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fmstevie · 5 years ago

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* ╰ waddup y’all ruby’s back 2 annoy u all w a lil british fuckboi action . here’s stevie , inspired by matty healy n thinkin she’s a god among men . i don’t recommend u read on but in case u do i pray u forgive me enough 2 want plots w that like button . 🤡

new york’s very own 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐄 ‘ 𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐘 ’ 𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐘𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐍𝐄 was spotted on broadway street in doc marten smooth leather chelsea boots . your resemblance to diana silvers is unreal . according to tmz , you just had your twenty - second birthday bash . while living in nyc , you’ve been labeled as being 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐬 , but also 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 . i guess being a cancer explains that . 3 things that would paint a better picture of you would be erudite inclinations informed by �� a god complex , melodrama as your magnum opus , & the world’s most secretive love life . ( i had a secret marriage that lasted 6 months but ended due to my fear of my family’s mafia ties getting in the way . ) & ( cis female & she / her )

𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆 : stephanie charlotte greystone 𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒔 : primarily stevie , although her stage name is ‘ grey ‘ which has caught on as a go-to nickname . takes little to nothing else wilingly 𝒂𝒈𝒆 : twenty - two 𝒛𝒐𝒅𝒊𝒂𝒄 : cancer 𝒐𝒄𝒄𝒖𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 : professional musician with a voiceclaim of lorde , on temporary hiatus to write grey3 . casual photographer 𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒚 / 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒔 : cis female / she her hers 𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 : pansexual w strong female pref but tbh if u can handle her energy she’ll b down WKERWJER 𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 : 5’10 🤤 𝒍𝒂𝒃𝒆𝒍𝒔 : the hedonist , the aesthete , the opaque , the vainglorious , the prodigy , the intangible concept 𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒑𝒐𝒔 : rhiannon - fleetwood mac / WHAT U CALL THAT - chase atlantic / iceberg - borns / UGH - the 1975 / boss bitch - doja cat / elephant - tame impala / black hole sun - soundgarden / black madonna - cage the elephant / this charming man - the smiths / swim - chase atlantic / 1999 WILDFIRE - brockhampton

tw drug mention

𝒊. 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏.

there is perhaps no more a formidable surname in the organized crime circuit in all of europe than greystone , a name risen to fame through countless court cases and highly publicized trials . dubbed ‘ el chapo of the old world , ‘ liam greystone makes his reputation known as a ruthless and conniving leader of a million dollar cartel business , distributing to most of the UK and eastern europe . it’s perhaps an even greater shock to find even as public enemy #1 , he takes a welsh wife by the name of marissa and weds her in a lavish and very public ceremony , surmounting crowds not unlike those of the royal weddings . such a decision is a clear power move on his part , flexing the pure influence it would require to have such a public family life with no fear of repercussion from rivals or enemies .

it’s several months following their wedding that james is born , with nicholas taking a few years after . elite prep schools in the most posh london neighborhoods were abuzz with equal parts curiosity and concern to be sharing streets with the most feared mafia family in their whole country , though the elite nature�� of liam’s new societal presence meant he took to his ‘ dealings ‘ with a but more subtlety than before his rise to power . something of a media frenzy , it’s the talk of the town when marissa falls pregnant another time , nearly a decade after nicholas’s birth , this time with a baby girl , something that’s all the sun and mirror can seem to post about in their celebrity tabloids section for weeks on end . her birth raises questions of immense speculation : what will the world do with a greystone girl ?

as it would result , they’d worship her . stevie found herself raised in a world that sought her out at every turn , cameras pointed towards her at every outing . james and nick , now teens by the time she enters primary and just as big of terrors as their father , view their lavish lifestyle as the result of some bigger destiny for greatness , as their father had always fed to them , something they passed on to their baby sister who took it as her mantra . one of the earliest manifestations of a rather intense personality , stevie takes this to an extreme , turning her unwanted stardom into a fuel for an ever-increasing god complex to develop . the apple of her father’s eye and every bit as quick , her instructors note a dedication to perfection and an obsession with accomplishment , along with a natural intelligence that leads her to blast through her studies with relative ease .

she’s just 16 when she completes her schooling and already has a reputation that will precede her , just as her surname had before . relaxed and observant , her voice never peaks higher than a low alto with her charming londoner drawl , a facade never cracking from her knowing poker face . there’s something about being so above everyone ( even if it is a self-imposed superiority ) that leads stevie all but to the brink of isolation , finding solace only in the words of a self-deluded father and her own scribings in a leather bound notebook . piano lessons since early childhood lend themselves to melodies following melodies , and before she’s even able to legally drink , she’s released her first album under the moniker ‘ grey ’ titling it pure heroine as a cheeky nod to the inevitable accusations of it being her family ties that got her a record deal . but as streams of the melancholy tunes begin to pick up fans worldwide , the album’s themes of isolation , abandonment , and wasted youth hit harder than ever anticipated from the youngest greystone . she leaves home to tour the world with the album reaching #1 in countless countries , forging her own path with a maturity beyond her years and a vision beyond this world .

the tour ends and she’s smitten by the charm of new york , opting to move to continue to pursue her music away from the tangled complications of family life in england . barely 18 and perhaps intoxicated with the loneliness of a life spent in the watching eye of others , the semblance of privacy is something she takes to like an addict , exasperating prying paparazzi with her notorious refusal to comment on details of her personal life . she builds a wall between herself and the world , keeping out prying eyes with a tight - lipped grin . its at this time that she lets the first person into her life perhaps ever , a whirlwind romance so intoxicating it results in a courthouse marriage done in secret . never to be seen together , never a word spoken to anyone else , stevie relishes in the secret which is soon to sour upon the passing of their honeymoon phase . with her brothers expanding their reach into the US for their unsavory dealings , it’s not long after her marriage begins that the conflicts reach a breaking point , an annulment following barely 6 months after they had traded ‘ i do’s . ’

she takes to the studio with a new resentment of the concept of love and even more sequestered heart , producing melodrama which takes the world by storm , snagging her a grammy win for album of the year . fatigued from the constant go-around of keeping her secrets her own except for when they’re taken to radio streams , she does a limited tour for melodrama and lands herself right back in new york at 20 , putting grey3 on the backburner as she takes to all the hedonistic engagements she had indulged herself in during her time on tour . she’s kept herself busy between mindless flings and days-long benders with hobbies such as photography and writing , the former of which is building her a rather impressive reputation in the arts world .

𝒊𝒊. 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒆𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 .

if y’all ain’t tired of me yet god bless u . .. . bc i straight up b tired of myself :/

anyways dis is stevie , also accepts grey the same way ppl talk abt lorde n switch between ella n lorde ! she’s not picky :~)

major inspos are matty healy from the 1975 n hayley kiyoko if she was less of a try hard . little bit of kristen stewart in there , big 2016 ruby rose energy n brie larson top me tomfoolery as well !

basically da fuckboi of ur dreams .. .. . lil devilish londoner who stays thinkin she’s the closest thing to a god on this green earth !

notably , she’s incredibly intelligent and profound , tends to take on a rather patronizing and condescending tone bc she straight up b thinkin she’s usually the smartest person in the room ( how annoying )

so laid back n observant , rlly has no need to raise her voice ever bc her arguments b runnin circles around ppl ! imagine the way harry styles talks low n slow n calculated. . . . . cameron from love is blind ,. .. . kristen stewart lowkey sometimes .. .. .. das grey . sexy ass alto monotone 🤤🤤

i dont wanna use chaotic bc she rlly isnt the WILDEST bitch but that god complex means she deadass thinks she can get away w what she wants n she usually does ? less of a chaotic evil n more like a neutral evil lmao she can follow rules just fine she jsut prefers whatever suits her better

on that note — OBSCENELY self obsessed . follows her own natural whims n impulses bc that’s just what appeals to her . is inclined to follow rules if she calculates itll work in her favor bc she also doesn’t like to look sloppy !

super secretive and OBSESSED w her presentation . every movement is calculated n she doesnt want anyone seeing a side of her that she hasn’t designated for them ! she doesn’t care what other ppl think but she DOES care abt what she sees herself doing n her vision . doesnt fit the vision ? will NOT happen in her book .

straight up a WHORRE lmao she likes 2 fill the void left by a lack of human connection w sexual intimacy n then is like nice imma have u leave now love LMAO . does not discriminate and is rlly inclined to follow any sexual impulse

this was implied but her relationships are super messy ? does the leonardo dicaprio thing where she will never fuckin discuss her love life in interviews or anything so ppl just gotta SPECULATE . she lets ppl post all they want abt her but she wont say a WORD abt them JWHEKJWH her socials r basically just abt her n her music we said SELFISH lads . she’s bad @ bein tied down n is probs polyamorous as it stands but im p sure she has cheated on every single person she has ever been with lmao

lowkey a shit friend most of the time lMAO she can b really unreliable bc u guys can have plans n then she takes someone home n misses yalls plans n then texts u 4 hours later after all ur missed calls n is like my bad bruv i got tied up AS IF THAT FIXES IT KWEJKWJEKWE

chain smoker n its nastie but lowkey sexy somehow :/ , will ONLY wear outfits that r equal parts thrifted n designer , always has her hands in her pockets n if her jacket has a hood its UP like a big ole homo , is rlly annoying bc shes good looking n KNOWS it so she uses it to her advantage , wants 2 get her motorcycle license , judges u based off the music u play in the car , judges u on everything tbh.

#wealthyhq:intro #* ╰ . 𝒔 . 𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒏𝒆 . › introduction .#sorry 4 dis trash hittin the dash 🥰#just COULD NOT wait n format any longer

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canvaswolfdoll · 4 years ago

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CanvasWatches: Carole & Tuesday

A charming SciFi anime focusing more on the cast’s day-to-day lives than some major sociopolitical conflict that requires laser gun diplomacy? Set on a Terraformed Mars with brick and mortar solarpunk aesthetic? I can get into that.

The fact that Carole & Tuesday is a science fiction story came as a surprise, as most of the buzz and promotion that crossed my social feeds focused on the street performance aspects. Then, surprise! Tabletop fast food ordering and pizzerias that grow their tomatoes in house![1] Which is the sort of speculative fiction I’m enjoying nowadays: normal life with the fantastic acting as seasoning to spice up the world around them.

I’ve never paid special attention to music. I listen to music obviously, but rarely in any sort of analytical capacity. It’s pretty sounds that help fill in the background while I write, or to convey emotion in a musical, or to mark the start and end of a show I’m watching. I’ve never sought out music to listen to when looking for entertainment, it’s always a byproduct of whatever media I’m engaged with at the moment. Heck, these days, when I’m too lazy to set my car radio up to play a podcast, I just drive in silence.[2]

I sometimes feel I’m missing something by not engaging with the art form in a more conscious manner, and I only recently became aware that albums are a carefully curated thing instead of a collection of the performer’s most recent songs, so… yeah. Kind of a cultural blindspot.[3]

This tangent doesn’t even end with a neat little note of how Carole & Tuesday had inspired me to consume music in a more deliberate and contemplative manner. The soundtrack includes plenty of insert songs I happily threw on my background noise playlists,[4] and what few albums I seek out are video game and anime soundtracks.[5]

Carole & Tuesday was chiefly directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, who’s name was made with the Jazzy Space Epic Cowboy Bebop and Hip-Hop Samurai Series Samurai Champloo. It was probably inevitable he would produce an anime where music took front stage instead of informing tone.

Carole & Tuesday takes inspiration from Pop, but is unafraid to feature and mix other genres, such as Opera and Rap.[6] What’s really exciting is the decision to have the insert songs performed in English.

Historically, when diegetic music is present in anime, the song is performed in Japanese, and most dubs make the smart decision to leave the japanese audio and subtitle them. I may prefer dubs for my various reasons, but I wouldn’t dare ask for the policy on subbed music to change. Carole & Tuesday took an international view to its production, and thus used the most widely spoken language when no one (reasonable) would begrudge the use of Japanese performers.

Netflix picked up the show as part of their continued haphazard attempts to seize the genre with an attitude out of the early 2000s, and the company tapped to record the English dub did an admirable job matching voice performances believably similar to the singing voices.

Which may be the first time that speaking actors were hired to fit the singers.

The story takes place on Mars in the future year of… 50 years after humanity started migrating to Mars. I cannot find a year cited, which is the smart and wise choice and I am super annoyed I’m not going to be able to make jokes about the production's attempts and failure to predict the future.

50 years after starting to migrate over to the red planet, humanity has terraformed large swathes of Mars into a Solarpunk paradise. Earth is apparently not in a great state as refugees are desperately making their way to the planet, but Earth remains offscreen for the entire run. Fortunately no one has any giant robots,[7] so the two planets aren’t at war. While Mars has been made hospitable enough, the atmosphere does occasionally mess with the genetics of residents.

That’s just background details, however. The story is really about the titular duo. Tuesday is introduced fleeing the mansion of her politician mother, hopping onto a cattle train like Kiki, and riding off to Alba City with only a quitar and robotic luggage to keep her company, where she stumbles upon Refugee Orphan Carole busking with a keyboard. The two have a jam session and decide to become a musical act.

Meanwhile, famed child star Angela Carpenter[8] is setting to transition from a modeling career to an exciting career singing. Her mother pulls strings and utilizes her connections to team up with Tao, a genius of Artificial Intelligence Design who is willing to use his technology to provide Angela with computer generated music and lyrics.

Thus we have the start of a sci-fi John Henry Tale where the battle is not hammer and steel but instruments and voice.

I say ‘the start’ because while the two teams utilize different methods to produce their music, their methods are never weighed against one another. In fact, there’s barely a one-sided rivalry, as Angela is jealous of the titular duo’s ability to enjoy their career, and our two heroes take only a polite, professional view of Angela’s rising career.

