#gilding curses

[sabotagingfairytales]

Kasumi turns to lightly scold him for his selfishness, but before she can, a weight pushes down on her back and shoulders. Gojou’s arms stretch out in a straight line in front of her. And Kasumi nearly stumbles under the weight of him.

“Gojou-san!”

Too close.

He’s so close, hanging on her as if she is furniture. So close the warmth seeps through her uniform jacket and shirt. So close, she can feel  his muscles against her back, the way his body cradles her own.

“I worked hard today, Kasumi,” he says, one of his arms slipping from her shoulder, replaced by his chin.

And there’s something deceptively soft and plaint about the way he treats her. Like a stuffed toy, hugged by a child. Or a couch by an overworked salaryman.

She feels for him. He might be the greatest shaman on earth, but he’s still just a human being. It isn’t surprising they’d take advantage of his power, but she wishes they’d give him a bit more of a break if it still tires him out.

“Isn’t that why we’re here?” She asks, brushing her fingers gently over the mop of white hair. “To have a warm bath and a hot meal?”

His head shifts and his nose brushes through her hair to the shell of her ear.

“You know what I think?” He murmurs, his breath hot against her throat. And then his free arm loops around her waist and pulls her back into his body, engulfing her completely. “I think I deserve a reward for all my hard work today.”

It’s difficult to breathe. A blush zaps up through her body, burning from her toes to her face.

Gojou’s arm is heavy around her, his fingers curling into her hip. His cheek rests snugly against her shoulder, and she can feel his eyes on her face, even if she cannot see them. He must be able to feel the way her heart is running a mile in her chest, the way he presses into her back.

“What- do you mean?”

“Satoru,” Gojou murmurs, voice falling as he separates every syllable. “I want you to call me by my name. At the very least, while we’re here.”

[starcurtain]

I guess it's because his Warp is called 'gilded imprisonment', and the phonecall with Jade where he says 'I don't wanna bet anything just to escape your clutches'.

Kinda makes him a foil to Robin and warped parallel to Sunday in a way I think if you see him as thinking of his job as a gilded cage. It may not really be true, maybe he can walk away anytime he wants I'm sure he has the power and ability to even if hed be up for silencing if he left the Stonehearts, but he has nowhere else to go so he may just be trapping himself there with his own apathy. Hope that made sense lol

Always enjoy reading your thoughts ty for the food 🙏

(Will answer the part about the character foils in a different post because that is a whole long thing of its own!!)

See, I definitely think this is the issue, because I have had people say that exact thing to me "Well his warp is called gilded imprisonment so that has to be referring to the IPC!" Like... Do people think the IPC has a monopoly on the word "gilded" or something? Or that "gilded" can only refer to literal gold coins and not any of the many, many metaphors for being a prisoner to destiny that are swirling around Aventurine?

"To gild" means to "cover thinly with gold." It doesn't mean to create wealth, to imply actual money, or even to relate at all to the concept of "golden handcuffs" (which is what people seem to be mistaking it for). Gilding could more accurately be described as a process of taking something cheap--like low-quality nickel--and plating it over with the thinnest layer of gold, to try to make the item seem much better than it is. Gilding something is often like dressing up a pig--you can make it look pretty on the outside, but on the inside, it's still a pig.

Just the thinnest layer of gold over a darker interior...

There's nothing about "gilded imprisonment" that automatically has anything to do with the IPC, unless you're already coming in with the impression that Aventurine is a prisoner of the IPC. If you start with a preconceived notion of what "imprisonment" means for Aventurine, then and only then do we make the jump to "Oh, this must be in reference to the IPC." Take that preconception out and there's zero connection lol.

Even the Chinese name of the warp, "囚石铸金" (lit. "Prison stones cast [in] gold") and other languages' translation of the banner name (like German's "Stein zu Gold," lit. "Stone to gold") imply that the most important element of the banner is "coating over something bad with something good"--i.e., turning prison walls into gold, turning the "stone" of his dark past into something shining. (This actually makes a nice irony in several languages, because he turned the rocky desert of his homeland and the stone walls of a prison into gold by... earning a Cornerstone and becoming a "Stoneheart"--or, that is, he himself is a "worthless" stone that has been thinly coated over in shiny wealth.)

But personally, if we really want to go by the English name of the banner, I would argue that it is much more likely Aventurine's banner name is a reference to his own troubled relationship with the concept of "blessings" and "destiny" than anything to do with the IPC.

