thor stated.  “Is that why you all are here?”

   “As a matter of fact, yes,” Steve nodded.  “This is ____________.  She is a victim of the Mouse King’s crazy tricks too.  I brought her here in hopes that the Sugarplum Princess can change her back to her normal size, turn me back from a nutcracker, and even restore the kingdom.”

   “That’s a tall order,” Bruce said.  “But legend says she could do it.”

   “That’s if we even find her,” Tony, ever the skeptic, pointed out.  “It did get warmer here all of a sudden, but I don’t see any signs or arrows pointing us in the right direction.”

   “Well….” You interjected quietly, and everyone looked at you, making you feel a little overwhelmed at seeing so many fictional heroes in one place. “I’ve been getting this weird feeling, like something’s calling me.  It was leading me that way before I came upon Thor.”

   “Then we need to go.  Lead the way, ____________,” Steve said.

   “Just like that?” Tony protested.  “Could be last night’s dinner calling her, for all we know.  Shouldn’t we think this through?”

   “You said it yourself,” Nat retorted.  “We don’t have anything else to go on.  ___________ says something’s calling her, and I believe her.”

   “I agree,” Thor said.  “Banner and I have been here for some time now, and we found nothing until you all arrived.”

   Tony held his hands up.  “Alright, alright.  Good point.  Go ahead,    _____________.”

   You nodded and began heading in the direction that feeling led you to. Meanwhile, you found out that Thor in this story was the prince of a neighboring kingdom and Steve’s good friend. Bruce had been another scientist in the land, and due to an accident, he had the ability to turn into the Hulk- just like Bruce in the movies.  The Hulk was a member of the royal guard and would only be called upon in the direst situations.

   You couldn’t help but notice Steve remained at your side the entire walk across the ruins.  Even as he conversed with others from time to time, he didn’t leave you for a second.

   “You okay?” you asked.

   “Yes,” he assured you.  “I’m just trying to be ready for whatever it is we find.”

   “Do not worry, Steve,” Thor nudged him.  “There are many great warriors here.  If we must fight, there is no other group I’d rather be with!”

   “I agree,” Nat said.  “We’d make a pretty good team in battle.”

   “It’s a good thing you think so, Nat, because it looks like we’re going to have to test that theory,” Bruce said.  All of you looked ahead to see the Mouse King and his soldiers surrounding a glowing light in the center of what looked like it used to be a vast room in the palace.

   “How did he get here?” you asked, drawing closer to your nutcracker.

   “Not sure,” Tony replied.  “He must have some transport that we didn’t know about.”

   “Greetings!” the Mouse King called, raising his scepter.  “Why, don’t you all look so good together?  Ah, brother, it’s been a while.”

   “Stop this madness,” Thor told him.  “Step away from that glowing orb.  Come home to our palace and give up this poisonous dream.”

   “I’m afraid I enjoy ruling far too much,” the Mouse King smirked.  “If I go back to our little kingdom, I have no chance at being a king.”

   “He’s not standing down,” Steve said.  “If a fight is what he wants, it’s a fight he’s going to get.”

   Natasha and Steve both got into fighting stances on either side of you. Tony did something to his watch, and a steam punk Ironman suit generated from it to envelop him.  He lowered into an attack stance while Bruce morphed into the Hulk beside him.  Thor raised his hammer.

   “____________,” Steve said in a low voice that you barely heard.

   “Yes?”

   “We’re going to distract the Mouse King and his minions.  I need you to find a way to that orb.  Can you do that for me?”

   You took a deep breath.  “Should be a walk in the park, Prince Rogers.”

   He gave you a sideways glance and chuckled.  “Be safe.  I’ll cover you.”

   “You be safe as well.  And thanks.”

   Then, Steve raised his voice to shout at the Mouse King.  “We’re here to avenge the kingdom. We are-”

   “The Avengers,” you whispered.

   “The Avengers!” Steve called.  Then, he grabbed his shield from his back.  “Avengers, assemble!”

   It was an interesting battle.  Despite the seriousness of the situation, you were fangirling big time. Steve was taking down chitauri left and right with his shield.  Tony was blasting the minions in his suit.  Natasha was doing her awesome Black Widow thing, defeating enemies swiftly and with precision.  Thor wielded his hammer and even shocked some chitauri at  one point.  Hulk, well…he smashed.

   You managed to slip past the fight and head for the orb.  The Mouse King even joined the fight, facing off with Steve himself.  This gave you the perfect opportunity to approach the glowing object and see what would happen.  This was what had been calling you.  You extended a hand, feeling it grow warm as you reached out to touch the orb.

   “Very clever,” you heard Loki’s voice behind you.  “But you see, this orb is the key to my victory.  Do you think I’d leave it unguarded?”

   He had used his scepter to create a double of himself to fight Steve, but the real Mouse King had been waiting by the orb, blending in with the scenery with his illusion tricks.  He raised the scepter, and his double disappeared.

   “No!” Steve called.  “___________, get back!”

   In a moment of quick-thinking, you snatched up the orb before Mouse-Loki brought the scepter down on you.  The glowing brightened into a flash of light, and the warmth spread from your hand throughout your body.  A blast of energy left your other hand, sending the corrupt king flying.

   “_____________!”  Steve came running over as you fell to the ground.  “Are you alright?”

   “Yes, I’m fine,” you replied, staring straight ahead in shock.  Then, you laughed.  “Did you see that?”  You held the orb against your side as you rose to your feet.  The light in it had subsided to a soft glow, but something else was happening.  Your clothes began to shimmer.

   “What’s happening?” Nat asked, hurrying over.  The chitauri had been defeated; save for a few that seemed stunned as they watched what was taking place.

   “I’m not sure,” Steve murmured.

   You were enveloped in the glow entirely until you didn’t see around you.  Moments passed until the light faded and you were met with everyone’s surprised looks.

   Hulk had reverted back to Bruce, fortunately clothed.  He adjusted his glasses and smiled.  “It’s ____________.  She’s the Sugarplum princess.”

   You glanced down to see your outfit had changed.  It was a shimmering dress of (favorite color) that flowed to the crystal shoes on your feet.  The long sleeves were sheer and sparkling, and the glowing orb had become a large, singular pearl on a necklace draped around your neck.  

   “Well, this is a game-changer,” Tony said in his suit.

   “I’m-?”  You paused, unable to comprehend the situation.  “I’m the Sugarplum princess?  How?”

   “It all makes sense,” Steve said in awe.  “I left the Kingdom in search of a solution, and I found you.”

   “But…”  You gave a humorless laugh.  “I’m no princess.  I’m just ____________.”

   Natasha walked to your side, resting a hand on your shoulder.  A soft smile played on her lips.  “Sometimes it’s hard for us to realize how special we are.”

   “And princess or not, you’re special,” Steve added.

   “Well, thank you.”

   “I really hate to interrupt this touching moment,” Tony interjected.  “But what are we going to do with the Mouse King, here?”

   Thor cracked his knuckles, jaw set.  “Do not fear, I will handle this.”  The Mouse King’s eyes widened from his spot where he lay pitifully in the snow.  Thor marched up to his brother, but you hurried forward and stood between them.

   “Wait, no.  I think I know what to do.”  You offered a smile and turned around to face the Mouse King.  Closing your eyes, you focused on the pearl’s energy and saw the light flash in front of your eyelids.  You looked to see the Mouse King’s fur giving way to pale skin.  

   “No!” He snarled, writhing in the snow.  “You can’t get rid of me!  How dare you?”

   Soon, it was Loki sitting in the snow in green and gold princely garb.  His eyes were wide from the transformation, looking totally different from the twisted creature he was.  He looked at his human hands and actually smiled, the expression making his eyes crinkle with genuine happiness.

   “Princess,” he said, standing to his feet.  The smile never left his face.  “My greed and lust for power cursed me.  The Mouse King took over until I was almost gone, but you’ve brought me back.”  He got down on one knee, bowing his head in respect.  “Thank you.”

    “Of course.” Then, you turned to gaze at the ruins around you, feeling a pull to restore this palace to what it was before. “Looks like I’ve got a lot of work to do.”

   - - - - 

   The ballroom looked magical.  Lights were strung across the ceiling and along the walls to give the room an elegant shine.  An orchestra played music that made your heart swell as you watched your friends on the dance floor.  Bruce twirled Natasha, Tony dipped Pepper, and you even saw Coulson on the scene with Maria Hill.  The ladies wore stunning dresses, and the gentleman looked handsome in their suits. Loki and Thor stood off to the side, looking rather dashing in their princely uniforms even as they talked idly. Steve, the nutcracker, was nowhere to be found.  For whatever reason, you hadn’t been able to change him back.  With that being said, you refused to return to your normal size and go home until he was back to normal.

   “I’m sure he’ll be here any minute,” a deep voice said beside you.

   “I don’t know, Fury.”  You bit your lip.  “I think he’s angry with me.”

   He shifted and gave you an incredulous stare.  

   You raised a brow.  “What?”

   “You really think Prince Steve Rogers is mad at the young woman who defeated the Mouse King and brought order back to the kingdom?”

   “Well, he’s still a nutcracker, and I have no idea why.”  You sighed, glancing down at the pearl necklace.  “I wish there was some sort of manual for this thing.”

   Fury shrugged.  “How did you go about fixing the castle and turning the Mouse King back into Loki?”

   “I don’t know.  It was just instinct.”

   “Then instinct will tell you when the time is right.”

   As you soaked in his words, someone tapped your shoulder.  You turned around to see none other than Prince Steve the nutcracker.  He extended his wooden hand, smiling, and you took it.

   “May I have this dance?”

   “Of course you may,” you said.

   Your cheeks grew warm as the crowd parted to make room for you and Steve to dance in the center.  The next song began, and you giggled as Steve twirled you in a circle.  The faces around you began to fade until it felt like it was just you and him.  Your feelings had definitely grown over the course of the journey.  You saw beyond his appearance to the man inside with a kind heart. If only you knew how to change him back…

   Suddenly, the pearl necklace began to glow.  You paused, glancing down at it and then back up to meet Steve’s surprised expression.

   “Prince Steve,” Natasha called.

   He began to change.

   “What’s happening?” you asked, and he gave you a joking smile.

   “I was hoping you could tell me.”  The nutcracker was surrounded in the light until he was no more.  In his place stood Steve Rogers in his princely garb and not made of wood.   His eyes crinkled at the edges from the smile on his face as he gazed at you. “_____________, I’m me again.”

   Tears welled up in your eyes as he stepped forward and took your hand in his. It was soft and warm, and you ran your thumb over his knuckles while reaching up with your other hand to cup his cheek.

   “I have no idea how I did that,” you murmured.

   “Maybe it was the dance?”  The two of you shared a quiet laugh, and he leaned his forehead against yours.  The small act took your breath away as you gazed into his blue eyes that glistened in the lights.  He let out a shaky breath and whispered.  “I want to try something.”

   Goosebumps bloomed along your skin at his words.  “Yes?”

   “I want to…”

   “Kiss me?” you offered.

   He pulled away slightly and nodded.  “Is that okay?”

   “Definitely okay.”  You smiled, and he leaned in to brush his lips against yours lightly.  You responded quickly by resting your hand on his shoulder and returning the feathery kiss.

   Applause broke out in the dance hall, and you ducked your head in embarrassment at the realization that you still were surrounded by his subjects. Natasha was giving you a thumbs-up, and Bruce smiled happily and clapped.  Tony was rolling his eyes, but smiling.

   Everything felt right.

   And then you woke up.

   You sat up on the couch, breathing out a sigh.  You had returned your grandparents’ house, and the fire had burned out in the fireplace.  Feeling rather chilly, you reached over for the blanket that was kicked onto the floor and pulled it over your form.  All the while, you wondered how you’d gotten back.  Their old clock struck eight in the morning.

   Had it been a dream?  You wiped the tears that threatened to fall.  It had to have been a dream- a wild one with Avengers and nutcrackers and mouse kings. Your Prince Steve wasn’t really there.

   Prince Steve.

   The nutcracker.

   Your gaze darted to the floor in search of any sign of the gift from Aunt Lily. You lifted the blanket and sat up, running your hand along the cushions in case he was trapped in between them. There was no sign of him.  Perhaps your brother knew.  He had already taken him without permission once before.

   “Good morning, ____________!” the feminine voice cut through your thoughts, and you jumped.

   “Oh, good morning, Aunt Lily.”  You hadn’t even heard her come down the stairs.  “How are you?”

   “Excited!” she practically squealed.  “I just got a call from my friend, Barbara.  She’s stopping by later, and she’s bringing her nephew. He’s young, handsome, and is related to royalty in Europe.”  She gave you a nudge and a pointed look.

   You rolled your eyes.  “Yeah, right.”

   Little did you know, you’d be absolutely captivated by the man.   It was late in the afternoon, and you were doing a more thorough search for your nutcracker in the living room, lifting couch cushions and checking under the coffee table.  Several voices could be heard in the other room, and Aunt Lily’s rose above the others.

   “Oh, yes!  You must meet my niece, _____________!”

   You sighed, arranging the couch cushions in their rightful places, and stood up straight when your Aunt Lily poked her head in.  

   “There she is!  Come, darling, meet my good friend, Barbara, and her nephew.”

   “Okay,” you said, managing a small smile.  Meeting new people could be intimidating enough, let alone people who were related to royalty.

   When you rounded the corner, two bright blue eyes captured your gaze to the point where you couldn’t look away.  They were very familiar eyes, but yet distant like you’d seen them in a dream. The person belonging to those eyes extended a hand in greeting.  Your hand was warmed by his, and that’s when it clicked.

   But with so many of your relatives looking at you, you just smiled. “Nice to see you.  I’m ___________.”

   “I know,” he said, and when he got a curious look from you, he corrected, “oh, I mean, your aunt has told us a lot about you.”

  “Hopefully nothing embarrassing.”

   “Certainly not.  She speaks very highly of you.”

   “Aw, they’ll get along well,” the woman you presumed to be Barbara gushed, and she turned to speak with Aunt Lily.  

   When all eyes were off you, you looked at the blonde and mustered a quiet, “Prince Steve?”

   He looked at you with a twinkle in his eye.  “Hello, Princess ___________.  I missed you.”

[emsartwork]

Can I ask why you chose those specific fairy tales/mythological/folk figures for the Mythix redesign? Very much enjoy how unique the designs are and how they draw from multiple different cultures thnx

Yeah so Mythix was a process and had a lot of concept brain work before i ever put anything down on paper. I think I had a few ladies in mind from the very beginning (Scheherazade is one of my favorite folk lore ladies just in general lol) but i wanted to pull from as many different cultures as possible, and have fit the winx girls’ ethnicity when possible. 

So for a character like Musa, who is Asian even if she is technically from an alien planet, I wanted to draw from mostly north east asia(even tho south and south east asia have super cool stories too), and I know a good amount of japanese folklore because of...... anime reasons and at first I was trying to find a japanese figure related to music, voice, or mouth, but I kind of hit a wall with that one because the only one i could think of/find was the tongue-cut sparrow story or the Split mouth woman which, while interesting, aren’t all that fitting for a powerful magic lady. You of course have momotaro, princess kaguya, or, a personal favorite, the boy who drew cats but none of those felt right either so I expanded my range to China and IMMEDIATELY landed on Mulan, I like to think at least some of her story was true, but even if she is just a legend WHAT A FUCKING LEGEND AMIRIGHT. she was perfect for a powerful magic lady, strong, honorable, selfless, protective, and smart. Even if her “power” wasn’t realted at all to music she was a perfect fit. 

With Flora I wanted to draw from Mexican or native american(aztec or mayan) folklore, I actually did consider making her Scheherazade for a hot minute cus I draw a lot of inspo for Flora and Lynphea from Persia/the middle east in general, but ultimately decided against it. La Muerte is another favorite figure of mine, partially because she has such an interesting origin from an anthropological point of view. with the blending of catholic saints and native cultures in Mexico and possibly some influence from what would eventually become voodoo. Also, Dia de Muertos has that whole marigold flower petal association which perfectly links to Flora. 

Aisha was a little more difficult because she’s black, and black people are, ethnically, from Africa, and Africa has SO MANY DIFFERENT CULTURES AND STORIES AND EVEN JUST GEOGRAPHY. and i know from past experiences its stupidly hard to find good reliable references for any of the native cultures in Africa, or america for that matter, because racism and colonialism. So I tried going by Aisha’s name, which is of Arabic and Swahili in origin, but arabic and swahili are both spoken in many countries across south Africa North Africa and the Middle East, so I used her parent’s names Niobe and Teredor which are both Greek sounding so that pulled it towards North Africa/Saudi Arabia(where there was a lot of Greek influence). SO i thought to myself, what about egypt??? Didn’t the Cinderella story originate in Egypt with an eagle and a sandal and a prince or something?????? UNFORTUNATELY THAT’S A LIE(as far as my research showed). So I was mega stumped with Aisha, and I tried applying Scheherazade to her as a last ditch effort because Saudi Arabia, and.,,,....,, it fit???? like weirdly well???? like Aisha and Scheherazade are both BAMFs with unrelenting determination, an urge to protect the innocent, and punish the unjust they just do it very differently, but I liked the contrast between Aisha’s more active aggressive style and her switching to a more subtle story teller’s methods. So somehow I got it to work out ethnically, geographically, personality, and using my lady Scheherazade AND the design + the colors came out fantastic imo.

Stella was easier, I knew I wanted to pull from Greece, and possibly link to Apollo if possible so I looked up the temple of Delphi to see if there were any notable priestesses. Pythia came up right away, and had a gorgeous classical painting to use as reference so that was a snap tbh

Bloom was pretty easy, I’ve based Domino off of Scotland and a lil’bit of China but appearance wise she’s VERY white. But I was already pulling HEAVILY from Scotland and Ireland for Morgana and Tir Nan Og, so I broadened to Europe in general(which means I had a lot to work with because fairytales are so Eurocentric *eye roll emoji*) I decided to go with cinderella because CINDERS come from FIRE(aren’t I clever) and glass making requires a lot of heat. I mentioned earlier that there are theories as to where the “cinderella” story truly originated, The most popular being China, Egypt, or Germany(as far as I researched the Egyptian and Chinese “versions” of Cinderella barely resemble the story?).  Aschenputtle is the iconic one from Grimm Brother’s collections in 1812 but I chose to use the edition that popularized the story in 1698 by Charles Perrault since thats the “classic cinderella” modern audiences still recognize(even tho i am very partial to the more violent german version lmao). Her outfit design was a bit of challenge but I really like what I came up with.

Tecna was..... troublesome. Pink hair doesn’t exist irl unless it’s dyed, so I had only a partial appearance to base ethnicity on. I pull a lot from Russia for Zenith tho, so I figured I would start with Baba Yaga(who is already a villain in world of winx so I wasn’t gonna use her anyways) and see where that lead me. I came across Vasilisa the Fair/Beautiful/Wise, she featured in a lot of Russian folklore and had a lot of different aspects/personalities/stories so I kinda tried to pull from all of them (which gave me difficulties later on in the design process) She was one of the only Fairytale figures I could find that had a direct connection to intelligence (not that other fairytale ladies aren’t smart ofc). Because of Vasilisa’s many different roles and some physical transformations (russian frog princess) I made her the Fairy of Transformations. Tecna is probably the one I’m least satisfied but I’m not changing it lmao 

[reel-hannibal]

Reel Hannibal 2019 Masterlist

Happy Hanniween, Fannibals! Thanks so much to everyone who participated despite the unexpected hiccups - we really appreciated your patience <3

And now, on this perfect Hannibal holiday, here is the masterlist of all the wonderful entries for Reel Hannibal 2019!