Carole and Tuesday are both weighed down by a common problem with anime protagonists: they’re just nice. There’s a certain fear when writing protagonists, especially females, of accidentally making them off-putting that the writers overcorrect and don’t let the hero make mistakes or have much personality, to the point that Carole and Tuesday have very little agency.

Instead, it’s Gus, the ex-rock star manager the duo acquire, that does the leg work and takes risks while Carole and Tuesday just sing nice songs then sit back while the plotlines orbiting their rise to success are resolved by the men.

The show also can’t choose a lane, playing with several story threads that could carry full 24-episode stories by themselves, but instead are dealt with as lightly as possible.

We start with the story of a run-away from decadence and a refugee bringing their world views together, but that instead goes into a tournament arc disguised as a talent contest, then the drama of navigating the music industry, before ending with the presidential run of Tuesday’s mother causing public unrest. Carole and Tuesday don’t make a meaningful choice that affects any of these stories.

Meanwhile, Angela gets a story of asserting her identity while already in public view, facing dangers both external and internal on her journey.

Surprisingly, this is the first show in a while that I didn't resent for transitioning out of the episodic, playing with the premise portion. While Carole and Tuesday were attempting to get their big break, bopping around misadventures trying to get contacts, gigs, and filming a music video, Angela looms in her plotline, building up to the inevitable rivalry.

Angela is introduced just before her mother, Dahlia, starts reworking Angela's career from modeling to singing, hiring Tao, renowned AI designer, as Angela's producer. Angela experiences mild paranoia from Tao's standoffish nature, machinery, and making a holographic simulation of Angela. So Angela had a more consistent narrative during the first arc.

Introductions out of the way, it's time for everyone's favorite trope: the tournament arc! In the form of ‘Space!'s got Talent’ Generic Brand Named into Mar's Brightest. The main duo meets their rival, backstage drama ensues, some very good music is performed, and things are set up to technically give both Carole and Tuesday as well as Angela a win at the end.

With publicity achieved, Gus starts getting to work preparing the girls' debut album and booking appearances, as well as meeting other artists and (briefly) Carole’s father. We learn about Gus’s past client, Flora, who dropped Gus as soon as she found success, then found herself without a support base and spiraled into depression and addiction. Carole and Tuesday remain upbeat and optimistic.

Meanwhile, Angela starts getting harassed by a stalker and feeling helpless and poorly supported by those around her. Tao takes point on stopping the stalker when the police fail, ultimately taking him down before the stalker could pull a Mark David Chapman.

The story bleeds into the final act, as the presidential campaign of Valerie Simmons, Tuesday’s mother, moves forward in prominence. The AI algorithm Valerie is utilizing suggests she take an anti-immigration stance, which the woman follows in an attempt to further her career. Musicians are getting harassed by law enforcement, Tuesday’s brother Spencer is becoming uneasy with being an accessory to the campaign, and starts meeting with a reporter with information that Valerie’s campaign manager orchestrated a terrorist attack to villainize immigrants. Spencer and the reporter argue over how many chances to give Valerie, and agree on Spencer taking the evidence to Valerie, and if she doesn’t back down, then they’ll leak the scandal. Valerie, seeing the crimes committed for her benefit, gracefully renounces her candidacy. It’s very heart warming.

Carole and Tuesday write a protest song, and gather friends to sing it. This protest song has no observable impact.

Meanwhile, Angela learns she’s adopted, and her mother suffers a heart-attack shortly before Angela is set to win a Martian Grammy, and Angela spirals into depression and prescription drug abuse, to the point of collapsing at the end of her Grammy performance, being rushed to the hospital and missing her mother’s passing and funeral. Angela is adrift. She has no family, no support, and is just lonely.

Tao, who was working to sabotage Valerie’s campaign and burning as many bridges as possible after being targeted for refusing to assist the campaign, appears in Angela’s hospital room to drop a bomb: both he and Angela are designer babies, and though Tao must go into hiding now, he does intend to look out for his little sister.

Angela joins the performance of Carole and Tuesday’s protest song.

If it’s not already clear, I feel the story of Carole and Tuesday themselves was pretty lacking.

So, how would I rework this? Step one: we’re either cutting Carole and Tuesday, or combining them into a single character and making Angela the second. With the second option, Angela can maintain her backstory, but take Carole’s introduction of fleeing her family mansion and attempting to strike out on her own, meeting up with Carole and forming an act. To maintain the final arc, Carole would need to be reworked into the abandoned daughter of Tuesday’s late father, making her the half sister of Spencer and something to be hidden by Valerie Simmons’ campaign.

We then intermingle the two plotlines: Gus maintains his managerial position, and eventually convinces Angela to use her connections and mother to get her career jumpstarted, Ms. Carpenter still brings in Tao to write music, and now we can lean more into the AI-written music versus human compositions subplot as well as creative differences, which can lead to an arc where Angela and Carolday split to attempt solo careers, each taking a different manager.[9] Dahlia still has her issues and passes away, Angela her depressive spiral, but now Gus gets pathos by being there to help his client out of self-destruction, and the final number can also be a reconciliation of the main musical duo. The song can even be a combination of AI and human composition.

Carolday, meanwhile, discovers her relation to the anti-immigrant candidate and has to decide if she wants to finally have a family with Valerie and Spencer or stand up for her beliefs and assist a politician in bringing the campaign down. The resolution of the political plot can remain a happy compromise, but Carolday gets a slightly more active role in it.

The animation and world-building is great, and Angela’s arc is very strong. But the writing was too afraid to let either Carole or Tuesday dip into unlikeability that they become props to their own storyline, which is made further unfortunate as their supporting cast that do make decisions are mostly men.

The series is also riddled with a lot of good starts. Many short vignettes or minor details that could be made into full animes by themselves. Show more of Carole and Tuesday’s attempts to break into the music industry while also trying to pay bills and put food on their table. An expansion on the other competitors at Mars Brightest.[10] Heck, expand the roster of the competition and dig more into backstage drama. Carole’s father, who was sent to prison and found his wife dead and daughter sent to another planet upon his release, could carry a story of his own on his back! Valerie’s presidential run and the plight of Earth immigrants given more attention. Heck, even the story of how Earth, the origins of the human species, fell into being a third-world planet people are desperate to leave.

I’d even watch a series about the solarpunk pizzeria that grows their own tomatoes.

The music is really good, however, featuring many artists and styles, and those by our main duo wouldn’t sound out of place on a car radio or licensed on a primetime television show.

It’s a good show, but not an eternal classic. Maybe a second choice for someone digging deeper into anime. However, if its placement on Netflix means it’s someone’s introduction to Anime, that wouldn’t be terrible. Give it a watch if you want something to wind down for bed, or want inspiration for your own speculative fiction.

Kataal kataal.

[1] Solarpunk’s neat. [2] Mostly because I lost all my preset stations last time I took my car in for fixing, and I don't actually know any to punch in. Also, I use youtube for music when writing. [3] Also means I’m wholly unprepared to find music when I finally get a podcast project off the ground. [4] The soundtrack is very present on Spotify, which is nice. [5] I am finding myself increasingly intrigued by vinyl records, however. Probably a bit extravagant, and difficult considering my narrow interests. [6] Presumably to annoy fans of both. [7] Bam! Gundam reference! Anyone have Bingo yet? [8] Though I could swear they never use her last name on screen. [9] I’d find it amusing if Angela takes Gus and Carolday teams up with Dahlia, but the rest of my outline works better if Angela remains with Dahlia. [10] Though this one’s not a major loss. Typical tournament arc stuff.

#CanvasWatches #carole and tuesday #anime #CanvasReviews

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lizzybeth1986 · 5 years ago

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Quick Thoughts on TRFTP Book 1 Chapter 16

• Remember how I dubbed the book The Royal Fast-Track Pregnancy last chapter? Well, yeah. That’s my title for this book from now on.

• If you don’t want to see these posts on your dash, here are the tags to block: #trh quick thoughts, #trh qts, #trh qt reblogs, #long post.

• We’re now in the MC’s third trimester, celebrating her baby shower. Her in-laws show up, she gets gifts, she barely notices that her corgis have had puppies (but why am I surprised, this is the same MC who didn’t care enough about her corgi in Book 2 to notice he was with Liam to help with his proposal). And a couple of nosy royals come to visit.

• Over here in India, we do this ceremony around the 7th month, and it’s called different names in different places but with similar traditions and setups. Up North it’s called godhbharai (which literally means “filling the lap” - since the mother’s lap features prominently here as a symbol of maternal care, therefore the gifts are placed on a cloth over her lap - symbolizing her fulfillment once she reaches motherhood and the blessings she takes with her), and mostly fruits and sweets are placed on her lap as a blessing for prosperity and luck. You have games…but the mother isn’t exactly expected to participate in them - she’s the guest of honour, she sits and enjoys!

• She definitely isn’t there to submit to such a thorough interrogation of her political choices either!!

• The rest of the world treats a baby shower like a time for the mother-to-be to relax and be pampered within an inch of her life. Cordonia treats it as an opportunity for her to beat non-pregnant people at their version of egg-and-spoon and pass personality tests.

• Screenshots:

Hana: The Universal Studio 77 YouTube channel

Maxwell: The rash rec YouTube channel

Drake: @thefirstcourtesan and The BizzysChoices YouTube channel

• Title: Great Expectations

Alternative Title: The State of My Bladder Is of Far More Importance Than Any of This Nonsense.

• Believe me, during your final months of pregnancy your bladder will be virtually non-existant (which is why you’re recommended kegel exercises early on). In medical terms they call this “urinary incontinence”, which is due to those muscles facing way more pressure than usual). At one point I recall joking about how we should add “The Bathroom” at the top of my home address, coz I was almost taking up permanent residence there 😐 I wouldn’t be worrying about politics and intrigue at a time like this, I’d be worrying about my kegels!

• Kiki doesn’t get a lot of opportunities to flex her diplomatic muscles in this story, but when she does, gosh does she deliver. Following her advice this time is what allows us to buy time for ourselves.

• Unfortunately that’s all the space PB will allow Kiara, we’re now back to our regular schedule of treating her like she doesn’t matter.

• Either Maxwell or Hana (in Maxwell’s playthrough) will lead us to the boutique to pick out an outfit.

• On a level of having more gold (therefore bling) than peach, that diamond option already wins. At least in the silhouette I can pretend the peach parts of this dress don’t exist. (I still wound up using the free peach outfit for my failplay of this chapter though)

• Me before meeting Hana: pls don’t make her wear that awful lbd again pls pls pls i beg

Me seeing Hana wear the silver one: …okay that’s not too bad. I’m just going to keep headcanoning this one as a gown though.

• Liam wears his official black tie outfit, Hana wears her silver dress, Maxwell wears his black suit and Drake his deep blue one.

• In everyone else’s playthrough besides Hana’s, she is the one in charge of this “planning committee”. Penelope is in charge of…throwing confetti, which annoys Olivia to end.

• Marguerite from THM steps forward with her good wishes, and asks us about the sex of the child - at which point the narrative lets us know that it’s tradition in Cordonia to not know until the delivery. Which makes sense, since we’ll probably be allowed to customize this in a different book? And in some countries (like mine, where it’s illegal to find out before delivery) there are really, really good reasons to not give anyone - especially the family - that information.

• We meet the rest of the royals: Eirik is as self-centered as he always was (either that or Khaan really desperately needs to make sure no one knows he’s that VR game developer from San Francisco who ran away from Eros), Lerato and Lesidi are cupcakes as always, and the Three Big Royals are shady as always.

• The good thing about the scene where Isabella tries to touch your belly is that it is established as out of line straightaway. You win or lose no points however you react, and while you’re expected to be diplomatic and impress them - the narrative is clear on how wrong Isabella is on doing this. And even if you don’t show a reaction, your LI most certainly will.

• PB is trying to convince me that Amalas has a better sense of boundaries, as if she didn’t stalk me in Texas and squeeze out every possible detail about my past life like an orange in a juicer. She only seems better because the Auvernese have all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

• Most of the LIs have lost a parent, but have a sibling (except for Hana, who is an only child with both parents living. Liam has lost both his parents, but has a stepmother in Regina so she fulfills that role here) - which means that in every case besides Hana’s, we see one parent and one sibling who has become a parent (optional, in Leo’s case).

- Liam: Regina and Leo (YOU EXIST! I WAS ALMOST CERTAIN PB FORGOT YOU WERE THERE). The two lightheartedly tease each other, which is phenomenal progress considering they were at each other’s throats in RoE! Leo comes to wish the MC in all playthroughs.

- Hana: Lorelai and Xinghai. Hana has sent them an invitation but wasn’t sure they’d make it, and depending on whether she is married or not their response varies. In the friendly playthrough, they respond positively but the focus is still very much on seeing the MC. In the romantic playthrough, however, Hana is allowed to show her nervousness and slight fear (how generous, PB!), reaches out to the MC for support, and the parents are tentative in their approach, with Xinghai even assuring Hana that they will cut short their stay if she wants them to. To which she confirms that she does indeed want them here. The two come to wish the MC in all playthroughs, as Leo does.

- Maxwell: Bartie Sr and Bertrand. Bartie Sr tops even King Eirik for self-centeredness (“make way for House Beaumont!”) and is…just plain weird in the way he greets the MC and his younger son (even Maxwell notices this, commenting that ol’ Bartie is “laying it on a little thick”). Bertrand is the more normal, sorted one, which is a sentence I thought I’d never say in this series. The team was pretty smart in how they scattered BertVannah between two LIs - Drake gets a visit from his sister, Maxwell gets a visit from his brother. Neither Bartie Sr nor Bertrand make an appearance in any other playthroughs which is just as well coz I saw PLENTY Bertrand for 7 whole chapters.