From the beginning of his life, Kakavasha was told he was "blessed" and that he was the "chosen one." He was favored by a goddess, born on the day of her rebirth, and told that he will be the savior of his people. So, we can literally say he's the Avgin "golden child," which is further supported by the constant connection between Aventurine and gold colors (his golden-haired appearance, his mother's gold accessories with him since his birth, the word "Avgin" itself even meaning [golden] honey). So as the "golden child," we have this perception that his power of incredible luck, gifted to him by a goddess, must be a blessing, a good thing.

And yet that's not how it plays out for him. What his family tells him is a blessing ends up functioning more like a curse for Aventurine, when it becomes clear he can't use that luck of his to protect those who mean the most to him. He might be the goddess's golden child, the chosen one--but no one else is chosen with him. He's a failed savior, an incapable hero, and there is no escape from the destiny which has been decided for him.

There's a reason his lightcone is called "Inherently Unjust Destiny." His own destiny, decided when he was born favored of an aeon, makes him a prisoner of the suffering that he can survive but never avoid.

We see how much this haunts him constantly throughout his experiences in 2.1...

To me, I would interpret the English banner name "Gilded Imprisonment" as much more related to how Aventurine's blessing, which is supposed to make him the favored, lucky, golden child, is actually nothing more than a thin veneer over the terrible destiny that binds him, continually costing him everything and everyone he loves.

On to the other point entirely, I think people might also really be misinterpreting that sentence about "escaping Jade's clutches." Again, I think this relates a lot to the fact that people are coming into Aventurine's character with this preconception of him as a prisoner to the IPC, so they're interpreting this sentence in the most literal way possible ("I want to get away from you"), but that is actually not what Aventurine is saying at all there.

Jade's rank in the IPC is P46. If Aventurine is promoted to P46, he would no longer be her subordinate. Therefore, when he says "I don't want to bet anything just to escape your clutches," this is actually a (vaguely snarky, to be sure) compliment. Aventurine is saying "I don't want you to think I'm engaging in a bet [that I know I'll win] because I dislike working for you."

It's supposed to be flattery. He's saying "Don't think I'm trying to get away from you, oh great Madam Jade. I wouldn't try to make any bets just to get out of being your underling."

I think it's got a healthy dose of sarcasm to be sure, because Jade herself would have trained Aventurine to snatch every chance to get ahead. So now he's in the hilarious situation of having to balance the expected respect to his mentor ("Of course I would never want to leave you! You're the best boss!") with the fact that his own mentor wants him to be cut-throat at all costs lolol.

It's irony-laced flattery for sure.

That's why his next line is "Well, if it's just a friendly bet though, then sure, I'll engage." He's saying "So long as you know I'm not betting because I dislike working for you, sure, I'll play along." Because he knows that's what he's supposed to do--as a Stoneheart, he should be seizing every opportunity to advance. He virtually has to make this bet that he'll be promoted just to demonstrate the desirous personality that Jade would be expecting.

And honestly, it's supposed to be a callback to their first scene together too. They literally add that to text so people can't miss it. Kakavasha came to Jade as a person "hungry" to rise up the chain, to change his circumstances. He's making the same bet again to suggest to her that he hasn't changed in the slightest even after his experiences in Penacony.

(Now, why he's trying to act like he hasn't changed in front of Jade is another story, and "Aventurine is out to destroy the IPC" conspiracy theorists can run wild with this one for sure.)

But yeah. That line... really does not mean what people think it means, apparently.

Anddddd I'll get to the character foils in another post; this was already long enough as-is! 😂

[imhereonthekitchenfloor]

So I'm reading this rumplestiltskin retelling and the vibes are very beauty and the beast and I am like "who would have thought these two fairytales had such similar vibes" and then I remembered them

[honeyxmonkey]

Them... I need more of them

Miss Marissa please give them another book

[themelodyofspring]

JOMP Book Photo Challenge

July 01, 2023 - Currently Reading

[amarimeta]

i’ve said this a million times before but truly no matter how crazy you think the crazy woman from your tv show is. she can never be nora durst.

[megumiifushiiguro]

MARRISA MEYER WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THIS HELLO?? IF NOT ENDGAME WHY SM CHEMISTRY??? WHY BEING VULNERABLE???

“His lips tilted to one side, but there was an unusual sadness as he peered back at her. “I want us to understand each other. I understand why you lied to me. Just as I understand you are more than your lies.”

At these words, the strangest warmth flooded through Serilda, spreading out until it reached her fingers and toes.