Title: all fools in love Creator: @slowestdive​ Inspired by: Pride and Prejudice Summary: A Pride & Prejudice AU featuring Will as Elizabeth, Hannibal as Mr. Darcy, and really just an excuse to draw these two being utterly in love with each other in period outfits Art: HERE

Title: The Real Husbands of Sarmatia Creator: Tigerprawn Inspired by: The Real Housewives of [...] Summary:  Previously on The Real Husbands of Sarmartia:  Galahad, 29 “Tristan?” Galahad makes a point of rolling his eyes for the camera. “I mean, okay, he’s good at his job. I’ll give him that. But why does he spend the whole day in those short shorts? Okay, so it gets hot around here. But then why doesn’t he get a haircut if it’s so hot? Well, I guess it is hot and he’s out by the pool… getting wet. With the pool water.”Galahad’s phone bleeps. “Wait…” He frowns at his phone. “What the fuck is goat yoga?”::Close up of goats bleating:: Fic and Banner: HERE

Title: Spacedust Creator: @victorineb​ Inspired by: Stardust Summary: Adam has wished for two things in his entire life: to marry Beth, and to visit the stars. When he and Beth see a falling star one night, he sees a chance to have both at once, and promises to find the star and bring it back to his beloved so that she will see that he's worthy of her hand. The star, though, has different plans... A Spacedogs/Stardust AU, in which stars can talk, men can fly, and true love can be found in the strangest of places. Fic and Banner: HERE

Title: Underground Lights Creator: @fhimechan​ Inspired by: Hercules Summary: Once upon a time, Will traded his soul for Alana's life. Luckily, Chilton wants to save (and marry) him. An Hercules AU where Will is Meg, Hannibal is Hades, Chilton is Hercules and True Love always wins. Fic: HERE

Title: Sweet dreams Creator: @acheforhim-fic​ Inspired by: Black Mirror Summary: Tortured by nightmares, Will Graham gets a Nocturnal Companion – an AI who will share and moderate his dreams, and hopefully grant him some relief. (You already know whose digital clone the AI matches him with.) Fic: HERE

Title: Cannibal’s Labyrinth Creator: @whispers-in-the-chrysalis​ Inspired by: Pan’s Labyrinth Art: HERE

Title: Unsinkable Creator: @cinnamaldeide​ Inspired by: Titanic Summary: Detective Graham is tasked to shed some light on a serie of suspicious disappearances of both first and second class passengers happening aboard the Titanic. When Will finds out that head chef Hannibal Lecter is the culprit, the ocean liner proves to be not unsinkable after all. Aesthetic Moodboard: HERE

Title: Ultimate EliasChicken and HanniHorse Creator: @insanelyartful​ Inspired by: Ultimate Chicken Horse Summary: Featuring Grigg as Bunny, Elias as Chicken, Cliff as Elephant, d’Artagnan as Squirrel, Adam Raki as Raccoon, Hannibal as Horse, Will as Sheep, Nigel as Iguana, and Aiden Galvin as Monkey. Art: HERE

Title: Once Upon A Cannibal Creator: @thesilverqueenlady​ Inspired by: Once Upon A Time Summary: Will Graham is settling down to have a nice, quiet little birthday to himself when a girl knocks on his front door. "Hi!" she says. "My name is Abigail, and I'm your daughter." Fic: HERE

Title: Will Graham And The Seven Dogs Creator: @stratumgermanitivum​ Inspired by: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves Summary:  Once upon a time, there had been a prince. Of course, that was quite a few years back, now, and very few people remembered him. As the years passed, King Chilton grew more and more frustrated with the boy, and the boy with him. And so it was that on the eve of the boy’s eighteenth birthday, Chilton drew up an order to have him committed - for his own good, of course - trapped in the dungeon under Chilton’s exclusive care until his mind was healed. Or until Chilton had no more use for his talents. However, when the castle guards came for the boy, they found the room empty, the window open. Long live King Chilton. Fic: HERE

Title: The Mummy Creator: @ishxallxgood​ Inspired by: The Mummy Summary: Adam Raki is a librarian, and he's damn proud. He has been obsessed with Ancient Egypt and the Legend of Imhannitep and his consort Anck-Will-Namun since he was a child. When his sister comes across a priceless artifact, Adam cannot resist the pull of Hamunaptra to uncover the secrets plaguing his dreams since he was a child. Fic: HERE

Title: Nakama Creators: @fragile-teacup​ and @beatricenius​ Inspired by: Emma Summary: Hannibal Lecter is handsome, clever, rich, Omegan... and quite oblivious to the fact that he is hopelessly in love with his brusque Alpha mentor, Will. Will Graham has always looked out for Hannibal, occasionally despairing of his young protégé's spoiled nature but valuing his companionship just the same.    They are the best of friends. But when Hannibal finds himself in the grip of a late first heat, both men are forced to confront feelings which neither are prepared for... Nakama, a Regency A/B/O romance based on Emma by Jane Austen.  Fic and Art: HERE

Title: The Game Begins Creators: @insanelyartful Inspired by: Dead by Daylight Summary: While for everyone else, the world seems to be ending; for four very different beings, everything is only beginning. For Will, well, at least social niceties aren't his top priority anymore. For Hannibal, it has opened up a whole new realm of possibilities. And though Nigel wishes it were the end, it's not the end for him quite yet. Then there's Aiden, who sooooo shouldn't be dealing with this during the apocalypse. Fic: HERE

Again, all of our thanks and appreciation to everyone who participated in the 2019 Reel Hannibal! We were thrilled to see so many gorgeous AUs and we hope that everyone had as much fun as we did.

If you haven’t checked out these amazing Reels, please do so and shower these Fannibals in cookies, comments, and kudos, because they really deserve them.

See you next year in April for Reel Hannibal 2020!!! 

You can also check out: Reel Hannibal on AO3 | Reel Hannibal on Twitter | Reel Hannibal 2018 Masterlist

[acrobaticcatfeline]

The Legend of Beowulf (Villain!Logan AU) Chapter One!!!

Word Count: 9583

TW: ok so swearing, abuse, torture, violence, Deceit, assassination attempt, homophobia mentioned once, oh heres a big one, XENOPHOBIA! Sort of the premise of the story. If I missed anything LMK

Notes: So. I made this idea in 2018. It was an April fools headcannon. The story board idea has 271 notes. I started writing this days after the idea was posted, and I’ve been drawing the characters just as long. I haven’t looked at this story since November. I’ve spent the last three hours editing it, which is new, I rarely edit more than for spelling and grammar. But here it is my friends. the original headcannon post is here if you want to read it! I hope you enjoy!

Pairings: You’ll figure it out.

Summary: “They lied. Of course, they lied.” Logan Beowulf was a villain. A criminal, despicable. He had released other criminals onto the streets, he had kidnapped the prince, but was that the whole story? Or perhaps is the truth buried under curses and banishment's and fear? Truth be told, he was the aftermath of a scared child in a world where he was alone. He just wanted to fit in, and he found out the hard way that wasn’t possible.

They lied. Of course, they lied. The king and queen, they are despicable, they don’t care what they do to me. I brought back their son whom they don’t deserve at all. I guess this is what it’s like to be the villain in the storybooks. Only these rulers don’t know the meaning of mercy. They aren’t noble and good, they are cruel and uncaring. Why would they though? To them I’ve always been the dangerous powerless Logan Rainier. But I’ve grown. They turned my parents into monsters who threw me away at the drop of a hat, they turned my one friend into an unfeeling fiend in their army, and they turned me into Logan Beowulf.

-

I was 10 when they banished me. Of course I knew it was coming, I was well aware that the thought of technology horrified the royals, but when you live in a world of magic and happiness and you have neither of those requirements, its likely for you to find entertainment elsewhere. I made gadgets. Little gears assembled just so that the little figure would walk. A pulley system and clamp to grab a snack from the top shelf. Such simple things shook the king with fear. They visited my house one morning as I had expected. The king surveyed me as if I was some new creature never seen before. When he was done I was sent to my room which was my que.

I grabbed all of my contraptions and all the pieces I used to create, my closet and bedding, which I had made to collapse into a small box, my secret stash of a month’s rations, a first aid kit, and plenty of paper and drawing utensils. I managed to fit all of it into my backpack and put on my favorite jacket and hat as well as some gloves. My friend, before he joined the king’s army, told me that when I turned 10 the king would come to send me away. I had been preparing for this day and I knew that I would have to say goodbye to my home, but I didn’t belong here.

               -

A decade ago today was when that all happened. Now my 20th birthday surprise was to be beheaded by that same ruthless man, I had fallen into his trap, he had said surrender did he have no honor, At least that’s what I thought. The king routinely came down to torture me into submission. He burnt and shocked and stabbed me to get me to tell him where my home was. He used my parents as ammunition. He used my old friend who had been the one to apprehend me. He couldn’t do it, I haven’t cared for a living thing in this country in a decade. He wants my anti-magic gadgets to work again. The ones I had sold to apprehend villains, the ones I had shut down shortly before being caught. He wants my technology that he’s been shunning since I was born, and I won’t give it to him.

After a good month has passed, the prince came to see me. That young prince, only 15, who I had kidnapped. The young prince who I never touched. The young prince, the fine piece of china that I dare not break lest I become like his father. The young prince, Roman in name, whom I fell in love with. It was despicable of me, he's but a child, but he's the only person to listen to me and understand me for several years, twas near the only choice and still yet I would die by his hand. Such a pity one so young would be brought to bloodshed. Alas he would achieve all his dreams through it, and I dare not stop him.

“ah, I see the king finally stepped up his game. What are you here for boy? Are you the one here to finally kill me? I hope so, I can’t stand being stuck here any longer. How shall you do it boy? Shall you stab me through the heart like a valiant? Or shall you burn me to death? Oh, so many options for you, young prince. You’ll be viewed a hero just as you’ve always yearned no matter how you do it, I suppose. Oh, how I love suspense in a good story! You’ll finally vanquish your very own villain Roman, aren’t you excited?!” I say in complete sincerity. This kid deserves to be a hero. I look at him awaiting his answer.

“Lo-I mean, mutant, that is not your designated fate,” I gawk at him. “you are to become the personal servant to the king.” I pull against my restraints for the first time since I was placed here.

“wait, what?! No no no, I can’t be a servant! This must be a mistake!!! Roman I should be dying today! Since when has the king ever given mercy?! No, this is not mercy, this is a fate worse than death!!! Roman you can’t let this happen, being kept alive in this castle means pain and bloodshed! They’ll torture me til the day I die!!! I’ve been evil but I don’t deserve this!!! Please Roman, please just kill me!!! You’ll be the hero! The one you’ve dreamt of! You’ll save your father from the dissent of his decision! I swear to you this palace, this kingdom will be better off with me dead!!!” I scream. I can feel my voice break in fear and pain that I had been subduing. I can’t live my life a slave to the cruel king. Roman is fair and just! He must see reason! He knows this is a heinous punishment!

“I cannot do that Loga-mutant. All punishments fall in the king’s power. He wants you to be dressed and brought to him, which is my job,” he releases my bonds and hands me soft clothes, likely cotton. He also sets a bucket of water with soap and a rag next to me. “Here m’lord, please get washed up and changed, if you require any assistance, I shall be right over here.”

I weep for a good couple of minutes as I rub off the dirt and sweat that had accumulated on my skin, much of it having been absorbed into open wounds, I'm surprised I've lasted this long, before stepping into the soft outfit which turned out to be rather simply some under garments, black pants, and a long blue and black tunic. As I stand I stumble, my legs refusing to remember their use. The prince rounds the corner once again and offers his hand. I steady myself on my own before gesturing for him to lead me to our destination.

Before long we make it to the throne room where I’m told to bow. Although I have lost, I will never bow to this beast voluntarily. Of course, one of the guards ends up forcing me down.

“you are an invaluable addition to my guard Virgil; I hope you know that you are to become the head guard when our old friend dies.” I shudder when I realize that my childhood friend is to be in charge of the guard of such an awful king. I hear Virge grunt in assent to the king’s proclamation.

“mutant boy do you know why you have been summoned?” the king speaks to me at last. I nod with a grimace on my face.

“well of course your majesty, unlike you, your son is competent. I have been summoned to serve a punishment greater than death due to your absolute contempt of me. Also, might I add that I am to be 20 today, and not only is your second birthday surprise far worse than your first, but that also makes me most definitely not a boy, but a man.” I hiss out all in one breath. The look on the king’s face is disgusted and appalled and I smirk in response.

“you should be grateful that I spared you mutant. You shall not speak to your king this way.” I smirk even more.

“I apologize, I’m just saying that it would be a far better present to be killed by your son. To both of us I’m sure, Roman seems to want that seat of yours more than life itself, if he became a hero for killing me? That would make his year. Oh, your boy is not deserved by you. No one in this vile kingdom deserves the right to even know your son. I do hope you don’t do to him as you forced my parents to do to me. He is a gift. And you are not my king.” The hall goes silent. Roman straightens up and puts up a façade. The king and queen do the same. Not a sound is made, even the birds outside took the hint.

“how dare thee. How dare you think you know anything about my son.” I smile genuinely.

“oh, I dunno, maybe he feels the same about you as I do. Maybe he told me his aspirations of being seen as a hero. Or his hope that he will one day impress you. Maybe he told me he’s scared of being alone and that’s why he never complains when in company. Maybe he told me that he wanted to make your kingdom a better place. Or how you mentally abuse him because you believe that you must not have empathy or emotions as a ruler. Maybe he told me how you are trying to turn him as sociopathic as you and your wife are. Or maybe, just maybe, I’m really good at storytelling. I don’t know your son, but I know that a boy as quiet and reserved as yours must have something to say. I didn’t hurt your son your majesty. I didn’t try to in the slightest. Your son is someone your kingdom needs, and I can’t wait til you die, and your people finally see it.” I say before ducking to keep from getting hit over the head by the husk of a boy I knew.

“you do not speak that way in the royal presence. Didn’t you learn anything in schooling?” Virgil speaks harsh and robotic. I clench my jaw before hissing my response.

“you know, I didn’t get that much time to learn that because, as you might recall Virge, I only had 5 years of it before getting banished. I’m sorry my schooling didn’t prepare me to have to face the three people in my life getting brainwashed by the king.” The king stands up abruptly.

“VIRGIL!!! Take the mutant to his quarters. I want him out of my sight for the moment being. Teach him some manners while you’re at it. I will send your prince to retrieve him when needed. You are dismissed.”

-

4 and a half years. 4 and a half years of this eternal prison and I near died by the king’s hand at least 1000 times. Makes sense, I’m not the most loyal of subjects, and I’m not easily brainwashed into it. while living there I meet Patton, a very nice person, untainted by the king’s evil, and somehow has kept himself from tainting the king’s meals. He is the head chef and ends up sneaking me food most days. However, the king has started to weaken, it looks as if he’ll die before the year ends, leaving our young prince at 19 years old is looking for a suitor, and those he enjoys his father hates, and those his father enjoys he hates. The past half year is the most I’ve ever heard the boy talk. The last time he spoke this much was when I had kidnapped him. the boy is a chatter box when not in the company of others. I assume his father had instilled the proverb, children are to be seen not heard, into him. The prince is seen more as a trophy than as a person by most everyone. I’ve fallen into routine of serving the king his meals, getting lashed for most anything, going and being magicked back to health, rinse and repeat with varying severity.

Then my simple routine is disrupted.

Roman comes to my quarters in the morning per usual but has a different outfit for me to put on than he’s ever brought me before. “hurry and change, we’re uh, the king is waiting for thee,” he stated hurriedly and unsure.

As I change I realize just how odd my outfit is. I’m given tight, form fitting, black leggings, a short black tunic with golden accents, black tied shoes, and a large black cloak big enough to hide me and more. If the all black wasn’t suspicious enough, who in their right mind would give a tunic lined with gold to a simple slave? I open the door to head to the king, when Roman pushes in and shuts the door behind him.

“your highness, what are you doing? I must get to thy king post haste lest I get lashed!” I speak in a formal tone as I’ve been instructed to do with members of the royal family, even as I start getting frantic, the king gets testy when I get there late. He starts messing with my goggles that I made to improve my eyesight before shaking his head.

“I’ll cover for you. I want to, er, try something, can I take these off of you for a second? I have an idea,” He looks down into my eyes, as he has grown much taller than me in years past. I nod slightly, as he is one of the few I trust enough to be willing to be blind around him. he pulls them off and I barely see the magic flying from his hands before I have something else laying on my face and am able to see once more. “hey! Now you look like a noble! Nice glasses you got there Bubbles! Okay um, pack up your essentials in this, ok?” I flinch at the nickname he gave me years ago due to the shape of my seeing apparatus. I also look at him incredulously when he makes his request, but I learned long ago not to deny direct orders, so I pack my few belongings in the small bag. Once I do this he smiles and starts messing with my hair, which I find very relaxing. In a few moments he smiles again at his work before lifting my hood, picking up the bag and then grabbing my hand and dragging me.

“what are you doing your highness? The throne room is the opposite way,” I am confused, what is he doing? “and I really don’t see the point of the bag.”

He smiles and turns to me with a finger on his lips. “hush friend! We’re going on an adventure in the garden! We need supplies to fight the sorceress!” he winks at me and I get more confused.

We do end up in the garden, but at the very edge, in the direction of my old lair. He shoves the bag into my hands and gives me a small notebook and a few bright flowers, an azalea, a white chrysanthemum, and a daffodil. I used to know the language of flowers, but I no longer do and am concerned of the meanings. He gestures out of the garden.

“Logan Beowulf, the mutant who has been held captive in the castle for 4 years and then some, you are being released. My father will hurt and torture you no longer. You are not meant to be chained here. Go home. Live,” he pauses as my horse that I rode in on 4 and a half years ago comes running and guards are chasing it. He casts a spell on me, turning me invisible, and points toward her. He uses his other hand to trip all the guards. “and run for your life.”

And with that I’m gone.

I make it home and it has decayed a bit from age, but is otherwise in perfect condition. My mystics and fae come to me as soon as I ride in, flitting all around me surveying my damage, as I pull out one of my healing potions and chug it. I set down my bag and close my door. I start checking all my gadgets, seeing how they lasted the test of time. A small fae settles on my head and I realize it’s my little Deceit. They were trained to attack humans who sought to hurt them, but after proving my equal disdain, I became very close to the runt of my faes. The little thing starts whispering plots of revenge in fae’lan into my ears. I shoo them away, and continue checking on my creations. My favorite, the one I used to send fear into the city, was the only damaged one I found. The broadcast screen was warped and the wires had frayed. Oh well, I don’t need it anymore I guess. I go and check on all my faelings to make sure they hadn’t hurt themselves while I was away. A few of them had cuts and bruises while some had small tears in their wings, and I set to work to patch them all up. D has the most wounds and I shake my head at them. They are a unique faeling, they have bright yellow feathered wings, and a snake birthmark that crisscrosses their entire small frame. They hadn’t preened themselves in a very long while, causing many of their feathers to fall out in lumps. They also had bruises and scars all over.

“you know D, I know I was gone for a while, but that doesn’t mean you should neglect your well-being… listen bud, I’m fine, they were never planning on killing me. The king is a tool yes, but I don’t plan on going back there any time soon… oh yeah, Roman gave it to me for some reason… no you can’t. You don’t even know how to read fae’lan, how do you know English?” the fae keeps whispering to me. After I finish mending them I look at the little note book given to me, reading through it a few times before its message becomes clear. My face reddens. What are these notes supposed to mean? They seem to insinuate… actually no, it doesn’t matter. I close the book harshly before going to check on the stash of food which is likely completely expired. Surprisingly it seems that my fae have been emptying and restocking it regularly and I pull out the fix ins to make a ham and egg salad. I smile at the warmth of my home. I’ve missed it so much.

-

My birthday. 25 today, isn’t that swell? I keep dreading the possibility of the king walking through my door and dragging me away. My faelings woke me up with a shower of pixie dust. When I get up and changed I see that there is a specific outfit that D has chosen for me. It’s a dark blue doublet, with poufy black pants and the cloak I wore when I made my way back home 6 months ago. I put on my black slip on flats and my glasses. When I walk out into the living room I see a large meal laid out for me, my favorite meal which I rarely get to have, cheese steak sandwiches with a heaping side of potatoes and brown sugar carrots. I swear, these little guys have enough magic to summon me a castle to rival the king’s palace.

I sit down to eat and I almost finish before hearing a knock on the door. I rise slowly queuing the others to stay silent. I grab my sword and raise it as I open the door. It’s the prince. It’s the prince oh fuck it’s the prince. I drop my sword in shock. He looks down at me and smiles. Oop, and on my knees I go! I see D try to attack him, and hiss at him in fae’lan that the prince is a welcome guest.

“hello m’lord Beowulf, happy birthday! Might I enter your home? I have none to accompany me this fine day.” He says with the same bright smile. He’s only gotten taller and more regal. I push myself up to my feet, and sheathe my sword before inviting him in.

“might I inquire as to what your purpose of visitation is? Oh yes, and help yourself to anything, what is mine is yours your highness.” He shakes his head as he grabs a bun.

“m’lord, I am to step up as king this time next week. And though I have many a quest on my plate, my father has passed and my mother wishes to meet with you. It appears you were in fact correct about a sort of brainwashing attached to him. Your friend Virgil wishes to apologize for his odd behavior. It seems everyone who lived in the castle was under some sort of influence other than the chef and you. My father was not a great person, and an even worse ruler. I hope to be a better king. I was hoping you would accompany me to the palace?” he asks, his voice soft like velvet, warm like cider, and light and fluffy like the sky. I frown slightly at his words. I gesture towards D before responding. They straighten in shock.