- Drake: Bianca and Savannah. Bianca asks the MC if Drake has been “pulling his weight around the house” while the MC has been “worrying about that baby” - nice to know she expects the same of her son as she did for her son-in-law (or perhaps a little less than what she expects of her son-in-law, considering Bertrand had to get back an entire saddle from the person she sold it to just so he could win her favour, after she allowed her sister to treat him like crap for his entire stay at her home). Savannah mercifully doesn’t get a lot of dialogue and merely compliments our glow. Savannah only appears in this playthrough, while her husband Bertrand only appears in Maxwell’s. Which is a good thing. I’ve had enough of that couple to last me a lifetime (sorry Bertrand). You see both Bianca and Savannah only in this playthrough, and I’m EXTREMELY relieved we don’t see Leona.

• It must be clear to anyone who has read all the playthroughs by now - only Leo, Lorelai and Xinghai make appearances across playthroughs, which could either be because they haven’t been shown at all in the books until now, or possibly because they may feature in Lythikos.

• Okay it’s egg and spoon time but with apples. This is Cordonia. It wouldn’t be anything but apples.

•

When you’re a new mom the last thing on your mind is grace and poise ok. Put really really simply and not in too much detail…your brain will feel more scrambled than scrambled eggs esp in the initial weeks, coz half the time you’re trying to make sense of your kid’s sleep schedule and the other half is your body just….feeling WEIRD (hormonal shifts, postpartum bleeding, and generally the overall effects of childbirth - whether it is vaginally or via C-section, both of which come with their own set of challenges). Your own sleep schedule is going to be all over the place and even after the kid starts sleeping all through the night, sometimes your brain has already been wired to wake you up at 2 AM or something. Your back is gonna hurt like a bitch. Your hair will become a hornet’s nest within the first two weeks coz what even is combing (okay, okay, that was probably just me 😅😅). And this is just when things go normally, okay.

You don’t need grace and poise to take care of a kid at this stage - you need stamina and a strong support system. Cordonia (I mean YOU, TRH team) you really need to talk to more pregnant people 🤦🏽‍♀

(on a more serious note…this is why I feel there needs to be more dialogue on parenthood. What it’s truly like and how it really feels, without the kind of fear that holds especially new parents back from admitting to their feelings about it. New parenthood with all its mess and stresses, its frustrations and confusions. No matter how prepared you are, no matter how much reading up you’ve done, there will always be something about that experience that will knock you sideways. I’ve learned that the less shame there is around admitting that parenthood can be messy, can be trial-and-error rather than perfectly executed every single time, can be imperfect, the better it is for everyone. And maybe this is a lesson that parents in some places have had the space to learn already - and that’s amazing - but there are a whole bunch of places where that’s not the case. And there is so much pressure to make it sound better, to convince people this is an easy happy journey even when it isn’t, or to believe that your well-being isn’t as important as that of your child, that many new parents don’t speak up…believing they’re the only ones who feel this way).

But I digress. I do know that “grace and poise” is expected of pregnant royals and even pregnant celebs. I do know that often they’re expected to step out looking picture perfect after having to battle lack of sleep and insane hormonal changes. They’re expected to have “fit bodies” just months after they’ve delivered. This happens in the real world. And the more we talk about it? The more we can help parents, esp new parents who might struggle more to articulate this experience.

• So…where was I? Oh right, grace and poise. In a race involving a spoon and an apple. A spoon and an apple. Excuse me while I facepalm🤦🏽‍♀

• My bladder would never survive this race in a real-life pregnancy situation, I just know it.

• Self-centered or not, at least Khaan-in-disguise points out the obvious: that everyone else has a physical edge over us. But Leo assures him that speed doesn’t help you in this game (does that make me the tortoise among a bunch of hares if I win? 🐰 🐰 🐢 🐰 🐰)

• Scarlett-Emerson-in-disguise is an angel coz she’s the only person apologizing for bumping into my bump.

• Now…if you bought the diamond scene where we drank wine with Isabella, you’d get intel about Bradfraud that could throw him off in the race:

Now…I really like this bit, okay. I like how thrown off he is that we know his secret. But I’m not entirely sure how wise of a decision it is to let him know so soon that we know, or whether it will bite us in the ass eventually. Could we have maybe waited for a better opportunity? Idk.

Anyway, so that definitely works. But IMO in a petty, inconsequential way that means little in the long run (or could be dangerous too idk). This is intel we could have saved for a better time.

• This is why it makes more sense for the MC to be told what Olivia (and possibly Liam) is investigating. Or at least for her to actually keep asking until one of them caves in and tells her. If she’d known about an Operation Swan maybe she wouldn’t openly goad him so easily (or maybe she would. It’s the MC after all).

• There’s a funny sequence in this where everyone falls on each other like ninepins. And another one where Olivia gets impatient and just throws her apple over to the finishing line, asking Kiara if she won and Kiki is like “non. You’re extremely disqualified.” Oh Kiki. Never change 😂

• ….exactly how large are these spoons. It’s an apple. That would cross over from spoon territory to ladle!

• Once the race is over, we’re back to our tables for lunch. The MC’s bump almost knocking a plate over sparks a conversation among the mothers in the table about their baby bumps, and then about labour. Lorelai in particular speaks about her delivery being “more…grueling than what I expected” but quickly assuring the now-nervous MC that once the child is placed in your arms it will all be worth it. That description could cover a whole range of experiences…from mildly stressful to extremely terrifying. I always hope it’s the former.

(I have another question though: so if Lorelai was so ecstatic over Hana’s birth, where and how during/after this euphoric period did Hana’s parents suddenly begin to feel “devastated” over not having a son then? Coz I distinctly recall Hana speaking about that in Book 1. Or is this another retcon?)

In any case…it’s nice to hear that at least for Hana’s sake.

• If you’re married to one of the guys, then it’s Hana who put together the tiny hors d'ouvres (“personally tested all the options for deliciousness and visual appeal!”). If you’re married to Hana, Madeleine is in charge of this part of the baby shower (“spent a week focus group taste-testing the sides for both aesthetic and delectability”). In any case, it’s all tiny food that’s too cute to eat.

•

…isn’t this the guy who constantly complained about tiny portions? Why wasn’t he just taking extra helpings then? (though he also still complains about food from another country looking like “abstract art”. First Hana’s meal in China, now this. No one cares for your uninformed, unwanted opinion on their cultural dishes, Drake. Good thing Maxwell shut that nonsense down immediately)

• Isabella and Bradshaw’s communications with us have always used strength, might, power as a central factor in their dealings with us. Amalas’ approach is no less insistent, but in a different direction. Culture, cuisine, these are the things that seem to stand out to me atm. If the Auvernese mindset reminds me somewhat of Lythikos and Olivia, the Monterisso one looks like it could bring to mind Castelserraillian, Kiara and her family, and Liam + Hana who are more inclined to explore art and culture.

• Everyone’s kid likes grapes, apparently.

• The dish Amalas presented for the guessing game is what they call a “Sweet Potato Surprise”, but you gotta admit the ‘mango’ option is the most entertaining 😆 (with the carrot option, she claims that she mentioned a root vegetable, which would be close enough)

• A pair of cute corgi puppies make their way to our table, and depending on whether you bought both adult corgis or not, the puppies are either theirs, or strays. Like…why are you paywalling the CHILDREN of two dogs if we actually bought the dogs. I could actually justify this level of greed if it were backed up by an equal amount of effort in the book overall, but it isn’t.

• Anyway, they only feature together, so you have to decide on two names that will fit in one space. It kind of reminds me of how they’ve drawn Merlin and Morgana - in one sprite. I’m guessing at some point there will be an option to allow Penelope to clothe them as well.

• Like most of the fandom has already said by now, Bastien and Mara can’t even be trusted with a pair of pups.

• If you don’t buy the pups, Penelope offers to have one of her friends “in the canine couture world” to adopt them.

• Here’s the parenting advice from all the in-laws!

Liam: Regina speaks of the importance of regulating sweet intake closer to bedtime which is true because a child on a sugar rush will transform into the Energizer Bunny and go on forever. Like, this is very much how a child on a sugar rush reacts to the notion of sleep:

Hana: This one seems to highlight Hana’s competitive nature, perfectionism and ambition, and I guess there could be a lesson there in that you need to give yourself time to grow into things you want to do, and that means allowing yourself the space to topple over or struggle once in a while, the space to make mistakes. But I doubt it because weren’t these the same people who deemed her a failure for things that were beyond her control??

Maxwell: Maxwell is sorta kinda called out in this one, both for being “peaceful looking” and for wrecking havoc with those House documents lol. I’m guessing Bartie Sr is here in our baby shower mostly to look suspicious. What exactly was in those House Documents, ol’ Bart?

Drake: Bianca gives us some age-old advice about sleeping while the baby sleeps, which is something my mother and aunt (who looked after me post-childbirth) swore by. They would insist I spent whatever time kiddo was sleeping to be when I got my shut-eye too, because if you don’t take that and pull an all-nighter feeding the child, it’s going to be near-impossible to function. But you really, really need to have lots of support around you during such times because that kind of schedule leaves you little to no time to do much else besides occasional eating, small routines and light exercise (thankfully the MC has staff and a strong support system who can help her). In this case Bianca quips that Savannah was the easy one, and Drake the really fussy one. Drake isn’t quite convinced (who are you kidding Drake you’re still fussy).

• You get two extra pieces of parenting advice from the rulers, pretty characteristic (at least in Auvernal’s case since we’re more familiar with their culture) of where they come from. Amalas’ is “know your baby’s moods, and you can spot a tantrum before it happens”. The Auvernese “pearls of wisdom” say “to show weakness is to admit defeat” - Jesus, these guys have lost already, then.

• Olivia now has plans for a dart playing game - where she plans to use her daggers instead. You can either refuse to join, or enthusiastically participate. The LI warns you to be careful in the second option.

• If you join in: Isabella and Amalas hit near-center, both claiming different things in the face of their defeat (Isabella claims Olivia’s dagger to be a “terribly balanced weapon”) and Amalas tries to throw Olivia off by claiming her “aim was off”. Both of them are clearly thrown off by the unfamiliar weapon. At this point Olivia counts on the MC to “show them what Cordonians are made of”. If you succeed, you get a glimpse of your LI going all John Mulaney on the foreign royals (“that’s my wife!”)

• If you don’t join in: the LI and the MC’s friends form a protective circle around her, and Olivia chooses to stick to the usual darts. Isabella and Amalas are both in their element, with tools they’re familiar with using on a dart board. Isabella’s is still just near the target, Olivia’s is even closer, and Amalas’ is the closest - almost knocking off Olivia’s dart.

• Either way, we’ve effectively pissed off Isabella who angrily asks for “best of two?” 🤭

• Time for presents!

• Uh oh. The rattle comes from Auvernal. And it’s the same rattle as the one on the book cover. Soooooo…what does that hint at? Will our hand be forced, somehow? And will we eventually have to make a secret pact with Monterisso to get out of it, since the narrative is really really trying to push Amalas as the better option? (maybe not, but it’s fun to theorize).

• I don’t trust Amalas but they clearly gave her the nicer gift (at least, a nicer explanation for her gift). It’s a blossom “from the oldest apple tree in Monterisso, a tree that Cordonia helped my people plant long ago”. She hints at a closeness that the countries shared way back and offers the gift as a way of asking if that could happen again. The story kind of reminds me of the Regatta one Liam told us in Book 1, where Cordonia helped its neighbours at sea with supplies, during a time when they were ravaged by storms.

• Eirik gives you a bust of his own head, Lerato and Lesidi give you glass bottles and Marguerite gives us money, which puzzles the LIs. (though culturally I’ve been accustomed to cash being given as gifts or even in blessing, esp by elders, and I know at least one or two other cultures where cash can be the norm for gifts too). Kiara confiscated Olivia’s gift which she argues would help with self-defence 🤭 which happens to be one of my favourite moments in this chapter, and reminds me of this post an artist made of the MC’s baby shower long back. Idk why everyone sleeps on Kiara’s sheer entertainment value coz that girl possesses it in droves.

•

From our in-laws, we get a gift for the nursery - a cot mobile to place above the baby’s crib. These things are incredibly useful in the initial few months of a baby’s life when their visual development, eye-hand coordination and control over head and neck muscles are just about beginning. (and it’s cute and fun. What’s not to like). Unfortunately…unlike the nursery itself and the crib, you don’t get a free option for the cot mobile. You get a royal and rustic option + plus a neutral one with stars that I liked, but you have to pay even for that lovely neutral one. I’m guessing that the first two things from our nursery were “essentials” and whatever else we get now will be considered additional perks, thus paywalling even the options that don’t fit into your “royal or rustic” theme.

Each of the in-laws refer to a local/Cordonian craftswoman who made cot mobiles for the LIs. Leo gleefully tells us that Liam’s had “sparkles for days”, Bianca teasingly acts secretive about Drake’s. Hana never even knew she had a mobile coz she hasn’t seen a lot of baby photos of herself (I’m not sure what it’s meant to be an indication of yet, but I’m taking note of it). The one that really puzzles me is Maxwell’s. The writers don’t bother telling us what Maxwell’s is and instead make the bizarre choice to tell us what Bertrand’s cot mobile was instead. Why…the hell…would a Maxwell stan be interested in THAT. The writers don’t even specify if it was a hand-me-down (why was a family that rich and titled giving their younger one hand-me-downs) - nope, somehow it was a better choice to let us know that Bertrand’s was “silver grapefruit spoons”.