You are more than your lies.

The Erlking tipped his chair toward hers. “In the same way that you are not your god-gift … In the same way that you are not your mother or your father … We are not the vices that created us.”

She held his gaze a long time, debating whether or not to say the words that rose to the surface. In the end, she couldn’t help it. “So,” she said slowly, “you haven’t stabbed your arrows into the flesh of helpless mortals? And … you haven’t murdered children simply because they became inconvenient to you?” She shook her head. “Are you truly trying to convince me that you are not evil?”

She had not noticed that a wall between them had been opening up until it came crashing down once more. The Erlking slumped back in his chair and trailed his fingertip along the stem of his glass. “Forgive me for thinking you might understand.”

[sydneyofalltrades]

oh my GOD why must marissa meyer terrify me so?

[4tarosho]

im bored so uh

[darkcozyforest]

Which book on my TBR shelf should I read next?

(I’ve already finished The Ever King series and Whispers of the Deep)

[writergracethepanda]

I just finished rereading The Gilded Duology by Marissa Meyer and oh my gosh. I loved it even more than the first time.

[sabotagingfairytales]

November passes into December, and Kasumi is called into Gakuganji’s office on a heavy, lonely afternoon.

The lights burn orange in the headmaster’s office. Outside, the sky is a deep, dark, grey, stealing light and colour and making it impossible to tell if it’s day, dusk or evening.

Shadows fall like ink across the floor, cut in half momentarily by Kasumi as she opens the door and introduces herself with a bow.

It’s a giddy feeling, knowing what she’s here for. The thing she’d fought so hard for. The promotion she’s waited a month for.

She’d taken on three other missions in the mean time, these ones grade two and grade one curses that were fairly easy to handle. Rural curses with not too much going on between their ears. She’d dug her nose into the books when she’d been off duty, or stayed in the dojo, practicing until her mind stopped wandering and her heart stopped pounding.

She’d ignored the card she’d found two weeks ago in a chocolate box, with the kanji for 5, a grinning emoji on the front, and a phone number with the words ‘for when you pick a side’ on the back.

She doesn’t need to ask him how it’s going. Doesn’t need to pester him to find out when his recommendation meetings are.

Kasumi knows Gojou Satoru is busy. They all are. And she wouldn’t want the fulcrum of their balance disturbed by trivial matters. She couldn’t ask him to give her that attention.

All she could do is trust him, and hesitate at the question whispered to her from that secreted-away business card.

And her patience had paid off.

Here she is.

Ready to receive her papers. Her promotion.

The shadows fall on Gakuganji’s face, silhouetted by the weak light from the windows, as he smiles and congratulates her. As does the man standing, leaning with his hip against the desk — an assistant, she assumes; a representative of the council.

A piece of paper slides across the desk, halfway to where Kasumi stands with her hands demurely clasped in front of her.

But Gakuganji’s hand falls over the document, rendering it unceremoniously out of reach.

“Are you sure about this?” 

[freddycartr]

while i would never ship them, because he kills her father, murders innocent children, and forces her into a marriage she does not want for his own gain, and imprisons her in his castle, the erlking and serilda tension is actually insane. while i don't love gild as a main love interest, because, ya know, he's a fucking ghost. i Ido understand why mm had them end up together, but i can't get past the fact that serilda fucked a ghost (fucking loved the verbal consent before they slept together, though) and got pregnant? anyway, back to my point, the tension between those two characters are insane. like she describes his lips like blueberries in the moonlight and then wonders why the thought made her hungry? my god. the erlking says that human flesh is tempting; he kisses the inside of her wrist when they meet for the second time? yes, he makes her her life miserable and does unspeakable things to serlida and those she loves, but i am merely pointing out the tension is insane. while i don't like the erlking as a character and would never ship them together, his character is complex. he's way more complex than gild.

[fubukiswifenoimnotjoking]

Really, really hoping Marissa Meyer eventually gives us an LGBTQ+ book bc of some of the background characters in the Gilded duology are giving me hope. Like, I’ve been a fan of her since I was 11 and to see her, someone who’s shaped my love of reading and characters and sci fi and media in general write a story that makes me feel represented...it would be ground breaking. Also, I love the way she writes (most) of her romances and to see that done with a wlw relationship for example would make me fucking sob. Marissa if you’re reading this...please.

[honeyxmonkey]

I'm almost finished with Cursed and guys I am not okay 🥲

[themelodyofspring]

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June 21, 2023 - Hello, Summer