“you know almost as well as I, that I’d rather die than go back there. However, I will concede if you allow me to bring my loyal faeling Deceit. Without them I must politely refuse, that palace holds nothing but hostility towards me.” I state as calmly as possible. I doubt the boy will allow a mischievous fae into his castle so I’m sure I’m-

“of course, you may m’lord!” what. “fae are always fun to be around!”

Ha. Hahaha, he’s joking. He can’t be serious. No way. I can’t go with him. He’ll kill me.

“of course, your highness. Let us be off?” wait what am I saying? No, no no no! he’s gonna kill me! I barely escaped I can’t go back there!

We walk in silence through the woods towards the palace. D continues to flit around my head whispering about how everything is going to go horribly wrong and I ignore him. I can be gracious. I can die an elegant death. Heh, maybe D will get my revenge before they get killed as well. I’ll tell them to get the queen first, they can probably get one of them before getting caught. I wonder if they still let us have a choice for the last meal? I wonder what I would choose? Probably something simple that my mom used to make me… or maybe that last meal I had with my best friend… I don’t know, but all of a sudden me and the soon-to-be king Roman stop in front of her majesty. I kneel for the first time voluntarily. I bow my head and stand up once she bids me do so.

“m’lord Beowulf, it has come to pass that my husband has left us. It seems as if your accusation of him having brainwashed his people was based partially in fact. On his death bed he confessed that his family had been doomed to curse those around them with an emotionless harshness and that only one who was able to see past it would be able to break the curse. We have since found that that person was you, and I thank you for breaking it” she smiles at me and I tilt my head in confusion but nod. “now the real reason you were brought here is far more pressing. Roman, darling son, might you express your request?”

The prince nods and I can’t help but notice the light red tinting of his cheeks. “yes mother. M’lord Beowulf-” I interrupt quickly.

“you may call me Logan your highness.” I state as calmly as possible. He smiles brightly at me.

“of course. Logan, as I am stepping up here shortly, my mother has requested me find a suitor who will share the throne with me. I haven’t really gotten out much in my youth,” I scoff a bit at his word choice, he is still very much in his youth. “and I haven’t found any royalty or common folk who have peaked my interest. That is, other than you.” Oh. Wait what? He, he can’t be, can he? He’s a prince of a magical kingdom and he wants the one person in the world without magic to be his suitor? I feel my face heat up and hear him laugh a bit.

“of course, you aren’t required by any means. However, we wanted to give you some time to dwell on your decision. We request you stay at the palace for a few nights, to see how you feel. In the meantime, I believe you have someone else who wishes to see you,” the queen nods and I here rapid steps behind me. I turn around just in time to stabilize myself for the impact of a running knight.

“well hello there Virgil, gosh, did you finally grow some muscle on those bones or is that all the armor?” I say jokingly as I feel the warmth of Virgil against my neck. I hug him back before he pulls back with a watery smile.

“at least I grew since the last time I really saw you. God you’re just as short as you were all those years ago. Come with me, we must talk about things, and not bother his highness and her majesty!” he grabs my hand and I barely have time to bid the royals farewell before I was being dragged away.

“slow down virge! I’m gonna scrape the floors at this pace!” I laugh slightly as he stops dead and gives me another hug.

“I’m so sorry lo. I don’t know what I was doing. I didn’t believe you when you said he was bad news, and I hurt you multiple times. I can’t believe I actually did those awful things to you. I am so sorry.” I hug him tightly to reassure him.

“I promise you that I don’t hold any of that against you. You weren’t really in control of yourself. Besides, look at where you are now! You’re a knight in the king’s elite 5! You have everything you’ve ever wished for now V. So what if you frayed a few bridges along the way? You’re happy, and that’s all that matters.” I smile up at him and he rolls his eyes.

“first off, you have the better gig by far dude. Secondly, I never wanted to lose my best friend. If I had known that I wouldn’t have signed up.” He smirks at me.

“I don’t know what you mean by gig-” he interrupts.

“you were just proposed to by the soon to be king. You’ll be set for life!” he smiles and starts walking again, pulling me along.

“I don’t know V, I don’t think the best way to fall in love is to get kidnapped by some nerd in a forest. What if he’s playing me? Trying to get his revenge on me?” we turn a corner and we end up in the kitchen.

“you got him away from his father’s influence for the first time in his life. You showed him what life can really be. I’ll tell you something Lo, that kid hasn’t shut his gob since the day the king died. And 75% of it has been about you. And that’s before I put in a good word for you.” My jaw drops and my eyes widen.

“a good word? What do you mean a good word? What did you tell him?” I panic, Virgil has more dirt on me than anyone else.

“oh, just how sweet and kind you are, how you always know when somethings wrong and know exactly what to do to help, how you have super big hands-” I slap him and gasp.

“you did not say that to the prince!!!” I look at him alarmed.

“I most certainly did. You can shower me in your thanks after we see Patton, Remy, and Thomas, I know Patton loves you and Rem and Tommy have been itching to meet you ever since the curse wore off. Patton seems to be the only one other than you who didn’t get turned into a total dick under the curse. Legit he’s fricken pure.” We weave through the kitchen until we see Patton and two more guys who look identical to each other. Virgil clears his throat as to not scare the three men with butchers’ knives. The three immediately turn towards us and smile.

“Logan!! I didn’t think his highness was actually going to- is that a fairy?!?!” Patton squeals and grabs D and starts cooing over them. “who is this little guy?!”

“uh, pal, they like the term pal, not in the binary. Their name translates to Deceit in common. I usually call them D though. Also, they usually prefer fae or faeling over fairy.” I see D struggling to free themselves and chuckle a bit. Patton’s eyes widen and he starts apologizing profusely.

“oh gosh!!! I’m so sorry pal! I didn’t know I’m so so sorry! Deceit huh? Why’re they called that? Does it mean the same in their language as it does in ours?” he blabbers out while examining the small fae who wants to bite him.

“it’s no problem, they are very feisty and angry when overwhelmed, often attacking and sometimes killing humans they see as a threat through false promises. It isn’t exactly the same, but similar. Also, D! Stop trying to bite him! He’s nice I promise.” Patton nods with a smile while D sits “pretty” with a more neutral face than before. I swear the thing is part dog, it’s ridiculous. Eventually they stop being nervous and start to revel in the soft pets they are given by Pat.

“so, this is the infamous Logan Rainier? He’s so tiny! I would have expected such a feared criminal to be a bit taller. I bet he didn’t sleep well as a kid, sleep helps you grow!” one of the twins says. I twitch a bit at the old name.

“Logan Beowulf if you’d please, that name and family has dead for a decade and a half. Speaking of that family, do you know if they are still alive Virgil?” V and the twins look to each other before looking at me with pity.

“I’m afraid they were executed soon after you kidnapped the prince. I am so sorry Logan.” I shrug.

“oh well. They might as well have been dead to me anyways. Even a curse doesn’t take control that easily. They shunned me out of petty fear. They were always scared of me. I just wish I had been able to say goodbye” I turn to the twins. “so, which one of you is which? Thomas and Remy, I assume?” I gesture at them. They nod. Remy slides down his sunglasses, he’s the one who was talking about me earlier.

“yuperoo, sorry for misnaming ya bro. Remy, the older brother. Nice ta finally meetcha.” He holds out his hand and I shake it.

“you are literally one minute older than me, why do you do this?! Hmph, I’m Thomas, the more responsible brother” He sends a look to Remy who returns it with a smile. “so, how’s it feel to be the object of devotion of the soon-to-be king?”

I blush brightly I’m certain. “I-I don’t know, I feel like we should get to know each other before just getting married. All I know about him is all the shitty things his father did to him.” as I finish I see a moment of understanding in all four of them.

“wait, all of that in the court back then, that was all real?!?” I nod slowly.

“honestly, it is pretty obvious when you pay enough attention. The prince, he would never stop talking when I had taken him away. Not for a second. I think he was word dumping so someone knew of the problem. It was as if a metaphorical zipper was pulled open for the first time in his life. Some of it he specifically told me, like him wanting to be a hero, some I guessed, like him being mentally abused. Did he truly never leave the palace? Not even for schooling?” they all look to one another and nod.

“he was taught by his parents, and sometimes a tutor usually being myself or Patton. The king didn’t trust people talking to him for the most part. Scared rumors would spread to him, was what he always said. In hindsight it was pretty obvious. He rarely spoke back then. I think usually he would ask for something small and thank people and that was pretty much it.” Thomas said resigned.

Suddenly I heard a booming voice sounding like none other than the prince himself. “attention staff, not only do we have a guest of great honor for the next week, but remember that tonight is the royal gala. I have taken note of the ill-preparedness of the ballroom and implore thee all to get it ready soon, for guests shall be arriving in approximately 3 hours. In other words, hop to it! Thank you all, remember that you are all very much allowed to join the festivities, as it would be awful for those who put it together to not be able to join! Also please send head guard Virgil and our guest of honor to my quarters, I have some business with them.” I look at Virgil who smiles.

“gala?! I was not told of this!!! What kind of malarkey is this?! D, stay with Patton, Vir-wait let go of me!!!” I’m being dragged back.

“come on Beowulf.”

We get to the prince’s chambers and we see he has outfits floating around the room. As soon as I step in, one of the outfits flies in front of me and Roman starts examining me and it. he snaps his fingers and the outfit flies into the closet.

“um, your highness, what exactly are you doing? I’m con-” and another outfit flies in front of me.

“it’s simple Logan, I’m finding a proper outfit for you to don this evening! As well as Virgil, because he is a dear friend and confidant of mine, and I’m not letting him wear his armor to the ball, and I know for a fact that that is his only semblance of fancy attire. I really need to get you more proper attire my dear sir knight.” He smirks and goes through outfit after outfit for the both of us.

Eventually he finds us satisfying attire. I get adorned with a black tailcoat with royal blue trim, matching dress pants, a royal blue shirt, black boots, and a blue messenger cap with black, blue, and peacock feathers. Virgil ends up with a purple hooded, double breasted trench coat with black accents and covered in awards and medals, with matching slacks, a maroon long sleeved collared shirt, and black, knee high, heeled wrap boots. He also combs back his hair and is told to grab a favor from someone. When his highness steps in front of me once again, I feel my face darken as his glance seems to be inspecting the entirety of my soul. He smiles and conjures a bright red carnation. He tucks it in my breast pocket before sweeping my hair to the right and conjures a white carnation tucking it behind my ear. He steps away quickly and looks at us both with a proud look.

“you both look lovely. It seems I took a bit longer for you two than I planned, it’s been two hours, which leaves me one to figure myself out! Heheh! If you would, could you go check on the preparations in the kitchen and ballroom for me?” we both nod and hurry out being careful with our new outfits.

“our young prince is quite generous is he not?” Virgil says on the way.

“yes. He is quite… over the top however. Why do I have two different flowers on me? What do they mean?” Virgil snickers.

“oh, have you forgotten your second language? The boy is not subtle. The one easiest to see is the white carnation, symbol for purity and luck, while the red means love and affection. The young prince is also the only one who gives flowers as favors, so everyone will know not to mess with you. Did I mention he’s a bit possessive?” my face only reddens more.

We head to the kitchen and see the three from earlier doing even more work faster than before. Even D is flitting around and helping. Virgil clears his throat and the three look at us for a second before going back to work.

“sorry V, too much to do right now, we only have an hour left to get all this ready.” Patton said tiredly.

“don’t you three need to get ready? Can we help?” Patton looks at us again and nods slightly.

“we can’t have you doing it manually since you’re already dressed up, so Logan probably shouldn’t, but you have stronger magic than the three of us combined so sure!” I frown and pull one of my cooking inventions out of my invention band and toss the toy back and forth before activating it and helping, to the shock of Patton, Remy, and Thomas. In a few minutes we have everything done, and the three are thanking us.

“now you three really should go change, stained baking clothes aren’t exactly gala outfits.” Patton shakes his head.

“oh no, we aren’t attending, someone has to tend to the kitchen while the rest of the staff is having fun! His highness can’t leave everything without staff, the kitchen doesn’t run on its own. But thank you two for the help, it will make the rest of tonight much easier!!” Patton, Remy, and Thomas all smile at us.

“uhhhh, yeah no that’s not happening bud. I will keep this kitchen running bare handed if I have to if it means you three get out there and have a fun night. No ands ifs or buts, you are getting changed right now, and you are going to attend the gala if I have to drag you all by the ears.” Patton argues with him of course.

“Virgil, while that’s a sweet sentiment, it’s not happening. I am in charge of this kitchen, and I’m not leaving it unattended when there is work to be done. And I am stronger than you, you can’t make me leave with you.” He looks sternly down at Virgil with crossed arms.

“hm, true but you know who you will listen to, and is also stronger than you? The prince.” Patton’s eyes widen and the other two gasp.

“you wouldn’t dare. Besides, what reason does he have to care?” he smirks slyly.

“listen, I might have a little sway in the prince’s good book, as well as him having specifically requesting all staff join the gala. You don’t want to disregard a direct order, do you?” Patton’s arms drop and he struggles to respond.

“l-listen, he’s just barely an adult! He’s never worked in a kitchen! He’s trying to be nice, but if his father was ever right about anything, it would be keeping the kitchen staff in the kitchen at all times, the kitchen needs us to stay here, without us who will make more food if we run out? I’ve been working in kitchens since I was five, I might know a thing or two more than him about this! Just- please don’t tell him! It’s for his own good! He won’t even notice! To him this kitchen can run on its own, but you and I both know better!” he’s pleading with him now. Virgil shakes his head.

“you are attending the gala. If there’s a problem his highness can take it up with me. Go change Patton baker. You too sanders twins.” The three sigh and go to change. I look at Virgil once they’ve gone out of earshot.

“you have quite a high status here huh?” I ask him as we walk to check the ballroom.

“meh, his highness likes me I guess? Most of the other guards are assholes, so I guess I’m a nice change. I also have a hefty amount of magic, reason I got knighted so soon. My weapon usage is fantastic, and my magic is OP. People think I had more magic than the king himself, I know for a fact that the prince is better than I am however.” He smiles at me and looks around to see staff members assembling the last arrangements for the ball.

“how do you know that?” I ask curiously.

“he saved you. Once within the king’s radius there was no reversing the affect done to you. He overrode it, it may have only been for an hour, but it was something, and he saved you. If I didn’t already swear my life to him on oath, I would have owed him my life for that alone” He grins at me brightly. “if he wants to be a hero, he’s got another thing coming, cuz he’s one already. I can’t wait to see him grow as a ruler.” Virgil smiled and squeezed my hand, I squeeze back and smile as well. I missed him so much, I’m glad he’s back as himself again.

“neither can I. I hope to be able to move back into the city. I missed it here,” D pulls my hair a bit. “hey, hey cut it out! I like it in the woods too, I just also like speaking to humans ok? Humans don’t live to prank anything that moves. Hey! That hurts!!!” I shoo him off of my head and glare at him.

He starts whispering to me. I shake my head. “listen D, if they are willing to accept me sitting on a throne, I’m sure they’ll be fine with magic creatures roaming around the gardens. I have no doubt. And if I decide not to stay here I will find a place to stay that can host all my faelings anyway” I pat his head and he pretends to bite my finger before sitting back on my head. “you have to behave tonight, if people think I have an unruly fae they will judge the prince and I don’t need that weight on my shoulders.”

Virgil chuckles. “too late for judgement lo. His highness has already been met with much backlash due to his choice of suitors.” I look at him once again.

“who were his original choices?” I ask. Why did I get chosen?

“oh no, don’t get me wrong you were always his choice, he however, made proposals to both myself and Patton out of fear of the backlash of choosing you. But, as me and Pat are already Romantically involved, it wouldn’t have worked out anyways. Besides, like I said, it was always you. He’s the prince it doesn’t matter who he chooses so long as he’s happy. If anyone has a problem with that I will kill them” he laughs when he sees my shocked face. “listen it’s my job. And he’s a good friend, you should know that I’d take a bullet for either of you two. The three cooks too, though I don’t think anyone wants to kill them at this point, considering how hidden they are from the public eye, not to mention how innocent and sweet they are.” Virgil smiles wistfully.

We wander through the ballroom and after a few minutes the three chefs show up all fancied up. The twins are matching in black and red Versailles coats, black slacks, and black flats. Patton is cleaned up very nicely. He is wearing a vest? It’s a white and blue half vest with one long sleeve of light blue color with a thin light blue sash draped around his midriff that is otherwise bare, poufy pants that match his sleeve and a belt matching his vest. His hair covers half his face and I notice that the sides of his head are shaved and also a light blue. He is wearing tan sandals as well. They all look amazing, I’m glad Virgil convinced them to attend. Patton walks up to Virgil and gives him a kiss and I giggle at Virgil’s surprised expression. I only laugh louder when Virgil flips Patton into a dip and Patton squeals.

Some girl passes by us and smiles at us, and Thomas shoves Remy towards her and the two wander off together with the girl hanging off of Rems arm. Thomas smirks at him and starts talking to me.

“finally, he goes and talks with her! He’s been on and on about her for months, and she’s been just as head over heels. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to get me the cute butler! See ya later Beowulf!” and off he goes in the opposite direction than his brother. Patton and Virgil are just talking as the doors fly open and trumpets sound.

“attention all!!! The guests are to be arriving any minute and I request all to be on their best behavior. The festivities shall commence now!!!” the prince heralds to the large room. His mother is by his side and he bows to her before heading up to the mezzanine and looking over the guests. I get a good look at his outfit now. He is wearing a red, white, and gold crop top with angel sleeves and a red sash around his waist, white knee length leggings with a red mid-thigh length skirt, golden knee-high boots, and pure white gloves. He has his golden hair curled so it falls in his face like a waterfall. I get nudged by a smirking Virgil.

“you really do like him, don’t you? You two would be so cute together heheh!” I blush and shush him.

“I was just-hey shut it! I was just admiring his outfit. He looks nice! That’s all! Shhhhush you!!!” Virgil doesn’t stop laughing at me until guests start filing in. His expression sours before he puts his hand on his waist and does something magic. As soon as it left he had a grin back on his face. He steps slightly in front of me and Patton and I notice his smile doesn’t reach his eyes and I’m suddenly stricken with fear.

“well hello there lord Matthew, I thought you were taken off the guest list after the last ball? Don’t you have other parties to crash and reputations to tarnish?” he manages to hiss out with a plastic smile.

“oh, old Richard invited me! I couldn’t turn down the chance to meet the prince’s suitor!!! Why isn’t that him right there? The little criminal? I’m sure his highness will break from his spell soon! What a wicked spell, lasting 5 whole years!” I growl lowly at him.

“yes surely, the one person in the country who doesn’t have magic put a spell on him. yeah that’s reasonable.” I mutter angrily.

“listen Mattie, I’m gonna have to ask you to leave at once. I will not ask twice.” Virgil’s smile drops and he take another step forward.

“how dare you. I have every right to be here. Besides, you’re unarmed, what can you do?” the man tests Virgil. V pulls out a dagger from his waist. He looks over at me and gestures toward the prince.

“you two, please go see the prince. I’m sure he’ll want to know of this.” With that I grab Patton’s hand and run up to Roman. When he sees us, he smiles until he realizes something is wrong.

“what is the matter? No, you can stop running, what’s wrong?” Patton rushes to speak.

“well-uh, so uh, lord Matthew is here, and refused to leave, and Virgil just pulled a knife on him, and he said you needed to know-” before Patton completely finishes Roman is walking down to where Virgil is. Of course, walking, he isn’t scared, he’s calm and in control. We both follow behind at a safe distance.

“lord Matthew! So kind of you to show! I’m sure lord Richard invited you? Virgil please unarm yourself, there shall be no need for violence.” He walks towards them with a sort of swagger in his step. The man sneers.

“I wouldn’t miss meeting your suitor for the world my princess. Yes, lord Richard did invite me! How did you know?!” there was a twitch felt through the room at the use of the term princess. Virgil nearly jumped him there and then, but Roman gave him a stern look.

“oh, it was just a guess! The only other person to get thrown out of a ball other than you! Listen dear lord, my dearest lord, I must ask you to leave, I don’t stand for the harassment of my guardsmen. Virgil would you-” Matthew laughs, interrupting the prince.

“oh no, if anyone hear is leaving, it will be you! We can’t have a gay man as our king! Let alone have a villain upon our throne! No, I shall be taking that throne tonight.” He summons a sword and points it at the prince. I feel myself moving before I fully realize what I’m doing. I pull out my collapsible sword and wrap it around his neck.

“I think you might want to rethink that. Another move and you’re dead, trust me I have no qualms, as you said I’m a villain.” The man drops his sword and falls to his knees. I pull my cuffs out of my storage band and cuff him before putting the sword away. I look up to see all eyes trained on me and my wrist. Someone jumps out and grabs my wrist and pulls on it, causing me to groan in pain.