They should have done this for Drake also then, no? Talk about Savannah’s mobile instead of his? But noooo, Drake is too important, right. So let’s have his mother act all coy about his but make sure the sequence still centered around him.

At this point the writers should just nip this entire series in the bud if they’re not going even to bother writing equally good romances for all the LIs. One decently-done romance route doesn’t a good romance book make.

• In the middle of all this, the LI calls the MC into the hedge maze, presenting her with their own gift - a deep blue baby blanket with gold embroidery. How very Cordonia of them xD

• It’s a cute free LI moment where they show you how much they appreciate you, even in the midst of all this chaos and pandering of nosy royals.

• Once we’re back, it’s time to see if we passed our little diplomacy exam with these guys. Depending on the points you have with them, they will either back down convinced that even a normal alliance would work with Cordonia, or they will pressurize you further.

• Interestingly enough in the failplay, Amalas’ responses seem to imply that she would have more open to the idea of simply an alliance with the rulers sans marriage, but you can’t tell yet whether this is the writers trying to indicate to us that she is the choice, or whether she just isn’t being as ham-fisted as the Auvernese are. They lack subtlety, she’s more persuasive, but is she still someone you can trust? Since we’ve only seen her like twice before this sequence, I can’t quite tell yet.

• Kdjhshshsjssj @ Liam confiscating Maxwell’s armory access pass.

• The sales of “that book about us that has Maxwell’s face on it” are fantastic, and the publishers want Maxwell to do a book tour, the first signing of which is in Lythikos.

• We’re in Lythikos…for a book tour. Not even because Olivia found some information there or whatever (though I’m sure that will come up at some point next chapter), we’re there for a book tour that could have been done ANYWHERE.

• Places we could be having this book signing:

- Ramsford: Yknow, the author’s birthplace which we haven’t bothered visiting since our first Beaumont Bash in Book 1.

- Castelserraillian: Yknow, like the seat of art and culture and literature in Cordonia?? If there is one place in all of Cordonia I could easily picture as a literary hub it would be this one.

- No Valtoria coz we’ve seen plenty of it.

- Applewood: Yknow, that place that has many farmers, lots of commoners, who doubtless would have read this story of a commoner woman who climbed the ranks into royalty and glory. Applewood even has a public library that Queen Eleanor and her son regularly supported and visited. I’m sure many of the commoners in Applewood would have found that story even a little inspiring.

- Hana’s mysterious Cordonian homeplace: Just because the team is whack and we deserved better. They could have really made an effort to show her other home somewhere, yknow, considering they did such an awful job of Shanghai the last time.

• At this point we’ve seen Lythikos more than we have seen any other estate in this story. Sure, we can all spout out all sorts of excuses for why - plot, intrigue, Olivia’s character development (work on your own female LI first, PB!), but it all comes back to the same point: that the team is more willing to rob Hana of her rightful space and place it on Olivia’s lap. Setting this in Lythikos is re about the fact that, now that Drake has had more than his fair share of space, it’s Olivia’s turn to fulfill the role of secondary character but be treated like a main (all while Hana is thrown in as their token female LI + default POC LI, but treated with far less respect from her writers than even a secondary character).

• Overall, this is meant to be a light chapter - which most Chapter 16s (except for Book 2) are. Chapter 16 tends to be sandwiched between intense sequences, and is often seen as the point where the group and the LIs and MC can have fun but relax from court intrigue as well. It was the Beaumont Bash in Book 1, Vegas in Book 3, now a baby shower in TRH Book 1.

• Hana meeting her parents again (especially on her own playthrough), was nice, I guess. A little extra time is spent during the cot mobile scene having her parents acknowledge how they’d failed her, and the narrative shows us glimpses of her nervousness and discomfort while having the parents state that if she would rather they leave, they will respect that. It’s a tiny bit more progress compared to all the times Lorelai was continually repeating her mistakes and thinking they could be fixed each time with a paltry apology. But it’s still not enough.

• For one, we have just 4 chapters left in a book where half the time we were pandering to Drake’s family for chapters on end. We’re 16 chapters too late in addressing this. I have zero faith that things will improve.

For another, Hana getting this type of validation from her parents isn’t something that should be restricted to the playthrough where she is married alone. In both cases she invited them along, so in both cases they should be showing an equal level of caring and tentetiveness.

For a third, the whole angle with her parents seems to have such a disconnect. It’s almost like the writers were trying to prove something but didn’t do enough work to make it all sound coherent. Like you have this somewhat-healing relationship, but even then you have these moments that just don’t seem to make sense within Hana’s narrative, like Lorelai giving you that generic answer about your feelings suddenly becoming positive the moment they place the baby in your arms (which, btw, doesn’t always happen), or Xinghai talking about Hana’s ambition but there’s hardly any indication of how they controlled the directions her ambition would take. Overall they all sound like nice sequences by themselves but very disconnected to Hana’s actual story.

Why Hana hasn’t seen many baby pictures is something I want to see more of. I’m hoping that the fact that we see Lorelai, Xinghai and Leo in all the playthroughs, means they may accompany us on the book tour and perhaps we will get Hana-centric flashbacks and Liam-centric ones too.

• With next week, we’ll have only three chapters left, the intrigue is still in its nascent stages, the pacing is grossly uneven, and most of the LIs still don’t have a clear-cut arc. Some may claim that, well, it’s a series so maybe everyone else will get their “arc” in the next book. Except that if that were the case, Drake’s playthrough shouldn’t have been having the kind of focus on family that it’s been having this entire book. Others may claim that, well, it’s okay coz the story is about the baby and the romance - but they didn’t exactly do any justice to either of those. So what was this whole book about then? Besides Walker worship?

• The holiday special for TRR…is this going to be in Lythikos? Again??? Isn’t it bad enough that I will be going into TRM foolishly hoping to see Castelserraillian to get fair rep but know I’ll be confronted with with the reality of duchies like Lythikos getting a lion’s share of the story??

• That’s it for this chapter, guys. Until Saturday!

#long post #trh quick thoughts #trh qts #the royal heir #king liam #hana lee #maxwell beaumont #trr kiara #olivia nevrakis #drake walker

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yukiwrites · 5 years ago

Text

Corrin, Being Supportive

Thank you so much for the support as always, @xpegasusuniverse! And Happy birthdayyy! :D<

Summary: Xander and Ryoma found themselves in a hidden room inside Corrin’s quarters. In there, they found a very unsettling amount of information regarding their allies’ relationships with one another, which Corrin dubbed as ‘Support Board’

Commission info HERE and HERE!

_______________________________

The Astral Realm.

No matter how grim the situation looked on the world outside; no matter how much time passed and how weary the soldiers were, the Astral Realm never changed.

After both hoshidan and nohrian army joined forces to fight alongside Corrin against their true enemy, the soldiers could feel the walls they had built around themselves fall one by one.

Be it inside the Astral Realm or during battle in Valla against their mysterious enemies, both armies mingled as one with Corrin standing at their center, eager to see everyone getting along.

It had been a most smooth transition, from decades-long enemies to fast friends in such a short amount of time. If one stopped to think about it, it would actually feel rather scary, but alas, there were more pressing matters to attend to. Like winning the war, for instance.

Enjoying the pleasant late afternoon climate, Crown Prince Xander of Nohr walked with decisive steps towards the Master's Quarters inside the AR, his frown deep as usual.

From a distance, High Prince Ryoma of Hoshido spotted his counterpart and, still not able to discern an actual annoyed frown from the usual frown, called out to him. "Prince Xander!" He called from afar, closing in their distance as the nohrian stopped on his tracks. "May I ask where are you going with such a fierce look in your eyes? Did the enemy infiltrate our base?"

"Why, Prince Ryoma," Xander blinked in almost surprise, his harsh expression not alleviating. "Forgive me if my perpetual frown has thrown you off -- I am merely taking a walk while enjoying the climate. I do not suppose you wish to join me?"

"A walk? Surely you jest, Prince Xander. Your steps were much too decisive to be simply walking aimlessly."

"Ah, I suppose you HAVE come to know me, after all." The Crown Prince flashed an almost smile, lifting his gaze to the large tree he had been making his way to. "I am actually heading to Corrin's quarters to retrieve something he borrowed but keeps forgetting to return."

Resuming their walk, Ryoma followed Xander closely. "Oh? Might I ask what it is?"

Xander shrugged slightly, keeping his eye on the path ahead. "It is merely a book, a very old one I have been meaning to read once more."

"A book... Very well." Not really believing what Xander was saying, but not finding any evidence to the contrary, Ryoma simply concurred as they made their way into the master's chambers, unabashedly opening the bedroom to start their search. "Could you enlighten me on its characteristics, Prince Xander? For example, the color of the cover..."

Looking through a bookcase, Xander went through all of the books stacked in there. "It is green."

"Very well..." Ryoma glanced at Xander's general direction before returning to his own search, near Corrin's desk.

A few minutes into the search and a green covered book was still nowhere to be seen until- "Oh, what do we have here..." Xander mused as he felt a draft coming from behind the bookcase.

Moving a specific book out of its way made the entire case whirr and emit crackling sounds, slowly moving out of the way to reveal a hidden chamber. "How fascinating." Xander said simply, stepping into the room with one hand over his chin.

Surprised, Ryoma jumped in behind Xander. "What's the meaning of this? A hidden room in Corrin's quarters? Did you know of this, Prince Xander-"

"I had an inkling, yes." The Crown Prince replied, looking at a very large cork board stapled at the wall facing the entrance to the small room.

Ryoma glanced at the board, then at the piles and piles of paper stacked over a secretary right beside it. "Is this perhaps the reason-"

"Nonsense, I truly am looking for the green book."

"... Right." Ryoma shifted his weight from one leg to the other. "Mayhap we should leave- this is betrayal of Corrin's trust."

"Betrayal? Such harsh words, Prince Ryoma. Unethical at best." Xander replied without so much glancing at the hoshidan, his eyes focused on the cork board and its contents.

There were... dozens of hand drawn portraits pinned onto it. Portraits of their most trusted allies from both hoshidan AND nohrian army alike. Upon closer inspection, they seemed to be divided precisely like that: hoshidans occupied one side of the board while nohrians governed the other, with a few neutral units amassing the middle: Azura, Jakob, Felicia, Kaze, Silas, Mozu as well as Corrin himself.

That wasn't the most impressive -- or rather, disturbing -- part of it, not by a long shot.

The portraits were connected to others by differently colored strings; hundreds of them. Red ones, green ones, blue ones, black ones... everything was meticulously organized, to the point of bringing a chill to both princes' bones.

"Wha-t... is the meaning of this?" Ryoma frowned deeply, feeling a primal urge to run away, his flight reflex blaring to take him out of there. His eyes fell upon the stacks of paper by the secretary while Xander examined the strings on the board.

He had always known Corrin to be a very... meticulous and prepared person. During their strategy lessons, Corrin would always take his time to prepare and position each unit after giving serious thought. It was no surprise that he would devise such an elaborate plan to unify their forces.

But, by the gods, the accuracy of it all was rather unsettling. Xander noticed right away the true correlation between the colored strings to the person's relationship with another's: His eyes had taken him to follow the red string connecting Silas and Hinoka, making him remember the day the knight and the hoshidan princess announced their engagement to everyone in camp.

The black line connecting Oboro and half of the nohrian soldiers made Xander nod in realization, as well. Black strings meant they were enemies, or at least people they wouldn't get along with. Red strings meant love... But how could Corrin have such an insight of people's hearts like that? Was he observing them all that intently?

"What about the green and blue ones..." Xander muttered to himself, using his index to help him navigate the cluster of strings. He could see that he, Leo, Camilla, Elise and Corrin himself were connected by green strings, so perhaps they meant familial bonds... "Or rather not," he mused as he saw the same green string connecting him to Ryoma. Perhaps it meant a budding trust, as opposed to the blue string... which he saw connecting his own portrait to Mozu, a girl from an abandoned village Xander had interacted once or twice.

Blue meant neutral ground, perhaps. Acquaintances, even.

"Prince Xander, you will not believe what is written in these documents." Ryoma broke the silence with a huff, his heart growing cold.

"Try me," the nohrian prince replied, focused on finding where the red string connected to his portrait led to.

The High Prince took a deep breath before reading the document aloud. "Day 254, I have come to the conclusion that I shouldn't have had paired Niles and Oboro to battle; they almost killed each other! Well, Oboro almost impaled Niles 'by accident', so I've decided to give up on seeing their bond grow further than this. She did get better while talking to Benny, though, so I might go back to see how she and Niles interact after her feelings cool down a bit. Day 255, onto Niles and Setsuna, then! I'm having very good vibes about these two, so I'm sure they can develop their bonds much faster and become closer than intended... Or perhaps, as close as I hoped! I hope their love blooms just like Subaki and Felicia's did, way back in Day 23... What a sight to behold!"

"What a cheery manner of speech," Xander commented, trying to ignore the blatant emotional manipulation going on with his little brother and their army, though it looked like not even Corrin realized how shrewd all of that sounded.

"This- this is...!" Ryoma almost dug a hole into the paper he held, his body shaking with rage. "Is he toying with us?!"

At that moment, the clatter of a door opening made both princes look over their shoulder to find the owner of the room gasping at the sight of them inside the hidden room.

"Oh! Whoops, I guess you two found out!" Corrin said with a carefree giggle, spots of red flushing his face. "I-"

"What's the meaning of this, Corrin? For how long have you been emotionally manipulating our family and allies like this?" Ryoma waved the paper in front of Corrin's face, making the dragon prince flinch.

"I must say I agree with Prince Ryoma here, Corrin. I did not think of you as someone to use such underhanded tactics-"

"Oh no, but that sounds so mean!" Corrin jumped to get the papers from Ryoma's hand, quickly organizing them back into their stack. "I just want to see everyone getting along, so I made a chart of sorts!"

Ryoma and Xander exchanged glances. "That is far from a mere chart, Corrin. It is a rather unsettling sight."

"Weh? B-but I took a long time to make it... See, I even color-coded the relationships-"

"I am aware of their meaning," Xander interrupted. "I still fail to understand how did you manage to gather so much personal information about our allies to the point of making such a... detailed report."

"I call it Support Board, thank you very much." Corrin pouted. "I just realized that our bonds usually grow stronger much faster whenever we're paired in battle! I mean, the thrills of such a life and death situation makes anyone drop their guard around someone who got them covered, right? And then they become fast friends! I just want people to get along so there won't be any more need of war..."

Ryoma scowled. "Our feelings do not matter, Corrin? By your logic, you are placing people from either side together to force a relationship-"

"H-huh? But I never forced anyone to go out of their way to buy rings and propose marriage, you know? I just found that they might get along well and see what happens... It ends up surprising me more often than not!"

By the sincerity in the dragon prince's words, Xander could see that despite the unsettling and somehow nauseating nature of the so-called Support Board, Corrin meant well. It still felt a bit, nay, largely disturbing, however.

Ryoma wasn't still convinced.

"I understand your reasoning, Little Prince-"

"Wait, I do not." Ryoma took a step forward. "This is no mere joke, Corrin. If the others found out about this, our entire army could collapse. We are building a fighting force based on mutual trust and confidence in YOU as our leader. To see that you are using this authority to set up 'friendly'," he made a disgusted sound, "interactions between the soldiers is manipulative at best, tyrannical at worst! You are looking deeply into the people's hearts and throwing them around to fit your whim."

Confused, Corrin looked up at his brothers. "I really think you're overreacting a bit, Ryoma. As you said, I may be using my authority to make people get along, but is that so bad? They're developing deeper bonds than they would have if I had left them alone! I'm just giving them the little push they need to interact and bridge the gaps between our nations through friendship and true love rather than, I dunno, forced marriages or something."

"True love?!" Ryoma hissed as Xander flickered his brow. "You are emotionally manipulating them- us!"

"Surely you cannot think we will find true love during battle because you have paired us with other people, do you, Corrin?" Xander crossed his arms, imposing. Corrin tilted his head to the side in confusion.

"But... aren't the two of you getting along reaaaally well with Charlotte," he pointed to Xander, then to Ryoma, "and Camilla? I only did the first push to make you interact, and now your feelings are doing the talking, are they not?"

Both princes widened their eyes, their memories with the aforementioned women flashing inside their minds.

It was true. Ryoma did feel attracted to Camilla's natural charms to the point of wanting to get to know her better to ultimately enjoy her company because of her personality instead. The same could be said for Xander's situation.

Frowning, the princes utterly despised to feel as though they were being used, but they couldn't deny that their hearts were truly doing the talking.

Was such behavior acceptable? Would they truly come to think of Corrin's Support Board as something that ultimately brings joy instead of creeping them out?

They started doubting their own feelings, not wanting to accept them simply because they found the idea of being pushed into the relationship unacceptable despite not ever feeling the push in the first place.

Corrin could almost hear the gears moving inside his brother's brains, smiling to himself due to another job well done. It wouldn't matter if they had found out about the Support Board.

They would follow along Corrin's directions... whether they wanted it or not.

"Heh," Corrin giggled darkly, enjoying the troubled expressions of his brothers. "Such fun."

#ryoma #xander #corrin #fire emblem fates #i'm crying this was so much fun to write #my writings #yuki's commissions

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equalstrashflavoredtrash · 6 years ago

Text

Study Buddies

a/n: random idea i had to get out of my head by writing down. heavily inspired by @honestsycrets and @lisinfleur recent 5 Crown Weekend.

warnings: high school au, dub-con (coercion), making out in the library, fingering

FF.net // Ao3 // Masterlist

Modern!Hvitserk X Reader // Vikings

word count: 1,734

(gif by @lisinfleur)

He was late. Well, of course, he was always late. You were foolish to think this one instance he wouldn’t make you wait. He probably got some satisfaction out of it, ambling along with the knowledge you were in the library, impatiently tapping your foot as you checked your watch.

Your teacher had assigned you as his tutor. Almost instantly you regretted volunteering for the the program once the name ‘Hvitserk Ragnarsson’ crossed her lips. Trying to keep a polite smile you accepted your fate and slowly made your way to the designated meeting spot in the library.

Eventually he showed up, explaining that he forgot his text book and his notes ...and his pen. So he sat next to you leaning over your shoulder to follow along with the diagrams you were explaining. He barely ever listened to anything you had to say and often interrupted you with random questions that in no way pertained to the subject at hand. Half of your time with him was spent redirecting the conversation back to the lesson.

This became a daily routine. He’d show up late unprepared and then annoy you at every chance he had. In class you had learned to tune out his occasional quips--as the class clown, he always had a comment to make--but now everything he said was directed at you and sometimes there was no way you could ignore him.

About two weeks into tutoring him, during an unseasonably warm fall afternoon you decided to shed your faithful hoody. Hvitserk was supposed to be filling out a worksheet when you tugged the too-warm fabric over your head and he made the unprompted comment, “You have a pretty nice rack.”

You face burned with heat as you disentangled yourself to shoot him a glare.

“I'm just saying you have nice tits, why you hiding them under frumpy sweaters?”

Fuming at the memory of his words you looked back at your watch and wondered where he could be. You were exactly where he suggested in the back of the stacks and yet he was not present. It was such a stupid deal, you never should’ve agreed, but he had tricked you.

“Let’s make bet,” he began, wearing his ever present smirk. “You think I won’t even get a C, right?”

You scoffed at the idea, “If that.”

“Ok then, here’s the deal: if I get a B or higher, I get to play with your tits.”

It seemed like such a stupid proposition and so easily in your favor, how could it backfire? You were well aware by now of his study habits and how much he understood the subject, it seemed like a sure thing. But it was your fault for underestimating a Ragnarsson.

There was already a crowd around the bulletin board when you approached that morning. Using your height to your advantage you wedged your way to the front, paying no attention to who you were pushing against.

You eyes easily found your own name, confirming what you expected--you passed with flying colors. Then you searched for his name. Resting your finger on the list you looked down the sheet till you touched the bold print reading Ragnarsson, Hvitserk. Dragging your arm to the right you followed the row to the final column.

PASSED

He couldn’t have.

Scanning back at the numbers, you quickly put together the scores and realize he had gotten a B+.

How could Hvitserk Ragnarsson earn such a high grade?

“Looks like I did pretty well, huh?” A voice spoke next to you. You whipped your head to the side, finding Hvitserk in the middle of the crowd to your right, you hadn’t even noticed he was there. “Guess I’ll see you in the stacks after sixth period.” With a wink he worked his way out of the crowd, leaving you standing there, dumbfound with one idea in your head.

He had cheated. You weren’t sure how but you know he had. Marching your way down the hall to the teacher’s office you went over your case in your head--you didn’t know exactly what he did but you were well aware enough of his study habits to know that he could not have gotten such high marks unaided.

“Mrs--,” you began as you entered the room when she cut you off.

“Just who I was hoping to talk to!” Your teacher seemed excited to see you, which threw you off kilter, chasing the matter at hand from your mind. “I spoke with Hvitserk earlier and he only had praise for your tutoring. He thanked me for pairing him with you, saying he wouldn’t have done so well on the exam without your help.” She smiled in a way that made you keep your mouth shut, scared to respond. “So don’t tell the administration but I’ve given you extra, extra credit. I know you only signed up for tutoring to put on your admissions, so I hope this helps.”

“Thank you ma’am,” You mumbled, unsure how to mention your qualms after such praise. Instead of bringing your suspicions forward, you chose to turn on your heel and leave her office, heading instead to face the boy that put you in this position.

You were pacing back and forth when he arrived. He just smirked, slowly approaching with his hands tucked into his pockets. The accusing words itched in the back of your throat but you couldn't bring them forth as he sauntered closer. Countering his movements, you backed away, not breaking eye contact until your shoulders butted against the bookshelf.

Hvitserk didn't say anything as he placed his palms flat on your hips. Slowly, he let his touch inch upwords, eventually catching the hem of your shirt. You gasped as his fingertips brushed against your midriff.

“Wait,” you hissed, grabbing his wrists before he was able to venture further.

He gave a slight laugh at your reaction, leaning in close before chiding, “Come on, you’re a smart girl. You didn’t really expect that I meant over the shirt, did you?”

You didn't respond with words, catching your bottom lip between you teeth. As his hands progressed you didn't fight their advancement. His thumbs rubbed along your ribs, just under the wire of your bra. You let out a shuddering breath, eye closed to avoid his smirk as your own palms rested on his biceps.

The entire expanse of his hand seemed to cover your breast, easily cupping them as he squeezed gently. It was Hvitserk’s turn to groan as messaged the soft tissue of your chest. His thumbs brushed over your hard nipples, teasing them before bring his index finger to pinch.

Certain you heard a crash, you whipped your head to the left, murmuring, “I think I hear someone.”

“Sure you do,” Hvitserk replied absently as he leaned in, bringing his lips to connect with your exposed neck. He nipped at the skin along your jugular as you whined.

“This wasn’t part of the deal,” you tried to state with a firm tone, but still your voice wavered.

Hvitserk ignored your words, shifting his arms to raise your shirt up, exposing your breast to the open air. Moving from your neck to your collar, he let his lips drop to your breast bone. He kissed and nipped at your skin while tugging the cups of your bra away, freeing your nipples. The way he handled your body made you blush--like you should be ashamed--but still you melted with every touch. Your mind was divided and the part that didn't want him to stop was winning out.

With a pop of his lips, Hvitserk released your nipple, abating his onslaught as you pawed at his shoulders. Rising up, he met your eye. His heavy breaths brushed against your lips before you leaned forward and captured his mouth in a kiss. This was not some caste, loving kiss, he didn't let it be as he pulled against you. Taking your bottom lip between his teeth, he nipped, distracting you from the way his palm slid down your belly and beneath your waistband.

By the time you had noticed and grabbed his forearm, his hand was already well nestled within your panties. Hvitserk’s warm fingers slid between your lips as your head dropped back, butting against the metal structure of the stack you were propped against.

“You like that?” He laughed, dragging the pad of his middle finger just to make you moan. “For someone so worried about being caught, you’re not very good at keeping quiet.” he teased in your ear, pressing harder to cause your voice hitch.

Shifting his arm he brought his touch to dance around your center. You grabbed his arm bracing yourself as his finger slid inside you.

“Want to know how I cheated?” He husked in a rasping voice, his lips tickling the shell of your ear as his hand began to rock inside of you. “It’s nothing elaborate.” Part of you wanted to tell him to shut up and focus on finger fucking you but you weren’t able to verbalize this request at the moment. “My brother took the class last semester. Turns out the professor doesn't write a new test every year.”

You gasped, pinching your eyes shut as he curled his fingers to brush against something wonderful inside you. There was a coil in your stomach that tightened with his manipulation. You felt like you were at breaking point when he admitted, “I didn’t need your tutoring, I knew I was gunna pass no matter what.”

The coil inside you snapped, and you came without warning, almost shouting with release if Hvitserk didn't muffle your noises by capturing your lips in a kiss.

Hvitserk chuckled lightly as he pulled away, taking his hand out of your panties as you tries to steady yourself on jelly legs. Your mind was still reeling, blind to your surroundings as you came down from your high when he spoke, “Next time you can play with me.” He brought your hand to the front of his jeans, leading you to cup something very stiff.

“Don’t get your hopes up,” you snapped, yanking your hand out of his grasp. “I still don’t like you.”

“Well, next time you feel like hating me, you know where to find me.” You rolled your eyes as he winked. “Until then, I’ll see you tomorrow for another study session.”

(i do have ideas for more parts if people really want it...)

@beautifulramblingbrains @ariwolf14 @titty-teetee @whenimaunicorn@sweetvengeancee @ivarinleatherpants @tiyetiye@romanchronicles @oddsnendsfanfics@murmelinchen @buckybarnesisalittleshit@laketaj24@ivarslittlebadgirl @readsalot73@imgoldielikehawn@ivarsshieldmadien@ceridwenofwales @grungyblonde @honestsycrets@lisinfleur @athroatfullofglass @westcoastselkie [[if you want to be tagged for vikings stuff in the future, leave a reply]]

#hvitserk #hvitserk imagine #hvitserk x reader #hvitserk ragnarson #hvitserk lothbrok #my writing #smut #hvitserk smut

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atinyidea · 6 years ago

Text

Magic Is In The Heart | Ravenclaw Hongjoong | 2

→ ml!

→ note! in this fic, Hongjoong’s reader (Sunshine) is a male

→ 223 bullet points!

→ Half-Blood.

→ Sixth Year.

→ Prefect.

→ Ravenclaw Quidditch Captain.