“what is this?! This is dangerous! Why do you have this?!” I groan again before pulling my arm free.

“It’s connected to my arm. I made it a few years ago, it holds my inventions. It’s no more dangerous than magic swords appearing out of thin air. Also please refrain from touching me.” I glare in the random persons direction. They glare back.

“well you’ll have to take it off. No weapons are allowed in the palace!” I scoff and turn fully towards him.

“listen, first, priorities, you should get some, second, it’s much easier to notice me pulling from my wrist, I’d have another weapon at my neck before I’d be able to do anything, third, what do you think this guy just did?! You should be thanking me not harassing me, fourth, there is no way to detach it. I made it that way, and fifth, I only have like, four weapons in here, the rest is far more important. If you have a problem, you can figure out how to get it off yourself” He looks at the prince likely trying to get sympathy and backing down when he sees he has none. I turn towards Roman once again and bow. “your highness, I apologize for breaking one of your rules, however, my mind went into panic mode. I hope you can forgive me.” He tells me to stand and smiles.

“you have been forgiven, if you were not I would be petty. However, I will have to take a look at that band later. Virgil might you escort lord Matthew into the dungeon? Thank you! Now everyone, please do continue to enjoy the festivities!!! No need to worry, the situation is being handled. Might I speak to you Logan?” as Virgil walks off with the man, and Patton goes over to the twins who had grouped together again, I nod. Nothing better to do I guess.

“of course, your highness. Please lead the way” We head back upstairs and sit down on a bench and start talking about random things before I bring up the topic we were both avoiding. “so, uh, was this the first time something like that was pulled?” I ask quietly and I’m met with a sigh as he leans back on his hands.

“no. most definitely not. I’ve had countless since I came out to the people. for the most part people are accepting, however, there are a handful who aren’t. First one to be at such a big event though. Usually assassins. It’s weird, my father never had anyone attempt to kill him, I guess it must have been his curse at work. There were a few who tried to kill me when I was younger as well, but Virgil hasn’t failed to protect me since he started out here. I honestly wish I had friends like him when I was younger.” He rambles and I frown slightly.

“I’m sorry Roman. You are by far a better person than your father. I want to protect you… and um, I uh, I didn’t need a week to find my answer by the way. I mean, you can still take it back! There are far more men who would be better! And uh, you don’t have to choose me, I don’t deserve to be happy with you, I kidnapped you for god sake! You really-” he interrupts me by just smiling. I lose my words somewhere in my throat.

“listen Logan, you are most definitely who I wish to stand by my side. You were not my choice out of convenience, or out of pure lust. You saved me. You saved me from something that was slowly killing me, and it had almost won. Can I confide in you? I was to be dead in a week when you took me. I had plan after plan to die that following week. You saved me that day, and I’m so sorry that it took me as long as it did to return the favor.” I feel my face flush and he giggles.

“I-I don’t know what to say, I had no idea, you had seemed for the most part just happy.” I admit, looking away slightly.

“no one did. I think the only people at the time who would have cared would have been the twins, Patton, Virgil, and my mother. But that’s old news now, irrelevant. Listen, if you do in fact accept my proposal, would you mind if I kissed you?” my face only feels hotter when he asks that. Instead of speaking, because I’m sure my voice will betray me, I nod firmly.

He leans in rather slowly as if giving me a chance to leave if I choose. When our lips finally touch it’s soft and slow and mind-blowing. I feel my pulse quicken and the urge to just lose myself. I realize that all those stories of having to breathe stopping a kiss were completely false. It starts “heating up” I think is the term? And he wraps his arms around my waist and I panic for a second trying to figure out what to do with my arms before setting them on his shoulders. Almost as soon as I had done that he bit my lip. I gasp and am ready to pull away when he... sticks his tongue in my mouth? I don’t-what? I mean it feels fantastic, don’t get me wrong but- oh ok. I have no idea what is happening but it feels amazing I don’t want it to stop? Unfortunately, that’s exactly when he does. He pulls away with a loopy grin and a look in his eyes that is heart stopping. Not literally but-you know what I mean! I am pretty sure at this point my whole face is completely red. I shakily adjust my glasses before looking away shyly. God why am I so timid?! I just want to be normal for once! I notice that the rest of the ballroom is waving slightly. Huh. Interesting.

“I wanted a bit of privacy. It’s an illusionary wall. To everyone else we were just sitting and talking. I’m sure Virgil already knows its fake by now, I’ve used this trick countless times. Do you mind if I touch you?” I feel my heart melt. What did I do to deserve someone like him falling in love with me?

“of course, Roman. I’m only uncomfortable with strangers and those I don’t trust touching me. I um, I also wouldn’t mind um, doing that-that thing we just did? Again. It was quite uh, p-pleasant.” I sound like an idiot he’s going to hate me god why do I do this?

“hey, Bubbles. Calm down that mind of yours,” he rests his palm on my cheek and I subconsciously lean into it. “I can see you thinking up a storm in there. Relax. And I would also love to do that again if you don’t mind.” I nearly dive into the kiss. I cant believe this is happening, am-am I finally getting my happily ever after?

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Thank you for reading I will see you later ladies lords and nonbinary royalty!!!

[alittletournesol]

Kingdom Of Jinju {MinKey} part 22/33

Chapter 22 : Silence

Days had passed with the sun not being bright enough to bring the light back in the Prince’s eyes. Nights had passed with only the pale moon keeping the King’s company during his insomnias. A whole month had flown by, ruled by silence, until the new moon had announced the beginning of the long-awaited hunting season. And that morning, right before the sun rose, the weather was the perfect illustration of the husbands’ situation.

Cold, with a quite thick fog making everything hard to see through.

It was too early to hear birds chirping to welcome a new day, but the gardens’ grass and miscellaneous vegetation were covered in dew. The fragrance was refreshing, and the slight sensation of humidity wasn’t as unpleasant as Kibum would have thought when he had been woken up an hour before. He hadn’t been resting well at night for the past few weeks, until his best friend had proposed him to sleep next to him just like the good old times.

Curiously, a simple presence by his side had helped him to feel better, warmer, and his nights had become a bit more restful. That morning, he had been pulled out of his sleep by a gentle hand shaking his shoulder, these manly yet soft fingers being Jinki’s. He had whispered that it was time, careful not to wake a still asleep Taemin up, rolled into a ball at the other edge of the bed. The Prince had first frowned, not understanding why the General was coming himself to his quarters… until he had noticed the latter was wearing his archer’s attire.

The first day of hunt had come and with it, Kibum’s first day of leadership for the dozen of hunters who would accompany him almost every early morning for a few weeks. It should have been his husband’s task to lead this event, however it had been decided that it would be him, for his archery skills had impressed more than just one person. Moreover, soldiers had grown respectful of their Prince as an archer, since the day he had come in person in the yard to demonstrate and teach them.

Everything had been settled quite naturally, Minho stepping down and regretfully hiding his tremendous pride towards the man he had married. Since their fight, they had avoided any form of direct communication between each other, or more accurately, Kibum had. The King was standing at his quarters’ window, wearing only his royal dressing gown as he observed the whole scene happening under his eyes.

Twelve soldiers were standing straight in their hunters’ outfit, forming a line and patiently waiting for their leader. It didn’t last long and Minho’s eyes followed two silhouettes coming from inside, which he knew way too well. The first man to join the recruits and give them his salute before commanding them to show their respect to the Prince, was his childhood friend. Jinki, as was his habit, was sticking out his chest and exploiting his intense stare to make himself be obeyed to without a flinch. 

Just as usual, his hair was tied in a strict military bun, but he had traded his General’s attire with clothes that were lighter than his heavy coat of mail, and coloured in a way they would go unnoticeable in the woods. Different shades of grey and brown were already making him quite invisible through the fog, and the King knew he would certainly disappear between trees and bushes. On his back, the soldier had tied his quiver and bow, but he still had two daggers hung to his baldric. A sword would have been too cumbersome, but he had to have blades with him.

When he commanded his recruits to stand to attention, Minho found himself leaning on a bit more to watch the second man entering the yard. And his breath was taken away as his eyes widened at the sight of the Prince, walking with elegance and looking like the Elfes of the old legends. His attire was the same as Jinki, but their silhouettes were quite different and it fit closely to Kibum’s body, so deliciously that the King swallowed with difficulty.

His husband’s sleeveless tunic was long to mid-thigh, the fabric covering his shoulders and upper chest dark grey while the rest was a trunk-like brown. To distinguish these two colours, the emblem of the kingdom had been sewed at the exact center of the separating line, the well-known nacreous pearl shaped like a rain drop, circled with golden leaves hanging on a thin line. The whole item of clothing was taken in at the waist, with a thin belt accessorising the ensemble and emphasising the young man’s silhouette.

Under the tunic, he was wearing a shirt of the same shade of grey, with long sleeves and made with a fabric that would keep him warm enough in the morning woods. The end of each sleeve had a golden finish that was distinguishing him from his men, showing his higher status and leadership. To end, he was wearing dark pants and soldiers-like shoes with an extra detail that made Minho frown a bit. He had seen so many of  this kind of shoes before, but he was sure that the short heels Kibum had on his had been added recently by their cobbler.

The sovereign couldn’t help but smile at the thought of his husband always adding a bit of himself to everything, even to his traditional clothes. However, it always suited him with a magnificent way that could only be his way, no one could wear heels on hunting shoes as naturally as him. He loved it. As he was done inspecting the Prince’s attire, he looked up to see his face, and the feline features he found so attractive hit him once again. They were even more emphasised by the way Kibum had tied his long hair in a high ponytail, the end of his eyebrows being slightly drawn out.

He was gorgeous, so gorgeous that Minho didn’t hear a single one of the raven haired man’s instructions before he watched him getting into the saddle and caressing his black mare’s neck. He was immediately imitated by the General and a few of the hunters, most of them remaining walkers. The King observed his husband adjust his long bow on his back, the bow he had already seen before and that he knew was really precious to its owner. 

He would have loved to call him to wish him good luck for his first hunt, and for sure he would have been heard for his quarters weren’t that high compared to the yard. But he refrained himself, remembering they weren’t in good terms at the moment and that it was all his fault. Countless times, he had tried to talk with him but Kibum had taken the best precautions ever, by asking Jinki to remain by his side at any time. Minho couldn’t do anything against it, and even his childhood best friend seemed to have chosen a side.

So he let him go, leave the palace and lead the hunters, only watching him from afar. When the huge doors closed on this silhouette he wanted to hold so dearly against him again, it was like a cold draught slapped him. He stepped backwards, getting away from the window and sitting back on his bed, alone.

***

The woods were pleasantly calm at such an early hour, as Kibum quietly swept the place with his eyes. Sitting straight on his saddle, he had his forearm raised to prevent any of his soldiers to make a move while he was looking for some game. The fog had reduced and wasn’t a bother anymore, for the first rays of sunlight were piercing through it and giving the leaves and bushes a warm color. It had been a good hour since they had left, and the Prince had made them split into two squadrons.

It would have been way too obvious for animals if a dozen of silhouettes were moving at a same place, so it had been decided that they would cover more of the terrain. Kibum had designated Jinki as the leader of his own team, and they had left to hunt at the border of the forest, where the river was flowing and made a perfect place for game to come and drink. As for him, the young Prince had led the six soldiers left more inside, on the animals’ territory itself.

They had already caught a few rabbits and game birds, but now that the sun was going higher and higher in the sky, they hadn’t much time left. They had had to start their big-game hunting, and Kibum really could brag about his ability to track deers. As he allowed everyone to get their bow ready, he made his mare slowly walk forwards, his eyes never leaving the trail he had noticed.

“There is not only one.” He whispered. “We will not approach them too much, otherwise they will smell us and perhaps hear it when we draw our bows. Once we see them, I want two of you to aim at one of them, shoot their legs to prevent them from escaping so we do not waste our arrows.”

As one man, the hunters nodded and grabbed an arrow in their quiver, already placing it on their bow as they walked slowly. They blindly trusted their leader, and they knew they had done well when, just as expected, they could made out a stag, three does and a fawn grazing in a clearing. Kibum raised his hand to make them stop, and by some moves with his fingers, he noticed the steps to follow as himself untied his bow from his back. As quietly as possible, his soldiers positioned themselves in duos, waiting for a signal to draw.

The Prince could already feel a drop of sweat on his forehead as he was alone to aim at the stag. He would certainly have to follow it and shoot a second time while riding, which he was usually gifted for… To make sure he would weaken the beast enough, he drew his bow not with one but two arrows at once. The slow movement of pulling the string slightly creaked but thankfully not enough to catch the game’s attention. 

As he was imitated by the hunters, Kibum quickly glanced at each duo to make sure they were ready, and to give them the signal, he shot first. As soon as they heard the sound of his arrow piercing the air, the six men shot in their turn and their intense training bore fruit. The three does tried to run away when they felt the pain, but their legs were hurt and they could barely make a move. However, the Prince had missed the stag’s sinew and even though it had two arrows stuck in its back leg, he managed to escape.

“Catch them.” 

With these words, he abandoned his soldiers as he held his mare’s reins with one hand, the other one holding both his bow and a third arrow. In no time, he made his mount run through the clearing, then between the trees. The hurt animal was slow, but the hunter couldn’t risk to approach it and be hit by its antlers. Just like he had learned it, Kibum held the horse’s flanks tight with his legs to prevent himself from falling despite the trotting movement and his hands not holding anything anymore.

At the same time, he took a few precious seconds to draw his bow and to find his arms’ balance, deeply focusing on his target to the extent it was like he didn’t feel his own body moving anymore. With his two eyes open, he waited for the moment the stag would make the slightest move to turn and leave him behind… and he shot. The animal roared and its back leg failed to carry it any longer, making it fall heavily on the ground.

Seeing this, Kibum grabbed the reins again and pulled them to stop his mare not far from the stag, between some trees, before he let himself slide down. He only needed a few steps to reach the hurt, majestic animal that had three arrows stuck in one leg. Kneeling near it and not within the antlers’ reach, the Prince removed each projectile and cleaned them a bit before putting them back in his quiver. He then tied his bow on his back and took his dagger, but as he was about to put an end to the stag’s suffering, he heard a grunt and bushes moving, way too close.

Since he had participated in many hunts before, he knew exactly what kind of game was approaching, and he immediately stood up to approach the nearest tree and climb as high as possible. His arrows could do nothing to help him, for the animal’s skin was way too thick, it would only anger it. Once he was safe, sitting on a branch that could support his weight, he remembered his mare and glanced at it, raising his fingers to his mouth to whistle piercingly.

Thankfully, Mano had been broken in like all horses of the royal stables, to recognise a few orders only thanks to a particular whistle. As she heard the sharp noise, she reacted at once and galloped away, in the direction of the first men she would meet. If he was lucky, Kibum wouldn’t have to wait too much in a tree before he would get some help… and at the moment he thought about this, he looked down and saw a wild boar approaching the stag. The Prince held his breath and couldn’t help but grow a bit pale when he noticed not one but three young ones following their parent.

A sow. It was even worse. As soon as babies were involved, any female animal would become extremely agressive if feeling endangered. And this animal certainly was one of the most violent in these woods. Kibum couldn’t do anything but wait for it to leave by itself, taking its babies with it. They must have grown curious to approach so easily, but wild boars weren’t the fearful kind… they stayed there for a few minutes, going in circles, here and there.

But a move between the trees not far away made the trapped man look up, and he refrained from sighing with relief when he saw the General on his horse, surrounded by the reunited squadrons. A soldier was holding the black mare by the reins, but none of them was moving, following the command of their leader who had just noticed the animals at the foot of the tree. He was far from being stupid, even him couldn’t fight the mother. Instead, he looked at the trees around him and on the ground, crouching to pick some rocks up.

He then asked a soldier to empty his quiver and replace all arrows with the rocks, before he commanded them to stay where they were. With careful, quiet steps, he walked to a tree which trunk was large enough to hide his body, and he slowly climbed it, making sure to not make too much noise. It took him a few minutes, for he sometimes heard the sow stop moving or grunting, proof that it was observing the woods around it. When he eventually reached a thick branch and sat on it, he saw the Prince at the same height, on top of another tree, and put his forefinger on his lips to intimate silence.

Kibum nodded, unable to take his eyes off of Jinki who slowly untied his quiver to hold it between his thighs. He caught a first rock and made sure to have a good grip on it before looking down : the animals were still wandering around the immobilised stag, he needed to make them go away. The mother wouldn’t be scared if he threw his projectile near or at it, only angry and agressive, able to charge at every tree around it if it could protect its babies. No, he had to be smarter.

Using all his strength despite the branches that were blocking a bit his movements, the General threw a stone away, in the direction opposite them. The noise it made when it fell in some bushes made the animal turn over and tense up, grunting. Immediately, Jinki took a second rock and threw it too, this time behind the sow, which turned again and stepped backwards, its babies hiding behind it. The Prince frowned at first but understood quickly : the goal was to make it sense a potential ambush.

The soldier threw all the stones he had until the animal gave in to panic and survival instinct, leaving fast with the baby boars following. With a huge sigh, Jinki lied against the trunk and looked at Kibum, who slightly laughed at the situation : both of them sitting on top of a tree, their hair quite tangled and their face gleaming with sweat. Once they were sure that the animal was away, the General whistled to make the squadron come to them before he made his way down the trunk. He then approached the other tree and waited for his Prince to be within his reach to catch him by the waist with his consent, putting him on the ground.

“I knew you were gone for big-game hunting, your Grace…” He laughed. “But that was not the kind of big game I had imagined.”

“I was lucky enough to have you coming this way !” Kibum replied, dusting his outfit. “How come you were not at the border anymore ?”

“We were done on our side, unfortunately we could only catch some birds, a doe and its fawn. But I guess you did not face the same disappointment.”

“This is why I prefer to hunt inside the woods, they start coming out in herd. So, what do we have ?”

“We got the three does and the fawn, your Grace !” A soldier proudly said. “We did as told, we approached them and put an end to their suffering. We were loading them in the cart when your mare arrived, almost at the same time as the General.”

“Very well, we were lucky today. Let us just add this stag and I think we can go home for today.”

Not sooner said than done, all hunted animals were in the huge cart, pulled by two horses as the hunters made their way back to the palace. They kept alerted in case they would meet another wild boar, but refrained from shooting any other game they met, for they did not have a lot of space anymore. As they had left the woods and were now travelling through the land, the town already visible, Jinki made his stallion reach Kibum’s mare.

“You have done really well for a first hunt, your Grace.” He said. “It is rare to bring so much game on a first day.”

“Is it ?” The Prince smiled. “Perhaps luck will turn for the next days and we will catch nothing.”

“This is possible. But we are returning glorious today, the King will be proud.”

“Will he…”

The General felt the change in the other man’s tone and he turned his head to look at him. For the past month, he had remained by his side as a way to protect him, at his request, even though he still felt a bit bad for leaving his childhood’s friend’s side. But he had witnessed the fight between the husbands, and as much as he wanted to ignore it, Minho had gone way too far when Kibum had brought up an essential topic. Hurtful, yet essential. That was why he had agreed to stand for his personal bodyguard.

Even though they were still talking to each other formally, spending only convenient time together for royal matters… they both had grown fond of each other and could called themselves friends. Discreet friends. And the way Jinki was staying by his side lately had made the Prince so thankful that he didn’t mind talking about his feelings with him anymore. The General was, unsurprisingly, a really good listener.

“Of course he will, your Grace.” The latter said. “He never stopped being proud of you.”

“How could I know, we have not talked for weeks.” The raven haired man replied, muttering more than talking out loud as he knew he was the one avoiding his husband. “I believe it will please me to see pride in his eyes when we return.”

“Perhaps it is time to put an end to this, what do you think ? This quarrel had gone for so long, I would gladly protect you for another month but I would rather see my sovereigns reconcile.”

“Isn’t it better this way ? With no feelings, there will be no pain later.”

“But there are feelings, your Grace, and mutism does not cancel them. Will you assure me that you do not suffer from the actual situation, more than any other you had or will have to face ?”

“Perhaps…”

“I am the kind of man that ponders a lot, but never as long as you are pondering right now. My King is stubborn, for sure, but I know him for so many years I can affirm that he knows what mistake he made.”

“Why does he not come then ?”

“Your Grace, I am constantly next to you because you do not want him to come.”

Kibum pursed his lips, his face turning a bit red as he realised he was trying to find a pathetic excuse. Of course his husband wasn’t approaching him since himself had made sure he wouldn’t dare to. But Jinki was certainly right, it had been too long already…

“I will think about it.” He said, earning a smile from the General, who perfectly knew his Prince wouldn’t just think.