→ Best Class: Transfiguration

→ Worst Class: Arithmancy

→ Favourite Class: Defence Against The Dark Arts

→ Least Favourite Class: Arithmancy

he classifies himself as a half-blood even though three-quarter blood is more accurate

“just doesn’t sound nice”

he would say

his mother came from a long line of pureblood wizards

while his father was a half-blood wizard born to a wizard and a muggle

it’s all very complicated

so Hongjoong simply says “half-blood” affectionately

his father was in Ravenclaw

his mothers family seem to mainly be in Gryffindor

although his mother was in Hufflepuff

his family didn’t particularly care which house he was placed in

but they were proud of him nonetheless

he is an only child

only has one cousin

he’s seven years younger than him though

Hongjoong was sad

finding out that he’d only be coming to Hogwarts

just as Hongjoong was leaving

he made it a point to ask one of his younger friends to keep an eye out for him when he came up

natural leader

became a prefect in the fifth year

so it was natural for him to become Ravenclaw’s Quidditch Captain in his sixth year

first year

one thing to note about his parents was that they were quite strict

and because they lived in a muggle town

they were accustomed to muggle technology

like phones and game stations and televisions

but

Hongjoong wasn’t allowed a smartphone

or a phone in general

until he was an official teenager

(he got an iPhone for his thirteenth birthday)

so as an eleven-year-old

not knowing anyone because all his friends seemed to be younger than him

he took a Nintendo DS on the train with him

because he could get bored easily

sadly for him

his father had pulled a small prank on him and switched out the DS card that held at least ten different games on it

for a card

with one game on it

called

‘Lateral Puzzles’

more than half of which

Hongjoong had already completed

so that was something to look forward to

when he found a compartment

there was a boy in there already

dressed in colourless robes already

it was safe to assume the boy was a first year like him

sure enough

the two of them became friends

after the boy introduced himself as Seonghwa

Seonghwa had taken an interest in Hongjoong’s DS the second he took it out

asking all sorts of questions

which Hongjoong was more than happy to answer

the two of them talked for a long time

before Hongjoong decided he’d taught Seonghwa enough about the DS

for him to play with it while he changed into his robes

when he returned

the discussion of houses

Hongjoong, coming from a family so diverse in their Hogwarts houses, didn’t have a house in mind

and the two of them bonded over the fact they really couldn’t care less

sticking together, talking the whole way

shared a boat with two new people, ‘Mimi’ and ‘Jisoo’

who he instantly got on well with

sat there grinning

talking quietly with Jisoo

watching Seonghwa and Mimi bicker all the way to the great hall

before they had to split up

since Seonghwa had to move away

Hongjoong grabbed him

“we’ll stay friends no matter our house, yeah?”

he was strangely protective over his new found friendship

was a bit nervous

shy lil bub

“of course”

Hongjoon’s heart: uwu

the sorting hat put him in Ravenclaw

because the sorting hat saw his potential in creative thinking and with the guide of Ravenclaw house he would be able to bounce off other creative minds to think better

because he was already friendly and hardworking and daring and ambitious

and he would grow and flourish better in Ravenclaw

Hongjoon didn’t mind though, already planning out his letter back home to his father

he made friends easily on the table and with his roommates

but stuck with Seonghwa like they promised

(as well as Mimi and Jisoo)

classes

was good at flying lessons straight away

having flown before with his parents and cousin

very good at quidditch

but due to the rule

was only allowed to try out for quidditch during the second year

became captain in his sixth year

Hongjoong is good at the core subjects

he always gets good grades

especially excels in Transfiguration

enjoys Defence Against the Dark Arts the most

Professor McGonagall is his favourite teacher

don’t tell Madam Hooch

actually struggled with potions in the beginning

but Seonghwa helped him a lot during first year

Hongjoong is very grateful

when it came to picking the additional subjects

with his Ravenclaw Cap™️ on

he decided he was going to pick four of the five options

Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Ancient Runes and

...

Arithmancy

bad decision there Hongjoong

hates

Arithmancy

a set of confusing number systems, different to any of the number systems e grew up with

(he still has no idea how there could be different number systems,,,, they're all the name numbers!!!)

he gets through it on his proficiency in Divination

Arithmancy is still his worst subject

Professor Vector is cool though

third and fourth year

second year? uneventful

third year? moderately eventful

Hongjoong made new friends with the boys who crashed into their train compartment

(Wooyoung, San and Yunho)

(They pulled a prank on Jungho and his friend)

(Jongho’s friend lovingly dubbed ‘Sunshine’ by San as childhood nickname)

San grinned

“Do you mind if we stay here? We decided to prank my brother but we forgot his friend, Sunshine, was in there too and now we’re running form two very angry firstys”

Hongjoong shook his head in disbelief

a smile on his lips

but let them stay anyway

back in the Ravenclaw tower

Hongjoong finally met Yeosang

Hongjoong hadn’t spent much time in Ravenclaw tower during his second year

meaning there weren’t many chances for him to meet anyone new

but he and his friends (the new ones too) had stayed in the great hall longer than they normally would

so he was heading to the common room a little later than everyone else

which he didn’t mind

meant it was quiet for once

Hongjoong didn’t think anyone would be down in the common room

seeing as it was almost midnight now

(too much fun in the great hall + the east courtyard = almost midnight)

but lo and behold

Yeosang!!

sat in one of the comfy chairs

near the bookshelf alcove

Hongjoong, being Hongjoong

tripped over a book on the floor

making noise

bringing attention to himself as well as scaring the living daylights out of Yeosang

Yeosang let out an actual shriek

so did Hongjoong

“sorry! I was trying to be quiet”

“looks like it.”

Hongjoong only grinned

he got up and made his way over to Yeosang, sitting on a chair opposite him

“I’m Hongjoong”

“Yeosang”

“What are you reading?”

they spent a good hour talking about the book

heading down the spiral staircase in the middle of the common room towards their dorms

making a deal to sit together at breakfast the next morning

new friend: achieved

of course.

this confused their friends the next morning

but they did sit with each other!

at the Ravenclaw table!

Hongjoong and his friends usually congregated at the Slytherin table, since the majority of them were in Slytherin

(And Yeosang usually sat with his Hufflepuff friend Mingi)

but that morning they sat together

talking about books

and classes

then the topic of friends came up

and Hongjoong invited Yeosang to sit with him and his group from then on

“you can sit with us, you know, from now on. we’re friends now”

“can I bring a couple of friends?”

“yeah! you can never have too many friends”

so yeah third year! big friend group!

in fourth year however

Hongjoong officially met Jongjo’s best friend

(and Jongho started sitting with them properly)

Sunshine was, well,

very fiery

funny

and also very cute

in comparison to Jongho

Sunshine was tall

he was taller than Hongjoong too

like Yunho tall

did he mention cute?

Hongjoong doesn’t recall when his crush on Sunshine was a thing

but he spent his fourth year trying to get everyone in their new group to stop trying to kill each other

and only really admired from afar

Seonghwa: just talk to him

Hongjoong: yall hear summ?

fifth year

was made male Ravenclaw Prefect

super proud beb

his father teared up when the letter came

shined the badge every night coming up to the new term

Hongjoong: Dad? TF?

Hongjoong’d Mum: S t o p

amazing family

never a dull moment

tried not to looked shocked when Seonghwa boarded the train with a prefects badge

it’s okay Joong

Seonghwa was shocked too

made friends with the female Slytherin Prefect too

“Pepy”

she’s cool

doesn’t stand for Wooyoung’s, or San’s, shit

mad respect

shares grins with her when they witness Seonghwa and Mimi try to talk without blushing

the teasing between Hongjoong and Seonghwa can get annoying

Pepy usually just leaves when they go at it

Seonghwa: Sunshine!

Hongjoong: Mimi!!

He finally works up the courage to actually talk to Sunshine in fifth year

awkward lil beb is still awkward though

O.W.L.s

Charms: [O]utstanding

Transfiguration: [O]utstanding

Herbology: [O]utstanding

Defence Against the Dark Arts: [O]utstanding

Potions: [E]xceeds [E]xpectations

Care Of Magical Creatures: [E]xceeds [E]xpectations

Astronomy: [A]cceptable

Divination: [O]utstanding

Ancient Runes: [O]utstanding

Arithmancy: [P]oor

poor Joong cried when he saw the Poor

still doesn’t know if they were sad tears or tears of relief because he no longer was obligated to take Arithmancy

sixth year (current)

in sixth year he elected to take Alchemy

with Seonghwa and Mimi

and Pepy!

and Sunshine made it a thing™️ to support Ravenclaw instead of Slytherin during their quidditch match

cocky Hongjoong after Ravenclaw wins the match

“are you my lucky charm?”

it’s going to be interesting

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ariestarfairy · 6 years ago

Text

who did it better

It’s the age-old debate, granted I’m a little bit late to the party but my thoughts are not. It’s the Who Did It Better? Sailor Moon Edition! The epic battle of moon versus moon! Now keep in mind no matter what I say it is just an opinion, I don’t expect everyone to agree with it, this is Sailor Moon after all, not science. Disagree but be civil alright? Before I start this I was watching Sailor Moon Classic and reading the Sailor Moon manga roughly side by side. When I say I was reading the manga I mean not the manga that you know as manga but little comic book versions that were done chapter by chapter. I want you to also know that I was watching the Classic dubbed version and the errors in the dubbed version translated to the comics as well so at least it was consistent. When I watched the Classic subtitled version I was also reading a better and truer version of the manga (and it was actually a manga) alongside it. So why bother telling you this? I want you to know that my assessment of Sailor Moon Classic and Sailor Moon Crystal are not coming from a place of 90s nostalgia. That’s what a lot of people tend to argue in these debates, and because Crystal follows the manga for what it’s worth I can’t be accused of having that 90s nostalgia for Classic. So let’s break down the categories. Story Art Music Mythos Character likability Character development Ability/Power Growth Pacing I think I have hit most of the categories that tend to come up in a lot of these debates so let's go through them one by one. In terms of story, Sailor Moon Classic takes this category. The reason why Classic takes it over Crystal has everything to do with the fact that Crystal’s story is little more than a regurgitation of the manga and not a very good one. I’d almost rather read the manga for the extra bits that Crystal leaves out, it might not seem important but those little bits add up when telling the story of Sailor Moon. The first story arc of Crystal was already rough, but it turned into a dumpster fire when they tried to execute the Shitennou romance with the Inner Senshi. Classic told it’s own story and I think the execution overall is much better, Crystal felt like it was all over the place, especially in the first two seasons. The third season was better by miles, but it tripped out of the gate when it should have come sprinting out of the gate making it feel like a weak cash grab. No doubt it is, much like it’s shounen brother Dragon Ball Super. In terms of art Sailor Moon Classic also takes this category. Okay so it is not always consistent and it is not up to present-day standards, but that would be an unfair comparison. Sailor Moon Classic came out in the 90 and Sailor Moon Crystal came out in the 20-teens. They ought to be judged based on the standards for their own time right? If I judged Classic against the manga then yes the manga would win, but this is anime vs anime here and the quality for Crystal was just far below what it should have been, the inconsistency is way more jarring than in Classic, and the CGI transformations were cheap and they took me out of the moment. Even season to season they have a hard time staying consistent with the animation, granted season 3 was again an improvement over one and two, but my understanding is that there will be more changes with season 4 (the movie releases). For the music category, Sailor Moon Classic takes it yet again. The only thing I like about Sailor Moon Crystal as far as the music goes is some of the orchestrated stuff, I think that is better than Classic, but overall none of the songs are memorable, none of the transformation music is memorable, most people immediately think Moonlight Densetsu when they think of Sailor Moon and I can honestly say that there was maybe one song I personally enjoyed from Crystal and that was Eternal Eternity. The rest of the OP and ED songs were just forgettable honestly. In the mythos category, finally Sailor Moon Crystal takes it home for the win with the help of the manga because I did think the mythos in the manga was handled better than in Crystal, but Crystal tried. We actually understand our enemies, we know their history, we know their real motivation. Just looking at the first arc of each story as an example in Crystal we learn that Beryl wasn’t just some evil entity without a cause for the sake of being one like in Classic. We understand why she was so enamored by Endymion, where it wasn’t really clear before. She was a witch from Earth who was in love with Endymion and heart broken when he fell in love with Princess Serenity. We learn that the Shitennou were once loyal to the Prince Endymion, but their minds were poisoned against him. We get to see the darker side of Serenity’s anguish over losing Endymion. And one thing I liked was when they actually went to the moon in order to learn all of this history as opposed to being ejected into a different dimension by Kunzite which was just strange. I also like that we learn that all of the Senshi are princesses in their own right and get their powers from their respective castles and they have their own gowns which are awesome and I hope to one day see in Crystal. So congrats to Crystal and the manga by extension for the mythos. For character likability, Sailor Moon Crystal also takes this category (Crystal might be catching up). For whatever reason so many characters in Classic had their personalities altered to either extreme levels or shitty levels. Mamoru was a total dick and I can see why so many people dislike him, the Classic version of Mamoru was a real jerk especially in season one where he would make fun of Usagi’s weight and he was just borderline verbally abusive...well maybe not borderline, he was. Mamoru in the manga and in Crystal would never talk to Usagi or anyone that way, he may have teased her, but he was never cruel to her and you could see that he loved her much more in Crystal than you can see it in Classic. Usagi, don’t get me wrong I love Usagi, but it’s almost like she reboots every season, just about. We see her grow in one season and she’s just as immature, childish, and insecure in the next season. She’s far more mature in Crystal, even though she is clumsy and a bit of a crybaby at times, though when she grows she grows. Rei is just a straight up bitch in Classic and Chibi-Usa never stops being annoying, the only seasons I liked Chibi-Usa in were the seasons when she wasn’t there. She’s so much better in Crystal and in the manga, she and Usagi have a stronger bond and they care more for each other, and Chibi-Usa does what she can to cheer Usagi up as well. They are not opposing forces as much as they are in Classic. Michiru and Haruka are also woefully changed from the Crystal and manga version. In Crystal they want to work with and to the same ends as Sailor Moon and the others, Haruka desperately loves her princess and you can see how heartbroken she is when she can’t save her or when she fails her (especially in the manga). In the Classic they treat Sailor Moon and the others like they are in the way like they have to earn their respect, they often have different agendas from the Inner Senshi, and they come off as double agents too. Character development. Sorry, I have to hand this to Sailor Moon Classic, this is what I was dreading with Sailor Moon Crystal and anyone who has read the manga and is being honest with themselves should agree that the characters in Crystal and the manga are very much underdeveloped. Their histories, their personalities, their quirks are watered down and when you think you’ve gotten to know one character half a dozen more characters pop up to push them to the back burner. The Inner Senshi are quickly pushed aside when the Outer Senshi show up and you have even more Senshi show up in later arcs that the only characters you really get to know are Usagi, Mamoru, and Chibi-Usa. The others barely get a moment to shine. Ability and power growth goes to Sailor Moon Crystal. I always felt like the other Senshi were constantly lagging behind Sailor Moon in abilities, power growth, and transformations in Classic whereas they grow when Sailor Moon grows in Crystal so we get to see more abilities, transformations, and powers. Even Mamoru gets to be badass in a way that he wasn’t in Classic with his roses, he gets Tuxedo La Smoking Bomber which is pretty badass looking in spite of the name. Pacing is a tie! The pacing is pretty shitty for both of the shows, we can all agree on this much I think. Sailor Moon Classic was running alongside the manga so it kind of had an excuse, it had to have fillers so the manga could catch up. Still, it was stuffed with fillers, some of them I liked and they were fun, some of them were unnecessary and added nothing. Sailor Moon Crystal blows by really quickly, so fast you feel like you don’t get to know the characters very well, you don’t get a flushed out story, in fact, pacing contributes to the reason why Crystal fails in other categories and it kind of has the manga to thank for it. The Overall Winner is! Sailor Moon Classic!