*** 

The sound of wood swords hitting each other could be heard from the sparring yard until the gardens, as the impacts were quite vigorous. Minho had been unable to go back to sleep after he had quietly sent his husband off to hunt, and he had felt the need to release his trouble through training. It had been an hour now, and he had been surprised to be quickly joined by someone he hadn’t expected. But the young apprentice had just been as surprised to find the sovereign and not his mentor.

The King had laughed and reminded Taemin about the beginning of the hunting mornings, after what he had proposed him to stay, since he was already there and wearing his soldier in training’s attire. At first, the younger man had refused, for he considered training with such an opponent wasn’t suitable — and out of a very uncomfortable feeling regarding the current situation between the husbands. However, his elder was someone extremely convincing…

That was how they had found themselves sparring with fake weapons, their coats long thrown away as their bodies were heating up because of effort. As expected, Minho was a really good fighter with a sword, but it wasn’t surprising since he had been trained by the General and his father before him. He was more of an attacker than a defender, yet he mastered quite a lot of defensive techniques to avoid the apprentice’s sharp blows. The only thing he could still be discountenanced by were the rolls and spins Taemin was doing to avoid him.

It had been a shock when he had first rolled on the floor to not be touched by Jinki’s blade, only a few days after his arrival in the kingdom… but never had his mentor made him renounce to this particular skill of his. Better than that, he had reviewed his own teaching to include these gymnastics to the boy’s training. What was disconcerting for his opponents could only be an advantage to him, and the General had acknowledged it. The King was having a hard time, for he hadn’t been trained to react to such defensive ways.

“Will you stop rolling !” He ended up protesting, what only made Taemin laugh as he raised his hands to signify a time out. “How come Jinki even allowed this !”

“He said he saw great potential in this ability of mine, your Highness.” The apprentice politely replied, still unable to hide his proud smile. “So he trained it, instead of burying it to make a common soldier of me.”

“I must agree on this, you are far from a common soldier. Give me a minute.”

With these words, Minho put his hands on his waist as he leaned on, catching his breath after such an intense fight where he had had to turn so much to prevent his opponent to hit him during a roll. He was feeling nauseous. Keeping his head high, he walked to the bucket of water on the low wall and filled his flask before completely emptying it in his mouth. Taemin imitated him, the etiquette long-forgotten as he kept staring at his sovereign’s face like he would do with one of his brothers in arms.

“Perhaps you would like to learn, your Highness ?” He proposed, making the other man cock an eyebrow.

“Learn ?” The King repeated after swallowing his last mouthful of fresh water. “What do you mean ?”

“To roll like me, of course !”

“I have never been that flexible, I am afraid. I would just… pop a vessel, damage a muscle, break a bone… all that stuff.”

“You are being quite dramatic there, your Highness. Have you ever rolled in the grass when you were a child ? You will not make me believe that you have not.”

“Well, it was quite different ! I was shorter, slimmer… it was easier for my body to roll. Nowadays, I doubt I could even roll once without hurting myself.”

“I see… The Prince would tell you what he always told me. When in doubt, don’t. I have never listened once to this advice and it did me good ! What about you give it a try ?”

“I guess a try cannot harm me…”

The smile that brightened Taemin’s face was enough for Minho to give in, he didn’t know why he wanted to make that boy happier than he already was. He felt like a responsible brother-in-law and the way his childhood friend was fond of him gave him even more reasons to care about this young person. He was two years younger than his husband and it was clearly noticeable on this excited expression he often wore : a tad amazed him ! Despite that, he showed himself quite mature when it was needed, and the King found that interesting.

At that moment, he found himself not regretting a single time when he rolled up his sleeves to crouch… and throw himself forwards with his palms on the ground, making his body clumsily roll. The first attempt to come back on his feet in one go was a fail, but if there was a quality he shared with the apprentice, it was determination. With tenacity, he practiced his rolls all around the sparring yard, sometimes doing two before standing up. Observing him, Taemin couldn’t help but laugh sometimes, the simple sight of the most powerful ruler in the realm doing such thing amusing him. Yet, he wouldn’t lie : his elder was growing eager to roll perfectly.

“What am I witnessing…”

The soft low voice interrupting this intriguing training caught both men off guard, and they jumped on their feet with their wooden sword in hand… only to find a blonde man they knew too well at the door of the yard. He had an amused smile on his face even though he was trying to hide it, but the way Minho laughed heartily was enough for him to give in and join the laughter, along with Taemin. 

“You’re back !” The latter said as he went to his friend, hugging him. “We were trying to wonder if you would ever come back to us.”

“By the Gods, you’re all sweaty and sticky, don’t ruin my coat !” Jonghyun laughed before he bowed to the King who had approached them. “Your Highness.”

“It is good to see you again, Sir Jonghyun.” Minho smiled, bowing his head. “Have you had a good journey ?”

“Without the shadow of a doubt, I grew anxious as we approached the kingdom but I was warmly welcomed. This explains why I am late returning to you.”

The three men took the teacher’s return as an opportunity to put an end to the sparring — and rolling — and they store their weapons while talking. After Jonghyun had been told about his lineage, a month before, he had taken a few days to think about how to welcome this new information. He would have found himself stuck with what to do, if it hadn’t been for the General to step in and advise him during his late visits at his place. For sure it had been concerning, one didn’t learn he had royal blood every day. 

He had taken the decision to travel to his kingdom of origin, for he wished to meet his long lost relative and discuss his situation with the Queen in person. His request had naturally been granted by Minho, who had proposed him a considerable escort that the blonde had had to refuse. He didn’t want to meet his cousin while being surrounded by guards, it was more a courtesy call than an official visit. 

He had left Jinju for the past two weeks, spending ten whole days in the second kingdom, and the King felt grateful that the first thing he did when returning was to come to the palace. However, the sovereign couldn’t help but feel anxious regarding the decision the teacher could have taken after being able to discuss and ponder his rights related to his status. He guessed they were about to have a whole conversation about it.

“Perhaps we should go to my office, so you could tell me about your visit to Queen Hyoyeon.” Minho proposed as he walked outside the sparring yard, followed by the two men.

“There is no need, your Highness.” Jonghyun replied with a smile. “I do not need any of the things my relative had to propose me.”

“What do you mean ?”

“I must admit that when I was first told about what I could claim, I felt as if I was becoming a powerful person, someone recognised. Oh, I have absolutely no control on Maguk’s throne and to be extremely honest, it does not interest me to lead a kingdom, so that is a piece of luck that I was born a man.”

“Nothing else would please you ? Lands, titles…”

“Not a single one, your Highness. I think I do not need more than I already have here, if you still allow me to stay and be a teacher. These children will need me for some more years, then they will be replaced by their siblings, their own children… I have a duty here and I do not want to leave it behind.”

“You are anticipating quite a long future in my kingdom, it brings me great delight. Not even the ambassador’s title ?”

“Not even this, I do not see myself having a role in politics, I prefer academics by far.”

“Then it is with pleasure that I welcome you back in town. Your presence is always appreciated here.”

“I thank you, your Highness. I hope you have been well during my absence, have things with the Prince evolved in any way…?”

The King sighed, hesitating to answer. The blonde man had shown himself receptive to both his sovereigns when he had been told about their quarrel, even though it wouldn’t have been a surprise to see him choose Kibum’s side, he hadn’t. He had remained true to himself, what didn’t concern him directly was none of his business, and he had only proposed both of them to find him if they needed advices, or just an ear to listen to them. However, with his departure, he had found himself unable to fulfil his sort of mission and it was all natural for him to ask if there was any good thing happening.

Taemin cleared his throat when the ruler was about to reply with honesty, because the huge palace’s doors opened again at that same moment. Standing under the palace’s porch, the three men watched the hunters come back home, lead by the Prince and the General riding side by side. They were sitting straight, exuding magnificence despite their tangled hair — it could only be positive to return from hunt with their appearance a bit messed up.

As the two cavaliers stopped their mounts, the King approached the front yard and was immediately followed by the teacher and the apprentice, sharing a same curiosity. The hunting cart eventually entered in its turn, and they all stood gaping when they saw a stag’s antlers sticking out. As if they felt the need to, the dozen of soldiers gathered and stood to attention, one of them reporting to their sovereign about the hunt and everything they had caught. As he listened, Minho’s eyes looked for his husband and never left him, as Kibum was coming in their direction, still accompanied by Jinki. 

And for the first time in weeks, their eyes met, the Prince not rejecting it by looking away. It only lasted a second, though, before the latter smiled to the teacher and his companion and commanded the hunters to tend to the game they had brought. As soon as it was done, he took his blonde friend by the arm and led him to the gardens, asking him to talk to him about his journey. 

The King kept his distance, looking at the raven haired man from afar as he had always done for a month, but still it was like a small, warm candle had just been lit in his cold heart. 

The same uncomfortable silence had led the day until evening has come. Minho had kept his mind busy by locking himself in his office and working until he couldn’t stand his own kingdom anymore. As the leader of the hunt, his husband had spent hours supervising the soldiers in charge of tending to the animals, and he hadn’t seen him once since his return on the morning. 

He had been saved from the boring tasks by a houseboy knocking at his door, informing him that dinner would be served soon. It was at that moment that the King had noticed the sun had set, if it wasn’t for the few warm colours it was still painting the sky with, at the horizon’s limit. With a sigh, the young man rubbed his eyes and temples before he stood up, leaving his office.

His steps were heavy in the corridor as he headed to the dining room, his mental exhaustion having a serious impact on his physical strength. He had been told quite a lot lately that he was disfigured with dark rings under his eyes, but they were all exaggerating because he was the sovereign, the one that should always look good and dynamic. True, his eyes were shadowed because of the lack of sleep, but it wasn’t to the extent he looked like he had been disinterred the day before.

When he arrived at his destination, he noticed his mother was already sitting, waiting for her son and son-in-law to join her as usual. Minho went to sit on his chair at the end of the table, and the deep worry in his mother’s eyes as she looked at him didn’t go unnoticed. The Queen felt terribly guilty about the husbands’ fight, for she felt like she had instigated it by trying to have the Prince on her side. For days, even weeks, her own son had given her the cold shoulder, just like he was himself given by the man he had married.

However, he had been moved by his mother’s distress and since she was, unlike Kibum, open to discussion… they had made up, or at least they weren’t in bad terms anymore. It was still a bit tensed, for the King was still bitter that he had been entirely on his own since the day Jihwan had planned things behind his back. 

“I heard the cook made sure to prepare meat for dinner.” The woman engaged her son in conversation. “I wonder if it will be from the big-game hunt or bird. What would please you, my son ?”

“I lack appetite tonight, Mother.” Minho replied, smiling to reassure his mother who was growing even worrier. “Game bird would be enough for me.”

“This and a good night’s sleep. You look terrible…”

“I have been told, yes. I tend to fight with insomnias lately, but it must be because the hunting season made me anxious.”

“Perhaps you would like me to brew you some herbal tea to help your sleep ? It worked well when you were a child, you asked for some even when you did not need it.”

“I will think about it, thank you Mother.”

The Queen tenderly smiled, taking her son’s hand in her and gently caressing it as she felt happy by such a short conversation. They were interrupted by the door opening and they both turned their head to see the Prince enter, followed by the General. However, the latter was quickly dismissed, a first time in weeks. Minho frowned as he watched his best friend leave the room but still remaining near the door : what did it mean ?

“Welcome, your Grace.” Jihwan said, willing to show herself sweet towards her son-in-law who had also been hurt because of her. “You are a bit pale, it is high time you eat something.”

“Yes, your Majesty.” Kibum only replied, remaining as closed as usual.

The King observed his husband, hoping for him to perhaps say something else since he had just broken his habit of bringing Jinki everywhere, even in the dining room. But the raven haired man did nothing, he only waited for the few employees to bring dinner. As soon as they were served, they started eating quietly, both men almost saying nothing except for the times they had to reply to the Queen’s questions, whether they were about the hunt or the paperwork.

It had become uncomfortably usual, how quiet and tensed it was around the table. Even the slight evolution for some day, being the Prince accepting to just answer, didn’t seem enough for Minho to feel a bit better. Because his husband’s voice wasn’t the same as before, it was lower and monotonous, without any emotion in his words. And the King missed it, so bad. He needed to hear his soft tone again, even if it wasn’t for him, he just needed it to the extent he was ready to beg him to talk.

Since the soldier wasn’t there, he found himself gathering enough of his courage to say something, and the simple fact he was speaking during dinner made both his mother and Kibum look up from their plate.

“You led a good hunt today, your Grace.” He said, clearing his throat when he felt his own voice fail him. “The result is impressive.”

The Prince looked at his husband, for a longer time than ever since he had stopped looking at him, and it filled Minho with hope. But when he lowered his eyes and muttered a “thank you” almost imperceptible, it was like everything shattered. The Queen’s nascent smile immediately dropped when she noticed the small glint in her son’s eyes fade away as quickly. It was like Kibum suddenly felt uneasy, and he excused himself before leaving the table, his plate not completely empty.

Silence in the room grew even heavier, and despite the General’s reassuring stare towards his best friend, the latter clenched his teeth and leaned against the back of his chair. He didn’t understand what he had done wrong just now, why the other man had suddenly felt the need to leave, when the pink tint on his cheeks at the King’s words seemed positive. For sure he had made mistakes, said things he hadn’t meant… but this unexpected event was like the final straw.

Minho turned his head to avoid his mother’s stare, his jaw tensed and teeth gritted. It was like he was doing his best to keep the last piece of his determination… in vain.

“Just…” He whispered, his voice being stuck in his throat as he addressed his mother. “Send him back…”

“I beg your pardon…?” The Queen frowned.

“I failed, Mother… He’s not happy with me anymore, I’m only hurting him a bit more every day…”

“Son…”

“I will do whatever you want, I will marry whoever you want, just… just save his happiness, please, because I can’t do it myself…”

The way her son was looking so defeatist hit the woman in the depths of her heart, as if she was being stabbed with the sharpest blade ever. She slowly stood up to approach the King, raising her trembling hand to put it on the dark brown hair. And as soon as she stroked it, the young man broke down and gave in to all that negativity that had been invading his mind for weeks. 

As she heard her baby’s sobs, Jihwan immediately moved his chair and pulled him against her, holding his head against her chest as Minho buried his face in his mother’s coat. His strong body was shaken by his cries, and the woman softly comforted him by caressing his hair, allowing him to cry everything he had. It was the first time she had Minho in such a bad state in her arms since he had lost his father. For years, he hadn’t cried anymore, he had trained even more intensely to become a good king, with as much strength as a real soldier.

But he had forgotten to grow his heart tougher.

“He looked at you, son…” The Queen eventually whispered. “I don’t think he meant harm by leaving so hurriedly, perhaps he was just… surprised, by the sudden words he was addressed by you ? It’s been a month since you last talked, and it wasn’t a pleasant conversation…”

“I said horrible things…” The young man sobbed. “I hate how I hurt him with such stupid words…”

“I know, I know… But we all make mistakes, Minho, and every mistake can be repaired.”

The King sniffed and eventually his cries reduced, but he remained nestled against his mother and appreciated the hand stroking his hair. He couldn’t take it anymore.

*** 

He felt cold, so cold it was like winter was back. He couldn’t say for how many hours he had been in his bed, trying to sleep, tossing and turning. The dinner’s incident was still in his mind, and Minho was going crazy. As he sat on the mattress, holding his head in his hands, he sighed deeply and took a moment to gather his thoughts before looking up. He turned his head towards the empty space next to his, where there hadn’t been the print of his husband’s body for so long.

That night, more than any other before, he felt remorseful to the extent he suffered inside. It was like a constant pain in his chest, or was it a complete void that needed to be filled ? He didn’t know, but it hurt and he couldn’t support it, not anymore. Not when he had finally been looked at by Kibum. He hadn’t dreamed it, the Prince had looked at him on the morning, when he had returned, and also during dinner. Even if he had said nothing, even if he had left when his King had spoken to him… there had been something, something happened after weeks.

There were only a few hours left before his husband would have to wake up to lead his second day of hunt, he couldn’t wait more. When going to bed, he had seen Taemin enter his own bedroom and it had been way too late in the night for this decision to be temporary. Of course he had noticed how Kibum had made sure to have someone by his side even when sleeping… but now it was his chance.

He couldn’t miss it. And he needed it.

The King took a few minutes to gather his courage, wondering if he was taking the right decision. But he couldn’t ignore how their eyes had met, it couldn’t mean nothing. Once he made his mind, Minho got out of his bed and grabbed his robe to cover his naked body, tying the belt as he walked to his bedside. There, he lit the oil lamp and took it in his hand before leaving his quarters.

The corridors were empty, quiet and cold. The young man didn’t waste time nor the bravery he had managed to gather, and he made his way through the east wing until the princely quarters. Inhaling deeply, he grabbed the knob and slowly turned it, the door opening with a slight creaking sound. The King sticked his head inside and refrained himself from sighing with relief as he saw his husband in his bed, sleeping and alone. The latter was offering him his back, lying on his side with the sheet only covering his lower body. His breathing was almost imperceptible, proof that he was asleep.

With care, Minho entered fully and closed the door behind him, before he walked towards the bed. Once there, he quietly placed the lamp on the bedside table and put it out, the room enlightened only by the stars in the sky, through the open window. At that moment, hesitation prevented him from moving and he stood still next to the mattress, only staring at the silhouette he loved so much.

He was about to cancel everything, thinking he was doing something way too wrong… but his heart beat his reason and he eventually climbed on the mattress, slowly making its way under the sheet until he was completely lying on his side too. He approached Kibum and carefully moved his hair so he wouldn’t crush it, before he moved forwards until their bodies were pressed against each other. His last movement was his arm circling the other man’s waist and putting his hand on his stomach above his night shirt.

At that moment, he felt the Prince’s body tense up against his, and understood he had woken him up. He suddenly felt scared, his heart beating faster as he feared to be rejected, sent back to his own quarters, in his cold bed with only his worries to keep him company. He didn’t know why he did it, but he immediately pressed his forehead against Kibum’s nape, his grip growing a bit tighter as his hand trembled on his stomach. He had never felt so weak, so needy of just some warmth, some physical contact to feel better.

He didn’t need more, just to be accepted there.

But he had grown so pessimistic, all his bravery from earlier gone. His breathing was broken, as if it was trembling just like his body. He could hear his husband’s breathing as well, a bit louder since he was awake, however he wasn’t able to see his he had opened his eyes. He just waited for the moment he would be kicked away, only listening to silence… until he felt his arm withdrawing by itself, as if his body was doing what it thought was the best thing to do.

However, his heart missed a beat when his hand was covered by another one, long and thin fingers working between his until they were interlaced. Kibum’s body relaxed against his and seemed to move a bit backwards to fit more to Minho’s, like the two adjacent pieces of a puzzle finding each other. Unable to hold it back, the King sighed with a deep, honest relief against his husband’s nape, and he couldn’t prevent a tear from rolling down his cheek, followed by its sisters.

The Prince felt his skin being wet and he softly caressed the other man’s thumb with his, in a soothing way. This simple gesture was enough to comfort the loneliness Minho had felt for so many nights, and he embraced his husband tighter, burying his face against his warm skin. As he closed his eyes, he sensed a slight movement on the mattress but hadn’t time to look up when he felt Kibum’s hand making his go a bit higher than his stomach, placing it on his chest.

There, right under his palm, the King could feel a heartbeat slowly reducing its fast rhythm. And the way it calmed down with his only touch made him beyond proud, to the extent he let it lull him to sleep, his mind definitely lighter.

***

This night was full of invasive thoughts for something else’s mind than the sovereign’s. Far from the royal quarters, from the palace, right at the other end of the town, the General was staring at the ceiling of his lover’s bedroom. He was lying on his back, naked and with dry drops of sweat making him feel pleasantly dirty. By his side, Jonghyun was fast asleep on his stomach, his arms holding his pillow and his head turned towards the other man.

Jinki looked at him, slowly lifting himself on his elbow to have a better view of this young man with blonde hair that was driving him crazy. When the teacher had returned from Maguk earlier that day, it had felt good in the soldier’s chest, as if warmth was back after days of a growing coldness he strongly yet quietly disliked. He had had to wait for the night to fall to be able to leave the palace and meet Jonghyun at his place. And even if he didn’t regretted a single instant the way he had been immediately pulled inside, warm lips pressed against his and hands roaming his body…

He was missing something.

The beginning of the night had certainly been the best they had spent together since they had started this passionate game, both of them giving in to each other and relishing every single piece of them. He felt his skin being covered with shivers as he remembered the sight of the blonde’s body bouncing on his while receiving him, or that consuming feeling when he had tightened his thighs around Jonghyun’s hips while being the one receiving after giving.