#sailor moon #sailor moon crystal #sailor moon classic #moonvsmoon

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sobdasha · 4 years ago

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i got caught up with this not because i did better but because i’ve had no time/watched some tv

War for the Oaks, Emma Bull I began reading this book at the same time as The Innkeeper's Song, listed below. I started out dragging my feet on this one and racing through TIS. But one book got progressively more amazing while the other book got progressively less impressive and my better book is this one. This was the roomie's first brush with urban fantasy, and one of her friends got her a second-hand first edition paperback, and so she talked about it a lot until I finally picked it up and she said "Uh but also I haven't read it in forever so I uh. Don't know how it holds up." (She rightly fears me because as you will have noticed I am a Very Particular Reader.) Reasons I disliked this book at first: - fashion choices that scream "1980s" and fashion choices that scream "lesbian" are incredibly similar and guess which of the two I am not getting, seeing as this was published in 1987. - Eddie is breaking up with her garbage boyfriend which is good but she has an incredible amount of chemistry with Carla which is disheartening given that I know I won't get sapphics and Eddie will end up dating some other boy with whom there is no chemistry. - This is a book about rock-n-roll bands I don't know any of these songs (okay I might know these songs but I don't know artists or titles so I may as well not know any of these songs) it's kinda wasted on me. - oh boy I'm so excited to watch her and the phouka fight like Kagome and Inuyasha or any other pair with this dynamic yaaaaay /sarcasm Reasons this came to be a Good Read: - Everyone dresses so goddamn queer in this book that you know what, everyone except that jerkass Stuart is queer. He's garbage so he can be straight or whatever. It's my reading experience I do what I want. There's no way these people aren't bi. Also it's canon because everyone takes one look at the phouka and assumes he's gay. …………………………with slurs but still. - Good supporting cast. - I both failed to give the phouka a deep voice and also to sustain a Stereotypical Gay voice (which, the dialogue will totally 100% support), but I did accidentally voice him with Tatum's dub of Tomoe from Kamisama Kiss which was completely appropriate in the "vaguely gay vaguely British unambiguously prissy" department, and also entertaining because it reminded me of the dynamics in that anime but, y'know, better. - I almost gave up when the romance hit hardcore but it turned out later that was actually a fake-out that was meant to be garbage and set us up for the endgame much later, by which point Eddie and the phouka actually had the same level of chemistry as Eddie and Carla, so I could actively enjoy the ship. A win! Anyway it was fun. It may not have aged the best in the sense that it strove to be accurate to time and place (see: homophobic slurs), but the character dynamics held up pretty dang well. I would definitely read this again and enjoy myself; in fact I plan to.

The Innkeeper's Song, Peter S. Beagle I was very excited to read this because I was so blown away by The Last Unicorn but the more I read the more disappointed I got. Half the time I feel like that weeb who is like "hello I only like your fanfic you wrote when you were 13 and high on pixie stixs, all your stuff now sucks", and half the time I tell myself, "Maybe there is a reason I've only ever heard of The Last Unicorn and had no idea he'd actually written other books." As you have probably picked up by now, I have a knee-jerk dislike of first person PoV where it must prove itself worthy to me first, despite the fact that I like plenty of things written in first person. I also have a knee-jerk dislike of "I will change the narrator every chapter and announce loudly who it is instead of doing it subtly but unmistakably in the content of the text itself." This book had both. Despite all my harsh judgment, it would be incorrect of me to say that this writing choice is not valid. That this writing choice cannot be used to amazing effect. I do not believe that is what happened here. I did not feel it was adding much to the story to begin with (other than being the shortest and straightest path to advancing a narrative with many fronts), and I was definitely unimpressed when we got to the string of chapters, all of them less than a page and some no more than a paragraph, during the orgy scene where the 3 women have sex with 1 teen boy who's been thirsting after them, and they pay him a lot of worshipful attention in the orgy even though none of them actually like him, and also this is when we reveal one of the women is a man in disguise in the most confusing way possible so my cringe got even deeper as I waited for Beagle to fuck up a trans storyline. (It was literally just "I'm on the run so I'm magically dressing as a girl" but it took a really long time to clarify that after.) In addition to not liking the narrative structure, I just wasn't interested or invested in the actual plot. It didn't feel very urgent or important and at the end I was like "what even happened and also why did it happen." I was underwhelmed. I was definitely the wrong audience for this book. Oh also because I was not enjoying myself I started to get really irrationally annoyed by the way fantasy fauna and flora would have fantasy names and they would be italicized. In a first person PoV. Where the narrator is literally speaking the language that this word is native to. It half felt pretentious, and half highlighted what felt like a loose thread: everyone is literally narrating to someone (presumably collecting the story, after everyone has gone their separate ways) and this has all been woven together into a proper narrative, but our story collector is absent despite addresses to such a person. What purpose does this serve? Does it make it more ~authentic~ fantasy? Because I don't buy it. Now my suspension of disbelief is snapped; I'd have preferred it was either left out entirely, or made into a brilliant framing device like in The Name of the Wind.

Giant Bones, Peter S. Beagle This one was short stories "set in the same universe as The Innkeeper's Song", which basically meant some city names were reused, as well as all those italicized fantasy names and the "I am narrating my story to an audience in-story" frame. You know, all the things I didn't particularly care for. I pressed on to see if there was anything I might like, but since I can't remember, I assume there wasn't. Because this left me wanting, and the title was Giant Bones, I went to reread Conservation of Shadows by Lee instead, starting with "The Bones of Giants," which was greatly preferable, so much more my speed. That's when I did the write-up for the last round of books lol.

Nimona, Noelle Stevenson This has been on my list for Forever but I'm bad at reading new books. Anyway! Nimona was very good!! It felt, hm, very self-indulgent in the way that is amazing, where the creator gives themself whatever they want and the work turns out brilliantly because of it. I didn't think I was into friends to enemies to lovers but apparently I love it wen Stevenson handles it (see: She Ra reboot). Speaking of She Ra, I probably would have figured out where the end game was going if I'd read Nimona before looool. I know people referenced it when they talked ships but I just….didn't...pay enough attention. There was found family stuff I enjoyed, dad stuff, I'm finding that I am liking a lot of takes on monster girls, etc. Anyway it gave me a lot of feelings, it was funny, it was good, I need to get a copy.

The Dragon Pearl, Yoon Ha Lee The first time I talked about this book I mentioned something about the pacing and suspending disbelief or whatever, but I want to note that this time the pacing felt perfect and the plot didn't seem weird at all, it flowed very smoothly. I don't know if that's because it was a reread and I knew where it was going, or because I just read it awkwardly the first time. Anyway. Something that stood out to me this time is that, near the end, I realized this story is a bit animated Disney Mulan. There's even the "you broke this you broke that you impersonated a soldier but also you saved China so thanks" bit. Where The Dragon Pearl is wildly different from other Mulan-type stories that I like (see: Monstrous Regiment) is that it is entirely ungendered. (There are some mentions of gender in the book. These amount mostly to, "most foxes choose to be female because Tradition but one of my cousins decided to be male like my brother and no one mocks him for it" and "official name tags also include handy signifiers of which personal pronouns a person prefers.") What I'm trying to say is, a lot of other stuff when dealing with/trying to deconstruct gender stereotyping, ends up reinforcing it in a way. In order to illustrate why the stereotypes are wrong, they end up repeating the stereotypes a lot in order to argue against them. The Dragon Pearl, on the other hand, is genderless in a way that doesn't reinforce the gender binary. There are no gendered clothes. There are no gendered bathrooms. There are no gendered hairstyles or accessories. There are no gendered actions or emotions or stereotypes. There are no gendered bodies (the differences highlighted between Min and Jang-who-she's-shapeshifting-into are of build ie, height, center of gravity, not of private bits). No plot points revolve around the maleness of the person Min is impersonating; no plot points revolve around the femaleness of Min. And they/them? It's never explained why any person uses that pronoun. They just do so that's just how it is. I just think this is amazingly neat and I wanna applaud Lee for this finesse.

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, Mackenzi Lee I put this on my list because Queer and people were recommending it, but it was not well-advertized to me. I was expecting shallow teen romance, but dressed in historical clothes and unsubtly, unabashedly, unashamedly GAY. So I was expecting some gay. I was not expecting gay pining I actually enjoyed, I was not expecting call-outs for privilege of wealth and class and sex and color, I was not expecting the drama of the romance to not be stupidly fabricated misunderstandings but instead be driven by the need for character development and personal growth, I had forgotten I was expecting people of color, people with disabilities, badass women, I was not expecting a nuanced call-out of ableism ("I don't believe I need to be well to be happy", etc). I was not expecting a reversal of gender stereotypes that avoided saying "X gender is bad." Like, Monty is the team weakest link. Monty faints at the sight of blood. Monty is romantic and emotional and swoons at the slightest provocation. Monty uses his wiles to seduce people, that's the main skill he actually brings to the party. Monty cries. Aside from probably Monty's asshole dad who hates him for being gay, no one else nor the narrative calls these traits out as being Feminine (And Therefore Bad). Like, haha, We All Know These Are All Stereotypes Of Women At The Time, but no one says it. I find there's something really nice about no one saying it. Meanwhile, Percy and Felicity are competent and cool and I heart them. (What the hell, I heart Monty too. He really grows on you. He's so soft and in love and pathetic.) Anyway going back to the privilege thing, I love that Percy and Felicity and others constantly call Monty out on his privilege and refuse to coddle him over it. But they also care about him and they are very tender to him, not because of his privilege, but because he is a person who deserves basic person things, when he has his own issues. Your issues don't excuse your behavior, but yikes we deeply underestimated the sheer depth of your PTSD and we're gentler with you because of it. So try to stop being an ass. This book is just super wholesome and I can already tell this will be one of my new go-to's when I need a comfort book. Like Ancillary Justice etc.

The Gentleman's Guide to Getting Lucky, Mackenzi Lee This is not a fanfiction in the sense that is it written by the author and not a fan, but you need to understand, as part of me selling this to you as earnestly as I can, this is a fanfiction set after The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue which involves hijinks as Monty and Percy try and fail hilariously to have their first time having sex together, Felicity tries to wingman, there are miscommunications and nervous breakdowns and tender resolutions and it is absolutely a perfect indulgence. Because it was written by the actual author everyone is 100% in character and the narrative voice is spot-on. Kudos!

The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy, Mackenzi Lee Ace/aro Felicity???? ACE/ARO FELICITY!!! TBH I only vaguely remembered the descriptions for this one, ie "this time it's lesbians," and I was reading this going "there is a suspicious lack of lesbians but so much platonic vibes and also…..maybe…..maybe…????" and like I got both lesbians AND ace/aro Felicity????? Lee wrote this book? As a gift? For me???? I cannot believe I was blessed with "not like other girls"!Felicity as a vehicle for calling out the internalized misogyny inherent in the Not Like Other Girls mindset, and it is glorious. You can like pretty dresses and running around doing science, or you can hate dresses and only love science, or you can only like pretty dresses, or you can like whatever the heck you want in whatever combo, doesn't matter you're still a girl you're still valid and this shit isn't mutually exclusive. Much as I don't wear makeup (I've slowly learned to wear dresses again) in real life, gosh I love Johanna for being like "I love dresses and I love science and what if I was a badass adventurer but also got to be rescued a lot" because that was bitty me. Gimme a princess dress and a sword and a bow and arrows but also a tower to be rescued from and then various adventures. I want it both ways! And that's okay!! Also this is a critique I have apparently wanted since at least 3rd grade, see this proof from my daily journal prompts, I apologize for my lack of attention to spelling and forming letters: "Girls are what ever girls are. Girls like different things so I con't judge them all. Some girls like barbies. Just becaus you my not like barbies dosn't mean those girls aren't girls, it means they like more things that hove barbies. I like nintendo and I'm a girl." Apparently I was a Not Like Other Girls who thought Other Girls were still extremely valid. (that's kind of hilarious though because like, child, you had Barbies and didn't hate Barbies, you are just bad at playing with dolls and props. You're also bad at playing Nintendo.) Other stuff specifically, hm, it was refreshing to not have "I am skinny and perfect and clearly ugly" or even "I am legitimately ugly." Instead we have, "You do realize my torso is a solid rectangle, it laughs at this corset which I guess we are going to put on anyway, also my football player shoulders are going to literally pop the sleeves off that dress" and "I am built like a corgi dog, this is simply a fact of my proportions." Like, Felicity definitely has Issues with her traditional femininity and lack thereof, but I feel like it was never specifically tied to "my body shape is ugly." Also to go back to this book being written for me personally. You know they always say to write things that only you could write, that are self-indulgent, write what you want to see? It's really hard to do without a template to follow. Right before I picked up this book I realized that maybe The Thing Only I Would Write would be saying "a Skadi-and-Njord marriage is in fact a valid happy ending," but I've never seen that before and I don't know what it would look like even if I kind of understand the concept. All the media I consume, if not ending in romantic soulmates, is at least found family. If you are a loner, if you like being alone, your happy ending is to get a manic-pixie-dream-anything (girl, grandson, grandma, dog, whathaveyou) and integrate back into being social. There are no happy endings where a loner stays alone, where you get married but live separately and see each other very rarely because you love them but can't stand to live with them and you need to be alone to exist as you. And Mackenzi Lee just up and wrote it. It's valid to want to live in a house by yourself filled with bookshelves and have friends. It's valid for a girl to marry another girl who is a pirate and sails around most of the time and only comes to visit on occasion so you don't get sick of her and you keep loving her. This is an okay thing for an ace/aro to want, and it's valid to be happy with this. I can't even, y'all. I'm still marveling. I finally have seen a picture of the life I know would make me happy, and it's finally been acknowledged that I can be happy. (The amount of time I've spent, knowing I hate being social, and wondering--how many years down the line, when I'm living alone and content, will the switch suddenly flip? How many bridges will I have left behind when it turns out that I actually feel loneliness, and I'm miserable and unable to make friends and it turns out there are no manic pixie dream whatevers in real life and I fucked myself over forever because I was wrong and I should have been maintaining these social ties now and turning into someone I'm sure I'm not? What if people like me, who don't really get lonely without people, don't actually exist??) Anyway representation matters. Also Felicity being blindsided with Callum's proposal was, wow, okay I should have caught on to ace!Felicity then because that was so very accurate to my life experience minus people cutting fingers off. Look I was quoting stuff at the end to a friend and she was like "maybe that's why there's aces on the cover" and I am a very stupid ace okay. Felicity and Johanna's intense queerplatonic friendship that they keep trying to take up again in among the same sort of "you need character growth" drama that Monty needed re: Percy is also just, chef kiss, god I love this book. I need to buy this book. I haven't yet so what I did is I renewed all the books so I could immediately reread them after I finished them the first time.

#sobdasha booking

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tumblunni · 6 years ago

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Digimon frontier ocs?

Randomly started rewatching CactusCasual's great Digimon Frontier critique series. He's leaving youtube soon and making the weird decision to delete his whole account and everything he's ever done. But he's uploaded a bunch of his best stuff to google drive so if people wanna keep.it they can. Still i think its a lil dumb to not just leave the account open even if you're not using it? I dont know anything about why he's quitting the site though so maybe he has his reasons.

ANYWAY this got me thinking again about how Frontier is so goddamn boring and weirdly cliche and badly paced, and like everyone just focuses on "but they changed how digivolution works" and ignores all the actual reasons its bad. Like, kids have fused with digimon in previous seasons too! And haven't we all wished we could be the awesome characters like angemon and etc? A digimonny power rangers henshin thing isnt an inherantly bad idea, it was just executed badly. I dislike it cos it meant we completely lost any sort of digimon and human bonding experience plotline. They gave us two recurring digimon characters but they were just basically a pokedex and the world's least funny comic relief. Gimme a version of the show where the kids actually talk to their "spirit evolutions"! Like maybe they have a digimon partner but its forever stuck in baby form or spirit egg form and cant fight without fusing with a human host? Or just give us a better non-combat digimon pal like bokomon and neemon but like.. Fully developed with their own character arc and relationships with everyone else. Maybe ophanimon could have been around the whole time and been a mentor and parental figure? And we could actually explore her moral ambiguity, cos seriously the show makes her kind of a "ends justify the means" asshole and just NEVER AKNOWLEDGES IT. Wtf was up with that scene where she illusions Cherubimon with a fake dream of him being purified and getting to just go back home and be friends? And then she just backstabs him and we never mention it again. Like seriously even if she couldnt actually cure him that scene at least revealed that he WANTED to be cured and it made him so much more sympathetic! If he can be reasoned with, maybe they could have talked him down and then gone on an adventure together to find an actual cure for him? Also seriously what is up with his entire plot! Cos he just gets 'infected with darkness' cos he 'had darkness in his soul' but its just cos he thought the humanoid digimon were being racist against the beast digimon? And like.. The council was 2/3rds humanoid with him as the only beast representative and since he got infected by evilness they never remotely tried to recruit a new one or listen to what beast digimon have to say. So he was kinda right, yo! Also wtf with the reveal that actually no everything we just said is pointless because his REAL motivation was just blindly obeying ANOTHER humanoid digimon that comes out of nowhere to be the final boss. Also what is up with all the increased sexism in this series!! Its so weirdly worse than even adventure which had the excuse of being "a product of the times" yet still had way better variety of female characters and less bigoted stuff! And frontier came right after tamers which was one of the best series for gender equality and even used the medium of the setting as an opportunity to talk about the subject. Shame they censored that in the dub tho, Renamon talking about how digimon have no biological sex and how she only came to think of herself as a girl when she came to the human world. And rika's family accepting her and inviting her to family girls's night and stuff! Like as a metaphor for transgender issues it really worked to try and explain it to a younger audience in a natural way. And then one season later in frontier we have ONLY ONE GIRL IN THE CAST and wah wah whining about fashion and oh no she cant ever win a fight and her goddamn spirit form is in skimpy lingerie despite her being 12, and the show is always perving on her! And then she loses her powers halfway through the first season without winning a single fight, and has to be the damsel in distress to motivate the dudes in a stupid love triangle. And even when she does get to fight she's only allowed to fight the ONE SINGLE GIRL ON THE VILLAIN TEAM and they have stupid slap fights and "who's the most pretty" and BEACH EPISODE and GAHHHHH

...anyway as you can see i have a lot of reasons why i didnt really like the series. But what i meant to make this post about (BEFORE I GOT DISTRACTED) is that the fundemental concept itself isnt bad, they just wasted all its potential. And its a really good concept for ocs! Make your own digi superhero person and explore the fragmented world doing stuff offscreen during the series! Like they left so much open?? We know that other kids also got on other trains to the digiworld and they all just failed or gave up or got captured by the bad guys. And we know there's a bunch of spirits that the heroes never use because the villains got them again, so its cool to imagine an alt universe where the roles were swapped. What if different kids became the chosen heroes? What if different spirits were corrupted by the villains? What would a good guy Grumblemon be like? What would the kid be like who got that spirit? Would their evolution form be wildly different from grumblemon? Do the villain forms and purified forms look as different as Duskmon and Lowemon did?

SO MUCH POTENTIAL!!!

So yeah i wasted so much space here blabbering, so i'll probably make a separate post about my oc ideas lol. But i'd love to see other people's ideas for ocs/reinterpretations/other ways to fix that wasted potential!

So! Digimon frontier oc ideas!

To start off,have an undeveloped idea of someone on the team having Angemon as their spirit evolution. Cos it would have made the transition to such a new series a lot easier if they had some sort of "hey this is for you" to the fans of the previous ones. And angemon is the Adventure digimon that already looks the most like a regular human in a weird mask.

SPEAKING OF WHICH! less regular humans in weird masks! Whats the point of "you turn into a digimon" if you dont turn into a digimon? Like i know the whole gimmick is "humanoid mode and beast mode" but even the beast modes often look like humans in a costume! And there's been so many humanoid digimon before who actually looked like HUMANOID MONSTERS rather than just normal dudes cosplaying! There's literally nothing "monster" about agunimon, he's just a guy in some knight armour. Like the most you can do is charitably assume maybe the horns are his own and not just attatched to the helmet. And its annoying cos the villains have way cooler evolutions! And also double annoying that they always bend the humanoid/beast rule in such transparently self serving ways. Tommy gets two beast forms cos he's meant to be the cute mascot-looking character. Zoey gets two human forms cos she's meant to be grossly sexualized all the time. When kouichi turns from bad to good he loses his interesting looking actually monsterous evolutions and just becomes another dude in an armour. A friggin palette swap of his brother!

Anyway anyway LOL IM RAMBLING AGAIN yo...

Ideas for ocs!

I was thinking of a main girl character who's basically just a "fuk u" to all the stereotypes they did with Zoey. Actually gets a monster lookin beast form and a warrior lookin human form and actually gets to goddamn fight! Maybe her name is Hilda or Hildegarde? And i'm imagining her as a chubby nerdy kid with glasses and curly hair and a super cute oversized sweater kind of fashion sense. And her main spirit form would be this super badass lady knight giant orc thing who can Protec All The Peoples! Maybe earth element or the irony of being light element but she's this big ol monster goblin with just a tiny pair of angel wings on the back, lol! And then her personality is normally super shy and socially anxious, but she actually finds the digimon world kind of freeing? She's a total badass in battle and acts like a big ol powerful protector of all her friends! And she's always super excited aboyt adventuring and gets carried away comparing stuff to her favourite books. And now we must learn everything about this new place!! TO THE DIGI LIBRARY!!! So she's able to be confident and bubbly when it comes to actual adventure stuff, but she's still shy about regular life and anything social. Maybe its her weakness? Like she's scared about going home because she thinks she'll be "just a nobody" again, and lose all the great friends she made here. And also maybe a backstory of her heroic side still existing even before she got magic powers, but in the most tragic way? She managed to fend off a burglar once all on her own, she just snapped and did everything possible to defend her family, even though this was a man three times her size! But instead of being seen as a hero it just made all the neighbours and kids at school spread rumours about her being dangerous. Oh she must be in *a gang* if she knew how to fight like that! Oh its so *dangerous* for a kid that age to have such anger inside! Maybe she's a *scary mentally ill person*! So the whole situation ruined her social status even more and made her retreat even more inside her shell. And this is why the circumstances of the digital world are such a wish fullfillment for her and she's so scared of just waking up and it all being a dream. I think the villains could manipulate her fears, and it could maybe lead to her Skullgreymon Moment?

And then another idea i had was for a trans boy? I just thought this would be a good framework to explore LGBT stuff. He'd maybe be the wind element? And his personality would be very "classic shonen hero" but without the "dumbass" part, instead he's the cynical planner type dude while Hilda is the "i didnt even think, i just wanted to save everyone" type. But he's still super peppy and tries to be the class clown all the time so people will like him, and loves to climb trees and stuff. I think maybe his fighting style would be all about trickery and random chance? If there was such a thing as an element of surprise then he'd have that one! And then his story is that he doesn't have anyone supporting him for who he truly is at home, and he's afraid that his new friends will call him a freak too if they find out. He took the opportunity and cut his hair short as soon as this adventure started, and just introduced himself to everyone as a boy. But he's scared that people will find out he "lied" even though he didnt, he's just been so beaten down with the idea that he's not allowed to be himself and he has to pretend to be everyone else's idea of an ideal cis man or else they'll reject him. So maybe he starts off a bit obsessed with cliche masculinity and has low confidence about himself? And this could reflect in his digivolutions actually changing! He starts off with a really over the top buff warrior dude form, even though his fighting style is entirely about speed and trickery. So he tends to get into trouble with this fake form getting in the way of his ability to fight. And then when everyone accepts him he gets all powered up and changes into a new form! A way less "cliche macho" dude who looks like a stage magician instead and actually synchronizes with his element to become super powerful! And he's all like "oh no i became less manly" but everyone is like "wtf dont let yourself believe you're any less of a man because of dumb stereotypes!" And Also Big Friendship Hugs.

And then maybe this provides a resolution to both him and Hilda's plots? Like when the story is over they still stay friends in the real world, and having a friend who supports them gives them enough power to withstand all the haters and stay confident in themselves. But itd be kind of a coincidence for all the digidestined to live in the same city lol! So maybe in real life they live at least a few towns away, and they become long distance pals who send letters/emails. Because I LOVE ALL MY LONG DISTANCE PALS!! Also itd make sense to have a Internet Good message in a digimon show, lol.

And then i dunno about the rest of the team yet but i thought itd be good to have a sort of moral divide? Like these are the two who have a shitty home life and dont want to leave the digital world. But then the other half of the group has big reasons to wanna go home. So the villains could play on this difference in goals and make them fight amoungst each other. Just generally make the villains more actually competant, yknow? Oh also if there's a Dark Agunimon on the villains he needs to be EVEN MORE of a boring human in a costume! Cos it sucks that all the villains have better character designs and the show seems to think theyre worse ones. Give me one case of more boring not meaning more heroic!

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