He was never going to grow tired of this, he knew it. But it wasn’t enough anymore, he was finding himself more and more needy of something he couldn’t have, something the Prince had wanted before him, in vain. He had to prevent himself from ruining everything.

With an incredible gentleness, Jinki put a blonde strand behind the asleep teacher’s ear, before he leaned on to press his lips against his forehead. While doing his this, he felt an awful pinch in his chest, but did his best to ignore it. Getting out of bed as quietly as possible, he grabbed his clothes an put them on, his eyes falling on a bunch of papers on the small pedestal table not far from the bed. After a short hesitation, he approached and grabbed a charcoal that was almost completely used, starting to roughly write a few apologising words.

“Where are you going…?”

The soldier froze when he heard the low voice coming from the mattress, and he realised he had a tear making its way down his face when he straightened up. He hurriedly wiped it and looked at Jonghyun, who was holding himself on his elbow, his eyebrows furrowed above his sleepy eyes.

“It’s still night, Jinki…” He whispered. “The hunt won’t start before hours, why are you already up ?”

“I… I have to…” The General stuttered before biting his lip, looking away. “I have to leave.”

“What ? Why ? Am I snoring ?”

Jinki couldn’t help but slightly laugh, but it sounded more like a stuck sob than a real laughter. The teacher frowned even more and stood up, walking naked towards his lover and cupping his cheek.

“You’re troubled.” He stated. “What is happening ? You know you can tell me everything.”

“Not everything, I’m afraid.” The General replied, eventually meeting the other man’s eyes. “There are some things that are not good to tell.”

“Still, I can hear them. Why are you running away from me ?”

“Because… because I can’t stay with you anymore, Jonghyun.”

The blonde man raised his eyebrows before he laughed, hiding his mouth behind his hand.

“What are you saying there, silly.” He smiled. “Just come to bed and sleep, you—”

“Jonghyun, I’m serious.” Jinki interrupted him, maybe more sharply than he wanted as his lover froze. “I can’t do this anymore, it wouldn’t be fair to you.”

“What are you talking about, one hour ago you were loving what we were doing.”

“I was, and I still would if we were to do it again. I mean it. But… I have to take my distances for a moment, can you understand ?”

“For a moment ? Wait, if I did something wrong or if I hurt you, you better say it so it won’t happen again. I know I can be rough but—”

“By the Gods, it’s not about sex ! I’m having feelings for you, Jonghyun !”

The teacher widened his eyes as the soldier stepped backwards, rejecting his touch. He wasn’t looking at him anymore after his last words, and Jonghyun found himself sitting back on his bed… hiding his body with the sheet. This gesture didn’t go unnoticed by Jinki, who scoffed.

“See, that’s what I wanted to avoid.” He said. “If only I had left instead of writing you that stupid thing…”

“You were about to leave my house with only a letter to explain that you’re in love with me ?” The blonde said, and his tone had changed. “And what did you plan to do after that ?”

“Staying away, I told you. I know what life you decided to live, and I will never try to change you. I’ve been thinking about my feelings for a while now, and I think… I think it will be better for us to stop this. I’m starting to want more than what we’re doing and it’s not fair to you who don’t want more.”

“What did I do, Jinki ? What did I do to make you have feelings, I don’t understand…”

“You did nothing, Jonghyun. It just happened, because you’re you.”

The General sighed when he received no answer, and he approached the bed to crouch before the other man. 

“Maybe it was just sex and some friendly time for you, and I won’t blame you for it.” He gently said, smiling to reassure Jonghyun despite the pain he was suddenly feeling. “It was for me too, at first. It’s not just that anymore, and now I must step down and let you live the way you want.”

“Fine.”

The teacher replied this only word, his face closed. Jinki looked at him for a few seconds, hesitating before he straightened a bit up to have their faces close to each other. As if he needed it to give himself enough bravery, he pressed his lips against Jonghyun’s, who feverishly returned the kiss until the soldier broke it. They exchanged one last stare, then the General smiled and put the rebellious strand behind the blonde’s ear again.

And after doing that, he stood up and left, forcing himself not to look back.

After a week, the tension between the King and the Prince seemed to have reduced, at least publicly. They still weren’t talking to each other, not a single word, but something had evolved. Quick glances, discreet smiles or brushes of clothes when running into each other by the side of a corridor… words weren’t needed in moments like these. But what was hidden always was what mattered the most, and Minho had always found a space for him in Kibum’s bed once night had come.

For the past few days and once every employee had gone to sleep, the King had snuck out of his quarters to join his husband in his, sometimes finding him asleep, sometimes not. However, he had always been welcomed by his side, quietly, with a hand holding his or fingers running through his hair. Dark circles had disappeared from under their eyes, they looked fresh-face and it was noticeable to the extent the Queen herself was smiling when seeing them.

That morning, Minho had woken up alone in the Prince’s bed, for the latter had already left to hunt. The young man had spent a few minutes in his own bubble, lying on his stomach and burying his face in his husband’s pillow to immerse himself in the scent he had missed so much. If it hadn’t been for the aforesaid stomach to start grunting, he could have remained there for hours, perhaps he would have gone back to sleep until Kibum would have come to wake him up by himself. He would have love that.

But here he was, up and fully dressed, walking in the gardens after a copious breakfast and talking with the gardener. Heechul was having a hard time with tenacious weeds and needed to tend to plants with a product made in Baemyeong, but he needed his ruler’s approval before sending an envoy to the other kingdom. After he took a look at the flowers and fruit trees and came to the conclusion that these gardens indeed needed some help, Minho dismissed his employee and decided to take a walk by himself.

He didn’t really look at where he was walking, letting his feet lead him wherever they wanted. He found himself near the huge gazebo and smiled, remembering how many times he had seen the Prince peacefully read there, especially at times they weren’t close. It was like a place for him to escape reality, and the King slowly climbed the three wooden stairs to enter this small world. 

As he sat on the bench, he focused on what was around him. In the shade of the roof and the falling ivy, even the sun reverberating on the palace’s white stone wasn’t hurting his eyes. He could hear birds chirping, the cool breeze moving the trees’ branches and the distant voices of house girls hanging the laundry. As strange as it could be, it gave a soothing atmosphere and Minho understood why his husband liked it so much.

And to be honest, it was a really pretty place.

“Lost in your dreams ?”

The King was contemplating the ivy hanging here and there when he was distracted by a voice that sent him shiver by only hearing it. As he looked towards the stairs, he found Kibum standing on the last one, arms crossed over his chest and leaning against the column. He was still wearing his archer’s attire, he must have been on his way to get changed when noticing his husband.

“Hello ?” The Prince repeated with a smile. “Is his Highness here ?”

“Y-Yes, yes, I’m here.” Minho replied, nodding vigorously as he stood up.

“No, don’t.”

Kibum approached and sat on the bench, watching the other man join him with his eyebrows furrowed. The latter was so surprised that he was out of words, unable to say a thing and just staring.

“The hunt was unsuccessful today.” The raven haired man said, trying to start a conversation. “A few birds, at the most.”

“That’s a shame…” Minho replied. “But it’s fine, the previous ones were quite good.”

“Yes, they were.”

It was awkward as hell, both men trying to do as if nothing had happened. But they couldn’t, it wasn’t fair to just ignore.

“Listen—”

“Kibum—”

The husbands looked at each other and laughed a bit, before the Prince gestured the King to talk first.

“I just wanted to apologise.” The sovereign said, lowering his eyes. “I should have knocked Jinki out and say it sooner but I guess I was too much of a coward.”

“You’re not, don’t say that.” The raven haired man said. “It was maybe too much to ask for some bodyguard to avoid you…”

“It looks like you, though. What I mean is that it’s all my fault, I lost my temper way too quickly and said horrible things. I… I never meant to hurt you to the point you would… fear me…?”

“I don’t fear you… maybe I did at the moment, because I didn’t know what could be your limits. I guess I shouldn’t have brought this topic up so abruptly so… we both were in the wrong, someway ?”

“I was more, there are things that should never be said. Will you ever forgive me…?”

“I suppose I already did, since I’m here…”

Minho smiled and softly took Kibum’s hand in his, caressing it for a moment before looking at him.

“Did you… Did you mean it ?” He asked, his cheeks turning pink. “When you implied that you loved me.”

“Do I look like someone who would lie about something like this ?” The Prince joked before he wore a serious face. “Minho, do you really think I could have not meant it…?”

“No, I just would like to… to hear it again ?”

Kibum raised his eyebrows and hid his mouth with his hand to laugh a bit, for he hadn’t expected such a request. His husband looked at him and kept smiling : he had missed his laughter so much, the way his eyes squinted and seemed to sparkle. 

“I can’t say it like this, Minho, it’s…” The Prince started to say. “It’s… strange ?”

“Come on, it’s just some words.” The King replied, his pout making the other laugh as he poked his side. “Come on.”

“No ! How old are you, five ? Minho, stop ! I swear I will shoot you like the pheasant I got earlier !”

But the brown haired man didn’t listen as he grabbed Kibum by the waist and tickled him, making him jump and try to escape, gently hitting him. In no time, the latter found himself sitting on his husband’s lap, holding him by the neck with tears in his eyes because of his laughter. Both men stared at each other, and they felt stupid. Stupid for having wasted a whole month with a quarrel that could have been solved with some words. 

“Then I will say them first.” Minho said, not letting time to the other man to protest. “I love you. And before you say anything, this isn’t some question. You’re doomed, you have to accept it.”

“You’re stupid.”

The Prince smiled and hit the King’s chest, once, then twice, before his smile went upside down and real tears filled his eyes. Minho raised his eyebrows and cupped his husband’s cheek.

“If you cry, I kiss you.” He warned, and looked at the salted drop escaping Kibum’s eye. “Fine.”

Following through with his threat, the sovereign silenced his Prince’s cries by pressing their lips together, holding his cheeks and softly caressing them with his thumbs. Replying to his gentleness, Kibum held his husband dearly against him, returning his kiss despite the tears giving it a salted taste. It tasted more like reconciliation, and it felt like freedom. It was the best kiss they had even shared, by a long way. And they didn’t want it to stop.

A few meters away, a blonde man and a young boy were looking at them with a smile on their face. However, they decided to give them the privacy they deserved and stepped away, walking together. 

“I thought they would never make up.” Taemin said. “It’s not like I don’t like sleeping with hyung but he moves a lot and… he tried to cuddle too much.”

“So that was what troubled you.” Jonghyun replied. “Well, congratulations on sleeping alone again.”

“I was kidding. But the two of them were like ghosts, it was horrible… I’m glad this palace will become lively again. And you know, I train with the King often now ! He still has a hard time with rolls, though.”

“Speaking of teaching, I brought you another scroll.”

“Oh, how come it’s not Sir Jinki giving it to me ?”

“Well I was coming over so I guess I could—”

The blonde man interrupted himself and even stopped walking when he saw a familiar silhouette giving instruction to the last soldier in the front yard. The latter quickly bowed and took the brown stallion’s reins to lead him to the stables, leaving the General alone with a bucket of water at his foot, a flask and a piece of bandage in hands. The young apprentice frowned as he watched his mentor crouch and free his hands to plunge one in the fresh liquid. He rubbed it and inhaled deeply through his gritted teeth, before he dried it and opened the flask.

As he poured a bit of his content on his palm, he grunted and both men standing away from him understood it was alcohol. Jinki was tending to a superficial wound, certainly made during the hunt. After he disinfected it with a quite trivial way, he managed to wrap his hand with the bandage and store the little container between his belt and pants to prevent it to fall. Then, with his valid hand, he grabbed the bucket and held it on his hip like a maid would hold a laundry basket.

He was about to walk towards the palace when he noticed he was observed. And even though Taemin waved at him with a smile, the soldier barely looked at him. His face remained closed and he eventually lowered it, taking another way and leaving them behind. The apprentice frowned even more and looked at his friend, who had his lips pursed and looked extremely tensed. It didn’t take too long to the young man to understand.

“Hyung…” He said. “Did Sir Jinki break up with you ?”

“Break up ?” Jonghyun scoffed. “We weren’t a couple, Taemin. It was just sex.”

“Then why do you look so upset ? So… hurt ? And him too ?”

“This is none of your business, I’m sorry but I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Fine, fine…”

With these words, the teacher handed him the scroll he had told him about and without further ado, he left without turning back. Taemin stared at him, dumbfounded. Never had he seen his friend walk with such rage in his steps, in a rush to escape a place. And the look in his eyes… it might be a whole new one in Jonghyun’s eyes, but the young boy had seen it countless times in Kibum’s. Not sooner than during the whole past month.

“By the Gods…” He whispered to himself. “That’s some deep shit.”

next

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Joker: DC Comics Reading Order - The Best Stories With the Clown Prince of Crime

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Has the Joker movie inspired you to read some comics? We've got some suggestions!

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The Joker is the most recognizable villain in all of comics, and as such, there are as many takes on him as there are creators who have worked on a Batman comic. Fortunately for us, for every Jared Leto out there, there are fifteen awesome comic stories. So if you’re coming out of the Joker movie with a thirst for more good, thoughtful, interesting stories using the Clown Prince of Crime, we’ve got some comics for you.

Batman: The Killing Joke

This is probably the most influential Joker story of all time. Alan Moore’s dense psychoanalysis of the Joker is formative to just about every writer who came afterwards, and Brian Bolland’s stunningly gorgeous pencils combined with John Higgins perfect colors to create an eerie, dark, vicious story that has become the generally accepted origin for the character.

read more: The Many Joker Origin Stories Explained

The story bounces back and forth between showing how an unnamed, down on his luck schmo got wrapped up in a heist that ended with him at the bottom of a pool of chemicals, and showing that schmo, now a criminal mastermind, kidnapping Commissioner Gordon and trying to drive him to the same kind of mental break that the story implies is at fault for the Joker’s creation. It’s the first one to really draw strong parallels between the Joker’s mental state and Batman’s, casting the two of them as two possible outcomes to the same break.

And did I mention it’s incredible to look at? Whether you’re a comics scholar or new to the medium, I can almost guarantee you’ve seen that cover, with the Joker holding a camera sideways in front of his face telling you to smile. 

Buy Batman: The Killing Joke on Amazon

Batman: The Man Who Laughs

Ed Brubaker isn’t often talked about as a seminal Batman writer, but he’s defined entire swaths of Batman’s world over his career, and The Man Who Laughs is a big one. This book, drawn by the great Doug Mahnke, takes a look at the Joker’s first interaction with Batman. He’s poisoning people all over Gotham City, and he has a plan to poison the reservoir. Batman works to stop him.

It’s a much more straightforward, less avant-garde Joker than he can get in later times, but the story is told with a modern sensibility and outstanding art from Mahnke. Brubaker (and Greg Rucka, who we’ll talk about in a few) writes detective Batman as well or better than anyone in a generation, and The Man Who Laughs is full of really great detective work with Bruce piecing together who the Joker is and what he’s trying to do. And the fight sequence at the end of the issue is good, classic, straight up Batman/Joker brawling. If you want a way to ease into Joker stories, this is a great one.

Buy Batman: The Man Who Laughs on Amazon

The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge

It’s not often an entire character can be distilled down to a single panel of comics, but Neal Adams effectively did that in Batman #251. Adams is a tremendous artist who changed the entire industry with his panel layouts and action sequences, but the Joker’s “ta daa!” hands and his smile next to a bearing down shark as he says “We resemble each other!” is incredible.

read more: What the Joker Controversy Gets Wrong

This one-off story has the Joker breaking out of a pre-Arkham Asylum mental hospital, hunting down the five ex-henchmen who might have betrayed him to put him away. Only one of them did, but he’s covering his bases, and the issue ends with a wheelchair-bound ex-aide precariously balanced over a tank with an angry shark in it. Batman gets dropped in and has to beat the shark and then save the henchman. It’s one of the best Batman sequences of all time, and the issue captures so much about the Joker that makes him great: his meticulous planning and forethought and his absurd, violent sense of humor. This one is collected in The Joker: The Greatest Stories Ever Told and will likely be wrapped up in a Neal Adams omnibus sooner rather than later.

Buy The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge on Amazon

The Laughing Fish

Detective Comics #475-476 is another quick story that was incredibly influential on how both Batman and the Joker were portrayed moving forward. That importance stems from two things: the ridiculous, malicious joy of the Joker’s plot, and Marshall Rogers’ art.

The plot was turned into the episode of the same name for Batman: The Animated Series.  A fish wholesaler has made fish that look like the Joker for branding purposes, and the Joker, mad he can’t monetize his own visage the same way, goes on a killing spree to get his rights back. This is darkly hilarious, especially the deeper you dive into the metaphor - the mid ‘70s was a big time for comic creator rights, and Rogers was a big part of that. This comic is basically an effigy for comic creators rights.

read more: The Many Deaths of the Joker

It’s also incredible to look at. Rogers is one of those Batman artists everyone should read at some point, a definitive Batman artist who used the Joker to get even better. Rogers’ Batman is bulkier than some of the Batmen of the time, powerful and intimidating. By contrast, his Joker is long and lanky and bony, the kind of guy who hangs with Batman in a fight not with brute force, but with deceptive speed and a weird amount of torque. You can find these issues collected in Legends of the Dark Knight: Marshall Rogers vol. 1 along with another handful of Batman comics from the same era. These creator compilations are some of the best money you can spend. Especially if you get them on sale digitally or find them in a sale pile at your shop.

A Death in the Family

Great Joker stories are often about what they bring out in Batman. “Death in the Family,” an event story from 1988, is memorable because it brought out pure, shaking, rage from Bruce. This is the story where fans called in a vote on whether or not to kill Robin.

read more: The Actors Who Have Played the Joker

Jason Todd was the second person to hold the Robin mantle. He was a street kid who fell in with Batman and didn’t really know his mother. After he gets benched by Batman for being unreliable, he runs off to try and find out who his mother is, finds (maybe) her working for Shady Doctors Without Borders in Iran, and promptly gets captured by the Joker, beaten almost to death with a crowbar, and then blown up in a warehouse by said Clown Prince. And right afterwards, the Joker is given a position with the Ayatollah’s government and gains diplomatic immunity, effectively pulling a Lethal Weapon 2 on Batman and Superman.

This story is odd, but it’s also significant in the history of Batman, and revealing for the Joker’s character. He’s not all high-concept death traps. Sometimes he’s just a guy with a crowbar. In either case, he’s one of the most dangerous villains in the DCU.

Buy A Death in the Family on Amazon

Joker

If you really enjoyed Heath Ledger’s aesthetic in The Dark Knight, you’re going to love Lee Bermejo’s Joker in this book. He’s everything Ledger was in the movie - disheveled, magnetic, menacing without being intimidating - but he’s also fashionable in a street level mob boss kind of way. That break from Ledger’s Joker is the perfect match for this story.

read more: 10 Times the Joker Almost Nailed Batman

This Joker is grimy and street level. He’s EXTREMELY violent but without the comic book panache he usually has. Here he’s just aggressive, with bottles and guns and knives and no sharks or hot air balloons or parades. But he still maintains that core Jokerness, that unpredictability that makes the character so terrific. 

Buy Joker on Amazon

The Batman Adventures: Mad Love

Paul Dini and Bruce Timm are responsible for the greatest and most definitive Batman of all time - the animated one. They also created Harley Quinn, and told a bunch of great stories with her (“Harley’s Day Out” is one of the best Batman stories ever told), but Mad Love also functions as an excellent examination of Batman and Joker’s relationship.

If you’ve watched the show, you probably know what happens in this comic, as it was adapted in a later episode of the cartoon. The Joker won’t pay any attention to Harley because he’s obsessed with killing Batman, so she decides to do it for him so they can spend time together. We get a look back at her origin, working as a doctor at Arkham and falling for the Joker as she tries to treat him, with all the unreliable narration that entails. The weird hate-triangle this issue explores is a fantastic dynamic to add to the Joker’s backstory, and the issue is by a pair of Batman masters. 

Buy The Batman Adventures: Mad Love on Amazon

Gotham Central: Soft Targets

Gotham Central is incredible. It was a police procedural comic, following the cops of the Major Crimes Unit in Gotham as they worked on all of the various awful stuff that happened in the city, from regular old crimes of passion to a parade of dead teenagers in Robin outfits being left randomly across the city. It was written jointly by Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker, with Rucka writing the day shift cops, and Brubaker taking the night shift. "Soft Targets" is the storyline that ran from issue 12 to 15, where the Joker just starts sniping people. For the hell of it.

Police procedurals are comfort food, but Gotham Central succeeded because it added something to the formula that made it shine. The characters felt familiar and real at the same time. The conflicts were down to earth for a superhero comic - the first issue dedicates about a third of its story to the Mayor and the Commissioner arguing over overtime pay for the Major Crimes Unit. And even the Joker’s plan, spree killing for chaos’ sake, was remarkably toned down. But it gives us one of the best interrogation scenes in comics history, just by taking the Joker out of his predictable formula, too. 

Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth and The Clown at Midnight

A word of caution here: these books are challenging for even serious comic readers. They’re very rewarding, but they’re not comics you can just pick up an see the Joker and Batman fighting. Both are written by Grant Morrison, with Arkham Asylum drawn by Sandman cover artist Dave McKean. This book is a dense, psychological character study of a LOT of Batman’s villains, but it spends a lot of time on the relationship between Batman and the Joker, as Batman is in the Asylum trying to shut down a riot.

The Clown at Midnight is also written by Morrison and...drawn...by John Van Fleet. I hesitate because what art is there is very evocative, intentionally early period computer graphics. This issue, Batman #663, was published in 2007 (and again as part of the Batman & Son collected edition), but the art looks like it was made on a Compaq 486. That’s intentional - the issue is full of prose segments about how the Joker sheds old personalities like a snake sheds its skin. It’s a very granular way to understand who the Joker is and what he does, but it’s also very good - it’s part of Morrison’s larger Batman story that starts with Batman & Son, runs through R.I.P. and Batman & Robin and finally ends with Batman, Inc. Arkham Asylum is kind of a precursor to this run, so if you want to get started here, it’s worth doing both of these collections and seeing how you enjoy them.

Buy Arkham Asylum on Amazon

For more Joker comics you should read, more Joker movies you should watch, or more about the Joker’s best video game appearances (spoilers: #1 is Shang Tsung’s fatality in Mortal Kombat X), stick with Den of Geek!

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

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Feature Jim Dandy

Oct 9, 2019

DC Entertainment

Joker

Batman

from Books https://ift.tt/35ePMml

[techouspeaks]

Four Animated Movies I love and Four I Hate

I decided rather than just do individual top lists of the favorite non Disney animated films I like and don’t like, I decided to do a different approach and just list the four that I love and four that I don’t like. They will be categorized by ghibli film, non ghibli anime film, CGI Non Disney/Pixar Film and favorite 2D animated non Disney film. I’m gonna keep it movies that gained a theatrical release so the Monster High movies won’t be on this list and of course, Disney movies don’t count. I already did a list of my favorite Disney films. Yes, Ghibli in English is part of Disney but it doesn’t count as their main category of movies. Disney just owns dubbing rights. 

So let’s get started with my favorite Ghibli Film and my non favorite (I think it’s impossible to hate a Ghibli film but have a least favorite)

Favorite Ghibli film.

Kiki’s Delivery Service

I had a hard time picking between this one and Spirited Away, but after much thought, I decided to pick this one. It’s just a peaceful movie that I can watch any time, no matter what mood I’m feeling. There’s no big action scenes or deep story. It’s just a story about a little witch in a town that let’s face it, who wouldn’t want to live in this town? It’s big but homey and classy, it’s by the sea and there’s so many neat things to see and do. Plus it’s about witches and has a cat with a dry sense of humor. Spirited Away is a great film but sometimes it gets too intense and at times, I started to fill ill during the moments of No Face puking it’s guts out and the dragon covered in blood.

Least Favorite Ghibli Film

Nausicaa 

I didn’t think it was a bad movie, it just didn’t catch my interest all that much. Compared to Ghibli’s later works, this was kinda meh. I like the cabbit thing though that was on her shoulder.

Favorite None Ghibli Anime Film

Sailor Moon S Movie

Yeah, yeah, I know a Sailor Moon movie. I don’t watch anime movies very often outside Ghibli and those that I do, are not bad but don’t warrant my favorite list either. Sailor Moon Super S movie does come close to topping this one, but I feel like the story and animation was especially up to par in S. Plus Luna looks so gorgeous as a human. I love her dress. She looks elegant without looking too plain. People may shoot me for this, but I honestly think Luna as a human looks prettier than Princess Serenity. I mean, I know people are going to shoot me for that but in my opinion, Serenity looks like a typical princess/damsel in distress wearing this plain white gown. Human Luna looks elegant, mature yet playful at the same time. Plus that long hair that is so shiny and wavy. It’s just hard to top that. She’s beautiful and interesting to look at, almost reminding me of Belle from Beauty and the Beast. Serenity is pretty but her outfit is just plain and I just hate how she looks like a typical damsel in distress in her gown. Even Disney Princesses up the anti with their princess gowns.

(Runners up with be Pokemon 2000, Pokemon Diancie and the Cocoon of Destruction and Pokemon Kyurem vs. the Sword of Justice.)

 Plot itself is well balanced with drama and enough lovey dovey stuff to just make you feel satisfied. It’s just a beautiful film. Super S movie is great too and I like the little fairy that falls for Chibi Usa. I almost prefer him falling for her since it seems more appropriate, but Helios is nice too. I just think S just balances out soft and sweet with drama better. I really want Toei to just hurry up, forget about Sailor Moon R movie and enhanced and re-release this movie and Super S in theaters! Speaking of which...

Hated Anime Film

Sailor Moon R Movie

I’ll say it now and I’ll say it again, I HATE season R of Sailor Moon. It was too overly dramatic, Chibi Usa was obnoxious, villains were either creepy or annoying or not as interesting, except for the sisters. They were good. Hate the drama between Usagi and Mamoru. Was done so much better in the manga and Crystal because it ended faster! Everyone praises this season, I don’t. It was a turn off for me and this movie is no exception. More Usagi crying because she didn’t have her man with her. Chibi Usa was kinda useful and kinda not because her friends could have motivated her better.

 Yeah, Chibi Usa was a damsel in distress in Super S movie but she was a lot more nicer and tolerable, plus she killed the villain with Usagi! Plus, the relationship between her and the fairy boy is just so sweet and while Usagi cried when Mamoru got hurt, it didn’t drag to me. Also kudos for Usagi getting the guts to jump into a portal of death for her child, like a good mother should, doesn’t fall for the villains trap like “F!@# you, I know my man doesn’t choose between me and my daughter!”, and when they do fall and are saved by the fairy boy, it’s done humorously, so it’s not dragging so long. 

In the R movie, Usagi gets beat up, rises up naked because of the Crystal, shows psycho plant boy with lazy design what happened and make him snap out of it, uses the Crystal to yes save everyone, that’s a plus side but she ends up dead, thus a damsel in distress for her prince to save her. It’s not that I don’t want her to show her weaknesses but when she’s crying for Mamoru or is “dead”, it just drags on too long. The movie just has everything I hate about the R season.  Period. Moving on.

Favorite CGI Non Disney/Pixar Film

How To Train Your Dragon 1 and 2

I can’t really pick one I like better, so I’m gonna call it a draw because they’re part of the same franchise anyway. I like the first movie because it’s more simple and like the second because it apps up the action, develops the characters more and does everything right about that sequel should. Plus I love dragons. My room is full of dragon things. Favorite mythical creature.

Kung Fu Panda 1 and 2 though comes extremely close to being my favorite, especially 2. It’s a great franchise that I didn’t expect to like. 

Hated CGI Non Disney/Pixar Film

The Nut Job

Take everything that I hate in a kids cartoon including toilet humor and fart jokes, add stuff that would make the movie dated as Gangnam Style and rip off one of the most mediocre Dreamworks films (Over the Hedge) for the plot and Remy the Rat from Ratatouille and you got one of the most annoying and lazily done CG films to date.  I don’t get why people hated Legends of Oz (which came out the same year) so much but praised this film or say it’s not as bad. Least Legends of Oz had an original premise, it didn’t rip off other films with the exception of the Emerald City, there was no fart jokes and toilet humor and in my opinion, gave us the best design of Scarecrow ever.

There was just nothing in Nut Job for me. If you like it, fine but I just couldn’t. I HATED this movie.The runner up would be be the Shrek movies but there was at least some substance I could get out of those movies. Nut Job had zip!

Favorite Non Disney 2D film

Ferngully: The Last Rainforest

It’s a movie about fairies, magic and nature with beautiful animation, a fruit bat played by the late and great Robin Willaims. What more can anyone ask for in a film? Yeah, it hammers “protect nature” thing but, honestly, I didn’t think it hammered it in as much as people said it did. I use to bench watch this movie as a kid that I’m shocked I never owned the cassette. Yeah, I didn’t get this movie until it was released with the second film on DVD. Which I did like the second film. Yeah, it’s dated but it’s still a cute movie, none the less.

The runner up for this spot is Secret of NIMH.

Hated Non Disney 2D Film

Thumbelina

Few words for this one especially for the songs and main character.

The runner up would be Troll in Central Park. The reason and ONLY reason why that is not on this spot, is because that movie is so obviously bad that it’d be cheating if I added it on here. There was NOTHING good in that movie besides the animation. Thumbelina, does has some qualities that I can see some folks maybe liking it. MAYBE. I’ve had people say like Thumbelina as a guilty pleasure, while NO ONE has said they like Troll in Central Park. I think even a brain dead monkey would not enjoy that film. It’s just that obviously bad.

So that concludes that! Hope you enjoyed this entry! More to come soon!

[fandomsandfeminism]

Character Design is an important part of any movie, but few use it to map out character design as well as Howl's Moving Castle

Closed Captions available.

Full Transcript below

Character design is a funny thing. It is an integral part of visual storytelling, but most viewers don’t pay it a whole lot of attention. I want to focus on character design in Hayao Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle, and how it helps establish character development, but first let’s look at some of the basic philosophy behind character design.

Beyond “This character looks like a badass” or “holy crap, I want to cosplay her” most people don’t consider the design of a character too closely. But it’s a really very important part of developing a story. Good character design has to not only be nice to look at, but also convey information to a viewer. How a character looks- their clothes, their hair, the shape of their eyes and face and body types, convey a lot of information about them. Personality, profession, stuff like that. -

So, Let’s Look at Naruto, for example.

Never mind that orange is, logically speaking, probably the worst color a ninja could wear. This is actually some really solid character design. Bright colors, exaggerated posing, and that spiky spiky hair- one glance and you can sum up his core personality. Naruto is energetic, outgoing, and a young hero. The colors and shape of his composition are able to convey an effective first impression. While the story itself will introduce more nuance to his character, this initial impression primes us for his outlandish, even prankster attitude in the early chapters.

And bright colors + spiky hair is a really good character design for shounen heroes.

Look at Izuku in My Hero Academia

Bright colors and spiky hair.  His design is more subdued than Naruto’s, but then, so is his personality- more shy and nervous than Naruto, but still young and heroic.

Bright colors and spiky hair are a main stay for your energetic, young, friendly shounen hero. And This even holds true for the ultimate shounen hero of our time:

Goku has super bright colors and super spiky hair, and never a hero more bright and energetic and pure hearted have you seen. Aspects of his design- like the tail and the power pole, are a nod towards his origin as Son Goku of The Journey West legend. His fighting gi instantly let’s us know that not only is this a fighting, action show, but one with action based in martial arts specifically. It’s a very effective design -

But not only does character design help establish character traits with a first impression. It can also be used to draw a contrast between characters.

Compare little Goku to little Gohan.

Gohan is still in bright colors, and his hair is even a little spiky. But instead of a fighting gi, he’s dressed in traditional looking Chinese clothes, much like his mother, ChiChi. Little Gohan isn’t a fighter (yet), and his outfit clearly reflects that. Also, his hat and the dragonball on top are much rounder and more contained that Goku’s wild mop of hair, hinting that Gohan will be milder and less outgoing as well.

Character design can also be used to draw a connection between two characters. Look at Sukeroku and Yotaro from Showa Genroku Rakugo. If you’ve seen this anime, it’s fantastic. Everyone should watch it.

They both have that same little curly loop on their nose. It’s a subtle thing, one that’s easy to miss, but it gives the characters an implicit connection even though they have never and will never meet. Their personalities, their style of performance, and their roles in the story are hinted to parallel each other with this simple visual cue though.

- So let’s look at Howl’s Moving Castle. Howl’s Moving Castle came out in 2004, and is based on the book of the same name by Dianna Wayne Jones. It’s apparently pretty different from the book, but since I’ve never read it, I can’t speak on that too much. It’s a film that deals a lot with war and pacifism, emotional honesty and responsibility, and even the question of identity.

Note: lots of spoilers moving forward. So if you haven't seen the movie, be careful.

Between the missing Prince being disguised as a turnip headed scarecrow, Markl disguising himself as an old man, and the state magicians slowly losing their human forms forever, the question of appearance and identity is a recurring motif.  

So character design becomes particularly important in Howl’s, not only to help in our initial impression of the characters, but also to help us understand their character growth. We see this very clearly with the Witch of the Waste, Sophie, and Howl himself. -

Let’s start with the Witch of the Waste. When we first meet her, she looks like this. She’s used magic to glamour herself, and the result is...kind of alarming. She’s this big formless shape in bright make-up and jewelry, menacing and obsessed with outer appearance. It tells us an awful lot about her- she puts us on edge. She’s dangerous, kind of inhuman. She could not be more different than the rather plain Sophie.

And then, she gets her magic taken away. Deprived of all her magic, she reverts to this tiny, rather sweet, kind of senile old lady, totally human and almost helpless. It’s a startling difference. It also happens at the exact same time that the much larger threat, the looming war and the war mongering government, appears center stage in the movie, and the witch goes from the main antagonist to a lovable side character. Her character development happens narratively at the same time it happens visually. -

Sophie is a much more complicated case. Her character design shifts are a major plot point. At the beginning of the movie, Sophie is a bit of a shut in. Mature to a fault, she has dedicated her whole life to work and has eschewed fun. And her character design reflects that. She wears a plain dress, her hair is in an unassuming braid. Despite working in and owning a fancy hat shop and making beautiful, intricate hats all day, her own hat is very simple and plain. She keeps her emotions totally subdued and comes across as rather lonely and unhappy with low self esteem. Especially when she is compared to her younger sister- friendly, and outgoing, and in big bright outfits.

After a bad encounter with the Witch of the Waste, she is cursed for her outer appearance to reflect her inner emotional state. And Sophie takes on the appearance of an old woman. So now Sophie’s appearance literally reflects her emotional state and growth. In moments of emotional vulnerability, when she lets herself be honest about how she feels or acts more spontaneously, she grows younger to reflect that, but fear and self doubt make her revert to old age.

By the end of the film, she has broken the curse on her own, and her appearance is far more youthful and open, a bright dress, her short hair, and she herself has grown more open and confident. -

While Sophie’s character development and character design is a major plot point, Howl’s is a bit more subtle. When we first meet Howl, he has bright blond hair, a bright pink and grey jacket cape thing, tons of sparkling jewelry and a real habit of showing off. He is as flashy and flamboyant as his outfit- shallow and dazzling, truly a man who would eat a woman’s heart.  When Sophie, now an old woman, because of the curse, shows up at his house, he pays her no real mind at all. He doesnt even have much to say about it. He just continues on as normal.

Howl’s big design change happens after Sophie has shown up and moved into the castle. She buckles down one day while he is out and cleans the entire castle, top to bottom, scrubbing and sweeping. This is one of my favorite scenes in the film, because only god damn Miyazaki knows how to make cleaning look like so much fun. This is the scene that really cements Sophie’s place in the castle- she isn’t just a stowaway. She takes charge, gets things done, and carves out a place in Howl and Markl and Calcifer’s lives. Howl comes home, sees the change in the castle and the good Sophie has done, is ok with it, takes a bath, and boom-

Character design change. He lets Sophie into his life in a meaningful way, and his entire hair color and wardrobe change. After this moment in the movie, the entire dynamic of their relationship alters. Howl asks Sophie for help, Howl gives her the flower field, Howl stops running and takes a stand.

And look at his character design! All the pomp and poshness has been stripped away- his hair a plain black, shirt a plain white, plain black pants. It is a drastic change from what we saw in the opening act. He never wears the bright pink diamond coat cape thing again. Even in the final shot of the movie, when he’s in a pink shirt, his hair stays that more subdued black.

And here’s the sign of really effective character designs: If you had never watched the movie, and I showed you a picture of Sophie and Howl from the beginning of the film and then the end of the film and asked you to guess how their characters had changed, you could probably ballpark it. Sophie looks happier and more confident. Howl looks more genuine and content.

And that’s the joy of visual media. Movies and tv shows and comics have ways of giving and reinforcing information that other forms of storytelling just don’t. And it’s always a joy to see it done so well. So I guess what I’m saying is take a minute to appreciate the good character designs around us. And take a minute to grieve the terrible ones.

[reduxroyal]

What are you thoughts on fire emblem heroes so far? And who's on your team?

lol okay buckle the fuckle in kids this is gonna be a ride

(also thank you for this ask and I’m sorry you’re about to get way more info than you probably wanted)

We’ll start with the short answer, so people who aren’t really here for a fucking Fire Emblem history lesson can dip:

Heroes is a fun little game that is honestly a good test to see if you’d like proper titles because the mechanics are identical. They use smaller versions of the original maps, and even pull a lot of the classic music. It’s fun, it works, and there are some nice nods to the older games. My team is Lazlow, Tiki, Niles, and Frederick, all four star or below because the gotcha gods hate me.

Here’s the long answer. Like, really long answer.

Fire Emblem is, historically, not what we’d call a raging success in the US. The first six titles were Japan-exclusive. So from 1990 until 2003, nobody in the US really knew or cared about Fire Emblem because there were no fuckin games for them to play. So what happened to change that?

Melee. Melee happened.

Marth and Roy (for whatever fucking reason I still don’t know why) were on the roster of the 2001 fighter Super Smash Bros. Melee and boy howdy were they popular. You may remember that all of their voice lines were in Japanese, and that’s because they literally didn’t have English voice actors, because there were no English Fire Emblem titles. To be fair FE didn’t use cutscenes at that point so there were probably no voice actors period but like whatever.

So Roy and Marth become like, overnight sensations, and that coupled with the success of Intelligent System’s other tactical RPG, Advance Wars, prods Nintendo to give it a shot and release Blazing Blade internationally for the GBA in 2003. Blazing Blade is the story of Eliwood, Roy’s father, as well as Lyn and Hector, two other big names in FE lore.

But Blazing Blade only sells so-so. In fact, over the next eleven years, Fire Emblem hits a slump, both in Japan and abroad. Titles like Sacred Stones (the first video game I ever played) Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn (why would you put a tactical RPG on anything other than a handheld literally why why why it makes no sense omfg) and Shadow Dragon (which is a rehash of the first game, Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light) all do pretty mediocre.

So now the year is like 2010-ish and FE’s not picking up it’s lost revenue or interest, so Intelligent Systems starts planning what is essentially going to be the franchise’s finale, and that’s Fire Emblem Awakening. Intelligent Systems pulls out all the fuckin stops to make the best game they possibly can so it will be a proper last hurrah. If Awakening didn’t sell well, Fire Emblem was going to be shelved forever.

Awakening, of course, due to many things like good advertising, the right platform, a really fucking solid game with cool new mechanics, likeable characters, a decent plot, and fucking gorgeous cutscenes, becomes the best-selling game in Fire Emblem’s twenty-three year history. Which leads to the somewhat awkward question of what the fuck do you do when the thing that was supposed to be your franchise’s finale becomes the most popular installment of the whole goddamn series?

Well, if you’re Nintendo, you try to recreate it.

That’s what Fates is: a recreation. They (understandably) want to make that magic happen again. So they put together the same artists, a lot of the same voice actors, and everyone’s favorite marriage-to-child mechanic (that just does not make sense in Fates okay I’m sorry I love it and I’m here for it but we all need to agree that it just doesn’t make sense) and Fates does pretty well. Fire Emblem’s back in business.

But you’re left in this curious situation where more than half of your fanbase is only familiar with two out of fourteen titles, so it’s hard to decide where to go. Awakening and Fates are not traditional Fire Emblem games. They are so very, very different in so many ways. The pace of the games, the length of the games, the unit-recruiting process, roster size, the way Support works, even the buying and selling and acquisition of weapons like…there’s just this huge gap. How do you bridge it?

A…mobile game, I guess?

Which like don’t get me wrong, Heroes’ shortcomings have nothing to do with its platform. Like I said before: it’s cute and it’s competent. My issue lies more in the marketing of the game.

I’m sure we all remember the polls that went on to decide which Fire Emblem greats were going to be playable characters in the game, right? And you could pick anyone. Literally anyone. It didn’t matter if they were only apart of your roster for a map and a half. It didn’t matter if they were an enemy unit. It didn’t matter if they were some like, random archer you got in the third chapter so you could learn about ranged attacks. You could vote for any character from any Fire Emblem game, period.

Except, that means it’s essentially boiling down to a popularity contest between twelve practically unknown or rarely known Fire Emblem titles and the two newest, best-selling, fan favorites. Which isn’t upsetting so much as it is, like, dumb? Like of course the majority of people are gonna vote for Chrom and Camilla, that’s what they know. One of the best Fire Emblem characters (in my opinion) is Prince Innes, from Sacred Stones. He has a hilariously arrogant attitude, is bold and brash, and a sick fucking sniper who constantly insists he should be on the front lines and not in the back of the party with the rest of the ranged attackers.

Innes, of course, didn’t make the list. Because ten out of the chosen twenty male heroes were from Awakening or Fates (that ratio is 13:20 for the ladies if you were curious) So this game that was intended to like, I don’t even know, revive interest in old games or at least make them relevant, ends up not really doing that at all. Especially because out of the first eight chapters (that’s as far as I’ve gotten) four of ‘em explore the worlds of Awakening and Fates.

What about Path of Radiance? What about Sacred Stones? What about literally anything besides the last two games in the franchise because it’s not that I don’t like those games, it’s that you promised me a game that embraced all of Fire Emblem, and this ain’t it. Also you went to the trouble of giving Eirika official art and she’s not even a character you can draw what the actual fuck is she in this game or nah

BASICALLY (we’re almost done you almost made it) I think it will be interesting to see how Fire Emblem: Echoes plays out. Echoes is a remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden, a 1992 Japan-only exclusive that I, personally, know nothing about, but can tell you with relative confidence that it’s not like Awakening or Fates because nothing in FE is like Awakening or Fates. It’s coming out in May of this year and like…I’m really curious to see how the “newer” (and by the way newer does not mean in any way that you’re like less of a fan. I don’t care if the only Fire Emblem game you’ve played is Awakening, I’m just fucking glad you’re playing Fire Emblem, let’s be friends) fans will like it. The official description for it is: “Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia recreates classic Fire Emblem gameplay with a modern twist, mixing in exploration of dungeons crawling with enemies.”

I have never played a FE title that had a dungeon of any kind, unless you count the Tower of Valni from Sacred Stones. I don’t even know what that means in the terms of a tactical RPG but like, I guess we’ll see. 

tl;dr I like Fire Emblem a whole lot and will always be bitter over Eirika’s bullshit outfit in Awakening’s DLC

Thanks for reading!

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE

Hi! I’m back again! And at this point lots of things have changed in regards to this post! Most notably: Heroes has added lots of older Fire Emblem characters to the game (including Innes which makes my earlier complaint look really dumb) and Echoes came out and it’s genuinely one of the best games I’ve ever played, and easily one of the best games in FE’s franchise.

Here’s the thing that past me writing this post didn’t get: newer fans are just as invested as old fans, they just don’t have as much to be invested in yet. I can prattle on and on about Sacred Stones and Binding Blade and Shadow Dragon and all the titles I’ve played, but newer players (under-fucking-standably) aren’t going to go back and play games with bad graphics from the late 90′s and early 00′s, so they just hang out with the titles they have played, which for some people, is just Awakening, or just Fates.

Echoes was universally adored by the fanbase. There were a couple times I saw comments like “well, where’s the avatar unit?” or “why can’t I marry other units and have kids?” and like, I wanted to be mad, because those aren’t staples of Fire Emblem, but if anything it’s Nintendo’s fault for making two games back-to-back that promoted the hell out of those features. How could someone who only played Awakening and Fates (which is the majority of this game’s base) know any differently?

And Heroes has really done well with bringing in more characters from other games. Every single game in the franchise (even fucking Tharcia 776) is represented by at least two characters, and they’re always adding more. I think they’re genuinely doing the best they can to please everyone, and the only people throwing a fit are "older” fans who think they deserve more because, what? They’ve put more time in? They’ve somehow “earned” it?

Nintendo is a business, and businesses rely on popularity to fucking succeed. That’s just how it works. Like it or not, the realistic faces of this franchise are characters like Lucina, Ryoma, Corrin, Camilla, and Robin. That’s just how it works. Characters like Math and Lyn will always endue because they’ve been built up as legends, but now there’s so many new characters, and so many new fans, so of course things have to change and the attention has to shift.

And new fans are picking up the old characters just as much!! Characters that haven’t gotten fanart in a fuckin decade are suddenly getting a bunch of attention, because a new fan pulled them in Heroes, didn’t know who they were but liked their design, and went to town.

tl;dr - you aren’t more important just because you’ve “been a fan” longer, it makes complete sense that Nintendo would shift the focus to games like Awakening and Fates, and if you’re waiting for a certain character to show up in Heroes give it some time.

That’s all for real this time.

Also my new team (if anyone cares) is Innes, Leo, Azura, and Raven. I don’t want to talk about how much money I spent trying to gotcha twelve year-old video game characters.

I, uh, I just really like Fire Emblem.

also for all the Path of Raidance and Radiant Dawn fans who sent me asks saying those games were the highest-selling games for their consoles: you’re wrong, and here are the fucking receipts

[drkla-archive]

         “BLEHBLEHBLEH. THIS IS LONG A.F.” NAME OF YOUR MUSE :   Berserker Vlad III,  “But I’m  Dracula”. 

ONE PICTURE YOU LIKE BEST OF YOUR MUSE’S FC  :

Here’s two bc  you can’t go wrong with more vlad. and I really like this artist’s vlad.

►||_  https://twitter.com/obujiru/status/828667990874820609 ►||_    https://twitter.com/obujiru/status/832937558778580993

UHHHHH....  BUT USUALLY ANYTIME PEOPLE DRAW HIM WITH DARK HAIR / RED OMBRE  OR EDGY THEMES TBH  GTG💦💦💦 LIKE THIS https://twitter.com/obujiru/status/823587566020489216

TWO HEADCANONS YOU HAVE FOR YOUR MUSE THAT YOU NEVER TOLD ANYONE :  Or aka, Sor hasnt written anything properly so these are as seen here first hcs.

|| Berserker Vlad has little to no sense of time unless made hyperaware of when he’s needed or  when something is needed of him.  A heroic spirit by default, he does not require rest in conventional terms but his focus is not spent on how many hours pass or how long he has toiled or waited.  He will work. He will wait.  He is more aware with hearty blood rations, slightly more restless and agitated, but when that wears down, his attention widdles back to his task or his own downtime. Vlad will spend days and nights continually working on sewing projects or other activities evenly paced unless bothered or timed, or drift into a half sleep in his chair if there’s nothing to do. To circumvent, he has a couple timers he  uses to make sure he’s not totally behind  or to keep track. As the orders have progressed, he more often forgets to set his timers before he sits down.  He tries not to fall completely asleep. He’s never sure when he’ll wake up and doesn’t know for how long.  This can be a problem if he’s not seen for days. 

|| Vlad is content to eat things beside blood. Blood is, of course, the first choice and best helps his hunger from Legend of Dracula, but he doesn’t quiet use that food for energy immediately. It’s probably not the best to offer to share a bite with him at all in the first place. He barely chews when you’re not looking and can’t help take big teeth-sinking bites. It’s “a little bite.”  If called out on this, Berserker has no issue giving retching that last bite back up for you in pristine condition. Anything can be used for  the stakes in his NP, he would explain. It is better to have material (organic or not) ready to go at a moment’s notice than be unprepared.   Keep an eye on him and he’ll do the prince thing and eat slowly and properly.   When it comes to comfort foods, when he mentions they’re mouth watering, he means it.  Poor guy can’t help it.

THREE THINGS THAT YOUR MUSE LIKES DOING IN THEIR FREE TIME :

|| Writing/ calligraphy. Vlad cannot create novels or spin words quite like the writers at Chaldea, but the way physical way he writes would impress them no doubt!   Even if it’s just his own signature, notes, bible verses. and other nondescript things and titles, it’s relaxing now than it was in life signing  his name or writing letters.  He loves the multitude of ink and pens modern day provides, but always ends up with some color on his fingertips or sometimes smeared over his eyebrow. 

|| Sewing.  Kinda the obvious one here.  In truth, this skill was something more  finely honed as a servant than when he was alive. Vlad III learned many skills over the course of his life to be proficient and self reliable. It’s improved quickly with everyone asking to make things and with the praise, he secretly aims to improve further.  Like learning about materials, how they wash and general fashion. That has payed off well. earning him another hobby but does not wish for his good deeds to be taken for granted or insulted. After battles, he usually retires to fix his coat.

|| Stretching? Relaxing? Gnawing?  Having fun? Vanity?   What would you call it just using the curse of Dracula to chill and help you out? Or giving in to some itches.  Long days, long weeks, sinking into the shadows of his room and exhale his  existence.  Standing on the ceiling to help dry out his hair or style it no problem. Gnawing  on those wax candy bottles  his master dislikes to distract from urges and work on other things. Make needles from his hair when he can’t find his own set  or create stakes of blood to use as stilts. Maybe he can make an outfit to go over the whole thing next Halloween. The young servants and masters would enjoy that.   He’d hide it all away in his room  Stretch (dracula yoga?) how far he can transform and similar things.  

SEVEN PEOPLE THAT YOUR MUSE LOVES/LIKES  :

You  (somewhat more) if you give him blood??

Himself??

 Majority of Black Faction . Where are you?

Cana/ Nanashi  Baka

Rani, when she issues him rations

All the Umus??  Having a Nero is like a cat.

Aster, after some time.

TWO THINGS YOUR MUSE REGRETS:

Probably taking Bryn out for a lunch date and, most likely, deciding that trying to be suave like Dracula will not get him blood but instead a deadly spear to the chest because girls in love are crazy. That’s not really cool,yanno??

 Insulting his Warrior Aspect accidentally?? when it becomes confrontational. He really just wants the Lancer’s help or advice but  that doesn't happen. 

TWO PHOBIAS YOUR MUSE HAS :

Electrophobia.   Fear of electricity. Mild. Storms and lightning don’t bother him nor do most electronics. Vlad is extremely weary of fray cables and anything having to do with  open currents and crackling electricity that’s more than static cling. (And even then it’s extremely annoying and a surprise every time) He’d be thankful for Frankie’s adamant nature to conserve electricity but would refuse to step into Tesla’s lab or handshake the man ever. All it takes is for Tesla to think he’s a funny-mand and slide a hand buzzer  to his glove and Vlad is out.  Maybe it’s a Dracula thing.

Mnemophobia.  Fear of memory. Either by loss or remembering past events.  In this case, it’s forgetting who he is/was and remembering things that are not  his own-- of the fictional monster Dracula. The topic troubles him deeply and easily.  Addressing this cracks at his pride and he is depressingly somber or austerely defensive depending how its’s approached. Being a Berserker when facing this issue is also concerning--  how is he supposed to mentally or emotionally handle this obvious degeneration? Is it worsened by his vessel?  

TAG TEN PEOPLE TO DO THE SAME THING :

 I HAVE NO IDEA. TAG URSELF. IM DONE.

[toddrogersfl]

Vintage men’s fragrance advertising down the decades

To celebrate National Men’s Grooming Day, we thought we’d share this article by novelist, blogger and columnist Maggie Alderson from ‘The Magic of Mimosa’ edition of The Scented Letter – which looks at men’s scent ads new and old…

Spending an afternoon than researching pictures for a feature about great aftershave advertisements can have quite an effect on you. Holy plumped pectorals! After five minutes browsing muscular torsos and manly gazes, I didn’t know whether to take a cold shower or dance a tango.

But once you really study these images (as opposed to just drooling over them) it becomes clear that there is in fact a lot more to this genre than photographs of ridiculously beautiful men.

In-depth scientific research (ahem…) reveals that they fall into four main categories, which involves said living gods wearing one of four outfits: practically nothing, a suit of superb cut, sporting attire, fancy dress.

But whichever of those it is, the very best aftershave print ads share one thing, in my opinion; they consist of nothing more than the picture and the name and brand of the fragrance. There’s not even a smart tag line – yet these heavenly images create an entire world, telling a story that draws you in wanting to know more. And makes you very keen to lean in and smell that particular man’s neck…

Here are some favourites from the archives – and a few vintage classics that show how not to do it, perhaps.

HOT, HOT, HOT

Giorgio Armani Acqua di Gio

This was a masterstroke of casting, taking all-American blond hunk Jason Morgan and photographing him in moody black and white. Mr. Morgan’s astonishing blue eyes are his calling card, but who knew they’d be even more arresting in greyscale? One of the greatest aftershave photographs of all time, taken by Matthew Brookes, with that serious expression adding dreamy depth. There is also a video… Have your fan ready. And a mint julep.

Chanel Allure Homme Sport

Probably the medal winner in the sporting genre, the series of Spanish super dude Andrès Velencoso Segura – ex-squeeze of Kylie Minogue – with a surf board stopped me in my tracks when I first saw it (and inspired the leading man in my novel ‘Everything Changes But You’). It’s the combination of hunky, yet sensitive, which is so devastating. Senor Velencoso has his mum’s name tattooed over his heart and loves dogs. I’m working on finding out his favourite biscuit.

Dolce & Gabbana Light Blue

Our very own David Gandy wearing little more than his birthday suit and showing how it is possible for art to improve on nature. Even the azure waters of the Amalfi coast are enhanced by his white Speedo-clad proximity. And how could a fragrance associated with a scene so pleasing to the eye smell anything but divine?

Dior Eau Sauvage

Here’s one that spans the genres – it could equally fit in Famous, because while the ad appeared in 2105, this bearded beauty is none other than French actor Alain Delon, snapped in his youthful glory in 1966, the year this most classic of Colognes was launched.

It would also fit in Story. That little frown…what just happened? Who was she? Is he about to write a poem, jump off a cliff, or sail off into the horizon? We’ll never know, but it’s so easy to imagine that lemon-y herby sillage trailing behind him as he goes.

          STORYTELLING

Dior Eau Sauvage

Could this be the most iconic aftershave advertisement of all time? Part of the wonderful series of works legendary fashion illustrator René Gruau created for the brand, somehow this gorgeous – fictional – man’s entire sophisticated, sexy, city life is conveyed by this cheeky image of a most personal moment, through a half-closed bathroom door. I know I’m not the only person whose entire ideal of what a man should be like was inspired in childhood by seeing these advertisements…

Michael Kors for Men

The American designer is the current master of the atmospheric advertisement, reaching standards set by Martini commercials in the 1960s, conveying the sense of lives of perfect insouciant glamour. It took Martini a couple of minutes of film of ski lifts, helicopters and white horses on beaches, plus an iconic theme tune to achieve it; somehow Mr Kors pulls it off with one picture. Where exactly was this open-shirted hottie last night? Who was he with and where’s he off to now? Is he getting into that seaplane landing behind him? Are his tanned feet bare, below those white jeans? Is that a gun in his pocket or…? Whatever he smells of, we like it.

Givenchy Gentleman

Swoon. That’s the only word to describe this photograph. While the frontal lobe of our brain might try to tell us it’s just beautiful models in a studio doing what they’re told, the imagination immediately has other ideas. You can practically feel the skin on skin. How they managed to convey such passion in one shot is quite miraculous and you just want to know more. Is their embrace illicit? Or are they reunited after a long spell of enforced separation? I’m feeling army (could be those shoulders…). To me this is Prince Andrei and Natasha from War and Peace and oh my lord, do I need to smell him, the most romantic character in literature, ever. Swoonavich.

Guerlain Habit Rouge

As befits the most classic of French perfume houses, this image has a more metaphorical feeling to it – the romance between a man and his horse, rather than that old une femme et un homme storyline. But is it a real horse, or an imaginary one? An expression of his innermost feelings? His essence (said in a French accent). Or, when you consider the meaning of the aftershave’s name Habit Rouge, which is French for a huntsman’s red coat, does it represent the male’s eternal hunt for a mate? Whatever – cor!

Aramis by Aramis

Forget the silly text – which modern advertising has shown really isn’t needed. This brilliant 1980s picture says it all for Aramis. She’s a modern girl and she likes what she smells so much she’s got him pinned up against the fridge. He’s not going anywhere until she’s fully explored all those intriguing wormwood and leather notes. But where have they been in their black tie outfits? Whose kitchen is it? And why does he look a little bit uncomfortable with his hands in his pockets? Might somebody be about to come in and surprise them?

FAMOUS FACES

David Beckham Urban Homme

Aftershave ads featuring famous chaps fall into two types – famous faces modelling for the brands and famous men who are the brand. David Beckham is a classic of the latter with seven aftershaves to his name, plus spins on those – all of them promoted by this sporting living national treasure in different moods. Sometimes casual in a classic T, showing off his tatts (Instinct Sport and Beyond Forever), in a fetchingly undone black tie (Instinct Gold Edition), or here in his full metrosexual glory in an immaculate mohair suit and crisp white shirt, ready for dinner at the coolest restaurant in town.

Jimmy Choo Man

The Jimmy Choo man is dark and brooding, a modern warrior in urban leathers and biker boots, ready to swoop to the aid of a damsel in distress – possibly because she is wearing such very high heels. And who better to pull that off than dark and brooding actor Kit Harington, Game of Thrones’ tortured hero Jon Snow, who looks born to smell of suede and patchouli?

Mont Blanc Homme Exceptionnel

A sub-genre of the famous man aftershave advert is the man who is famous for something specific, not acting or modelling, or owning the brand. Brut owns the concept, with their legendary 1970s commercials with Henry Cooper. Other sportsmen featured included tennis player Vitus Gerulatiis, racing driver James Hunt and American footballer Richard Todd. Montblanc run a posher version of this, featuring men exceptional violinist (and hot tottie) Joshua Bell.

Bing Crosby

If you’re going to go famous, why not go pure legend? LA based toiletries outfit Courtley Ltd. did, with a Father’s Day ad for their ‘virile Courtley fragrance’ in 1946. The backdrop photo of His Bingness looks as though it might have been sent out by the publicity department of Paramount Studios which was also promoting his new film Road to Utopia on the ad, but a more personal connection has been shoed in by adding a cunning gift tag to the ‘flagons’ (their word) making the gift set appear to be a gift from four of his six sons. Can’t see David Beckham’s team trying that stunt.

VINTAGE TREASURES

Old Spice

‘Joan Daly says she likes it when men wear Old Spice’. Likes what, exactly? But the finger resting playfully on lips and the position of her right hip ready to move into the twerking position gives a hint. The lower tag line is brilliant in its disingenuous simplicity. ‘Girls like it. Is there a better reason to wear Old Spice?’ Ms Daly was Miss Massachusetts in 1953.

Centaur

‘Are you ready for Centaur?’ Frankly not. If the ads looked like this, what on earth did it smell like? Goat blankets? The image alone is terrifying, but wait til you read the copy. ‘It’s the massage cologne. Half man, half beast, all male!’ proclaims the headline.

And also a little bit sex toy, it would seem: ‘Out of the Wild and Violent days of ancient Greece comes the exciting concept of Massage Cologne… Massage CENTAUR [so manly it always has to be written out in caps] into your arms, legs and loins. CENTAUR [can you hear us at the back?] has no alcohol [their itals] to irritate, so it massages with comfort into sensitive areas.’

SENSITIVE AREAS. [my caps]. But wait! There’s more: ‘CENTAUR adds a delightful new dimension to your body, a low level aroma that hovers close to the skin for hours, transmits its virile message only in moments of close and intimate contact.’

A virile low level aroma, like around hip level… Basically it seems to be perfume for his nether regions.

Brut

His rakish eye patch (not available on the NHS) and general air of nudity are just red herrings. This ad is really all about the way he is grasping the, er, shaft of that Brut bottle. But that really is a very small cigarillo.

Denim

There’s something rather contemporary about this image – and it still has sex appeal. It’s just the name of the fragrance that adds the cheese. But then you get on to the copy, clearly written in the afterglow of a 1970s ad agency creative department expenses lunch.

‘DENIM. For the man who doesn’t have to try too hard. He doesn’t have to. Things come easy for the man who wears DENIM (trademark). Because a man feels better. A man feels cooler.’

Despite seemingly being permanently off their trams on Beaujolais nouveau and Black Forest gateau, this shows what geniuses those copywriters were at subconscious messaging. Read it carefully and you’ll see that this blurb has several key words planted in it: hard, easy, feels and man. Next stop, CENTAUR?

Tabac

‘Peter Wyngarde smells… great’ declares this ad for Tabac. How could we ever have thought otherwise? As the magnificently coiffed, Windsor-knotted and luxuriantly moustached Jason King, his performance was OTT top you could practically smell his aftershave through your TV screen. Really worth checking out on YouTube if you are too young to have witnessed Mr. Wyngarde’s hilarious delivery in this early 70s classic TV show. He makes Austin Powers look demure.

Written by Maggie Alderson maggiealderson.com

The post Vintage men’s fragrance advertising down the decades appeared first on The Perfume Society.

from The Perfume Society https://perfumesociety.org/vintage-mens-fragrance-advertising-down-the-decades/